2025 - Year In Review

Join Austin and Adam as they discuss all their favorite games, industry news, and Game Awards winners for the year of 2025.

WARNING: Contains Spoilers for Expedition 33, Dispatch, and possibly more. 

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Chapters

• 0:17 Intro
• 1:38 Expedition 33 wins everything
• 3:24 What the %$#! is an Indie Game?
• 7:57 Western RPGs vs. Japanese RPGs
• 10:11 Jennifer English: Good luck charm, great voice actress
• 13:35 E33/Lorien Testard wins Best Score and Music
• 14:39 Most Anticipated - GTA VI
• 15:33 Best Adaptation - The Last of Us: Season 2
• 16:01 Best Ongoing Game - No Man's Sky
• 17:03 Best Fighting Game - Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
• 17:50 Best Sports and Racing - Mario Kart: World
• 18:45 Best Simulation/Strategy Game - Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
• 19:58 Best Audio Design - Battlefield 6
• 21:11 Best Action Game - Hades II
• 23:44 Best Action-Adventure Game - Hollow Knight: Silksong
• 25:02 Best Multiplayer - Arc Raiders
• 26:06 Unqualified A.I. Hot Takes
• 34:26 Announcements! - Fate of the Old Republic
• 39:37 Announcements! - Divinity
• 41:53 Announcements! - D&D: Warlock
• 43:18 Announcements! - Control: Resonant
• 44:56 Announcements! - Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis + Catalyst
• 47:48 Trailer! - Resident Evil: Requiem
• 48:39 Trailer! - 007: First Light
• 50:42 Announcements! - Total War: Warhammer 40k
• 53:08 Announcements! - Star Wars: Galactic Racer
• 54:01 Announcements! - Mega Man: Dual Overdrive
• 55:37 Announcements! - Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity
• 56:47 Announcements! - High Guard
• 1:01:26 Our Top Games: DISHONORABLE Mention - FBC Firebreak
• 1:04:41 Our Top Games: DISHONORABLE Mention - Assassin's Creed: Shadows
• 1:07:50 Our Top Games: Honorable Mention - Arc Raiders
• 1:10:21 Our Top Games: Honorable Mention - Death Stranding 2
• 1:15:00 Our Top Games: Ball X Pit
• 1:20:57 Detour: The Switch 2's First Year
• 1:25:52 Our Top Games: Donkey Kong Bananza
• 1:29:45 Our Top Games: Dispatch
• 1:37:49 Our Top Games: Split Fiction
• 1:43:13 Our Top Games: Sunderfolk
• 1:44:49 Our Top Games: The Alters
• 1:46:40 Our G.O.T.Y. - Expedition 33
• 1:55:58 The GGB Awards - Favorite Episodes
• 2:01:07 The GGB Awards - Favorite Games
• 2:04:44 The GGB Awards: Biggest Letdown - Okami (HD)
• 2:07:17 The GGB Awards: Biggest Surprise - Sunderfolk
• 2:08:29 The GGB Awards - Best Performing Episode - Expedition 33
• 2:08:57 The GGB Awards: Best Performing Month - July
• 2:10:13 Special Notes and Thanks
• 2:12:15 Outro

Transcript

0:00

God damn it. I said what it was, didn't I? You did. You did. You did. I was like, ah, we kept the tease for so long. Don't worry. We're going to cut it out. I'm doing this again. Three, two. And welcome back to another episode of the Games Gone By podcast. It is Thursday, December 18th at the time of this recording. I'm your host, Adam. And joining me today, as always, the gaming expert and enthusiast, Austin. Austin, are you ready to discuss what's kind of becoming a tradition on this podcast, our big game of the year wrap up. We talk about the Game Awards, our favorite episodes, and just other things going on in the industry. I feel like I pioneered this episode. I begged you for it. I wanted it. So I'm ready. I'm here to talk about it. I love talking about my favorite things. And I, you know, this year is like the Expedition 33 year. So I'm ready. I do think you're a lot more convincing than I give you credit for sometimes because there's the amount of times I've just said, like, I'm never going to fucking do a recap show, Austin. I'm never going to do a show about an award show, Austin. And here we are. So I got to give you got to give you credit for that one. Thank you. Thank you. I do what I can. I can be convincing when I want to. So I think we're going to do is we're going to talk about the Game Awards, talk about our predictions, talk about who won, talk about some of the like maybe a controversy is overselling it. But talk about some of the things that came out of the Game Awards. Talk about some of the cool announcements. Then we're going to kind of talk about our favorite games of the year, our favorite episodes that we recorded this year, and maybe sprinkle some some random industry happenings in there in the meantime. But when we go ahead and get started, Austin, I think at the top, it's probably worth saying we were right about a lot of these because Expedition 33 won damn near everything. It was basically like a rule. If if Expedition 33 was nominated, we probably should have just assumed it would go to Expedition 33. And that's pretty much what happened. I want to say like sound design was the only thing it was nominated for that it didn't win. Is that correct? That is correct. Best audio design went to Battlefield 6. Every other thing it was nominated for it won. So that includes best narrative, best game direction, best art direction, best score in music, best independent game, best debut independent game, best performance, Jennifer English, the character male, best RPG, and of course, game of the year. Um, which of these? Do you think was a little surprising or were you basically like, no, all of these, it was going to win the way these nominations are done and the way these things are tallied? It's just a bunch of random outlets putting down the list of of the best games in all these categories. And Expedition 33 is the best game in all of these categories. So it was kind of inevitable that it was going to win all of this, I think. Now, I would agree with that statement. Of course, I didn't necessarily play every game in all these categories. So is it is it possible? Is it possible that something else had a better narrative or art direction? Yeah, maybe those are definitely the best of the games I played this year, though. And I also just think when it comes to something like narrative, it's going to be an RPG, right? I mean, what else is it going to be? And then if they already are winning best RPG, then how are you not going to give it best narrative? So I think some of these are sort of like almost like a synergy between the categories that I think benefited it. I do want to talk a little bit about what what some people were very upset with, and that was it winning both independent and best debut indie. Austin. What the hell is an indie game? You know, that's a it's a great question. I think for a long time, the general rule of thumb was like, does this game have a publisher? If no, it's an indie game. But this year, like four of the nominees in those categories had publishers. So now we have things that are actually called indie publishers, which like, OK, so. Right. Which is what I think most of these indie games, right, are like Kepler Interactive, which published Expedition 33, is a group of indie developers that got together to publish indie games. So it's like, OK, I guess that still makes it independent, kind of like. Yeah, it's it's a really blurry line that I think people are maybe harping a little bit too much on, though, because it's like, who really cares? And as far as the Game Awards goes, like their definition is anything published outside the traditional. Publisher system. Right. I mean, right. To me, that means anything outside of like EA, Ubisoft, Sony, Nintendo, like that makes it an indie game. So if you have an indie publisher, you're outside of the traditional publisher. But they're on Game Pass, so they must have gotten a fat stack from Microsoft, right? That's what I kept reading. Of course. Of course. That therefore makes it not an indie game. It's a weird it's a weird time. I think this category is probably going to go away in the near future or be like rehauled somehow. It's a weird one, man. You know, we talked about the indie publishers and game dev or I'm sorry, these devs getting Game Pass deals like late in the dev cycle. So it's like, how much is that really funding the game during its like core development? I don't know. I also think it's really funny because when this game first came out, the sort of narrative and honestly, like a large part of why I like just deleted Reddit from my life was people kept saying that this game was like, no, it was only like 20 people in a shack with hydropower and, you know. Right. Like, like Tony Stark built this in a cave with a box of scraps. And people and whenever someone point out like, well, I mean, there's a lot of names in the credits that seem to be suggesting like actual outsourcing for like a studio to do work, not just like localization. Someone's like, oh, let me guess when like you get a homemade burger, you say it's not actually homemade because you didn't grow the lettuce and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, I don't think that's what this is, but OK. So I find it really interesting that like that was the shit that I was seeing everywhere back then. And now you fast forward nine months and it is the total opposite. Right. It's about how actually this game had. Five hundred employees all across the globe and had the backing of the biggest publisher on the planet and yada, yada, yada. I am with you that I think it's something that's just probably going to get phased out. And I and I definitely get the sentiment because people want to be able to recognize something like a Stardew Valley. Right. A game that was made by one person overwhelmingly. Right. I think he had Chucklefish work with him on the like multiplayer code. But otherwise, it's like all him. Art, music, programming, everything. Right. But but that's a publisher. Ah. Right. Yeah. So I. I don't know what you do with this. I don't think you can put too much of a concrete definition because as soon as you start talking about like how big a team can be or how big the budget can be, you're going to owe 20 people or less. Well, here's a 22 person game that looks like Hollow Knight. Why doesn't it get 10 million or less? Oh, this one was 12 million. Right. So I ultimately think like my proposal would be to just drop this category and instead have a like best debut game. So regardless of the studio's funding or size, is it a new studio? Is it their first game? It's eligible for this category. And also best original IP. I don't care if it's coming from Nintendo. There's been around since the friggin 1800s. Is it a new IP? Then it qualifies for best original IP. I think you should just. And maybe you could come up with another one that's along those veins. But I think like we just have to like the Sandfall made a triple A game with 30 people. We're done with Indy. This is not a useful label anymore. Yeah, I think that's a great way to look at it. I know other people have suggested like budget and team size. And I think. Like you said, that gets into some weird, complicated like territory and even things like you look at something like Hollow Knight or Hades to those are traditional Indy games in as much as they are, you know, self published by the developer, but they're they're backed by budgets of like massive amounts. Thanks to the incredible success of Hollow Knight and Hades, right? Like, yeah, it's technically independent, but like the budget on those games is probably bigger than 90%. Of of your games like it's it's such a blurry line. I think, you know, Claire Obscure brought a lot of controversy to this game awards because of its success. I mean, even best RPG, I feel like had a ton of debate with people like, well, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was the best RPG mechanically. And it's like, OK, but that's not the category. The category is what is the best game that is an RPG? You know, like people. People want to interpret everything their way and kind of make it fit their mold. But it's like at the end of the day, the best game in this category is probably going to win. And Expedition 33, I think for a lot of people, is the best game in all these categories. Like the RPG thing is definitely fascinating to me because it is interesting. Like Western RPGs have always been more in the vein of like D&D. Like you make a character and you are role playing that character in some way or another. JRPGs have really always. Always more have been like squad based narrative with turn based combat, which I don't you know, there's maybe an argument for saying that isn't a quote role playing game. But the middle of the game awards would be a really odd time to suddenly make that distinction after this has been a conversation for 35 years. Right. So I get some of the complaints, but it's just like what it's like you're bringing this up on the eve of this because the game you wanted to win didn't win. And that's really what's happening. Like, I think it's totally fair to explore the differences. Between like a game where you're actually playing a role versus like watching a set of pre-made characters or whatever. But not now. Not in the middle of giving out a game award in a genre that we have called JRPGs for 30 years. Like it's silly. It's silly. Right. Right. Like it's it's still an RPG. It's a different type of RPG, but it's still an RPG. And like that is the category it was nominated in. And I would argue after having played a little bit of Kingdom Come, not my type of game, I don't think. But it is like Expedition 33 to me is the best game in that category. So that's the one that's going to win it. You know, I'm not sure where you would put it. Otherwise, anyway, maybe action adventure just because you can put anything there. Yeah, that's really like the dumping ground for video games. And the Game Awards is like, yeah, it's an action adventure game. It's fine. Were you surprised with Jennifer English getting it over the other two cast members that were nominated from this game for best performance? I. Predicted Ben Starr. That was my choice. And that was Verso, right? Yes. Yeah. But I think Jennifer English has been kind of sweeping the the awards circuit, so to say, like all the other things that have nominated voice performances. She's won. So I wasn't like super shocked to see her take it because everyone she's winning it everywhere else. But it probably wouldn't have been my pick. I do think my else performances like I think her performance is my L is very good. It's consistent throughout. I think Ben Starr just had maybe a little bit more to chew on for me. Yeah, I found it really weird because the sentiment online leading up to this seemed to be that a lot of people were like Verso was OK, I guess. But I think it really like everything just really was like downhill after which. OK, spoilers ahead for Expedition 33 after the chapter one where Gustav dies. And I was like, that's really interesting because I thought I mean, I thought Gustav was great, undoubtedly. But I thought part of why it all worked so well is because Verso came out. And to me, like equal to that performance, if not topped it. And I think the contrast between the way Gustav interacted with the party when he knew these people and the way Verso does when he doesn't. There's a lot of subtle things going on there, even mechanically with like the the questions and conversation stuff you can ask in camp is like way more prevalent in Act two because it's like Gustav knows these people this whole life. He doesn't need to ask them all these questions about their past. But Verso does just like you, the player controlling Verso doesn't know these people. So I thought that was really cool. Cool stuff around that. I thought Ben Starr did an amazing job. I, too, would have guessed that would be him. But I guess Mayall got it, who was also great, of course. But I truly thought it was like other level. I was about to say, I'm not I'm not mad that Jennifer English got it. Right. I do think what's interesting is that now three years in a row, I believe Jennifer English, I guess not three years in a row, but three out of the last four years, a game that Jennifer English was in has one game of the year. What are the other ones? She was in Elden Ring, which won in twenty two, I believe she's Shadowheart and BG three, which won in twenty three. And then she's Mayall now in an expedition thirty three. So it's three out of the last four years that she's played a character who's won, who's, you know, game of the year in the game of the year. So basically, just just give Jennifer English a role in your game if you want to win game of the year is what I'm is what I'm seeing. No wonder Mayall sounded so familiar. It was the one party member in Baldur's Gate that we neither got killed or glitched out and actually had with us the entire game and actually decided to use the entire game. Yeah. Shout out to Shadowheart. One of the best companion characters. I loved her. Yeah. I mean, Jennifer English is really like owning the the conversation these days in the gaming industry. Like she's turning into the female Troy Baker. I guess she's turning into Laura Bailey. That's that's like I. Yeah. Shout out to Jennifer English. She's doing great. I'm not mad about her winning. And Ben Starr will have his due. He's he's been, you know, doing really well, too. So is there anything else we want to talk about in regards to Exhibition 33 before we get to some of these other categories that they did not win? Shout out to Laurie and Testard for for best score music. What a what a soundtrack. What a like incredible they opened the game awards of the performance of the the like second Renoir fight. Yeah. Do you need me to say that again? He was playing the guitar. Oh, that was so cool. So, so cool. Like, just what what a great what a great story for him to like come from SoundCloud and like being, you know, posting on like random forums, trying to get gigs and stuff to to composing one of the best video game soundtracks of the last decade. It was awesome seeing that live performance. And yeah, man, I