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Hello, and welcome to part one
of the side Quest Game of the Year.

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You know, it's just me Dylan
here today, and I'm gonna be

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a bit lonely this year. Here's
the thing. Last few years, last

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three years, me and Dante have
been doing our Game of the Years together

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and he was supposed to be with
me here today, but unfortunately, just

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a couple of days ago, the
poor guy broke his jaw literally, which

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is probably the worst thing that can
happen a couple days before you're supposed to

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do an hours long Game of the
Year discussion. So I think he's doing

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alright all things considered, but yeah, he could not be here today to

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do Game of the Year episode.
And you know it's tricky. It's like,

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do I delay the recording of this
to when he's better. I don't

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know how long that could be,
weeks, months. I didn't really want

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to wait that long. I felt
like the show must go on here,

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so I decided I'm gonna just excuse
me a little intimate episode just me and

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you the listener, and I'm gonna
go through my Games of the Year for

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twenty twenty three. A couple other
changes you might notice here when you're seeing

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this on the feeds, is that
where are the best of categories? Last

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two years we did this where we
did best levels, best characters, best

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visuals, and best music, which
were long discussions where we put out a

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bunch of contenders ranked them all that
and it was super fun. But for

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a couple of reasons. I mean
one, I'm not gonna do all that

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by myself. I don't think that
would be nearly as fun for you or

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for me personally. But you know, even before this last minute change,

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already wasn't gonna do it this year, And honestly, the big reason is

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that twenty twenty three, as I've
mentioned a couple of times on side quests

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the last few months, this pretty
weak year for me in games. I

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was not nearly as passionate about this
offering of games this year as especially the

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last two years, where I went
pretty hard, played a lot of things

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and just had so much that I
was in love with. And you know,

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really that's where the best of categories
were born, is there were just

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so many games that I wanted to
praise and top ten wasn't going to cut

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it, and I thought that that
would be a fun way to break out

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these honorable mentions into these other categories, so we praise individual elements of games

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and talk about things that wouldn't make
it into our top ten, of course,

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also talking about things that are in
the top ten with the best of

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categories. But ultimately it just didn't
really make that much sense this year because

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I still made my list as I
do, you know, keeping my very

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detailed spreadsheet of the games I'm playing, the ones I'm looking forward to.

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I would make my categories as the
year was going on. But when I

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look at my list here, like
the best Levels category, I have like

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twelve contenders this year. Last year, I think I had like forty,

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and you know, when I look
at these lists for all of them,

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like ninety five percent of the things. In fact, when I look at

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my levels, all except one of
these are in my top ten anyway,

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these games, so they're gonna get
talked about, and it doesn't really make

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a whole lot of sense to these
categories. So yeah, I feel like

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that's kind of what it is.
Like the amount of game of the year

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content I create in a given year
is just gonna have to match the passion

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of the year. So obviously the
first time we did Best of Categories is

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kind of one bigger episode with all
four categories, and last year we split

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them out, all the different episodes, and that worked and we were able

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to fill a ton of time talking
about these things in detail, and that

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was great and I'm really proud of
what those episodes were. But I think

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it would it would feel fake this
year, and I just I just don't

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have the passion to do all that. So hopefully next year there are more

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games that I'm passionate about in those
categories can come back. But yeah,

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I didn't want to give you guys
kind of some half assed content and I

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want to make sure that it's all
there. So for what I have here

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in my lists I am passionate about. I tell like, my top eight

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are games I am passionate about,
and then I kind of have to squeak

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a couple things into nine and ten. But there are definitely a lot of

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things I did love this year,
or a lot of things I enjoyed,

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but definitely quite a bit weaker than
the last two years for me, So

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I don't know. I'm kind of
an outlier in that way, which is

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totally fair. But hopefully when Dante's
feeling better in the future, I definitely

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want to bring him on a side
quest and here is Top ten, just

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because I'm personally curious. I know, I think he told me what his

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Game of the Year is, but
I'm curious what the rest of the Top

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ten looks like. So we'll bring
them in at some point, and then

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next week's episode is going to be
kind of how the last couple of years

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as well, like Taylor Travis Kirkland, their games of the year, either

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they just pick one or top three, top five, whatever they want to

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do. Because they don't play nearly
as many things as I do, their

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stuff would be kind of interlaced between
those best of episodes. So instead,

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I'm just gonna have one dedicated episode
where I'll probably you know, segue in

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between these different parts, but we'll
hear what their games of the year are

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as well. So this week it's
my Game of the Year, my Top

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ten and well beyond, and then
next week is going to be the rest

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of the crew there and then yeah, Dante's sometime in the future could not

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tell you when. That's kind of
what Game of the Year is going to

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look like, so, you know, maybe not quite as hype as the

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previous year, but I still I
think this will be very fun and looking

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forward to it. So honestly,
let's get right into it here. I'm

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gonna do you know a couple of
these kind of icebreaker questions, as I

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normally do. So we always like
to revisit our list from last year and

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just see how do we feel about
it one year later. So here's my

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top ten from last year. Number
ten God of War, Ragnarok nine,

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Sniper Elite five eight, Neon White
seven, Rogue Legacy two six, Weird

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West five, Midnight Suns four,
Tunic three, Elder Ring two, Triangle

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Strategy, and one was Grounded.
This is the first year where I actually

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feel like I would make a couple
shifts. Normally, my lists are pretty

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set in stone, and even a
year later or years later, they remained

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to be the case. But I
really debated after, like for the first

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three or four months they started this
year, I guess after recording that episode,

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like man, should Triangle Strategy have
taken number one? Overgrounded? Like

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I really wavered back and forth on
those. And it's tricky because I feel

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like I'm still solid with it with
Grounded at number one. It's not like

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I liked that game any less.
I just also love Triangle Strategy so much.

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But Grounded got a bunch of new
content this year, so it makes

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it a bit muddy. Of course, there was a great update they added

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which added a bunch of new decoration
options, and like this coziness meter.

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I spent tons of hours decorating in
that game. And then even just this

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last month, they released like an
entire Forge mode for that game. People

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can make entire maps, puzzle maps, combat maps, adventure maps, all

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this crazy stuff. So it's like, I don't know, I've been jumping

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into that game again, so it's
hard to argue against it. Triangle Strategy

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also had some new content this year. It was like a prologue, or

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not a prologue, an epilogue,
but unfortunate it was only for one ending

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and not ending that I had,
so I couldn't access it, so that

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was a little bit of a bummer. But and then I think the other

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thing that would shift on my list
is the number five I had Midnight suns

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Now. Of course, that game
came up pretty late last year, and

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so the time we recorded the episode, I don't remember how many hours,

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and I was but I definitely was
not done the game yet, and so

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even just with finishing the game.
But then also this gets made muddy because

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this year there was a ton of
new content for it as well, like

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four new characters, which each came
with new areas, new maps, new

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enemies, bosses, all that stuff. So it's tricky, you know,

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am I really looking as a twenty
twenty two game? Where now? Is

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it like just this overall thing?
I think at least with finishing the game,

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I would bump it up to four
above Tunic there. I don't think

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it would get above elden Ring without
maybe that DLC is so hard to say,

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it's really close, but I think
I'll happily bump it into that fourth

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spot, So move it up one
place. I love that game so much,

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love the DLC. And then the
only other thing is like one of

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my alvermentions is Marvel Snap, and
I've still been playing a ton of that

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game. I kind of waiver a
couple months. I might not play as

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much if there's like like, for
example, the Logi season. Goddamn,

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that was the most annoying season to
play that game. So I just didn't

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really But then like this last few
weeks. Some of the new cards have

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been really fun, and I've been
playing a lot again, so it's tricky,

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right, twenty twenty two game.
I think I'm happy with it not

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making it on the list, but
overall, with all the new content that

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it's got this year, definitely a
great game that deserves one more shout out.

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So that was my list from last
year for the most part, pretty

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solid, just a couple maybe minor
tweaks in there, and then let's talk

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about I'm just gonna do a very
quickly rundown of all the games I did

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play, and then then we'll get
into that official Well, We're gonna do

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a top seventeen. I'll explain why
in a minute, but first here are

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just the list of games I've played. So first, I kind of broke

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something to a few categories. I
guess we'll do updates first, So I

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mentioned those ones with grounded Midnight signs, Marvel Snap, Mario Kart eight of

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course also received a bunch of content
this year, which maybe some of those

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would have popped up in best levels
if we did that category. And then

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Warzone two got two new maps and
actually just a third one that dropped like

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a couple of days ago at the
time of recording this, so I haven't

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played it yet, but yeah,
tons of new I love all those new

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maps. I had a lot of
fun kind of jumping back into that.

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So once again, those have been
best level contenders. But there you go.

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Those are some of the updates.
First up are games that I completed.

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So this this is either if it's
a single player game and it's a

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straightforward linear situation, is the game
that I rolled credits on, or if

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there's like a multiplayer or non linear
part to it, it's just a game

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that I feel like I've played enough
of a lot of in order to give

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a complete opinion on it. So
those games include hit Man World Assassination.

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You could also consider that to be
an update. I'll talk about that one

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later, Resident Evil for a remake, plus the Separate Ways de'l see Coffee

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Talk two, Hibiscus and Butterfly,
Redfall, Tara Nill, The Tartarus Key,

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Pseudo Regalia, Starfield, Sea of
Stars, Counterstrike two, Cocoon,

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Amnesia, The Bunker, Super Mario
Bros. Wonder Allen Wake two, Jussant,

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Super Mario RPG, Hard Hat Wombat, Kirby's Return to Dreamline De Luxe

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and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And
then next up are the games that I

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dabbled in. So a lot of
these are that were on game Pass and

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I played for like an hour or
less, or games maybe I played that

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on twenty four hour stream. Games
that I've just barely touched the surface of,

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but I've at least held the controller
and played. Those would be Minecraft

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Legends, Exo, Primal of Zero
ninety nine, Party Animals, Disney Speedstorm

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for the Motorsport, Monster Hunter Now, Lampladers League, Mighty Doom, Warriorware,

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Move It, Mortal Kombat one,
Venba, Headbangers, Rhythmoyal War Tales,

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Tom mccartt Remnant two, and Lies
of p And then the games Stuck

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in the Middle. So these are
games that I've played a lot more than

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dabbled with them. I've played a
ton of them, but I just haven't

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finished them quite yet. And those
games would be Fire and Bloomen Gauge,

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Hi Fi Rush, Hogwarts, Legacy, most Alena, Advanced Wars one plus

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two, Reboot Camp, Legendzelda,
Tiers of the Kingdom, Diablo four,

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Planet of Lana, and A Space
for the Unbound. So I think that's

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a total of forty seven games I
played this year, so I think last

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year I was up at like sixty
five ish, So I've definitely played a

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lot more last year, but I
think back to twenty twenty one, I

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had around this number, So this
is a pretty solid number. Close to

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fifty games. That's a lot of
games to play. There's only a few

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that I feel like I would have
really climbed into my top ten had I

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played more of them, and those
zones would be Texas Chains on Maascar.

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I've had a ton of fun playing
that, unfortunately, just haven't played in

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a couple of months. Just hasn't
worked out or me and the rest of

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the crew. I've lined up a
weekend or a night to play more of

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that, and I know they just
dropped some new content for it, so

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I want to get back in there. And I think if I had played

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it consistently, if we had got
more of those nights together, it would

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have squeezed in at number ten or
nine. But unfortunately, I just feel

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like I haven't played in a couple
months and didn't quite make it. On

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War Tales is one that I was
actually looking forward to for a couple of

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years. It was on my wishless
very much looking forward to it, and

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I jumped into it and it was
a little disappointing, but then it was

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also just super hard and I played
for like an hour Zone game pass and

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like just died, like my whole
party got wrecked, and like, okay,

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it just kind of killed my hype
on it. And I also,

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to be honest, I don't think
I was really in the mood for it.

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It's a very D and D type
game, and there's another D and

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D type of game that I know
I'm gonna be playing in the near future

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here, so I just didn't feel
like investing all that time in it.

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But I definitely want to have returned
to at some point. Similar brote for

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Lamplighters League, which is a really
cool, cool tactics game. It has

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like the incredible sort of art style. It's really cool, and it just

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honestly was not in the mood for
any more tactics games this year, and

206
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so I didn't play very much of
it. But I feel bad because I

207
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know that after the game came out
a week or two later, the dev's

208
00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:18,519
or something, there was an article
that was like Players League, you know

209
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didn't really do very well, and
I don't know. I want to be

210
00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:26,879
there to supporting because I feel like
I'm kind of the ideal person that they're

211
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looking for, the ideal demographic,
but it just the timing for it was

212
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not quite what I was looking for. So definitely what I want to revisit,

213
00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:37,000
also on game Pass. And then
also last all these games are actually

214
00:12:37,039 --> 00:12:41,480
on game Pass, so easy to
revisit ones is lies of p and honestly,

215
00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:43,360
for souls like games, I really
needed to be in the mood to

216
00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:46,840
want to play them. And I
feel like I played so much Eldering last

217
00:12:46,879 --> 00:12:48,840
year that it kind of burnt me
out for at least a year or two,

218
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Like maybe in twenty twenty four I'll
be ready for another Soul's like game.

