God of War, Gotham Knights, and More Fall Games

These are the games we deserve, but not the ones we need right now.

So we'll play them because they can take it.

Welcome to TripleClick, where we bring the games to you.

And that's quite a few games this week, From Gotham Knights to God of War Ragnarok, Bayonetta 3, Mario plus Rabbids Sparks of Hope, more games than I can fit into this little intro.

I'm Maddie Myers.

I'm Jason Schreyer.

And I'm Kirk Hamilton, and hello.

Hello.

Hello.

Hello.

Hello.

It's us.

It's us again.

Nice again.

Nice to see you.

Nice to see you both.

I'm so excited.

I'm excited to talk about the Mario movie.

And you know you know why we're gonna talk about the Mario movie?

We are on the MaxFun Network, and we're listener supported, and we like to record little bonus episodes.

And if you were interested in hearing us talk about Mario, you could go to maximumfun.org/join, and you could become a member for a mere $5 a month, and then you could listen to that and also a bunch of other old episodes where we spill the beans about video games we played.

We did one about Horizon Forbidden West.

We did an Elden Ring 1.

We did one about Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 1.

So we've done a Die Hard 1.

I was just creating the session for this Mario movie 1 we're gonna record, and it's the 30th bonus episode.

So you get you will have 30 bonus episodes to listen to Wow.

If you become a member.

That's sick.

Really special.

That's really something special.

So maximum fun dot org slash join.

You can listen to that.

I love the Mario movie, and I'm so excited that I made Kirk watch it for the first time and Jason for the second time.

I'm excited about that too.

But enough about that.

We gotta talk about video games, y'all.

There's so many video games out, and we simply couldn't decide which one to talk about today.

So, Jason, what are we doing instead?

Well, we could.

Well, so you could decide.

We did.

So do you wanna give the backstory

on this?

Originally, yeah.

Originally, today was this week was going to be a triple play on the video game Gotham Knights.

But we all kinda realized that Gotham Knights is kind of a bummer.

So we decided that instead, we're gonna do a big fall games rollout where we talk about a ton of the games we've all been playing this fall.

Some of them, we've all played or we're all playing.

Some of them, just, just a couple of us have played.

And some of us, some of them, just one of us have played.

So we're just gonna go through it big, Les.

We're gonna talk a little bit about Gotham Knights, but then we're gonna get into some other games because I just I just feel like 40 minutes of talking about just Gotham Knights to just bum us all out.

Uh-huh.

Unfortunately.

So I'm gonna read something for both of you that I saw in my podcast feed.

And I wanna say that I saw this in my podcast feed over the weekend after we had made this decision.

This is so our friends at the Besties, a wonderful video game podcast, they make a show.

And their most recent episode is called A Desperate Dive Into the Grab Bag.

And the episode description starts thusly, look, we were gonna do Gotham Knights this week, but we realized no one wanted to hear an hour long dunk fest.

Join us as we pivot to talking about a bunch of good games instead with just a little dunking for good measure.

That is so funny.

So we are not the only ones that ran into this problem and made this decision.

That we all wanted to stop playing it.

I played more of Gotham Knights than I would have liked to, your listeners.

But, you

know We'll we'll get into it.

We'll get into it when we when we get started.

But, yeah, it's funny because besties, we have a lot of crossover between our listeners and the besties, and we're good friends with, with them all.

So it's pretty funny that we both independently made the same decision.

Great, man.

So we're

gonna be talking about the fall games.

And, yeah, let's let's start with Gotham Knights.

Mandy, you sounded like you had something to say.

So why don't we start off by talking a little bit about Gotham Knights, which I believe all 3 of us have at least dabbled in.

So, Mandy, what's your what's your take on Gotham Knights?

I've played a few hours of it.

So this is an open world game set in Gotham where you can play as 4 different characters who aren't Batman because there's a 7 hour cutscene at the beginning of the game in which Batman dies.

And they really make it clear to you that he's, like, super dead, and you get to watch the whole funeral and, like Mhmm.

Hear all the hymns.

JK.

The cutscene is very long, though.

It's quite long, notably long.

And

then you get to pick between playing as Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, or Robin.

And you can keep switching throughout the game, which is probably the most ambitious aspect of this game is the fact that there's slightly different dialogue no matter who you pick, mission to mission and different.

I don't know how the story shake whether the story shakes out any differently in the end, but there is there are quite a few differences, in the dialogue at least.

