Triple Click - Triple Play: Returnal

Episode Date: May 13, 2021

The Triple Click gang dives into Returnal, the latest PlayStation 5 exclusive from Housemarque. Is it too challenging or just challenging enough? Should it have been released in Early Access? And just how good is that PS5 controller? Dodge your way through bullet hell to listen to this episode.One More Thing:Kirk: Resident Evil 8Maddy: Ma Rainey’s Black BottomJason: Later (Stephen King)Links:Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry: https://bookshop.org/books/press-reset-ruin-and-recovery-in-the-video-game-industry/9781538735497Dan Sunshine’s call-in to explain the PS5’s advanced vibration: https://maximumfun.org/episodes/triple-click/triple-play-assassins-creed-valhalla/ The Strong Songs Q&A episode where Kirk explains what Miles meant by “it’s about the notes you don’t play.”: https://strongsongspodcast.com/episode/strung-beats-jazz-battles-the-notes-you-dont-playSupport Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/joinJoin the Triple Click Discord: http://discord.gg/tripleclickpodTriple Click Ethics Policy: https://maximumfun.org/triple-click-ethics-policy/ Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointripleclick 🚀  SUPPORT TRIPLE CLICK:Join Maximum Fun | Buy TC Merch💬 JOIN THE TRIPLE CLICK DISCORD🎮 Triple Click Ethics Policy📱 SOCIALS | @tripleclickpodInstagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitch

You can't take it with you when you die. I'm referring, of course, to the ooblights you collect on planet Atropos. Welcome to Triple Click, where we bring the games to you. This week, we all played Returnal, a game about crash landing on an alien planet, getting stuck in a time loop that resets every time you die. Some of us have reset that time loop many times. I'm Maddie Myers. I'm Jason Shire.

And I'm Kirk Hamilton. And hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello, to both of you and to everyone. We are back. It is good to be here once again. This time we're not live. No, we're not. It's so different, you know, when we're not on stage.

I was listening back to last week's episode and you really would not be able to tell other than the fake crowd noise you pumped in at the beginning, Kirk. I mean, there's a crowd listening to us right now. You can hear them cheering. They're cheering us on. It's very nice. They're just listening to us in the future, like a couple days from now. So like it's a really delayed feedback from them. But they are technically listening to us. That is true. Anyway, I don't have a good transition into this. I just want to talk about Max Fund Drive. That's fine. Just do it. Speaking of people listening to us who are crowds of people supporting our show. At least some of them are members, maybe. Okay. That was C plus, Jason, C plus. I think Maddie's total lack of a transition may have been a better way to go. Yeah, cold open, Max Fun Drive. Just change gears. Throwing a bunch of symbols on the ground. Pay attention. Here we go.

It's time. So this is the second week of a period of time when it's really extra super cool to become a maximum fun member, which basically means that you go to maximum fund.org slash join and you support the show. You become a member that way. And you can do that year round. And if you join at the $5 level, you get access to our monthly bonus episodes, which we talk about every single week. So you probably already know that. But if you do join this week, or if you'd already joined last week, then you could potentially, join a higher tier, a higher level, and get more rewards for doing so. So like the $10 month level, you get a really cool pin. It says, spill the beans on it and it's got jelly beans. Spilling those jelly beans. It is the best. Or you could get like a different pin for a different show, but like, come on, the triple click pin is the coolest pin ever. So obviously you're going to pick that pin. And if you join it $20 a month, you can decide whether you want a T-Kid or a rocket hat. I kind of want the hat. Also get a pin. Yeah. You know, I'm a member. I might actually, of my membership so I can get the hat. It's a pretty good hat. It's pretty cute. Yeah. And then if you join at 35,

you get a cup and so on and so forth. And you get all the previous rewards at whatever level you upgrade to. And it's really cool. But also, I just wanted to say for people who are members or considering becoming members, our episode, our bonus episode that we're going to put out this month is going to be a beans cast or we spill the beans about the video game portal. And we're also going to have a special guest. Another Max Fun family member. special guest who is noted gamer Justin McElroy. He is a noted gamer. That's what I've heard about.

He'll be on there. He plays video games from time to time. He's played a gamer too. So he's going to talk about Portal with us on that app. And it'll be fun. And if you're not a member, you did just hear a Beanscast, our Mandalorian Beanscast, ran in the main feed for all of you. So it'll be like that, but about Portal.

So you got a little preview of what you've been missing out on. And now you know. Anyway, also, Jason's book is out. I'm not transitioning to anything. Jason, congratulations. That's it. That's it. It's a transition-free episode. Jason's book is out. Tell us about it. Yeah, it's actually, this is like the first podcast that I'm doing in like two weeks where I don't just have to talk about my book the whole time.

So that's kind of nice. This is going to be kind of refreshing. I've been doing the mediator. Yeah, press reset, ruin and recovery in the video game industry. It's out. It came out on Tuesday, May 11th. Hopefully all of you out there who want it have gotten your hands on it. The audiobook version got delayed. Oh, delay. Jason, did you delay it? Well, the audiobook version got delayed because of the chip shortage, the semiconductor chip shortage. Every copy has a chip. No, I'm just kidding. You're making this confused face. I felt like I was losing my grip on reality there for a second.

No, it's just production complications. I'm actually kind of amazed that they are able to produce books at all in the middle of a pandemic. I'm looking forward to reading the ex-s-spoise book that's all about the troubled production of the audio. a book of pressers. There is. Like, I mean, I told you guys the story last week about my publisher and how I just switched publishers. There's a lot of drama behind the scenes of this book. Anyway, it's out. It's been really fun just like seeing people tweet at me with their copies. I'm really excited to like see everyone's reactions. And yeah, I'm really proud of it. So go check it out. Press reset, Runa Recovery in the video game industry. Do go check it out. It's a great book. Everyone

go read it. Yeah, it's really good. Please check it out. And please buy it at your local indie bookstore. because you should support those guys. They're struggling. Indie booksters are struggling these days, so go do it there. So, Kirk, take us away. What are we doing this week? We're doing a triple play, specifically a triple play on Returnal,

which is a game that I am very excited to talk to the two of you about. This is going to be a fun one, I think. So, Returnal is a new PS5 exclusive made by the Finnish Studio Housemark, previously best known, for their excellent action arcade games like Reso Gun and Super Star Dast. Players take on the game.

the role of an outer space explorer named Celine Vassos. She's a scout in the employee of the Astro Corporation. She crash lands on the deadly planet atropos and finds herself trapped in a loop where each death at the hands of the planet's fauna as well as the defense machinery of the now dead civilization that used to be there sends her back to the start with her ship crashing and she has to do it all over again. So it is a rogue-like, an action rogue-like or rogue-like if you want to get weird and precious about it. Each time you die, you lose most of your progress, you have to start all over. Though like a lot of modern versions of these games,

it gets easier, the more you play, you unlock better skills and weapons, checkpoints, warp points, get to skip bosses eventually. You only have to beat each boss once, which is very nice. And it's got a lot of familiar gameplay elements. I made a list of them.