219
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But in the couple hours I put
with into Liza Pe, the game

220
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was super super good, visually very
impressive. I was shocked at how good

221
00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:05,080
it felt and the UI and everything
just felt so much like a Soul's game,

222
00:13:05,559 --> 00:13:09,360
which is a compliment, Like I
don't mean that in that it's derivative,

223
00:13:09,399 --> 00:13:15,399
it obviously is very close to.
It's the things that what is the

224
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world I'm looking for. It knows
that it's close to Dark Souls and Bloodborne,

225
00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:20,399
but I feel like it still has
its own identity. It was really

226
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really good. It just was not
what I was looking for in this moment.

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So those are maybe the four that
I think, had I put more

228
00:13:26,559 --> 00:13:31,720
time into, would have climb to
that top ten. And then here are

229
00:13:31,759 --> 00:13:35,159
the games that I games I wish
I played, And I'll explain all these

230
00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:37,879
as I go through. So the
big one is Balder's Gate three just to

231
00:13:37,919 --> 00:13:41,000
go home game of the Year the
game wards. I bought the game last

232
00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:45,039
night and installed it. It f
only came to Xbox after Game Awards,

233
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and that was another thing I debated. Okay, do I delay this episode

234
00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:50,840
so I can spend some time with
Balder's Gate? And I guess there's kind

235
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of two ways it can go.
One is I play the game and I

236
00:13:54,799 --> 00:13:56,759
don't really like it that much and
it doesn't make it in the top ten.

237
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And then I just delayed the episode
for no reason, or I love

238
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the game so much and it's one
of those games that I probably need to

239
00:14:03,519 --> 00:14:09,639
invest, like basically everything I've heard
at least sixty hours before I'd feel like

240
00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:13,120
complete enough to want to do the
game of your episode and put it somewhere,

241
00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:16,240
And honestly, I just I didn't
really want my December to be only

242
00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:18,559
playing this one game and grinding through
it in the way that I did with

243
00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:22,960
like Starfield in September. I just
didn't really want that. There's other games

244
00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,960
I want to be playing this month, So I'm gonna be playing Balder's Gate

245
00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:26,399
three, but I'm I'm gonna take
my time with it, and I've already

246
00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:30,759
kind of missed the boat on all
of the conversations on it, so it's

247
00:14:30,799 --> 00:14:33,240
all good. I don't feel like
I need to play it right away,

248
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:35,600
but look forward to In side quest, I'll say sometime in January is probably

249
00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:39,840
when I'll talk about that game,
when I've played more of it, and

250
00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:43,360
at that time i'll definitely retroactively tell
you if it would crack into that top

251
00:14:43,399 --> 00:14:46,600
ten. I feel like it will. That's the only reason I feel like

252
00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:50,480
I wish I did play it,
But I'm happy with or I'm okay with

253
00:14:50,759 --> 00:14:54,000
skipping it as of today. The
other one, Spider Man two, I

254
00:14:54,039 --> 00:14:56,240
don't know have a PS five yet, so I couldn't play it. But

255
00:14:56,440 --> 00:14:58,840
yeah, I love twenty eighteen Miles
Marles kind of let me down. But

256
00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:01,120
I I feel like Spider Man two
would be a return to form. I

257
00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:05,159
don't think it would be. I'm
trying to think. I don't know if

258
00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:07,320
it would quite crack my top five. This base purely off speculation. I

259
00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:11,000
think it would absolutely make it my
top ten. I just don't know if

260
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:15,200
it'd be a top fiver. Octopath
Traveler two, I really like that first

261
00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:18,600
game. Never finished it. From
everything I've heard, any issue I had

262
00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:20,679
with the first game is like resolved
in the second one, and then the

263
00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:22,200
second one is just so much better. So I want to play it at

264
00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:24,559
some point, But honestly, I
just I know it's a long ass game,

265
00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:28,279
and I just when it came out
earlier in March, whatever it was,

266
00:15:28,519 --> 00:15:30,799
I was not in the mood for
it. So at some point in

267
00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:33,679
my life I'll play it. But
I also, even back to last year

268
00:15:33,679 --> 00:15:35,840
I played Live Live Ent Triangle Strategy, I think I was a bit burnt

269
00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:39,840
out on the two DHD stuff.
So maybe when that Dragon Quest three I

270
00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:43,679
think remake is coming out in that
engine, I'll check out that one.

271
00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:46,159
But I needed a bit of a
breather here. You seeing a lot of

272
00:15:46,159 --> 00:15:48,440
burnout from last year. I played
a ton of games last year, so

273
00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:52,759
I think it bled over to this
year me wanting to play a little bit

274
00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:56,039
less Pickman four. I played one
and two this year when they got released

275
00:15:56,080 --> 00:16:00,799
on the Switch, and I loved
one, didn't really care much for two.

276
00:16:00,159 --> 00:16:03,720
But yeah, I think Pickman four
looks looks amazing at some point in

277
00:16:03,799 --> 00:16:06,559
my life when it maybe goes on
sale, if it ever does, I'll

278
00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:10,080
definitely check it out. Dead Island
two. I don't know where this one

279
00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:11,200
it would rank. I don't know
if it'd be a top ten contender,

280
00:16:11,559 --> 00:16:15,279
but it just looks like so much
fun. I've been every sale that's happened

281
00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:18,480
since the game came out. I've
been like checking the prices to see if

282
00:16:18,519 --> 00:16:22,320
it's at a point where I want
to pick it up. Not quite there

283
00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:26,879
yet, but I'm really excited to
play that game. Wargroove two, also,

284
00:16:26,879 --> 00:16:29,320
what I feel bad about is like
an indie, indie game, and

285
00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:30,759
I want to support it, and
I love the first war Groove, but

286
00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:34,399
honestly, it came out a few
months after Advanced Wars. I was a

287
00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:40,120
bit burnt on tactics, and Wargroove
is essentially an homage to Advanced Wars,

288
00:16:40,159 --> 00:16:41,799
and I just I wasn't really to
pick that up, especially when I'm still

289
00:16:41,799 --> 00:16:45,200
playing through Advanced Wars and I have
been the last couple of weeks. I've

290
00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:48,600
even jumped in and done a couple
more maps, so just was not the

291
00:16:48,639 --> 00:16:51,639
right timing for it, but I
want to check it out. And then

292
00:16:51,639 --> 00:16:53,919
the last one is a game called
Shadow Gambit The Cursed Crew, which I

293
00:16:53,919 --> 00:16:57,320
only heard about recently, and yeah, everything I heard about it is like

294
00:16:57,399 --> 00:17:03,279
this is like an isometric kind of
multiplayery, so not multiplayer. We have

295
00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:06,559
multiple characters version of Dishonored. So
it's like, well, that's obviously my

296
00:17:06,599 --> 00:17:11,960
cup of tea obviously right up my
alley. But yeah, just time time,

297
00:17:12,039 --> 00:17:15,240
time time. I couldn't really make
time for it here in the last

298
00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:18,400
month or two, and uh yeah, so at some point I'll check it

299
00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:22,400
out as well. Looks great,
seems like my cup of tea. So

300
00:17:22,799 --> 00:17:27,200
yeah, I think that's it for
the preamble, and with that I can

301
00:17:27,279 --> 00:17:32,839
kind of start looking at this at
this list here. So as I said,

302
00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:37,359
I made a top seventeen here,
so obviously the seven or sorry,

303
00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:41,359
top sixteen, sixteen to ten,
I guess sixteenth storry to eleven, I'll

304
00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:45,119
kind of race through those a bit
quicker, and then the top ten will

305
00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:48,440
be the top ten. The reason
I've done it this way is that when

306
00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:51,559
I was making my lists once again
the last couple of years, I've said,

307
00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:53,599
like, man, so so many
games are right on the press spice,

308
00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:56,319
that top sixteen seventeen was so close. I was like, sad I

309
00:17:56,319 --> 00:17:59,880
couldn't include them in the top ten. That's not really the case this.

310
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,359
It's more so that my top eight
is very solid, and then that like

311
00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:06,759
nine to ten, I'm kind of
like putting things there, but honestly,

312
00:18:06,759 --> 00:18:10,079
like nine to sixteen are all kind
of even in this bucket, and it's

313
00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:14,119
not like I'm sad necessarily that I
can't include them in the top ten.

314
00:18:14,759 --> 00:18:17,079
But I guess I'm just trying to
frame it that way where it's like,

315
00:18:17,359 --> 00:18:19,640
honestly, any of these games from
sixteen to eleven, I could have made

316
00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:22,440
a case for them being nine or
ten here because that is such a free

317
00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:26,440
spot for me this year because it's
once again kind of a weaker year.

318
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:30,039
So that's why I wanted to do
it this way. But yeah, and

319
00:18:30,039 --> 00:18:32,559
then I think that top eight is
like very solid, and those are games

320
00:18:32,599 --> 00:18:34,720
that I that are kind of big, top tier sorry games for me.

321
00:18:34,839 --> 00:18:38,279
So let's go from the bottom here. So once again, this is not

322
00:18:38,319 --> 00:18:41,839
really ordered, but I kind of
have them. I wrote them in this

323
00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:44,759
order, so we'll go with them
in this order. So Hard Hat Wombat.

324
00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:47,440
This is a game I didn't talk
about in side quests because it came

325
00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:48,400
out well I don't actually know when
it came out. I think it came

326
00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:52,279
out somewhat recently, and I didn't
pick it up at launch. This game

327
00:18:52,319 --> 00:18:56,519
I heard no one talk about.
The reason was on my radar is because

328
00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:59,720
one of the I think there's two
creators of it, I don't know one

329
00:18:59,759 --> 00:19:00,720
of them. One of their name. The other guy is Andy Hull,

330
00:19:02,079 --> 00:19:06,799
who was the programmer of Spelunky HD. You know, one of my favorite

331
00:19:06,839 --> 00:19:11,039
games of all time and interesting,
like just a quick backstory like after Spelunky,

332
00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:14,519
he could have worked on Splunky two. He was offered that choice,

333
00:19:14,599 --> 00:19:17,960
but said he wanted to go make
his own weird, interesting games. And

334
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:19,720
I'm glad he's done that because one, I wouldn't change the thing about Splunky

335
00:19:19,759 --> 00:19:23,559
two. That game is perfect.
But then also he's made two games since

336
00:19:23,599 --> 00:19:27,839
then and one of them was Dunklords, which I talked about back in twenty

337
00:19:27,839 --> 00:19:30,440
twenty. I think when that came
out, I love that game, super

338
00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:33,480
fun. And then this is his
next one, so working in collaboration with

339
00:19:33,519 --> 00:19:37,759
someone else, but this is a
two D platformer kind of block placing game.

340
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:41,880
Very simple, very cute aesthetic.
You're playing as this cute little wombat

341
00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:45,559
with a hard hat on, and
he's very adorable. It's very goofy,

342
00:19:45,599 --> 00:19:48,559
like you're putting down like pooh blocks, like those are what the first blocks

343
00:19:48,599 --> 00:19:51,759
are, and then you're putting other
things. He's like eats a sandwich,

344
00:19:51,799 --> 00:19:55,359
then he creates a block. It's
pretty funny stuff, but just a very

345
00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:59,319
solid puzzler. I really had a
good time with it at every new world

346
00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:03,119
introduced new can so it always kept
itself fresh, wasn't too long, wasn't

347
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:07,039
too hard, and a really good
variety of puzzle types. Like you have

348
00:20:07,119 --> 00:20:10,559
levels, you have to build a
certain structure and figure out how you can

349
00:20:10,559 --> 00:20:12,680
make that work without blocks following or
getting destroyed, and then you'll have that

350
00:20:12,759 --> 00:20:15,079
same thing, but then there's like
dynamite blocks. You kind of have to

351
00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:18,799
envision what the structure is gonna look
like. After the dynamite blows up,

352
00:20:18,839 --> 00:20:22,039
so that makes an interesting challenge.
There's kind of more adventure maps. You

353
00:20:22,079 --> 00:20:26,359
have to just make it from point
to point B. There are maps you

354
00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:29,480
have to destroy a bunch of enemies. It's it's really good, really good

355
00:20:29,519 --> 00:20:33,160
variety, really fun game. Yeah, really really enjoyed it. I think

356
00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:37,119
there's if there's anything that drags it
down, there's at some point it's gonna

357
00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:40,240
be a bit tedious kind of going
back and forth to go fuel up on

358
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:44,079
more blocks then come back to your
area. Not a huge complaint by any

359
00:20:44,119 --> 00:20:45,400
means, but that was kind of
the one hold up. And I don't

360
00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:48,200
know in terms of puzzle game,
there's a there's a puzzle game that's a

361
00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:52,000
million times stronger than it this year, so we'll talk about that later on

362
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:56,359
spoiler that's in the top ten somewhere. So there was that one, and

363
00:20:56,359 --> 00:21:00,160
then I'm going to kind of lump
these three together, three big Nintendo game.

364
00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:03,319
Looking at my top ten, I
don't think I have a single Nintendo

365
00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:07,079
game this year. I have won. I have won Nintendo game in my

366
00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:08,440
top ten this year. So we'll
get to that one later. But the

367
00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:12,640
three that were kind of on the
cusp were Super mar RPG, Supermar Bros.

368
00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:18,640
Wonder and Tears of the Kingdom RPG. I really enjoyed going back to

369
00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:21,319
that one. I don't think I
if you listen back to our reviewing me

370
00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:23,960
and Travis did, I don't have
any wild new thoughts in the second half

371
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,039
of the game. But I just
had a really great time with it.

