Triple Click - Triple Play: Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

Kirk and Maddy have played a lot of Dragon Age: The Veilguard! Jason... well, Jason can just listen. The gang talks about BioWare's latest RPG and how much it changes after the first few hours, mostly for the better.One More Thing:Kirk: City CastMaddy: Evil Men (podcast)Jason: Rise of the Golden IdolLINKS:Support Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/joinBuy Triple Click Merch: https://maxfunstore.com/search?q=triple+click&options%5Bprefix%5D=lastJoin the Triple Click Discord: http://discord.gg/tripleclickpodTriple Click Ethics Policy: https://maximumfun.org/triple-click-ethics-policy/ Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointripleclick 🚀  SUPPORT TRIPLE CLICK:Join Maximum Fun | Buy TC Merch💬 JOIN THE TRIPLE CLICK DISCORD🎮 Triple Click Ethics Policy📱 SOCIALS | @tripleclickpodInstagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitch

Long ago was the Iron Age, and before that was the Bronze Age, and before that was the Dragon Era? Welcome to Tripoclick where we bring the games to you. Today we are talking about Dragon Age, the Vail Guard, which I really shouldn't say. Let's just try that again. Dragon Age Vailguard. Oh my God, that sounds so much better. I'm Jason Shrier. I'm Kirk Hamilton.

And I'm Maddie Myers. Hello. Hello. Welcome back to another. episode. Can I say you guys a quick story? Always. Please. So yesterday I was in the city. I went to my office. We had Phil Spencer, Xbox boss, come by the office. I don't usually go in, but we went in for a meeting

with him. And I was at a desk at Bloomberg HQ and I like took out my laptop and like put it on the kind of the edge of the desk for a second while I was like doing something else. And it fell off. And it fell like at such a low height that I didn't even pay attention to do it. It's like, okay, whatever picture to put it back on. And then. go to the bathroom or something, come back, open up my laptop, and it's like, wait a minute, I don't have a rainbow screen saver. Oh, wait a minute, that rainbow is the screen being totally shattered. And it turned out a tiny little bump, like completely disabled my screen. Fortunately, I took it to an album store. Fortunately, it's just the screen and my hard drive is okay. So I can

get it repaired. It's just more of an annoying expense than like a devastating like setback. But it made me think, oh man, like these MacBooks like used to be more durable. And then someone told me that now they're like made. Is that true? I thought they were, they could at least handle like a little bit. This is such a minor fall. It just like happened to land on the wrong angle or something. Anyway, so someone told me that now they're not just made in China.

They're also made in like Vietnam and America and Thailand. And like they have different manufacturers and stuff in America. Well, so America. And then I was thinking, wait a minute. Well, if our new president tariffs China, then all things are going to be made in America. and then everything is just going to be breaking constantly. So welcome to you in the first post-election triple click where everything is broken. Wow, that was a roundabout way to get into an election.

Anyway, let's talk tariffs. Hey, we are a listener supported show. We do not have tariffs. We just have listener support. And if you want to support us, you can become a member of our network maximum fund. Go to maximum fund.org slash join and you can sign up. And not only do you support us, you also got bonus. episodes every single month, including our ongoing special series called Triple Quest, which is a D&D campaign that the three of us are doing with special guest DM, Matthew Mercer.

Episodes zero and one are currently on the main feed. So you can listen to those for free if you haven't already. Episode two is currently in the bonus feed. At the end of this month, we're going to move episode two to the main feed and episode three. The conclusion, the epic finale will be on the bonus feed. So if you want to listen to it early, if you want to listen to both of those early, Sign up now. Become a member. You also get access to a ton of other, uh, a giant backlog of bonus episodes where we just talk about all sorts of cool things and we're going to do some, some cool new ones soon. We might do a deep dive into metaphor refontasio among other games and shows and other things that we like in the coming year. Maximumfund.org slash join. Uh, but as for today, Maddie, what are we talking about? We are talking about dragonings.

the Vale Guard. Oh shit. I've been playing Dragon Quest. You know what? That's to be expected. Why don't you just inject and talk about the very Jason Shire game that is Dragon Quest and Kirk and I will just talk about Dragon Age and listeners can just skip ahead according to whichever part they want to hear. I think that'll just be a classic triple click episode. Well, no, it's a classic BioR episode where you get a choice of Dragon Age versus Dragon Quest. And the choice is up to you and one of us will die. I feel like one of us should talk about like a dragon infinite. That's true.

That can kind of just be like a dragon cast. Kirk, that's all you because I don't think Jason and I have played that at all. So pick your poison, pick your dragon, if you will. I'm going to talk about Dragon Age the Bail Guard. If we really did this, this could be one of those things where we wind up having surprising insights into each of the three games. This seems like a good opportunity for us to do the episode where each of the three of us record separately. Wasn't that one of the ideas that we had? And then somehow Kirk was going to line up the tracks.

I don't remember how that went. I'm pretty sure it was each of us talking about a game of dragon in the title, though. That's part of it now. But I, Maddie, have been playing a lot more Dragon Age the Vale Guard. I really like it. And I have been playing every single side quest. I might 100% this game. That's how much I'm enjoying it.

So that is a big difference from the last time we talked about it when I'd only played a few hours and I wasn't really sure what I thought yet. I think it really gets good once it stops kind of being that linear opening section and it gets the open world part where you can travel wherever you want, do side quests. There's a bunch of like really simple but just complicated enough environmental puzzles that are like really hitting the spot of my brain. But also I'm really digging all the companions and their personalities and they're just, I don't know, they're fun.

I'm enjoying hanging out with all my cool bisexual friends and Dragon Age. It's a Dragon Age game. That's what that's what happens. happens in this game. I didn't really keep track of how many hours that I am, but it's got to be at least 40 by now, something like that. And I'm just having a good time. So how's everybody else coming along? Kirk, how far are you and what are you thinking about it at this point? Bing! Okay, don't worry. Past Kirk. I'm going to let you talk and talk about Dragon Age. But right now, it's time for future Kirk as I edit the podcast to just interject here really quick. First, just about spoilers in this episode.

Maddie and I have both played a pretty big chunk of this game, like we're two-thirds of the way through, and we do talk a little bit more openly about the story throughout this episode. We don't spoil any major plot beats or anything. It's more like we theorize about some stuff where we've been seeing signs of different narrative developments that might happen. We talk pretty openly about some of the quests regarding Solis and his backstory, and we don't get into too many particulars, but it is a more kind of free-flowing, just open conversation. I think that makes it a lot more interesting. But if you're just starting the game or you're sensitive about hearing anything about the story,

we do talk more openly in that way. And I just wanted to give a heads up. Two other things. First of all, Jason has a leaf blower come on in his backyard a little ways into the episode. I did my best to kind of filter it out, but you can definitely still hear it. And last, this is our week on the Maximum Fun Network to have Triple Click's new promo play. So if you listen to any other Max Fun shows, you'll hear our promo. But it didn't seem fair that people listening to Triple Click wouldn't hear the promo too,

because it's kind of funny. So I included it during the promo break. So I know you're already convinced you already listened to Triple Click, but I just thought you all might enjoy it. Okay, Paskirk is your time to shine. Talk to us about Dragon Age. Yeah, so I'd say the other big difference between our first episode a couple weeks ago in that I hadn't played the game at all at that point,

and now I've played around 40 hours as well. So probably, I bet we're close sort of in the same place-ish. I played a lot. I am enjoying it quite a bit. I find this game to be a very pleasing and just kind of comforting game to play. And this last week, I've been feeling pretty stressed out and pretty just worried about everything. Obviously, the election was a very tough hang, and I'm not happy with the outcome. And as a result, I just kind of wanted to unplug a little bit and just cruise around on an adventure with some nice, interesting folks.

