Gaming's Biggest Night XII: The Revenge

Will Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sweep The Game Awards? Why was Blue Prince snubbed? And does The Burnt Peanut have a chance against Sakura Miko? This week, the Triple Click gang makes their predictions for Gaming's Biggest Night, from Game of the Year to... "Best Ongoing."

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03Kirk Hamilton?

  The Game Awards. It's a magical night full of big wins, bigger announcements, and even bigger gotcha game trailer montages that finally give you a chance to go pee. Welcome to Triple Click, where we bring the games to you. It's time for gaming's biggest night, when Jeff Keighley teams up with Statler and Waldorf to save the video game industry. On this episode, our predictions on who will win in each category. Let's go.

• 0:30Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm Kirk Hamilton.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  I'm Maddy Myers.

• 0:33Kirk Hamilton?

  And I'm Jason Schreier. Hello.

• 0:34Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 0:35Kirk Hamilton?

  Hello.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  We're back again.

• 0:36Kirk Hamilton?

  Hi, my friends. How was everybody's Thanksgiving?

• 0:39Speaker 01

  Delicious.

• 0:40Kirk Hamilton?

  It was great. Hung out, ate some turkey, and I listened to my relatives talk about Landman. Landman. I'm guessing a lot of people out there also did. Isn't that the latest Mega Man boss? It is. It's the Mega Man boss that all of your older relatives, for some reason, want to talk about.

• 0:54Speaker 01

  They're all talking about it. They're all talking about it this year.

• 0:57Kirk Hamilton?

  And when you beat him, you get the ability... Oil spill. I don't know. I don't really know what Landman is about. You get the ability to carry water for extractive capitalism. It's awesome. There we go. It's like the best power-up you can get in that game. Speaking of extractive capitalism... Speaking of extractive capitalism, Triple Click is a listener-supported show, and we really appreciate all of you out there who support us making this, all of you Maximum Fun members who are listening. And of course, if you would like to join their ranks, go to maximumfun.org/join and sign up to become a member. You can, you know, think of it as a gift that you get yourself this holiday season to support some listener-supported media. And if you become a member, you get bonus episodes of our show that we record every

• 1:42Kirk Hamilton?

  single month. There are so many of them. The most recent one is really good. It is our spoiler-filled discussion of The Sopranos, season one. Matty has never seen it before. Jason has seen it so many times that he just...

• 1:56Speaker 01

  He can quote it.

• 1:56Kirk Hamilton?

  It is always playing in his brain. And I'm sort of in the middle. And it was, man, it was a very fun conversation. What a fun show to talk about. I really am happy with that episode. It seems likely that we're gonna watch some more Sopranos and maybe talk about that as well in the bonus feed.

• 2:10Jason Schreier?

  Can we, why don't we actually ask listeners for their thoughts? Because we've been kind of debating this amongst ourselves. Email us at [email protected]. Short email answers, please, but email us and let us know if you want us to do a bonus episode for each season of The Sopranos, or if you're just like, no, that's too much Sopranos. I want bonuses about other stuff. I want to hear some opinions from people out there.

• 2:34Kirk Hamilton?

  And bear in mind that this would be spread out over a long period of time.

• 2:37Jason Schreier?

  Sure, yeah, it wouldn't be like, yes, it wouldn't be six months.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  And bear in mind that we want to do it. We would like to do it.

• 2:44Kirk Hamilton?

  Let us put our thumb on the scale a little bit.

• 2:46Jason Schreier?

  Bear in mind that we don't care what you think and we'll do what we want anyway.

• 2:49Kirk Hamilton?

  So anyhow, at the very least, you will get a bonus episode about season one that was quite a bit of fun. It was also really long, so that's a special little holiday gift for everyone, an extra long Beans cast about Sopranos season one. Become a member, maximumfun.org/join. And also, of course, there's a lot of new merch in the store, too. Some really great new Bing art, that Ace Attorney Bing art is in there. There's all kinds of designs. There's like a desk mat and a mousepad. There's some great merch that you can get. So you can support us that way as well. There's a link for the store in the show notes. Okay, it's the most wonderful time of the year. It's the most magical time of the year for gamers. And we're talking about the Game Awards this week. Jason Schreier, why don't you take us away?

• 3:32Jason Schreier?

  It's gaming's biggest night. Once again, we're here. It is the Game Awards 2025, the big game award show that hits every single December. I will be flying out to Los Angeles shortly to go check it out and hang out at the JW Bar afterwards. If you see me and are there, say hello. I guess if you see me and you're not there, you can't say hello, but you could email me and say hello. So as we do every year, we are going to predict who is going to win each of the categories, including from the big ones, give it a year to the most ridiculous. Ones. And the way that we handle this is we use this prediction as a tiebreaker for

• 4:15Jason Schreier?

  our annual predictions that we do every year. So if, when we assess our 2025 predictions in January for that little game, if we, two of us are tied or three of us are tied, we will use this to figure out who actually wins the bet. So yeah, we'll be keeping track of these and we're just going to go through them. We'll give our thoughts. And then at the end of all the categories, once we've gone through them all, we'll talk a little bit about the announcement part of the game awards. Cause of course the game award is, game awards show is known, I would say more for its big reveals of upcoming games than it is for the actual awards themselves, which are kind of the window dressing.

• 4:54Speaker 01

  Were you trying to say world premieres, Jason? Not just reveals.

• 4:58Jason Schreier?

  The world premieres. It's kind of like, it's, it's a lot like Thanksgiving in that the awards are kind of like the turkey in that they're there, but like, the real highlight is the stuffing, the announcements. That's what you come for. You're like, yeah, the pies, the, the sweet potatoes. Like you, you don't really, the turkey is just kind of there.

• 5:15Speaker 01

  Pick your favorite side dish.

• 5:16Jason Schreier?

  Yeah.

• 5:17Kirk Hamilton?

  Mashed potatoes for me, for what it's worth.

• 5:19Jason Schreier?

  Mashed potatoes.

• 5:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. Like everybody, everybody has a favorite side dish too. So, and I feel like similarly, we all might have a different trailer or, or world premiere we might be looking forward to.

• 5:28Jason Schreier?

  Exactly. Exactly.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  That's right. And you know, the turkey's filling. It's protein. It's important.

• 5:34Jason Schreier?

  It's protein. Yeah.

• 5:35Kirk Hamilton?

  You gotta spatchcock the awards.

• 5:37Speaker 01

  No, we didn't get into the spatchcock this year.

• 5:39Jason Schreier?

  If you cut out, cut out the spine. Yeah. The reason for that money is because I didn't make a turkey this year. I did fried chicken. Well, I did a turkey breast.

• 5:47Speaker 01

  Wow. That's how little it matters. That's wild.

• 5:50Jason Schreier?

  I did a small turkey breast and then I did fried chicken. Yeah. Anyway, let's get on with it. So we're going to go through each category. I think we'll probably spend a little bit more time talking about these first few, because these are the big ones, starting with game of the year. The nominees for game of the year are Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2, On The Beach, Donkey Kong Bonanza, Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silk Song, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Let me just say upfront that while I personally- Personally think Blueprints was completely robbed. It's worth noting here, I think we've said this before, but a large part of the jury of the game awards are from other countries. And so it's possible that Blueprints, a game that is very much geared towards English speakers and is

• 6:34Jason Schreier?

  difficult even for native English speakers to grok some of the puzzles in it. I think for people who, if, if English is their second language, I imagine it'll be much, much, much tougher sell. So I understand why it is robbed here. Anyway, game of the year, what do you guys think of this, this slate? Do you think anything was robbed other than Blueprints?

• 6:54Speaker 01

  Other than obviously?

• 6:57Kirk Hamilton?

  Blueprints was robbed. It's one of the greatest games I've ever played. It's not nominated for game of the year. I mean, your reasoning, I'm sure is solid, but at the same time, it's hard to look at this list, having played through all of Blueprints and not think, you know, like, what the fuck?

• 7:11Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  There are some good games here though. I have certainly, I have been angrier in the past at some game of the year lineups than I am this year. I just wanted to float that out there. I, I'm not saying-

• 7:21Kirk Hamilton?

  This is a bunch of great games. I really, I like every one of these games.

• 7:26Speaker 01

  It's not my personal list. It's not what I would choose, but I get why all these games are here. And there have been years where I have been like, I don't understand how this happened. What are we doing here?

• 7:36Jason Schreier?

  Yeah. One thing I'll say is that, yeah, compared to like last year's list, which is a little weaker, or 2021 had a particularly weak, weak lineup. This is a pretty good lineup. Although unlike last year, last year was kind of a toss up. This is more akin to 2023, which was the year of Baldur's Gate 3, 2022, which was the year of Elden Ring, 2017, which was the year of Breath of the Wild. I think this year has a very clear favorite that I think we all know is going to win. So with that said, let's all give predictions for what will win game of the year.

• 8:09Speaker 01

  Do we all agree on what we think it is? I, I'm putting Claire Obscure. I picked Claire Obscure for my projected winner. Again, not my personal game of the year. We're saying what we think will win. I feel like we have to say that.

• 8:20Jason Schreier?

  What we think is gonna win.

• 8:21Speaker 01

  I put Claire Obscure down.

• 8:22Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I think we can like leave that as a blanket statement for every one of these. We are making predictions and not saying what we think should win.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  Like, we'll do a different episode on that.

• 8:29Kirk Hamilton?

  Okay, we've got that out of the way. Yeah, Claire Obscure.

• 8:31Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, it's very clearly gonna be Claire Obscure. I don't think there's any question here. That game has the most kind of broad appeal to people, even though the three of us like weren't as super high on it as a lot of other people. I think we all kind of liked it.

• 8:47Speaker 01

  I liked it the most, I think.

• 8:48Jason Schreier?

  It's also got the best like narrative, meta narrative behind it. It's like, look at these ex Ubisoft people like striking it out, making making this big thing on their own. So yeah, I think pretty clearly going to win. I don't think there's any question about that. Let's get to the next category, best game direction, always the funny one where it's kind of like, what does that even mean? Nobody knows. People just kind of vote with their guts, I suppose. The nominees are Claire Obscure, Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Ghost of Yote, Hades 2, and Split Fiction.

• 9:20Kirk Hamilton?

  Jason, I just want to note that you wrote a little song there. What does it mean? Nobody knows. People just vote with their gut, I suppose. It's like a little Dr. Seuss.

• 9:28Jason Schreier?

  A little ditty, a little ditty for me.

• 9:30Kirk Hamilton?