372
00:21:27,079 --> 00:21:32,359
I love the characterization of like Bowser
Gino is super cool, Like Booster is

373
00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:36,839
now one of my favorite like weird
Nintendo characters. I feel like mechanically though

374
00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:40,279
it's it felt like it was like
satire to me, like it was making

375
00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:45,599
jokes about other games in that genre. To a point that works for extent

376
00:21:45,759 --> 00:21:48,519
because it's a short game, it
works, but then also like on the

377
00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:52,799
depth of mechanics, it just felt
like it was a bit weaker, and

378
00:21:52,839 --> 00:21:56,119
I felt like the game was really
easy in the second half and wasn't really

379
00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:59,799
technically that interesting. There's certain mechanics
that you you just don't really engage with

380
00:21:59,799 --> 00:22:02,559
that all. So I don't know. I had a really good time with

381
00:22:02,599 --> 00:22:07,519
the adventure of it, but it
to me it lacked that JNA say quad

382
00:22:07,559 --> 00:22:11,359
to make it into the top ten
and also to me remakes remasters weird.

383
00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:14,880
Normally, I've just discounted from my
lists completely. I want to room for

384
00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:17,400
fresh stuff. This year, I
kind of needed anything I could get,

385
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:21,720
So there are spoilers some remake remaster
situation making it into the top ten,

386
00:22:22,039 --> 00:22:23,599
but RPG, not that I've played
the original, but it felt like maybe

387
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:27,400
a bit too close and that way, I didn't want to bring it into

388
00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:32,240
my top ten. Super Mario Bros. Wonder Really not much to say here.

389
00:22:32,519 --> 00:22:34,240
It's just a very solid two D
Mario game. Had fun playing through

390
00:22:34,279 --> 00:22:37,079
it. After rold credits on it, I didn't really have much interest to

391
00:22:37,079 --> 00:22:41,720
go back to those additional worlds or
go get all the coins and whatnot.

392
00:22:41,519 --> 00:22:45,039
But it was super solid. It's
super good. The variety given by the

393
00:22:47,079 --> 00:22:49,880
Wonder Wonder Flowers, I guess,
was really cool. I like the new

394
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:53,079
power ups. I like that you
have a bunch of characters that can pick

395
00:22:53,079 --> 00:22:56,279
in the game, a lot more
variety in that way, even though they

396
00:22:56,279 --> 00:22:59,640
all kind of played the same except
for Yoshi's and Nabbit. But yeah,

397
00:22:59,759 --> 00:23:03,319
I you had a really good time
with it, super fun, but didn't

398
00:23:03,319 --> 00:23:07,400
have that that caliber for top ten
for me. And then here's the King

399
00:23:07,519 --> 00:23:10,960
this one, I feel like I
kind of have to explain because people might

400
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:15,839
be mad or confused as to why
it's not making in the top ten.

401
00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:18,759
For me. I'll try and be
sustinct with this, but there's a few

402
00:23:18,799 --> 00:23:23,200
reasons. So one, I felt
like the game really drags at the start.

403
00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:26,359
I mean, I love the first
Sky Island, like the tutorial,

404
00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:29,039
but then afterwards, I feel like
there was so many moments when the game

405
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,440
kind of blocked your progress. You
had to either like progress a certain quest

406
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:37,519
or you can't do this thing until
you've beat this dungeon. But none of

407
00:23:37,559 --> 00:23:41,799
that's really telegraph so I'd be exploring, but then I'd run into these walls

408
00:23:41,839 --> 00:23:44,839
all the time where the game just
stopped me from exploring and said, oh,

409
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:47,200
yeah, you could do all the
you could do ninety percent of this

410
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:48,440
thing, but you can't actually get
the reward or see the final part of

411
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:52,640
it because you haven't done ab other
thing halfway across the map. And that

412
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:56,519
just felt bad, and that happened
multiple times, and instead I was like,

413
00:23:56,559 --> 00:23:59,160
Okay, well, I guess this
isn't an exploration game in the way

414
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:02,480
that Breath Wild is, and it
just felt too linear because of that I

415
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:04,680
don't think that's how that game should
have been built. It's like the games

416
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:07,640
all about being nonlinear. Maybe they
felt like Breath the Wild was so much

417
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:11,359
that way. They want to do
something different, but didn't work for me,

418
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:12,720
And also didn't like how weak you
were at the start of the game,

419
00:24:12,799 --> 00:24:15,720
especially coming off by a Breath of
the Wild, how close that game

420
00:24:15,759 --> 00:24:18,559
feels like I wanted to be,
like, at least twice or three times

421
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:21,960
is more powerful to start of that
game, it just felt annoying having to

422
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:23,720
grind out a bunch of shrines to
get enough. Hell so you don't get

423
00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:26,839
one shot by half the enemies in
the world, So that was kind of

424
00:24:26,839 --> 00:24:30,559
annoying. And there's a lot of
repetition in the game. You know,

425
00:24:30,759 --> 00:24:33,480
there's these you have this guy support
a sign and that's like everywhere in the

426
00:24:33,519 --> 00:24:36,559
game. It's like, yes,
you can skip that. But I just

427
00:24:36,599 --> 00:24:38,039
feel like there's so much content in
the game that is coming across that was

428
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:42,039
reused or so close to something that
I've done before that it just felt like

429
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:45,240
why am I doing any of this? Like why is this here a hundred

430
00:24:45,279 --> 00:24:49,920
times instead of just two or three
times in new and creative ways? Shrines.

431
00:24:51,039 --> 00:24:52,359
There's of course some good ones,
but for the most part, I

432
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:56,119
think they're pretty weak. Once again, like Breath of the Wild, I

433
00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:59,440
only ever got to one temple or
I forget what they're called, but it

434
00:24:59,519 --> 00:25:03,039
was the flying one with the tornadoes, and I thought it was really poorly

435
00:25:03,079 --> 00:25:06,160
designed, really uninteresting. That was
one of my biggest complaints with Breathworld was

436
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:10,920
that the ancient or divine beasts and
the shrines kind of sucked in This game

437
00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:14,160
didn't really improve on that. So
those are kind of the negative parts of

438
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:17,720
it. And then I think maybe
the most damning thing I don't know,

439
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:19,799
I don't feel as passionate about this
as those other negative points, is that

440
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:26,480
I think ultrahand and FEUs are really
fun, cool abilities, but not enough

441
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:32,000
of the game was incentivizing me to
use those things in creative or interesting ways.

442
00:25:32,079 --> 00:25:33,759
And yes, you know, there's
a thousand videos on Reddit and YouTube

443
00:25:33,759 --> 00:25:37,920
and whatnot of people making all these
crazy creations, and for some people that's

444
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:41,359
fun, but I think I need
a bit more guidance or like reason to

445
00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:45,799
do those things, and there just
wasn't really enough of that in the game

446
00:25:47,599 --> 00:25:51,599
for me. So those are the
reasons why I didn't make it in my

447
00:25:51,599 --> 00:25:55,240
top ten or why I kind of
fell off of it after I don't know,

448
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:57,839
twenty twenty five hours. At some
point I will go back to it,

449
00:25:57,839 --> 00:26:02,759
and I've heard has really great ending
and I should see more of it,

450
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:07,160
but I'm just not really that compelled
to, to be honest. I

451
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:10,799
think here's the reason it's even all
in my honorable mentions at all is because

452
00:26:10,799 --> 00:26:12,839
there are some moments that are amazing. I really love building, and there

453
00:26:12,839 --> 00:26:18,799
are some moments that I created,
some really freakish contraptions or weird setups to

454
00:26:18,799 --> 00:26:22,200
get across gaps that were super fun, and I just wish the game had

455
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:25,880
more of that. I think the
Fuse is a great addition to the game.

456
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:27,640
I really like the weapon durability and
Breath of the Wild. I'm on

457
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:33,279
the positive side of that, but
I think there's no argument that Fuse.

458
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:37,680
It just takes that and iterates on
it in such a creative way that made

459
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:41,119
it even more enjoyable. And then
you know, there's this one's a pro

460
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:45,759
and a colm, But I think
the overworld that was pretty bored by for

461
00:26:45,799 --> 00:26:48,279
the most part, not that I
can remember every square enter Breath of the

462
00:26:48,319 --> 00:26:49,680
Wild but it just felt a bit
too samey to me in terms of the

463
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:53,720
biomes, in terms of not having
that same like, I don't know what's

464
00:26:53,759 --> 00:26:56,839
over that cliff, you know,
maybe it's something a bit different than what

465
00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:00,759
it was in Breath and Wild,
but I still felt like generally I kind

466
00:27:00,759 --> 00:27:03,400
of know what the map looks like, and exploring it again and getting these

467
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:07,359
towers again, even though they changed
a little bit, just didn't really do

468
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:11,799
it for me the second time around. And I think for the the sky

469
00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:15,039
Islands part of it, there were
some that are fantastic. I in my

470
00:27:15,079 --> 00:27:18,640
best levels category, I had that
tutorial section with that whole sky island up

471
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,000
there. I thought that was a
fantastic section, And I wish the game

472
00:27:22,039 --> 00:27:25,640
had a bit more of expansive regions
like that that were maybe a bit more

473
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:30,079
linear, but offered some really cool
building challenges with you know, a little

474
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:33,559
room for error because of the fact
that you're in the sky and if you

475
00:27:33,599 --> 00:27:37,400
fall out, you're gonna be gone
from there. So yeah, I think

476
00:27:37,519 --> 00:27:40,519
some of the sky Islands and some
of the challenges and puzzles there of trying

477
00:27:40,519 --> 00:27:42,640
to you know, skip the stones, trying and get between them was really

478
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:47,759
interesting. But then other times it
just became perhaps a bit tedious or a

479
00:27:47,759 --> 00:27:52,119
bit too much of like, Okay, do I have enough stamina to do

480
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:55,200
this? I guess I'll try and
find out the answers no, and then

481
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:56,400
it just like wastes a bunch of
time, and then to get back to

482
00:27:56,440 --> 00:28:00,640
that spot takes a long time.
So just been a And then for the

483
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:03,559
Dark Underworld, I think the first
like maybe five or six hours I spent

484
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:07,240
there was really great. I loved
the vibe, I loved how kind of

485
00:28:07,319 --> 00:28:11,319
terrifying it was. I liked learning
how it works, and then you have

486
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:15,279
all sorts of fun contraptions to work
with down there. But I think after

487
00:28:15,319 --> 00:28:19,519
a while it became a bit too
samy. And yeah, so I'm sure

488
00:28:19,519 --> 00:28:22,079
there's some cool things down there for
me to find still, because it's like

489
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:26,000
a tons there's tons of it,
but I think after a while it kind

490
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:29,839
of kind of wore off. So
yeah, definitely some great moments in this

491
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:33,400
game, some of my favorite maybe
individual moments of cool creative gameplay, but

492
00:28:33,559 --> 00:28:37,079
overall package, I was pretty unimpressed
with you as the Kingdom, which is

493
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:41,519
which is too bad. And I'm
curious to listen to other game of your

494
00:28:41,519 --> 00:28:44,920
podcast and see where people rank on
it, because obviously it kind of got

495
00:28:45,359 --> 00:28:49,039
decimated at the Game Awards, only
took home Action Adventure, And yeah,

496
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,240
I'm curious where other people are going
to feel on it now that there are

497
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:53,319
a few months removed from it.
But yeah, I think for me it

498
00:28:53,359 --> 00:28:57,920
was I had a good I had
like maybe a week initial it's weird,

499
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:00,920
it roller closer to a bit,
and it kind of just fell off a

500
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:04,039
cliff for me. So that's that
one. Spent a lot of time talking

501
00:29:04,079 --> 00:29:07,599
about that one, and then the
last one here or I guess, sorry,

502
00:29:07,599 --> 00:29:12,880
two more in my I guess Honorable
Mentions category one Hogwarts Legacy. If

503
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:15,960
you go back to our view,
you might be a surprise that I'm even

504
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:18,480
mentioning this at all, because I
was definitely the most negative there. But

505
00:29:18,519 --> 00:29:21,440
there are still some amazing elements of
it. I think the game is beautiful,

506
00:29:21,599 --> 00:29:25,680
sounds great. I loved exploring some
of those towns. Really just beautiful

507
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:27,559
game. I really liked some of
the quest structure, of some of the

508
00:29:27,599 --> 00:29:32,920
school things, taking classes and making
friends. I thought some of that stuff

509
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:33,880
was great, and I wish the
game was more about that instead of this

510
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:38,359
big world ending narrative. I wish
it was more about just school life and

511
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,920
that sort of thing. I think
the customization of this game is fantastic.

512
00:29:42,359 --> 00:29:47,480
The way you can customize your character
and you know, just the ability to

513
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:49,759
put on like whatever clothing you want
and you can still have the best stats.