I'm going to read them up top here. It's got bullet hell enemy attack patterns where avalanches of slowly diffusing energy balls and rings come at you, and your nimble character must dodge between them while keeping up a steady offensive. It's got Destiny's Combat Bowls where your hit scan weapons are fighting against slower enemy projectiles in a contained area.

It's got a cool take on Gears of Wars active reload. It has Gone Home's house, or at least a house that's a lot like the house and gone home. Okay, sure. It has a Hades-style approach to rogue-like storytelling, where it builds the game's narrative into the loop and makes that part of the story. Has some cinematic tricks borrowed from Remedy games like Control, and it actually featured some members of, some of the narrative team on this game are from Remedy. Well, that's what the house reminded me of. A lot of it, well, a lot of it's got a lot of remedy energy. And I also just have this at the end.

It has big Metroid energy in general. True, but Outer Wilds. Why isn't that on the list as well? That's true. That's true. Alien life forms, mysterious aliens, ancient civilization. And they look like the aliens from live, die, repeat, or edge of tomorrow, which we did a beans cast on.

Yes, we did. So, Maddie and I are both playing review copies that we were sent by Sony. Jason bought his copy himself. I wonder why Sony didn't send me a copy. As far as progress goes, I rolled credits after 22 hours and seven deaths, which I gather is a little bit unusual. I'm now at about 30 hours and 10 deaths. I'm taking my time cleaning up the third act stuff that comes after the credits. Wait, you've only died seven times ever?

This is when we learn that Kirk is excellent in video games. Not that we didn't already know that. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. That's my progress. Maddie has played a fair chunk of the game is currently taking on the first boss, Freik. And Jason has cleared the second boss just earlier today, and it's currently exploring the third biomes.

So we'll keep our discussion to kind of that first act, those first three biomes. So that's the game. We've summed it up. I want to know what you both think of it. Maddie, why don't you go first? What do you think of Returnal? Sure. The person who's played at the least, I feel like you always start with me in these situations.

I like a lot of it, but I wish I liked it more. And I want you to sell me on it, Kirk, because you clearly love it. So I need you to give me a reason to not stop playing this game and play Mass Effect immediately instead of continuing to play Returnal. But let me explain. So this game, it's very dark. And I don't mean emotionally dark. I mean visually dark. Like, it's hard to see stuff.

And I've messed around with the settings a lot in the game. And I'm still struggling with that. So that's thing number one. Thing number two, my runs very wildly between. how well I do. And I think that's probably true for everyone. It's not just based on randomness. Some of it is. Obviously, you get different things every run. You see different stuff every time. But it also depends on my mood and just how I'm emotionally doing with a given run. Kirk, you gave me a tip pretty early on about playing the game slowly. I think that's a good tip, even though the game

moves really quickly and you can dodge and it feels like you should be moving really fast. You actually need to play this game pretty methodically, kind of like a dark souls. You need to just be thoughtful. And you also need to try not to take any damage at all, which means you need to play as methodically as possible. Like you get more adrenaline, which is an in-game mechanic that basically just unlocks more stuff for yourself if you don't accrue any hits. So you can accrue adrenaline levels if you aren't hit ever.

So it definitely, you're getting rewarded if you don't take any hits. But it's also very difficult to not get hit. You have to be very cautious if you're doing that and you have to play thoughtfully. And I'm just not always in the mood for that. I certainly have my moments where I'm killing it at a run and I get very far and I get all the way to Freik who I haven't beaten yet, but like it doesn't feel that hard. I've just slowly, meditatively walking around and carefully considering each of the different enemy types.

But then I'll also have runs where I'm just like, I'm just going to listen to a podcast tonight and like maybe have a beer and like I'm not playing return all that well, but I'm just sort of enjoying being in the world and like dying a billion times in the row and experiencing the ambiance, but also maybe making myself a little bit sick of it at the same time because I'm not playing it methodically enough. So I don't know. I'm curious, Jason, how you feel because I know that you were also stuck in the first biome for at least a little while. So you must have gotten past whatever bottleneck I'm in. And how did you do it? So I feel exactly the same way that you do in that you have to be in the right headspace for this game.

And maybe Kirk is like always in hardcore gamer mode and only died seven times, which is preposures. Or hardcore meditative mode. And he's like always aware of his surroundings. Yeah, he's always in his, yeah. But for me, what I found is that like sometimes I'll go in and I'll get hit like once and I'll get so frustrated just at that that I'll restart the run immediately. And then other times I'll just be in this kind of flow state where I'm just like like playing like going on all,

firing on all cylinders and just like dodging every bullet, like getting to max adrenaline, getting my health up, getting great runs and making a ton of progress. And really just like my enjoyment of the game is dependent on which of those two states I'm in. And like, so that just really depends like when I picked up the game. I really have to be in the right headspace for this game. And I think that like part of it for me was that I think that maybe there are a few things contributing. Maybe there are a few factors contributing to like what makes me at least in the right headspace for this.

I think one of them is that like you have to be prepared to, you have to be committed for the long haul. So you have to be prepared to sit like for two hours in front of your TV. Because knowing and we can get into the whole like there's no save quitting in this game at all. But knowing that like you have a time constraint just makes you play poorly, I think, at least for me. And my gaming schedule is very different than the two of you because I have a toddler. So I'm constantly being called for her and like tried to fit this in during her naps and stuff like that. But yeah, but just being in that headspace where it's like, okay, I can sit there for two hours, I can focus on this game, I'm going to do well, like I'm going to play meditatively, I'm going to contemplate every move, I'm going to like be on my game. That just made it a way more enjoyable experience for me.

And then when I was playing and like not at the top of my skills, then it just kind of sucked. And I was so frustrated. And I'm like, man, this game is so annoying in so many different ways. And it can be really frustrating. but then like it's so it's such a like fascinating game because for every moment that has been super frustrating i found something delightful about it and here's an example um kirk i was texting here the other day because i had the best run i had ever had got to the boss of the second biome took him all the way down to his third face and then died and i was like fuck this is the worst feeling i've

ever had of my life because it took so long to get up there and there's nothing i hate more in a game i've talked about this in the past than when it doesn't respect my time and it felt like Like, this game was really just wasting my time, making me go through all this. So then, well, so then I get through the first biome, gets the second biome, get to the mountain, which is like basically you go through a couple of screens of desert, you get to the mountain. And suddenly there's a portal that's a shortcut to the top of the mountain. I was like, oh my God, this game is amazing. Like, thank you so much a video game.

So I think, and then I discover that like you can actually skip, I mean, this is kind of spoilery, but whatever, you can kind of skip the whole second biome to once you've got the item at the end of that. because you can just go straight from the first to the third. And so, like, it turns out this game is full of stuff like that, where it's like, it gives you shortcuts, and it actually does kind of value your time in a way that I didn't think it would. So all that said, I still think it needs a suspend feature because it's ridiculous that it doesn't have one.