  We've got a children's novel about the Game Awards coming out.

• 9:33Speaker 01

  Picture book?

• 9:34Kirk Hamilton?

  You can picture, oh man, I can picture the Seuss version of Jeff Keighley with that little rhyme on the other page.

• 9:40Speaker 01

  Big sneakers.

• 9:41Jason Schreier?

  Let me, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give my thoughts first, which is, I think that this, this award is typically given to the game with the most recognizable director, the director that people know and can be like, oh yes, that guy is the best game director. And therefore my pick is Death Stranding 2, because I think people will be like, oh yeah, of course, the director Kojima should be best director, because everybody knows who he is.

• 10:04Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I agree with that. I think it will be Kojima, though I could see Joseph Faris getting it for Split Fiction as well. And those are two recurring Game Awards characters. So it also kind of stands to reason that people associate them with the Game Awards. But yeah, I think this will be Kojima.

• 10:20Speaker 01

  I ended up going with Split Fiction for this. And I will note that oftentimes, if it's not a recognizable director, it'll just be a duplicate winner from Game of the Year a lot of times. And so I actually think it's hard to guess this one for that reason. I think Claire Obscure has a pretty strong foothold here. Probably get a weird winner with some vote splitting as a result of that. So I would say this one is anyone's guess, but I went with split fiction because it hasn't gotten very many nominations this year and Joseph Ferris has absolutely surprised me before at these awards. So I'm trying to get out ahead of it.

• 10:56Jason Schreier?

  Okay, okay.

• 10:57Kirk Hamilton?

  It is also a spectacular game as the one of us who played all the way through it. It is like an unbelievably well.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, it is. And it was directed very well.

• 11:05Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah.

• 11:05Speaker 01

  I actually feel like you could make the argument that he's the deserving winner, although that wasn't why I chose him. I'm just gaming the system here.

• 11:15Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, that, I mean, I'm glad we have some divergence here. Next up, we have best narrative. The options are Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Ghost of Yote, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, and Silent Hill F. I just want to say the fact that Silk Song isn't in here, I mean, I kind of understand it because the narrative takes a lot of work to understand, but having watched that fantastic Moss Bag video about the story and also having picked up bits and pieces from playing it, that game should totally be in here. Not to mention Blueprints, which probably is the best story of any game this year.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  Oh, well, it's not there.

• 11:54Kirk Hamilton?

  You know, I mean, yeah, I think that actually Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 should win this by a mile. That game has one of the most ambitious and amazing game narratives I've ever seen. But I think that Claire Obscure is going to win this one just because it is a very cool narrative. I think the world they've built, the characters are remarkable. It's probably the most, you know, it's the thing that draws me into the game the most. They've really come up with a really cool new world, even though, you know, we've, we've mentioned how the game borrows ideas from earlier games. That world, the paint trust, this whole idea of this Titan who paints this number and like all of it, you know, and the way that the narrative ties in with the game design and the art direction, the performances, I mean, it is really something else. So I think it's got a really good shot at winning that.

• 12:38Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I'm with you.

• 12:39Speaker 01

  That's what I picked as well. I, yeah, for all the reasons you said.

• 12:43Jason Schreier?

  Yep, yep, yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't mind it. I don't really think, for my personal taste, I don't think that game should be game of the year, but I am not totally fine with it winning best narrative.

• 12:52Kirk Hamilton?

  Like it's not your personal.

• 12:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course.

• 12:54Jason Schreier?

  Yes, yes, yes. Next up, we have best art direction. Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Ghost of Yote, Hades 2, and Hollow Knight: Silk Song.

• 13:07Jason Schreier?

  What do you guys think? Best art direction?

• 13:09Speaker 01

  Another tough one.

• 13:10Kirk Hamilton?

  I think it's gonna be Claire Obscura again.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  Really?

• 13:12Kirk Hamilton?

  Like, I think it's gonna get it, yeah. I mean, the thing is, like, I think that there's a really good chance that this game just sweeps.

• 13:18Jason Schreier?

  Just sweeps.

• 13:19Kirk Hamilton?

  Because it's very strong in all of these categories.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  A lot of people played it, and that's a really big factor here. Like, a lot of critics played it.

• 13:26Kirk Hamilton?

  And like, yeah, Silk Song, I think, has incredible art. And like, for me, you know, I mean, there's so much beautiful art in that game.

• 13:32Speaker 01

  That's what I take.

• 13:33Kirk Hamilton?

  80s 2 also, beautiful art. Ghost of Yotay, beautiful looking game. And Death Stranding, for that matter. I mean, all of these games are really strong. Any of them could win. I just think, like, Claire Obscura, again, it really stands out because of how it looks. It's so striking. And it's also this kind of unusual look, this kind of French, Impresidist, you know, painterly style. And it really is really different, and it kind of fits in with the narrative, like, the meta-narrative of the game.

• 14:00Jason Schreier?

  Maddie, what did you pick?

• 14:01Speaker 01

  I'd put Silk Song, which is fully nuts of me, and it won't win. I just, I don't know. Sometimes when we do this game, I feel like my worst instincts come out, where I'm like, I'm just gonna pick one that I want to win.

• 14:13Kirk Hamilton?

  You do some YOLO picks sometimes, Maddie, it's true, but that makes it fun.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:17Jason Schreier?

  Well, I also picked Silk Song.

• 14:19Speaker 01

  Ayy!

• 14:19Jason Schreier?

  I actually think, I think that, like, people might get sick of voting Claire Obscura for everything, and they might be like, well, Silk Song is just so, like, extravagantly gorgeous.

• 14:30Speaker 01

  It looks so good and different. And it looks different from every other pick on the list.

• 14:34Jason Schreier?

  Unlike anything else. And also, just the bugs in that game are just so cool and distinct, and like, unlike any other game. It's just so cool looking. And the background art, I mean, when you're, like, running through that first town, and like, the kind of, the leaves are floating, and it's just that background. It's just an incredible looking. And there's so much of it. There's so much diversity in, like, all the different levels and art styles. I don't know. I'm with you, Maddie. I think that, like, Silk Song will be robbed for Game of the Year and other awards, but I think it might win art.

• 15:08Speaker 01

  This is, yeah, this is one where it might, people might just get a little tired of writing Claire Obscura down.

• 15:13Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, it has a chance. I think it has a chance for maybe a couple more. But we'll get into that. Next up, we have best score and music. Very strong category this year. We have Christopher Larkin for Hollow Knight: Silk Song, Darren Corb for Hades 2, Lorian Testard for Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, Toma Otoa for Ghost of Jotai, and Woodkid and Ludwig Forsell for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Kirk, what do you think?

• 15:41Kirk Hamilton?

  All right. I think that Clair Obscure is gonna win this just because I think Lorian Testard's story is, again, it's another one where the meta-narrative is so strong. This story of this guy who had written all of this music and was just posting to SoundCloud and got discovered, and then wrote some genuine bangers, especially that one tune. People keep sending it to me. It was actually the one that I picked for the episode as well. I wonder if they'll do a live performance of it. It's like the battle music in the second area where that synth comes in halfway through the fight, and you just get pumped up every time you hear it.

• 16:20Kirk Hamilton?

  Anyhow, I think he'll win, though I have to say, like, for me, for my money, Chris Larkin, Silk Song, one of the great soundtracks, and also the way that that game used his music and the musical aspect of that game's world and storytelling were so incredible. There are some musical moments in that game, you know, when Hornet whips out her needle in at a climactic sequence, and there's like this giant, you know, cutscene basically that plays as this music rings out. I mean, there were things, musical things in that game that really knocked me out. So that was my personal favorite.

• 16:53Jason Schreier?

  The cogwork dancers alone, like, holy shit.

• 16:56Kirk Hamilton?

  Just over and over. The music in that game is so outstanding. And Corb's music in Hades 2 is amazing. I mean, really, this really is a hell of a lineup.

• 17:03Jason Schreier?

  It's a great, yeah. Yeah.

• 17:04Kirk Hamilton?

  But yeah, I think Clair Obscure.

• 17:06Jason Schreier?

  I'm with you, Kirk. I think Clair Obscure wins, but I think Christopher Larkin would be my personal choice, just like you.

• 17:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I also put Claire Obscure down for this. So what are you gonna do? I just want to also say Death Stranding 2 also has characters singing diegetically in it in some really cool moments, but they're so close to the end of the game that I'm like, I don't even know how many people got there, which is fine.

• 17:29Kirk Hamilton?

  There's like the raindrops keep falling on my head sequence.

• 17:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:32Kirk Hamilton?

  There's great music.

• 17:33Speaker 01

  That part is earlier on and it's great, but, but there's some other moments later too. And there's like a, a character who plays the electric guitar gun. That's Higgs. It's a Troy Baker bizarre performance. And so there's some great musical moments with his character later in the game too, which of course there would be. So, but I'm just like, I feel like the fact that so many people played Claire Obscure and remember those songs from just the first battles that you're in and how epic they sound. Like, how can that not bias the vote? It's just, we're just talking about volume here. People are gonna vote with what they played and what they remember.

• 18:07Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, it's also a thing to this kind of turn-based, actually, I mean, there's a reason, or sorry, turn-based role-playing game. There's a reason that so many of those JRPGs that Claire Obscure is channeling have such beloved soundtracks. And it's because you get in these repetitive rhythmic kind of fights where you're, you're focusing and you're thinking, but you're also listening and it's not quite as demanding of your attention. So the music like plays a sort of specific role in that kind of game. And it really had that feeling of like FF10 or something where like the music is just such a big part of the experience.

• 18:38Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, agreed. I think Death Stranding 2, the one thing it has really working against it in a very strong way is that a lot of the music in it is from other artists, like Churches has tracks in there.

• 18:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, like actual like pop song needle drops, which kind of confuses the question. I agree.

• 18:53Kirk Hamilton?

  Right. And I mean, Woodkid's music is a lot, it is a needle drop, though they were written for the game, but it is a little bit of like gray area, or it's sort of both at the same time.

• 19:01Jason Schreier?

  No, but, but I'm not talking about that specifically, as opposed to the others where like those composers wrote every music, every track in the game. I'm just saying, like, I don't think that like they, they have as much of a case Woodkid and Ludwig Purcell because they also brought in other bands for a lot of what's in Death Stranding 2. But whatever. Anyway, I think we're all in agreement on this. Let's move on. This is where we start getting into a few funky ones. This is one of the funkiest categories, one of the strangest categories. Best audio design, which I'm not super convinced that the jurors knew what that meant. The award, the nominees are Battlefield 6, Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2 on the Beach, Ghost of Yote, and Silent Hill F.