And, it's an open world that feels extremely empty to me.

I'm curious how you 2 feel about it, but I really I played a lot of very samey missions.

I fought some freaks and some mobsters.

Those are actual enemy names, not just me insulting the enemies in this game by calling them freaks.

And I mostly played as Red Hood because he had some lines about not liking cops, and I just thought that he was very funny.

So I kinda stuck with him even though I didn't really enjoy playing as him, but I I thought some of his dialogue was pretty funny.

And I was just trying to keep myself motivated.

You do have to avoid a lot of cops.

You do.

You do have to avoid a lot of cops in this game.

You do.

Yeah.

I've only played, a smidgen a little bit, like, a couple of hours, a few missions.

But I my immediate, like, my, impression of the game was that it felt very much like a game as a service, a k a game like Avengers or Anthem or Destiny where there's a ton of padding and that's designed to get you to keep playing for a while.

And then I was texting a little bit with our old boss, Steven Tottillo, who said that there's, like, this bill big loot system that is also designed in similar ways.

So but the the the catch the weird part is there's no microtransactions.

Usually, a game like that would have cosmetic microtransactions of some sort that you could buy in order to keep you paying as well as playing.

So I reached out to someone who worked on the game from the beginning, and they told me that there were never plans for microtransactions.

So I was like, this is a real head scratcher.

So I guess it was just this is just, the the design from the get go.

And, yeah, I'm a little bit confused at it.

Maybe it's a lot more fun if you're playing co op.

I haven't had a chance to try that.

But, after a couple hours, I felt like, okay, I've seen all this game has to offer.

The big thing for me is that the combat just isn't even as fun as, like, the games that came out 12 years ago.

Well, 13 years ago, like Arkham Asylum came out 13 years ago and has much more satisfying combat than this.

I don't even think there are, like, counters.

Like, you can parry, and then you there's just, like, no counter in it, which is a weird thing.

Spider Man, Ark of Night, all these games just have way more satisfying combat.

So, yeah, it was it was a dreary experience for me.

Mhmm.

There, I think, is a parry system.

At least Red Hood has one.

He's the guy I'm most familiar with because I didn't really play the other 3 that much.

But, he has a pretty good.

It's not quite a parry, but you can, like, swap into using his pistol as, like, a long range attack, and that worked pretty well.

But the problem for him is that because he's such a melee focused character, if he gets surrounded, he can die pretty easily because he he's just in a constant punching fight.

Whereas I think I think it's Robin who has, like, a teleportation ability.

The other characters have much better movement abilities, whereas Red Hood is like a big clunky, steel toed boots melee guy.

So I found that difficult and unfun, but I just sort of forced it to work, with my own sense of patience and and devotion to this podcast.

I was like, I gotta find a way to make Red Hood work.

And then I I stopped.

Thank you for your devotion, Patrick.

I'm glad it.

Who did you play as Kirk?

I mostly played as Batgirl.

I played a few hours, so similar to you, Jason.

And I should say I'm coming into this as a big fan of the Arkham games, and actually also an And Origins.

Apologist

too.

Yeah.

For the, yeah, for Origins.

I really I really like that as well, which was, developed by the same studio.

I don't know how many of the same people.

But, I had, I think, an unfair reputation as the off brand, you know, non rock steady Batman game, and I actually like that game quite a bit.

I think it's got some interesting stuff going on.

And I read our friend Cameron Kunsselman's review at Polygon, where he basically says, there's pretty good little story in here.

If you just play the story, he seemed to like it.

It's Mhmm.

It's pretty cool.

There's some neat stuff that happens.

And then it's just, you have to get through this combat system and a lot of this action RPG stuff.

And yeah, I don't know what to make of the combat system.

I feel like I would have to play a lot more to really understand it on its own terms.

It's very different than the Arkham combat system.

And, at least at first, my the my impression of it is it does not welcome you in because it doesn't really have the same goals.

Man, I remember playing Arkham Asylum.

It's wild that that was, yeah, 2009.

Is that right?

So 13 years ago.

I remember playing that, and there's the first scene where the dudes break out of their cells, and you have to clear a room.

And from minute 1, the combat feels incredible in that game.

And that was the moment where everyone realized that they were gonna make a good Batman game.

And then, of course, that game exceeded expectations in so many ways, but that first fight is just kind of shocking in how smooth and fun and how instantly it gets you into a flow state.

