Triple Click - UFO 50, Tactical Breach Wizards, and More Indie Games

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

A ton of indie games have come out over the last few weeks and months, so it's time for a roundup! Jason, Maddy, and Kirk talk about UFO 50 (which is really 50 games in one), Arranger, The Operator, Tactical Breach Wizards, and The Plucky Squire. Some they like... some they don't!One More Thing:Kirk: Apple TVMaddy: Crime Scene CleanerJason: The NFL preseasonLINKS:Preorder Jason’s Book! https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jason-schreier/play-nice/9781538725429/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

The more choices you have, the less satisfied you feel deciding. Unless it's a video game, because then you can just listen to what we tell you. Welcome to Triple Click, where we bring the games to you. This week, we played a grab bag of indie games, UFO 50, Arranger, the Operator, Tactical Breach Wizards, and Clucky Squire. Lots of decisions to make. One of those games has 50 other games in it. I'm Maddie Myers. I'm Jason Shrier, and I'm Kirk Hamilton, and hello.

Hello. It's us. It's great to see you both. It is great. And now we've finally announced what our special surprise was after so many weeks in a row, maybe months in a row of not getting to tell everybody what we're doing. It's very exciting. Just sitting on this exciting thing that we did. It is exciting.

Now we get to just say it. If somehow you're a listener who didn't refresh your podcast feed, we did put out a little trailer for it already. So you can go refresh your feed and listen to the trailer if you want to. Maybe I'll put it in this episode during that's a good idea. Because I will just say we enlisted the one and only Matthew Mercer, dungeon master and voice actor extraordinaire to be our dungeon master, the trio of us to play a D&D game as a series of episodes that we are going to run on our bonus feed and eventually in the main feed for everybody.

But it's definitely going to be the bonus episode this month. and then we are going to run them later on. So if you're wondering when I'm talking about bonus feed, what even is that? I just got here. Who are you? Those are fair questions. You could go to maximum fun.org slash join and you could sign up there. And then you would get access to all of our monthly bonus episodes because we do one every month.

And they're not usually us playing a D&D campaign with Matthew Mercer guiding us. This is a first. Also, Kirk recorded like a theme song for it. I was going to say that too. I just wanted to shout that out. If Kirk puts the trailer in, you just perk your ears up and you listen to that sweet, sweet theme music. Because it sounds so good. Including the split screen riff in there.

Yeah, little split screen riff. Lernering style. It's a whole cinematic musical universe at this point. Yeah, it is. It sounds incredible. So we're really, really excited about that. But like I said, we've had monthly bonus. episodes going this whole time that we've been a part of the maximum fun network. So it's always

worth being a subscriber. It allows us to do really cool things like this, like enlisting Matthew Mercer to help us do this amazing project. Hiring and paying, we should say, this did cost money and is we're able to do that because people paid to support our show. Yes, that's exactly that. Yeah, essentially we all decided, hey, we want to do the C&D thing. And if we're going to do it, we might as well hire the best DM on the planet and do it. Of course. And yes, I mean, we are only able to do this because we make enough from our wonderful subscribers out there to allow us to spend money to do cool outside projects that we're not making money for. We're just doing this because listeners are giving us enough to be able to do it. So the more members we get, the more cool things

we can do in the future, whether it's this or more live shows or whatever else, whatever the crazy ideas we come up with. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's nice to have the support so that we can do the crazy ideas that we come up with. And this is a perfect example of that. So if you like, like this and you like our taste, then maybe go to maximum fun.org slash join, become a member, support the show and get access to those D&D episodes sooner than everyone else, which is not, not cool, but also you get all the other monthly bonus apps and the warm, fuzzy feelings of supporting us. And also for a limited time only Matthew Mercer, you're kind of supporting him too. Okay.

Please, somebody take a Matthew Mercer. He can't get enough work. Just kidding. He's doing fine. So what are we talking about today, Maddie? Well, Maddie, I'm still driving the episode. We're doing an indie games grab bag. We have all been playing a whole lot of indie games lately, and we figured, hey, why limit

ourselves? Why not talk about all of them together on one episode? And we are going to start by talking about an indie game that probably could be the entire episode. We're going to see how this goes. It's a project that is called UFO 50 and all three of us played it. And that 50 in the title of the game is important because it refers to how many video games are actually contained inside of this game, this project. There's 50 individual little games that are in there once you click to open it up.

And these games were created. I mean, some of them are quite big. Yeah, it's a good point. They just look little on the screen because they're on these little animated cartridge. that you click on. That's true. But then you click in and it fills the screen and it becomes a full video game. So it's got this kind of metafictional universe within UFO 50 whereby it's about a fictional

game company called UFO soft and the premise is that these are 50 games that were discovered now in 2024 by a group of indie developers and these 50 games were like lost to the reaches of time and now we finally get to see them for whatever reason. I haven't discovered all the secrets in this game, so I don't know if there's more metaphysical elements I'm not aware of, but that's the gist of it. And so we've all played some of these. I would say this is also kind of an intellectual exercise in addition to being a game because the games start out very simple and very difficult.

They're intentionally designed to be retro. Like the company was clearly like existed in the 80s. and then like continued over the course of the 90s, the games are created in that style as they go along in kind of faux chronological order. I think it ends in 1989. Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah.

And in terms of what the games look and feel like. So you can see the year. Like if you press the description on each game, you can see the year. Like an Atari going into an NES, right? Right. Well, so if you click the description, like there's a description button. You can see the year that they were released in this fictional, universe and also like a little tidbit about their creation. So one of them might be like,

this guy, one of our team members, like did this in his spare time on a weekend or like one guy. Like this was a sequel to this other game that meant to take out all of the parts that people didn't like or whatever. Like it's a fun little pithy description. So we've all played this one, which I don't think we can say for all the other games on this list. We got some overlap here. But this one all three of us played. And I really want to know what you two think. So, Jason, what are your thoughts on UFO 50? How many of the games have you played? And how do you feel about it?

Yeah, I think it really, like, when I said not little before, I'm, like, not being pedantic. Because I think the real, what's really wild and ambitious about this project is that each of these 50 games feels like a full-fledged NES game. Like, this is, each game has potentially hours of gameplay. There's, like, a full-on turn-based RPG. There's like, there's this, there are tons of strategy games with like tons of levels and mechanics to build on each other and grow as you keep playing. These are not many games. These are games that could each be sold on their own on an NES cartridge. So just from that standpoint alone, it is such an ambitious, like, wild bonkers project that is just a marvel to, like, I appreciate that it exists. I'm marveling that it exists. It's really phenomenal that it, it was.

even able to be created. Like this is friggin 50 games. Like it's wild. That said, a lot of them have a pretty rough barrier for entry because they're designed to feel like Atari or NES games, which means that they're really tough and really hard to control and can be clunky and can be not fun in a lot of ways. The first game is called Barbuda, and it's kind of, it's kind of Metroidvania-ish. you're exploring this kind of non-linear castle slash dungeon, and you're trying to uncover all the secrets with very little guidance. You get objects. You can use those objects to unlock new passages, et cetera.