still. It's really good. So catchy. I saw some people saying, like, I can't believe this game won best soundtracks. And I was like, well, like, you clearly didn't play it, because even if I didn't necessarily think it would win best soundtrack, you would not be confused as to why it did. If you played the game, if you played any bit of the game, you would understand why it won best soundtrack. Nothing else compares this year, in my opinion. So let's quickly go through some of the remaining categories. We had most anticipated game, which was Grand Theft Auto six, which like I don't have much to say about that, except like, should a game really be allowed to win this twice in a row? I mean, that to me just seems like most torturous dev cycle. Like, what are we doing here? Right, right. I mean, you know, there's a chance it wins it again next year. I hate this category. I hate this game. I hate this game. I'm just so indifferent toward Grand Theft Auto. I will almost certainly pick it up and play the single player game pan like two years after it comes out. I already know that's going to happen, but I would not say I am highly anticipating it personally. Like this is already if it actually comes out, this is already basically a shoe in for next year's game of the year. And that's like really frustrating. But yeah, it is what it is, I guess. You never know, though, did we've looked at the list of people who vote on these? They are not capital G gamers. So, you know, that's true. That's that is true. Sometimes you get like a random wild card in there. We'll see. Best adaptation. We had the last of us season two. Haven't seen it yet. Not surprised it took it over like literally anything else. Yeah. Like I hope to be something like Devil May Cry or something like that. I think it was controversial, but not. Not shocking. Like it's it's it was a little controversial amongst like fans, I guess. But it works for critics and the type of people who would vote on this. So best ongoing game. So this is one that I think I was hoping was held diverse, too, just because it would be something new. But it's no man's sky. And you know what? This is an award. I'm OK with someone winning more than once because it means that you've continued to improve your game to the point where people are like, hey, you know, it's even better than it was last year. No man's sky. And while I've tried to get into that game seven times and cannot, I appreciate the dedication of that dev team. What a what a story for no man's sky, man. Like game coming out and basically I think I say this every year because this keeps winning, right? Like it it just absolutely flops on launch. Nobody likes it. Everybody is like, what's up with all of your grand promises? This game sucks to now being like one of the most beloved of the generation and people constantly being like, no man's sky is the best ongoing game. And it's like, man, what a what a what a story. There's another game that I wish had that journey that we'll be talking about next month, but we'll just drop that little hint. Best fighting game. So this was Fatal Fury City of the Wolves, which you were telling me was the only actual like original game on this list. Yes, this is the only game that is both fully released and not some sort of like rerelease to to X KO is. Still in beta. It's technically not a like launched game. OK, Capcom Fighting Collection and Legacy Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection are both obviously collections of old games. And Virtual Fighter five is a remake of a 2006 game. So this is the only original game that thankfully it won. I didn't play it. It could be terrible, but what a bad year for fighting games. We're just always going to be OK with the game one game on the list. It's not a remake winning for sure. Yes. Yeah. Best sports and racing game. Mario Kart World. I don't think this is a huge surprise. I mean, I guess there's a world where it's like EA Sports FC 26, which I can't even stand saying that out loud. I just I miss FIFA already. Not that I ever played those games, but that is a mouthful. But yeah, no, it's cool. I mean, I know a lot of people really liked it. The soundtrack was super cool, like not not remixes, but rearrangements of old cartoons. And yeah, I mean, cool. I'm glad I won. Yeah, it makes sense. I would have been surprised if it was anything else. Like you said, I mean, something like EA Sports FC 26 could have won, I guess. But it was always going to be Mario Kart to be, and it deserves it. It's good. Something like rematch winning could have been cool, but it doesn't seem like it's really hitting the peaks of something like Rocket League did. So I don't really think there was a chance. No, I think I think this was always Mario Kart to lose. Best sim slash strategy. I think both of us knew that. We knew this was coming. The Final Fantasy Tactics remake, because even though it's the opposite situation here, this is the only one on the list that is a remake. But it, you know, it added the voice acting. This is a game that has just been beloved for so long. And I think the best we got was like an iOS version some years ago. I think there might have been like a PSP version, too. But like, that's even worse. I bought the iOS version. And then I realized that when you like go to another app or minimize to reset, it like goes back to the start screen. I was like, no fucking way am I doing this? What a horribly optimized. Yeah, I mean, this this one makes sense. It's bummed it wasn't something like the alters, but. I did find out Tempest Rising is an actual RTS that came out this year, like a traditional RPS style game. And so I know in the preview episode, we were like, what the hell is Tempest Rising? It turns out the only thing on the list I had given a shit about if I knew it existed. So, well, there was the alters, which I played. But yeah, I guess I'm gonna have to check that out. Turns out that's why like nobody knew it existed because it's an RTS in 2025. Jeff, where are you? Best audio design. We already mentioned that went to Battlefield 6. Clear Obscure was nominated, didn't win. So was Death Stranding, Ghost of Yotai, Silent Hill F. I, sure. I mean, it's like a military sim. So my guess is that the gunfire and explosions must have just sounded really cool. Kind of in the way I was describing Ark Raiders being just like different for different types of games. Types of weapons and what they impact. I mean, I don't know what makes this like win best audio design, but because I just have not played a military sim shooter in like a decade. But I think like they've done behind the scenes stuff for games like Call of Duty and Battlefield. And like they actually go to like gun ranges and take all of these guns and like record their fire and everything. Like they're very, very diligent about getting all of it to sound exactly identical to what it would actually feel like. At least, you know, obviously to the best of their ability. Right. But it's almost always a game like this that wins best audio design because it's just always so like the gunfire and the explosions and it all just sounds so realistic and da da da da da. Well, that makes sense. It's not necessarily my cup of tea, but like I get it. So best action game. We got Hades 2. That's cool. My friend was actually asking me today like, so I didn't love Hades 1. You know, I didn't hate it, but like do you think I'd like the second one? And I was like, man, it's hard for me to answer that question, but I cannot imagine not liking the first one and then liking this one. That would not make any sense to me. Yeah, I'm with you on that. It's like I think Hades 1 is a better game overall for me personally. So it's like if you didn't like that, then I don't know how you're going to like what I feel is the inferior version. But I mean, a lot of people say that Hades 2 is a better game than Hades 1. So I guess there's a chance this makes sense that it won best action. I'm not shocked by this. I think we both I think we both predicted it. It was like the clear winner in my mind just because of the legacy of Supergiant. And you know what Hades 2 and what Hades 1 was like. It's not surprising to me that Hades 2 won. But yeah, I would definitely say the original is a better game. A more fun game for me. It's not like Hades 2 does anything wrong. But if you were to line up everything the two games do and just say like, Adam, which one do you personally prefer? I think every single aspect would be how they did it in Hades 1. Wow. Does that mean you hate women? Yes, that's exactly what it means. That sounds right, Adam. I like my little like, femme boys with swords. No, I mean, it is a good game. I've put a ton of time into it. Like it's fun. I haven't, so you know, there's like the two worlds basically, like the two paths you can go down. I've beaten the Chronos one, the first one. I don't even know who's at the end of the second one. I haven't gotten that far. Spoiler alert, I think I read today that you get to meet Zagreus at some point, which is cool. And I was like, oh man, maybe I do want to play this more. But I could also just go play the first one to see Zagreus. So no, it's a good game. I'm glad it's won. I haven't played some of its competitors here. Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, Battlefield 6. But you know, this is not surprising. I am understanding why Supergiant never made a sequel before, because I think their experiences are just so unique and finely crafted that trying to top it is just like an insurmountable task. I can agree with that. I can't wait to see what Supergiant does next, assuming they leave the Hades realm, which I'm sure they will. It's going to be Transistor 2. I would take a Bastion 2 at this point. Give me a Bastion 2 and we'll see. We'll talk, Supergiant. So moving on to Best Action and Adventure Game. Here, Hollow Knight Silksong picked up a win. There were a lot of mad Hollow Knight fans that they didn't get anything else. But looking at the competition here, it seemed pretty obvious. I mean, something like Death Stranding 2, you could see maybe getting it. But I feel like both the reception, cult-like dedication by its fans, and hype around the game just sort of make it impossible for this not to take this category. Yeah, I think you couldn't ignore Silksong. It's too big. It's too, just not even like as a game necessarily, but as like a cultural video game moment, like it was too big to fail. I think it had to win something. It's one of those games I really wish I could get more into it because like whenever something is that popular and the fans are that crazy about it, I always feel like there's just something I'm missing. But it's just, I played it for like two hours and I was like, yeah, it's a really hard 2D platformer. No, I fucking hate this. And there's nothing else to be said about that. It's okay. You hate Metroid. You hate Castlevania. You hate Metroidvania. It makes sense that you'd hate Silksong. It's okay. I don't hate any of those. They were just, they were fine. They were fine. I enjoyed Metroid Fusion. Which one did we play, Fusion? Fusion, yeah, yeah. I enjoyed it because it was like eight hours long. What a great length of game. So the last one here that Clear Up Square didn't win, got Best Multiplayer. Ark Raiders took this one home. I was only a little surprised because I feel like it came along a little late in the game. Like I know it's still qualified, but I really would have thought some of the other games in the year, you know, Peak had such an explosion when it came out. Elden Ring Night Rain was really popular. Split Fiction, Battlefield 6. But Ark Raiders took this one home. I thought with FromSoftware, they weren't going to be able to pass up the Elden Ring. Like, oh, it's a FromSoft game. We have to give FromSoft something. I'm glad they did because I absolutely hated Elden Ring Night Rain. And I didn't play Ark Raiders yet. I still haven't picked it up. I know it's got some controversy going on, but I think it makes sense that this won Multiplayer. It wasn't nominated for anything else. So I think it almost had to pick this one up. There's kind of like Silksong. Like I feel like there's a very vocal group of gamers right now that are like, we love Ark Raiders. So it makes sense to me. Yeah. And you mentioned some controversy. AI and games has been a bit of a hot topic this year, to say the least. I would say that. There's a lot of different ways to discuss this. I mean, there's a lot of, I guess, avenues of discussion around AI. I don't know that you and I are the most qualified to talk about a lot of them. Most certainly not. The one I will talk about, though, is just the way people keep talking about like, our games are going to be filled with AI slop. And it's like, this is a self-correcting problem. If the game is that fucking terrible, with AI usage, people will not buy it. It will get a fucking grifting YouTube video made about it, where people rage out. It will get bad reviews. And people won't buy it. I mean, good games that come out, people don't buy, because it gets a stupid YouTube video about it. So, like, this is just not... Look at you, Star Wars outlaws. This is not a problem I am remotely worried about. There are some other, like, cursory issues that you could definitely talk about, whether it's like, you know, the unemployment and replacing people's jobs, or like, the ethical concerns, or any of this. I think that's fair enough to discuss. I think this is a waste of time to discuss. We are not in any danger, not any more than we have in the past 10 years of you being able to pay $100 and release whatever the fuck you want on Steam. Like, the amount of just, like, Unity asset flips on there, I mean, come on. Like, this is not going to be a worse situation than that. I would say that you're probably right on that. Like, all the slop games that have come out so far, because it's not like they haven't already started. Right. Like, there's already AI slop games, and people ignore them because they're not worth our time. Like, people make the AI slop, it comes out, people laugh at it, and we move on. I think there are a lot of, like you said, valid, like, ethical concerns and employment concerns and things like that, that I just think that, like, there's not a lot of nuance in those conversations right now. And maybe it's just because it's so fresh and so, like, raw. But, like, have you seen the stuff with Larian coming out the last couple of days? Yeah. And how people are, like, dogpiling Larian? And it's, like, there are people who, like, anybody who touches AI in the creative space is now Satan himself, and, like, we must excommunicate them from planet Earth. Like, and I just, I think that's such a dramatic angle to take in. And I think there's valid discussion to be had around, like, you know, concept art, and not using placeholder stuff, like, just let people make the concept art, or not using placeholder text, like, let's just write the text, or whatever it is to be said, right? Like, I understand people want to have those discussions, and that's fine, but to just villainize outright anybody who touches AI in a creative space is crazy. Like, there has to be some nuance around these conversations, I think. Yeah, dude, it's just kind of the fallout of our, like, extremist online discussion. Where, you know, it's, I'm team AI. Ah, boo. Go team not AI. And there's, like, hardly anything more to it than that a lot of times. You have weirdos on both sides. I mean, you definitely have the people who are like, I can't wait to download my brain to a machine. And, like, you know, all these people are a little silly in my mind, but, like, at the end of the day, AI is such an umbrella term, too. So people are just using it incorrectly all the time. Like, people think AI is you say, draw me a picture of myself, my cat looking like a person. Like, they actually think... Right. Like, people are like, oh, my God, they used AI to make that? Where's, like, the soul of the human art? It's like, dude, they did not type in, like, hey, chat GPT, make me a game that's a JRPG in France, and then hit enter. Like, this didn't fucking happen. Like, I feel like a lot of people who say things like this have never used this shit, and they pride themselves on having never used it, but they sure are really eager to talk a bunch of garbage about something they don't have made no effort to understand. Yeah. I think AI is, you know, I understand all the concerns about it, and I get it. I think it's here to stay, though, and we have to, at least for now, right? I mean, the bubble could burst at some point, but right now, it seems like it's here to stay. I mean, we're seeing what's happening with, like, RAM, and there's, you know, stuff with graphics cards again that are about to, like, spike in prices because AI is consuming all of it. Like, it's here to stay for a little while. We're in a world where, like, it's being pushed, and you can either completely ignore it and, like, put your head in the sand or try and figure out how to make it as ethical as possible and, like, work within the realm of it. And I think, you know, a lot of people are going to try and be like, ah, there's no ethical use of AI. And it's like, well, okay. Like, if that's your stance, that's your stance. That's fine. Like, whatever. But I just don't think that's realistic for the majority of the world to just completely ignore it, right? Like, we have to find a way to work within the confines of society and figure out how we can avoid, like, some of the copyright issues and stuff that come in with, like, it scrubbing all the internet to, you know, use a bunch of copyright material to train itself and all that stuff. Like, I understand those concerns, but we got to find ways to work within the system instead of just blowing it up. I'm definitely