But the game has really grown on me over time, and, like, the parts that felt very frustrating, it has kind of smoothed over time. So, yeah, right head space. Kirk, you want to give us some overall thoughts now? Yeah, so just to respond to a few, things that the two of you were saying. I do think that I've had a kind of an unusual time playing through it. I know that my death count is weird and it's not because I'm good at this game. Like I'm

not an elite gamer, all of your jokes aside. Like I'm really not. When I run into the room and just try to mess stuff up like I'm going to be good at games, I get kind of wrecked. It's much more that I played super carefully. I really, it feels to me like playing a Souls game even though it's a different structure in some ways. It does have the sort of repetition and the caution. It's very punishing. There's a feeling of risk that I think is wonderful with this game. Like, video games create a feeling of risk in you, the player in a lot of different ways. And this is one of the most hardcore is basically like, if you die, you're going to lose all that progress you just made. And it's in this game, because unlike Hades, you know, a run takes a long time.

That could be a lot of time, you know, that you've put in. And that feeling just makes me get like nervous and psyched and pumped. And then when you, you know, I, Jason, fighting the second boss, I died the first time I fought him. I think it was the first time. maybe the second, I had him down to like a fraction of an inch of health. It was one more special shot to kill him and he killed me instead. And I had to go all the way back to the beginning. And like it was heartbreaking. I was like texting everybody that I knew who was playing it, just being like,

I'm going to stop playing video games forever. I quit. I'm done. And like the feeling of sort of overcoming that. And of course the next time I fought it might just mop the floor with him because I knew all of his moves and then moved on from there. And then I think after that... Were you also like amazed at the shortcut?

It was, I didn't actually. I used it to, but then doubled back because I do like to play through the levels to power myself up. But yeah, that was helpful. But then actually I beat him that time and then went and cleared Biom 3, beat the Biom 3 boss. After Biom 3, there's like a lot of cool stuff happens in this game. And we're not going to get into spoilers, but there is some narrative stuff in this game. That's really, really cool that I'm hopeful that the two of you will see. That's one of the things maybe Maddie that could entice you to keep playing is that as much as the broad writing of this game, it's like very overwritten and very, you know, just that there's some.

like lovecraftian attempts at that kind of language that just are very clumsy, but it's also like a really cool narrative like experience in a lot of ways. And there's a one thing in particular, but a few things that are very neat in that regard too. So I do like the narrative world of the game, even if the moment to moment writing doesn't always knock me out. So but back to the difficulty in like my experience of it and those seven deaths to get to the credits. A lot of that is that this game is like not totally balanced in the way that it needs to be. So our friend Russ Frustick, who has played a lot of this game, is someone that I regularly just sort of text with when I'm playing games.

He played this game before me and had made a lot of progress and gave me a lot of tips while I was playing. And that was super, super helpful to the point where I get the sense from him that he's a little bit grumpy that like my progress was so smooth because he had to suffer through so many things to give me these helpful tips. And the broader takeaway from that is that this game is going to be a lot more balanced and probably a lot more fun in like a year. And it's all of any kind of game like this.

You're saying it should have been in early access, which is very true. Any kind of game like this tends to release in early access, right? Like Hades, Under the Gungeon, Slave Aspire, all of these games. Nuclear Throne is a good example. Where like it's in development for so long. And so lots of people are playing it and they're giving feedback. and then they just kind of iron out stuff that this game doesn't quite have dialed

and it's not like I can diagnose any one thing in the game that feels off, though there are some things, like the fact that like malignancy just seems off, there are some items you pick up in the game that can infect you with sort of malfunctions that you then have to fix. But like sometimes that feels like a risk worth taking. Yeah, some of them are like no big deal

and others are just like destroy your entire run. That's true. And then also there are like some chests where you're like, okay, if I open this I'm going to get a malfunction, but it'll have like a good artifact in it. But then other times there's just like a health pickup or something. That also has malignancy. I'm like, well, I'm never going to pick that up.

There's no incentive for me to do that. So some of that, just there's little things like that where the balances off. But then also there are some weapons, the hollow seeker with like the damage over time rounds. And there's like a pile driver, like a nail gun that I use to just cruise in that game. Because you shoot a bunch of like pylons into dudes and then it just does damage to them. And you can kind of run around and hide. Oh, I haven't seen that one yet. I guess that comes later. It's a little... You'll unlock it a little later, yeah.

Hollow Seeker that you have now, and if it starts bad, but if you level that thing up, it's bananas. Oh, I've been just using, yeah, the auto rifle. Which I did use for the first three, you know, the first three biomes. Like the ramping up perk, like where it gets... And there's one that heals you. I mean, that gun is really good, too. All of the guns can be super viable if you level them up and know what you're doing. But I found that the damage over time ones really gave me a benefit to the point where, like, I beat the game with only seven, deaths, you know? And I think that that's largely because of my play style.

How many times are you going to say that on this episode? I'm going to say like at least five or six more times. I have it written here seven. Probably seven times, I think. Wait, was it seven deaths? Oh, I died with seven times to roll the credits. But I shouldn't, but I don't even mean to brag about it because like I had that assistant. I've certainly bragged about fighting some Dark Souls bosses just once or twice on this show before. I think some of this is acceptable. Yeah, there's something wrong. Especially Kirk because there's like this, this.

stigma on the internet that games journalists are bad at games journalists but you're a games podcaster you should brag about how good you are. I think when I stopped being a games journalist, that was when I became good at games. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Finally, yeah. That's why Jason and I couldn't get as far as you. Yeah, exactly. Anyways, I like the game. I'm curious what it's next year will look like because I would love to keep playing it. I've been doing there's a post-credits thing you can do, but I'm kind of taking my time just because at this point I really like find it very engrossing to just go and play it. And it's interesting because I mentioned the Metroid energy. And while of course it is a very different structure than a Metroid game, it does have

that sort of aesthetic feeling. Obviously, you're a woman alone on an alien planet. Your ship has crashed. Your crash site feels kind of like her ship kind of looks like the Metroid ship. Like, there's just this feeling, you know, like. And now that I'm to the point where I can go to any of the biomes and I'm really familiar with the game, I mean, I can just, I can clear the game, no problem, just any, basically any time I want to, I'll sometimes get killed. This is a actually when it feels the most like Metro. Look at me. I'm cricket. I can't play the game anytime. I've unlocked a lot

of good stuff. I know each level really well because I played 30 hours. Like I've played a lot of it. Though just recently I was on the very first biome with the starter gun and I go into like two rooms and then there's a blue triangle room which is an optional room. I go in and it's

one of those lock the door, huge bosses in here and it was one of those bananas huge beafer dudes who was just unstoppable. I was like running around trying to shoot him, but I didn't have my damage over time guns. I didn't have any power-ups, and he just absolutely wrecked me, and I, like, died after five minutes. So, you know, that still happens. Like, you get a, you get a bad draw every now and then. Was that one of your seven deaths, or was that after your seven? That was one of my ten deaths. That was the eighth death. So it doesn't

really count. I think that was the ten. Right, right. But to get to credits, I think, um, was seven. But now, yes, I am at 30 hours and ten deaths. Ten deaths is where I met. Yeah, I mean, I think there is something to be said about, yeah, I mean, I haven't gotten to the part, I guess, in the late game where it's super unbalanced. But there is something to be said about like the balance of like frustration versus the kind of triangle of like frustration versus progress loss and like time wasted versus like making you as a player feel powerful. And I'm not sure that this game really nails it.