But you only have a limited number of lives, and as soon as you lose them all, you have to start the game from the beginning, just like you would in a lot of NES games. There are no save points. And so it really, it takes a lot of kind of, you really have to stick with it and put a lot of time in to really get a lot out of,

these games. And on top of that, because there's no guidance from the get-go, you just see a big select screen and you don't even know where to start. You have to kind of select each one, learn the controls, learn how they work, learn the kind of verbs of the game and the language of the game before you can even tell if it's fun and before you can even tell if you're going to enjoy it. So it really is asking a lot of the player to make a big commitment into jumping into these and isn't giving much guidance along the way, which for a lot of people will be fine, especially people who like are retroheads, who are really into NES games and such. But if you're more used to modern comforts, you might bounce off a lot of this stuff.

And I found myself bouncing off a lot of these games. I got into a couple that I could talk about it in a sec, like Atatrix. But for the most part, I think I appreciate this game and that it exists more than I actually enjoy playing it. Mm-hmm. I can relate to that. Kirk, what do you think about it? Well, I actually, so I've played a little bit of this during SGF and have it downloaded

and have kind of poked around, but I put my name down because I have played it and I'm familiar with it, but this is not one of the games. Well, but it's partly that, I mean, I guess like the reason that I haven't played it is relevant to what I would say about it, which is in line with what you're saying, Jason, that this game, I think, is a really fascinating collection of objects and sort of the meta-textual layer of it is incredible. Like, nothing like this has ever really existed before, and it's really cool that these people made it.

But at the same time, it is in the actual act of playing. It's a tribute to an era of gaming that I never really engaged with. I'm not much of a retro gamer. I just, I don't really like older games. I didn't have any of those consoles growing up, so I don't have that nostalgic fondness. And I just, like you said, like a lot of them just, they're pretty early feeling. They feel almost like the primitive in the way that they're designed. And they've done a really good job of capturing that.

I mean, the art in this game alone, the title screens, it's so cool what they're doing. It's just that, I don't know, there's an issue that video games have that other forms of art don't have where if you create something that's kind of a period piece, you know, like a throwback to an older time period, it's not going to be as fun to play. So it's going to feel like, well, okay, I couldn't be playing this or I could be playing like, you know, tactical breach wizards or something. Like, the game we'll talk about it in a little bit. Like, there are so many games that I could be playing right now. You know, one of the returning narratives of this year and of the games industry in general is that there's an overwhelming amount of games to play. There are new games every day.

There are so many great games. It's very, very difficult for any game to stand out and find success. And it's, it's, I don't know what the word is. It's sort of perverse and interesting that Derek and this whole group of developers have decided to put out this collection of games that, is itself a glut of games. I mean, playing this alone feels like experiencing a glut because there are so many games within UFO 50,

let alone putting it in the context of my Steam library and all the games that I'm trying to play. So it's interesting. Like I find the game very cool and like beautiful and really well put together. And so, you know, just lovely. But I'm really having a hard time making time to play it because I don't really want to go play some artificial,

like an imaginary game from 1985 when I could be playing. a different game that I would enjoy playing more from 2024. Yes, some of them are like, have a modern design sensibility and don't, like, do feel worth playing today. So Attactic's what I mentioned, is my favorite one. And I actually finished that to completion. I played a lot of the games in this, by the way. I've sampled most of them.

There's like a point-and-click horror adventure. There's like, I mentioned a full-on JRP where you like pick three of like seven characters and go on an adventure with them. It's bonkers, how ambitious. this thing. It took eight years to make. But anyway, so some of the games have modern sensibilities and actually feel pretty good to play today. Attack tricks, the way it works, it's kind of like,

I don't know if it's like an auto-battler. It's kind of, it's like a mix between like chess and like an auto, like in a real-time strategy game where you have these pieces and you can move them up on the, down the board and every few seconds they all move forward and your idea, your goal is to like you're on the left side and your opponent is on the right side

and your goal is to send your pieces across the map to capture your opponent's base. You and I played this at SGO. We did. We did. And it was fun then. That one's fun. I played through the entire thing and it gets really fun and it gets really deep and it gets really interesting and you're making cool decisions all the time.

There are a lot of games like that that don't have that kind of clunky feel and do feel like modern day games that you will enjoy. And I don't think that like, I do, I think that choice paralysis will always be there where you're just like, why would I play UFO 50 and try to go through this one? I have so many other games to play. But it's not like you're only getting. I just want to be clear about this. It's not like you're only getting a bunch of super clunky, like, two-button games that are incredibly hard and not fun to play unless you're like a masochist or something like that.

There are some pretty cool games in here that I really enjoyed spending time with. That's definitely a good distinction. Maddie, there's even a Metroid-like game. Yeah, I guess I haven't found that yet. I've probably gotten through about 25 of these, but I have been jumping around. I will say I feel like UFO 50 benefits from sort of a community. player experience of like knowing other people who are playing the game, which I have that benefit working at Polygon and also just being in the social circle I'm in, where you kind of hear

from other people like, oh, this might be one of the ones I'm interested in. Like, for example, there's a game, I think it's called Pilot Quest that's near the end, which is actually an idle game. But you wouldn't know that until you get to it, but you can actually have it be playing in the background while you're playing all the other games. And it is in fact designed to do that. And so one of my co-workers was like, just by the way, like, you don't want to get to pilot quest and then have only five games to go after that because you're going to be annoyed. So like you should probably go ahead and start playing pilot quest now. So I did do that. And then for the record, it wasn't my thing. But I was at least appreciative of that tip because I was like, okay, cool. Like I understand what this game's trying to do.

It is an adventure game. It's like RPG-ish. You're collecting stuff, but you're like planting seeds, and then the seeds generate currency that you then use to unlock other things in the game. And it's a survival sim, basically. And so obviously you want to be collecting things over time. If that's your thing, you might like Pilot Quest. But the game I personally liked so far, I mean, there's, I actually thought Bouchito Ball was

pretty fun. That's like a sport. Boshito Ball is awesome. Yeah. A like. That one's pretty fun. I'm terrible at it, but I thought it was really, really fun. really fun. And block koala, which is right after that one, I also thought was really cool.

It's a puzzle game that actually reminded me a little bit of a ranger, which is another game we're going to talk about in a second, where you're just walking around a space. It's like a fully top-down view. You're a little koala who's trying to break back into a garden because a flamingo is stealing all your water. I don't know. Don't worry about it. You know how flamingos do. And you just need to solve a series of block puzzles basically in order to proceed. I don't know why. what that has to do with any of the other words I just said. But it's block puzzles. Basically, you have to move these blocks around a grid in specific permutation so that you don't get boxed out essentially from completing the puzzle. And that kind of way of spatial reasoning I tend

to really enjoy. And so I got really sucked into that one and I was really enjoying those puzzles more than pretty much any other previous game I was playing. I was like, oh, this is this is the one I really like. But like Jason said, I mean, I had to play 15 other games before I even got to Blackwall and a lot of them I was like, this is fine, or I'm like, I don't understand what this is even trying to do. So I'm just going to move on to the next one here. You know, like it, it does have a very weird vibe that at times felt like homework to me, which I realize sounds harsh, but I mean it in a somewhat complimentary way, because it is so intellectual. And I think it's like, it's worth noting, I mean, even as I'm describing my own experience, which is just

having had the game for a few weeks now and like having not quite been able to find a way to fit it into my schedule. Like all of that may be the case, but this game is amazing. Yeah. The fact of it is incredible. I think it's so cool. And there are so many people who I'm sure will love like various games in it and also a lot of people who will just love it as a complete thing. It's so freaking cool that people made this. Like I think it is just amazing that it exists.