And that's what this game is. It's a great game for just kind of cruising. Yeah, I've really enjoyed it. I think it's an interesting game in a lot of different ways that we'll get into and an interesting counterpart to a lot of the games that we've been talking about this year. One thing that I've been struck by is how polished this game is. Maybe that's the first thing to mention just because we can get it out of the way and then talk about the meteor design and storytelling.

But like it's really polished. It feels like a Sony first party game. I can't think of a third-party AAA game that I've played at launch where there are like I think straight up no bugs I've had one visual thing where the rate tracing got weird and the frame rate dropped other than that it's a completely seamless experience and I don't know like it's just kind of unusual in this day and age to play a game that looks this good that's clearly this like you know was this complicated to make that just runs incredibly well and looks beautiful all the time there are like set piece levels and in this game that are on the level of a first-party Sony game. Really, for all the different games that it reminds me of, there are little elements of a lot of different games. It really reminds me of Horizon Forbidden West. It has that same feeling where Horizon Forbidden West was this giant game

with a million characters, really complicated animations and acting and action and gorgeous visuals and all this technology behind it that just ran really well. This kind of feels like that. And I'm happy, man. It's just nice to play a game. that's this well realized. Yeah, I'm right there with you. I've really enjoyed how quickly fast travel works, which seems small,

but is something that's really noticeable when it's bad. And this is just instant. Although I do think that walking from place to place has its own rewards in a game like this. So I've tried to do that more just to kind of like embed myself in the world where I think it's a cool area. And also, I too have only had one bug. There was a bug where the battle music just kept playing forever and ever. And I just was like, I guess I need to go. go back to the lighthouse and get the stop.

You know, can we talk about that about fast travel a little bit? I mean, I don't want to, so Jason, I don't want to step on you because I believe you haven't really played too much more, but I... Yeah, well, so one quick thing on the buggyness or lack thereof. So I spoke to Gary McKay, the studio had a buyer a couple weeks ago, and something he said to me, which I took note of and thought was really interesting, is that, I don't know if you guys know this, but a couple years ago, EA, or even last year, I don't remember exactly when it was, but EA did this restructuring where they split into like EA entertainment and EA sports.

And they were essentially just complete restructuring where now they both are two different divisions as opposed to it all just being EA games. And something that McKay told me that resulted of that is that like the support teams could be involved with their game a little bit more than they were before. didn't necessarily have to work on the sports stuff as much, which I thought was really interesting because back when I was reporting on Andromeda and Anthem and their respective woes, one of the things I heard pretty consistently was this problem of working with, so Byware pretty infamously at this point works with the frostbite engine, which is EA's internal technology.

And when you use internal technology and you need some sort of help, you generally have this team of engineers that works internally and can support all of the, different games. So, like, you have these frostbite engineers. And then you also have your own engineers who have been working with this technology for a while, and so they know it pretty well. And so what would happen on those games is that EA would say, hey, we have a FIFA game coming out every year. We need some help getting that working on frostbite. We're going to take these engineers from biower. And suddenly they were not working on as an artifact Indromeda anymore.

They were working on the new FIFA game. And that didn't happen anymore now with this restructuring in place, which I think is one of several reasons that it is such a polished experience as opposed to Entrometer, which was infamously glitchy and facial lows and animation issues. Am I remembering correctly, Jason, that Dragon Age Inquisition had a little bit of that support team, like, jockeying where they brought in a team maybe from Dice at the last minute or, you know, in the last year to like really crank away to get it working because the engine was like a shambles. And then they got it like working a lot better by the time it launched. What is my memory there? You're thinking of every biore game in the last, like that happened. brought in like a team from yeah

I mean all these games did all of Byrower's games and EA has a lot of that kind of cross it's remarkable how good the game looks and how well it runs man I got a shout out the hair also I was surprised having not played the game when the two of you had played it I just couldn't believe that the first thing we didn't lead with the fact that the hair in this

game is absurd in the opening level you're like standing there with Verick and there's this crazy wind blowing and your hair is blowing in the wind while you're talking and I was looking at it like this looks like a freaking Disney movie like how does the hair do this? And then the whole game is like that. Every hair option, there's a bunch of really great hair options in this game. And then one of them, a curly, I would call it the most hair.

Yes. And it's funny because I have the most hair on my rook and every screenshot I see of other rooks. Like almost everyone is using it just because if you're going to give me hair that good, I'm going to choose the one with the most hair so that I can watch it just beautifully fly around in every cutscene. The way it's lit too? Oh my God. Like the like sunset coming through your hair. I did the long ponytail. And I don't normally do long hair in real life or in a game. But in this game, I was like, it looks so good. I got to have long hair.

It looks amazing. It looks amazing. I have not played much more. I'm up to the part where you're saving one of the two cities. So early decision, I guess the first major decision. So my opinion hasn't really changed. The reason I haven't played more is because I'm really not enjoying it. So I'm curious to hear how it's grown on you guys, especially as it's turned into less

of like a linear action game and into more of an actual RPG. But the thing that is really, I mean, the two thing that really just made me bounce off of it. One is the writing just really isn't doing much for me. It's so quippy and just kind of the characters just aren't, aren't doing it for me. And then two is the combat, which I know you guys enjoy more than I do. And that might just be a subjective taste thing. But I'm not going to just like chime in here about how bad it is the whole time. I already said my piece about my thoughts on the game. So I'm curious to here. Actually, I would love to hear more about how it opens up and what makes it like, I don't know, what has made it really resonate with the two of you as it is. It sounds like it really, it stops

being that linear God of War style of human and turns into something different. I think it does. Yeah, I definitely think it does. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about the world design and travel, just because you brought that up earlier, Maddie and I wanted to expound on it a little bit. And it sort of gets at what you're asking about Jason as well. This game is kind of interesting in how it's laid out. It's not my favorite thing for an RPG in that you're fast traveling a lot. And narratively, so Rook puts together this team of heroes apparently called the veil guard, even though that has not been said by any character in my game at least,

and only referenced in the user interface in that I unlock a hero of the veil guard role for a character once I've maxed out their social rank. Anyways, you're putting together the veil guard. And the whole premise is there are these alluvian gates or alluvians. which have been things in Dragon Age since the start, and it's basically a magical Elven Gate that can transport you to another place. And they were typically pretty limited, usually, anyways, in the past, but now there's like this trick that Solus worked out

where there's a nexus, and you can travel into the fade, and you're actually, you live in the fade with your characters in this lighthouse, and then you just warp anywhere. So unlike previous games, the first three games, you're not like traveling with a group of people, people physically, which has actually been a really big part of Dragon Age 1 and Dragon Age Inquisition.

