Triple Click

What is "friction" in video games? We've got a taxonomy, of course! This week, the Triple Click gang talks about how Dragon Dogma 2 tries to push players away, the necessity of video game friction, and what it means when a game is impenetrable. One More Thing: Kirk: Girls5Eva (Netflix) Maddy: The Holdovers (2024) Jason: Secrets of Grindea LINKS: Triple Click LIVE in LA! Saturday, June 8, 6:30PM at...

Balatro is one of the best games of 2024 so far — and certainly the most addictive. This week, the Triple Click gang dives into the new poker roguelike and dissects what makes it so great. They talk about the three phases of Balatro players, the appeal of randomness, and the thrill of this game's parade of interesting decisions. One More Thing: Kirk: Dragon’s Dogma 2 Maddy: Princess Peach Showtime...

Happy MaxFunDrive! This week, the Triple Click gang opens up the mailbag and takes some listener questions: Are libraries ethical? How bad will ads in video games get? And when does a game developer know if it's time to cancel a project? One More Thing: Kirk: FF7 Rebirth Piano Minigame & Music Notation Maddy: Shogun Jason: Dragon’s Dogma 2 LINKS: Hearthstone’s Ben Brode on Search Engine: https://p...

Jason, Maddy, and Kirk pull up their strategem monitors and dive into Helldivers 2. They share their favorite memeable moments, talk about the game's unique story, and dive into what does and doesn't work about the hit new game. One More Thing: Kirk: Home Safety Hotline (PC) Maddy: The Insurrectionist Next Door (2023) Jason: Unicorn Overlord (Current Consoles) LINKS: Featuring Johan Lindgren’s Hel...

Kirk, Maddy, and Jason travel back in time and make their way up Mt. Nibel for a deeper look at the stellar Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, a game about traveling the world and playing animal soccer. One More Thing: Kirk: Our Last Best Hope (Magpie Games) Maddy: True Detective: Night Country (Max) Jason: The Dynasty (by Jeff Benedict) LINKS: Preorder Jason’s Book! https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titl...

Kirk, Maddy, and Jason return to the world of buster swords and moogles to hunt Sephiroth, trying not to get too distracted by all the minigames along the way. It's time for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the sequel to Final Fantasy VII Remake. How good is it? Let's discuss! One More Thing: Kirk: Oppenheimer in 70mm Maddy: True Detective S3 Jason: Balatro LINKS: Preorder Jason’s Book! https://www.hach...

Xbox recently announced plans to bring four games to PlayStation and Switch. But why? What's Microsoft's gaming strategy? And why are they even bothering to keep selling consoles? The Triple Click gang discusses. One More Thing: Kirk: Helldivers 2 (PS5, PC) Maddy: Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World (Naomi Klein) Jason: Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect (Benjamin Stevenson) LINKS: Preorde...

It's time to analyze roguelikes — the latest trend sweeping games from God of War to The Last of Us — as Kirk, Jason, and Maddy get ready to dive into a dungeon full of random levels, cool weapons, and permadeath.  One More Thing: Kirk: Scavenger’s Reign (Max) Maddy: King of the Hill Jason: Super Bowl 58 LINKS: “Grounded II: The Making of The Last of Us Part 2”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC3...

The Triple Click gang takes a look at Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the latest game from Rocksteady Studios and a new entry into the oversaturated "live service" market. They talk about why publishers love service games, superhero fatigue, and how this new Suicide Squad game came to be. One More Thing: Kirk: Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2024) (Amazon Prime) Maddy: True Detective S2 (HBO) Jason: P...

Xbox laid off nearly two thousand people last week. Before that, Riot laid off hundreds more. Why does this keep happening, and how does it affect people's lives? This week, Jason, Kirk, and Maddy talk about the video game layoff epidemic and try to pinpoint the causes and effects. One More Thing: Kirk: One Piece (Netflix) Maddy: True Detective S1-S2 Jason: Cultish (Amanda Montell) LINKS: Ezra Kle...

We have no objections to Ace Attorney, Capcom's brilliant series about lawyers attacking each other with dangerous weapons. To celebrate this week's release of the Apollo Justice collection (aka: Ace Attorney 4-6), the gang explains why this adventure game series is so appealing, from the zany courtroom antics to the truly absurd animations. One More Thing: Kirk: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Th...

Less than three weeks into 2024, we've already discovered what will likely be one of the year's best games: Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which the gang is loving. Maddy, Jason, and Kirk talk about the new game's satisfying platforming, the time-twisting story, and how it feels a whole lot like Hollow Knight. One More Thing: Kirk: Guitar Zero: The Science of Becoming Musical at Any A...

Jason, Maddy, and Kirk open up the mailbag to answer listener questions on all sorts of things. Why do games like Skull & Bones languish in development hell forever? What makes Chants of Sennaar such a bad name? And, uh, what's the best investment advice? One More Thing: Kirk: Fargo Seasons 4 and 5 (FX/Hulu) Maddy: A Little To The Left Jason: I hate advertisements LINKS: Reddit Personal Finance ht...