Um, in part because yeah, I mean, even I guess I do feel like there is a lack of balance because it feels like the, the enemy balance feels a little bit off. Like it feels like some of them are just kicking my ass every single time a little too much. Some of them just like have these like undogable bullets and then some of them are just way too easy. Maybe that's intentional. I don't know. Maybe you're supposed to just have like these spikes every once in a while. But it doesn't make for like a smooth, satisfying experience.

And then yeah. And the item balance does feel a little off. Like you feel like you're constantly getting useless items and you all you want is like health stuff. And sometimes it just doesn't feel worth it to like open chess and like take. that risk of malfunctions, like you said. It does feel like an early access game, which really, I mean, raises a lot of questions because this is not just a full price game. It's a $70 game. So this is like in that. Well, that is now a full price game. That's the new full price. The new full price. Yeah. I'm with you, Jason. But I think part of that imbalance is just the significant differences

from run to run, at least for me. Like, yes, part of why sometimes I'll have a really good run is my mindset, but it is also true that the randomness just doesn't feel quite right. And I'm comparing it to something like Hades where it's been so finely tuned over time and the weapons unlock at such a steady pace. You never really feel bored in that game. You can always try something new. Right. The version of Hades that we all played is the final version. I didn't play the early access version, but I know that it had, you know, fewer levels to get to and there's only one boss and so on so forth. So the version of Hadesby played is like the perfectly tuned. Everybody gave feedback. All the weapons feel amazing in different ways. And in this game, there are some guns. I'm not

familiar with all the different gun types, but there are some guns that feel really great. And then there are some that just didn't really click with me. And I'm still at the stage of the game where I'm like, if this gun is more powerful than the one I've got now, I guess I may as well switch to it because I haven't leveled up anything enough to really have a strong opinion about it. So there will be be runs where I'll just happen to get like a level three thing that is really powerful and feels great. And other times I'll get a level three gun that just feels completely wrong to me. And I'm like, well, this is the gun I picked up.

So I guess I may as well use it because it's more powerful than my dumb pistol that I had before. But it feels bad. But the other thing about it, though, is that enemies are also weaker or stronger depending on how good the drops are. Like there are enemies that will give me trouble in one run that in another. run I can take out in one hit or two hits simply because I just so happen to get a bunch of good power-ups along the way there. And the other thing, I actually really like the way that the teleportation devices work in this game. I think it really saves time. And after you face

Frick the first time and then you go back because you died against him if you're me, the rooms change after that. But it's also just there are a lot of teleportation devices around. So it's a little easier to get back to him, even though he's randomly generated as to which room he's going to be in, like how many rooms away he's going to be the second time. So I would often now end up in situations where, like, I'll boot up a level, or I'll boot up the biom, and Freik will be, like, two rooms away, and I'll be like, well, I can't fight him now. All I have is the pistol, so I need to keep going. And then I'll keep going for like six rooms. And I'll be like, do I have enough stuff that I want to go back to him? Or do I not? Or do I want to keep going? And then I'll

get cocky and like die to something stupid. Yeah, that's the classic, the classic rogue like question. Or I'll go back to early and I'll try to fight him and I'll be like, oh, I wasn't really strong enough. And then like recently there was this run where I had everything going great. Like I had the astronaut. I had the bonus health. I had like, the astronaut revives you.

It's very much like, I can't remember what it's called in Hades, but it's like the death defiance thing. Is that what it's called? Where it's death defiance in Hades. But it's the astronaut in returnal. I had everything great. And then I just got really cocky and, like, on my way back to the boss, I died to one of those stupid purple bats. And I was just like, I hate my life.

Those things suck, though. I hate everything. Oh, my God. The ones that get super close to you. And what was worse about it was that I died to this stupid purple bat and I forgot I had the death defiance. So I just like, frustratively threw my controller on the couch like, fuck, I died to a bat. And then I revived myself and then like died. again before I could pick the controller.

Because I was like, oh shit, I like actually had another life. I think you did kind of defeat yourself on that one. It was so stupid. That's happened to me in Sekiro if it helps, if it makes you feel better. Yeah. I don't know. Maddie, to your point, it reminds you of enter the gungeon. And I think, I feel like there are a couple different kinds of rogue likes,

one of which being the ones that are like completely balanced to the point where it doesn't matter how random drops you get because you always, like there's always a viands. build you can have in like 80s, which is our best frame of reference for this because we've all played so much 80s. But that's the game, that's the epitome of a game where like any run you can win, like you don't have to rely on luck because every single perk and boon you can get is like can be good enough that you can win. Whereas something like Enter the Gungeon, which I've also played a bunch of of, it's very similar in a lot of ways. It's also bullet hell. It's also a lot of fun gun mechanics. But that's also a game where like if you get the

wrong gun drops on any given run, it's, you're not going to win. But it's a game with like hundreds of guns. And so the variety is to the point where like it's actually actively fun to see what you're going to discover as opposed to this game where like there isn't a lot of enjoyable, there's not a lot of fun to the discovery of like what you're going to find next. Like there isn't there isn't enough loot variety. There isn't enough gun variety, at least not to the at the point where we're at. So that's a crucial distinction. And let me just jump in because I think that this is actually an important thing about this game. And you're right that this is like it is true of the opening hours of the game

and far less true of the game than more you play it. Because I think the balance issues that exist in this game that I've seen highlighted a lot are primarily true of like the first, when you're kind of working your way through those first two biomes. Now that I've made it through all six of the biomes and unlocked, I think, every single gun in the game, those guns turn up everywhere. And there's way more of a feeling as I play anyways that, I'm always finding interesting stuff. I'm always finding the weapons I want. Every time I play, I always, so I always play through the whole level. I don't skip to bosses. So that means I see

everything. I get everything. And that means that my build is always viable. It always feels viable to me because I'm like drawing on the entire game's worth of gear. And I'm also like always making it far enough that I can get through all these different rooms and find the upgrades. But, but you're, but like a lot of people have played dozens of hours and are still on the first couple of biomes. Not everyone can be seven-deb Hamilton over here. No, no, no, I know. That's my point, though, is that I think that it's important to look at the game in both ways. Like, is that there is a really balanced game that draws from, like, this full thing. And I think works well where each run I'm kind of like adjusting how I'm playing based on, like,

you know, the parasites I found, which the parasite system is actually really cool. I could see them adding new parasites. These are things you equip that give you like a buff and a debuff. Like, anytime you use a key, you take damage, but enemies drop stuff more. I've had a crazy one. Once I had one that I couldn't heal myself with items, but every time I killed an enemy I healed. So I, like, had full health the whole time because I just kept killing enemies. But it's, like, not great for fighting bosses. So it was like I had to clear the parasite off. So that's a cool system.