a little biased because I don't think I've ever heard, like, people talk about art in a way that makes you think, like, oh, I'm going to let these guys roll straight to the back of my head and, like, drive me. There's just this, like, oh, but art is, like, the fucking encapsulation of the human spirit, and it's this and that, and it's, like, in my mind, a painting on the wall is not any more valuable to humanity than the guy putting your car together on the assembly line, and no one gave a fuck when that guy's job was taken. So, like, relax. And I'm not saying that's, like, a policy directive. I would hope people in charge of policy are thinking about it a little harder than I just did. I mean, I don't know. The whole thing just kills me. And again, it's because, like, even when the Larry and Sven, whatever his name is, was talking about that, he's like, look, I haven't necessarily noticed any huge, like, production increases or anything, but it's another tool that our artists can use, so, like, let them use it. Whether or not, like, it ends up being useful, we'll see, but, like, I promise you, we're not putting in AI art into the game. Like, that's not a thing we have any desire to do or are going to do. And the man ends up having to go on, like, a four-day PR run where he's on different, like, sites doing interviews and posting on Twitter because people are idiots. And they cannot, like, actually read an interview for what it's saying. And instead, it's like, wait, wait, wait. Is there a way I can misconstrue this to support what I'm thinking already? Let me go to the comments and rant about it. Yeah, I think it comes down to the people who, like, just genuinely believe there's no, there's no ethical use of AI in any way, shape, or form, and that, like, it's just a grievous sin. And, like, you're just not going to change those people's minds, and it is what it is, right? Like, if they believe that AI is evil, then that, you know, like, no matter what you do with it, they're going to say it's evil. And it is what it is. You know, you can't convince them otherwise. But I think for the people who are willing to have a more nuanced conversation about it, like, we have to look at what Larian's doing and say they're not trying to churn out AI slop. Like, they're using AI as a tool to help their developers get their job done more efficiently and more creatively. Like... Yeah, and, you know, again, there are real issues around it, and I'm glad the people who are discussing those are doing so. But there is just a contingent of people who are, like, the descendants of the people 40 years ago that were like, I'm not going to use email, there's no future in computers. It's just the same shit. We'll see what happens with that. It will definitely be interesting, especially because I think there's such a weird backlash to it. I think a lot of these companies are just going to lie about it. I think they have looked at two very beloved companies over the last few days, Sandfall and Larian, talk about AI use and the response they've gotten. They're like, let's just fucking lie. Why be truthful to the fans? Because they're psychotic. So I think all you're going to see is people covering it up. Right, we're just going to say we didn't use AI, even if we did, because why would we ever admit it and watch the rabid fanbases eat us alive? Yeah, it's just not worth it. Speaking of rabid fanbases, there was a couple big announcements at the Game Awards, too. That I think we should cover here real quick. There were. If you want to start at a particular one, I was going to go from the top of this list. Well, I just think there's one that makes the most sense to lead off with, because it was the thing that started the show. The proper show, I guess. I will say, this is my first time ever watching this all the way through. I think I even missed the first ten minutes. I usually just get my Austin recap the next day. Austin Intelligence, that AI recap. It's perfect. So, I was We'll talk about the one that people have just been talking shit about all week in a little bit, but I was not expecting the first one to be just oh my god. Yeah, so Jeff opens this show, this first world premiere announcement with a teaser trailer for Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic. Woo! I guess like a sequel to Nights of the Old Republic 2 or the Old Republic MMO, we don't even really know yet. All we know is that it's directed by Casey Hudson of obviously Nights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect fame. What a mind-blowing announcement to lead with. This game may not come out for another five years. 2030, or at least. Right. I think I think I saw they were shooting for 2029. It's like oh my god. Someone you know and love. We'll be dead by the time this game comes out. I don't know who, but someone you know. That's an insane statement, but probably accurate. But like. Go ahead, sorry. No, just like what a and it opens up in a way where it's like you're not 100% sure what it is, but like as it progresses slowly but surely through this trailer, it's like man, this is looking a little Star Wars-y. Yeah, because it just started off with someone in like a spaceship, like a Starfighter type thing, but there wasn't anything necessarily that screamed like Star Wars about it. But then they land on this planet, and they get off, and there's like a robot and someone with a big blaster walking with this person, and they were wearing like robes. And you and I were instantly like Star Wars, Star Wars. Right, like this has gotta be Star Wars. And then the lightsaber ignites at the end of the trailer, and it's just like They leave like just enough doubt that it could be Star Wars up to that point. I mean, this still could ultimately be like just some sort of sci-fi setting. Like maybe it's a little Dune-ish, like maybe a Mass Effect thing. But then it's just and her face glows blue, and you're like yes, yes, it's exactly what we thought it was. And then hitting it with the Old Republic is just like oh man, what a beloved franchise, and a beloved series, and just, ah what an announcement. I was so hyped for that. It got me like just so amped up for the show. And unfortunately I don't think anything else quite hit the peak of that in the show. No. They set themselves up for failure in that regard this year. They really did. It really should have been the last trailer I don't know like what happened there with just arrangement of the show, but like what a killer opener though. Do you think, I mean I'm sure there is a good reason, but like, so I mean obviously Disney could use Knights of the Old Republic 3 if they wanted to, but they're very much not doing that. Because this is a game developed under a Lucas Games studio now, right? So. Yeah, yeah. I think it's I believe it's trying to maybe tie it into like the High Republic era. Mmm. Which is why we're seeing fate of the Old Republic, right? Like it's giving this this idea that like it's happening at the tail end. So maybe we'll see like a transition of like this is how the Old Republic falls and leads to the High Republic or something like that. Yeah, that's interesting. That's kind of that's kind of the vibes I got from it. This trailer really gives like nothing away. Um, like there is, there is almost no doubt in my mind that there's like not even a story concept yet for this game. Oh, yeah, no chance. Like, there's just somebody said we're gonna make another Knights of the Old Republic game and they were like throw together like a cool CG trailer to get people excited and that's what happened here. And they drove out Casey Hudson to the awards because they were like, look, we got the director from the one you guys liked. Remember that one? Like, hey, remember that guy? And like they really focused it on his face and he's like, hey guys, like. Oh boy, do we remember Casey Hudson? But that's for next episode. So. Man, you're really laying on the teases here. So there's definitely a lot of room for them to play around with because if I recall, Knights of the Old Republic took place 5,000 years before the movies. And then the Old Republic MMO is only like 300 years later from that. So there's tons of space for them to do whatever the hell they need to. Yeah, yeah. I'm excited for it. I mean, not more than I can be knowing that this is basically like a thought in someone's head at this point. But I, you know, I'm sure as we get closer to the release, I will be very, very excited for it. Oh, yeah. This is easily gonna shoot up to like one of my most anticipated games, obviously. So one of the next big announcements was Divinity. And to me, surprisingly enough, not Divinity Original Sin 3. Which made me wonder if it was going to be like their older action games, or action RPG games. Turns out, no. They have basically already said it is a turn-based RPG. So I thought it was interesting that they're not doing Original Sin. But there is maybe some like universal baggage going on with their Original Sin. And maybe they want to explore like other aspects of their older Divinity games, just with the systems that they're now more familiar with. But yeah, that'll be interesting. It was a really dark trailer, if I recall. Yeah, really like graphic and like there was like a lot of like sex and nudity and like people dying and like dude getting burned alive and shit. Like it was an intense trailer for sure. I actually saw some people like being like, when did we stop like putting like warnings up in front of trailers? And it's like, yeah, that's maybe a good question. Like maybe there should have been like a, like this is definitely an M-rated trailer kind of warning. That is an interesting point, because I do feel like that that is the kind of thing that maybe should have had some sort of content warning. Even if all of it said was, you know, your classic like viewer discretion advised. Um, there was really nothing. It's just No, it's just like went straight into this like really graphic dark trailer. Which I mean like whatever for me, but like I can understand if you're like watching this with your kids or something or like kids in the room and then they like turn and seeing a man getting burned alive and like people having sex in an orgy. Like maybe a little weird. Especially because like most of this award show you would definitely say is like PG at worst, right? I mean it's not Yeah, yeah. They I mean they don't even really like swear a ton or anything. Like it's, yeah, it's pretty clean. So it was, it was kind of interesting to have this like really graphic, it was really cool trailer, but. Yeah, no, it made me excited for the next one. I loved Divinity Original Sin 2. I'm always the one screaming from the rooftops that like, yeah Baldur's Gate 3 was fine, but I loved Original Sin 2. So I'm excited to see what they do next with that universe for sure. That might be a podcast game one day because I don't think I've played Original Sin 2. Oh god, can I play the intro for an eighth time? We'll see. So another one I thought was super interesting, although is just to be clear like 100% CGI, probably about as far along as Fate of the Old Republic, was a Dungeons and Dragons game called Warlock. Now, I've always been fascinated with games in the D&D universe that are not just trying to be D&D. Like, Baldur's Gate 3 did an amazing job trying to just be, like, D&D. And I think those games are great and I'm glad those are made. But I've always also been a fan of like, oh, say like the Dark Alliance games from back in the day, which were almost kind of like a Diablo style thing almost, but for consoles. Um, D&D Heroes was very similar. So it's like much more action focused and just doing something with the universe instead of trying to like, can I take a tabletop role playing set and put it in a video game? This very much seems like it's going to be like an action game. And I'm pretty excited for that because Warlocks are a very interesting class in D&D and just all the stuff with demons, I think, is something that D&D could really lean into that nothing really does except for like Diablo and I don't like Diablo anymore. So I'm interested to see where this goes, but again, like, we don't know anything about this yet. And it probably will come out around the same time as Fate of the Old Republic, so. Yeah, the trailer looked fine, but I'm kind of with you, like I don't, it's hard to know anything about it yet, and it doesn't, the D&D name doesn't carry like Star Wars weight for me. Right. So, uh, kind of an okay trailer, but nothing that I got super excited about. However. However. When they dropped the trailer for Control Resonant, the sequel to Control, that I was very excited about. That looked awesome, man. What a sick trailer. So you play, seemingly, right, I guess we don't know if you play as Jesse at all, the protagonist from the original game, but you definitely play as Dylan, her brother, who you rescued in the first game, and like he has some like cool transforming like melee weapon thing. It looks like they were going more like character action game almost, um, with some of like the melee combat and stuff, so like I'm really interested to see how that game pans out. Uh, Control is super unique and super weird, and like that ash maze section is still one of the like all-time awesome sections in a video game, so very excited for Control Resonant, really cool presentation at the awards, like I'm all about that. There was a part in the trailer where he has these two weird bladed looking things, and he's facing off against these monsters, and he like slings the blades off of them. And me and you were both like, why would you do that? And then the camera spins around, and he just turns one into like this giant metal hammer, and I was like oh, this is gonna be so cool. Cause... Oh, yeah. Control had strange guns. There was like collections of parts floating in the air and stuff, so I really cannot wait to see what they do with like, uh, kind of a more melee centric approach. And the gameplay we saw looked friggin' cool. So, I'm excited. Remedy's just so cool with all the like weird shit they do with all their games, like they they always do weird stuff, and I'm here for it, always. Yeah, shout out our Alan Wake episode. Tomb Raider Catalyst and Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis. So if I recall, they basically announced at the same time hey, new Tomb Raider, like moving on from the new trilogy, we have like a new, a new Tomb Raider reboot. A new new Tomb Raider. And basically looking like in the same style of like graphics and engine and everything, Legacy of Atlantis, a complete remake of the very first Tomb Raider. That I'm actually way more excited about than Catalyst personally. Yeah, both of those looked really cool. I I personally am a little disappointed they're getting rid of Camilla Luddington as the lead voice actress. I think they confirmed that they have recasted Lara in with a new role. I get it, it's fine, I understand, but I was very excited. I really liked her performance in the original trilogy, but both of these games look really cool. Like I'm excited to see what they do with it. And I never played the original Tomb Raider, so like I don't have like a comparison point, but the Legacy of Atlantis looked really cool. I never played them super extensively, like these were one of those demo disc games for me, so I played the first level of a lot of these. But I do think, they released Tomb Raider Anniversary at one point, which was kind of like an HD version of the first one, and I played that a little bit. They're really fun games. I really hope they don't like, I don't know how to say this without getting under your skin here, they don't Uncharted my Tomb Raider. Let me miss the ledges I grab. Let me fall. Let me have to actually look around at where I'm supposed to climb things. I do not want on-rails parkour, because that is like 80% of why these games are fun. I can definitely see Legacy of Atlantis maybe doing that. I think Catalyst will be Uncharted Tomb Raider. Sure, that I agree. I definitely see a world where they try and recreate that experience for the original though. It'll be interesting to see, but damn did both those trailers not look good though. I mean I thought they were just beautiful. They did. Both trailers looked really, really good. Tomb Raider is one of those classic franchises that even if it's never been super my thing, I think it's cool that they're making new games in a beloved franchise. I have a guilty pleasure for reading gamer bro responses on the internet around things like this. Of course. It's just like a train wreck I cannot look away from. Naturally I was like, oh what are they saying about new Lara Croft? Let's go to like, I don't know, there's these subreddits I won't even give them the shout out. But I go and they're actually like, I don't know man, her boobs look big enough to me. And I'm like, wow, okay. It looks like we have the G Gamer approved Lara Croft redesign here. Jesus. So, speaking of, it's actually not on this list, but I wanted to bring it up real quick. We did see another trailer for Resident Evil Requiem. Oh yeah. The new Resident Evil. And we got our first look at Leon in that game, kind of older Leon doing his classic Resident Evil shit. And that looked cool too. I haven't even played Village, but I like seeing Leon back. I know people were assuming that he'd be back, and I think it had been predicted for a long time, so actually seeing him show up in the trailer was cool. I believe this one's actually going back to Raccoon City. So the idea that you wouldn't have at least him or Claire come back would just be insane. So yeah, it does make sense. Right, like why, yeah. So I thought that was cool to see classic character coming back is always cool. You know what was not fun to experience whatsoever? You really did not