• 19:43Jason Schreier?

  And again, it's just like, how can you not include Silk Song on a list of best audio design? Like, holy crap.

• 19:53Kirk Hamilton?

  They should just have the bug that says Jesus.

• 19:55Jason Schreier?

  Yeah.

• 19:56Kirk Hamilton?

  That alone should get them a nomination.

• 19:58Jason Schreier?

  God.

• 19:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:00Jason Schreier?

  I just don't understand this. Like, why is?

• 20:02Speaker 01

  And some of these choices, I mean, these are games I like, but I'm like, that's not what I, what I would necessarily nominate them for.

• 20:09Kirk Hamilton?

  So did any of us play Silent Hill F? I could see that being a contender.

• 20:13Speaker 01

  I've watched some less plays of it. It's very scary and I can't play it myself, but I do really like watching it. And it is another game that I almost shouted out when we were on the narrative category because I think the story is quite good, actually, and very, very well written. But wouldn't necessarily pick it for sound design, although horror games certainly have some good kind of spatial awareness thing sneaking up on you.

• 20:35Kirk Hamilton?

  Being a good sounding series.

• 20:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:37Kirk Hamilton?

  Well, so my pick here is, I actually have a, I have an opinion here.

• 20:40Speaker 01

  Go for it.

• 20:40Kirk Hamilton?

  My take is Ghost of Yote, and I think that that game actually has the best sound design. Like, I've been playing a lot of that on a home theater system, like an Atmos system, and the sound design in that game is exceptional. I mean, all these games could win. I mean, they all have great sound design. And they're doing different things, I suppose, with their sound. But Ghost of Yote's soundscapes that it creates are incredible. Like, it is really an aural experience playing that game. So that's, I think that's going to win, and that would also be my pick to win.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  That's also what I chose, in part because, I mean, it's not to say I don't agree that Silent Hill F has some cool atmospheric stuff going on. Ghost of Yote was the one of this list that I was like, I remember experiencing some cool, sound moments when playing that game, more so than anything else on the list. And that's unrelated to music. It's just other sounds in the game. And that's how I try to think about this category.

• 21:32Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, the wind, you know, the animals, the space, yeah.

• 21:36Jason Schreier?

  My pick is Clarepscare, just because I think people are just like, oh, the music in Clarepscare. Oh, yeah, let's include the sound design.

• 21:42Speaker 01

  Not a bad way to go about this game by any means.

• 21:45Jason Schreier?

  That's just how I'm thinking about it. Best performance. It's just, it's interesting. And like, in the Oscars, obviously, and TV Film Awards, this is typically split into male and female performance. But for the game awards, it's just everybody just kind of grouped together in one, to the point where you have three different people from the same game. So here are the nominees for best performance. Ben Starr, Clarepscare. Charlie Cox, Clarepscare. Erika Ishii, Tost of Yote. Jennifer English, Clarepscare. Konatsu Kato, Silent Hill F. And Troy Baker, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. What do you guys think of this list?

• 22:22Kirk Hamilton?

  This is a funny one. You know, Indiana Jones is in such a rough spot because it came out so long ago, even though Troy Baker's performance was exceptional and it was a great game. It was easily one of my favorite games. But I put it on my list last year, so I don't really think of it as a game for this year. And I think, I'm guessing that a lot of jurors are going to feel the same way.

• 22:39Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, it's so unfair to the games that come out in December because they missed the cut. And then, yeah, nobody wants to vote for a game that came out in December because it doesn't feel like a game that deserves to be on a 2025 list. Yeah, my vote is Ben Starr. I think in that game, he did an excellent job in particular. I also think he got kind of robbed a couple of years ago with Final Fantasy 16, although there were a lot of strong performers. I believe it was, was it Neil Newborn who won for Baldur's Gate 3? Newban? Yeah, it sounds right. So a very strong performer, obviously.

• 23:12Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, hard not to give it to Asterion, really.

• 23:15Jason Schreier?

  Yes, I agree. Although Ben's performance, and Ben Starr also listens to this, so I think, to our show. So I think that we should flatter him.

• 23:23Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, Ben Starr was trash in FF16.

• 23:26Speaker 01

  No, he was great.

• 23:27Kirk Hamilton?

  No, you're right, of course.

• 23:29Jason Schreier?

  But no, I do actually think he's gonna win this time.

• 23:32Speaker 01

  Charlie Cox, interestingly, has lobbied against people voting for him because he thinks his mocap actor should get the credit, which has actually opened a really interesting discussion about this category.

• 23:42Kirk Hamilton?

  He didn't do the mocap acting. I did another.

• 23:44Speaker 01

  No, he did not, which I thought was fascinating. And that means that like the facial expressions of his character are not him, which is, in his view, the true acting performance of the role. And kind of put me off voting for Charlie Cox. And just as an aside, I, I ended up choosing Troy Baker, even though I don't actually know that he's gonna win. It's another my go little picks.

• 24:07Jason Schreier?

  It makes you think that maybe this should be broken up into two awards.

• 24:10Speaker 01

  It really should.

• 24:10Jason Schreier?

  One for voice performance and one for mocap performance. But yeah, that's hard to do because not all games use performance capture. But I don't know. It could be interesting to try to split.

• 24:21Kirk Hamilton?

  It is a real challenge because I think, for example, of Ghost of Yote, a game that I played with the Japanese voice track, and I'm still playing and really enjoying. And I think that the lead performance is remarkable, but it is this kind of hybridization of Erika Ishii, who I believe did the mocap and the character is kind of based on her. It looks a little bit like her, but then the lip syncing and language is matching up with this other actress who acted in Japanese. And like, that is a very interesting amalgamized performance. It's like, who do you nominate for that wonderful performance that I'm watching and really enjoying? I don't really know. Maybe like voice actors, I guess they have their own award ceremonies.

• 25:00Kirk Hamilton?

  So maybe they can get into that kind of thing, like a bunch more categories and sort of technical delineations there. Anyhow, I think Jennifer English is actually gonna win this. I think she's great in Claire Obscure. People love her character. She's like the heart of that game.

• 25:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:14Kirk Hamilton?

  And I just, I kind of think she's gonna win.

• 25:16Speaker 01

  Wow, three different votes. I love this.

• 25:18Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I wouldn't be shocked if that happens either. I would be shocked if Troy Baker won just because of that 2024 thing. But he does a great job. I mean, his, his impression of Harrison Ford is some kind of.

• 25:28Speaker 01

  He's so good. It's wild. I just.

• 25:31Jason Schreier?

  Although I will say to dock points against him, he is impersonating another actor, essentially.

• 25:37Kirk Hamilton?

  I think that's. Like, that would actually be why I think that he wouldn't win, in addition to the timing.

• 25:41Jason Schreier?

  Um, next up, we have the category innovation and accessibility. And the nominees are Assassin's Creed Shadows, Atomfall, Doom: The Dark Ages, EA Sports FC 26, and South of Midnight. I personally don't feel like I know enough about this, about the options that all of these have to be able to definitively say if this is a good list. But I'll just say, I just picked out of a hat and voted for Assassin's Creed Shadows is my pick.

• 26:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, I did too, in part because I remembered it having pretty good settings for this, but also because I think it's one of the most popular ones on this list. And again, I do think that matters for the game that the three of us are specifically playing right now, which is, what did people play? And what do they remember messing with the accessibility settings on most recently? And unfortunately, for some of these, South of Midnight and Atomfall, I mean, I had coworkers at Polygon who played and liked both those games, but they just didn't get talked about a lot. So I think they're less likely to get nominated here, or to win here.

• 26:41Kirk Hamilton?

  I actually think it's going to be Doom: The Dark Ages. I only played that in Assassin's Creed, but that game had a lot of accessibility options.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a good pick as well.

• 26:48Kirk Hamilton?

  And there's some pretty cool ones, and I don't know, I just kind of think that's gonna win.

• 26:51Speaker 01

  It could, it could.

• 26:53Jason Schreier?

  Next up, we have Games for Impact, which is the Game Awards kind of category for like, hey, all those games that people talk about on Twitter, let's just shove them into this thing. And even though people didn't really buy them or talk about them much, let's just shove them because we want to seem like we're important and progressive, or whatever. These nominees are Consume Me, Despilote, Lost Records, Bloom and Rage, South of Midnight, and Wanderstop. I really enjoyed Wanderstop, by the way.

• 27:26Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, that was a cool one. What do you think is gonna win this?

• 27:30Jason Schreier?

  Ah, man, this is a tough one. I think Despilote is going to win this because that is the most critically acclaimed of these games.

• 27:43Kirk Hamilton?

  So I'm having a hard time going between that, which I haven't played and I know is terrific and want to play, and Consume Me, which is also very critically acclaimed and has won a lot of awards already.

• 27:53Speaker 01

  Was one more thing of mine, if you may recall.

• 27:56Kirk Hamilton?

  Right, and I know, Maddie, you liked it, or you talked, you did like it, right?

• 27:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I liked it a lot. It was great.

• 28:01Jason Schreier?

  Didn't it have a controversial ending?

• 28:04Speaker 01

  Did it? Oh, God, I didn't follow the discourse of that.

• 28:06Jason Schreier?

  I don't know. That's the buzz I saw. I also do not play it, unfortunately, but um,

• 28:11Speaker 01

  I liked it.

• 28:12Jason Schreier?

  The vibe I got.

• 28:13Kirk Hamilton?

  So I'm gonna say Consume Me. I'm just gonna pick that and see if that's gonna win.

• 28:16Speaker 01

  I'm going with the normie pick. I put South of Midnight here. It was on Game Pass. I think probably a lot of people checked it out. I checked it out.

• 28:22Jason Schreier?

  That's so that's the one game here that was published by a major publisher.

• 28:26Speaker 01

  Which I don't know if that's gonna go against it or for it. I think it's, this is one of those categories where these are such wildly different games and I find the category itself bizarre. So I'm always just like, I don't know what's gonna win here.

• 28:40Jason Schreier?

  It's actually a really offensive category, like this idea that like only these games.

• 28:45Kirk Hamilton?

  Kind of agree.

• 28:46Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, it's really, it's really awful. It's just.

• 28:48Kirk Hamilton?

  It's like the games that are about feelings or about life or something. And then you just put them all in a little room together and let them feel like they matter.

• 28:54Speaker 01

  Or games that have marginalized creators and are about a marginalized person's experience often get shunted in here, but that's not the name of the category and it's kind of implied to be. I find it, we, I feel like we say this every year.