514
00:29:49,759 --> 00:29:52,839
All that sort of stuff is good. And you know, there's definitely

515
00:29:52,839 --> 00:29:56,160
elements that were a bit lackluster.
It felt a bit too checklist open worldly

516
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,400
for me. I didn't really care
too much for the combat. I thought

517
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:03,440
it was fun, some of the
puzzles were pretty weak. I think it

518
00:30:03,599 --> 00:30:04,920
maybe a bit too bloated. I
think it would have been a bit better

519
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:08,880
if it was a bit more refined
in that way. But the reason it's

520
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:12,680
here for me as a mention is
because, weirdly, it's a game I

521
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:18,119
revisited often, or I wanted to
revisit often. So I say that because

522
00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:22,079
you know, it's hard drive space
these days, pretty hard to come by,

523
00:30:22,799 --> 00:30:25,319
and so a couple of times I
do uninstall this game, but then

524
00:30:25,359 --> 00:30:26,880
I found myself reinstalling it, and
I want to jump back in there and

525
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:30,640
mess around with some stuff and just
just I don't know, late night,

526
00:30:30,759 --> 00:30:34,640
just play for an hour and explore, do another quest or two, and

527
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:38,240
yeah, it just is one of
those games that I just found myself like

528
00:30:38,559 --> 00:30:41,240
revisiting every once in a while,
and I think I'll keep doing that.

529
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:45,440
So I still haven't rolled credits on
it, but it's because it's like I

530
00:30:45,519 --> 00:30:48,079
just want to go do quests with
friends, even if that's not progressing the

531
00:30:48,119 --> 00:30:52,519
main story and whatnot. So yeah, I definitely worthy of an honorable mention

532
00:30:52,599 --> 00:30:56,799
there. And then the last one
I was actually just playing this last night

533
00:30:56,440 --> 00:31:02,759
is a Hitman World of Assassination slash
Freelancer. So let me explain it.

534
00:31:02,759 --> 00:31:04,279
At the start of this year,
well, I guess even going way back,

535
00:31:04,279 --> 00:31:07,240
so hit Man three when that came
out, that was in my top

536
00:31:07,279 --> 00:31:12,519
five of twenty twenty one. When
that came out, the game you can

537
00:31:12,559 --> 00:31:18,079
import hit Man one in two levels
into it, which is cool, right,

538
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:19,160
And then at the start of this
year they kind of rebranded that so

539
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,519
it's just called I guess hit Man
World Assassination. That's kind of the trilogy

540
00:31:22,559 --> 00:31:26,480
of games all in one package,
so not too much of a change there.

541
00:31:26,519 --> 00:31:30,079
But then when they launched that,
they had a new game mode called

542
00:31:30,119 --> 00:31:37,599
Freelancer and Freelancer is essentially kind of
like a roguelike sort of mode put on

543
00:31:37,599 --> 00:31:40,039
top of the game, where you're
taking different contracts, You're going to these

544
00:31:40,079 --> 00:31:45,640
different levels. It completely randomizes the
targets you're gonna have these I forget the

545
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:48,160
name of the Essential'll do like three
or four lead up missions into a bigger

546
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:52,000
mission, and that one has like
you have to find out who the target

547
00:31:52,079 --> 00:31:56,880
is. And it just adds essentially
infinitive replayability on a game that already had

548
00:31:56,200 --> 00:32:00,079
so much replayability. And I played
all the maps at least ten times through

549
00:32:00,119 --> 00:32:02,960
beating them in different ways, taking
up the targets in different ways, getting

550
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:08,079
all these new unlocks, and they
added just so much more infinite replayability on

551
00:32:08,119 --> 00:32:12,519
it with this Freelancer update. It
is huge. It is worthy of a

552
00:32:12,519 --> 00:32:15,960
shout out here. Beyond just an
update for a game, it is truly

553
00:32:15,119 --> 00:32:19,319
a contender for one of the best
games released this year. Even though it's

554
00:32:19,599 --> 00:32:22,240
technically not a new skew, it's
more of a mode you also have like

555
00:32:22,279 --> 00:32:27,079
a house. You're kind of your
safe house and you're unlocking stuff there a

556
00:32:27,079 --> 00:32:29,359
lot of it's visual, but then
also a couple of new mechanics that'll help

557
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:34,720
you progressing those levels. It's just
amazing. I think it honestly, in

558
00:32:34,799 --> 00:32:37,079
terms of enjoyment, it's probably in
the top ten, But I just wanted

559
00:32:37,119 --> 00:32:39,559
my top ten to consist more of
newerish things, I guess, but yeah,

560
00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:45,559
Freelancer is amazing, and yeah,
never like that game was already so

561
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:49,160
good and it's like, how do
they even make it better? I don't

562
00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:51,440
even know how they do it.
It's amazing. I'd love to say a

563
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:53,119
couple of new maps come to it. I know they're probably pretty busy with

564
00:32:53,559 --> 00:32:57,359
James Bond over there now, but
I'd love to still see a new map

565
00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:00,519
or two because the factor that I'm
with Freelancer, Wow, just infinite replayability,

566
00:33:00,599 --> 00:33:04,799
so super super good. Uh,
let me take a breather here,

567
00:33:04,839 --> 00:33:07,359
I'm talking a lot. Let me
catch my breath. I'll be right back

568
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:14,039
and then we will get into the
top ten. Okay, we are back.

569
00:33:15,079 --> 00:33:16,519
We're into the top ten. So, as I mentioned, I always

570
00:33:16,519 --> 00:33:20,279
like to kind of do this where
there's there's certain tiers for my top ten,

571
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:22,200
and so right now it's nine and
ten kind of in this pocket in

572
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:24,960
the bottom er once again, could
have been interchangeable with these games I just

573
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:29,319
talked about to some extent, and
then we get into it and I think

574
00:33:30,039 --> 00:33:32,200
i'd say maybe eight, seven,
maybe six are kind of in a bit

575
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:36,759
of a tier, and then there's
the next tier of like five, four,

576
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:38,079
three, and then there's like the
top two. The top two are

577
00:33:38,119 --> 00:33:43,240
kind of in their own stratosphere.
I guess atmosphere. I just read a

578
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:45,440
book on space recently. I should
know the different layers of our atmosphere,

579
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:49,319
but I don't, so that's kind
of how it is. There's maybe like

580
00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:53,640
three tiers within this, so starting
at number ten, taran nil. This

581
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:57,240
is a game that when I first
played it, I didn't really think it

582
00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:00,759
would make in my top ten by
the end of the year. But I

583
00:34:00,759 --> 00:34:02,240
think I played it sometime in the
summer, but yeah, I guess just

584
00:34:02,279 --> 00:34:05,799
there wasn't enough things in the fall
that kicked it out, so it ended

585
00:34:05,839 --> 00:34:09,639
up staying here. This game has
really nice visuals. It's quite calming,

586
00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:15,000
and it's essentially a I want to
call it like a reverse city builder,

587
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:17,639
where essentially you start it with a
wasteland and you are bringing it back to

588
00:34:17,679 --> 00:34:23,679
life by putting down these machines that
generate water or generate grass, eventually getting

589
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:30,719
bringing trees and flowers and all that
kind of variety into new biomes. And

590
00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:32,840
then you have this kind of last
step or once you've brought in that environment

591
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:37,760
back to a certain extent, then
you start to bring in certain lifes You're

592
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,880
trying to find, like, Okay, a bear needs like berries next to

593
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:44,960
a river, next to trees.
So if you can find somewhere in your

594
00:34:45,039 --> 00:34:46,920
world that you've created mixture of those, you can bring bears back into the

595
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:52,039
world. And then then you got
to bring like wolves and deer and all

596
00:34:52,079 --> 00:34:54,719
these things. But then I think
what the coolest part about it is is

597
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:59,719
this last step where after you've done
all that, you've re brought the biome

598
00:34:59,719 --> 00:35:02,519
back to life, brought in animal
life, then you have to remove your

599
00:35:02,599 --> 00:35:05,719
part of it. You have to
take out all your machines, all your

600
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:08,519
contraptions that built that stuff in the
first place. Now that the biome is

601
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:13,639
self sufficient, which is like this
whole puzzle on it in terms of how

602
00:35:13,679 --> 00:35:16,239
you can space things. It's not
as easy as it sounds, so's it

603
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:20,320
ends up being a really interesting kind
of city builder. But you're not really

604
00:35:20,639 --> 00:35:25,280
building cities more of like a environment
builder but then also like a puzzle game

605
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:30,000
at the same time. So yeah, it's it's just a really really great,

606
00:35:30,199 --> 00:35:35,599
really innovative game. And yeah,
there's kind of these different biomes.

607
00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:38,239
You know, they got the classic
icy biome, the classic kind of hills,

608
00:35:38,639 --> 00:35:42,480
and so you have these, you
can have like a volcano sort of

609
00:35:42,519 --> 00:35:45,039
setting, so you get some different
challenges that you eat each of those as

610
00:35:45,039 --> 00:35:47,679
well. So there's definitely more I
can go back and do, so I

611
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:50,880
definitely want to go back and check
out more of this game at some point.

612
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:54,280
But yeah, super solid, really
cool, really beautiful game and really

613
00:35:54,360 --> 00:36:00,000
calming. So definitely a big recommendation
for me on that one. Number nine,

614
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:01,960
and this is the one Nintendo game
in my list this year, and

615
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:07,000
that is Advanced Wars one plus two
reboot Camp. So I've never played the

616
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:08,840
original Advanced Wars, so you got
to maybe take this with a grain of

617
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:13,480
salt in terms of like how different
is this from those original games? Does

618
00:36:13,519 --> 00:36:15,119
it deserve to be in here?
Is it too much for a remaster versus

619
00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:20,280
a reboot as they call as they
call it remake. Who knows where it

620
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:22,480
is on that, But yeah,
for me, I think it just it

621
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:24,599
stood above the rest of these games, so I wanted to put it in

622
00:36:24,599 --> 00:36:28,320
here, and honestly, I think, you know, the visual style,

623
00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:30,159
it's bundling two games in a one. I don't know how much new maps

624
00:36:30,159 --> 00:36:32,519
and that sort of stuff is in
there, but I felt like there was

625
00:36:32,599 --> 00:36:36,320
enough here that it definitely is worthy
of it. And yeah, I think

626
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:39,920
this is I guess, looking at
my list, is the only game in

627
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:45,480
my top ten that I haven't beat. Well, I guess a little disclaimer

628
00:36:45,519 --> 00:36:49,000
on that. I beat Advanced Wars
one. That campaign I'm still working my

629
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,920
way through two. Two is a
bit like more hard and crazy, and

630
00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:54,400
I think that's a really cool structure
to it. Or one. It's like

631
00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:58,480
pretty straightforward for the most part,
and there isn't a whole lot of variety

632
00:36:58,559 --> 00:37:01,360
in terms of like there's a good
map priety and challenge variety, but in

633
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:05,199
terms of the goal of each level
is for the most part of the same.

634
00:37:06,039 --> 00:37:08,239
And then I think Advanced Wars two
comes in and like every level is

635
00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:14,599
some weird win condition or some weird
format or some weird new enemy type that's

636
00:37:14,639 --> 00:37:16,920
only used in this one level,
And so it's really cool. It's kind

637
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:21,639
of like here, use one as
like the extendedtorial, and then two is

638
00:37:21,679 --> 00:37:22,840
where the game goes kind of crazy, and so that's where it's been really

639
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:27,480
enjoyable. And yeah, there's just
tons in here, which is why I'm

640
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:30,679
still playing through it months later.
And yeah, it's an easy one to

641
00:37:30,679 --> 00:37:32,119
revisit because it's like, what do
I want to play right now? I

642
00:37:32,159 --> 00:37:34,880
don't if I want to jump into
this, don't want, I don't know

643
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:36,840
if I want to jump into that. Let me just do one Advanced Wars

644
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:39,360
map. It spend a half an
hour doing that, and uh, yeah,

645
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:44,800
really enjoyable, especially from a huge
tactic span of course triangle strategy.

646
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:47,280
But it sounds both my top ten
last year. I love Ironblem even though

647
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:51,000
Engage, as you noticed, didn't
even get an normable mention for me here.

648
00:37:51,199 --> 00:37:52,800
But yeah, Advanced Wars really really
fun to finally go back this,

649
00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:58,760
especially after playing War Groove and loving
that kind of tactics game play style and

650
00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:01,800
then Advanced Wars wanting our advance was
going back to the kind of creator of

651
00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:06,480
this genre or the sub genre in
first place. It was a really really

652
00:38:06,519 --> 00:38:10,000
great time. So shout outs to
Advance Wars. And yeah, now we're

653
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:13,719
getting into the top eight. So
number eight four, this is where we

654
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:15,159
get into i'd say, the kind
of the next tier. This is where

655
00:38:15,159 --> 00:38:17,960
we jump up. And these are
the games that were definitely locked in my

656
00:38:19,039 --> 00:38:22,000
top ten. There's no way these
ones are falling out unless you know I

657
00:38:22,039 --> 00:38:27,920
played some balder skate probably something like
that. So number eight here is gonna

658
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:31,719
be Amnesia the Bunker. Pretty under
the radar game, I would say,

659
00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:35,840
But yeah, so I talked about
this, well, I've talked most of

660
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:37,360
these games on Sidequest, so I
won't say that every time I talk about

661
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:43,320
these. But this game is essentially
like a mini version of Prey twenty seventeen,

662
00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:46,119
where it's you're progressing through this bunker. You're kind of starting more or

663
00:38:46,199 --> 00:38:49,960
less the center of it. You're
working your way into these different areas.