So I really am looking forward to digging into it. because there just isn't an opportunity to experience something like this anywhere else because nothing else like this exists. So, yeah, I do really want to stress that, like, I think it is like a very, very cool thing, even though my current experience of it has been not quite having time to fit it in. You know, it's only been a few weeks. Give it a few years, and I think we're going to look at UFO 50 as this like really, really remarkable accomplishment.

Yeah, and there are also all sorts of secrets. Maddie Venger is the game that is the Metroid game. And essentially you are playing. that's number 29. V-A-I-N-G-E-R. And you play, you're like in this Samus-style suit. And the gimmick is that you can press a button

to kind of flip gravity. And so you're either walking on the ceiling or you're walking on the floor and you can use that to solve puzzles and stuff. And you're shooting like Samus Wood with an arm cannon. But yeah, I mean, it is a cool thing. I might spend more time with it.

I don't know. I just find myself bouncing off a lot of the games in it. But maybe I'll give it another chance one day. I don't know. It's one of those games that I think, like, yes, to your point, Kirk, I think people will be kind of exploring it for a long time to come. It's one of those games that will definitely have longevity because there's so much in there to unpack. Yeah. Like, for example, as you're describing Vanger, I'm like, oh, is that supposed to be a riff on the 13th game, which is Mooncat, which I could not get a handle on at all, but it's like the platformer where all of the directions feel wrong.

Like, you press left and you go right, but also if you press right, you go right. and turns out you press A to go left. Like, it was mind melting. That's the one that's kind of a joke. I can't deal with this game. I can't do this. Like, I was like, if I play this long enough, I'm probably going to get it, but I got to move on. There's 50 games.

Should try playing it with Derek, you watching you? Oh, no. I'd rather not do that. Thank you. I'm good. I didn't play this at SDF clearly. I just played it on my own couch and scratched my head periodically. But yeah, I mean, it's fascinating, but it is also like, okay, I just,

see what you did there. Like, it's like that experience a lot. And that is an interesting way to play a game. And it's an interesting way to design a game and design a project. All right. So maybe let's move along because we got, we got some of that games we want to talk about. So next on the list is a Ranger, which Jason, it looks like you've also played this. What did you think about a Ranger? I was pretty disappointed by it. The gimmick of this game is that we talked about this as Summer Games Fest, because Kirk and I both played this also. Around the same time, we played you a faux 50, where you're just kind of, when you move the entire kind of either vertical or horizontal platform, like 2D, you're staring at it

from, imagine a top-down screen, and when you move the catwalk moves with you, like, it's like you're on some sort of like conveyor belt or something like that. Or like a Rubik's cube, or like a 2D, yes, a Rubik's cube. And you move objects and you solve puzzles by manipulating the environment around you. And it's kind of, it's one of those things where like, it's really. fun to play for half an hour and then it wears out its welcome fast and I really just stopped enjoying it after like an hour or so and was just like, all right. I've seen all this game has to offer and it just is not, it just the gimmick of it like really wore thin for me. Um, so unfortunately

I just didn't, I bounced off of it. Mm-hmm. I think I liked it more than you, although it does say something that although I played it for like three hours or so, I haven't returned to it, but that might be because I was also playing UFO 50. We'll see. Yeah, it's a busy time. Yeah, it's also, So I see what you mean because the reason why I stopped playing was actually because I had the classic puzzle game problem, which is that I hit a wall. Like I got to a point where I was like, I don't see a way forward through this puzzle. Like the puzzles get very, very difficult because they have to keep iterating on this very simple premise and there become like holes in the ground that you have to navigate around and you can knock an object into a hole. and then that it's hard to explain the difficulty level increasing, but y'all are following.

So it just got to a point where I was like, I don't understand how to move forward and I need to like watch a walkthrough to do this. And so I eventually did that. And then I was like, this is, I've now ruined this for myself by watching the walkthrough. Like does that ever happen to you with a puzzle game where you like watch the solution?

And then you're like, okay, so now I got past this. It breaks a spell. But then what am I doing here? Yeah, it felt like I, I unintentionally broke the spell for myself. But I would like to go back to it and try more because I was really enjoying it up until that point. And then like, I don't know, something just didn't quite click for me. And I couldn't progress.

I like the story, though. And I was surprised it had one. And I like when a puzzle game has a little bit of narrative scaffolding to surround it. And that was enough to make me be like, I actually do want to proceed. but I also wished that there was like a skip puzzle button or like something like that to just like help me keep going if like occasionally I run it or like a hint system something that just would have helped soften that moment where I was like okay now I'm going to watch a video of someone playing it oh now I'm just watching this video and now I just don't want to play it anymore I don't know why that what that psychological phenomenon is exactly but it's definitely there's there's something to it I'm it broke something for me. And like, yeah, I can imagine that. I mean, I haven't played this yet. I'll definitely check it out.

I can imagine that it kind of kicks your brain out of a certain groove to like remove yourself from the active process of working the game out. And just suddenly you're watching it work itself out basically. And then that just sort of like disconnect something in your brain. I've had that experience with other puzzle games for sure. Yeah, yeah. So I'm not sure I'm as cold on it as you, Jason, because I definitely got further than you and was like, I'm still digging it.

And maybe it's because I was, I also like, block. koala. I can get on board for a block puzzle game for a remarkably long time. But even I have not yet returned to a ranger. So we'll see. If I come back to it, I will absolutely check back in and one more thing and let people know what I think of it. Were you, were you into Box Boy, those 3DS games? Yeah. Those are awesome. Yeah, I do like those. Those are so much fun. There's also like a much older game. I think it's called Cube that I played for like, it's like 15 years old or something. Like QUBE. Yeah, something like that. I really like that. I really like that. liked that game. You're just a cube that flips around. I thought that game was amazing. I don't know.

Well, something about that in the way my brain works, I find really satisfying. All right, let's keep going. So the operator, I haven't played this one. Kirk, do you want to talk about it? I think this was one more thing for you at one point. It was. Jason, did you make this a one more thing as well? No, but I finished it. Oh, cool. I'm trying to remember what the name of the studio is, because it's like their first game. And they called Bureau 81. Yeah, this is a pretty neat game that I made my one more thing that I dig. When I started playing it, I thought it was going to be an all-timer.