• 29:08Kirk Hamilton?

  We do.

• 29:09Jason Schreier?

  You know, I also, a controversial opinion here, but I also think that this is the list of some of the worst names.

• 29:21Jason Schreier?

  Just, just throwing that out there.

• 29:23Kirk Hamilton?

  And see, there's no Spider Mansion.

• 29:24Jason Schreier?

  Anyway, let's keep going. Best ongoing. This doesn't have a noun at the end of it. It's just best ongoing.

• 29:34Kirk Hamilton?

  Best ongoing, really?

• 29:35Speaker 01

  It's ongoing, Jason. It's going on right now.

• 29:39Jason Schreier?

  I guess the implied.

• 29:40Kirk Hamilton?

  Best ongoing.

• 29:41Jason Schreier?

  Well, what's funny about these categories is that like, when you get a little bit later, it's like best independent game, best mobile game, best action game, but this is just best ongoing. Just throwing that out there.

• 29:52Kirk Hamilton?

  You have to think of ongoing as a discreet thing. Like, okay, how are you guys doing? All right. So how's your ongoing?

• 29:58Jason Schreier?

  How's your ongoing?

• 29:59Kirk Hamilton?

  Which does sort of seem like business, you know, like C-suite talks. Like, okay, but how is the ongoing? You know, you're talking about the P and L. Okay, but how is this game's ongoing?

• 30:07Jason Schreier?

  Very good. The nominees are Final Fantasy XIV, Fortnite, Helldivers 2, Marvel Rivals, and No Man's Sky.

• 30:18Jason Schreier?

  What do you guys think?

• 30:19Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm gonna say Fortnite.

• 30:20Speaker 01

  I'm gonna go Marvel Rivals here. I feel like it's got that new juice on it and people still really like it.

• 30:25Jason Schreier?

  Okay. My vote is also Fortnite because of the Simpsons thing, which I think was so incredible. People really loved. I will say it's hilarious the Final Fantasy 14 is on here because that game is in the lowest place it's ever been to the point where the director is openly talking about how it needs a reboot like it did in the, in the like 10 years ago. And it needs a complete reset. So it's, this is just an example of just people having no idea what they're doing when they vote on these games. Yeah.

• 30:49Kirk Hamilton?

  Inertia is a hell of a thing. They'd be like if Monster Hunter Wilds was on here.

• 30:53Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, it's just like.

• 30:54Kirk Hamilton?

  The fact that everyone's so mad at it.

• 30:55Jason Schreier?

  Exactly. Or like if Destiny.

• 30:57Kirk Hamilton?

  Destiny 2.

• 31:00Kirk Hamilton?

  This year, if Destiny 2 got nominated.

• 31:02Speaker 01

  Halo Infinite. Let's get that in there.

• 31:05Jason Schreier?

  And it speaks to, I, I want to be clear that I've a little bit of sympathy for the, the voters, for the jurors, because it's tough to keep track of all of these games, but still, pretty funny. Next up, we have best community support and the nominees are Baldur's Gate 3, Final Fantasy 14, Fortnite, Helldivers 2, and No Man's Sky.

• 31:23Kirk Hamilton?

  Baldur's Gate 3 has community support. What, what did they do?

• 31:25Jason Schreier?

  It won last year.

• 31:26Speaker 01

  It won last year.

• 31:27Jason Schreier?

  This award.

• 31:28Kirk Hamilton?

  And that makes more sense because they added a lot of stuff.

• 31:31Speaker 01

  Yeah. This year they put out their final patch and that's all I could find. I Googled this because I was like Baldur's Gate 3, what did they do this year? Kind of wrapping up.

• 31:41Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm gonna say Helldivers 2. I don't know. They've been doing a lot of fun stuff. It seems like their community people are still fun. I know that game is like, it's the longer it goes on, the more fraught their relationship with the players gets. And I'm not playing it anymore, but I'm just gonna guess the Helldivers will win.

• 31:54Jason Schreier?

  Maddie?

• 31:55Speaker 01

  I guessed Fortnite. I, I didn't feel like there was a strong choice here and you can't go wrong there.

• 32:00Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I also guessed Fortnite for the same reasons as about like the Simpsons stuff. Um, all right. Next up, best independent game. Controversial category. We have Absalom, Ball X Pit.

• 32:14Jason Schreier?

  Ball pit.

• 32:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:15Jason Schreier?

  Blueprints, Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Hades 2, and Hollow Knight Silksong.

• 32:22Kirk Hamilton?

  And triple click, you left one off.

• 32:24Jason Schreier?

  And triple click, yes, yes, good call.

• 32:27Kirk Hamilton?

  Little callback.

• 32:28Jason Schreier?

  So this is a category that doesn't mean anything because by my count, five of these games have publishers.

• 32:40Speaker 01

  What is an independent game?

• 32:42Jason Schreier?

  What is an independent game?

• 32:44Kirk Hamilton?

  It's made by human beings capable of independent thought.

• 32:46Jason Schreier?

  No, sorry, four of these games have publishers. And Ball X Bit is a particularly hilarious one because that has a publisher that is a publicly traded company. So about as far away from independent as you could get, even though it was made mostly by a single person. So the fact that there's no real definition for this, I don't know, who knows?

• 33:05Kirk Hamilton?

  It's just like, here's a list of six games, which one wins?

• 33:08Jason Schreier?

  Claire Obscure was made by like many people, 30 plus people, right? It had a big budget, it had contractors, and it was published by Kemplar Interactive. Hades 2 doesn't have a publisher, so that's truly indie. Hollow Knight Silksong also doesn't have a publisher. Blueprints, made by a single guy, mostly and his team, but also has a publisher, Raw Fury. Yeah, I don't know, this is a tough one. I think it's gonna be Silksong because I think this is the consolation prize when Claire Obscure wins game of the year. I think people are like, okay, well, we're giving that game of the year, so we'll give indie to Silksong.

• 33:45Speaker 01

  Hundred percent agree.

• 33:46Kirk Hamilton?

  I agree with you.

• 33:46Speaker 01

  That's what I put.

• 33:47Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I think Silksong. And just because like, you know, Keely has kind of been making Silksong jokes and Silksong's release has been such a kind of ongoing concern and that the Game Awards are so unusually concerned with releases and hype and that part of the games industry. Silksong is gonna win something, it seems like, just because of that, and so it'll probably win. It'll probably win this.

• 34:12Jason Schreier?

  Although, if you guys saw, I did an interview with Team Cherry last week and I asked them, hey, are you coming to LA? And they're like, nah, we're too busy. So maybe, maybe the Game Awards will snub them because of that.

• 34:24Kirk Hamilton?

  It was funny that they said, I think they were talking about the game of the year nomination in which they are also up against Claire Obscure. And they said, well, we think Claire Obscure is gonna win. And then, but then when you think about it, they're also in the indie game category against Claire Obscure. They're against the same game. Like, if Claire Obscure wins game of the year, why wouldn't it win best independent game anyway? Award shows, ladies and gentlemen.

• 34:47Speaker 01

  What are we doing here?

• 34:48Jason Schreier?

  Very, very funny. Award shows. Next up, we have best debut indie game, and the nominees are Blueprints, Claire Obscure, Expedition 33, Despilote, and Dispatch. I like this category. Oh, wait, am I?

• 35:03Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah.

• 35:03Jason Schreier?

  Oh, oh, so this one, okay. I was wondering, I was like Googling this to make sure I had this right, because it only has four. Megabank was nominated, but they withdrew themselves because the creator of Megabank turned out had made something else in the past. So he didn't feel comf- they didn't feel comfortable being included. So it's only those four. My vote is Blueprints. I think that this is where Blueprints gets its time to shine.

• 35:27Kirk Hamilton?

  Yep, same.

• 35:27Jason Schreier?

  Okay.

• 35:28Speaker 01

  I put Claire Obscure here. I don't know what's gonna happen.

• 35:31Jason Schreier?

  Interesting.

• 35:32Speaker 01

  And I just, I, I'm not, I don't know. I just looked at this list and I was like, I don't know.

• 35:36Jason Schreier?

  Sure.

• 35:37Kirk Hamilton?

  That's your prediction.

• 35:38Jason Schreier?

  Let's keep going. We're running a little late, so let's keep going pretty quickly through these next few.

• 35:42Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah.

• 35:42Jason Schreier?

  Best mobile game nominees are Destiny Rising, Persona 5, The Phantom X, Sonic Rumble, Uma Musume, Pretty Derby, and Wuthering Waves.

• 35:53Kirk Hamilton?

  I think Wuthering Waves is gonna win this one.

• 35:55Jason Schreier?

  Okay.

• 35:56Speaker 01

  I did Uma Musume because it was super popular this year and recency bias.

• 36:02Jason Schreier?

  Agreed. Next up, we have best VR and AR. I had to literally just pick a name out of the half of this one. Alien Rogue Incursion, Arkham Age, Ghost Town, Marvel's Deadpool VR, and The Midnight Walk. I just picked randomly and said Alien Rogue Incursion.

• 36:21Kirk Hamilton?

  I said Marvel's Deadpool VR.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  I also picked Alien, Rogan Curse. I did Google these and try to get a sense of them, but

• 36:29Kirk Hamilton?

  Okay.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  that didn't help much.

• 36:32Jason Schreier?

  Let's keep going. Best action game. This is a very funny category. Battlefield 6, Doom of the Dark Ages, Hades 2, Ninja Gaiden 4, and Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.

• 36:43Kirk Hamilton?

  But not Silk Song.

• 36:45Speaker 01

  No, of course not.

• 36:46Jason Schreier?

  Well, just wait. That's in the next one. But the idea of Battlefield 6 and Hades 2 being in the same category is hilarious to me.

• 36:53Speaker 01

  It's great.

• 36:54Jason Schreier?

  That said, I voted, my pick is Hades 2. I think that's gonna win.

• 36:58Kirk Hamilton?

  Yep, same. Hades 2. I think they're gonna get their award here.

• 37:00Speaker 01

  I did Battlefield 6 here.

• 37:02Jason Schreier?

  Okay.

• 37:03Speaker 01

  I feel like that game has been very popular. Of course, I can't play it because I can't figure out my secure boot settings. I'm just kidding.

• 37:09Kirk Hamilton?

  No, I think that's a reasonable pick.

• 37:11Jason Schreier?