664
00:38:50,079 --> 00:38:54,199
You're slowly discovering more of it,
you're getting more resources, but you're gonna

665
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:58,599
have to backtrack a lot. I
think the lighting system in this game is

666
00:38:58,679 --> 00:39:01,320
fantastic, the way you're kind of
daisy chaining these lights throughout this bunker,

667
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:06,320
and so you'll have this moment where
you click one light on and then it

668
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:08,239
will light up a whole bunch in
the row and the light is what keeps

669
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:12,360
you safe in this game and helps
you see and not be too terrified.

670
00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:15,440
And then you have your weird little
bay blade type light where you have to

671
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:20,360
charge it up, but it makes
so much noise. I thought the horror

672
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:22,880
element of this game was good,
where for the most part, it's very

673
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:28,760
telegraphed when there's gonna be a scary
thing, so kind of the opposite of

674
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:30,440
Alan Wake, which I mean I
don't look has that, but it also

675
00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:35,360
has a ton of jump scares.
The bunker never does that. You always

676
00:39:35,639 --> 00:39:37,039
know when you're making too much noise, or you know, okay, if

677
00:39:37,079 --> 00:39:40,559
I blow this barrel up, it's
gonna make huge sound. I know that

678
00:39:40,559 --> 00:39:43,920
monster is gonna come running, so
you can make that, but then go

679
00:39:44,039 --> 00:39:46,400
hide in a closet or something.
So there's still unexpected things that happen.

680
00:39:46,639 --> 00:39:50,440
But for the most part I like
that in terms of scariness, I was

681
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:52,880
able to kind of predict when something
freaky was gonna happen, so I could

682
00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:59,119
kind of mentally and physically prepare myself
get into a nice cozy, comfy spot.

683
00:40:00,159 --> 00:40:01,800
Lots of creativity here in terms of
how you navigate through the world,

684
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:06,000
getting down certain doors. There's so
many ways to get through a door in

685
00:40:06,039 --> 00:40:07,360
this game, in the same way
that Prey has that. I think the

686
00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:10,039
atmosphere is really good. I'm generally
not a fan of the setting, but

687
00:40:10,079 --> 00:40:14,440
it really really worked for me.
Here a lot of notes that was reading

688
00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:17,480
to get more info in these characters. So yeah, just a really really

689
00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:22,280
solid game, you know, solid
five six hour playtime. Really enjoyed it

690
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:27,360
from start to finish. I think
it lacked maybe a little something extra,

691
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:30,800
or maybe some big moment towards the
end, or maybe a more interesting,

692
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:35,599
like main narrative. I don't know
what would have taken this game from eighth

693
00:40:35,719 --> 00:40:38,199
up to the top five up to
even higher, but I don't think it

694
00:40:38,239 --> 00:40:43,719
needed too. Like this is like
just a perfect little October horror experience for

695
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:47,679
me that was pretty small and succinct
and just really had super fun gameplay,

696
00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:52,360
very immersive, all that kind of
stuff. So yeah, I really really

697
00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:53,840
loved this game. It was super
good, and you know, it put

698
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:58,400
the rest of the Amnesia games back
on my backlog, where you know,

699
00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:00,159
I played a little bit of Dark
Descent back in the day, but now

700
00:41:00,199 --> 00:41:02,400
that I'm super into horror games and
after playing this I'm like, man,

701
00:41:02,440 --> 00:41:06,760
I want to go back and check
out this whole series of games and see

702
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:10,000
what the other settings they have and
other gameplay things. So really really solid.

703
00:41:12,159 --> 00:41:16,719
Number seven here is Pseudo Regalia.
This game has I'm gonna say this

704
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:21,039
three times in this in the rest
of this this game has like my favorite

705
00:41:21,039 --> 00:41:24,039
aesthetics of the year until the next
game that I mentioned. But yeah,

706
00:41:24,119 --> 00:41:28,039
I think this game has a really
great art style, kind of has this

707
00:41:28,199 --> 00:41:31,800
sort of PS one or N sixty
four or sort of polygone element to it,

708
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:35,880
and that the color schemes I think
are really great. This graininess that

709
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:39,400
really is it's very intentional. And
then the music is fantastic. There's not

710
00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:44,480
a ton of songs in this game, but each one is just oozing with

711
00:41:44,559 --> 00:41:49,719
atmosphere and vibes to it really really
great. Either it's you know, unsettling

712
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:52,320
or maybe a bit heroic or like
maybe even a bit goofy at times.

713
00:41:52,679 --> 00:41:55,840
So I really really love the aesthetic
of it. But this is essentially a

714
00:41:55,960 --> 00:42:02,000
three D platformer Metroidvani type of game. Interestingly, there's no map in it,

715
00:42:02,079 --> 00:42:07,000
but I think that was actually a
good thing for me because the movement

716
00:42:07,079 --> 00:42:09,559
was so good in this game feels
so freaking good that I just found myself

717
00:42:09,599 --> 00:42:13,960
cruising around the map looking for places
to go or if I had to backtrack,

718
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:15,719
It's like, okay, but now
I can go through it so much

719
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:17,800
quicker because I'm better at the game, because I know shortcuts, and so

720
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:21,800
even not having a map, I
found that there was no problem because of

721
00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:23,519
the scale of it. This is
another game that's you know, short and

722
00:42:23,559 --> 00:42:30,199
sweet, and yeah, the just
the way I guess, the the cadence

723
00:42:30,199 --> 00:42:35,119
of which you're getting new abilities a
jump, slide or a dash, or

724
00:42:35,199 --> 00:42:38,119
upgrading your dash, or even just
discovering other pressy moves that you didn't even

725
00:42:38,199 --> 00:42:42,280
realize you had the whole time.
Just every time you get one of those

726
00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:45,079
new things that layers with all the
other things in such a way, you

727
00:42:45,159 --> 00:42:47,079
get them at such a good pace
that, Yeah, the game is just

728
00:42:47,119 --> 00:42:52,559
constantly unfolding and getting more and more
complex and more and more engaging and fun,

729
00:42:52,599 --> 00:42:55,000
and you just feel so freaking powerful
you feel like you break the game.

730
00:42:55,039 --> 00:42:58,559
There are certain moments where it feels
like, okay, this is probably

731
00:42:58,559 --> 00:43:00,719
the intentional thing. If I get
like really cheeky here, we're like,

732
00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:02,920
okay, I could do a little
air dash into a wall jump here,

733
00:43:04,039 --> 00:43:07,360
or to a wall ride and to
a wall jump grab this ledge. Maybe

734
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:10,480
I can kind of cheek be cheeky
and squeeze out this area sooner than I

735
00:43:10,519 --> 00:43:14,719
normally would. This game has that
all over the place where I don't even

736
00:43:14,760 --> 00:43:16,880
know what the intentional root is for
some of these things. Is it just

737
00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:20,840
feels so good in that way,
and then it's a bit more freeformance design

738
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:23,719
and uh yeah, I just had
a great time with this from start to

739
00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:28,320
finish. So highly recommend for any
three D kind of platform or fans.

740
00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:30,960
There's combat in the game. It's
very it's used very sparingly. I think

741
00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:32,159
that's one of the weakest parts about
it is that that just like a final

742
00:43:32,159 --> 00:43:36,320
boss fight. Uh it's a very
movement based boss fight. It's like,

743
00:43:36,800 --> 00:43:39,760
I don't think that's a good way
to There's multiple games that do this where

744
00:43:39,760 --> 00:43:43,880
you have a game that's like a
big puzzle game or a movement kind of

745
00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:45,960
game, then you end it with
like a big boss fight, and it's

746
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,840
like there's another way to other ways
to end your game. You know,

747
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:52,599
there's a game that there's ways to
fit your genre more. But I think

748
00:43:52,639 --> 00:43:54,440
the final boss fight in the game
was pretty hard, but it wasn't It

749
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:58,400
wasn't too bad or anything. So
yeah, I really really love to shoot

750
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:04,360
over Regalia. Check that out.
Moving into number six, this one I

751
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:08,360
quite literally finished last night. I
really wanted to get get it finished before

752
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:12,239
doing this episode. Even without finishing
it, it was still in my top

753
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:15,159
ten, but finishing it dumped it
from I think probably the ninth spot up

754
00:44:15,159 --> 00:44:20,880
to number six here and that is
a Space for the Unbound. So as

755
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:23,880
I just mentioned, this now is
my favorite aesthetics of the year in terms

756
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:27,760
of the the art and the music
of it. I think this is my

757
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:30,639
favorite soundtrack of the year. So
good, so much in here. Like

758
00:44:30,679 --> 00:44:35,039
on Spotify, its split in like
three separate albums, and then each of

759
00:44:35,079 --> 00:44:37,880
those, like there's certain themes in
the game that really, you know,

760
00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:42,320
you hear them a lot because they're
in these main areas. Then there's moments

761
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,000
in the game where it will have
like a variation or a remix of that,

762
00:44:45,079 --> 00:44:47,440
and all those are really effective but
just super good. If you at

763
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:52,039
the very least listen to a Space
for the Unbound music, it is super

764
00:44:52,119 --> 00:44:53,760
duper good. Did I even say
the name of the game earlier space for

765
00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:58,199
the unbounds number six, I think
I did. And then in terms of

766
00:44:58,239 --> 00:45:00,840
the visuals of it, like the
Aert is so good in this game,

767
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:05,599
for the animations, for the characters, the shading and this kind of maroon

768
00:45:05,679 --> 00:45:10,440
color and this teal white a maroon
like trifective colors that I used so often.

769
00:45:10,559 --> 00:45:15,360
It looks amazing. So such a
beautiful game. And yeah, this

770
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:19,000
is kind of like a I guess
you'd call it like a point and click

771
00:45:19,039 --> 00:45:22,440
adventure game with I guess a bit
more involved controls. You're like moving left

772
00:45:22,480 --> 00:45:28,719
and right interacting with things rather than
just like clicking where to go. So

773
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:30,760
yeah, just a little bit different. So I guess it's a bit more

774
00:45:30,199 --> 00:45:34,119
fun to play than a typical point
and click adventure. But it has that

775
00:45:34,159 --> 00:45:36,880
same sort of ethos of gameplay,
like, oh, you gotta go find

776
00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:38,840
this item and then click on this
one thing with this item, and then

777
00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:42,639
we'll get this interaction which moves on
to the next thing. A lot of

778
00:45:42,639 --> 00:45:45,280
you know, that sort of thing, simple puzzles in that way, but

779
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:47,920
some of the puzzles are really really
well designed. There's a ton of mini

780
00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:52,559
games in here, some combat ones
as well. The combat is usually just

781
00:45:52,639 --> 00:45:55,239
like a timing thing rather than like, here's a punch button. And I

782
00:45:55,239 --> 00:46:00,079
think it works. I think it
doesn't overstays welcome in that although I think

783
00:46:00,119 --> 00:46:05,199
if there's any complaint I have about
this game, it is on the pacing

784
00:46:05,239 --> 00:46:07,760
side of it. I think this
game is I'm gonna say, even like

785
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:10,000
an hour or two longer that it
needs to be. It's about ten hours

786
00:46:10,079 --> 00:46:13,119
long, and I think you really
could just shave some time off there to

787
00:46:13,159 --> 00:46:15,440
make it a bit more succinct,
and some of those elements with gameplay that

788
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:19,400
maybe got a bit tiresome by the
end could have not been that way if

789
00:46:19,440 --> 00:46:21,639
you just took out a bit more. I think for me, particularly the

790
00:46:21,719 --> 00:46:24,320
ending, like it feels like you're
going into the ending and then there's like

791
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:28,159
another section, and then there's another
section, and then there's another section.

792
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:31,800
So maybe a bit too a bit
too long, but still like this is

793
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:36,400
one that I kind of had a
weird situation with where I started this back

794
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:38,800
in August and played through play half
of it, and then Starfield came out

795
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:43,239
and I stopped playing it completely,
and then I just started revisiting in the

796
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:45,280
last week here. And normally for
like a narrative focused game. That might

797
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:47,559
be a bad way to do it, but I found this is a really

798
00:46:47,559 --> 00:46:51,360
fun game to revisit in that way, and I'm really glad I did revisit

799
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:55,400
it because the ending is amazing.
There are some story plot twists or reveals

800
00:46:55,400 --> 00:47:00,440
that happened near the end that are
so strong, and just the last half

801
00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:05,880
an hour of this game is amazing
and super emotional. And you know,

802
00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:08,440
it's a game about depression, so
it's very dark and intense at times.

803
00:47:09,559 --> 00:47:13,360
But yeah, I could not say
enough good things about this game. It

804
00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:17,559
is such a triumph, such an
amazing game, and yeah, I highly

805
00:47:17,559 --> 00:47:22,119
recommend it. It's if you're looking
for a good, good narrative focused indie

806
00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:25,079
with beautiful art and music, this
is definitely the good place to go to.

807
00:47:25,199 --> 00:47:28,199
And you know, they're kind of
under the radar, sort of one,

808
00:47:28,679 --> 00:47:31,199
I would say for the most part, so a space for the unbound.

809
00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:34,920
Let me take a quick sip of
water here and I'll get into my

810
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:38,880
top five. Okay, so we're
into the top five here, and this

811
00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:43,880
is where once again another tier break
sort of happens. We're climbing up into

812
00:47:43,920 --> 00:47:47,119
the top echelon of games. Number
five here is where I have Alan Wake

813
00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:52,320
two. I think five, number
five and four somewhat interchangeable. But for

814
00:47:52,400 --> 00:47:55,840
today, I'm okay to put Alan
Wake two here. I'm gonna start with

815
00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:59,559
the negative here and then we can
talk about the positive. The negative for

816
00:47:59,599 --> 00:48:02,840
me is that the this game had
a very because of bugs and bugs alone,

817
00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:07,119
had a very weak start and finish, and so obviously that sucks.