Anyways, you get cool builds, and it feels much more flexible to me where I'm, like, adjusting as I go later in the game. It sounds like all that stuff should be available earlier. Well, I don't know. I'm a little torn on it because the early hours of this game are the toughest. that's the biggest hump. There are a couple big humps. I'd say the first two biomes are big hump, and the whole first two biomes, the first three biomes,

is another big hump. So it's like three humps, two humps making a bigger hump. It's like a mountain made of little mountains. And those are all really hard to get through, but you're kind of, like I found I was kind of being driven by just like being kind of engrossed in this game

and that feeling of like dark soulsy kind of risk and, you know, excitement of sort of what's going to happen next. And, you know, the constant threat being, you're like a cat on the street, you know, with your antenna out trying to survive. And like, that was enough to keep me going. But now it's much more like later game, Dark Souls or Bloodborn, where you're like, I got this shit.

Like, you know, I know my way around. I've, like, leveled up. I know who's going to come around that corner. I'm not really probably going to get too messed up by anything. And it kind of evolves into that, which is a much more straightforwardly satisfying experience. It does take a while to get there. And I don't know if I would want it to get there immediately because it's the same thing with

the Souls game where you do have to kind of get through the beginning challenge. part where you don't have any good gear and you don't know what you're doing and you're any kill all you're okay but what you're describing so there's a difference between like not getting good gear right away and not getting variety right away and I think that's this game's problem is that like you could be playing a dozen hours like I have and like Maddie it seems like you have as well and you've only seen like three different guns and like a handful of different types of items and they're all kind of boring and that to me doesn't make for a really interesting game um even if like okay, even if the game capped you out

in terms of like power level or like kept some of the best stuff for later, the lack of variety in the early stages and maybe the developers didn't expect that people would get stuck on those early humps as much as they have. But it feels to me like that's a pretty common experience that people are like still in the first couple of biomes.

And if you're playing the first couple of biomes and you're playing it for hours and hours and you're not getting anything different than it's kind of boring. And that kind of like, again, I mean, it feels like an early access game. and it feels like that's something that will be tweaked. Like, maybe they'll add, take a couple more guns from the loophole and make them available in the early days.

Like, even a few more, I think, would make such a difference. But, like, right now, you should feel like, there should feel at least a tiny bit of, like, discovery and interesting, like, interest to picking up objects. But instead, it just feels like you're kind of going through the motions. Like, okay, got to get the resin here. I got to see if this gun is an auto rifle instead of a pistol, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, but I don't think Kirk had that experience because he only died seven times. So he literally didn't play the first biome as many times as you and I did. So he didn't get as tired of those same items over and over.

And to him, they feel more balanced. I have a feeling that Maddie and I have had a more normal experience for like a returnal player. Yeah. And the other thing about that, though, is that the game really doesn't tell you how to play it. Like the whole idea of approaching it very stealthily. Like, Kirk, I'm sort of picturing you playing it almost like a like a Rainbow Six or something. Like you're creeping around corners. You're dashing, but only when you're in the heat of battle.

It's not as though you're running through every room. You're not running past enemies. So in that way, it's actually somewhat different from Dark Souls. If I had to compare it to one thing, it would be like soloing Nightfalls back in original destiny where like you have to just be so careful because if you die, you're done. So you're standing, I'm just standing by doors, shooting guys and stuff. So yeah, that's kind of what it's like. Yeah, which is not how I was playing.

Like, this is not a cover shooter. There's no cover mechanics. Like you're not creeping around cover like. like your Marcus Phoenix or whatever. Like that is not the design of this game. This game feels like a destiny strike. Like it feels like you should be running around and like using the dodge mechanic all the time.

And the run mechanic looks really good. It feels really good to run. And you can do that. I mean, I do do that fairly often. And you can do that. You can run past enemies. Well, also the game, I mean, if you don't pick up the little gold that they drop, it disappears.

So the game very much wants you to go up. Yeah, you have to run up to the enemies and get all the ooblights and pick them up. That's risk for war. There's a lot of risk reward in this game. You can do that and I obviously do do that, but not always. Yeah, no, I think that's a smart risk reward mechanic. Yeah, I agree.

But I just think that because of the way that you were playing, Kirk, you're just not having the same experience as most people are. Like, I think that's one way to win the game. But if it's how you're supposed to play the game, the game should probably signpost that in a different way. Because it makes it feel really good to move quickly, but that's not necessarily what you're supposed to do to win. But I would never say that that's how you're supposed to play.

play. I mean, so for starters, I don't entirely play that way. I play that way. I'm like very, very cautious. So there are areas later where like you'll trigger a huge onslaught of enemies. And I'm just backtracking, backtracking, holling up, shooting them, backing up, you know, just, you know, then rushing it and grabbing stuff and getting out, you know, being like really sort of strike and evade is kind of how I play. I'm not just playing it like a cover shooter. Like, you have to, I mean, you go into rooms and the door closes and there's a boss in there with you and you've got to play or die. And so there's plenty of that, too, and not to mention the boss vice.

But I would never say that you're supposed to play it one way or another way. I'm sure there are people who will play this entire game through without upgrading the pistol and beat it on their first try. There are people being like, I cleared this thing in 10 hours with like four deaths. And they didn't play the way that I played. They played really aggressively because they're just fast and very good at that kind of a game. Can I ask you something? How long, like, is your average run?

or how long was your average one and you were playing? Because it sounds like you really take your time with each time. Yeah, two to three hours. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, that to me is the big problem with this game. Is that like, like, if you're going to play that way, you really have, it's such a commitment. It's such a time commitment. Well, so, yeah, and I got screwed by an update before I turned off auto updates.

I got a run get killed by the game update. Oh, yeah, I got a crash that killed a run for me. Me too, yeah. Yeah, I had also had a bug where I had, it was this really brutal enemy in, In Biome 5, there are some tough mothers in that biome. And there was a guy who was almost dead. He was like had a dot attack on him, a damage over time thing. And he was ticking down and then he killed me.

But I had the Regen booth thing that you can buy on each level. So he killed me. And I think that he killed me and then he died. But then I regent and I went back and he was still there and I couldn't damage him. And if you can't damage that guy, you're fucked. So he just killed me again. And I was like, oh, well, there goes that run. So there are bugs

And I think the save thing is just a problem Like you should be able to stop the game And play something else It's funny actually This is the only game I'm playing on PS5 So it's not a big deal Now that I have auto updates off I just put it in suspend mode and come back

And it's still there But if I were playing Resident Evil 8 on PS5 Suddenly I would be like God damn it Because like you can't start a new run And then just pop over to Resident Evil Just because it would kill your run Or if you were sharing your PS5

With like a family And like other people wanted to use it No, it has to be the only thing. Yeah, I mean, really, this doesn't feel like a game that's made for adults with, like, busy lives because our kids. I mean, because of that time commitment thing. No, but you don't have to. I don't know. If you play it the way that I play it, you could totally have a life.

Like, I play for, like, an hour at a time. I don't play the entire chunk without getting up from my desk. Like, but that's because I'm able to leave it pause. You put it in rest mode. Yeah, and it's fine. Like, it doesn't crash that often. I've seen people talk about crashes. For me anyways, I've never had it crash.