  So this next one is also a hilarious category. Best action-adventure. Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yote, Hollow Knight: Silk Song, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Split Fiction, which I just don't understand this, but okay.

• 37:26Speaker 01

  Five games that are extremely similar. I don't know what you mean.

• 37:29Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, very similar games. I also voted for Silk Song, or I also think Silk Song is going to win this one.

• 37:35Speaker 01

  I put Split Fiction here.

• 37:36Kirk Hamilton?

  Now I don't know. God, I'm like changing my mind. I'm kind of going back and forth between Yote and Indiana Jones. I could sort of see Indiana Jones just picking one up here out of nowhere, but I think Ghost of Yote. I don't know.

• 37:48Speaker 01

  Why not? I mean, I put Split Fiction here again because I was like, I gotta not underestimate Joseph Ferris. But who knows? This one is, once again, anyone's game.

• 37:58Jason Schreier?

  Okay.

• 38:03Jason Schreier?

  Best RPG. This is an interesting one. We have Avowed, Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, and The Outer Worlds 2. Obsidian competing against each other, against itself for this one.

• 38:20Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I think, I'm actually predicting Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 will win this, and it is also the game that I think should win this. So I kind of think it's gonna get an award, and I think it'll be in this category.

• 38:28Jason Schreier?

  I think Claire Obscure takes this.

• 38:30Speaker 01

  Me too. But I appreciate Kirk's very me-esque decision to just put Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 there.

• 38:37Kirk Hamilton?

  I actually do think it's gonna win.

• 38:38Speaker 01

  All right.

• 38:39Kirk Hamilton?

  It's not like, cause I, you know, I'm not, I'm not going against my God already.

• 38:42Speaker 01

  You're just, you truly think that. All right. Fair enough.

• 38:45Jason Schreier?

  Best fighting game. The nominees are 2XKO, Capcom Fighting Collection 2, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection, and Virtua Fighter V: REVO World Stage. I just picked 2XKO because of name recognition.

• 39:04Speaker 01

  I picked Fatal Fury. It got pretty good reviews.

• 39:07Jason Schreier?

  Maddie, you probably should know this better than.

• 39:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I follow this a little more, but I don't know.

• 39:13Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I picked Fatal Fury as well. I think it got a big reveal at the Game Awards last year. And also like two of these are like collections as far as I understand.

• 39:20Speaker 01

  They are.

• 39:20Kirk Hamilton?

  So like those, I just don't think either of those.

• 39:22Speaker 01

  This category is tough. There's usually barely enough to fill it every year.

• 39:25Kirk Hamilton?

  Right.

• 39:27Jason Schreier?

  Next up, we have best family. Again, it doesn't say best family game. It just says best family.

• 39:31Kirk Hamilton?

  I think we've made this joke before that like, what is the best family depicted in a game?

• 39:39Jason Schreier?

  The nominees for best family are.

• 39:42Kirk Hamilton?

  The root trees.

• 39:45Jason Schreier?

  No, the best family nominees are Donkey Kong Bonanza, Lego Party, Lego Voyagers, Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing: Crossworlds, and Split Fiction.

• 39:55Kirk Hamilton?

  Mario Kart World, I think.

• 39:57Speaker 01

  I did Donkey Kong Bonanza.

• 39:59Jason Schreier?

  Me too. Yeah, I did Donkey Kong also, uh, cause that was nominated for game of the year. And so I feel like it's got a good chance here. Next up, we have best sim slash strategy. Another just hilarious category. These categories are ridiculous. The nominees are Final Fantasy Tactics: The Evilist Chronicles, Jurassic World: Evolution 3, Sin Myers: Civilization 7, Tempest Rising, The Alters, and Two Point Museum. Another one where Civ 7 is so hated by everybody, was so controversial that it's hilarious that it's on this list.

• 40:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, classic case of critics just being like, what, what sim games came out this year?

• 40:37Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, what are sim games? Yeah, what are strategy games?

• 40:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:40Jason Schreier?

  Um, I think The Alters is going to win this.

• 40:43Speaker 01

  I put Final Fantasy Tactics, Stan. I, I know it's a remake, but it's good.

• 40:48Jason Schreier?

  It is good.

• 40:49Kirk Hamilton?

  I wonder, I, I was, you know, I, part of me actually thinks that Civ 7 could win this, but I'm gonna say-

• 40:56Jason Schreier?

  Just for name recognition?

• 40:57Kirk Hamilton?

  Exactly. Like, um, I'm actually gonna say, I'm gonna say The Alters as well. That is a cool game. I didn't play that much of it, but, um, I know it's got a-

• 41:06Jason Schreier?

  I like that you're doing this on the fly, Kirk. I appreciate that.

• 41:08Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm changing my mind. I was really gonna-

• 41:10Speaker 01

  I get it. I've done it.

• 41:11Kirk Hamilton?

  I have almost all of these set, but sometimes I change my mind, uh, while we're talking. So I'm gonna say The Alters.

• 41:16Jason Schreier?

  Um, next up, we have best sports slash racing. Also a hilarious category. EA Sports FC 26, F1 25, Mario Kart World, Rematch, Sonic Racing, Crossworlds. I think we're all gonna have the same answer for this. Mario Kart World is mine.

• 41:32Speaker 01

  I picked F1.

• 41:33Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah.

• 41:34Jason Schreier?

  Oh, I was wrong. Okay. F1 for Maddie.

• 41:37Speaker 01

  I, you know, it, this may bite me in the ass, but I don't know that Mario Kart World is actually that great of a racing game.

• 41:44Jason Schreier?

  Okay.

• 41:45Speaker 01

  But I, look, I, I don't know if the voters will agree with me on this.

• 41:48Jason Schreier?

  It has the most broad appeal.

• 41:50Speaker 01

  I know. You guys are probably right. But hey, I picked F1.

• 41:52Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I'm gonna say Mario Kart World as well. I was thinking actually that maybe EA Sports FC 26, but I, I think it'll be Mario Kart World.

• 41:59Jason Schreier?

  Um, next up, we have best multiplayer. The nominees are Arc Raiders, Battlefield 6, Elden Ring: Night Rain, Peak, and Split Fiction.

• 42:09Kirk Hamilton?

  Peak.

• 42:10Jason Schreier?

  Peak for Kirk, okay?

• 42:12Speaker 01

  I did Battlefield 6 again here.

• 42:14Jason Schreier?

  All right. I'm going with Arc Raiders. I think that one is, is loved.

• 42:18Kirk Hamilton?

  That game's getting really good buzz. It looks fun as hell, too.

• 42:20Speaker 01

  I love that we will, this is why, this is why we, this is a good tiebreaker, because we always, like, even if it seems like we're all gonna pick the same stuff, we never do. It's great.

• 42:29Jason Schreier?

  Yeah.

• 42:29Kirk Hamilton?

  Nah, not in these categories especially.

• 42:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, these are crazy. Who knows?

• 42:32Kirk Hamilton?

  None of us really play any of these games. Because Maddie, you played some Night Rain.

• 42:35Speaker 01

  I did.

• 42:36Jason Schreier?

  Best adaptation: A Minecraft Movie, Devil May Cry, Splinter Cell: Death Watch, The Last of Us: Season 2, and Un- Till dawn.

• 42:45Kirk Hamilton?

  Just imagining the world where the Netflix Splinter Cell animated series beats the Minecraft movie, which made whatever six billion dollars.

• 42:51Jason Schreier?

  Well, guess what, Kirk? That was my pick. Splinter Cell Death Watch is my pick.

• 42:54Speaker 01

  Really? Okay.

• 42:55Kirk Hamilton?

  Wow, I think the Minecraft movie is gonna walk away with this.

• 42:58Jason Schreier?

  The Minecraft movie is not good. I don't know if you guys have seen it, but it is not good.

• 43:01Kirk Hamilton?

  Doesn't matter. It made a jillion dollars. It was so successful.

• 43:05Jason Schreier?

  You think that's what people are voting for, is commercial success?

• 43:08Kirk Hamilton?

  Yes.

• 43:08Speaker 01

  Well, that's part of why I chose The Last of Us Season Two. Even though people hated it, I think it could still win here.

• 43:16Jason Schreier?

  Interesting.

• 43:16Kirk Hamilton?

  That would be, that would be interesting if it won. And they had to give a speech and they're like, well, sorry.

• 43:23Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, we apologize.

• 43:24Kirk Hamilton?

  To all the gamers out there, sorry we fucked up Ellie's character. Got everything wrong.

• 43:29Jason Schreier?

  Next up, we have one where I will be completely shocked if any of us disagree on this one. Most anticipated game. 007 First Light, Grand Theft Auto VI, Marvel's Wolverine, Resident Evil Requiem, and The Witcher IV.

• 43:44Speaker 01

  And we're all picking 007?

• 43:46Kirk Hamilton?

  Importantly, this is not most anticipated game by Kirk.

• 43:48Jason Schreier?

  No, it's most anticipated game.

• 43:50Kirk Hamilton?

  Which would be 007.

• 43:52Jason Schreier?

  By?

• 43:52Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, GTA VI, obviously.

• 43:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, GTA VI.

• 43:54Jason Schreier?

  It's gonna be GTA. Once again, it is so funny that there is a category for most anticipated game.

• 44:01Kirk Hamilton?

  Is there a, I wonder, is there like one of those betting markets for how many years GTA VI will win most anticipated game at the game year? It's like, for example, will it win in 2026?

• 44:12Jason Schreier?

  I think Tears of the Kingdom might have it out, have it beaten on that, because Tears of the Kingdom was announced like so many years before it was actually released, whereas GTA was only announced in 2023.

• 44:25Kirk Hamilton?

  I guess to, to like rephrase my, the bet a little bit, it would be specifically what are the odds that GTA VI will win most anticipated game again in 2026?

• 44:35Jason Schreier?

  Ah, that's an interesting one. Okay, that's a fun one. Uh, next up, here's where we get into the really good stuff. This is like the triple quick meat. Content Creator of the Year. Saydrell, Kai Senat, MoistCritical, and MoistCritical is spelled with a one, Sakura Miko, and The Burnt Peanut.

• 44:59Speaker 01

  I think Kai Senat.

• 45:00Kirk Hamilton?

  Kai Senat, I think, yeah. Both because it is the person that I am most familiar with, and I think sometimes awareness helps. And also, I feel like he did a lot of stuff this year. Like, I think I saw him in the news a lot because he was like doing stuff. So that makes me think.

• 45:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's always doing stuff.

• 45:14Jason Schreier?