818
00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:08,559
Like I feel like, if you're
gonna have a buggy game, you maybe

819
00:48:08,639 --> 00:48:12,840
want that stuff to be kind of
somewhere intermingled in the middle, rather than

820
00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:15,519
setting a bad first impression or ending
on a sour note. So when I

821
00:48:15,559 --> 00:48:19,199
first started the game, there were
tons of audio bugs. Quite literally,

822
00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:22,360
the audio stopped working completely during the
opening cut scene of the game. You

823
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:25,119
know, it's a weird story horror
game. Like, I'm like, is

824
00:48:25,159 --> 00:48:29,519
this intentional? I played for FO
This is definitely not intentional. I had

825
00:48:29,519 --> 00:48:31,599
to hard close the game bowed back
up, and then the first couple hours

826
00:48:31,599 --> 00:48:36,800
there were tons of audio issues,
But that stuff seems to be all patched

827
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:38,440
now. I there was a couple
of updates and then I didn't have any

828
00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:43,280
audio issues afterwards, but still it
kind of soured the start of the game

829
00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:45,440
a little bit, and then the
end of the game. This was really

830
00:48:45,519 --> 00:48:49,199
unfortunate. So I I thought I
was pretty close to that in the game,

831
00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:52,199
but you never really know. This
game is pretty trippy. So I

832
00:48:52,239 --> 00:48:54,639
was playing late, late, late
at night on a Saturday, and I

833
00:48:54,639 --> 00:48:57,239
thought, like, Okay, I
think I'm pretty close to the end.

834
00:48:57,320 --> 00:49:00,760
Like I think I'm gonna see credits
here. I was playing You're playing through

835
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:05,599
and eventually I was in the section
with Saga and it's you're kind of going

836
00:49:05,639 --> 00:49:07,920
through the subway whatever, and the
game crashed. Uh, And it was

837
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:09,719
like it was late at night.
I'm like, okay, I think I'm

838
00:49:09,719 --> 00:49:12,519
near the end, but like,
I don't really know, so I'm just

839
00:49:12,599 --> 00:49:15,599
gonna I'm just gonna call it at
night and I'll come back and finish this

840
00:49:15,639 --> 00:49:19,079
tomorrow. And then I came back, and you know, anytime a crash

841
00:49:19,079 --> 00:49:20,800
happens, it's like, Okay,
I don't know where the last auto save

842
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:22,480
was. I don't know when I
saved last. I don't auto saving is

843
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:24,960
probably pretty good in this game.
I don't think I'll lose much progress.

844
00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:28,480
But there's this section, and this
happens a lot in this game, Alan

845
00:49:28,519 --> 00:49:31,159
Wake, where you're doing the ct
a certain thing over and over again in

846
00:49:31,199 --> 00:49:37,760
an intentional way, like the game's
looping or spiraling, winking and doing things

847
00:49:37,800 --> 00:49:39,440
back and forth, going back through
areas, backtracking, and so I was

848
00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:44,119
like, okay, I think I
did this section. I couldn't quite remember

849
00:49:44,119 --> 00:49:46,639
exactly where I left off after the
crash, and so I loaded back in.

850
00:49:46,719 --> 00:49:50,880
I like went up the staircase,
went and righted this object. I'm

851
00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:52,760
like, okay, I think I
did this last night, so I'll like

852
00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:54,880
skip this cut scene and move on
to the next thing. But then the

853
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:59,920
credits rolled. I had just skipped
the final cut scene of the game beca

854
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:01,840
because I, once again, because
of that repetition, I'd just done something

855
00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:05,320
very similar to this. Then you
have to do it again. So that's

856
00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:08,440
where I thought I had done it. So it sucks right where this kind

857
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:12,119
of took the window to the sales
of the ending a little bit. Of

858
00:50:12,159 --> 00:50:14,320
course, I went to YouTube right
away and watched the final cut scene,

859
00:50:14,360 --> 00:50:15,840
so I still saw it, but
I didn't have that same experience with it.

860
00:50:16,199 --> 00:50:20,000
It's like, partially this is a
user error of me skipping it,

861
00:50:20,280 --> 00:50:22,880
but also it's because of that freaking
crash and if the game didn't crash,

862
00:50:22,920 --> 00:50:24,880
I would have literally walked up the
staircase and finished the game right then and

863
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:30,239
there. So it's too bad.
It kind of ruined my thoughts on the

864
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:32,119
ending a little bit, just a
bit. But then honestly, the ending

865
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:37,440
is very cliffhangary, and I definitely
wanted a few more questions answered. So

866
00:50:37,519 --> 00:50:39,920
I think there's a couple things.
My negative stuff comes from just the very

867
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:45,159
beginning opening glitches, and then just
that slightly disappointing ending, half caused by

868
00:50:45,159 --> 00:50:50,239
the glitch, half caused by what
the actual ending is. Negative is out

869
00:50:50,239 --> 00:50:52,159
of the way, Let's talk about
what I love about this game and why

870
00:50:52,239 --> 00:50:57,400
it's a top fiver for me this
year. This is one of the most

871
00:50:57,440 --> 00:51:00,920
bold Triple A games I've seen in
a long time, just in terms of

872
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:06,039
the storytelling of it, in terms
of using mixed media, of having it's

873
00:51:06,039 --> 00:51:08,920
a video game for some and foremost, but then having a live action video

874
00:51:09,039 --> 00:51:13,920
sections that you're watching. Some of
that stuff is like within the game.

875
00:51:14,039 --> 00:51:15,119
Sometimes it will like take it for
the full screen, so it feels like

876
00:51:15,159 --> 00:51:19,239
a TV show for a bit Quantum
Breaking, and then other kids it's like

877
00:51:19,239 --> 00:51:22,320
you're just watching a screening game,
but it's a real live action footage.

878
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:24,639
And then there's like the use of
music in it of you know, this

879
00:51:24,679 --> 00:51:29,599
is slight spoiler here if you don't
want to get spoiled here, but like

880
00:51:29,599 --> 00:51:32,000
there's a full, like thirty minute
long musical sequence in this game, which

881
00:51:32,039 --> 00:51:35,760
is amazing, in which they honored
at the game boards, which I loved

882
00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:39,239
seeing that again there. But even
after every chapter there's like a music video

883
00:51:39,239 --> 00:51:44,320
that plays with a really nice music
and so I think the idea of mixing

884
00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:47,119
these different styles works really well.
There's a ton of trippiness in this game

885
00:51:47,199 --> 00:51:52,239
visually in terms of like certain images
overlapping over top each other, and like

886
00:51:52,480 --> 00:51:55,559
really it's like a brain tea,
like messes with your mind in a really

887
00:51:55,599 --> 00:52:00,199
really cool way. This game is
beautiful, Like actually that opening section,

888
00:52:00,239 --> 00:52:04,199
anytime I have to go through the
woods, the forest, just the amount

889
00:52:04,239 --> 00:52:07,559
of detail, how much the wind
blows to these bushes and trees looks amazing.

890
00:52:09,079 --> 00:52:14,880
So yeah, the game just esthetically
is dripping with style. I love

891
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:16,880
its take as a sequel because I
played the first aund way back in the

892
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:20,159
day, but it's like it's been
so long, I don't really remember anything

893
00:52:20,199 --> 00:52:22,840
about it, but I think the
story this game works perfectly for that perspective

894
00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:27,760
as well as you know, being
having tons of references for people who did

895
00:52:27,760 --> 00:52:30,039
play that game recently and remember some
of those things in those characters. But

896
00:52:30,039 --> 00:52:34,519
for me, someone who's very foggy
on it, it's still really worked narratively

897
00:52:34,559 --> 00:52:37,039
that it's like this is actually ten
years later in the world too, so

898
00:52:37,079 --> 00:52:40,719
that was really really great. The
game has a really great writing for the

899
00:52:40,719 --> 00:52:45,719
most part, and I think it's
like either you have Alan who's writing is

900
00:52:45,199 --> 00:52:51,079
cheesy, but it's like intentional,
So that's really good that you can intentionally

901
00:52:51,079 --> 00:52:54,679
write cheesy writing from a different writer's
perspective, like the layer the inception layers

902
00:52:54,719 --> 00:52:58,719
on that is insane. But yeah, other than that, like the writing

903
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:02,480
is really good, the acting is
great. The story is really really interesting

904
00:53:02,559 --> 00:53:07,639
and really weird and compelling, and
I'm definitely feel like I'm missing some parts

905
00:53:07,639 --> 00:53:10,519
of it because it is so weird
and confusing, but it's still really worked

906
00:53:10,519 --> 00:53:15,159
for me for the most part,
And I think like Saga was the biggest

907
00:53:15,159 --> 00:53:17,239
success for me here. I liked
Alan's sequences, but I think Saga was

908
00:53:17,280 --> 00:53:22,559
the standout character of the two for
me, and yeah, I think the

909
00:53:22,559 --> 00:53:24,559
only other maybe I don't even want
to call it a negative. I didn't

910
00:53:24,559 --> 00:53:28,239
really the combat in this game,
but you could just put it on story

911
00:53:28,239 --> 00:53:30,719
mode, and then the comment became
really fun because I was just one shot

912
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:35,599
every enemy and I just felt really
powerful and really cool, and I liked

913
00:53:35,599 --> 00:53:37,519
it that way, and so I
liked that that was an option for me.

914
00:53:37,559 --> 00:53:38,599
So if I wasn't I wasn't really
big in the combat, I can

915
00:53:38,639 --> 00:53:42,039
kind of just opt out of it. I think that's a great thing that

916
00:53:42,079 --> 00:53:44,280
like Tunic did last year too,
where you can just turn on god mode.

917
00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:45,880
I'm like, I'm playing this game
for the puzzles, I don't care

918
00:53:45,920 --> 00:53:47,559
about the combat. Let me put
on god mode in the game. Let's

919
00:53:47,559 --> 00:53:51,519
you do that. I think that's
amazing. So that definitely worked for me

920
00:53:51,559 --> 00:53:53,599
too and Alan Wake two, so
that was something that was kind of dragging

921
00:53:53,599 --> 00:53:55,119
on me with some of the difficulty, and I was like, we know

922
00:53:55,199 --> 00:54:00,360
whatever, I'm just gonna go on
easy mode and explore this story in this

923
00:54:00,440 --> 00:54:04,239
world. So yeah, I love
the saying of this. I love the

924
00:54:04,320 --> 00:54:07,559
story, and yeah, just a
couple hiccups along the way, unfortunately,

925
00:54:07,599 --> 00:54:10,199
but for the most part, like
such an interesting game, and I'm so

926
00:54:10,360 --> 00:54:15,440
glad that it is getting the praise
it deserves and it didn't slip under the

927
00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:20,880
radar because I think it very easily
could have. Number four is going to

928
00:54:20,960 --> 00:54:24,559
be Cocoon. I don't think I'll
have too much to say on this one.

929
00:54:24,559 --> 00:54:28,960
Honestly. It's just a really freaking
great puzzle game, really really good.

930
00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:31,400
One of my favorite puzzle games of
all time, because the puzzle deadline

931
00:54:31,480 --> 00:54:35,960
is super good. It's like it's
that easy. Another game was really good

932
00:54:36,239 --> 00:54:39,400
scale. It's like has a perfect
length to it. I didn't have a

933
00:54:39,440 --> 00:54:44,039
single dull moment. Every puzzle in
this game I thought was interesting or cool.

934
00:54:44,599 --> 00:54:45,519
I love that, you know.
When I saw the trailer for this

935
00:54:45,559 --> 00:54:49,480
game, I thought the idea of
going into these different orbs, which taking

936
00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:52,920
into these different worlds and bring orbs
within orbs and all that stuff. I

937
00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:54,719
thought it would be kind of maybe
more split up into levels where it's like,

938
00:54:54,719 --> 00:54:58,559
Okay, here's this level, here's
the setup. You have three orbs,

939
00:54:58,559 --> 00:55:01,639
figure out this puzzle, but it's
like this one continuous, longer adventure.