like this. I don't want to be too much of a hater, because I'm not, I mean, I didn't even know this game existed until like a week ago when we did our preview episode, so it's not like it's really that big a deal. But they, so there's the 007 First Light game coming out, and they have someone come out from the studio and kind of talk about it. And then she starts talking about like, iconic villains and how important they are to James Bond. And you're like, yeah, awesome. Like, what's the villain reveal? What's this going to be? And it's like, Lenny Kravitz is playing some guy that just kind of looks and acts like Lenny Kravitz, who, if you've ever seen him outside of his music, is a very low energy guy. And I just thought it was the most bizarre, bizarre, bizarre, trying to emphasize, b-b-b-bizarre casting choice I've just about ever seen. Now, we only got a few clips, right? We don't even know for sure if he's like, the main, main villain. So I'm not going to like, lose my mind over this. But I was definitely just had like, one eyebrow raised to that entire presentation. Like, do they understand what like, the average age of a gamer is? Do they understand the last time Lenny Kravitz was relevant in popular culture? Like, what, what was this? But um, he, he, he seemed very thankful for the opportunity. And he seemed very excited to do it. So, in that sense, like, you know, good for him. Lenny Kravitz played a great role in the first two Hunger Games movies as Cinna, all I'm saying, he was great in those. That's like the only, that is the only acting performance I know of Lenny Kravitz. So, you know what, it's not his first acting job. I'm glad to hear that, at least. Yeah, see, there you go. I thought this trailer was fine. It didn't bother me the way it bothered you. I, I don't know if I'm going to play this game, because I just, I'm not a big, like, James Bond guy. But, I'll, I mean, I'll probably check it out, right? I mean, it's, it's coming off the legacy of like, stuff like GoldenEye, and you know, it's like, okay, are we gonna get a cool, like, new James Bond game? Yeah. We'll see. I'm also very picky, though, because it's like, you're either Jennifer Hale and Ben Starr, or you're fucking garbage. So, that's, that's my voice actor scale. That's fair, that's fair. Another big announcement, um, something I think we all knew was eventually coming. Total War Warhammer 40K. So, they had done the fantasy Warhammer games over the past few years, and that made a little more sense, because Total War is rooted in, like, you know, it's like Rome, Total War, medieval Total War. The most technologically advanced Total War gets is, uh, the 18th century Empire Total War, right? So, going to a setting that, you know, like, I think in Warhammer fantasy, like, the dwarves have cannons, and some of the humans have, like, musket-type things. They're, like, modeled after the Holy Roman Empire. But they're not, like, machine guns. They're not, um, flying, like, spaceships and cruisers and stuff. So, it will be really interesting to see how they adapt the gameplay to, like, everything having destructive ranged weapons, because so much of the Total War games is about, like, managing your front line of, like, you know, your hoplites or whatever, and getting your cavalry around the side to flank, and, like, I'm not saying it's, like, a real military simulation, but there's some level of, like, uh, military strategy of the period at play in the gameplay, right? I don't know how they're going to adapt to something, and I think that's probably why they didn't start with 40K, because I do think 40K is more popular than fantasy. So, it may have made more sense. I would 100%. But, I think that's why they didn't. That makes sense. I have not played any of the Total War games. I probably own, like, three of them through Humble Bundles or whatever, but I've never actually played any of them. I know Jeff of this podcast, not Jeff Keeley. Those two names, you know, it's got a... Jeff of this podcast probably, like, freaked out as soon as Total War Warhammer 40K was announced. I'm sure that's, like, his match made in heaven. Right. Yeah, this looked interesting. As, like, somebody who likes 40K in general, like, I was interested. I don't know if I'll pick it up because it's, you know, RTS, but... Yeah, I mean, kind of. It's not, like, Age of Empires or Starcraft RTS, but there are, like... Sure. In fact, if you couldn't pause battles, I wouldn't play these fucking games. So, it's pause time combat for me. Pause time strategy. Fair enough, fair enough. Maybe this will be a good entry point into the series for you. Who knows? Maybe. It'll be interesting to see what the do to try to make it a little more accessible because, like, I will say, there are elements of these games that are a little complex, for sure. I believe that. I 100% believe that. Nothing complex about this next game, man. Just pure fun. Star Wars Galactic Racer, aka Star Wars Pod Racer. I mean, that's what it looked like to me. Yeah, I mean, this is Pod Racer 2. I mean, I saw this and I was like, holy shit, is this Star Wars Pod Racer? That's Pod Racer. And it basically was. It was just, it's Pod Racer 2, man. Yeah, this looked really cool. I didn't even really grow up playing Pod Racer or anything, but give me my Star Wars Pod Racer sim. I'm here for it. I want it. I will definitely be picking this one up. It's a no-brainer for me. Give me my Pod Racer sim. No, I'm excited about this one, though, just because it's a high-budget Star Wars game that we'll get before the next decade? Before the 30s? Yeah, yeah. That's true. That's true. Mega Man Dual Overdrive. I can't even remember much about the trailer for this one, but just like a new Mega Man game. And it was like a 2D Mega Man game, right? Yeah, yeah. A new Mega Man from Capcom. It's been quite a while. I don't know when Mega Man 11 came out, but it's been a while. And yeah, this just looked cool. I don't have much to say about it because it was a pretty short trailer. It's 2027. It's still a ways away. But it was cool. I mean, it just looked like classic 2D Mega Man from Capcom again. So yeah, I'll probably check it out. I love 2D games. I love 2D platformers. It's like my brand. I have a huge fondness for Mega Man X1 and 2. Or I guess Mega Man X and Mega Man X2. Whatever you call that. Oh, dude. X2 is so good. Yeah. I played the shit out of those games back on the Super Nintendo. I'd probably say actual Super Nintendo, so not later when I got into emulation a lot, but actual physical Super Nintendo. I might not have played a game as much as the Mega Mans. I mean, those were so much fun. And that was always my go-to when I'm looking at my stack of games that my uncle got me because he was doing some sales at the time and he got free Super Nintendo games. I'm like, yeah, there's Jimmy Connors tennis and pilot wings, which are all great games in their own right, but I could also just beat Mega Man X2 for the 30th time. Yeah, I mean, the only reason I ever played X2 was because I got your old hand-me-down Super Nintendo that you were forced to give me. So I played a shit ton of X2 as well on your copy of X2, probably. So, yeah, I love those games. Excited for this one. The last thing I want to get to before we talk about the sort of weirdly received final reveal. Guild Wars 2 announced another expansion, which is cool. I've never been able to get into Guild Wars 2 that much, but I have a huge fondness for that company, ArenaNet, and I'm always glad to see them having made a game that is successful enough to have made three or four expansions now. Especially in that space, which is really competitive because it's like, if you're not WoW or Final Fantasy XIV, you're dead within a year and a half. So I think it's cool they're still going. They also have released a recent update for Guild Wars 1, which was one of my all-time favorite games, so I might go back to that at some point, just kind of check it out. It's not really an update. I'd say it's more of quality of life and modernization enhancements. But it's okay, because I think the original game is still so good. It's finite. I mean, how many of these types of games have a point where it just ends? So that's my favorite part about it. But yeah, Guild Wars 2 expansion, cool props to ArenaNet for still kicking. Yeah, I don't know much about Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2, so I don't have much to say about that, but it's cool that they're still putting stuff out for that. So this last one. You know, I mentioned I've never really watched these before, so I didn't realize that there was a huge expectation for what the last game announced was. I didn't necessarily have the response to this trailer that a lot of people seem to, but that might be because I didn't realize that I was supposed to be spending four hours getting hyped up for this final reveal. I don't think it necessarily looked that bad, but I'm not sure what it looked like was my big issue with it. So this was a game called High Guard, and Geoff Keighley announces it by saying, like, former devs of Apex Legends and Titanfall, and then also that this game would be coming out very soon. He's saying, oh, all the times at these awards we get the first game, Fate of the Old Republic, which some of people listening to this will not be alive by the time that comes out. This one's coming out next month. Everyone's like, that's, all of those things sound cool. Let's see what we got. And then I don't know, man. I thought I was looking at a Borderlands for 90% of that trailer because I did not see any of these people shoot another playable character the entire damn time. It was riding around on magic horses and shooting, like, NPCs. And I was like, this could be interesting. And then suddenly it's like, intense PvP combat from the makers of Apex Legends. And I'm like, where? Where? When? I'm 100% with you on that one because for half the trailer, I was like, okay, this looks kind of cool. Like, I like the magic horses. I don't mind the art style. Like, okay, this is, you know, I was thinking something like Titanfall 2 campaign. I mean, people talk about that campaign as if it's, like, one of the best shooter campaigns of all time. So I'm like, okay, like, we're gonna get a cool story and, like, some cool level design. And stuff. And, like, we have these magic horses and all these different weapon types and stuff. And, like, this could be really neat. And then they're like, free to play! PvP! And I'm like, wait, what? This is a multiplayer game? Okay. It was a really weird presentation of a trailer. Like, it's it's, it looks like it could be fun. And the fact that it is free to play is like, okay, I'll probably play it then. Like, no harm, no foul. I'll try it out. But it was a really weird delivery, especially whenever the excitement for these games is the excitement for these final announcements is so high. I mean, I think last year the final announcement was the reveal of Okami 2. I mean, like, I know both of us are huge Okami fans. I wasn't gonna say anything. I mean, you know, I think we both, it turned out not to be huge Okami fans, but, like, what a beloved game amongst a large portion of gamers. And, like, to have that be the last reveal was huge. And I think the year before that was Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth as, like, a first full trailer where you actually got to see the game. Like, big announcements. And to hit us with this kind of weird, like, character action, like, hero shooter, Overwatch clone potentially, maybe, kind of game was... It was a weird choice, I think. It seems like it just didn't land with any audience it could have, right? Like, the people anticipating something cool for four hours didn't get what they wanted. People who were into, like, PvP shooters don't seem to be happy with what they got. People who were really into the trailer until the part where it said free-to-play multiplayer didn't get what they got. So, yeah, man. I feel bad for these guys, especially because the way Geoff Keighley was describing it, he seemed to have this infectious incitement about it that I have to assume extends from the developers themselves. And it was just, like, such a wet fart of an announcement at the end. Yeah. Like, he... It seems like Keighley really believed in it, right? I mean, he was, like, he was excited about it. And, you know, some people were theorizing that, like, maybe he had a different plan for the last game, and it fell through last minute, so they had to pivot to Highguard as the last game, and, like, he just wanted to hype it up, and, you know, kind of... But, I mean, it sounded like he really believed in it, and it sounded like he got to play it, actually. So, like, maybe when you get your hands on it, it feels good. I mean, Titanfall and Apex both are really, like, good-feeling games, so I can see it playing really well. But, yeah, just, like, presentation-wise, it did not do much for, I think, really anybody. Yeah. Dude, it may be a great game, and I hope it is. And it's free, so, like, I'm sure we'll try it out for a few matches. But I just don't think this trailer was it. For sure. I just don't think it landed. No, no, it was not. Alright, let's move on to our game of the year, and our favorite games of this year, because our opinions are way better than the multitude of journalistic outlets that vote on the Game Awards. For sure. We hate all those guys. Let's start with the bottom of our list first, I think. Do we want to talk, like, honorable mentions? I don't want to talk about every single thing we have under all of these, necessarily, but let's at least talk about one dishonorable mention apiece. And I'm gonna take FBC Firebreak. Because, like, I had heard about this game a little bit. I would not say I was super, you know, hyped for it or anything like that. I wasn't really anticipating it. But, just, I love Remini's games. And I thought, you know what? If they're doing this style of game, they must have some pretty cool ideas for some really interesting, like, twist on it. No. It's just, no. I mean, I guess, you know there's like three different classes you could pick, and a couple of them were a little weird. You had to use, like, the goo to put out fires or something. And there was a little mini game when you're redoing your or you're reloading. You have to, like, alternate back between what was, like, left bumper and right bumper or something. And you will, like, fill up your ammo stash faster. So there was, like, a couple interesting ideas sprinkled throughout. But for the most part, this felt like the most boring version of Left 4 Dead I've ever played. I was about to say, I think at the end of the day, because we played a bit of this together, and I think at the end of the day, it was just, like, it just wasn't very fun. I think maybe the mechanics weren't tight enough or, like, sharp enough to, it just felt kind of, like, floaty and loose and, like, the shooting didn't, like, bring me in and really make me want to engage in the actual combat of the game. So it was kind of like, well, if I'm just playing this for, like, the weird you know, Left 4 Dead parts of it, those aren't really all that compelling either. So, it, yeah, it did not land for me either. It sucks, man, because, like, Remedy games, I love Remedy's games, but every one of them had to be these, like, really, like, long, expensive, artistic projects that take a while to finally, like, nail down. And then when they release, they never sell enough copies to, like, make the money back. That's part of why Alan Wake 2 is still only on Epic Games Store, because that game would never have been made if Epic didn't pay for it. And they're not about to put it on anyone else's platform. Which I think is crazy, because I personally think even Epic would be making more money if that was on Steam, but regardless. So I'm, I really wish this had succeeded for them, because their idea was, like, we need something to keep bringing in revenue so we can keep making what we're good at, and not worry about our studio going under. Man, all you do is create another expensive game, but this one's a train wreck instead of actually being critically well-received. I think Control did pretty well for them, which is why I guess they thought, like, let's try and do something kind of in that universe, and kind of do something with that lore. But, yeah, this one did not land in a way that I think, really, even it being on Game Pass didn't really help. I think it made people excited about it. So we've already shit on Night Rain on this show, so why don't you tell me a little bit about your disappointment with Assassin's Creed Shadows? Yeah, I mean, we hated Night Rain, it's just, I hate all FromSoft games, but Assassin's Creed Shadows was a game that I was really looking forward to, because I like the idea of putting an Assassin's Creed in Japan, and I think, like, that's always been a cool idea, but I think the idea of it ended up being less stellar for me than the execution. Everything just kind of felt the same as all the other Assassin's Creed, but like, unfortunately Japan, at least the parts of it that I played, was, like, a less interesting environment than Greece in Odyssey. It was just a lot of open fields, and, like, there was a couple cool towns that had castles and stuff that I was like, okay, this could be cool, but then they all kind of felt the same, and the mechanics of all these Assassin's Creed games haven't changed since Origins, like, ten years ago, and I think I'm just, I think I'm done with Assassin's Creed, unfortunately, and I thought Shadows would be something that would, like, bring me back into it and, like, really get me excited, but it just didn't work for me. Mirage came out last year, I believe, and that one was supposed to be more of, like, a lower budget, smaller