Those two games both had you, like, notably relocating your base of operations and moving from place to place throughout Feralden or in Inquisition. I guess it's still Feralden, but you're, like, kind of up in the mountains at one point. And there's a feeling of, like, physical movement and place that those games have, that this game does not, because you're constantly just warping. First, you're, like, in the mountains, and then you're in to Vinter. you're in that city in Minrathas, and then you're in, you're like way over in, what's I'm going to call it, Spain slash Italy.

Yeah. And you're, and, you know, so there's like a bunch of places, or you're in the necropolis, which is in a different country, Navarra, I think it's called. But you don't really have a sense of the places you are, and that makes the game feel a little disconnected from the world. Yeah. And that's not my favorite thing about it, even while I'm finding, like, the experience of playing it to be plenty fun.

It doesn't have, like, a really strong sense of place, particularly compared to the earlier games in the series. Yeah, I would agree with that, which is part of why I've tried to walk around more, because even within the different places that you zip around to, there's just a million fast travel points everywhere. And that's because as the game opens up, which again, it's really different from that first, like, six to eight hours where it doesn't feel like an open world game at all. And then suddenly it is one. And you can just get quests everywhere and there's exclamation points on the map and you'll hover over things in the world map and it'll be like, quests in this area that you haven't seen yet. So maybe come over here and check them out. It does all that

open world stuff. And once that's present, it's pretty tempting to just zip around using the gazillions of fast travel points, of which I think there are almost a little too many for my liking because I like just walking around and trying to get that sense of place that I agree I've really enjoyed in other Dragon Age games. But I also really like the party banter. And that's kind of the only way you get it is by walking around the world with your party. And I very intentionally tried to pick different characters every time I'm walking around. And I will say the benefit of the plethora of fast travel points is that at every single one, you can change your party, which I don't really know the magical explanation for that.

Teleportation, sure, fine, whatever. But you can just constantly be changing out your party members. And I think that's useful just from a story vantage point because like any Dragon Age game, everybody's going through their own personal tragic journey or exciting journey, and they all have, they've started to fight with each other, which, thank goodness. That was the main thing that I remember complaining about at the beginning was that I was like, everyone's getting along a little too well. But now finally, I have situations where, like, his name is, I think, Davrin, I think,

and Lucanus, they fight with each other. So I like putting them together so that they can kind of snipe at each other. Davern is not a fan that Lucanus has a demon inside. Yes, of course. but that's hilarious to me. And like, where's the mess? I'm living for the mess. Exactly. I want to be dramatic and, you know, messy in the way that Dragon Age companions

are supposed to be. And also dating each other, baby. That's the other fun part is when your NPCs start to flirt with each other. Because the writers for this game, like, chose specific pairings. Like, if you decide not to date anyone, then they'll hitch up with each other. And there's very specific romantic arcs that play out. It's not just like randomized. which I thought was really neat.

Like they actually thought about it and they were like, which of these two characters would end up together? And I have been finding that really cool. And it's kind of like Marvel's Midnight Sons does this because there's actually no option for your player character to romance any of the characters in that game either.

But the characters do end up together. And that was one of my favorite parts of that game too. So I just have really been digging that. And I will agree with you, Jason. I think the writing at the beginning of the game is tough. It's very exposition heavy. there's some like, oh, that was awkward kinds of lines that I was like, oh, is the whole game going to be like this?

But I think it's improved. And I'm not sure if that's just because I've spent so much time with each of the characters now that I've grown to like them or if it's just that now I have more characters that I don't know if you've met yet, Jason, who I like. Like one of the characters, Emrick, he's like this necromancer that has a pet skeleton who's actually played by Matt Mercer, which is hilarious because the skeleton only speaks in hisses and grunts. So you would never know it's Matthew Mercer, but it is. Anyway, I just think that's funny. And I think I think Emmerk is a really cool character. And so I just have been

enjoying like the banter of hanging out with the different pals along the way, which is another thing about Dragon Age that I just like. Does Matt play the Viper too? The Viper sounds like him. I was trying to tell if that was him. I don't know. You'll have to be in. I'm so attuned to his voice, but he also has such a vocal type that I feel like maybe it's just someone who sounds like him. It could be. Yeah, there's a lot there that you brought up. I'm trying to to think which thing I want to talk about. Maybe a little more about world exploring, because I want to talk about the party members in the writing as well. I like the crossroads a lot.

So the crossroads are kind of the nexus of Illuvians, where it's kind of in the fade. It's a transitional space. I actually think about the magicians, and I think it might even be called the crossroads and the magicians. There's this one world that they're always going to, where it's kind of like a bunch of of graveyards and gravestones where you can like, it's like a gateway world where there are gates all around and you can then go to other worlds, but it's kind of the middle point. Bing, just for the record, in The Magicians, that world is called the neither lands, or maybe

neither lands. Either way, pretty cool name. Bing! Anyways, this is like a fantasy trope, is the in-between world that you explore. And the Crossroads is cool in this game because there are a series of challenges and quests that take place within the Crossroads. One of the best quests in the game, Solace's regrets, where you're kind of digging up his memories and learning more about him and all this wild lore stuff that's revealed that mostly takes

place in the crossroads. There are some really tough optional bosses in the crossroads that are pretty fun. And also it's kind of a nice way to connect the world. Like it makes it all work for me just fine. I'd probably still prefer an RPG like The Witcher 3 or something where there's a big landmass and you feel like you're moving through it, meeting people in new kingdoms, like you have a sense of the politics and the space that you're in. There's very little of that in this game. But now that I've played dozens of hours of it, like the rhythms work for me. And yeah, I definitely try not to just skip the crossroads every time just because sometimes there's new stuff to see there or sometimes I'm there. And I realize like, oh, actually there's a little gate. I haven't

unlocked. Maybe I'll try to do that for a second. And I'm finding that enjoyable. I think to the writing and the tone, I think that this game is just really inconsistent. I don't think that it's any one thing and that's what makes it so hard to pin down. And the game just resists any blanket statement of like, it's too quippy. It's too much like a Marvel movie. It's too weedenish. Or like it's not political enough. It doesn't take the World of Dragon Age seriously enough or whatever else. Like it's too funny. Like everyone's too friendly to one another. Like none of those quite hold for me all the way through now that I've played a bunch. And it's just because it seems to me that this game, well, it seems clear that this game went through a bunch

of revisions. And you can just tell there will be scenes where, like, the writing team was going for this really evocative, thoughtful, and beautiful style of writing. And then there will be scenes where, you know, people will say things like, it's quiet, too quiet. Or the gates weren't keeping someone out. It's keeping something in. You know, like there are so many lines like that where you're like, this just needed another

pass. But then there will be lines. One line is a great line. a character says to you, Solis never lies directly. He weaves truth into a noose that you find yourself wearing. I was like, that's a good line of fucking dialogue. That's pretty cool. Like, that is what Solis does.

It's a clever bit of turn of phrase, but it's also very true to his character. There's another great bit where you're talking to Solis and he's explaining about what he's been trying to do. You know, he's not exactly a god. None of the gods in this game are, right? They're ancient elves who kind of ascended to godhood because they were immortal. They're super powerful mages, basically. So powerful that they're kind of like gods. Yeah, what's the difference between an immortal super powerful mage and a god?