What will this next year bring? And what does it mean for gaming? Kirk, Maddy, and Jason go over last year's predictions to see who won the big bet, then throw down some hot new declarations for what's to come in 2024. One More Thing: Kirk: Learning to Play Piano When There Is No Recital, by Kelsey McKinney Maddy: Dark Souls Jason: Ace Attorney 4: Apollo Justice LINKS: Chris Dahlen’s excellent 201...

It is time once again for that wonderful annual tradition: the best video games of 2023.  One More Thing: Kirk: Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation (Kevin Roose, 2021) Maddy: Pit Bulls and Parolees Jason: Dredge LINKS: Jason’s piece on the Insomniac hack: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-12-22/playstation-employees-at-insomniac-studio-fear-identity-theft-after-m...

Jason, Maddy and Kirk take on the clickers once more in this spoiler-filled discussion of HBO's hit adaptation of The Last of Us. LINKS Kirk's 2013 article about the game's ending Support Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/join Buy Triple Click Merch: https://maxfunstore.com/search?q=triple+click&options%5Bprefix%5D=last Join the Triple Click Discord: http://discord.gg/tripleclickpod Triple Click...

Kirk, Jason, and Maddy determine who won last week's award predictions before jumping into a jam-packed episode full of hot news and video games. They talk about The Game Awards, the GTA VI reveal, and the cancellation of E3, then talk about games like Avatar, Fortnite, and God of War Ragnarok's new Valhalla DLC, plus much more. One More Thing: Kirk: GPT4 Maddy: Amsterdam (2022) Jason: Eiyuden Chr...

The Triple Click Trio takes on The Game Awards: Who will win? Who'll get snubbed? What's an Action/Adventure game, again? Also, the hosts make some predictions! One More Thing: Kirk: Jusant Maddy: Chants of Sennar Jason: Going Infinite (Michael Lewis) LINKS: Support Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/join Buy Triple Click Merch: https://maxfunstore.com/search?q=triple+click&options%5Bprefix%5D=la...

Maddy, Kirk, and Jason pull out their red-stringed corkboards for a dive into the world of connected universes. What's the deal with games that seem connected in both subtle and blatant ways? Why does Jason hate multiverses so much? And what's a "brand-iverse"? The Types of Connected Universe: Shared Universe - A collection of stories and characters that all occupy the same time and place, e.g. MC...

Maddy, Kirk, and Jason take a trip to the Mushroom Kingdom and almost get skewered by a giant sword as they play through Super Mario RPG, the new remake of the iconic Super Nintendo game. The gang talks about how it's aged in 2023, the turn-based combat, and just how damn funny the whole thing is. One More Thing: Kirk: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off  Maddy: Grand Theft Auto 5 Jason: Interest rates LINKS:...

What's the deal with multiple endings? Does the gang save-scum and look up which ones they're going to get? Are multiple endings better than singular ones? And is this all just a thinly veiled excuse for Maddy, Kirk, and Jason to keep talking about Baldur's Gate 3? One More Thing: Kirk: The Vorkosigan Saga (Lois McMaster Bujold) Maddy: The Marvels (2023) Jason: Red Dead Redemption 2 LINKS: A More...

Jason, Maddy, and Kirk pull out their flashlights and go spelunking in the Dark Place for this week's episode, all about the wonderful new game Alan Wake 2. They talk about the increasingly fascinating Remedyverse, the game's Resident Evil inspirations, and try to figure out if Mr. Door was supposed to be played by Lance Reddick.   One More Thing: Kirk: Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix) Maddy: Quiz Lady...

What video games went through turbulent development cycles and still turned out good? What are some tips for getting into video game journalism? And should we gender-swap... Kratos? This week: your questions, answered! One More Thing: Kirk: El Paso, Elsewhere Maddy: Us (2019) Jason: Killers of the Flower Moon LINKS: Support Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/join Buy Triple Click Merch: https://m...

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is joy bottled up into a video game. Jason, Maddy, and Kirk break down the ubiquitous plumber's latest adventure to save the... err, to stop Bowser from being a castle. They talk about what makes Wonder so special, 2D vs. 3D Mario games, and how this is basically just one big music game. One More Thing: Kirk: Deadloch (Amazon) Maddy: If Books Could Kill (podcast) Jason: Th...

With great power comes... something something. Jason, Maddy, and Kirk put on their spidersuits and get their senses tingling for a dive into the new PS5 exclusive Spider-Man 2. They talk about the game's strengths, its weaknesses, and just how incredible it all looks. One More Thing: Kirk: Zodiac (2007) Maddy: The Golden Bachelor Jason: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth LINKS: Blank Check’s Zodiac episode...