And then they developed that combat system.

I mean, I so I played the hell out of Arkham Knight.

I re reviewed that for Kotaku.

I like 100% ed the game.

The combat system in that game is so complicated and interesting despite the fact that well, I guess you have all the gadgets, so that complexifies your moveset.

But really, it's just kinda an attack button and a counter button and I guess jump.

And you just are flying around, you know, constantly just chaining together attacks and counters and parries and, like combos and all of this cool stuff that you can do especially when you get good at it.

This game, it might get there.

Like it might be this thing where you unlock all the stuff you need and all the moves that you get.

I know there are a lot of unlocks that change combat, but it just seems like it's designed more to be limited and challenging where you have to really pick your moves and then you have to rely on certain things that you've unlocked in order to, you know, get through a difficult fight, which is just a different kind of game.

And for me anyways, it's I I don't like it as much and maybe I'm just overly, you know, I I'm overly fond of the earlier games and it's hard not to compare them.

But yeah, I just don't from what I played of the comment, I didn't like it as much.

I don't like not having a counter.

I don't like dodging.

I didn't like the way it moves.

It just moves a little, stiffly.

It just doesn't have that flow state that that, Rocksteady's combat system managed to get.

And then Maddy, to the open world, I agree that the open world is just very strange.

I mean, I watched this Digital Foundry video where they put Arkham Knight side by side with Gotham Knights, and it's wild how this game that came out in 2015, 7 years ago I mean, granted it's one of the most amazing looking video games ever, but it looks amazing.

The art direction, the lighting, the it's raining and there's just fog everywhere and these spotlights and zeppelins in the sky.

It looks like Gotham City.

And this Gotham City, once you stop and think about it, you're just on this little motorcycle and it just looks like Saints Row or something.

Like, it just looks like a generic city, which is a huge failing for an open world, you know, Gotham City video game.

Mhmm.

The motorcycle feels bad to me as well.

Oh, yeah.

It's not yeah.

It's not a good not a good motorcycle.

You can't glide until you unlock the glide ability, which is also super grindy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So Arc Emergence came out in 2013.

So this is 9 years later.

Along the way, they had a couple of canceled projects, canceled Suicide Squad game.

Not clear.

I'm actually not a 100% sure, like, if if that wound up moving to Rocksteady or if Rocksteady just started their own Suicide Squad game.

I'm not a 100% sure what happened there.

But their own canceled Suicide Squad game canceled Damian Wayne game, which is, I guess, Batman's son or something like that.

So, yeah, they've

had that.

Were saying, like,

Damon Wayans.

Damon Wayans.

Yes.

Yeah.

The canceled Damon Wayans.

Wow.

Damon Wayans got canceled.

I don't know if you heard.

No.

They dug up his old tweets, and, they were problematic.

No.

Damon Wayans, in Happy Endings, Damon Wayans junior is one of the best characters.

I'd probably play a Damon Wayne's game.

Personal favorite show.

I might play a Damian Wayne game.

And one more quick thing.

Sure.

One more

quick thing before we move on is the investigation system where you have to, like,

set yourself in the stuff.

I'm glad you mentioned them.

Oh, my god.

What is

the world?

Funny.

What is going on in that?

Like, what what?

I was, like, trying to figure out, are there actually hints at this, or is it just random guessing and checking?

Because, like, it just seems like random guessing unless I'm really missing something.

I've asked around, and I know of no one yet who has figured out if there is a way to solve the mysteries in Gotham Knights other than guessing.

So if it is there, guys take a crack

at explaining this?

Is this worth explaining?

Because I'm sure some people don't know what this is.

Basically, you just have to match some things together.

Like, you have a a you're looking at this big tableau of objects, and you have to match some objects with some other objects and solve the puzzle.

Yeah.

Except it's just random guessing and checking.

You

might not have to do objects, and then you solve.

Case of the golden idol, which we'll talk about a little bit later.

It's so weird to, like, jump into this, like, terrible investigation thing.

Anyway, we should move on.

Do you have one more thought before we move on?

One more thought before we move on.

One more thought before

we move on.

One more thought before we move on.

No.

I do think that those that investigation looked beautiful.

The first one that I played, it was really nice.

A nice set, a nice art direction, and then just Yeah.

A befuddling design of the puzzle.

I I was I don't know who came up with that or what the goal was.

So, yeah, we can move on anyways.