scale, more like Assassin's Creed 1 kind of Assassin's Creed, and I thought that one was pretty interesting. I think it also takes place in, like, the Middle East again, right? Yep. And it was pretty fun. I didn't get super far into it, but I was like, I think this kind of succeeds at what it's trying to do. I'm not really sure what Assassin's Creed Shadows was trying to do. I mean, you know, the whole Shadows idea was that they're actually, you know, these are the guys who made Splinter Cell way back in the day, Ubisoft, right? They know, or someone at that studio once, at least, knew how to make really good darkness and light systems for stealth. I don't know what happened here, but it's basically just, like, if you see a giant candle, shoot it so that they don't instant detect you. And that's, like, that's it. I didn't care for it too much. Another thing that really stood out to me, dude, and I know I'm always complaining about voice acting, but, like, after coming off of Claire Obscure, every time someone spoke in this fucking game, I was like, why was this even worth the time in anyone's mind? Especially because, I don't know how else to do this, but, like, all these games, it's just, like, if someone speaking English with a really heavy Japanese accent, and it just, a lot of times it just sounds awkward. Um, I don't know if it would be better for them to just only do a Japanese recording and put subtitles in. I know a lot of people don't like subtitles, but, like, I just found the voice acting in this so bad it was actually distracting. And maybe that was just purely coming off of Claire Obscure, but I could not stand it. It's not very good, and it doesn't help that, like, I don't think a lot of the characters or story or anything were particularly interesting, at least up to the point that I got. So, like, not only is the voice acting not particularly great, but nothing really makes you want to listen to the voices anyway, because it's not all that compelling. So, I mean, I think this game sold really well for Ubisoft, and, like, critically, I think it did pretty well, so it's not like it was a failure by any means. It just didn't work for me. Let's move on to our honorable mentions before we actually get into our top five. Uh, we'll just pick one a piece. I think I'm going to start with Ark Raiders. Um, we've already talked about that a good bit, so I won't say much, but, good god, what a damn fun game this has been. Um, I actually haven't played it in a couple weeks, because I was playing with Chris and my brother, and we've kind of just had, like, scheduling issues. Um, but so many cool things that it's done. I do know now there is a lot, like, I was talking to my brother last night, and he's like, I might be kind of over this now. And I was like, ah, let me guess, you got, like, killed at extraction three times in a row by someone with no life? And, like, yeah, that's basically what happened. Um, there are people playing this game in a way that I think a lot of people are not enjoying. And while I don't think there's any thing, like, illegitimate about, like, camping the extraction, uh, you do risk, I think, turning away certain types of players if you don't have some system to discourage that. Uh, we, did you play The Division 2 with me? No, that was Connor. Um, they had an interesting system in their, like, dark zones, where if you started shit, you'd get, like, marked with a skull, and people could see that you started shit. And if you stopped starting shit for a period of time, your skull would disappear. If you continued to start more shit, you would get a bigger skull that appeared, like, on the map permanently until you extracted whatever, right? But there was rewards for being that guy with the big skull, so there's kind of this give and take, there's risk and reward. Here, there just seems to be a gameplay loop that doesn't punish you for just being a dick, and I think that's kind of turning away some of the more casual players. Like, I, I don't care if someone shoots me in the face. If I, if I walk up and I'm like, hey, are you friendly? And they turn around and kill me with a shotgun, that's my fault, right? But if you say, like, oh yeah, we're friendly, and then I turn around to loot, and then you shoot me in the back, you're a little, you're a little bitch. Um, like, and they're just, it just doesn't seem to be any built-in mechanics to discourage some of the more, like, toxic behavior. So I do wonder if that's an issue that's going to become, like, more and more pressing for them. But so far, man, I've, I've really enjoyed the game, and I will be interested to see, like, how they deal with situations, uh, like that. I, I definitely think I will pick up Ark Raiders at some point, uh, hearing everybody talk about it, kind of hearing, you know, seeing it win Multiplayer Game of the Year, right? Like, I just had a big trip that I spent a lot of money on, so, like, was holding off, but it's New York! Um, but, uh, I, I did, I do like what I've seen of Ark Raiders and, like, what people are talking about, so I would like to at least check it out. I haven't really played any of the Extraction shooters specifically, so it'll be kind of a new thing for me, but yeah, it's, it's definitely, definitely interesting. For my honorable mention, I think I want to talk about Death Stranding 2, because I did not, I did not like the first Death Stranding, right? I played that for, like, you know, maybe five hours or six hours or so, and I was like, I don't get the Walking Sim UPS game. Like, I don't, it's not my jam. So, but, but, everybody's talking about it, everybody's hyped, and I can't resist, because it's who I am. I was like, alright, I'm gonna check out Death Stranding 2. So I watched, like, a 45-minute recap video to, like, try and understand all the lore of this game, and, like, all the BTs and the dead babies and all the weird shit going on in this world. And, and it actually does make sense when you watch it all. It's, it's still, like, Hideo Kojima nonsense, but, like, it does make sense. I think Death Stranding 2 gets you into the game so much quicker. Like, you get into the cool stuff so much faster. You get into the combat, the guns, the, like, being able to, you know, hide, like, like, some of the more stealth mechanics, some of the building mechanics, even. Like, you get a car. There's some sort of, like, base building going on, right? Yeah, there's, like, like, you can build out different areas with different abilities, and, and so, like, you, or different, uh, pieces of equipment, and the, the whole thing about Death Stranding, and the first one had this too, but I, I just find it so much more immediately, like, impactful. It's a shared world with other people, so, like, somebody else in a different game can build something in an area that you can then use. So people, like, build a generator in their game that will then show up in your game. So when I'm driving my car through the deserts, and, like, I'm, I'm running out of battery, I've found a generator that somebody else has built. So now I can use their generator, and I can, like, light that, and give them, like, uh, like, props. Like, thank you for building this generator for me. Because the whole point of the, of the game is to, like, reconnect the world. So this, in this case, you're reconnecting Australia. So, like, all of everybody else's things that they're building, and they can build, like, shelters that you could rest under, or, like, build the you know, post boxes where you can get mail and stuff, or whatever, right? Like, so, all these things are, I just feel like Death Stranding 2 gets you into that stuff a lot quicker and a lot more immediately. And I feel like it just makes it feel better. Like, all the mechanics feel a little bit tighter. It, it feels better to carry stuff. I didn't feel like I was constantly, like, tripping over myself and dropping all my boxes and stuff. And what I did, it's because I was being stupid. Um, I didn't finish the game, so it didn't make my top five, because I wasn't, I hadn't finished it. But, like, there is a lot of cool stuff there that I think is, is at work, and I am interested to maybe go back to it. It's a long game, and it's pretty deep, but there is just something really cool about, like, putting all the music in the game, because there's some, like, really cool licensed tracks that they use, and some tracks that they made, like, just for the game. And, like, putting all that music, and, like, riding through the world, and just, like, going to make these deliveries and stuff, and, like, connecting the world. It's a, it's a cool experience that I think lands a lot better in the second game for me than it ever did in the first. So, I, I assume the first game has, like, base building stuff too, right? It does, it does. So, I, I must have stopped playing, like, right before that gets introduced, I swear. I, I only play it for, like, three to four hours, but it's one of those things where it's, like, I guess base building is kind of a complicated thing in any game, so they usually wait a little while to introduce that. It's, like, an advanced mechanic, right? But, like, if everything kind of sucks leading up to that, I'm not going to get there. And that's, that's what Death Stranding 1 was for me. I think the second game introduces a lot of the concepts and stuff a lot quicker. Like, it introduces, it starts to explain things a lot quicker, so you're not having to, like, build out the mystery and all the weirdness of the world, because it's just kind of giving it to you faster. It's also, like, it's an absolutely gorgeous game, and the, like, performance is, are really strong. Like, like, Norman Reedus, Guillermo del Toro, there's a lot of impressive performances and actors and stuff that they mo-capped, and it looks really, really good. I mean, one of the best-looking games of the year, for sure. I will say, Kojima's games have always kind of pushed the boundaries of the consoles they're on. Um, I haven't played all of them, but I know at least, like, the main gear, or the mainline metal gears have always looked pretty good. Yeah, I would say it's the best-looking game of this console generation so far, for sure. High praise. At least in my opinion. High praise. So let's, let's move into our top five games of the year. There's a little bit of overlap, so we'll do this slightly out of order, in the sense that, like, if you had something at two and I had it at five, we'll just talk about it at the same time. Um, why don't we start with your number five game, which is actually my number two game, Ball X Pit. Bruh. Love, love Ball X Pit. What a fever dream. We talked about it, we talked about it a little bit. Yeah. Uh, in previous episodes, but man, just what a, what a fascinating game that I cannot believe exists. So Ball X Pit is, like, one part, you know, Brick Breaker, Arkanoid, and one part, like, city-based management builder thing, and I know that sounds like a weird combination, and it is, but it just, it just works so well, and like, you, basically between every run, you can send your little, you unlock characters, like, throughout the game that have different ways of playing the game, different play styles, and you send those guys out into your base, and they bounce around on your base, and that's how you actually collect the resources in between your, your runs of the actual game, right? So I thought that was pretty interesting. Um, the thing that's craziest about this to me, right, is the new characters you unlock, like I said, it changes the play style. And at first it's like, oh, this one, uh, it shoots the balls, like, faster, but a little more erratically. And this one is like, oh, this guy has, like, a different starting ability. But it starts to get a little crazier, like, oh, now your ball comes from the back of the screen instead of the front of the screen. Oh, now, you shoot out two lines of balls at once instead of one. And every time I thought, they can't pop possibly. Oh, now the game's turn-based. Exactly, dude. Every time I thought, there's no way they're gonna give me something even crazier, it got fucking crazier. They have a guy who just picks all the own, all his upgrades for you, so you just move him around on the screen, which I thought was very interesting. You have, yeah, the one you said, turn-based. It literally becomes turn-based, which I, I have to assume that this was a version of the game at one point. Like, this was something that they had kind of been building and pivoted from. Yeah, that's, that's an interesting, yeah, that's an interesting thought. Yeah, in the words of Mark Darrah, you know, you gotta make more things to make great things. And so, they, they probably kept iterating on this game, and, uh, they probably just were like, hey, we can take that old version we had and make it like a character thing. The last character, my guy, the last character just plays the fucking game for you. The whole thing. It shoots, it moves. Literally just everything. It upgrades. I beat, so the last level, you have to beat eight, with eight different characters to, like, get the roll credit screen. I never actually played it. I never actually played the final level. I had That's crazy. Because you eventually get a building that lets you take two characters at once, right? So part of the challenge is kind of, like, bringing in the guy who plays automatically with someone else that supplements it. And so I had to try a few different combinations to get eight that worked. Um, but, oh, I beat the game without ever actually controlling a character in the final level. Which just... That's insane. And you get to the point where, like, your resources are being collected while you're offline. You can pay gold to just, uh, send your guys out again on another run. Like another, um, resource gathering before you do another run of the game, right? The game that I was playing at hours twenty scarcely resembled the game I was playing at hour two. It was just so crazy. I think what's so, what's so impressive about Ball X Pit is just the the infectiousness of the loop. Like, going in to do a run, which is super fun on its own, because, like, Brick Breaker Arkanoid is, like, a fun game. Like, that's just, it's a fun concept. It's fun to, like, bounce balls off of things and, like, line it up correctly so you get the optimal hits and everything. But then, to take that loop and, like, throw in a bunch of, like, weird characters and abilities and, like, get upgrades that make you, you know, send lasers across the screens. I mean, there's, there's points where you're, like, wiping out the screen with, like, five balls because you just have these upgrades that are, like, causing so much devastation. And then to go from that to then going back to the city, like, base building part and organizing that to where you get your optimal bonuses. Like, you have a building that buildings that surround it will get, like, plus 5%, you know, revenue increase or, like, it'll give you more strength or whatever, right? Like, whatever the bonuses are. So then you're sitting there, like, trying to build your city, right, and make sure, like, okay, this building needs to be surrounded by this building, but also this other building could benefit here, too. So, like, how do I arrange this layout to give me optimal like, resource gathering and stat building so that when I go back in to do the loop, I'm that much more effective? Like, it combines all these elements and ultimately, like, the roguelite kind of core that wraps it all together is just so satisfying that you keep wanting to do another run. I mean, it's really one of those games where it's, like, just one more run, just one more run, you know? Like, it's 3 in the morning? When did that happen? Right, there were so many times that I was just, like, hold on, I just need to do one more run, and that run lasts, like, 45 minutes because I'm doing the turn-based one. Like, yeah, such a creative concept and, like, one-of-a-kind game that I love seeing celebrated. Yeah, dear listener, if you try nothing else out of your wheelhouse this year, let it be Ball X-Pit. It's a Game Pass game. I have it on Steam. It's not even that expensive. I can't remember what it was, but, like, it's not a full-time game. It was, like,$15 or $20 back. Yeah. I think it is easily the best $20 I've spent, I'm gonna say this year, probably in many years. It's such a good game. It's really creative. I played it on Game Pass, and, yeah, definitely worth picking up, for sure. Well, let's move up to your number four game. Tell me a little bit about Donkey Kong Bonanza. Yeah, man, Bonanza. What a year for Nintendo, right? I kind of want to use this opportunity to talk about this Switch 2 in general, because a new console launch, right, is, like, a big deal in a year, right? Even if you're not a huge Nintendo fan or whatever, like, having a new console on the market is a big deal. And the Switch 2, man, it did some numbers. It is already... I'm blown away by what you have written here, the numbers here. Yeah. As of September 30th, Switch 2 has sold 10.36 million units. It is Nintendo's fastest-selling console of all time. And it outsold the original Switch in that same time frame. The original Switch sold 4.7 million units. It has over-doubled what the original Switch sold in that same time frame. That's crazy. Do you think a lot of that is, like, a particular game? Or is it, I mean, just people are, you know, the Switch 1 was so successful people want the upgraded version. So some other stats that I had listed here that I did read, 84% of people who own a Switch 2, according to Nintendo, 84% are people upgrading from the Switch 1. So it is definitely a large number of people who, like, had the Switch, loved the Switch, and were like, I just want to play my games on a better piece of