So all of these gods are kind of gods and kind of not same with solace. There's a great line where he's like, do you know the word for the feeling when you're in the cart going home and you hear the wheels, leave the pavement and go onto the dirt road? And you know that you're that much closer to home. And then Rook is like, I know that feeling. but I don't have a word for it. He's like, the reason you don't have a word for it is that that spirit, the spirit of that feeling, is dead.

And I tried to save that spirit and so many other spirits. And every feeling that you don't have a name for is a spirit that I couldn't save. And I was like, dude, like, this is cool. Like there's a lot of stuff like that where I'm like, I really, really like what they're doing. And then there will also be like kind of really clunky, you know, back and forth and quits. It feels like placeholderish almost where it's like, this is the first. draft of this interaction and it's like, fine. Yeah, exactly. That's kind of, so that's kind of the sense that I get. One other writing thing that I want to mention here. And I have played like half of the game,

but I'm not spoiled on this. I don't know if the two of you are, but I don't think that you are. I just want to try to call this shot because Verrick. We got to call this shot because I don't know one of the most memorable characters in the game. And I'm sure listeners will know whether or not I'm right about this. They are going to know and they're going to laugh at us. Or who knows, this is just kind of a fun moment in time that Verac gets stabbed by Solis in the beginning. It seems as though he dies. Very, very, very beginning, yes. Yes. And then he comes, and then he's, he's okay. And it seems to me, playing through the game, every single, this guy is actually dead and no one else can see him flag, is being flown for me. Yep. And it's made for a kind of confusing experience for me, because on the

one hand, I'm like, this will be cool. If it turns out that Solis is like projecting Verick to talk to me to like help me through this quest in a certain way or something like that and then veric actually is dead. That'd be neat because I think Verrick should have died in that early scene and bringing him back seemed like a cop-out. Yeah. And the more the game goes on, the more of that seems true because he's so not a part of the narrative. And he only is there as like a weird advisor to you. And no one else ever seems to interact with him other than you. There's even like just recently a character referred to she was like, I mean, I'm not Verick Tethyst. And in a way that indicated she's never even med. him because it was Balara. It's like she would never have met him. Like I didn't meet Balara until

after he died. Anyways, I have this theory and it's been fun, but also because the game seems to have been revised so many times, it's still possible that they like had a version of the game where Verick was dead. And then they're like, no, we can't kill him. Let's put him back in. But they're like, we can't change all these group cutscenes to have Verick be in them because we're too far along in development. So it just feels that way. It's kind of the weird thing with video games where you never know if something is deliberate or it's just kind of clumsy because it's a weird revision and they had to make it work. Right. And even if it does turn out that he's dead the whole time, I would still maybe be questioning if that was the final decision too. Like if maybe

that was also a rewrite at some point where they were like, well, should we just have him be dead or what? Like I would love to hear those decisions later on and maybe I'll get to in some future interview who's to say. But I will say, Kirk, they don't give Verrick a chair at the dinner table and that is the best possible proof in my mind that he is not alive. Every other character is sitting down and he's like bedridden the entire time and he's just standing behind your shoulder makes no sense that that's not alive that's some kind of ghost that's standing there and to be clear again listeners we we don't know like we're totally just guessing and I purposefully avoided looking it up because I want to be surprised and I'm enjoying the ambiguity so okay so where I'm at I think that like some listeners

are probably in the boat I am where they played maybe the first few hours and they think that this is a very linear style of game where like you are not making any real choices you are not going to decide how you approach each outcome. You're just fighting waves of enemies and kind of following the path of the game wants you to follow. Maddie, you mentioned that it opens up more to the point where there's side quests and exclamation points and explorable stuff.

Are there more systems, or there more choices, are there more different ways to approach quests? Like, can you decide whether to fight monsters or sneak around? Like, are there, is there, does it feel like more of an RPG? Or does it just feel like a god-of-war game with exercise? quest. Horizon. Horizon forbidden West. Yeah. Well, yeah. I guess in Horizon, you... I think it's a lot more like Horizon. I think that's the comparison thing. It's more like

a horizon. But Horizon you can sneak a little bit more. There are more systems than horizon in that you can sneak and set traps and stuff. But other than that, you're just fighting. But yeah, so that's the closest comparison. Is that really you're just... Sure, but I mean, like, the companions are more fleshed out in Dragon Age. Like, they're not identical, but they're very, they are very similar. Right. So in other words, so it doesn't have those RPG elements. It's just kind of more of a straightforward like you are getting and doing a side quest and then you are fighting monsters and that's how things go. I would say that's largely true, although there have been a couple moments that have surprised me. I don't think it bothers me personally

if a game is largely linear and if you're just engaging with a story that doesn't change a lot. And that is mostly what it is. I'm not asking this in a positive or negative way. I'm just trying to understand the structure. I'm just trying to understand how much of the structure actually changes from where I am to where you guys are. Yeah, I mean, the main structural changes that it becomes an open world game. And so you can do quests in different orders and you can just mainline the story quests and barely get to know the companions at all, which I really wouldn't recommend doing or you can really get to know them. Or you can explore the world also. Like there are just like puzzles and challenges and like hidden chests and stuff. Like there's a lot of stuff in the world that it's not

even a quest. Like you can just go and solve like a weird like riddle with a series of poems in the necropolis where you have to put them in the right order to open up a secret chest with a cool item. There's stuff like that too. Like you can explore. That's nice. Okay, cool. Yeah. And there are like a couple moments that are kind of like big story moments that you haven't hit Jason. Like you described one early on where it's like save this town or another and that's like probably the first significant choice. There's another choice later on in the game like two thirds of the way through that's pretty significant. That's kind of like some of the choices in the Mass Effect games where there's sort of a big different outcome for one of two characters, depending on who you choose.

And there's also a quest that's kind of like mid-range that I did over the weekend where you like meet another elven goddess and you can either fight her or talk your way through it. And I managed to talk my way through it. And I was really proud of myself. Okay, I'm glad you mentioned this for getting through that. Okay, that's what I was wondering about. That's cool. Because I thought that was really cool that I could get out of it. It was so well handled. Yes. That's part of the part of Solis's memory. Yes. And that quest is really cool in general. This quest, man, this is like, it's one of the best things the game does. You pick up, you go and collect these statues. You put them on the wall and then you see one of Solace's memories. Each one is like a lore megaton. Yeah. If you are a Dragon Age fan. It's very much like

written for the guys like me, the bloggers who wrote Dragon Age lore explainers. I'm like, wait, The Golden City was what? But even if you're me, it's still fun, juicy drama where you're like, oh, Solis had like a past Elvin GF that we didn't know about. Okay. And it's interesting. And she is a character that we've, I mean, it's a character that we've known for a really long time. Like, she's been mentioned since the first game.

But didn't know everything about her. Yes. You learn a lot of things and we're not giving any, I won't give any of them away. But what's really fun about them is that you see these little like vignettes play out. It's like a mural on the wall. And then it cuts to this wonderful table of your party. And they're all sitting around a table. And everyone is like, you know, I don't know.