I know they happen. Oh, lucky. But yeah, I had one But I've also had my PS5 sometimes Randomly shuts off when it's in Res Mode So that makes me scared to be in response That's understandable. I mean mine doesn't It I think that

I think it goes with almost goes without saying That this game needs some sort of a save state Like that's just extremely straightforward Like that's not controversial I mean it is controversial actually But it should be I don't think it is in the context of the three of us I don't think that's very controversial to say

Yeah I think people who misunderstand What it actually would do Think it's controversy Like people controversial like people are like oh but then you'd be able to scum like save scum and it's like no it would be something where it only saves when you exit the game and then you just load back in as soon it like right or like at the start of a biome it saves then I guess if you you could there are ways you could abuse it but that's that doesn't matter like I don't think that's like a huge problem where there's a million

more things to save this game I want to offer one tip that I've discovered lately there's or actually two really quick tips the damage over time weapons one is big but there's a lot of great service posts about this game and I would say if you're saying if you're something struggling with it. Read some tips because they can actually, it can make a big difference if you're like, you know, learning them. But here's a couple tips. One is, don't aim down sights in this game almost ever.

You just don't have to. And like, you can. And actually, we haven't mentioned it, but I think the controller, the controller stuff is really cool. I like adjusted to the double press of the left trigger. The DillSys is amazing. Oh, man. Yeah, the Vs is dope as hell. And like, the vibration. Yeah, the vibrations are fine. Even the fact

that, like, there's a whole mechanic attached to the left trigger being pushed down halfway or way. That's so cool. And then you like crunch it down to get your alt-fire? That is so cool. I love playing it just because it feels so good. Have you ever actually just, I recommend this for everybody if you're playing with headphones or turn the sound off

on the game and just listen to the controller as you run around? It makes crazy sounds. It's like meo-w-w-w-w-w. Like it's doing all this awesome stuff because of those cool little devices that are in there. And it makes this like sproying sound when you use the sword on guys. That's so

incongruous and funny. It's like sproying, like, why would that be what a sword, a laser sword would do? Because it's like the sound that the device makes when it vibrates up the, whatever, the holder to like make that feeling of the sword. It has to go voop like that. Bing! Hi, everyone, Kirk from the future here, and this seemed like a great opportunity to actually demonstrate what we're talking about. This is something that listener Dan Sunshine called in and explained to us back in November in the episode about Assassin's Creed Valhalla at the beginning. he explained how the dual sense works, and it's actually really cool.

It was a cool explanation, and now we can hear it in practice. So the Dual Sense 5 uses something called an LRA, a linear resonant actuator, which is basically the same thing that drives a speaker, and that's why when you listen to your dual sense, it sounds like it's making video game sound effects, even though it's actually just making the vibrations that you feel when you do things. So I recorded a little bit of my dual sense, just doing some shooting and sword swinging in returnal,

and it sounds really cool. It actually sounds like it's own. little Sonic world because it really kind of is. So if you're lucky enough to have a PlayStation 5 and you've been playing this game, I do recommend just taking off your headphones, turning down the music, and just doing some shooting and jumping and sword swinging in this game and just listen to what your controller is doing. Really pay attention to it. It's very cool and it does highlight how this technology is so different from vibration on most past controllers. And I do recommend going back and listening to Dan's explanation as well on that Valhalla episode.

We'll link it in the show notes. All right, back to the show. Bing! amazing. I also, I feel like my hot tip is just try to get the sword as quickly as possible, because I feel like the game got so much more fun. Well, yeah, and then you'll have that permanently. Like, if you haven't gotten the sword yet and you're like wandering around by I'm one, wondering if the game is even any fun, just kind of keep going and look in some, some challenge rooms or whatever until you find the sword. You'll be okay. So my actual tips, well, the ADS one is really one. You just don't need to aim down 80, like aim down your sites. Just run and shoot, like almost all the time. That's fine. But the other one is, it's something

related to how health works that I didn't really understand until recently. You know how you find it's Silfim, I believe it's called, is the health pickups. And there are pickups that replenish your health. And then there's resin pickups. Yeah, the resins are when you have full health. Okay, so I'm not just telling you this, because I'm assuming maybe the two of you know this, but listeners may not. It's interesting. Resin is really important. You want to pick up a lot of resin because that increases your maximum health, which is super key, especially later on. You want to have a really huge health bar. The thing that happens is if you have full health

All of the sylophone or whatever it's called that all of the health pickups Transform into resin so you could be running through a room and there's like three small health pickups And you grab them all and it gets you to like 90% health don't do that Instead leave those all be and like way later you'll find like a big one pick that up It'll heal all your health and then if you go back into that other room those small health pickups will have transformed into resin Each one will be one resin point and you can expand your health it's like another level of kind of galaxy brain way of playing you have to keep track of a lot of stuff they really need to add health pickups to the main map which they don't have yeah it's ridiculous

that it's not on the main map they're gonna add that that's like the one of the most requested things but also kirk but everything you're describing every single way you play the game just adds more and more time to your runs which is like fine if you have a like like like like i mentioned before you really have to be like sitting down this game and be like okay i can spend the next three hours doing nothing but playing this game and like play interrupted That's true. Like, yes, it is a, like, very intense game that you need to really commit to. It is not a game that can be played super casually.

Yeah, I know. And so, like, by definition, this will be, like, there are a lot of people who listen to Triple Click who are, like, very busy adults who don't have that kind of time to play games anymore. And, like, by definition, this game is not for those types of people, I would say. But they can play Hades, so it's okay. Exactly. I mean, I don't know.

I don't hold that against the game, though. The game very much is what it is. And I think it's actually, like, I think it's a bad thing. I have to say. Kirk, I'm not saying this is a criticism of the game. I'm just saying that like, this is what the game is. So it's like not the type of game that like you can really say everyone should go out and play. Because it's, it's, has that requires that commitment.

Like it's very much a barrier for entry here. It's not for everyone. Like a lot of art, it's not forever. Yeah. And I do think that it's saying, we're saying, I think this game has a lot of artistry to it. I think it's wonderfully designed. I think it's like a real amazing achievement. Like I really do love it.

It looks really good. like it's so much more than I was expecting. I remember seeing the trailer for it and being like, oh, okay, whatever, house mark, they're pretty good. But playing it, I'm like, I really think it's a wonderful game. And I do want to like underline that. Since I know there are criticisms of it, it'll be interesting how it develops over time. But I'm like very into it and thought it was great. But maybe it's because I only died 10 times. Who knows? Yeah. Any final thoughts on this game before we wrap up? Yeah, it should have been in early access. I think I might come back to it once there's a save functionality and like a few things have

been updated. I feel like I might have more fun with it once just a couple edges have been polished. I don't need it to be, I don't need there to be like a Hades God mode or whatever. That's fine. I can get past Frank. I've had some runs where I almost killed him. Like I can see myself making progress and I understand what I need to do and what mindset I need to be in. But I just, I don't know, I had a crash once during a really good run that was pretty frustrating. Like I've just had a couple bad experiences with the game that weren't my fault that I would like to not happen anymore. So maybe in six months, I'll, I'll try this game again. How about you, Jason?