I just also think it's really great that when you beat up guys, they drop clues as, like, little sonic rings, and they're like little collectibles.

It's just clues.

I don't know what that means, but I like picking them up.

Anyway.

Bing.

Kirk here as I edit the episode, we are about to talk about God of War Ragnarok, which is a game that isn't out yet, which we don't normally do, and it's far enough in advance that I thought I would give those of you who don't wanna hear any plot details about this game at all a spoiler warning.

So if you just wanna skip that section, it's pretty short.

We just talk about the opening hours.

We're embargoed on most of it, so it's pretty not not a lot of plot details, but there's a little bit there.

So anyone who wants to skip it, skip ahead to 19 minutes 34 seconds.

That's 19 minutes 34 seconds.

Okay.

Here we go.

Bing.

Let's jump into a game.

Now that we've talked about a bad combat game, let's jump into an amazing combat game with God of War Ragnarok, which is a game that comes out in a couple weeks.

We've all been playing early access thanks to codes provided by PlayStation.

Mhmm.

And, we can't really talk too much about it.

And in fact, we're gonna do a triple play of this in a couple weeks to hold off for our proper impressions then.

But just real quick, since we are allowed to talk about the first few hours of the game and we've all been playing it, I figured we'd jump in just to go first.

I think it's amazing.

It's, feels like, picks up right where the first game left off in a lot of good ways.

And, I am really enjoying it, really enjoying the combat, really enjoying the story, really enjoying everything about it.

What about you guys?

Any thoughts?

I like those chaos blades.

So this is my first time playing this, and I was really expecting to like this acts that I've heard so much about.

And you know what?

I'm shocking the world.

I'm all about those chaos blades.

They're so nice.

I feel like, which Ninja Turtle has the nunchucks?

I I I don't know.

I feel like a Ninja Turtle.

Yeah.

Michelangelo, of course.

Painter of the Sistine Chapel.

How could I forget?

That's who I feel like.

And you know that the so the a big twist.

So Kratos in the first games, the original trilogy, I guess there's more than 3, but I think of it as a trilogy, used those blades.

That was his primary weapon, though, of course, he got many more.

Mhmm.

And then and in the first game, you start with the axe and you only have the axe for the first

The 20 18.

The 20 18.

The 20 18 game of this saga.

The first game in

this game.

The first God of War game anymore.

Yes.

Can't

yeah.

Yes.

The the 2018 game, you only had the axe.

And then there's this big moment where it's basically, you know, lord help me, but it's back to the old me.

And he goes and he gets his chaos blades.

It's really cool.

It's done really well.

It's amazing.

And you get to see the chaos blades from that over the shoulder perspective, which you've never really seen since the earlier games were isometric.

That's perfect.

That's wonderful.

I love it.

I love the chaos blades.

One, they've made them better.

I actually really like that you start with them because you just have this basic combat set where you have the blades and you have the frost.

So it's fire and ice.

It you could say it is a song of A song of ice is fire?

Truly.

So you have those 2 those 2 things unlocked from the beginning.

So they've designed they've redesigned the combat somewhat around that, which I think is cool.

Like, you can freeze an enemy, and then if you hit a freeze enemy or a frozen enemy with flame, it does extra damage and vice versa.

So you're kind of

There are skills that are meant to be, like, serendipitous.

There.

Yeah.

Or you're swapping between the weapons, and that's pretty cool.

So I appreciate that.

And they've just made the Blades of Chaos.

It feels to me just a little more viable and better because in the 2018 game, I'm guessing I'm not alone in this.

I didn't really use the blades except when someone was frozen and was resistant to the axe.

Just because the axe is so fun and you can throw it and it has that core thing.

It's so subjective, though.

Like, they feel so different that I could really understand somebody favoring 1 or the other.

Well, right.

But I think they have retooled them and given them better abilities in this sequel.

Like, I think that the blades are a stronger weapon, and I am at least finding myself using them way more.

Because the scorpion move, which did exist in the first game, is super cool where you pull people over to you.

Oh, yeah.

But also, you hit you can hit a guy.

There's a ability unlock where you hit a guy, and then you go flying over to him Mhmm.

Which is sick and increases your mobility.

So there's cool stuff like that.

They're really good at friction.

These designers are really good at those pauses, those moments of, like, tension.

Works very well with the controller.

I like the new thing where you hold down triangle to charge up your axe and freeze it.

Mhmm.

A lot

of stuff like that.