Lucanus is drinking a cup of coffee. And Davros is like whittling. Like everyone's doing something. Harding is kind of curled up on the couch in this comfortable way. She's always lounging. And then they all just talk about what you just learned. And you got to just watch all the characters kind of weigh in on whatever it is that just happened. And sort of it serves to both underline and explain like.

reinforce, I guess, what it is that you just learned and why it matters, and also to give you insight into all the different characters and, like, how it might meet. If there's something that has an impact on, like, the validity of the chant of Androste, which is a really big deal in the Dragon Age world, that's basically like Christianity. Yeah. Like, the characters who follow the chant are going to be reacting in a particular way, and then you can talk to them and choose kind of how Rook reacts to it. And that stuff is really cool. And then, right, you learn a whole lot over the course of this and then it leads up to this kind of climactic sequence where you you can fail to talk your way through this whole like long conversation that you're basically

just going off of you know some advice you got where it's like well don't don't be this way be this way like try this don't try that and you have to choose answers and if you choose badly it's like no we're fighting like fuck you yeah and you really can go either way and it was really really rewarding and I I loved that it's I don't think that kind of thing happens a bunch of times in the game But that's sort of okay. You know, I was thinking back to that first branching decision that you make where you choose one city or the other. And you either choose Nev's city or Lucanus's city, these two different cities that you've kind of met early on. And you can only like divert forces to one of them.

So the other one gets kind of messed up. As a result, that party member gets what's called hardened and like some of their abilities change. And your relationship with them changes too. And I think that's the only time that that happens in the game. And it could be like when that first happened, I was like, oh, cool, maybe this will be a system that really gets fleshed out. Like a bunch of different times characters can get hardened or other things can happen to them. Now that I've played a bunch, I can see that's the only time it happens. But it's a big deal.

Like it really changed my relationship to Lucanus. Every cutscene that I've had with him, every time I've talked to him, he's like kind of traumatized and bitter. Like he's not as our relationship was sort of messed up. I finally kind of patched things up by helping him more. and the fact that his build is also different and he can't do support abilities, it like really does change the character. And so there may not be like a whole ton of branches, you know, there might not be a whole bunch of bosses that you can like talk your way through or fight. But the ones that are there are actually like they weigh a lot in the overall experience. And so it makes for like an actually

pretty varied and satisfying overall experience, for me at least. Yeah, same. And I actually wanted to circle back to those soulless memories, again, just to reinforce how cool I think those party scenes are because that's where I've really got to know some of the characters that I feel like I didn't know as well. So, like, I decided early on I was going to romance Nev just because I think she's cool. And I- Because Neve is the best. I mean, same, obviously. Okay, I didn't even know that. Great. We're both romancing Neve. She really grew up for us. Anyway, so I was like, okay, I don't really know anything about her, though. So, like, we're just going to see how this plays out. And I realized really really quickly in those scenes that if I said anything even remotely nice about Solis, it would be like

Nev disapproves. And I was like, oh, she freaking hates this guy. So like the only way I'm going to get on her good side is if I just like find the least charitable response I could be making about Solis. But I'm also like, I hate him too. So we can bond over this. So I'm just going to like lean into this and like give him no quarter whatsoever. And that has been fun. And fingers crossed. I think it's working out with her. I don't know, TPD. I'll update you guys later about that. But, like, that was really fun. And it was also really interesting to see which characters approve and disapprove of different interactions,

which is, like, a classic RPG staple, but I think is done really well here as a way to let you get to know the characters and what their different personalities are. And thus far, they've all really grown on me. I think Bellara is, like, the toughest hang early on because she has the most, like, they fly now. They fly now. types of dialogue choices in that first like yeah adorkeable manic pixie style characterization in that for six hours but then after i did the quest where you find out about her brother who's lost in the fade and like you don't know what's going on with him i was really moved by it and i was like oh she's actually got a lot going on beneath the surface that i didn't know about but you're right i mean the writing

is inconsistent i can't i can't deny that and it also reminds me of the marvels midnight sun's thing where it feels almost like every character was written by a different person And I don't know if that's accurate. I have no data on that at all. But it feels like that, you know? There was a cut scene I just saw last night with Balarra, like doing a bunch of face acting that was just outrageous. Like it was the most incredibly detailed. And oh, yes.

It was like beautiful. Like her face. She was like thinking and then she like had a sad thought and then she like swallowed it. And then she like looked down. And I was like, whoa. Like somebody spent a week just like making this like 20 seconds of the. the game look incredible. There will be those technical moments, you know, where other times they look kind of stiff. Anyways, yes, I agree that the characters feel sort of like they were

written by different people. You know, some of them work for me, some of them don't. That's actually kind of always been true of BioWare games. Emmerich I really enjoy. Yeah, Nev has really grown on me. I wasn't sure about her at first, but she's a really fun character. And her side quests are great. Like hanging out with her in Doctown and solving mysteries and stuff, I'm like, okay, I like this. Actually, I would play a Nev game. And something that I also like that they're doing a lot more of now that we've gotten cooking is you'll go have conversations with people. There are a variety of different sort of types of interactions that you can have.

The game labels them kind of confusingly. Like, if you look at your home base, if there's an exclamation point, I think that means they're going to tell you about a quest you can go do. Yeah, I think you're right. If there's an exclamation point that's in a voice bubble, that means you're just going to go have a little interaction with them. And then there's something else too. It's like a time. I think there's one that's like just a voice bubble or yeah, no, it's a little time.

It's a little clock. Yeah. And that's something else. Like that's, I don't remember somehow different. Anyways, increasingly now I'll go for those. I think it's the voice bubble exclamation points where it's just like a little one-off conversation that sort of flushes them out. And there will be another character there as well.

And they've started to kind of treat that as the new format for these scenes where I'll walk in and Emmerich and Tosh are both there. And they're kind of arguing because Tash is like, you're a necromancer and that's gross. And so they're kind of talking through, you know, whatever, what it is that Emmerich does. And then Rook walks in and she can kind of weigh in and kind of, it just like helps give you a sense

that everyone kind of knows everyone else. And that the more they do that, the better. It's like one more layer of the party banter out in the field. It's one more, you know, version of everybody talking about Solis's memories together. And I really appreciate that. Like, I think they've taken a conscious, you know, approach to trying to get everyone together more often. So it doesn't do that thing we were talking about some last week that, like, metaphor, for example, can kind of feel like every character exists, like, on a spoke orbiting your, like, central character. And their whole development just takes place one-on-one with you.

There's still a lot of that, too, of course, like, because you're a protagonist that's a video game. But they're trying to work around it. And I appreciate the way they're doing it. Yeah, same. I also wanted to ask you, Kirk, what you thought about Elginon and Ghillon as villains, because this is another part of the game that I'm like, well, I really like these Solis quest lines, but these other two big, big deal, Elven gods that I'm supposed to be fighting the whole time. I don't know. Wait, so is Elginon the guy and Gillenain the lady?