Yeah, no, it should have been in early access. And that's like that, even though what I said just now before isn't a criticism, this is very much a criticism. Like, this game should not have shipped in the state that it is and should not cost $70 to play this game that will lose you progress if it crashes. Like, that's preposterous. Yeah, I'm not nearly as harsh about either of those things. So that feels like far, far harsher than I feel.

So I think that it's a great game with some notable flaws. Because you beat it after seven deaths. I mean, seven death Hamilton. He beat it after seven minutes? Is that how fast you beat it? Yes, seven minutes, right? Zero deaths, yes, correct. Great.

Yeah, I'm going to go do that. I might do the post-credit stuff a little later because I do want to play it once it's been updated just to see where it's at. But it really didn't expect to love it as much as I did. Though obviously we all have our own takes. All right, let's take a break. And then we'll be back with one more thing. Hi, everyone. It's Kirk from the future here.

This is normally where I'd talk a little bit more about Max Fund Drive since that's ending this week. but you already know the deal. We gave you the spiel at the beginning of the episode. So I'm just going to say thank you so much to everybody who is already a member who supports us with this crazy dream of ours called Triple Click. It really is a very fun show to make. We have a great time making it each week for all of you. And it's really meaningful that so many of you are willing to help support us doing that. It means a lot to me anyways. So just thanks so much to all of our members. And if you're not able to become a member for whatever reason, that's also totally fine. Just thanks for listening. We really appreciate it. And it is super cool to be able to

make this show every week for all of you. All right, let's get back to the show. And we're back for one more thing. I'm not going to explain what it is because it's self-evident. The name says it all. Thank you. Jason, what's your one more thing? My one more thing is a book called Later by Stephen King.

Later. I just read this a couple weeks ago. It is a short book. It is part of a, it is by a publisher called Hard Case Crime, which is kind of like a very specific hard-boiled crime novel publisher. I never would have guessed. With these small novels. and Stephen King has written a few of them for that,

and one of them is later, and it's like one of his shorter books. It's only, like, 250 pages or something like that. I love a shorter Stephen King. It's really interesting. It's about this kid who has the ability to see and talk to dead people. And, like, at the very beginning, he's like, he says something like, sort of like that one Bruce Willis movie,

except not, or something like that. He acknowledges the sixth sense, very, like, towards the beginning of the novel. And it's good. It's interesting. It's not my favorite Stephen King book by any means, but it's just like imaginative and fascinating and has this cool story. It's called later because the novelist has this, the narrator who's this first person,

it's told from the first person of the kid. And he has this tendency to write, oh, this will happen later or like this happened later, which is a very Stephen King thing, which is like to tell you what is about to happen, like a few pages before it actually happened. And it's interesting. It can get a little bit annoying in Stephen King books where he's like,

but that was before she died. And that was the last time. That was the last time he ever saw anything. Classic kingism. And so that happens a lot in this book. But no, it's good. It's good. It's about this kid and his mom is a literary agent.

And she's doing really well. And then turns out to not do so well. And she is dating this woman. And this woman turns out to be not so good. And it goes into some interesting directions. And it's a fun book. So yeah, I recommend it, especially if you're a Stephen King,

fan and you're just like reading new Stephen King stuff. It's a good like appetizer before our annual giant Stephen King book, which I believe this year. There's one in like August or September or something like that. Because somehow he just knocks out a 500 page novel every single year. The dude has got a work ethic. Having just released a book that's like 300 pages, I'm looking at that and just like, oh my God, I can't. Hard to imagine. But yeah, no, it's good. Stephen King's later. I like it. Cool. Well, I've got a game, so I'm going to go next. We'll have a kind of non-game, game, non-game sandwich going on.

Do it. I've been playing Resident Evil 8, aka Resident Evil Village. Eighthage? Eight age. And it's really good. It's a really goofy game, you guys. It's like real goofy.

I'm enjoying it. I've played about 10 hours. I'm almost done. I gather I'm like kind of last area. I hear it's only like 10 hours long. Yeah. I did a lot of backtracking because I tried to get every single item

and didn't really look too much stuff up. So there's some stuff in the early areas where you can spend a while just exploring and trying to turn all those red rooms blue. But yeah, this series is so funny. I really like these games. They're so weird and goofy and not scary. This game is not scary. Like, I get that it's horror, but compared to something that's legitimately terrifying.

I just, I personally don't find it scary, and I get pretty scared by games. It's just, it's a big, gooey adventure game, basically. I've really been struck by how it's mostly just exploration and kind of like really simple puzzles that aren't in no way difficult. There's been one good puzzle, this nice torch puzzle that was pretty fun. Other than that, the puzzles are literally like put the correct like sequence of squares into this thing. And then there's a note next to it with the correct sequence of squares on it. Like that is a puzzle in this game. Great.

That's very resident evil. A lot of reason. Yeah, yeah. It is. It is. The puzzles arise kind of an afterthought. or they're just sort of there to change the pacing. It's mostly just like a big set piece.

Like you kind of, there's big wild characters and monsters and you're in these chase sequences and then you're exploring this castle. And it's at its best, I think, when you're exploring the castle. Like the first act in castle, wait, Demi Resk is how you pronounce her name, I believe. If I got it right? No, damn it. I wrote it down. Just say eight foot vampire lady.

Yeah, the vampire lady. She's the first act. Lady Dee. She is the first act villain. the sort of, you know, Terminator that follows you around. She's not scary or, like, hard to get away from. She's just sort of around. Like, she's just been a little overhyped.

Like, but, um, but that area is cool because it's a big castle with all these puzzles and ornate, you know, locks and stuff. And I really like that, all the doubling back and sneaking and opening this door and this leads down to the understairs. And then from downstairs, you find this thing that then opens up a like thing or you can crawl up and, oh, here I'm at the top and has that kind of same. Dark Souls thing, which Dark Souls, of course, borrowed from Resident Evil of, like, unlocking a house slowly, which is a nice feeling.

Which they all borrowed from God Home, of course. Yes, Got Home really, the presenter of this. Of unlocking a house, yeah. Yeah, right. And there's a village in the middle, of course, in the title. And that's kind of the hub area that you come back to. And that's also a big sort of puzzle box that you kind of unlock too fast. Like, I had done everything, like, exed off every possible thing. I got the crank that lets me get the thing and the lock pick that lets me get open the lock

so I can get around to this thing. And I'm, like, halfway through the game, I had already done everything in the So then it was just like, oh, okay, so I'm just going to go to the spokes off of the hub. And those are kind of diminishing returns in traditional Resident Evil fashion where it just becomes more ridiculous and it's just kind of action sequences and kind of goofy stuff. The second sequence with the doll I've seen some people talking about this is great fun. It's very similar to a sequence in RE7 that's more of an escape room kind of design. That's really cool. It's a fun game.