hardware. Mario Kart World has a 92% attach rate, I think is what I read. So 92% of people who own a Switch 2 also own Mario Kart World. That makes sense. It does. It was the, like, only big launch game, and it was also bundled in. So, like, most people got the bundle. There was an option to not get the bundle, but, like, nobody did. So, yeah, I think it really is just people, like, I love the Switch, I want a better piece of hardware. It's interesting to me particularly because I think and obviously this is a little bit subjective, but I think the Switch 2 has a worse Year 1 than the Switch 1, yet it sold so much better. And I guess, like, the Switch is a proven quantity now, which I think is what drew people to get the Switch 2. But, like, Switch Year 1 had Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which I think most people would say Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still a better game than Mario Kart World. I know Chris would. He told me today. Really? Yeah. See, I think a lot of people would agree with that. I think Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a better game than Mario Kart World overall. But, like, it also had ARMS and nobody bought ARMS and it kind of sucked. I have no idea what ARMS is. It's a weird janky game that it's not great, but compared to Switch 2, I mean, Mario Kart World not as good as Mario Kart 8, Kirby Air Riders, which is basically just a clone of Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bonanza, which is really good and I want to talk about more in depth in just a second here, and then Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon ZA Legends, which, Pokemon ZA Legends isn't as good as Pokemon Arceus, which is a game that people really liked on the original Switch, and Metroid Prime 4, while I have been really enjoying what I've played of it so far, has been pretty controversial. I think a lot of people have not liked it as much as maybe they expected to. So, like, Switch 2, year one, has had a lot of controversial games and games that I think people are like, eh, this isn't great, whereas Switch 1 had Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey, which are like, two of Nintendo's best rated games of all time. So, I just think it's really impressive what Nintendo managed to do with the Switch 2 with what I would argue is a weaker launch lineup. And we'll see if those sales continue on, you know, throughout the years. Who knows if it'll sell as well as the Switch over time, but what a great starting year for the Switch 2 for Nintendo. So, it kind of seems like people are not upgrading so much because of a particular game they want, as so much as knowing that, like, this is an upgrade on the machine that I already have a bunch of games I love, and there will probably be some more games I love coming out. I definitely think that's the case, because I think a lot of people, they even said, like, Donkey Kong Bonanza in particular I think only has like a 40 percent attach rate or something like that. I read, like, not a ton of people bought Bonanza compared to just, like, I want to play my old games on the Switch 2. So the best Switch 2 game this year is Switch 1 games, is what I'm hearing. Very possibly. Because, and that really sucks, because Bonanza is really good. Yeah, tell me about Bonanza. Yeah, we've talked about it a little bit before, it's Red Faction meets Mario, right? That's right, that's right. What an amazing idea, yeah. It really, like, everything is destructible. You can destroy the entire world, basically. Can you, like, blow out the ground beneath your feet and, like, fall infinitely to death, or how does that work? There is a floor, there is eventually a, like, invisible floor, but every, so, like, you start at the top of the world, essentially, right? Like, you start at the top and you're digging down. So, you're trying to reach the Banadium core or something like that, some pun on banana, right? You're trying to reach the core of this planet, whatever world you're on, right? So, you're digging down through these different terrains, and each level is like, you know, there's a fire level, there's an ice level, there's a jungle level, right? And all these levels are composed of, like, some form of rock. And as you progress, you can break stronger and stronger rock, like, quicker, right? So, as you progress through the levels, you get stronger and can break rock faster and, like, break different types of rocks. And you get these things called, um, they're like bonanza transformations. So, Pauline, if you remember from, like, the original Donkey Kong, the, you know, the original girl you're trying to save, and, uh, also from, like, Mario Odyssey, Pauline is, like, singing in New Donk City, I don't know how far into Odyssey you got, but... We were talking about this, because I was like, I remember Metropolis, I do not remember it being called New Donk City, but yeah, I know what you're talking about. Yes, yes, New Donk City. So, the Pauline in Odyssey is, like, a teenager in this game. And she will, like, sing a song, and it transforms you into a different, like, animal. So, you get, like, an ostrich, uh, Donkey Kong, which for some reason can fly, despite ostriches not being able to fly, but whatever. We don't, you know. Um... And then, like, you'll get, like, a zebra Donkey Kong that'll run really fast. And then you'll get, you know, a, like, super Donkey Kong that will punch harder and faster and hit harder and everything. So, like, you can transform to affect the world in different ways. And just a really, like, it's pure fun. It's just destroy stuff, beat up enemies, some fun boss fights, um, just, like, pure, like, platforming, like, 3D platforming goodness. A lot of, a lot of elements of, like, Donkey Kong 64 with, like, the collect-a-thon and, like, you're trying to collect a bunch of bananas and a bunch of different um, different items to buy, like, different outfits that'll give you slight adjustments to, uh, to different stats and things. Like, it's it's a lot like Odyssey, cause it's the same team behind Odyssey. So, a lot of the same kind of energy of, like, you get bananas for doing a lot of random shit, right? Like, you get moons for doing a bunch of random things in Odyssey. Uh, kind of the same energy. You'll get, like, moons for destroying enough area. You'll get a banana. Sorry, not moons and bananas. You get bananas, obviously. Right, obviously, yeah. They look kind of like moons, you know. Yeah, yeah, you know, you know, it's close enough. Um, but just, just a really cool and fun uh, twist on a platformer with all the destructible environment and stuff. Uh, really, really worth playing. It's a shame that it doesn't seem to have sold as well as, like, something like an Odyssey. And it's, it's probably cause the Donkey Kong name just doesn't have that kind of weight. But it, it's a lot of fun. I would definitely recommend it if you ever get a Switch 2. I won't. Uh, Yeah, it's fair. Well, let's move on to your number 3 game, man. Which, by the way, I completely forgot that since making our list of this document, I have downloaded this game and beaten it twice and did so in, like, a 72 hour period. Um, so, I'm not gonna go through trouble of remaking my list now, but this one should probably be on it. And that is Dispatch. Yeah, man, what a, what a gem to kind of come out at the end of the year, you know, new studio, debut indie game, if you will. Um, just kind of sliding under the radar. What a cool, like, revival of the Telltale vision, right? These are ex, ex-Telltale developers uh, from a team called AdHoc Studios. And they basically created a superhero Telltale game that I was just really, really impressed by. It's, it's so good, man. And, you know, the concept is, like, you work for a company that, like, dispatches heroes, superheroes, kind of like, you know, like a 911 dispatcher would work. And your character in particular is leading a team full of, like, reformed villains. And the humor is very, like, um, I don't even know how to really describe it. It's, like, a little edgy, but not too edgy. It's a little internet meme-y, but not too meme-y. Like, I think it's written very well. It's very tight. I was laughing the whole way through for sure. Uh, the voice performances are great. Um, I do wish I latched on to a couple of the characters more than other people seem to. Uh, but that's okay. Um, like, I'm gonna be honest, dude. The entire reason I replayed the game is because I was like, fuck Invisible Girl. I need to romance the blonde blazer. Um. That's so, that's so interesting because I was, I was an Invisigal all the way. Dude, she's just such a, like, trope-y, like, bad girl. I just, I, like, I will, I will admit this. The twist at the end was pretty well handled. Like, I'm not gonna pretend I saw that coming from a mile away or anything. But for the most part, I was just like, I don't know, man. I feel like I've met this character a hundred times before. I, I think, I think it helps that Laura Bailey does a really good performance for her. Yeah. Like, I think she, she is delivered really well. When has she ever not done a good performance? That's, I mean, that is true. I, I think you can, you can feel some of the sincerity come through. Um, like, yeah, she's got the edgy, like, bad girl stuff and, and whatever. But like, I think Laura does a really good job of getting the, the sympathy and the, like, conflictedness and, you know, those things kind of come in on the undertones that I think makes her character work really well. A lot of the voice performances are great and they're by big name actors a lot of the time. Um, so Erin Paul, you know, of Breaking Bad fame does the main character. And I, and it's a little tough with some of these guys because it's, like, hard not to just hear the characters they're most famous for. But I do feel like, for the most part, they do a pretty good job. Like, Erin Paul still sounds like Jesse, but he doesn't sound like the way Jesse talks, right? He does a good job not using the same kind of mannerisms and cadences and stuff. So I think that's pretty well done. Um, the one that was super jarring for me is that the streamer, um, Moist Critical, does one of the characters. And to me, it just sounds like he's streaming. Uh, and I don't, and it's not even necessarily a bad thing. Um, but I thought, I thought it was interesting they even went to, like, some of these content creators. Um, but, I mean, they did a pretty decent job, though. Yeah, like, I really liked a lot of his performance as Malevola. Uh, I thought she did a great job. I, I think Jacksepticeye does a good job with, uh, Punch-Up. Like, I think just that, like, trope-y, like, like, a lot of the characters are a little trope-y in, like, their presentation. But I think their delivery and the, the way they work with each other really brings them out of that. Like, the chemistry of this team is part of what makes it so compelling. Like, just hearing them banter back and forth is so fun. And, uh, you know, unlike the other Telltale games, they really don't put in a lot of the, like, uh, sort of, I don't know, like, Nancy Drew shit where you have to, like, walk around and investigate. Oh, thank God. I think God did. They have none of that, really. Like, I don't think they have any of it. No. It's so refreshing. I really think so, too, because I, the amount of times I've tried to play The Walking Dead season one and just stopped in episode three is too many times to count. I think it's just because that kind of shit is just not interesting in the slightest. Um, this game really is, like, a lot of, you know, Mass Effect-style cutscenes where there's, like, a choice you have to make, um, in dialogue, but it's mostly just a movie playing out in front of you. There's, a lot of the game is just that. Um, but there's a timer on it, which I, I love, because I think, uh, overthinking the solutions in these games or the choices are exactly what makes them, like, hit less. Like, it, to me, that feeling of, like, oh, man, I didn't think about that consequence of saying that is what really makes these games work so well. Um, so I enjoy, like, the pressure of that. The actual, I guess what you would call gameplay mechanics, the dispatching thing, I think it's a lot of fun. Um, there were definitely times I was, like, yelling at my fucking screen and, like, restarting it, and my wife was like, you know none of this is gonna matter by the end of, like, one. And I was like, dude, because I need that thing at the end of the level to say, you did better than a hundred percent of players, not fucking seventy, because I feel like a dumbass when it's says seventy. Yeah, you're far too competitive. It's okay. Uh, no, I really thought the gameplay thing was a lot of fun, too. So basically the concept, right, for people who don't know and haven't played Dispatch, you should go play Dispatch. But the concept is you get a pop-up on a map, or you just have, like, a map, and you have your eight characters listed at the bottom, and that number fluctuates. But you have all your characters listed at the bottom, and a little, like, exclamation point will pop up. And it'll be, like, you click on it, and it'll say, the, you know, this billionaire wants to have a a meeting and needs some security. Who do you want to send to do that? Or, like, this cat's stuck in a tree. Who do you send, right? So you have to look at your character's stats, they all have different stats, and you can level those up and give them different abilities and stuff. And you have to figure out, like, who's the best person to send. And that was a really fun thing to do. Like, I don't know what about it was so engaging. But I always found it fun. Yeah, because they just give you, like, a couple of keywords that, like, sort of hint at what you should be doing, but are not necessarily like, hey, this one needs strength, this one needs speed. So there is, like, just enough mystery involved, I think, to keep it interesting. The game also loves to throw a few curveballs at you now and then. Like, early on, there's a part where you'll send someone out on a mission, and then one of the other heroes will just go out and fuck with them for no reason. Because the whole plot of that particular episode is about how, like, this is a ragtag group of former villains, and there's not really, like, a lot of cohesion amongst the team yet. They don't really trust you. So, of course, they're not really, like, dedicated to the cause. And eventually, like, those things stop happening because you move past that point of the story. But I thought the way they intertwine the drama into the mechanics of the dispatching works really well. You have some stuff toward the end where it's like, you can't have too much of one stat, or else you'll fail the mission. So that forces you to not just keep using the same combinations you've been using all throughout. A lot of cool twists on it. Like I said, a couple of frustrating moments here and there, but overwhelmingly, I am with you. I thought this was a ton of fun to play. Yeah, I would honestly love to see, like, an endless mode of this or something. And I know a lot of these are, like, very specifically structured. So, like, it might be hard to do this in a way that's randomized. But it would be interesting if they could come up with a system to kind of let you do more of these and have it kind of be auto-generated or randomly generated. Because it was really cool to just, like, do these little sections and determine who's the best choices. And I love the way all the characters interact with both your main character, Robert, that you're playing as, and each other as you're going throughout. Like, all the banter is really fun and creative. Yeah, and dude, I think if I read this list now, Dispatch might be my number three, like where yours is. Huge praise for Dispatch. Definitely go play Dispatch. Moving on to your number two now, which is actually my number five, and that's Split Fiction. This one's interesting to me, man. Because I remember when this came out, big hype, people were talking about potential game of the year, and I just don't think we knew what was coming. I don't think we knew what the rest of the year held. Yeah, this one kind of fell off as far as, you know, I don't know if it fell victim to, like, coming out too early, what it was, you know, maybe it was being compared too heavily to It Takes Two, which I think, you know, there's a lot to say about Split Fiction being a more action-packed game than It Takes Two, but a lot of people would maybe argue that it's not as good as It Takes Two. Same company for people who don't know, right? Like, K's Light made It Takes Two, previous game of the year winner. And then Split Fiction kind of has the same idea, right? It's a co-op game, you have to play it co-op, and you take on two different characters, and one character has to do, like, one thing that will affect what the other character can do, and you know, both of you are engaging in the world in different ways to kind of affect what the other person is doing, throughout different creative level designs. This one's very focused on, like, storytelling, because both of your characters that you're playing as are authors, so they're writing stories, and, like, this, you know, evil company is trying to steal the stories out of their brains, so you're playing through... Seems like a little bit of, like, a ham-fisted commentary on AI, but maybe not. Who knows? You know, who does exactly what they're trying to say, but I will say that I think the premise is, like, it's not the greatest story ever told or anything, but I think it facilitates the gameplay really well, and there's a lot of interesting levels that come out of it. I loved all of the little, like, side stories that you got. There's like, throughout all the main levels, like, one