And then over time, I was like, oh, okay, this is a little bit more narrow, a little bit more contained than I thought it would be. And I just wound up sort of appreciating what it was doing. And there's one set piece moment in particular that is enough of a surprise that I think that anyone who hasn't played the game, like I don't want to spoil it because it really was. It comes out of nowhere and is really great. Jason, I think you're smiling, and I think you know what I'm talking about because we talked about it off the air.

And anyone who's played the game probably knows what I'm talking about. It's a very overwhelming sequence of the game. That is really, really cool and uses the game's sort of interface to great effect. To explain it to anyone who didn't hear that one more thing. So this is a UI game, basically. I believe that on the besties, they started trying to come up with a name for this genre. And I believe they called it a U.I.R.P.G or an O. R-S-R-P-G.

It was one of those two, and it was a very, the name was like a first draft. I had a lot of notes. I was texting. I was like messaging plant, and I was like, plant, no, no, like, whatever it was U-I-R-P-G. I think it was U-I-R-P-G. I'm like, dude, no, it's an operating system. If anything, it's an OS-R-PG. This is what podcasters talk about.

I was just genre names. So I'm going on the Bessies this week, and so I will convey this message. Yeah, let's get into it there. I've conveyed it via DM. But I'm sure you can convey it yet again. I appreciate a lot of their genre work. Calling a Metroidvania search action is actually, I think, a really great, like a search action game. I think that is actually a really great term.

They didn't invent that one, but they've been sort of trying to make fetch happen with it. And fetch has been happening. But yeah, UIRPG, I don't know. Anyways, this is a game that takes place on a PC operating system. It's like a 90s PC, and you are basically the guy in the chair, the guy at the desk for this federal investigation, a fictional organization that sends agents out into the field to try to figure out what's going on with various things. And you're kind of solving a vast, or somewhat vast, actually maybe a kind of small conspiracy. It starts like you're working a couple of different cases where you

have agents in the field who are calling you. And then you're the guy who has to go through the footage and look through the name database and match the names and the faces and figure out what's the missing link between these clues to then relay that information back. But at the same, the same time, you're kind of, you know, you've been hacked, and so the hacker is getting you to, like, go behind the scenes and break into the mainframe so that you can, you know, find out more, like, find out what's really going on behind the scenes and uncover a conspiracy. It's pretty linear. Like, I think it's actually not, I'm not sure if there are, like, multiple endings. There might be a couple, but it's not, like, a really branching, complex story. It winds up pretty

quickly becoming clear that all of your different cases are all the same case. And as a result, the game to me in the end feels like something that, like, is a first draft. Like, I could see these same developers making a really cool, greatly expanded sequel. So, but Jason, I've talked about this game already, so I'm curious what you thought of me. Did you finish it? Did you wind up finishing the whole thing? Yes. Okay.

Yeah. First draft is a good way to put it, or prototype. It feels like a prototype for a game. They charge, it looks like it's $14 on Steam, which I mean, that's not so bad. But, like, it does feel, it feels like if, like, uh, just to pull out a random example, if like case of the golden idol, if that was released as, if only one chapter of that was released and it didn't actually tell the whole story and just kind of ended.

And you were just kind of like, what's up with the golden idol though? Right. What's going to happen with it? Right. What's going to happen with that? Yeah. Yeah. If it was just kind of like the first, like it really feels like a prologue to something or

like the first couple of chapters of a thriller novel that doesn't actually deliver on, the ending is very unsatisfying. It does not really clean up loose. ends. But the overall conceit is super cool and it's fun to play because the idea of like having to solve these little puzzles or like there's one part, there's several parts where you have to like go through manuals and read them and figure out how to do things as a result of them. And also going through databases and this idea, it has a good sense of it has a good vibe, it is good writing, and is a good sense of kind of mystery and doom and gloom. And it's pretty cool, I think, overall. And then

the ending is pretty weak and then it just kind of ends without really kind of diving and like diving into the mystery. You're elaborating on a lot of plot points. And so yeah, I mean, I would love to see this team make a game with these mechanics that is longer and more complete and feels more like a game than a tech demo. Yeah, I think a couple of other things that I want to point out that I didn't manage to mention during my one more thing. One thing I like that this game does is there are these interstitial sequences where your character gets up from his computer or their computer. I guess it's his. Yeah, it's a guy.

Yeah, his, you do have a name. And you get up and you'll go do something, either just going home at the end of the day or later, you know, sneaking into the mainframe and hacking in. And it's presented in this really interesting way that I guess I could see it maybe be, like not everyone loving this, this may be being divisive, but I think it's really cool, where it's blurred out to where you can see just the vagus outlines of what's happening And really what you're getting is sound. You get the sound of the train on the way home or the bus and then the apartment and unlocking the apartment and feeding the cat and going to bed. And you kind of hear this all happening. And it really, I found it really cool. I think that it engaged my imagination in a way that helped me imagine the world outside of this game, which I'm sure just, you know, they probably did this because it's cheaper than somehow rendering those things and or doing what like Papers Please does and not really showing it at all and just having it. be, you know, you just understand that you went home and now you're back at work.

I think that was really cool. Like, I think there are just some flashes of creativity like that in this game that are, that are just really neat. And I, it's, it furthers my feeling that this team could do even more. And I actually hope that if they do, you know, if this was successful this game and they managed to make another one, that they keep some of that in. It was successful. It was my sense.

It was that, and it seemed like people were psyched and it had a lot of steam reviews. So that they keep this scope, like that they can expand, like, expand the scope of the mysteries, expand the story, make it so that maybe there are actually multiple stories happening at once and not just one story, but don't expand like the visual look of it or add character models or do any of that. Like keep that stuff the exact same. And actually, maybe a little less writing, like a little more time to just chill in the operating system and look around and find text files and read documents.

I found that to be my favorite part of the game. And whenever the agents were like on the phone with me just going on and on and on, And I was always a little like, ah, this is too much writing. This is too much talking. Like, I want a little less. So again, with more space and I think just more in it would be really cool. But yeah, a promising start. All right.

Well, this next game on the list has a really good story, which I feel like we didn't talk about that much last time. So this is tactical breach wizards, which only Kirk and I have played so far, although maybe we'll convince you, Jason. So I have not. I will play it. I play like a couple of minutes of it, and I'll definitely dive in more when I have more time. Yeah. So this game, it's a, it's a strategy game, turn-based strategy game, where you're breaching rooms, like your spec ops team or something. And you're a wizard also. You're a team of wizards. You're a wizard, Darry.

That is wizards. And you have wands and wizard powers. And it just takes place in a universe where like hand me your badge and your gun is something that becomes like hand me your wand and your badge, I guess. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. I don't know. It's a very charming world-building conceit. But then also, the story is just great. I feel like I started playing this during my Gamer Night, which is like just I chat with my friends while I'm playing games. And I was like, oh, no, I need to play this at another time when no one is speaking to me. Because I need to read every single word of this and understand everything that's happening because I really love these characters. How far are you in the story, Maddie? Not very far. I'm only like a few missions in. But I love Jen. She's the greatest character of all time. We talked about her a little bit. She is. Yes. So yeah, this was my one more thing. And I played this was back when there was a demo of it during Next Fest. And this game of course is written and I think primarily designed or at least entirely designed by Tom Francis, who I'm at least friendly with. I guess I should mention that. And who used to be a game journalist. I don't know the guy. I'm unbiased. A really, really nice guy who also made Gunpoint and Heat Signature, a very, a very bright game developer and a really funny writer.