Yeah, that's right. Okay. So Gillenain is really the villain for the whole part that I've been playing. Elginon only barely just turned up. And he's clearly just, like he's, what's the his name from Baldur's Gate. He's the god of tyranny or whatever. And she's the like freaky Frankenstein like making blight monsters. And she looks like totally crazy. She's got these like weird arms and she's all like this horrible monster. She wears a mask and like one of her eyes has teeth like under the mask. Like she's really messed up with her. Her design is amazing. Love the visuals. Yeah. Character designs are cool. I mean, the thing is it's still Solace's game. I really think this game could have been called Dreadwolf. I mean, I'm certainly not the first person to say that. But that definitely

seems like they changed the name at the last minute because this is Solace's story. He's the most dynamic antagonist and sort of the most important character in this whole thing. And I've really appreciated him. And then they're kind of just like, they're just bad guys. They have the feeling of, you know, whatever, a Marvel, like in the second Thor movie, whatever the bad guy was. You know, like someone who's just kind of cool is like maybe played by a famous actor. And then they're not really, the function is just to let the heroes go through something. Like that maybe feels, I don't know about the most marvely, but that is quite a marveling thing about this game, is that those villains, they're sort of secondary. Their function is to like allow me to understand Solis's story and to give me and my buddies, like, a reason to work together.

So that's kind of how I feel about them. How about you? Yeah, I just feel like they're super forgettable. And I might change my mind as I complete the game and kind of figure out what their deal is. But even in the Solis flashbacks, I mean, Solis is stealing the show. and maybe I'm just biased because I'm like, well, this is the person I already know from Inquisition. And so, of course, I am invested. And I also, he's also like, he's like, he's struggling with his morality.

Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, where they're just kind of like evil assholes. Yeah. And they're like, well, yeah, we're powerful mages. And so naturally we're going to take over the world question mark like you do. And it's tough.

So, I mean, as far as kind of getting you invested in the game, I don't know. that those two are what I would have gone with. And so I feel like that might be like another thing that people are having issues with, especially in the early going, where they're like, okay, these are these two big villains that show up. I don't even understand who they are. I'm not invested in that. But if you're a listener that was feeling that way, especially about the opening,

I think it's worth noting that the game still really is about Solis in a good way in the sense that he's the one whose motives you get to know or think you're getting to know in a way that I think really works. And at the point in the game that I'm in, I'm still like, I don't, I feel like he's still messing with me on some level, not just with the veric of it all, but just in the grand team.

He's like the god of lies and deceit or whatever. Of course. He's basically Loki or whatever. So I'm sure he's still. He doesn't lie directly. He weaves the truth into a noose that you find yourself wearing. Of course. Yeah.

You know, I'm constantly saying that about him. But I am really enjoying that part of it. And I do feel like they should have just kept the title, the dreadwolf. I know part of why they changed it was because they were like, we want the title to focus on the heroes and not the villain. And I kind of get the moral justification of that, but whatever, you can just name it. It would have been dread wolf, no the, the, the, the veil guard.

Get rid of the thaw, just dread wolf. Cool name. The the the, that's the problem. It's a parallel to like, I guess, Inquisition where you play as the Inquisition or Dragon Age 2, where you play as a two. Yeah, you play as a two in that. Inquisition was also a bad name. Inquisition is bad.

Dragon Age Valeguard would be better. But yeah, to justify just one last thing that I wanted to respond to, even though it's like the least exciting way to end this. Jason, you said early on, and I totally agreed with this, in the early game, it really is like picking up weapons and being like which one has the green arrow. Like that was something I totally agree with in the early going. And then was pleasantly surprised that eventually it isn't that way at all. And there's like a whole complex upgrade tree for weapons and enchantments for your weapons that you can add on to them that I've been finding really fun. And there's like elemental attacks and all that stuff that helps make the combat more interesting. But they do take a while to introduce that.

So here I am justifying this very belatedly. Like the game gets interesting later. How many times have you heard that before about a video? Yeah. I think, I mean, we can talk a little about the crunchy stuff, the combat and the systems. Because I think it's a very good action RPG. I mean, it's a little like playing Diablo 4 or something. Like you kind of go in, especially now because I'm unbelievably powerful.

I've actually kicked up the difficulty. This game has fantastic difficulty options. You can lower enemy health, raise enemy health. I have had to raise enemy health because I'm playing a rogue, like a duelist rogue. So I'm doing like insane necrotic damage and like stacking adrenaline and recently got a ring that just like broke the game. So I had to like push the enemy health up just because I was like these fights are ending too fast. This isn't fun. But it's nice that it lets you do that.

But yeah, I'm finding the combat to be very enjoyable. I think, you know, it's very similar to Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 in that you're just rolling around doing combat in this case, you know, God of War style, like flipping and jumping and striking as opposed to cover shooting in Mass Effect. And then you're pulling up the, using a shoulder button to pull up a wheel and then like setting off different combo attacks and sort of triggering different abilities that sort of synergize with your team. And like there's all kinds of different abilities.

Like you put an effect on an enemy and then a different, you know, attack from one of your teammates will detonate that. And that blows up and like hurts everyone around them. And then you can kind of spec toward that and build out to like have the explosions do a lot more damage or give you a faster cooldown. And like pretty quickly you do start to kind of come up with a build. And yeah, the lute system is, I think, really clever. I've never, well, I can't think of a game like this. I'm sure that this has been explored before. but I really like the approach of having there be a finite number of pieces of gear, you know, pieces of armor, swords, whatever.

And that as you pick, as you find more of them in the world, it just levels up the one that you have. You can never sell weapons or armor in this game. You just sell, like, random crap that you pick up. They're sort of like little forgettable collectibles. But as a result, you don't like wind up with a ton of, like, level one armor that you then just go sell, like in Diablo or in one of, in really any RPG that I can, think of. We're like, all right, time to just go figure out which of my old swords I can sell. This is something I really struggled with in metaphor, actually, where I was like, can I sell this or do I need this? Like, if I switch someone else to this archetype, like, am I going to ever need this whatever,

like, long sword again? In this game, that's not, you don't even have to worry about it because you can't sell them. And there's not that much gears. So it's actually exciting. You'll just go to the store and realize, like, oh, I can just buy another version of that sword and that'll just, like, raise the rarity of my sword one tier and like unlock one of the currently locked abilities. And the more you unlock the abilities, the more specialized the gear gets. I have, let's see, one sword that gives me permanent necrotic weapons, which is incredible for my build. I have this ring, I think it's called the last stand, where each time I use one of my attack abilities, it gives me plus 20% damage, minus 20% resistances. And if I dodge or block, it resets. So I just keep doing attacks and never

dodging and soon I'm at like a 10 stack doing plus 200% weapon damage, but I can never dodge or block because I'm like, I can't break my streak. So I'm kind of like just taking hits like an idiot, but also just healing. And I'm doing so much damage that I'm like melting enemies. And it's like a very particular kind of build. There was a bow that I found where you only have one arrow, but it does like tons and tons of crit damage if you do a headshot, but takes forever to get the second arrow up. I could see that actually like layering well with a 10 stack of last stand. Like, You basically start doing this, the fun mental math of an action RPG where you start trying to figure out your build and how to do, you know, insane damage.