  I'm voting for The Burnt Peanut. Because if you go and you look, I'm gonna drop something in our Discord. If you go and you look at the Content Creator of the Year pictures, and you look at The Burnt Peanut, you'll see, oh, yes, of course, The Burnt Peanut must win this award.

• 45:30Speaker 01

  Wow, okay, I get it.

• 45:34Kirk Hamilton?

  It's a burnt peanut.

• 45:34Jason Schreier?

  It's a burnt peanut.

• 45:35Kirk Hamilton?

  I don't know what I expected.

• 45:37Jason Schreier?

  Best esports game. The nominees are Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Mobile Legends Bang Bang, great name, and Valorant.

• 45:46Kirk Hamilton?

  Let me find what I wrote down.

• 45:48Jason Schreier?

  I'm voting for Valorant.

• 45:50Kirk Hamilton?

  Best esports game, oh, I'm gonna say League of Legends.

• 45:52Speaker 01

  I did too. I thought about Valorant, though. It's tough. I mean, these games have been around for years and years and years and years. It's like, what are we still here?

• 46:00Jason Schreier?

  It's just such a funny category. All of these categories are so funny because I'm willing to bet that like, at least 75% of the jury has no idea what any of this is.

• 46:09Speaker 01

  And probably don't even vote on these. I mean, I can only speak for how it was at Polygon, but we would abstain on voting in categories where we didn't feel like we could make a good decision. And I would guess a lot of voters do that.

• 46:20Jason Schreier?

  But also, like, what does best esports game actually mean?

• 46:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, what is that?

• 46:23Jason Schreier?

  That got the most Twitch viewers? Like, funnest, yeah, like, none of that, like, so many esports games are like, most fun to watch if you play that game.

• 46:31Speaker 01

  Right.

• 46:32Jason Schreier?

  So it just makes no sense as a category.

• 46:34Kirk Hamilton?

  It would, yeah, like, try to imagine voting on best sport. You know, so it's like the NFL versus the NBA. And then each year, you do it again. So it's basically like, which sport had like, the best championship series? And kind of the most exciting drama? Maybe, I think that's kind of how I would decide it, but that's a kind of a weird award.

• 46:53Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, but what you just described is a Absurd concept.

• 46:55Speaker 01

  I know.

• 46:55Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, right.

• 46:56Speaker 01

  That's what I was thinking about for best esports athlete, which was this is the next category where I was like, how how would this work if we were to put it in traditional sports terms? Like, would be voting against, like, a baseball player, football player? Like, that'd be fun if we were just like, who's the coolest?

• 47:09Kirk Hamilton?

  Oh, yeah.

• 47:09Speaker 01

  Who's the coolest guy? Who do we think is the coolest guy?

• 47:12Kirk Hamilton?

  The coolest year.

• 47:13Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I mean, I will say there is an award show called the ESPYS, which is like the ESPN award show. And they do have, like, best male athlete.

• 47:21Speaker 01

  Oh, that's fun.

• 47:21Jason Schreier?

  Female athlete.

• 47:23Speaker 01

  This is kind of like that.

• 47:24Kirk Hamilton?

  Do they do best sport?

• 47:25Jason Schreier?

  Uh, I don't think they have the best sport.

• 47:28Kirk Hamilton?

  This year, MLB wins.

• 47:31Speaker 01

  Baseball takes it again.

• 47:32Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I don't think so. But they do have best athlete, which, again, is just kind of a strange concept. But I guess you could determine it based on like, who did the most remarkable things that year. But still, it's a tough one. Anyway, we have best esports athlete, Brock, Xavi, Forsaken, Kakaroo, Menard, and ZywOo. I mean, come on, guys. How could you not know what the answer is here? My vote is Forsaken, because his real name is Jason, just like mine.

• 47:58Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm gonna vote for, I think it's Chovy. I would think like an anchovy. I'm gonna vote for Chovy, because I think that name is cool.

• 48:03Speaker 01

  I went with ZywOo. I was just glad that people are still putting zeros in their names, you know?

• 48:08Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, you're a ZywOo fan.

• 48:09Speaker 01

  I was doing that in high school. That's that's never gonna die.

• 48:12Kirk Hamilton?

  We got two zero names.

• 48:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, we got two of them.

• 48:14Jason Schreier?

  And last but certainly not least, we have best esports team, gen.g, NRG, Team Falcons, Team Liquid PH, and Team Vitality. I wasn't, I thought Team Liquid was the name and not Liquid PH. So I just voted for that, because I was like, cool, they added a PH to their name. So I voted for them.

• 48:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're worried about PH now, PH measurements.

• 48:35Jason Schreier?

  Exactly.

• 48:36Speaker 01

  I went with NRG. I don't know, guys. I, this is also bizarre to me. Even when I was following esports, this is not how I would have quantified anything.

• 48:44Kirk Hamilton?

  It's, yeah, it's a hard one, because they're in different sports again. I went with Team Falcons. I believe they won the international in Dota 2. You would imagine whoever won the international would be the Dota team that would be nominated for this. But anyhow, that's pretty exciting. That's a hard thing to do, so I'm gonna say that they're gonna win.

• 48:59Jason Schreier?

  Fancy Kirk with his research.

• 49:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, look at that. Kirk Googled it.

• 49:03Jason Schreier?

  All right, that is it for our picks. We'll, we'll check them over and see who won and check back in a couple of weeks for that. Before we take a break into one more thing, let's just talk for a couple of minutes at least about the stuffing portion of the game awards, the, the big reveals, the announcements. Is there anything you guys want to see, predict, hope to see at this year's show? By the way, Matty, I was re-listening to last year's episode and I told you this before, but I'll say this on the air. Very sad moment where you're like, what ever happened to Wonder Woman? I wonder if we'll ever see that again. Oh no, maybe we won't see it ever again. And of course, that is what happened. Prescient of you. But yeah, is there anything you guys are like hyped about? Want to see like new games from a company we haven't heard from in a while or?

• 49:49Jason Schreier?

  Yeah. Any thoughts for you guys?

• 49:52Speaker 01

  This isn't an exciting answer, but I'd love an update on the Final Fantasy VII remake trajectory. Like just another, another look at part three and when it might be coming out. Some type of timeline would be cool to hear about. And this feels like the time when we might finally learn that.

• 50:08Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I think they, they, I don't know if they said this. I don't know. I feel like they're trying to hit 27. So yeah, this would be a good time to start the campaign. I don't know if it's going to be here, but seems like a good time.

• 50:21Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm so not in the mind space, like I'm just so not plugged into like guessing about what I might see. Jason, I want to hear from you just because I think you have probably a pretty good sense of some things that'll be there.

• 50:31Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I don't, I don't really want to just spoil announcements just for the sake of it. I've heard about.

• 50:37Kirk Hamilton?

  No, no, I mean, I guess, yeah, don't, don't spoil.

• 50:40Jason Schreier?

  Yeah. I mean, I've heard, I'll, I'll say I've heard about one really cool thing and it's being teased by Jeff Keighley as we speak. Did you guys see him posting that social media stuff?

• 50:48Kirk Hamilton?

  I think I saw like an era thread that he was teasing something, but I didn't look into it.

• 50:51Jason Schreier?

  He posted a big statue and then like some, some guy said it was Diablo, which it's not. It's, it's something cool that I heard about, but I don't really want to spoil it just for the sake of it, but it's pretty cool. I think a lot of people, including the three of us, will be stoked to see it.

• 51:09Jason Schreier?

  Man, what else do I want to see? I mean, last year we were kind of.

• 51:12Speaker 01

  New persona?

• 51:14Jason Schreier?

  Oh, man, that would be really cool. Persona 6. Yeah, it feels like a good

• 51:18Speaker 01

  It's another one where it feels like it's time, you know?

• 51:20Jason Schreier?

  Yeah. Yeah, that would be a cool one to see.

• 51:25Speaker 01

  Hollow Knight Silk Song? Do you guys think maybe that'll finally come out?

• 51:28Jason Schreier?

  Man, it's been so long.

• 51:31Kirk Hamilton?

  Is this the first, is this the first like press reveal event where, yeah, where Silk Song isn't gonna be announced?

• 51:37Speaker 01

  What's gonna go on with Silk posting? Maybe people will still do it, just for old times sake, you know?

• 51:42Kirk Hamilton?

  You know, I wonder if we'll see more of the Dust Bloods, the FromSoft game?

• 51:45Speaker 01

  I am, I am begrudgingly curious about that, even though it is not my genre. It's a PvPVe, right? I, I

• 51:53Kirk Hamilton?

  I guess, but we know so little about it. It could be really cool.

• 51:56Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, who knows? I mean, I don't know. I, I'm not getting my hopes up for a multiplayer, another multiplayer from game after Night Ring, which I really did not care for. Um, yeah, a couple of thoughts. One is, uh, we could see Tomb Raider, which has been in development for a while now, and probably it's like ripe to be shown off, feels like a

• 52:15Kirk Hamilton?

  Is that still at Crystal Dynamics?

• 52:16Jason Schreier?

  Still at Crystal Dynamics. Uh, it's like, um, funded by Amazon and Amazon had those big layoffs a couple of months ago. They shut down a couple of their studios, but they're still doing this. So that's still in active development. I do think, uh, um, that there were rumors, this is not inside info, I don't know if this is gonna happen, but there were rumors of that 2D God of War game. Um, I think there's a good shot that that is revealed by now. I think that was supposed to be revealed a little while ago, and so wouldn't be shocked if we see that at the show.

• 52:54Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, what could be a big Sony thing? It seems like Sony doesn't have a lot upcoming, like they kind of released their big sequels.

• 53:02Speaker 01

  Intergalactic heretic prophet.

• 53:04Jason Schreier?

  Well, they do. They have the next Sony Santa Monica game, which is Corey Barlog's project, um, which

• 53:11Kirk Hamilton?

  But that's not announced.

• 53:12Jason Schreier?

  That's not announced, yeah. I don't know if they plan on announcing, I don't know when they plan on announcing that, but that is in the works.

• 53:18Kirk Hamilton?

  I guess that's what I mean, is like, we knew about all these big Sony sequels that were coming up this year, Death Stranding 2, Yo. etcetera, but like it seems like they're ripe to announce something presume assuming that they are making games right now. So yeah, maybe, maybe something from them, maybe that.

• 53:33Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, well, we know a couple of what they have for next year, like Wolverine is coming fall.

• 53:37Kirk Hamilton?

  Oh, yeah, I guess there's Wolverine.

• 53:38Jason Schreier?