I am on the final mission of this game. And this is like probably my favorite game of the year. Yeah. It seems like it might be one of mine too when I get there. So I'm very excited for both of you to play it and Maddie for you to finish the story because I didn't see this coming. I knew it would be cool. And I really liked Gunpoint. I've mentioned before that I have not yet played heat signature

and then everyone in the Discord was like, oh my God, I'll play heat signature, it's great. I'll play it at some point. But I really liked Gunpoint. And Gunpoint was this really, like, tight package. It was very clever, very well written, super well designed, really great. It ended before you got tired of it.

It introduced new mechanics throughout, and it was just like, wow, like, that was incredibly self-assured. And it was all the more impressive because Tom had been an editor, he'd been a game critic. And then he'd been on the side working on this game. And here he launches this game that's like very like has a distinct identity and it's just really well designed. So from then on it was like, okay, wow, this guy is like the real deal. It's all the more impressive that one of us can actually do something cool.

Yeah, I'm like I feel like that actually makes it way more impressive that he doesn't. Well, and so many first time efforts are like overly indulgent or overly ambitious or like baggy. Or just like a first draft and the person doesn't know how to make a game yet. Of course. It's their first time. Yeah, it's very common. And so he has had that going for him from the beginning. What I didn't expect with Tactical Breach Wizards is that this is a, like, I'd say,

15 to 20-hour game. This has a significant story set in a really interesting and compelling world filled with characters who are great. You mentioned Jen. Jen Kellan, is that her name? Jen is like a standout. She is this private investigator witch who she and Zan are the two kind of primary characters. But then they assembled this team.

I mean, you get doll. So doll is the like, what is she called? She's like a, basically, she wears a huge suit of armor and has a huge shield. She's like a riot priest, I think. But actually, she lives in this other country that they go to that is like a country that's totally run by this totalitarian theocracy. And it's a perversion of the original religion of the country. And she follows that religion. And that religion, I believe it's called the chant, I think.

And it's all about talking with the dead. and those who came before you. And so your friends or your family members who have died, you actually talk to them in this religion. And so Dahl believes in that original religion, but the Theocracy in charge have, like, perverted the religion to mean that only they, only their priests, can hear the chant, can hear the voices of the dead.

So they then tell people like, you know, you have to do this or that to keep themselves in power. So she's this like really hard-boiled revolution. She has like no sense of humor, which winds up being funny because all the other characters are so funny, especially Jen, who's always like nervously making jokes. And Dahl shows up and is just this like, she's been fighting for like years and years and she's like bled and lost friends and is like this revolutionary. But then you mix her in with these other characters and you wind up getting these like really great character dynamics. Or Dessa Banks, who's the like medic who has to kill people to bring them back from the dead. Yeah, which is such a great mechanic because she's like all.

I can only have the power to revive people. Yeah, exactly. It's so fun. Yes. But then that winds up playing into the story in really interesting ways as well. Like she was kidnapped by Liv, who's the big bad. And there's a whole thing with like Live using Banks because Banks's power really kind of just rewinds people like a day or something and undoes anything that happened to them. And then because Zan, who is like the other main character, he has the ability to see forward in time because he's like a chronomancer.

and that's the reason that the gameplay works the way that it does, where you figure out your moves, but then you can undo any moves. So it winds up working a lot like Into the Breach, which is, I think, the easiest game to compare this to. It's a lot about positioning and pushing people around, and you can always undo up until the end of the turn. And that's because of his power, he has this ability that as long as he's on the team, he can see into the future.

But then his story winds up being really good. Like, there are all these twists and turns. I was not expecting this. Like, I'm, I was, the more I played the game, the more I would have these dream sequences that they have, where they, they and like copies of themselves are in dreams together going through missions and like bantering with themselves, like, past versions of themselves. And then Zan is like dealing with his regret and his delusion over things that have happened and the way that as an older like operative, his time powers have gotten away from him. Like, it's so freaking good. I really like there are like mechanical explorations of the narrative and the characters. I could go on and on and on and on.

but like I can't say enough good about this game. It is like one of the best games I've played in a very long time, not just this year. And I like, I know there's a lot of other games out and a lot of games that people are talking about. And I know that I have been talking for a long time, but I just want to really convey my enthusiasm for tactical breach wizards. It is a very special game. It is like, it's sensational. Yeah. It's very good.

All right. Maddie, what's your one more thing? I know, right? I mean, this is kind of fun because we get to just do a bunch of one more things in a row almost. And then we also still have one more thing at that. the end. Yeah. I mean, I will say I do think if somebody's listening and they're like, oh, you know, I really like story games. I want to experience this, but I'm not that into strategy. I know there are easy modes in the game at least. So like you can definitely still experience it

and like have a pretty good time with like sort of a simplified version. I think they like knocked down the enemy health and stuff if you want to do that. So like I also similarly really recommend it. And I think there's like an endless mode or something. I haven't tried any of the other modes. but if you just really like the strategy parts. And there's a bunch of cool optional objectives and like optional missions that are almost like puzzles. And the more you get into the optional objectives, like finish the whole thing in two rounds,

the more it starts to feel like this kind of restrictive puzzle game, which I've seen people be like, oh, this isn't like XCOM. It's more like a puzzle game, which is true. But actually, especially once you get a big team and a lot of stuff going on, there's a ton of different ways to beat most of the levels. And it's only when you start getting into this optional objectives, that it becomes like, oh, there's really kind of just one way to do this, but those are optional.

Those are kind of for replaying. And you can ignore them if you want and still enjoy the story. It makes it very easy to replay things. And it's so like punchy. It feels so good. Like the UI is so great. It's great. The flow, the animations.

The animation is cool. Oh my God. It looks like kind of papercraft. Like it has a very distinctive minimalist visual design, but you can still really get a sense of each character from just the limited expressions that they have. Like each character does a different animation. when they breach a door. And like, like Banks is sort of like, she just sort of strolls through the door.

Yeah, it's so funny. A guy Ryan later is like leaning on his cane. Everybody kind of has a different, their animations are so good. Oh my God. I could talk about it forever, but I'll, I won't. I've already said my piece. Yeah. So that's tactical breach wizards.

And then lastly, let's, let's talk about Plucky Squire. I didn't play this one partially on the advice of the two of you. Jason, why don't you kick it off? We've talked about it. Yeah. So the Plucky Squire. So this is a game that has gotten a lot of hype throughout the year because it has a really distinct aesthetic. So this is a game where it kind of starts out and you were this top down 2D beautifully animated.