And then you're too good at it and you have to push up the enemy difficulty so that you're not just like cleaving your way through every fight. This is like, it feels like you guys are playing a different game than I am. It's such a travesty that like it takes. We kind of are. We are, right? We're playing, we're playing Dragon Age of Vail Guard after 20 hours instead of after six. Yeah. Why does it take somebody, like why make a game where it takes 10, 20,

hours to get to the good stuff. I don't really buy this critique. I don't know. Like, I guess... Why don't you buy that critique? I'm playing a game that does not have any interesting combat builds and options like that, because I haven't found any weapons. But so many games start out that way. Because you have to develop systems. You have to introduce things to people. Like, I don't know. Like, I mean, your taste is your own, but like... You can introduce choices earlier on without... Yeah, I get that you want that. I just don't feel that way. You can, but there's so many games we play on this show that aren't good. for the first six to ten hours. Like, is that tough? Yeah. Or that just take a while to develop.

Like, I don't know. It's, it's just hard when you're not talking about a whole thing. You're talking about the first 10% of it. It's like, yeah, I guess like the first eight bars of a song might not be interesting. But like, yeah, if it took 10 hours to get through the first eight bars of a song, you probably wouldn't listen to that song. That's video games though. Yeah, it is video games for you. We have to put up with this all the time. They're like 100 hours long. Yeah, and I'm just saying that's a flaw with this media. I think it is. I mean, I think it's hard.

I don't know. Yeah, I mean, it's right. It's been true of pretty much every RPG we play this year. So I don't know if I would single out ValeGuard as being like particularly egregious. In fact, I think that the way that it just like pulls you through the first six hours, especially if you know going in, which hopefully anybody who listens to this show does

at this point, like it's going to open up. It's going to get to something bigger. Then like, kind of whatever. Like it's just a linear, pretty fun six hour game that you can just cruise through and then it opens up and it gradually introduces new things. I just don't really see that as a knock against the game. And it's also like, I don't know, you don't have to play everything. It's fine.

Like, we're having a great time. That's true, too. That is okay. It's, I don't know. It took me a long time to like Baldur's Gate 3, 2, and I ended up loving that. So if people stick with it, I think they might find it's different than they thought. But if they don't, that's also fine. And, you know, on that note, I'm probably going to keep playing every single side quest in this game and having a great time.

then making some sort of debilitating choice about whether or not very good goes the whole time. Can't wait to find that out. We're going to find out. It's very exciting. And with that, let's take a break and then we'll be back for one more thing. Say you like video games. And who doesn't? I mean, some people probably don't.

Okay, but a lot of people do. So say you're one of those people and you feel like you don't really have anyone to talk to about the games that you like. Well, you should get some better friends. Yes, you get some better friends, but you could also. Also, listen to Triple Clay. A weekly podcast about video games hosted by me, Kirk Hamilton. Me, Maddie Myers. And me, Jason Shire.

We talk about new releases, old classics, industry news, and whatever, really. We'll show you new things to love about games, and maybe even help you find new friends to talk to you about them. Triple Click. It's kind of like we're your friends. Find us at Maximumfund.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Throughout history, sirens have captured men's attention. enticed men with their feminine wiles and fulfill men's primal needs.

The sirens allure persist. They have not. Unless the primal need is I need to be smashed on the rocks. Yeah, smash me. Smash me, mommy. Smash me, mommy. The sirens allure. Why do we do this to ourselves?

Strand me, baby. Strand me, baby. So yeah, this is my brother, my brother, me for Maxman Fun on Mondays. It's just like that. Just like that. It's just like that, but more of it. There's more of that.

And we are back. Jason, you've got a video game here that I would like to hear about because I have not tried this one yet. I have played it, but I want to hear what Jason thinks. Take it away. Yeah, so my one more thing is Rise of the Golden Idol, the sequel to the case of the Golden Idol, a

triple click pick, a game that the three of us all loved dearly when it came out a couple of years ago. So, yeah, so that game was a detective game where you are this kind of omniscient narrator type figure who is seeing these scenes, these tableau scenes of horrifying events, usually grisly murders, and trying to figure out what happened through this kind of Madlib style scroll where you go around and you click through

people and objects and you get words that pop up on your screen whenever you find them, like names of people or like verbs. And then you can take those words and insert them into the Madlibs and try to piece together exactly what happened. The sequel doesn't change much. It's pretty much the same thing set in the 1970s to 200 years after the first game. Still revolves around an object called The Golden Idol that has the power to make supernatural things happen to like steals people's youth or memories or create fire and so on and so forth. and still full of delightful mysteries. There are a few structural differences

between this one and the last game. And one of the biggest ones and the most delightful one is that... So in the first game, you played through something like 15 chapters and each of them was like a different scenario and they were all kind of standalone mysteries. And then by the end of it,

you had a good idea of everything that happened and you did this kind of like grand epilogue that pieced together at the exact story, final exam. And then you... And that was the end of the game. game. In this game, every three or four of these scenarios, you have kind of like another kind of overarching, a midterm, a pop quiz, so to speak, that kind of ties those three or four scenarios

together and helps you keep up on exactly what's happening, which is essential for this game, because the story is a lot more complicated and convoluted than the first game was. And so every, so like they're like five of these segments and each of them has the overarching story that is like, okay, here is what happened across all of these, or like, here is some information that you will need to know that you are going to extrapolate from these. And for those, you have to kind of go back into each of the episodes and just kind of like uncover a little bit to refresh yourself on what happened in order to solve that mystery, which is really, really cool and works really, really well. This game, of course, is the same problem that the first game did, and that any game

of this nature will, which is that occasionally you might be like, what is the designer thinking here. Like my logic here is going in a totally different direction or like I'm filling in a word here that should make sense but isn't exactly what the designers wanted me to enter so it's not working. But that's pretty rare and I just generally, I finished this game a few weeks ago and just had a lovely old romping time with it. It's just such a wonderful, delightful, satisfying experience that just makes you feel like a genius the whole time and I can, will never get sick of doing these. I spoke to the designers last week, the Kloven's brothers, who are these Latvian brothers who design both of these games.

They seem pretty fatigued and sick of making them. So I have a feeling they're going to do something else at some point. It's been a pretty grueling schedule for them. They did Case of the Golden Idol, then two DLC packs for that. And now they have four DLC packs that they've announced for this game. So they've got a lot of stuff in the pipe. But one thing they told me that I thought was really interesting was that So typically in the video game industry, like DLC, I feel like you're lucky if you get 30% of players to buy the DLC.

Like that's considered an extraordinary number of players. If you get 30% of people who bought the original game to buy the DLC a few months later or something like that, usually it's closer to 10, 15, 20% of people. With these games, something like, I believe the number is 50 something percent of people bought the first DLC and then 44% of people bought the second DLC to the original Case of the Golden Idol. So the attach rate is really huge. And that says to me something really interesting, which is that I think that, like, people who love these kinds of games really love these kinds of games. And if you're one of those people, you've probably already marathon through this one.

But if not, if you are a mystery game lover, a cerebral game lover, and you haven't played these games before, go do it. Go start with the beginning with Case of Golden Idol and play all the way through. If you don't know that this game is out, now you know, go play Rise of the Golden idol. Yeah, I mean, I loved it. It's just kind of like, it's one of those where it's not going to have the same sort of viral word of mouth success because it is more of the same and is not drastically different from the first game. And so the kind of the novelty of it is no longer there. But if you like the first game, you're going to love this one too. Yeah, that's exactly what I want to hear.