940
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:04,920
I think it's cool that you might
spend like, okay, an hour

941
00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:07,480
progressing through the Orange orbs world,
but then you like, grab the you

942
00:55:07,519 --> 00:55:10,239
got the purple orb, go back
out through the Orange orb. You're now

943
00:55:10,280 --> 00:55:14,079
exploring the Purple orb. Maing,
I bring the Orange. It's like the

944
00:55:14,119 --> 00:55:19,199
way it layers together is incredibly interesting
in a way. It's really hard to

945
00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:22,400
describe unless you've well even if you
play the games, Like I don't even

946
00:55:22,679 --> 00:55:24,360
if I describe it, I'm just
gonna like spoil certain puzzles. But it's

947
00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:29,239
just so good. I think the
continuous nature of it, rather than being

948
00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:34,239
split into levels or sections and instead
of just being one longer adventure, really

949
00:55:34,239 --> 00:55:38,639
really worked for it and made it
just feel so cohesive. Every puzzle was

950
00:55:38,679 --> 00:55:42,920
like the perfect level of difficulty of
maybe there's a couple easy ones, but

951
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:45,880
that's just kind of more to introduce
a mechanic, but then you have a

952
00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:50,360
difficult one that for me, everything
worked perfectly. Was like I spent the

953
00:55:50,440 --> 00:55:52,079
exact amount of time. Maybe it
took me fifteen minutes, but like that's

954
00:55:52,119 --> 00:55:55,239
the exact amount of time I needed
for it to not be too easy but

955
00:55:55,320 --> 00:56:00,920
not be too hard and to lose
interest something. Every puzzle was like perfectly

956
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:07,039
curated in terms of that difficulty of
it, so just outstanding, amazing puzzle

957
00:56:07,079 --> 00:56:12,840
game. Cannot recommend it enough.
There you go, there's Cocoon getting into

958
00:56:12,880 --> 00:56:16,400
my top three. The top three
here, this is the big dogs for

959
00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:21,880
me. These are like the three
games that I I want to call them

960
00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:24,280
all timers. We'll see how that
factors out. I think that will probably

961
00:56:24,320 --> 00:56:28,199
be the case in the future.
But yeah, these are the three games

962
00:56:28,239 --> 00:56:30,760
that were really really standouts for me. So yeah, Number three for me

963
00:56:30,920 --> 00:56:36,519
is Resident Evil for remake. Yeah. Like I said at the top of

964
00:56:36,559 --> 00:56:39,079
this, like normally I would not
really like to include remakes remasters, and

965
00:56:39,119 --> 00:56:43,559
I haven't played Resonue Evil four before, so this is a full new experience

966
00:56:43,559 --> 00:56:45,360
for me. Hard to truly evaluate
it in that way. But I think

967
00:56:45,440 --> 00:56:50,000
just because of the overall quality of
the year, like I really needed more

968
00:56:50,000 --> 00:56:53,119
fuel, and Resnuebal four gave me
that fuel in spades. I really really

969
00:56:53,199 --> 00:56:57,079
loved this game. It was such
a surprise, you know, always hearing

970
00:56:57,079 --> 00:56:59,880
this as one of the greatest games
of all time, some people's favorite game.

971
00:57:00,079 --> 00:57:05,159
I had very different expectations for what
it is versus what I thought it

972
00:57:05,199 --> 00:57:08,639
was going to be, and that
mostly comes in through the tone. The

973
00:57:08,719 --> 00:57:14,199
game is very goofy. It's like
a cheesy action flick, and I wasn't

974
00:57:14,199 --> 00:57:15,840
expecting that. I thought it'd be
more serious or more horror y. And

975
00:57:15,880 --> 00:57:20,079
there is some scary moments, but
like not really. There's a couple a

976
00:57:20,079 --> 00:57:22,440
couple of them, but for the
most parts, it's it's more about the

977
00:57:22,440 --> 00:57:24,599
action movie part of it. But
yeah, I really really like the combat.

978
00:57:24,639 --> 00:57:29,159
I really like the upgrades, the
upgrade system of it, the inventory

979
00:57:29,199 --> 00:57:32,039
management, all that stuff I really
enjoy. I love all the characters in

980
00:57:32,079 --> 00:57:36,800
here. I think they're all very
fun, whether they are maybe with the

981
00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:38,079
exceptional like some of the villains,
I guess it could be a bit weaker,

982
00:57:38,519 --> 00:57:40,760
but I think in terms of the
main cast, like I think Ashley

983
00:57:40,840 --> 00:57:45,360
is very fun. I like Leon
for his cheesiness. I think Ada is

984
00:57:45,440 --> 00:57:49,480
amazing and compelling. Louis, you
know, he's super fun to have in

985
00:57:49,519 --> 00:57:52,679
there. And yeah, I also
played through the Separate Ways DLC, as

986
00:57:52,679 --> 00:57:54,400
I mentioned, where you get to
play more as Ada, and I think

987
00:57:54,400 --> 00:57:59,280
that gave me just even more appreciation
for the game, which reuses certain areas

988
00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:00,840
in really creatively. You're kind of
going backward through them, or it's given

989
00:58:00,840 --> 00:58:05,880
you more context on what Ada was
doing during these Leon sections. I've then

990
00:58:05,880 --> 00:58:09,360
also exploring more and getting just other
sequences and more backs, more just filling

991
00:58:09,400 --> 00:58:13,440
in the world around it, which
was all really great. So yeah,

992
00:58:13,440 --> 00:58:17,519
it's like visually beautiful and music is
super good. Like technically this game is

993
00:58:17,559 --> 00:58:22,320
just super super solid, and yeah, I just had a really really great

994
00:58:22,360 --> 00:58:23,880
time through it, And uh,
I think it'll definitely be one that I

995
00:58:23,880 --> 00:58:28,920
replay because obviously these games are very
built for replayability, and I think this

996
00:58:28,960 --> 00:58:30,400
is one I will check out.
But I also now just want to go

997
00:58:30,440 --> 00:58:34,519
play all the other Resident Evils that
I missed, so I've obviously talked about

998
00:58:34,519 --> 00:58:37,480
that adventure on side quest already went
back and put it was an Evil too,

999
00:58:37,519 --> 00:58:38,800
And I have a bunch of other
ones downloaded already to be played,

1000
00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:42,079
so it might be a bit before
I actually do replay this one, just

1001
00:58:42,079 --> 00:58:44,880
because I want to fill in more
history of the rest of the series.

1002
00:58:44,920 --> 00:58:46,800
But yeah, I really really love
this game. It lived up to the

1003
00:58:46,960 --> 00:58:51,400
hype for me that has been built
up for like I don't know, two

1004
00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:53,519
decades at this point for people talking
about how much they love Reson Evil four.

1005
00:58:53,599 --> 00:58:59,239
So there you go. That was
number three for me and we're getting

1006
00:58:59,280 --> 00:59:01,159
into the big two. So these
were the These are the two that I

1007
00:59:01,239 --> 00:59:05,440
really debated for Game of the Year. These are the August number one and

1008
00:59:05,480 --> 00:59:07,960
two for me, in the order. I think I switched back a couple

1009
00:59:07,920 --> 00:59:12,079
of times. I'm really happy with
where I have it for today, so

1010
00:59:12,159 --> 00:59:15,559
let's get into it. Number two
for me is Starfield, a game that

1011
00:59:15,840 --> 00:59:17,880
for a lot of people think came
and went, and I don't think we'll

1012
00:59:17,880 --> 00:59:22,159
make it on a lot of people's
top ten. It didn't do very much

1013
00:59:22,199 --> 00:59:24,039
of the game wards. It was
one category but didn't even stand a chance

1014
00:59:24,039 --> 00:59:30,639
of winning it. But I this
is a complicated one. I was gonna

1015
00:59:30,639 --> 00:59:31,920
say, I really love it,
and I do. But I think,

1016
00:59:32,079 --> 00:59:36,280
you know, looking retroactively at my
top ten lists that I've made for the

1017
00:59:36,360 --> 00:59:38,880
last three years, you know,
doing this with Dante doing the official lists,

1018
00:59:39,559 --> 00:59:43,840
by far out of the top five, even top ten, Starfield is

1019
00:59:43,840 --> 00:59:47,199
the most flawed game or the games
that has the most issues or problems or

1020
00:59:49,119 --> 00:59:52,639
criticisms that I can throw at it
out of all those years and including this

1021
00:59:52,719 --> 00:59:54,320
year, even though it's at number
two, so it's above these you know,

1022
00:59:54,360 --> 00:59:58,119
eight other games on my list,
But it is a game that has

1023
00:59:58,119 --> 01:00:00,000
a ton of issues with it,
but I think that just goes to show

1024
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:02,239
how much the parts of it that
I did enjoy shined for me, so

1025
01:00:02,679 --> 01:00:05,360
just to get some of that negative
stuff out of the way. I mean,

1026
01:00:05,360 --> 01:00:09,639
there's obviously, like technically the game
I think visually looks pretty weak at

1027
01:00:09,639 --> 01:00:14,000
times. Other times it does look
good, but like NPC's look awful,

1028
01:00:14,239 --> 01:00:17,039
frame rate is really bad. The
game wasn't actually super buggy for me.

1029
01:00:17,079 --> 01:00:21,599
I think the bugs of Alan Wake
detracted my enjoyment from that game more than

1030
01:00:21,679 --> 01:00:25,480
Starfield's issues did. There's some other
you know issues here. I think the

1031
01:00:25,519 --> 01:00:30,599
biggest thing for me is like exploration. I still got a lot of exploration

1032
01:00:30,639 --> 01:00:35,079
out of it, but I think
now I don't really think i'd want to

1033
01:00:35,119 --> 01:00:37,800
do just free random exploration in the
same way that I'll always do that in

1034
01:00:37,880 --> 01:00:40,480
Elder Scrolls or even I'll go back
and do the same things over again in

1035
01:00:40,519 --> 01:00:44,760
those games. But in this game
it just feels a bit too auto generated,

1036
01:00:44,920 --> 01:00:47,719
which it obviously is procedural generation.
So that takes away from some of

1037
01:00:47,719 --> 01:00:52,880
the enjoyment. But the reality of
the situation is I fucking love this game,

1038
01:00:52,920 --> 01:00:54,840
and it's the game I put the
most time into this year. I

1039
01:00:54,880 --> 01:00:59,800
put a whole eighty hours into it, I think, and even then for

1040
01:00:59,840 --> 01:01:01,599
the three or four weeks afterwards,
I was like, I don't want to

1041
01:01:01,599 --> 01:01:05,000
play more Starfield. But I was
like, I got to play other games

1042
01:01:05,039 --> 01:01:07,559
for a side quest, for getting
ready for these game of the Year lists,

1043
01:01:07,639 --> 01:01:12,920
but all I wanted to do is
play more Starfield. But yeah,

1044
01:01:13,360 --> 01:01:15,599
I love it. Here are the
things that I do love. But I

1045
01:01:15,639 --> 01:01:19,159
think the quest design in this game
is outstanding. I think it's some of

1046
01:01:19,159 --> 01:01:23,800
the best that Bethez does ever done. There are tons of meaningful choices that

1047
01:01:23,960 --> 01:01:27,800
change things that were really really difficult
choices for me to make, and that

1048
01:01:27,960 --> 01:01:32,159
is where I want to do more
replayability, not necessarily the exploration. Yeah,

1049
01:01:32,199 --> 01:01:36,760
some really really fun quests, some
really stand out kind of big cinematic

1050
01:01:36,840 --> 01:01:40,800
set PC sort of moments that are
definitely in there as well. Yeah,

1051
01:01:40,800 --> 01:01:44,039
there's a ton of that stuff that
I was really really impressed by, and

1052
01:01:44,079 --> 01:01:46,039
even some of the side quests I
really had a good time with as well.

1053
01:01:46,719 --> 01:01:51,159
I think the RPG mechanics of this
game are actually really really solid.

1054
01:01:51,199 --> 01:01:55,360
The character creation is really fun.
I like the traits that you can have

1055
01:01:55,440 --> 01:02:00,880
and the background whatever that stuff's called. And I think that define and improvement

1056
01:02:00,960 --> 01:02:06,480
from for me Skyrim and followed four
seventy six is the like RPG skill tree.

1057
01:02:06,719 --> 01:02:08,280
I really like the way that's worked
of having like, okay, pick

1058
01:02:08,280 --> 01:02:10,840
a point that you want to put
into and then you have to actually do

1059
01:02:10,960 --> 01:02:14,920
that thing to get up to the
next level, and you invest more points,

1060
01:02:14,920 --> 01:02:16,920
you getting more layers, and then
the way that kind of branches out

1061
01:02:16,960 --> 01:02:21,440
into the different layers of the skill
tree. Just a game that even after

1062
01:02:21,480 --> 01:02:24,920
I was level forty whatever it was, every single level still felt meaningful because

1063
01:02:24,960 --> 01:02:29,199
I wanted to put that point somewhere
interesting. And there's so many skills that

1064
01:02:29,280 --> 01:02:31,559
are way beyond like there are a
ton of them that are just like ten

1065
01:02:31,559 --> 01:02:36,840
percent increase to damage allowed you to
though there's a ton that we're like fundamentally

1066
01:02:36,880 --> 01:02:39,320
change the game, like just having
the stealth bar on your screen, or

1067
01:02:40,719 --> 01:02:44,599
like doing a combat slide, or
like skill points, which I think is

1068
01:02:44,639 --> 01:02:50,280
such a cool choice and definitely makes
for more ability to replay And I definitely

1069
01:02:50,360 --> 01:02:52,000
can't wait to replay this game when
there's a bit more content in there,

1070
01:02:52,039 --> 01:02:54,840
when I have a new PC and
can play it on there with some mods.

1071
01:02:55,159 --> 01:03:00,760
Can't wait to check this game out
more. I love about it.

1072
01:03:00,800 --> 01:03:05,079
I think the customization of the character
is good, but also the ship and

1073
01:03:05,159 --> 01:03:07,480
outpost construction. I didn't do quite
as much of that ship, not really

1074
01:03:07,519 --> 01:03:10,159
a whole lot, more just like
a couple of changes here or there.