You're in a storybook essentially. You're this cartoon in a storybook. And then the gimmick is that you eventually find a way out of the storybook where you turn into a 3D model. And then there's a lot of puzzles and playing around with that concept where you're like exploring this 3D world and then finding objects that let you interact. interact with the book, you insert yourself back in the book, at different points you might have to leave the book, walk to another page, get back in, and find all sorts of clever ways to sell puzzles like that. And it's a cool concept and it looks gorgeous. The problem is it is not very fun to play. And for video games that are trying to be fun, turns out that matters. There are a few reasons

for that. One is that at all, it's very buggy. Two is that, like for example, my, I think I asked you or I someone like is the store is a shopkeeper supposed to be invisible because my shopkeeper is just invisible the whole time you asked me that which was pre-release in fairness we were playing no but i've i've been reading up on people's reactions so a lot of people are running it to a lot of different types of bugs it's very buggy um second problem is that it's it just doesn't feel good and i played this coming off of astrobot which is one of the best feeling games of the year so um the the the the jumping and the um slashing and the um the overall mechanics of this game just do not feel great,

including the four stealth sections that exist for some reason. It are just miserable. And then like a horror sequence where like a beetle is like coming at you and it's just not pleasant. But the biggest sin, I would say, is that the game just interrupts you constantly to tell you what to do. And every time you get to a new level, it'll be like, hey, like here's this another kind of annoyingly like smart-mey line of do.

telling you about what this what you should do here. Hmm, there's, here's a little hint about how, um, so there are these kind of like, um, uh, uh, word puzzles where you kind of change words and they reflect the, uh, the state of the story. Kind of like Bada is you where like you might replace, you might see something. It'll be like, um, this, this, the dam was full of water. And then you take out the word full and you replace it with like drained and it'll be the dam was drained of water. And so all the water will disappear. And um, so for, so, so, so, As you get there, like you might, like, you'll get to the screen and it'll say that. And then a character will pop up and give you a line of dialogue being like, hey, I wonder if we could change that full to something else.

And then you get over there and it's just constantly telling you what to do in a way that is so annoying. And then on top of that, there's just like playing it is not fun because you see it. You almost immediately know what you have to do. But then you have to go through this kind of chore of like you might take one word and. bring it to the other side of the map and then realize you have to actually go get another word from the other side and you just have to keep going back and forth. And it's just really irritating. I just gave up on it after like four or five chapters a couple hours into the game because I realized it was just not enjoyable to play. And yeah, I mean, I think aesthetics have

charmed it. I saw some, some, it's funny. I saw a lot of like positive reviews of it. And then I started reading forums of people, players actually getting a hand of it, like getting their hands on it and playing it. And the players were so much more, like, in tune with what I was saying and not the reviewer. So I kind of part of me is, like, wondering if just people are really into the aesthetics and willing to kind of, but I don't know. I don't want to. Holly Welsh's review at Polygon was pretty similar. Yeah, that was the one I tweeted that, because that was the one I agreed with. Although I didn't, I, he, he describes like the basic Zelda mechanics is pretty good. And I actually thought, think those are pretty bouncy and

annoying to you in a very unpleasant way. I just, this game was extremely disappointing for me. Up there with Audin Chronicle is like, games I thought I would really dig and then was just really disappointed by. Kirk, anything? Yeah. So, no, I mean, I'm not that far apart from you, Jason. I have a generally the same feeling.

I really wanted to like it. And I think that what it is doing, it's primary trick, which is that you are in a 2D, very lovely looking, hand. drawn game and then you just press a button and your character seamlessly warps out of the book and suddenly the graphics become 3D and your character becomes a little 3D character and you're on a table with little nice little objects all around you with this very messy kids room like that moment is exceptional like and every time it happens it's like a little magic trick it's not something i've seen in many games and it's executed so well and it's

definitely the thing that when I saw the trailer on Steam for this, I hadn't actually heard about it. And then I saw the trailer and was like, what is this? This looks so cool. And then, yeah, I started playing it. And I was like, oh, man, I can't wait until the moment when, you know, the villain realizes he's in a story. It's kind of like last action hero where the villain is like, wait a minute, you always beat me because you're the hero. But now I know, so I'm going to beat you. Welcome to hell. And that would be cool, except, like, I think there's a defense of this game that is that it's a children's game. It's kind of met for kids to play, and that's why they explain everything, and that's why, you know, it's not quite, like, hitting all of the sort of challenge and,

you know, the kind of things that, like, an adult player might want. But at the same time, I don't totally know if I buy that only because I think kids like games that don't explain themselves. Yeah, me too. Kids are more willing than adults to just beat their heads against things. Kids want to play UFO 50. Yeah. I think that's probably true. I'm a hundred percent serious. Yeah. It's a little bit like it misjudges the player. to an extent. And then, yeah, it's not even so much the handholding. There's just a kind of tediousness to the game.

Like, I just really found myself on each screen feeling, like, annoyed or like I didn't really want to go through to the next screen because, like you said, yeah, Jason, like, I would look and be like, well, I know what I need to do. I need to move this word over there. And then just being like, all right, well, I guess I'm going to have to do it. Or like you pop out of the book and then it just shows you the whole level. Yeah, it pans. The panning is everywhere.

you're going to go. No. And that's where you're going to wind up. And then there are these really clever ideas. Like when you get a bow and arrow, you have to go basically interact with a magic card. And so there's a completely different art style where it's this like Elvin Archer Babe and she like has a bow. That sounds kind of fun.

It's really fun. And there are these ideas where I'm like, man, this is so cool. Like I definitely understand as a reviewer playing it and being like, well, I almost have to like this because it's doing so many clever things. It's just that each moment in between those clever things is like kind of tedious or just a little not what I wanted it to be. So yeah, I wound up feeling kind of frustrated by it, maybe all the more so because the things, the really special things it does, the things that set it apart are so cool. I just wish it could have kind of, you know, risen to the occasion in the spaces in between

those special stand-up moments. Yeah, even just killing the tutorials and the panning over to show you exactly where you need to go or the key you need to pick up would have just made for such a better game. And yes, we have to like not underestimate kids intelligence. Like, Kids can figure things out. We don't need to tell them exactly where to go and what to do. This is something Nintendo knew and then lost track of. It's that whole Zelda thing where Skyward Sword stops you every five seconds to tell you what to do next. But actually, like, kids liked playing the original Zelda.

And kids love breath of a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yep. So, so true. Well, that was a little grab bag of indie games. This was fun. And why not engage in yet another grab bag?

With one more thing. We'll be back in a second with that. bat. Jackie Cachian, hi, and welcome to the maximum fun.org podcast, the Jackie and Lori show where we talk about stand-up comedy and how much we love it and how much it enrages us. We have a lot of experience and a lot of stories and a lot of time on our hands. So check us out. It's one hour a week and we drop it every Wednesday on maximumafun.org. Hello, podcast recommendation service. Hello, dear young man. I'm looking for a new podcast to listen to something amusing perhaps.

Oh, what about Beef and Dairy Network? Something surreal and satirical. Well, I would suggest Beef and Dairy Network. Ideally, it would be a spoof industry podcast for the Beef and Dairy Industries. Yes, Beef and Dairy Network. Maybe it would have brilliant guests such as Josie Long, Heather Anne Campbell, Nick Offerman, and the actor Ted Danson. Beef and Dairy Network. I don't know. I think I'm going to stick to Joe Rogan.