  And that new game Saros, which is like Returnal two with the serial numbers filed off is coming next year as well. I think that comes in March.

• 53:46Kirk Hamilton?

  The house mark game. That's right. That game looks sick, actually. Okay, okay, okay.

• 53:50Jason Schreier?

  It looks awesome. That's the type of game where it's like clearly they wanted to make a new Returnal, but maybe they thought the first game like didn't sell well enough to justify a sequel. So they're like, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna just make a new IP, but it's basically Returnal. Um, I'm trying to think, is there other stuff? Um, Exodus, that game, they've said they're gonna be there. That is the game from Wizards of the Coast. And it's made by some ex Bioware people, um, like key people from older, older Bioware games. And it's kind of, it looks a lot like Mass Effect. Uh, if you guys have seen it, they've said that will be there.

• 54:22Kirk Hamilton?

  Oh, yes, I have seen that. Oh, yeah, that game looks really cool. I read some previews of that earlier this year. Okay, I'd love to see more of that.

• 54:28Jason Schreier?

  Yep, yeah, yeah. Um, I wonder if it's time to see Control two. Uh, I feel like Remedy always does stuff with Keely. Um, and it's been a while. It's been a couple of, when was that one made too? Like two years ago or was that last year?

• 54:42Kirk Hamilton?

  I think it was two years ago.

• 54:43Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, it was a little while ago, right?

• 54:44Speaker 01

  They did put out that Control multiplayer game, but F C Firebrand, but people didn't like it. So that made me wonder, are they even gonna continue with that? But Remedy always just somehow pulls it out and keeps making stuff that's weird and cool.

• 54:59Jason Schreier?

  Yep.

• 55:00Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, Control two, that'll, that would be really cool to see that. That would make me very happy.

• 55:04Jason Schreier?

  Another guess, uh, for me, not inside info, but just a guess. Uh, Marathon is still coming and needs a release date, so maybe they could do like, hey, remember Marathon? Well, it's back in pog form. And okay, we'll release date for that.

• 55:18Kirk Hamilton?

  I wish I was excited about that.

• 55:20Jason Schreier?

  That's another just Sony one that's upcoming. Um.

• 55:24Speaker 01

  Maybe Conquer two?

• 55:26Jason Schreier?

  Conquer two, yeah.

• 55:28Kirk Hamilton?

  I know, just saying.

• 55:29Speaker 01

  Sorry. I'm just, I'm just trying to make you guys laugh. I'm just having a good time.

• 55:34Jason Schreier?

  Congratulations, you succeeded.

• 55:37Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, anything else? I mean, hopefully there's some cool indie stuff that just comes out of nowhere.

• 55:41Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. I mean, that's always what I hope for. Exactly. Like, I, I, I hope for the things that I can't possibly predict, where I'm like, oh, that's just a cool trailer for something I never would have imagined. And that's great.

• 55:52Jason Schreier?

  Yeah. And I think to Keely's credit, I think he gets a lot of flack, but I think last year's show was actually really strong all around. Like, it didn't have a ton of unnecessary celebrity fluff. It had a lot of good game reveals that had Witcher 4, it had Interclactic, and it had Dispatch. And I remember it being, despite being three hours long, which is always kind of a critical flaw in these shows, it still felt like it was well, well executed in a way the previous shows had not been. There was no, like, Kojima just talking for 10 minutes about nothing.

• 56:25Speaker 01

  I gotta admit, this year is the first time in many years that I will be able to watch the Game Awards with a cocktail and go to bed when I choose to. I don't know how long that's gonna last for me, but this year, that's how I'm gonna do it.

• 56:38Jason Schreier?

  Enjoy it. It's a way better way to watch the show. But you do, you have to be able to talk about it on our podcast.

• 56:44Speaker 01

  Oh, I will. I'll, I'll be able to hang out in the TripleClick Discord, which Kirk always does.

• 56:49Jason Schreier?

  Also very fun, yeah.

• 56:50Speaker 01

  Talk, talk a little shit with our listeners. I hope Statler and Waldorf come back. I mean, I, I don't know. I, I'm, I'm excited for that.

• 56:58Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I, I did really enjoy last year's show. And yeah, this will be fun. Couple of other, just things that I'll throw out into the ether. Again, not inside info, just things that I think there's a possibility that we see. Ubisoft has some stuff coming soon, like Black Flag remake that could be there. That's supposed to come out pretty soon. They have that Prince of Persia remake that's also supposed to come out pretty soon.

• 57:21Speaker 01

  That's been delayed multiple times. I keep forgetting it.

• 57:24Jason Schreier?

  Oh, yeah. It'll probably get like a release date at this. That seems kind of likely. Yeah, yeah. I doubt we'll see much from, like, EA. They're in the process of getting Taken over, so who knows what's going on there. Um, maybe, actually, maybe, maybe some random new, like, small game from them. Xbox, you never know. They always have a bunch of random stuff up their sleeves.

• 57:46Kirk Hamilton?

  They own 60% of the video game industry, so they'll probably have something there.

• 57:51Jason Schreier?

  But if they announce something, it won't be out for another five years. Remember, they announced Arcane's Blade two years ago at the Game Awards and not a peep on that since. And, uh, yeah, Nintendo is always a wild card, too. I liked, I really liked that Persona 6 prediction, Matty. I feel like it feels like a good time, feels like a great, just like, come out of nowhere, surprise with the teaser trailer. I doubt they're gonna be like, and it's coming next year, but like, it would be a cool little teaser for the future, at least.

• 58:21Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah. Well, and we'll get that Persona 4 Golden or Persona 4 Remake.

• 58:25Jason Schreier?

  Oh, yeah, I'm sure.

• 58:26Kirk Hamilton?

  That too. That'll probably come next year.

• 58:27Jason Schreier?

  Yep, yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. All right. That is it for Game Awards predictions. Why don't we take a break and we'll be back with one more thing.

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• 59:59Jason Schreier?

  And we are back. Maddie, why don't you start?

• 1:00:02Speaker 01

  Sure. So I'm playing a game that I've never played before, and it's called System Shock. Heard of it? Anyway, I

• 1:00:10Jason Schreier?

  What made you decide to start playing this?

• 1:00:12Speaker 01

  Just pure spontaneity. I have absolutely no reason to be playing it right now. I'm actually specifically playing the 2023 remake of the game that I got a code for many, many years ago. I think I was just looking at my library and just seeing like, wow, I have a lot of, I have a lot of codes that I just have sitting here. And I, I don't know, I was just feeling it. And I checked it out and holy moly, this game is really good. And it has also made me realize that no other original video game has ever been produced by anyone. Actually, there's just this one game. And every other game has just been iterating on this. And jokes aside, really, I'm referring to like the classic sci fi first person shooter. Like, there's shades of Dead Space. I mean, really,

• 1:00:57Speaker 01

  Dead Space has shades of this. Portal, I mean, the list goes on.

• 1:01:02Jason Schreier?

  And all the immersive sims, those Looking Glass games.

• 1:01:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, like lots of immersive sim, just building off of this, as one is wont to do with immersive sims. But it's, the remake is incredibly cool. If people are wondering about it, it was in development hell for a very, very long time. And it did luckily get really good reviews when it came out. And I am also having the benefit of playing it after it has received a ton of really great updates. For example, you can play as a female hacker now, which was never in the original game. Really, all that changes, and this is totally first person, is they have a female voice actor doing the barks. And for the few cutscenes where you see them, you get to see her. It's like a small thing, but I think it's really cool that that's in there. Apparently, they've made a bunch of other changes, like they changed the end of the game. I didn't see

• 1:01:49Speaker 01

  the original one. But I'm really digging it. There's also like, an easy mode now, which is probably helpful for people because the game's pretty tough. I'm playing it on normal, but I do think it's hard. And I'm not above switching to easy because apparently it has like waypoints in the map, like it adds in kind of pathing and telling you where to go and stuff that, this is just a game where you get lost in a huge map. And that's really fun to me. And also reminds me of Metroid a little bit, in a good way, where you're just wandering, wandering, wandering, seeing the same stuff over and over, unlocking stuff, solving a little puzzle, unlocking a new

• 1:02:23Speaker 01

  And it's scary, the sound design. Talk about sound design. You can hear the guys around the corner and they're so creepy. And there's also the phenomenon in this game where when you have the map open, somebody can sneak up and surprise you. And some of the enemies are still pretty freaky looking. Like, this is a game about like a spaceship out or satellite out in space where people have been taken over by this rogue AI that is converting everybody into cyborgs that want to kill you or turn you into a cyborg specifically, actually. And that's really scary and fun and cool. So yeah, this game from the 90s, actually really good, holds up. Really glad they remade it. I don't think I would have gone back and played the original one, but the remake is great. So I recommend it.

• 1:03:07Jason Schreier?

  Good stuff.

• 1:03:08Kirk Hamilton?

  A little fun fact on the developer of this, Nightdive Studios. This is the same studio, and actually the same director, Stephen Kick, who were trying and failing to remake No One Lives Forever. I spoke to Stephen Kick back when I was writing at Kotaku.

• 1:03:21Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 1:03:22Kirk Hamilton?

  And they were very, he and Larry Cooperman, who I think works with them, or maybe is part of Nightdive, they were like trying forever to get the rights to No One Lives Forever, to do a similar kind of remake, which would be so cool.

• 1:03:32Speaker 01

  I mean.

• 1:03:32Kirk Hamilton?

  And is another, another game from that same era, that it would just be amazing if more people could play, sort of like System Shock.

• 1:03:37Speaker 01

  Clearly, they, they want to do this.

• 1:03:39Kirk Hamilton?

  And I saw them, they were out there talking about it again, Cooperman and Kick, this last year, talking about No One Lives Forever again. So like, it's the dream that will never die.

• 1:03:46Speaker 01

  It might come back, because if you look at like the development hell history of this System Shock, it's like decades on decades. And they just kept just finding funding somehow, restart. It started as a full remake. They were going to actually rewrite parts of the game. It ended up being like more of a one-to-one remake. It's just wild. And they, so you never know. With people like this who are this stubborn, they might just decades from now be like, we finally got the No One Lives Forever IP.

• 1:04:13Kirk Hamilton?

  And we figured out who owns it, and they sold it to us for a thousand dollars.

• 1:04:16Speaker 01

  It could happen. They seem stubborn in a good way.

• 1:04:20Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah. Yeah, I hope so.

• 1:04:21Jason Schreier?

  Can't they just, why don't they just call it Nobody Lives Forever?