It's goofy. It's not scary. Ethan's hands get totally destroyed and everyone's making fun of it. because it's the funniest goddamn thing I've ever seen in the video game. I've seen some discussion of his hands, this poor man. Yeah, there's a meme about his hands. Oh, yeah. Just the number of silly things.

And also how Ethan has seemingly no awareness of how dangerous situations are, and he'll just constantly be walking into absurd scenarios blindly. My God. This guy, Ethan Winters is maybe the... That's all video game characters. Especially a horror game protagonist. I mean, you have to be kind of dumb to be a horror game protagonist, right? But this is another level.

Like, I cannot say enough. how much I love slash hate Ethan Winters as a protagonist. He is a complete dork. Like he is just this basic dork. Like everything he reacts to is like, wow, a dead body. Like he just is constantly saying shit like that. Or he'll kill it. He'll kill a boss and he'll be like, eat shit.

And then he just keeps going. But even the actor, like the way he does it is so unconvincing. I saw someone on the internet describing him as like a turbo wife guy because he's basically just always like driven by train. to get to his wife or his daughter. Like that's just like... He's trying to find his baby, right? I don't know.

Yes, that's this game as he's chased his baby. But it's just so unconvincing and ridiculous. His whole character is so silly. And then he's like suffering this massive hand trauma over and over. And then like healing himself with the like healing goo. And it's absolutely hilarious. Like that's one of the reasons I find it so hard to be scared by this game is that there will be a moment of like, oh, I'm under a house and there's dead bodies everywhere.

And I'm creeping. And then Ethan will be like, a dead body. party or he'll be like, how do I open this door? And I'm like, dude, I cannot feel scared while I'm playing as this gomer who's just like haplessly blundering through everything and yet murdering like thousands of monsters like carrying military arsenal. And it's so funny. I don't think it's a deliberate commentary and video game protagonists, but it kind of feels like one. Or it's almost funnier because it isn't one. He's just so ludicrous. And it is at the center of the goofiness of the whole game. It's something that I honestly love even though it's ridiculous.

Yeah, I don't know if it's a commentary, but I feel like all Resident Evil games have that corny sense of humor that I also really enjoy, where it's, it feels as though they're aware of the silliness. And they cut the horror with comedy very often. So I think, I think that's fair to say. With the hand stuff, that is, yes, very true with the hand stuff. Where I've, I think like I've seen some people being like, it's so ridiculous. And I'm like, that's the point. Like, it gets funny very quickly where you're like, what? Like something just, you know, outrageous happens to his hand.

And then he heals and you're like, okay, this is just. It's like Evil Dead level. It's just they're not winking at you. They're playing it straight, and that almost makes it funnier in that certain Resident Evil way. Anyways, that's enough on this game. There's not a ton to say about it. It's really just kind of a pretty delightful Resident Evil game that's very goofy and fun, but I do recommend it, especially it'll probably be on sale later if people want to get it.

And, yeah, I dig it. Cool. Bing! Hi, I know this is a very Bing happy episode, but I actually just finished Resident Evil 8 while I was editing this episode. You can probably hear my PC. fans in the background. Anyways, I just wanted to add that I really like this game. I actually thought the last act was pretty fantastic. There's some fun narrative twists and turns, and it ends with some stuff that has me pretty excited about the future. So I've really, I've really been won over by

Resident Evil, and I'm looking forward to playing the next one. So I do really recommend this game. I liked it quite a bit more than Resident Evil 7, which I did really like. But on the whole, it's a good game. It's all the things I just said, but really the ending is good too. It's worth playing all the way through. And I dug it. Okay, back to the show. Bing! So, Maddie, what is your one more thing? Okay, so mine is a movie called Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which I guess is notable at this point because it was Chadwick Boseman's last role before he died and was also the role for which pretty much everyone, including the Academy,

thought he would win an Oscar at the end of the night. Yeah, that snub. Heartbreaking snub. And he did not win it, which is too bad. So I've watched this. I thought he was excellent in it. It is a movie that's based on a play by August Wilson. I didn't actually know anything about the movie going into it.

I didn't even know it was based on a play, but you can tell almost immediately that it's based on a play because it feels like a play. Like it pretty much all takes place in one location. There are a lot of really long scenes between just a couple of characters. Chadwick gets a lot of meaty monologues where he has to talk about, like, race relations in the 1920s and horrific things that have happened to him and his family, and he has to show a lot of dramatic range and really bring it.

he just nails these freaking monologues. Like, it's incredible. And also kind of heart-wrenching because he's dead. And so we can't see him anymore in any other performances. But he really did a great job in this one. And it's kind of too bad. He didn't get an award. Also, Viola Davis is in it.

And she's great as well. So, yeah, I recommend it. She's the best. Yeah. And that's a jazz movie, right? It's like about blues, a blues singer. Yes, it is a jazz movie. Yeah, it's about a bunch of musicians who don't get along

with each other who need to record an album and Viola Davis plays a diva who is based on an actual historical figure, Marini, and she doesn't want to be there. Nobody really wants to be there, but I don't know. It's fun. That part of it is fun. Well, you know what they say about, you know what they say about jazz. Oh, here we go. It's all about the people you don't get along with. Yes, so true. That really brings out the flavor of the music. Jason, did you know that on the most recent Strong Songs Q&A, I addressed that longstanding quote, which is actually a Miles Davis quote, and I talked about what it really means. If you want to listen to that, you can get an answer for what that joke you're making actually means.

Great, great. Shout out to Strong Songs. But Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, I really want to see that movie. It looks great. Yeah, you should check it out. I feel like you'd probably get something else out of it because, I don't know. It's got jazz in it. I don't know, Kirk. You like jazz, right? So you'll enjoy that aspect of it. I mean, it's all about the movies you don't watch, but you know. It is. They just announced that the new Black Panette. Panther is subtitled Wakanda forever, which is pretty sad. I saw that, which is, well, I'm very interested to see what they do despite.

I really don't know how they're going to put that one together. Yeah, we'll see. But that, I mean, that feels like a morning subtitle almost. It feels like a subtitle. Oh, I'm sure. They say that they're going to address it directly in the movies. And, you know, if anyone's going to do it well, Ryan Google are probably going to do a good job. We'll see.

Yeah. Thank you forward to that one. All right. Well, that's our episode. And, yeah, thanks for listening, everybody. Max Fund Drive is almost over, but you can still become a member, get that pin get that hat so go to maximum fun.org slash join and become a member and I will see the two of you next week.

See ya. 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 maximumfun.org slash join. Find us on Twitter at triple clickpod. Send email the triple click at maximum fun.org and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Maximumfund.org.

Comedy and culture. Artist-owned. Audience supported. My arm is starting to get sore. It's a short book. It's part of a... We're just stretching our arms because we both got our shot. What? Is this distracting?

We're both like... That's extremely distracting. Now you're not going to do one-armed chickens while you talk. You just have a case of vaccine arm. What? You don't like this, Jason? Do you not like the chicken dance? Go ahead. Tell us about Stephen King, man. Oh my God.

What do you think? Are you guys that? No, we're never going to be done. This is just me now. This is just what I do. This is Kirk on coffee. Yeah.