level you're playing as, like, a ninja or whatever, and, like, you're, like, cyber ninja who's trying to take down this evil corporation, but you'll find like, a little bubble that's the other character's story who's more fantasy-focused, and it's like, you're, like, riding on sandworms through desert, like, dune-style, and, like, or, like, you're going through, like, these giant mountains or whatever, and, like, interacting with these giants that live in the mountains. So it's, like, these little, like, little micro-stories that I thought were really cool. Like, all of these little levels, there's one where you're on, like, a space station, and, like, there's, like, a black hole, and you're, like, running through this space station as the black hole collapses. God, dude, so cool. Like, some really, really cool, interesting level design and interesting, like, ideas here. And the last level, dude. God. But before we get to the last level, which is definitely worth talking about, I really did like the side stories because it seemed like they were the perfect way for them to just experiment and do what they wanted with crazy gameplay and visual ideas without having to worry about, like, slotting it into the overall story or atmosphere of the core world. Right? And they're really short and contained. They're usually, like, a 10 to 15 minute thing. I loved the side. The side stories were so cool. Oh, yeah. They were so awesome. The last level is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Just acid trick. Oh, my God. It's, like, all the worlds start to blend together as the simulation fails, and, like, everything is mixing together. Like, everything is starting to mix together. Like, you'll have, like, giant, like, sharks and things, like, land sharks, like, flying through the sky. Next to, like, giant spaceships. And, like, the world is crumbling down as you're, like, running through this, like, collapsing simulation. It's almost impossible to describe without playing it. It really is. I was gonna say, like, well, Austin's doing his best, but truly, you just need to go experience it. It is unlike anything. It is indescribable. It is... That last level alone kind of puts out... And it's just really cool to play with friends, right? I played it with our friend Connor. I know you played it with your wife. It's a good girlfriend game, for sure. It is, it is. I think It Takes Two might be a slightly better girlfriend game. Yeah, this one is maybe a little more frenetic. I was about to say, if your girlfriend isn't super video game savvy, like mine, like, it... We tried it, and I think she was very overwhelmed by the early levels. It was just like, there's a lot going on, and I'm not super good at figuring out how to navigate this. And I was like, that's fair. But yeah, just a great game. I think it deserves all the praise that it unfortunately hasn't really gotten in the year-end stuff. I think it just got kind of overwhelmed with some later games, but I really do think it's that good. I almost wish there was a, like, best level design, or even best, just best level. Best singular level. I think they should have a category like that, because every year a game comes out where at least, like, even if the game as a whole is fine, there's always one particular stage where you're just like, this is fucking cool. Like, whoever conceptualized this, like, A+. Yeah. This would win best level, for sure. Without a doubt. So, our game of the years are the same, so we'll discuss that in a minute. Let me wrap back around to my number five. I'm sorry, my number five is split fiction. So my number four, which was Sunderfolk, which I know was one of your honorable mentions. We did a whole episode on this, so I'm not gonna talk a whole lot, but Sunderfolk was the, uh, a game from Mike Morhaime of Blizzard. His like, new publishing house, his new studio. They made this game. It's like sort of trying to recreate a tabletop-like experience almost, but, uh, through using, like, a smartphone or a tablet, and then everyone gathered around a TV. We, of course, played it over Discord, because we live, like, miles away from each other. Um, but we both really liked this. This was super cool. Um, I really enjoyed this one. I think it would be a great co-op game. It, uh, people kept calling it, like, Gloomhaven, but accessible, which I think is a great description. And, uh, yeah, man, I was really impressed with this one, and I would definitely encourage anyone that has, like, a core group of friends who likes to play games to check this one out. Yeah, I love Sunderfolk, and like you said, it's in my honorable mentions. I really enjoyed it. Um, it didn't quite crack the top five for me, but really cool experience, and again, another, like, really great game to play with people. Like, it's such a... We don't get enough of those that aren't like, you know, just competitive shooters or whatever, right? Right. Like, having something like a Split Fiction or a Sunderfolk where you play together and engage with the world in a different and, like, more engaging way to me, at least, than, like, just straight up competitive. Like, it... Sunderfolk was really cool. We, you know, we did a whole episode. Don't... No need to rag on and on about it, but, like, it's very cool. My number three game, I think I actually talked a fair bit about in the preview episode, The Altars, so I won't go too crazy on it, but it was just kind of like a game in which you are kind of doing a day-by-day base building thing and, you know, the constraint here is that the sun on the planet you're on is gonna collapse if you don't, like, do a thing before a certain date, but the whole kind of twist on it was that you're one guy on this, like, failed science expedition, and the way that you're gonna be able to survive by making more workers is using this, like, cloning facility on your ship, but it doesn't just make clones of you, it makes instances of you from other timelines, so it's like, your main character got divorced at one point, and you can make a version of yourself where that didn't happen, and as such, like, his life played out differently and he's a different profession, so obviously, like, the reason you're making these new things is so someone can fix this part of the ship, and someone can grow food, and yadda yadda. The story coming through, the voice performances is awesome, you know, the credits are so funny because it just says, like, Alexi-whatever 11 times, all played by the same guy. That's so good. That's so good. I had a really great time with this game. It might be a little too, like, strategy heavy for some people, like, I mean, it's not like RTS kind of strategy or, like, grand strategy, but just, like, I mean, you have to think about what you're doing every day, right? And kind of build to something resembling, like, an optimal base. I mean, there are different difficulty levels, but, like, yeah, I don't know. I was really surprised by this one because I didn't know anything about it until suddenly it was just on Game Pass, and I absolutely loved my time with this one. I did play it for a little while. I didn't get super far. It didn't grab me in the same way that it did you, I think, but I know a lot of people who played it really, really liked it. Like, I've heard a lot of really good things about it, and everything that you describe, like, sounds really cool. It's definitely one that I may give another shot in the future because it does sound really neat. So my number two was Bollocks Pit. We already talked about it. You might be thinking, you put Bollocks Pit over all of it? Yes, I did. Go play it. It is so cool. It really is that good. But, ultimately, both of our game of the year is, of course, Claire Obscure Exhibition 33. We also did a whole episode on this, so no need to talk about it too much, but oh my god, what a game, dude. There really was nothing else it could be. Like, this is the year of Expedition 33. Nothing else even came close. Like, Split Fiction's cool, Dispatch is cool, whatever. Expedition 33 is a, like, transcendent video game experience for me. It immediately shot up into my top 20 of all time. Like, it is just that good. It is such a fantastic game. On my scale of Jennifer Hale to garbage, every single one of these performances is Jennifer Hale teal. I mean, they're so good, dude. Especially, like, the camp conversations. A lot of times, those can be kind of, like, less emotional or less intense than, you know, like, the cutscenes and stuff in games. I found these were great. You know, there's these, um, everyone's kind of got that thing in their past that you have to dig out eventually, and I think all of them are really interesting. The way that the game does not have you in the first act engage with any of this, because you are controlling a character who knows these people, and then brings that into the second act when you're a character who doesn't, and I thought it was just a really elegant way of mixing, like, narrative and game design. Ah, dude. And then, just not even talking about all the, like, mechanics I loved, and the combat that I loved, and the world design. Probably the worst thing about the game is that, like, it's like a traditional JRPG world map, and sometimes that's a little hard to navigate, and that's, like, the only thing I can say about this that I didn't like. It's so good. It's so good. I think the game's biggest failing is that the pacing kind of falls apart in the third act. Oh, there's that, too. I forgot I ignored most of the content in the third act. There's, like, a lot of side content in the third act. There's some really great stuff, like companion quests and stuff that you can do, where you find out more about Lunae, and more about Mael, and, like, there's some really good stuff in there, but so much of it is optional, and if you do any of it, it makes the, like, final boss kind of a joke. Um, and that's probably the only real criticism that I could levy against the game, because everything else is just phenomenal. I mean, the the story is great. The kind of themes of, like, grief, and overcoming grief, and moving on, and like, how art plays into grief, and how you know, characters and their determination, and like, what they will do when driven. All of these things, all these themes, play so well. The performances are phenomenal. The music is outstanding. The combat is some of the most fun, like, turn-based JRPG combat I've ever seen. Yeah. Just, like, being able to introduce the parry and dodge systems to make it feel a little more real-time, but, like, you still need to engage with the RPG mechanics and, like, set up your pictos correctly, get the right weapons, you know, find the right abilities and all these things, or else you will still, you will still struggle. Like, yes, if you're a masochist and want to, like, dodge and parry your way through the entire game without ever, you know, worrying about any of the RPG mechanics, I guess you can do that, but it's stupid. And I'm sure someone has. I'm sure there's a YouTube video of it right now. Yeah. And I'm sure they love, you know, I'm sure that was great for them, and whatever. If that's your thing, that's your thing, but the way the RPG mechanics blend with the, like, real-time mechanics, so smooth. One of the few games that I immediately, like, once you suggested putting it on expert, because that's what you were playing on, I was like, you know what? Yeah, let's do that. Because it's the difficulty curve is so good at, like, kind of letting you learn the patterns and perfect them to where you feel so satisfied whenever you finish a boss or, like, an enemy encounter. Just what a phenomenal game that blends every element of game design and just kind of creates this perfect, holistic vision, you know? Yeah, and I really love the dodge and parry, because the dodge has a much wider window, so it's more forgiving, but you don't get an AP every time you do it. You don't get an action point every time you do a successful dodge, right? I think there's, like, an Illumina you can equip that'll do it once per round, but the parrying, high risk, high reward, much smaller window, but every attack you parry gives you an action point. So when you, and you know, there's these types of enemies that you'll see throughout the game, and they get stronger and get a few different variations in their attacks, but it's like, you see enough of them that toward the later parts of the game, you're starting to recognize these patterns, and when you get, like, a seven chain parry off that just lets you use one of your best spells on, like, the second turn, it feels so good. And, like, maybe if you're way too good at it, you might be making the game boring. I don't feel like I ever got that good at it. So to me, it always felt like a treat when I just managed to nail, like, a perfect chain of parries. 100%. I mean, the combat is definitely probably the most, it's definitely inspired by, like, Final Fantasy X, you know, with even, like, being able to see the turn order and everything. Like, there's definitely some inspiration, a lot of this game is inspired by Final Fantasy X, to be fair. Yeah. But, but the, that dodge parry system really elevates it to kind of a whole different level. And it's, it really is so interesting to see people struggle with with that system. Like, I have a friend who's really good at, like, Devil May Cry and, like, character action games. I mean, he's played, like, all of the Devil May Cry games on the hardest difficulty and beaten them. And, like, he was getting absolutely wrecked by enemies in this game. Like, he had to bump it down to easy because he was just getting wrecked by enemies on normal. And it's so fascinating to see people struggle with. Yeah. Um, it's, it's really, really interesting game that, uh, I think has done some, I mean, I think it deserves all the praise that it's gotten. I know people are, you know, starting to hate on it because, oh, it's too good, too popular, whatever. But, like, it I think 100% deserves all of it. The word overrated is just code for I place too much stock in the opinion of, like, internet strangers. Just, just, that's all that fucking means. Uh, just go try it out. I mean, it's on Game Pass. Like... Yeah. Yeah, I think it's... It's not even a, it's it's not even a full-price game. Like, it's $50 even if you don't have Game Pass. Oh, that's true, yeah. And I will say, like... And I think it might be on sale right now, too. You and I did get a little hyped for this from, like, a um, one of the... Was it, like, the Microsoft demo or something last year? So we had already knew about this a little bit when it came out. But we played it right as it came out, so we didn't have to deal with, like, months of people telling us how great it was. Maybe that would have, like, influenced us. I don't know. But... Yeah, I mean, you know, it's... People... People always hate on things that are, that are popular, I guess. Yeah. Um, it's, it's just inevitable. One of the things that I found really interesting, uh, as I've been seeing, like, a lot of comments from people who've picked up the game cause it won Game of the Year, right? And they're like, you know, I'm a big turn-based fan, but I didn't pick up Clare Obscure. And I'm like, why? Yeah. Like, what, what a... Like, what about it had you not interested in what looked like one of the best turn-based games in a long time? I, I think some people are scared of the parrying because people keep describing it as, like, Sekiro-like or something. Which to me is just, like, wrong. It's just so far off. Um, you can play this game like a traditional game. You can, you can play this game like Mario RPG. You can do a few dodges here and there and otherwise take advantage of the mechanics and still be fine. Like, I think what a lot of people don't realize is that, like, the defense and health in this game actually matters a lot if you plan on getting hit ever. Um, so many complaints people, like, oh, if you're not good at the parrying, you just get one-shotted. Put points in defense, like... Right. Like, and, like, turn down the difficulty. Like, if, like, at least to normal. Like, come on. Like, some people are, like, playing on Expert and, like, well, I just keep dying. And it's like, well, maybe don't play on Expert. Yeah, or just, like, because there was a point where Expert was getting too much for me with my, like, um, Rambo-ass playstyle at the beginning where I don't think I cast a heal spell for all of Act 1. But eventually it was like, okay, I can't, I'm not going to be able to get these dodges and parries as often as I need them at this point in the game. I need to, like, re-retune my party, right? Respec. Um, which they let you do that as much as you want, which was, of course, like, a love letter to me. Um... Yeah, I just, I could not say enough good things about this game. Um, I'm sure like, some people listening to this will be annoyed because they've heard everyone talking about this game, but I truly think it's as good as everyone says. I, I agree. It's worth it. It's the best game of the year. It's one of my, like I said, it's one of my top 20 all-time favorites and I've played a lot of video games in my life. Yeah. So, it's, yeah, it's, it's really good. Go play it. It's, it is getting all the praise it's getting for a reason. Now, to end the show, I want to do, um, our own little version of an award show. The GGB Awards. Woo! I kind of just want to talk about this podcast and the things we liked this year. Um, so the first category I gave was favorite episodes. And not necessarily your favorite game for the episode, although it could be. But just like, what episode did you enjoy doing the most? For me, uh, my third one, bronze here, Star Wars Andor. Of course, not a game at all, but I had a lot of fun talking about that with you and Jeff. I