The Beef and Dairy Network podcast is a multi-award-winning comedy podcast, and you can find it at maximum fun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Maddie Myers. I'm Jason Schreier. I'm Kirk Hamilton. And I'm Matthew Mercer and this is TripleQuest. As a special treat for our subscribers, we have decided to do something totally new, a D&D Tabletop campaign. Triple Quest is a three-part adventure starring the three of us as a motley band of adventurers on a quest for riches. We've definitely never done anything like that.

this before. So we decided to bring it an experienced game master to run the show. Critical roles own Matthew Mercer. I've assembled a challenge for three brave adventurers that will test their cleverness, their combat prowess, and their ability to work together without setting too many things on fire. Triple Quest will run in the members-only podcast feed for the months of September, October, and November, and if you're not a member, don't worry. Each episode will go live in the main feed a month later. But if you want to hear it first, and if you want to support our show and make it so we can do more things like this, go to maximum fun.org slash join and sign up to become a member. Key the Sorcerer is ready. Leon the Rogue is ready. And Bing the Barbarian? He was born ready.

Grab your dice, and we'll see you in Feroon. And we are back. It's time for one more thing. Kirk, why don't you take it away? All right, I'll go pretty quickly. This is another gadget recommendation that I think might be useful for some of our listeners. So for a very long time, I, like a lot of people, just watched TV on my TV, on my smart TV. So we had a TCL Roku TV, or we still have a TCL Roku TV.

Like I would imagine many people listening to. That's what I have to. Yeah. They're pretty cheap. and they have the Roku operating system built in. Roku lets you just have Netflix and Apple TV and Amazon and whatever you want to watch. And there are just apps that you download to the TV itself. It has an operating system on board because it is smart.

And I just got used to it. I sort of, that was the way that I watched TV. And there were many, many annoying and laggy and slow and buggy things about it that I just kind of didn't think about for a long time. Because whatever, I guess it's just how I watched. I feel like I'm in an infomercial right now.

I mean, same, even though I have an LG, but I could still relate to this. It's funny how talking about gadgets makes you sound like you're doing an ad. I swear this isn't an ad. This is just... No, but just the way, like, remember how laggy your TV is? Yes, yes, I do. You've been putting up with this. Really, I could just do, I could have made Roku, TCL Roku my one more thing and then just

raged about how much I hated. But anyways, so I was, when I was visiting my sister and brother-in-law, over the summer, I was down there a whole lot, and they have an Apple TV, like the standalone Apple TV device, which I always thought of as like, well, who needs that? Yeah, I just used my TV. But then I actually used it because I was like watching TV with my nieces. And I was like, oh, like, this is kind of good. And so then I just decided to get when they were on sale.

It was like $100. So it's not like wildly expensive, but it doesn't, you know, it's not as cheap as the thing that came in your TV. But whoa. Okay. So this is at least worth thinking about if you're out there. I'm listening. I am very interested in this conversation.

It is so much better than the Roku TV, especially for me, because I'm like totally, I use Apple everything. I've got all the Apple stuff. And so as a result, like, it just integrates with all your Apple things. Of course it does. And that's like a bad thing in a way, right? Like it, because you have to be bought into Apple and you have to keep buying more Apple stuff. But if you are, like I use AirPods for everything. By the way, side note, the whole AirPods hearing aids thing.

Can I just say? I think that that's so cool, and I'm very proud of Apple for, like, turning AirPods into hearing aids. Anyways, so I use AirPods all the time. Like, I have a hearing issue in my left ear. I've always got him in. I really like to watch TV with the AirPods. And with Apple TV, yeah, it just, like, pairs to your AirPods. You don't have to, like, go through the Roku app on your phone and hear it with, like, a weird Bluetooth latency.

You get the, like, Dolby app both surrounds through your headphones. It's like, there's a lot of stuff like that where it just, like, syncs up. The coolest thing for me that I have found that I'll mention because it's probably relevant to more of our listeners is that, is that there are apps on the Apple TV because it's basically just a little like, you know, computer. So you can download apps to it. So in addition to like all the video apps, you can download Steamlink. And I've got mine wired to my Ethernet, like network. And so I have been playing actually a game that we'll be talking about a little while, a very big, long game that for, I like think it looks good on the TV.

But I don't want to like plug my PC into the TV. I just open the Steam link. My dual sense controller pairs via Bluetooth. to the Apple TV. And I can control the Apple TV operating system with the dual sense controller. Like it's a game console. Just open up Steamlink, boom, there's the game. And then I'm just like playing it on my TV and it looks great.

Interesting. It's very cool. And I've, like there's also a Moonlight app if you want to use Moonlight. There are a lot of different ways you can do it. And I know this kind of stuff is possible with like a Raspberry Pi or some kind of like, you can do this yourself in a lot of different ways that are open source and you don't have to use Apple. But like I don't have time anymore.

And I have all these Apple things. So I've really been impressed with how good of a device this is, considering that I thought that it was redundant with my TV. It's a really significant upgrade. So I thought I would share my own experience there. Again, this is a no way sponsor. This is just me saying that I think it's surprisingly good. Well, I assume it's not as laggy as there.

That's something that annoys me the most is how lagging. It's got a processor that doesn't suck. That's the thing is like those Roku TVs. The processors are so laggy. Yeah. terrible. Yeah, the Apple TV. But you still have to turn on the Roku TV and select the Apple TV or you just go straight into. At least my Roku TV, it's got a thing where it can auto detect when it starts getting an input from an H.TMI signal.

So I only use one remote, which is another nice thing. It goes through the arc to the soundbar and it's a single remote. And yeah, the operating system is like really nice to use. It has like windowed tabs so you can be like watching one thing on Netflix, then go over and watch another thing on Amazon and like go back. and it'll just keep right where you were in Netflix. It's like a little computer rather than, yeah, your TV, which has like 256 kilobytes of RAM. So it's a big upgrade. I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued. If you go for it, let me know how it goes for you.

Although I will say the fact that they call this Apple TV and then their network, their streaming service, Apple TV Plus is the stupidest thing on the planet. It's not ideal. Yeah, they're usually better at branding than that. They usually are confusing. Yeah, not that time, though. All right. No. It's my turn now.

So mine is actually a game, but only I played it. So I figured why not make it my one more thing rather than putting in the grab bag? And it's called Crime Scene Cleaner. I love this game. Yeah, I really want to play this. I did not expect this game to have a story and for that story to be pretty funny. So that's one of my recommendations for Crime Scene Cleaner. And my other one is that if you like games like House Slipper 2, which I do, I've certainly talked about House Slipper 1 and 2.

on this show before, I'm sure. And like any other games where you do something similar to that, Power Rush Simulator, there's a power washer in this game. There was even viscera cleanup detail. This feels kind of like a spiritual sequel to that game as well if you liked that. It's similar to those, but it just has a certain like dark comedy edge to it that I find really great. So you are playing as not an official crime scene cleaner like for the police.

you start out, you're just some guy, your daughter is in the hospital, the medical bills are stacking up. These are actually all things you find out kind of piecemeal when you go back to your apartment in between jobs. They don't lay it on you. You just kind of have to figure it out

by like picking up objects. I love when games do that, by the way, where you just have to figure it out on your own. And then you have a frenemy who's murdered someone and pays you to clean it up. I mean, calling them a frenemies is rich, really. I mean, how did you even get into the situation? It's a video game.