• 1:04:24Speaker 01

  Right. It's the same game, but.

• 1:04:27Jason Schreier?

  Also, if nobody knows who owns it, then why can't they just do it? Because if nobody knows who owns it, then nobody can sue them.

• 1:04:33Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I asked them that. I think it's, I don't know. Maybe we'll link to my article about this from back in the day. It's, I think they just can't put that much time and money into something that could wind up in legal limbo. Kirk, what's your one more thing? My one more thing is a novel that I just read that is absolutely amazing. So amazing that it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2021. So, you know, it's, I'm not the first one to recommend this book. It is The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. Holy shit, this is an incredible book. She is an amazing writer. This is the first of hers that I have read. And yeah, I mean, it's not a book that I could really encapsulate or convey like the beauty of the language in this book, but so I really just want to recommend it.

• 1:05:18Kirk Hamilton?

  Louise Erdrich is a Native American author. She's a member of the Chipewa tribe of Turtle Mountain in North Dakota. And that is who the book is about as well. It's about her grandfather, though it's fictionalized. One of the main characters is based very closely on her grandfather, who was deeply involved in a letter writing and political activism campaign against the government move toward what was called termination. And there were these termination bills that were passed in 1950s where the bill was basically saying, okay, well, this tribe or that tribe, they're just going to be assimilated. So we're going to terminate their status as a separate nation or as a separate tribe. And thus all the protections they have and really their land, we're going to take their land away.

• 1:06:03Kirk Hamilton?

  And the termination bills were definitely a violation of treaties that were like signed between America and various Native American nations, but no one cared, at least no one in Congress cared. And so it was a really horrible thing that happened and actually is still ongoing. Like Erdrich writes at the end of the book in her afterword, in 2020, like the Trump administration was trying to terminate a tribe of Native Americans. Like it was, these things were still happening, even though it kind of went away for a while. And of all people, Richard Nixon actually was, was the one who like signed the bill that, that did away with these laws for good and sort of implemented new protections for American Indians. Anyhow. Richard Nixon, good guy. It's funny, you know, the more you learn about history, the more you learn there were

• 1:06:48Kirk Hamilton?

  these times where Richard Nixon like was in the right, was on the right side of something or like did something that we can all thank him for now. So it did happen. That'll happen 30 years from now with Trump. You'll be looking back and be like, wow, Trump.

• 1:07:00Kirk Hamilton?

  You know what? Yeah, it's like Operation Warp Speed or something like there are things where you're like, yeah, the Trump administration did a good job there.

• 1:07:05Speaker 01

  People sometimes trick him into doing all kinds of weird things, so.

• 1:07:08Kirk Hamilton?

  Right, right. Yeah, who knows, right? Like, why, why anyone does any one thing. Anyhow, this, this book, it is, like I said, it's so, its scope is so vast, its emotional landscape is so complex, it'd be very difficult for me to describe it. So I'll just say that it's one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. It's written in a, in a style that I just can't, I can't say enough about. I mean, it's such a reminder that as much as a book can just be a great story, you know, I'll, I'll read these genre stories, murder mysteries, or fantasy novels, where a lot of the fun is just in the world and the rules and the mechanics and the, the way the plot develops and it really pulls you along. Sometimes you read a book like this, or Barbara King-Sullivan comes to mind,

• 1:07:53Kirk Hamilton?

  you know, any of her novels, where the writing itself is such an integral part of what it's doing, that I'm reminded of just how beautiful words can be if you really know how to use them. And Louise O'Drake is an amazing writer. And I think there's definitely something very culturally specific to the space, like the imaginary space that this book lives in. It's a book that lives in these liminal spaces. So it's in the 1950s, it's set in the Turtle, the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. So it's in like northern North Dakota, it's very cold, it's the winter, and this termination bill is coming around. But it's really just about the community and all these different people, many of them Native Americans, some not, who just live there, and like, how they all intertwine with one another and how their

• 1:08:38Kirk Hamilton?

  lives are, just how their whole culture and community work. And then how that is all at risk because of this law. And the, the legal wrangling, like the political wrangling, is really just kind of hanging over everything. It's so much more about the people. But there's this sense of like- Like liminality to the whole thing, where there's like the dead walk among the living. The ghosts are there. Ghosts are characters in this book. At any time, a character might see someone from the past at the same time as they're interacting with someone from the present. They might have a dead ancestor talking to them in a conversation with someone who's alive. Like, the past and the present merge, and the living and the dead merge, and dreams and reality merge as well.

• 1:09:23Kirk Hamilton?

  The main character, Thomas, is a night watchman at a factory where a lot of the characters work. And he, some of the scenes, like these really evocative scenes, he's alone in this factory, and there's no one trying to break in. He's kind of just alone, and he's sitting, and that's when he writes. And he's just writes, writes, writes, and he's based on Erdrick's grandfather. And she has all of his writings, so she's like very vividly imagined because she had so much of his writing. And so he's there writing, and he's worrying because he's thinking about this bill, and he's thinking about what he needs to do. But also, he's kind of falling asleep because he's so exhausted. And he's been, you know, he's a night watchman, he has to stay up all night. So it's like about the rituals, you know, the meal that he eats at a certain point, when he has coffee, when he does his rounds.

• 1:10:07Kirk Hamilton?

  But then during his rounds, he'll see an owl at the window, and what does the owl mean? And then he thinks he's falling asleep, and he thinks about Rodrick, someone he knew when he was a kid. And then the ghost was there, and it was the ghost of Rodrick, and like, they're talking. And it really just, it's so enchanting and beautiful, and it so feels connected to this beautiful and longstanding culture. I just, it's an amazing book. I'm totally not surprised that it won all these awards. It's like a total work of art. It's incredibly beautiful, and I could go on and on, but I won't. And I will just say, anyone out there, if you're looking for it, just beautiful and inspiring and moving book to read, Louise Erdrick's The Night Watchman is one of the best ones you can read. So I wholly recommend it.

• 1:10:48Jason Schreier?

  She just came out with a new book, The Mighty Red, right?

• 1:10:53Kirk Hamilton?

  She has a bunch. I mean, she's prolific in regular writing. I know The Roundhouse is supposed to be amazing as well. I want to keep reading her. I'll probably read all of her books, but this is a great place to start.

• 1:11:02Jason Schreier?

  Awesome. My one more thing is- There's a game called Megabank that went viral when it came out earlier this year. I've been kind of trying to, trying to catch up on games as we prepare for our games of the year season, where we talk about all of our favorite games of the year. And so I've been trying to check out at least a few of the games that like I missed that went viral, were critically cleaned in some way, and I wanted to check out Megabank. It is essentially 3D vampire survivors. It's a little bit different. There's more, there's kind of a different rhythm in how you like unlock new stuff, new levels, new characters, new weapons. You have to find a boss portal in the area and then fight a boss and then go into the portal to reach a new level.

• 1:11:46Jason Schreier?

  It's kind of a different sort of rhythm, but fundamentally the gameplay is the same. You do not control your attacks. You automatically attack, monsters come at you, you have to survive and fight them off in these hordes of, of random enemies. And you get levels and then you pick which upgrades you want and you try to maximize your build through random objects that you find along the way and all these upgrades. And you try to kill as much as possible before you die.

• 1:12:15Jason Schreier?

  I, it's fun. I don't love it, I would say. It's kind of fun as a novelty. It's got a certain jank to it that is very appealing. It's got a certain addictive quality to watching numbers go up. But I will say that I think Ball Pit was so much better that it kind of ruined this for me because I enjoy the gameplay of Ball Pit where you're actually just kind of like, like doing the breakout thing of hitting that, hitting those balls at angles and destroying the, the enemies that are kind of fixed in one column or in a few columns as they come down at you. I enjoy that structure for this type of number go up game a lot more than just kind of the aimless jumping and wander, roaming around the fields of Megabank.

• 1:12:58Jason Schreier?

  That said, I see, I totally see why it's so addictive and why it's fun and why people enjoy it. I just don't, it hasn't gripped me in the same way that Ball Pit did.

• 1:13:08Speaker 01

  I get it.

• 1:13:09Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I haven't tried this one, but it looks really fun. I mean, I'm sure it's fun. These games are all, yeah.

• 1:13:13Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, they're all fun.

• 1:13:15Kirk Hamilton?

  When they're at a certain level of quality, they're pretty good.

• 1:13:17Jason Schreier?

  Yeah. Did you guys know, by the way, I just learned yesterday from our old boss, Steven Totillo, that Ron Gilbert's new game, Death by Scrolling, which was announced at the summer thing or at Gamescom a few months ago, that came out last month and nobody knew about it. Nobody knows that it exists, but it came out last month. Apparently, that's also kind of like a Vampire Survivors like, and I was shocked to learn.

• 1:13:43Kirk Hamilton?

  Oh, yeah. Look at this.

• 1:13:44Jason Schreier?

  I was shocked to learn that a new game from the creator of Monkey Island came out, and I have not heard a single person mention it. I had no idea it existed. You would think that there would be a press release at the very least. Like, this is a pretty, pretty well-respected legendary game creator. Again, Monkey Island. New Monkey Island was on all three of our Game of the Year lists a couple of years ago when that came out. That was by him. So the fact that, also Thimbleweed Park he made a few years ago, another great game. The fact that he came out with a new game and just nobody knows about it is kind of bonkers to me. Almost mega bonkers to me.

• 1:14:22Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I might have to play this.

• 1:14:23Jason Schreier?

  Just in terms of like Vampire Survivors likes, I thought it was interesting. Anyway, fun little bonus, one more thing there. But yeah, mega bonk. It's, it's fun. We'll make my Game of the Year list, but I just wanted to check it out.

• 1:14:36Kirk Hamilton?

  Nice.

• 1:14:36Speaker 01

  Cool.

• 1:14:37Jason Schreier?

  All right. That is that for this week's episode. Soon I will be off to LA, and we will be talking about Metroid Prime 4 ahead of, ahead of the Game Awards next week. None of us got early codes, but we're all very excited to play it over the weekend and talk about it next week. I'll be playing it on the flight to Los Angeles. So yeah, guys, Kirk, Monty, see you both next week.

• 1:15:00Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, have a good trip to LA, Jason, and I will see both of you next week.

• 1:15:05Speaker 01

  Bye.

• 1:15:08Kirk Hamilton?

  Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddy 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/join. Email us at [email protected] and find links to our merch store and our Discord server in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

• 1:16:05Jason Schreier?

  Maximum Fun, a worker-owned network of artist-owned shows supported directly by you.