had a lot of fun re-watching the episodes. And I had a lot of fun doing, like, the voice clips and stuff when I was doing the editing. So that was a really, uh, kind of artistically fulfilling one. And, uh, you know, I'm an engineer at heart, so a lot of times I don't know what artistic fulfillment is. But this is definitely one that scratched that itch, and I really enjoyed that. Um, yeah, so my bronze medal here, my third place, is actually a game I really didn't like. But I really enjoyed talking about Okami. Like, I think it's because I was able to articulate my thoughts in a way that I really liked. Throughout that one, like, I really felt like I was in the zone on, like, talking about what I didn't like about Okami and why it didn't work for me. But still understanding, like, the appeal of it and why people do like it. And I think we just had a really good chemistry on Okami, talking about, like, what made that game not work for us. So even though it was one that, like, we ultimately didn't love, I think our episode about it is really engaging. Yeah, I think we did a really good job on that one, just making, like, a episode that's fun to listen to. Uh, my second place, when my silver, is also a game you didn't like. Um, it was Jet Set Radio. And I think the reasons are obvious. Like, it was such an interesting time doing some of the research on, like, the history of the cell shading and learning everything about the goat, Hideki Naganuma. Um, and just listening to the shit out of that soundtrack for, like, an entire month. Every time I looked at your Spotify, it was just like, oh, he's listening to Naganuma again. Yeah, you had a birthday cake. But, um... But yeah, I just had so much fun with that one beyond the game itself. Uh, and I think that's what's so fun about doing this podcast sometimes, is the way we can still have so much fun with the episode, regardless of how we thought about the game, you know? Yeah, there was definitely a lot of cool stuff with Jet Set Radio. It's not a game I ultimately loved, but I do think, similar to Okami, we had a good chemistry talking about, like, what you really liked about it and what worked for you and what didn't necessarily work for me. Uh, my second place is a game we just talked a lot about, and that is Expedition 33. Uh, what just, like, I think coming off the hype of that game, like, having just finished it and listening to everybody else talk about it, and then just, like, getting onto the mic and just gushing about a game for hours was just so, it was so satisfying, because it's such a good game, and I had so many positive things to say about it, that, like, it was just a really fun time to just gush about this game, and I love when we both, like, really love a game, you know? Yeah. It always is a little more fun when we both absolutely love it, and we're not having to, like, say things that were, uh, okay, well, yeah, I don't know if that's, you know, I have to throw in a sound clip that's like, that's just plain poppycock, you know? Yeah, and then, of course, both of our golds here, both of our number ones, are the live episode we did, and, because, how could that not be the most fun we had this year? I mean, that was such a blast. Yeah. I had no idea it was coming. I don't know how long in advance you knew it was coming. Um, that must have been, like, hard to keep that a secret. I would have had such a hard time. I mean, we played it out, like, it was probably, like, a month in advance, honestly, when Andy came to us and was like, hey, I think I want to do a, like, a live recording of the podcast. And me and Jeff were both like, hell yeah, that sounds awesome. I'm so bad at keeping secrets, dude. Like, I got you that, um, Carly Rae Jepsen signed thing, and I basically, I basically all but told you what I fucking got. Before I gave it to you, because I just, like, couldn't possibly stop talking about it. I, I, like, I, like, knew. You never, like, directly said the words, but I knew. Yeah, that was, that was such a great time. But, yeah, what a, what a good, yeah, like, what a fun time, just having everybody in the room, and, like, being able to ask questions, and just kind of, like, reminisce, and, and, you know, I, I love when we do an episode about a thing, and, like, just focus in and, like, narrow in on that thing, obviously, but there is something really cool to just like, having kind of an open discussion, kind of like this episode, or the live episode, where we just kind of sit there and talk about whatever, and kind of just bounce ideas off and stuff, and, and, yeah, it was just really fun. Yeah, I had such a great time with that. Thank, thanks everyone for that one, um, and it's honestly, it's so much fun to listen to. I think I've listened to that one, like, twenty times now. Uh, it's just... Yeah, it, it is a really fun episode to listen to. It's, and it's, like, one that I could show, like, my girlfriend, and, who's not super big into video games, like, my family and stuff, and, like, be like, yeah, listen to, listen to us talk about, like, stories about our lives, too, you know? And, you know, we talked about Guitar Hero, MMOs, it was just, like, high school for me, like, reminiscing. Right. Um, so, the next category is, I was like, let's actually look at, what are our favorite games of the ones we did in episode one? Um, my bronze one was Fear. Um, talked endlessly in that episode about that, obviously, but I just think, the, the core gameplay of that, and just the slow-mo and the combat, is still so fucking good. And the AI on those enemies is still so, uh, you know, I, a lot of it's smoke and mirrors, but it's so convincing, that just, it's hard to even find another experience like Fear, and that just still is one of my favorite games. Yeah, I, I was definitely impressed by the, by the mechanics of it, for sure. I, I enjoyed experiencing that one for the first time, you know? Uh, one that, my third, is actually a game that you never played, that I, you know, had played before, and that is, uh, Metroid Fusion. I, I love Metroid Fusion, it's one of my all-time favorites, um, and this, this episode was fun to relive, like, what I really like about that franchise, and I'm playing Prime 4 right now, and it's just got so much of the same, like, Metroid-isms, and I'm like, ah, man, I really like the way Metroid games are designed. Yeah, I, games, like, being too open-ended for me, I mean, it depends on the type of game, but a lot of times I find that a little overwhelming. I appreciated the direction in Metroid Fusion. Like, I wouldn't call it hand- holding, I would call it structure, and I think it did that, it did that very well. Uh, my number two game, Silver, was Thunderfolk. I, I just had such a blast with this, playing that with you and Connor, um, just the uniqueness of it. I'm obviously, like, a Mike Morhaime fanboy, so that was part of it, but I, I had such a blast with Thunderfolk. Yeah, my, I, I really like Thunderfolk as well, we talked about it so much, I don't feel necessarily need to add anything. Uh, my, my second favorite game is actually the, like, first one I think we did for you, right? Oh yeah, I, I'd almost forgot about this one. And that was, uh, yeah, so, the first game we did was actually a game that came out last year, uh, Metaphor Refantazio. Um, man, I really, really, really liked Metaphor, and I, I need to go back and actually listen to that episode again, I think, because I remember how much I liked that game, reading through this list again, I was like, oh man, Metaphor was so good. Uh, it's, it's just like, it's, it's, like, fantasy Persona, and that is just, like, the perfect thing for me, I'm like, yeah, give me that, that's, that sounds amazing. I, I knew you would love it because of your Persona fandom, right? I was surprised how much I liked it, because I bounced off Persona a little harder, um, but there was a lot of cool stuff about this game. I do, I do wish that, like, and if the game hadn't been 90 hours, I probably would have given the final boss another attempt, but I still don't, I still have not seen what happens after you beat the boss, like, I just never That's so funny, that's so funny. It, it honestly has a pretty good addiction. Like, you should go, like, one day and just, like, watch The thing is, like, I tried to watch it on YouTube, but I just have this thing where if I'm not the one doing it, I cannot care. Like, I can try to care, it will not happen. Sure. So I do need to actually go back Sure, sure. and just, like, beat it somehow. Um. Yeah, I, and I think you, I think you could. I think, you know, you were, you were, like, so distraught by that boss, though, like, if you went back and did it now, I think you would, you'd be in a better headspace, and it probably wouldn't be as good. I like doing weird builds, and I was tickled by the fact that my weird build worked so well in this game, until suddenly it made the last boss fight four hours, and then didn't work. So that, that was definitely a downer, but that's, you know, that's at least half my own fault, so. That's, you know, it is what it is. And of course, both of our number ones was Exhibition 33. Um, enough said there. Amazing game. Yep. Fantastic. Love it. Next. Uh, the next category I had here was Biggest Letdown, and that is actually both the same for us, and that is Okami. And man, I, so here's the thing. God, dude. We were kind of harsh on Okami and Shadow of the Colossus, but what I'll say about Shadow is that when I went to make the shorts afterwards, I went back to get more gameplay footage, and I was really starting to warm up to it. I was like, you know what? I think now that I understand this game a little better, some parts of this aren't as bad as I made it out, and I almost feel like I may have been too harsh on Shadow in that episode. Not on Okami. No, it, it, it deserved everything I said about it. Um, that is not one I had any, I did not make any shorts for that one, because I was like, I saw the credit screen, I'm not fucking booting this game back up. I think the thing for me with Okami that's so disheartening is like, everybody talks about how much they love it, and how it's like, it's like the best not Zelda Zelda game, and I'm like, maybe that's true, but that just means every not Zelda game is horrific. Because, uh, Okami was such a letdown for me, and again, I want to emphasize that like that middle chunk, that like middle ten hours, I was finally starting to see like, okay, I get why people like Okami. And then, the last ten hours were just, uh, again, I hated those, so it was like, the, the beginning of that game, the end of that game both really, really sucked for me. And the, you know, I think I wasn't expecting a lot of Shadow of the Colossus, because I tried that one a bunch and never really liked it. Um, so like my, my expectations weren't super high for it, but Okami I had never played, and had such high expectations because of the way people talked about it. And then to be so let down by it was like, really, really disheartening for me. I really wanted to like Okami, and it's such a bummer that I didn't, because I really wanted to like that game. The thing that still blows my mind about Okami is, it was like, what if Zelda, but you can jump? And I was like, oh, so like Zelda with platforming? And it's like, no. What were you thinking? This game's being twenty-nine of thirty hours not creating any interesting platforming, which to me could be like, the thing that puts this game above a Zelda, or at least next to it. And instead it's like, oh, our greatest strength? One level at the end, that's it. Yeah. Anyway. You know what? This is the last time we'll talk shit about Okami. Let's leave it in the year 2025. I am going to play Okami 2. I will. Even though I did not like Okami 1, I will almost certainly play Okami 2 when it comes out. And I'll report back if it's terrible. I was just about to say, I'll let you report back on that one. Next category. Biggest surprise. We actually had the same game again. Thunderfolk. I think just a combination of like, you know, this game kind of coming out of nowhere, and us not knowing anything about it beforehand. And just being blown away by like, the interesting ideas and the execution. It just all came together so well. Yeah, I really like Thunderfolk. I thought it was such a good game to play with Miyu and Totter. Like, it was the perfect trio game. And just going through it and like, getting to experience it with friends and kind of do that like, roleplay thing. And all the little namey things where we get to name stuff. And like, we just had such a like, fun time with it. It was just such a fun time, you know? Even outside of the game. Like, just talking to each other was fun. Yeah, this one really came out of nowhere for me too, because I didn't even know about it until you were like, hey, Mike Warhaim made a game where you play with your phones or whatever. My lord and savior made a new game. And I was like, okay. And yeah, it turned out to be like, a really, really good time. I always really like novel experiences in games. And there can be a very fine line between novel and gimmicky. And I feel like this definitely stayed on the side of novel. And I just really enjoyed it. For sure. 100%. Next, this is not so much awards that we pick, but just facts. Our best episode, like performance-wise, was no surprise, Claire Obscure had, you know, we don't need to talk numbers here, but It did well for us. Relative to what our episodes normally do, this one did very well. And that was super cool to see. I really just think there was a lot of fanfare around it. And people are just searching on podcast apps Claire Obscure, I guess. You know? Yeah. And then our best month was July. I have a feeling this was because a lot of our friends and family downloaded the live episode. But you know, That would make sense. Hey, you know, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter why. It's alright. It's okay. Also, August was literally one less download than this. So those two were very close together. Kind of fell off after that. It's hard to say why. I, you know, algorithms are weird. People's listening habits are weird. We're not exactly trying to turn this into like a career or anything, so we're not doing all the little things to boost stuff. But yeah, had a good July and August, for sure. I think we're going to have a good next month, too. I think next month's game, you know, to just drop another little tease there, I think that's going to get people talking. You know, when I did Cyberpunk FM with Harry and Shereem, you would come on occasionally to do reviews of games. Our episodes would normally get like a certain number of views, and then the one we did on this game got like four times that amount. So I am hoping we see a little bit of a similar effect next month. But we'll see. We'll see. Come on. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for next month. I'm excited for this year. I think we had a good year. We saw some steady growth and, like, did a lot of good games. Yeah, I think this was a good year of podcasting, Adam. Yeah, I think it was a great year, too, man. And a couple notes here at the end. I do want to say, like, to anyone who may have noticed, Jeff is taking an indefinite hiatus from the podcast. There's no dramatic story here. Life just gets in the way sometimes. He's literally still on the Discord where we, like, talk about these episodes and stuff. And I'm certain he'll be back when we do the third Jedi game, right? Yeah, he'll play it on a freaking mousing keyboard again, and I'll have to, like, And then you won't hear from him again until, like, the next Star Wars game comes out. Maybe we'll do, you know, Fate of the Old Republic five years from now. But, uh... Yeah, or, like, Mandalorian Grogu when that comes out. He'll be like, hey, maybe I want to talk about that. I don't know that I'm going to be willing to talk about that, but that's okay. But yeah. That's fair. I just want to make that, like, a formal announcement. There's no interesting story here. He just kind of got busy with life, and so it's going to be kind of a duo thing now. But yeah, man. Thank you, Austin, for joining me for another year of games gone by. Thank you. We have not missed a month since we started, and I do not intend to, goddammit. I, whatever it takes to put one of these out, I will do. And it takes a lot. And thank you to my wife for that. She's very patient with my recording schedule, which is often like, oh, hey, by the way, I'm going to disappear for four hours. I'll see you in the morning. So, big thanks to that. And of course, like, thanks to everyone who is listening and has listened. I appreciate it more than you know. Austin, any special thanks? No, I mean, thank you for starting this and kind of putting all of your time into it. You do so much more work for this than I do. But, you know, I try and support, but you put in so much of this, and you're so good at it, and you've put, like, so much passion into it. I love that. So, thank you for letting me be a part of this. Of course. And, yeah, thanks to everybody who listens because it's cool to be like, hey, I do a podcast, you know? Well, hey, man, part of why I'm so passionate about it is because I do it with you. I really can't imagine doing this with anyone else, and I wouldn't want to. So, thanks for being by my side. Sorry, Jeff. Listen, so I didn't mean it like that. And that about wraps up our year-end episode for the year 2025, a great year in gaming. You can find this episode as well as all of our other episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcasting platform. And, of course, you can find everything we do on our website, GamesGoneBy.com. Signing off for Games Gone By, I'm Adam. I'm Austin. Thanks for listening, everyone. We will see you next year. We'll see you then....