And then you end up involved with the mob because, of course, this friend of me of yours is pissed off the mob and is involved in that somehow and you end up working to clean up their crimes. So you have to do a very good job. You can also take your time and you don't need to like preserve evidence. And in fact, you need to confiscate all of the evidence that you find. So this is great. And it's just like it's very satisfying in the same way that like cleaning anything up in a game can be like you're clicking on things to make them go away. But it's also really difficult

in ways that house flipper isn't. It's extremely easy. This is similar to Vistra cleanup to knock over your bucket and just get blood everywhere. And it's like intentionally very, very easy for you to do this. So you have to be really careful about like picking up your bucket when you're like refilling your mop and like the animation for doing that is really funny. And you're like, God damn it. Like I need to fill it again. And like you're like walking all over the apartment. And also like your body language is, is so like just cavalier in ways that I find really funny. So like instead of like carrying a trash bag around, like you do in a house slipper you carry around like a metal like Oscar the Grouch style like can

because it's like, oh, this is like a gritty hardcore version of things. And like you pick things up and like angrily throw them away. And your main character, this guy, he just tells jokes to himself as he's cleaning up the crime scenes in like this sort of debonair deadpaned way that like somebody in this situation would have to do where he's just trying to crack himself on. I'm just picturing Winston Wolf from Pulp. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. Or Mike Armand Trout. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the guy who does the voice acting is so deadpan that it's like kind of strange. Like I don't know if the voice actor like

even knew what he was doing the performance for because it actually feels like ill suited to the game he's in. But I ended up finding that extremely funny also because I was just like, I don't understand why he's so deadpan about picking up these bodies. So, like, I don't know. Be it unintentional comedy or intended. I was really, really charmed by, like, the goofiness of this game and the animation style. And it's really fun and, like, legitimately hard to find the evidence sometimes. And, like, it surprises you.

And there's, like, a story as you go along with the mob. And that kind of plays out in its own way. I haven't completed the game yet, so I don't know how it ends. But I'm really, really enjoying it so far. And so if you like these kinds of games, you will. love crime scene cleaner, highly recommended as another one. Classic in the genre. All right, Jason.

Hell yeah. It's your turn. So the NFL is back. And as long-time listeners of the show will know, sometimes I like to share an NFL story where I kind of recreate the game for you all find, all you find folks. I don't have any of those today because three weeks into the season, there are no stories to tell. It has been a pretty lame season so far.

And there are a lot of. of reasons for that, but the biggest one, I think, is that the NFL preseason has kind of been shuffled to the side. So let me explain what that means. So preseason, every sport has a preseason of sorts. And basically, it's kind of like exhibition matches where like it's meant as a warm up, it's a lead into the season. It doesn't count towards the ultimate championship or like the kind of the standings for the championship or for the playoffs. Like the games don't count. They're just kind of for fun, but they're a good way to kind of segue into the season. And for the NFL, traditionally, there were always four preseason games and they were used kind of a lot of teams

would play their starters for like part of each game. And in some cases, maybe towards the end of the preseason, maybe for a full game. And it was a way to get all of your starting players like acclimated to NFL action and get back into it after a long offseason of no actual football. But then the NFL switched to a 17 game season. And it was a game season. And, instead of a 16-game season. They got rid of one of the preseason games, and teams stopped playing their starters in the preseason entirely. The starting players, the starting quarterbacks,

it is extremely rare for them to actually appear in a preseason game these days. It's mostly backups, which means that the NFL starters are not actually getting any real game time practice. They still practice on their own, but they're not actually playing in games the way they would have been past, which means that the first few weeks of the NFL season every year are incredibly sloppy. It's like the preseason is now there instead of the NFL season.

It also means that the preseason itself is just a total waste of time and completely pointless and nobody cares about it or wants to watch it or anything like that. And so we've kind of created this very unique situation or a very weird situation that I think is actually not unique. It's actually kind of symbolic of a lot of things that happen due to entropy. Like it's symbolic of our entropic society or kind of America outlawed. in that you have this thing. Yeah, you have this thing, the NFL preseason. Nobody really likes it, but nobody can get rid of it because it's kind of necessary.

You kind of need the preseason in order to make the NFL season work. And then when you try to get rid of it, then you kind of create almost a pseudo preseason as the actual first few weeks of the NFL season. And then you wind up with the preseason too. So you can't get, you can't escape it. You can't escape the NFL preseason. Kind of need it. But it also kind of sucks.

I should say, I should have said before, one of the reasons that people stop playing their starters in the preseason is because it leads to injuries and kind of games that don't matter. NFL is very like people get more injured in NFL games than they do in other sports because of the nature of just an extremely violent sport football is. So there are good reasons that they don't play their starters during preseason anymore. But then we wind up with the situation where like the first few weeks of the NFL season are just like, dull and sloppy every single year, with a couple of exceptions here and there. Some point, they'll just stop playing people entirely. They'll be like, this is too dangerous. These guys are stars. Well, that's...

Yeah, maybe we should stop doing NFL games. It's really dangerous for our players. Yeah, brand deals to think about here. Our star quarterback is too important to injure, so he's just never going to play. I mean, what would you make him play football? What are you crazy? And it's all very strange. It's kind of a weird scenario we set up here. And so there's been a lot of complaints. about this NFL season, about offense being down. There's some kind of more specific reasons for that,

the way that defenses are playing, which kind of prevent, like, big plays from happening. But really, the biggest factor, I think, at least, is the lack of preseason. And it's just so strange because there's no real, like, way to solve this problem because you can't just have everyone go and force people to play starters during the preseason. Like that wouldn't make sense. And then you can't, like this scenario,

you just have three sloppy weeks of games leading up until, And what the NFL wants to do is they want to add an 18th game to the season and shorten the preseason even more. So it's all just a sloppy mess. And I mean, here we are. It is what it is, I suppose. Fortunately, I expect NFL games to start getting a little bit better soon now that the rest is off of everybody. And then maybe I'll have an NFL story to share on our podcast at some point. We'll definitely look forward to that.

Yeah. It's the only way I keep up with the NFL. That and my weekly call with my mom. And with that, folks, we take our leave of you. We did another podcast. My weekly call with the two of you. That's right. That's right.

Our weekly catch-up. And we'll be back once again next week, as always. And I'll see you both then. Yeah. And members, stay tuned for the first episode of Triple Quest in your bonus feed at the end of September. Yay. So enjoy that. Very cool.

All right. See you next week. Talk to you both in a week. See you guys. Next time. 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.

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