I'm so excited. It's so good. I've played the first of those chunks and did the midterm last night. And it's wonderful. It's more golden idol, but in the best way. Yeah. Just a bunch of weird, freaks moving their mouths in uncomfortable ways. It all ties together so nicely. At first you're like, what the hell was with this first opening chapter? Like, what does this have to do with anything? But that's classic. I can already tell.

So nicely. And yeah, I like it better than the first time I would say. I think it's a stronger story and a stronger game in general. That's high praise. I think you guys will enjoy it. 70s are a fun setting. Like in a semi-American-ish nation. It's a great move.

The first one had such a cool story, though. It's nice to know this one has an even better story, and I'm just really excited to play it. So, yeah, I just fell in the Dragon Age hole. You get it. I'll come out and play this eventually. Well, so something that Kirk will really appreciate and Mattie, you might appreciate, too, is that in the first game, there's this character Peter, who's this bumbling idiot who somehow, like, makes it to the upper echelon. Peter does well for himself. This game also has some interesting, some very curious bumbling idiot characters, and I'll just leave it at that.

Hearing idiots. Yeah. I mean, that's another, like, amazing theme of these games is that it's like, you get to laugh at the greed and idiocy of, like, certain characters and just be like, how are you failing upwards? Oh, it's because of this weird golden idol that you have. It's the best. Okay, great. I'll go next really quick. I have been listening to another new podcast, which is called Evil Men. And it's a comedy podcast. And it kind of seems like it's going to be, like, a true crime podcast. If you look at how it operates, it's three comedians. Chris Locke, James Hartnett, and Michael Blasso, and they pick a different evil man every episode. Sometimes it's a real evil man. Is it just Bill Maher every episode? It could be Bill Maher. They could certainly do a Bill Maher episode. But they also do like fictional evil men. Like they had Chib Zadarsky on to talk about Dr. Doom, which is a really great episode, really funny. Chip Zadarsky is really funny. But it's a comedy show. And so like I took a little bit to get used to this for me because I started with their first episode, which is Jeffrey Dahmer, who I actually know a lot about. And I was kind of frustrated at first because I was like, these guys don't know anything about Jeffrey Dahmer.

And the first episode's like kind of rough. And so I would recommend skipping that one because eventually they kind of find their footing and they realize like, oh, we do need to be factually accurate and like know a lot about the evil men. But we also need to come prepared with jokes about each of the evil men so that they can emphasize the jokes aspect. And it really works. Like once they hit their stride, which I think is around the time of like the Chipsidark's ski doctor doom episode, they like really get in the thick of it. understand how their own show works and that laughing at these evil men of the past and kind of making light of like bizarre situations or just making things up. I don't know. They have a really good chemistry as a trio that just grows over time and has me just laughing really, really hard and

has been kind of a balm for me as I've been thinking about evil men a lot since the election for kind of no reason. It's not relevant to anything in our lives at all. But I sometimes I just need to laugh darkly at things. And if that's you and if you have kind of dark sense of humor and think this sounds fun. Check out the Doctor Doomap and then just go right along from there and you'll probably find it really funny. It's called Evil Men and it has a great theme song. Kirk, what's yours? Mine is also a podcast that I have been listening to and really enjoying actually the past several weeks that I wanted to recommend. And yeah, it's a sort of similar thing where if you're feeling pretty dispirited and not sure what to do with yourself after the election,

like you want to disengage because you just can't deal because you're exhausted, but you want to stay engaged because it feels like you should. And, you know, this constant thing that we have all learned how to deal with one way or another over the last many years. This podcast, which is called CityCast, is a really great thing. It's a very cool project. So I have been listening to CityCast Portland, which is a discreet podcast with its own feed. It is hosted by a woman named Claudia Meza, and it comes out every day now, I think. And it's a podcast about local Portland happenings. It's been a lot about politics recently because we just had a big complex election here, but it's about all kinds of things. Like just whatever's going on in town. Sometimes it's light

stuff. Sometimes it's more political. Sometimes it's just all kinds of different things related to my town, to Portland. And Citicast, which is a network and there are a variety of citycast. So there's citycast, I'm looking at their website. Citycast, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Madison, Nashville, Philly, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Salt Lake City. And so, oh, Chicago, D.C., Boise, Austin. Also, this. So there's no, like, New York. Yeah, wait, new New York.

I mean, what the hell are we doing here? Who cares? Because we don't need, dude, like, I'm just, all I hear about is Eric Adams in New York politics, you know? I'm sure you know this. It's like New York is the only city in the world or something. Where, actually, no, you probably live, if you live in a metropolitan area, your city has its own whole political world, a lot of interesting projects going on.

and a lot of things that actually concern you very directly. Hey, man, it just happens that our local newspaper is also the leading national, like, media organization. It just so happens. In the country. So if you're tired of the New York Times, for example, if looking at the New York Times makes you want to throw up all over the place, maybe just as a like, maybe you feel that way, I can recommend CityCast. What's nice about it is that it is a podcast. I think they have a newsletter to you. I just listen to the podcast.

Portland, as I mentioned last week, had a really interesting election cycle this year. We introduced a whole new mode of city government. We did ranked choice voting for the first time on our mayor and our city councilors. And like, I just listened to a lot of citycast. And I heard interviews with the people who were running for mayor. I heard all this like great, really smart people like local journalists would come on the show and talk to Claudia about like, I don't know the different candidates in my district. And, you know, who's in the front, who's raised the most money. It was so interesting.

And also just really tangible and really close to home. Like these are people who need my vote. like it mattered who I voted for in a way that my national vote living in blue Oregon doesn't really matter. And so I find anyways, as a podcast listener and as someone who listens to, especially when politics get cooking, I listen to probably too many political podcasts just because I don't know, I just wind up doing that out of a kind of nervous habit. I hear you. They're almost all talking about national politics. They're all talking about the presidential race.

It's all stuff that's pretty remote. Like I don't live in Pennsylvania, you know? Like I just like, I apparently don't matter. So listening to CityCast has been really, really great. Like, just I really can't recommend it enough. If you live in any of those cities, check out your CityCast and like, give them a listen. Give them some support. It's a really cool thing that they're doing. And yeah, I just wanted to put that on anyone's radar who lives in one of those cities

and is interested in maybe learning a little more about what's going on in your backyard. That's awesome. Here's the local reporting. Yeah, I love that. That's really, really great. All right. Yeah, they're great. Well, with that, we conclude yet another week of Triple Click.

And we'll be back next week with another one of these. Oh, shoot. I forgot to talk about Dragon Quest. Well, we'll get to it. It's cool. Just record that later. Yeah, I'll do that episode. Well, I guess I'll have to talk about it next week because I really am playing a new Dragon Quest. So we'll get into that.

We'll get to that one next week. All right. Well, we'll see. I'll see both of you then. See ya. Bye. Triple Click is produced by Jason Shrook. Ryer, Maddie Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton.

I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music. Our show art is by Tom D.J. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for review consideration. You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes. Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network, and if you like our show, we hope you'll consider supporting us by becoming a member at Maximumfund.org slash join.

Find us on Twitter at Triple ClickPod. Send email the triple click at Maximumfund.org and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network of artists-owned shows. Supported directly by you.