1075
01:03:10,440 --> 01:03:15,840
I'd mostly just buy cool ships that
I really liked, but I did a

1076
01:03:15,880 --> 01:03:17,199
little bit of outpost construction, which
was cool. But I think more than

1077
01:03:17,199 --> 01:03:21,639
that, I just loved decorating my
houses in this game, buying the various

1078
01:03:21,639 --> 01:03:24,800
houses or decorating my outposts with all
sorts of things. I spent hours.

1079
01:03:24,880 --> 01:03:29,480
I've probably spent like at least eight
or ten hours of my playtime of my

1080
01:03:29,519 --> 01:03:32,480
eighty hours just decorating houses in this
game. That was such a fun part

1081
01:03:32,519 --> 01:03:37,360
for me. I love the variety
you have there, and yeah, just

1082
01:03:37,440 --> 01:03:42,320
really really cool. I think there's
some really really great story moments in this

1083
01:03:42,360 --> 01:03:45,000
game. I mentioned some of those
quests that stand out, well, I

1084
01:03:45,000 --> 01:03:45,679
don't know, I don't really want
to spoil them, so I don't think

1085
01:03:45,719 --> 01:03:49,760
I need to mention them. But
some really really great story moments. I

1086
01:03:49,760 --> 01:03:52,760
think a new game plus maybe let
me down a little bit in terms of

1087
01:03:52,760 --> 01:03:54,320
the hype level of it, but
I still think it's pretty cool and creative.

1088
01:03:54,920 --> 01:03:59,079
And then I think there's a great
cast characters in here. Some of

1089
01:03:59,119 --> 01:04:02,159
the there's obviously the four main companions
that you can marry and whatnot. I

1090
01:04:02,239 --> 01:04:04,880
think all of them are really good. And then there's even beyond that a

1091
01:04:04,920 --> 01:04:10,800
few more really interesting ones as well. So yeah, I really excited to

1092
01:04:10,840 --> 01:04:14,679
see the development of this game,
see what happens with the updates, see

1093
01:04:14,719 --> 01:04:16,639
what happens with the mod scene when
it hits it. And I think even

1094
01:04:16,679 --> 01:04:19,840
more than that, like you know, fifteen years from now, like Starfield

1095
01:04:19,840 --> 01:04:24,280
two, I'm very curious to see
what a sequel to this game, like

1096
01:04:24,480 --> 01:04:27,800
a true iterative sequel, will look
like. And that might even be past

1097
01:04:27,880 --> 01:04:30,360
like Todd Howard's days at that point, right he's gonna die. I mean

1098
01:04:30,559 --> 01:04:34,000
he said something like I think he
said the next elist Girls is like his

1099
01:04:34,079 --> 01:04:36,840
last game. I don't know,
something like that, But no, I

1100
01:04:38,119 --> 01:04:40,800
just I can't wait to see what
the changes of Starfield will be in the

1101
01:04:40,840 --> 01:04:45,480
future. But as someone who's kind
of been a big space sci fi nerd

1102
01:04:45,559 --> 01:04:48,360
the last couple of years, I
think this was really good and Definitely there's

1103
01:04:48,440 --> 01:04:50,760
room for improvement, no doubt,
but I think this game is doing so

1104
01:04:50,920 --> 01:04:54,920
much that there's no way I was
gonna be able to do all that stuff

1105
01:04:55,280 --> 01:04:59,639
amazingly. So yeah, I don't
know. That's maybe a compliment and also

1106
01:05:00,159 --> 01:05:01,960
kind of an insult at the same
time, But that's the thing, man,

1107
01:05:02,039 --> 01:05:04,320
this When I played this game,
I played this game. It was

1108
01:05:04,320 --> 01:05:08,360
the easy game of the year for
me until I played more of another game,

1109
01:05:09,039 --> 01:05:12,400
and yeah, I just I love
it. For all its flaws,

1110
01:05:12,519 --> 01:05:15,840
I still had a great time with
this game. And yeah, there you

1111
01:05:15,880 --> 01:05:19,000
go. Starfield at number two.
We have a ton we had to review,

1112
01:05:19,039 --> 01:05:21,400
a second review, and then a
spoiler cast on that game, so

1113
01:05:21,440 --> 01:05:27,159
if you want more discussion on that, that's the place to go to hear

1114
01:05:27,280 --> 01:05:30,800
even more in depth thoughts on all
those things, which has more spoilers in

1115
01:05:30,840 --> 01:05:34,800
there. And then we're into the
big dog, number one and this one.

1116
01:05:34,840 --> 01:05:38,599
Once I completed the game, even
before I was completed, I felt

1117
01:05:38,599 --> 01:05:41,639
like this was going to be number
one. This might not be a surprise

1118
01:05:41,639 --> 01:05:45,519
if you've listened to side Quest the
last few months, but I'm very happy

1119
01:05:45,639 --> 01:05:47,519
with this being my number one,
and it's pretty much an easy lock for

1120
01:05:47,599 --> 01:05:51,440
number one this year, and that
is See of Stars, which I just

1121
01:05:51,440 --> 01:05:55,519
found out today is a Canadian mid
game, so shout outs to that.

1122
01:05:56,519 --> 01:05:58,880
I really wish they got a speech
up there at the Game Awards for winning

1123
01:05:58,920 --> 01:06:01,480
Best Indie, but instead Neil Druckman
got to talk about a TV show that

1124
01:06:01,480 --> 01:06:08,000
I made. But yeah, See
If Stars. This game I had about

1125
01:06:08,000 --> 01:06:12,800
forty hours in when I finally finished
it, completed it, and quite literally

1126
01:06:12,880 --> 01:06:16,960
every single hour of that was enjoyable. There was not a dull moment for

1127
01:06:17,039 --> 01:06:20,880
me in this game. I loved
every second of it. This game,

1128
01:06:21,320 --> 01:06:26,039
much like I was saying a space
for the Unbound Sudoorgalia best aesthetics of the

1129
01:06:26,119 --> 01:06:30,440
year. The pixel art is insanely
good in this game. The color palettes,

1130
01:06:30,480 --> 01:06:36,159
the animations, the expressions on characters'
faces, the amount of character that's

1131
01:06:36,159 --> 01:06:41,639
in there. The world map view
like the zoomed o view versus the close

1132
01:06:41,719 --> 01:06:46,679
in detailed view, insanely beautiful game. The music is fantastic. There's tons

1133
01:06:46,719 --> 01:06:50,480
of music in there, of course, so yeah, beautiful game in that

1134
01:06:50,519 --> 01:06:55,239
way. Let's see, there's so
many things I want to praise about this

1135
01:06:55,280 --> 01:06:57,679
game, so we'll just go through. This will probably be very besty the

1136
01:06:57,679 --> 01:07:00,239
way I talk about this game.
But and I've talked about a lot ready,

1137
01:07:00,239 --> 01:07:01,760
of course, but I now that
I've fully finished, I want to

1138
01:07:01,760 --> 01:07:05,760
praise it some more. So,
you know, one thing that I I

1139
01:07:05,800 --> 01:07:11,320
found interesting was after playing Mario RPG
lately, because I thought Steve Stars always

1140
01:07:11,320 --> 01:07:13,360
was kind of talked about as like, oh, this is a Chrono Trigger

1141
01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:16,639
inspired game, you know first and
foremost, But I was surprised to see

1142
01:07:16,719 --> 01:07:23,280
just how much Mario RPG influence was
in this game. There are certain references,

1143
01:07:24,320 --> 01:07:27,719
veryous specific things. Obviously, some
of the combat system in terms of

1144
01:07:27,760 --> 01:07:30,360
timing attacks. There are all sorts
of things that I can't wait to break

1145
01:07:30,400 --> 01:07:33,360
down if kirkland I ever finished this
game and we can do a full spoiler

1146
01:07:33,400 --> 01:07:35,039
cast, I want to talk about
some of those things some more. But

1147
01:07:35,480 --> 01:07:39,599
to see what Mario RPG did and
as I mentioned, maybe being a bit

1148
01:07:39,599 --> 01:07:43,440
of a satire, and for Steve
Stars to take all of those mechanics and

1149
01:07:43,480 --> 01:07:45,840
make all of them more meaningful and
interesting, it was like, it's so

1150
01:07:46,000 --> 01:07:49,599
cool to see that, especially as
especially the order of it. Of like

1151
01:07:49,639 --> 01:07:53,679
I've played Chrono Trigger and then played
See of Stars and then played Mario RPG.

1152
01:07:54,559 --> 01:07:58,079
Just cool to see how it's taken
a genre that has been you know,

1153
01:07:58,159 --> 01:08:02,239
well trodden, and it's coming out
with new fresh mechanics and iterations on

1154
01:08:02,320 --> 01:08:06,239
mechanics that other other games have done
in such a great way. The combat

1155
01:08:06,360 --> 01:08:11,400
never got boring for me in this
game forty hours in because because of the

1156
01:08:11,400 --> 01:08:16,319
timing attacks, but also just the
variety the effective types. The lock break

1157
01:08:16,399 --> 01:08:20,800
system I think is incredibly smart,
turn order, the variety of characters like

1158
01:08:20,840 --> 01:08:25,800
I never got bored with the combat
in this game, really really great stuff.

1159
01:08:27,159 --> 01:08:29,920
Let's see. I think you know
of these games, these sixteen bit

1160
01:08:30,039 --> 01:08:36,520
JRPG sort of things, usually movement
is pretty pretty stale, pretty clunky.

1161
01:08:36,640 --> 01:08:40,560
Maybe not clunky, but just doesn't
it doesn't feel great to move around.

1162
01:08:40,880 --> 01:08:43,960
This game is an exception to that. There's tons of platforming in this game,

1163
01:08:44,079 --> 01:08:45,880
and the reason for that is because
it's fun to move around, and

1164
01:08:46,039 --> 01:08:50,239
normally I hate shimming on ledges and
stuff, but I loved moving around in

1165
01:08:50,279 --> 01:08:53,600
this game. You also have a
grappling hunk, of course, which always

1166
01:08:53,640 --> 01:08:57,119
feels good. The puzzles, there
are tons of great puzzles in this game.

1167
01:08:57,159 --> 01:09:00,199
I think they do a really smart
thing of there any puzzle that's needed

1168
01:09:00,239 --> 01:09:03,199
for a main quest is not too
difficult. Usually you can figure it out

1169
01:09:03,239 --> 01:09:08,079
fairly quickly with a couple. Couple
of them are harder than others, of

1170
01:09:08,119 --> 01:09:11,359
course. But then there's once you've
kind of complete the main game and you're

1171
01:09:11,359 --> 01:09:14,840
doing the side content, extra content, optional stuff, that's where some of

1172
01:09:14,840 --> 01:09:19,039
the like really really tricky puzzles come
in. And so I think that's fantastic.

1173
01:09:19,039 --> 01:09:20,640
That's such a smart way to do
it. You don't want to block

1174
01:09:20,680 --> 01:09:24,640
people from progressing the main story,
but you can still have some really great

1175
01:09:24,640 --> 01:09:28,800
puzzles in there. So that was
amazing. Speaking of after extra content,

1176
01:09:29,319 --> 01:09:32,279
the amount of like optional bosses in
this game that are so hard to get

1177
01:09:32,319 --> 01:09:35,680
to or take so many steps to
get to, but then have just I

1178
01:09:35,720 --> 01:09:41,079
can't imagine anything less than like month's
work of pixel art to get to a

1179
01:09:41,079 --> 01:09:43,920
point where these things were put together, in terms of all the animations,

1180
01:09:44,319 --> 01:09:47,319
really cool mechanics. There's so much
freaking extra content in this game. And

1181
01:09:47,319 --> 01:09:50,880
then there's like the whole Wheels,
which is like this mini game where at

1182
01:09:50,880 --> 01:09:55,119
the taverns you can play wheels against
someone. It's like this this I don't

1183
01:09:55,119 --> 01:09:57,319
know, a little bar game,
and I love that game, and I

1184
01:09:57,359 --> 01:10:00,000
got so into wheels. There's a
whole arena in this game. There's like

1185
01:10:00,079 --> 01:10:02,479
this quiz show you can go on, and then for me too, like

1186
01:10:02,520 --> 01:10:06,520
before I finished, like roll credits
and got the true end and all that

1187
01:10:06,520 --> 01:10:11,680
stuff went and getting all the conscies, which is like there's a few collectibles

1188
01:10:11,680 --> 01:10:14,279
in this game that's kind of the
main one that has an incentive to get

1189
01:10:14,319 --> 01:10:16,720
all these things, and I love
doing that. I love trying to look

1190
01:10:16,720 --> 01:10:18,880
around trying to find all these conscious
A couple of them I had to look

1191
01:10:18,920 --> 01:10:23,039
up walkthroughs to find them, but
that was such a fun thing to do

1192
01:10:23,119 --> 01:10:25,640
as well. So it's just all
the extra content in this game was stuff

1193
01:10:25,680 --> 01:10:29,039
I was just so excited to do, and I wasn't just doing it for

1194
01:10:30,000 --> 01:10:34,319
this that or the other reason.
The characters in this game are fantastic.

1195
01:10:34,439 --> 01:10:38,119
I think that, you know,
maybe the two main protagonists are a bit

1196
01:10:38,199 --> 01:10:41,880
lackluster, but I think they're intentionally
supposed to be a bit there. May

1197
01:10:41,880 --> 01:10:45,640
be intentionally supposed to be kind of
blend so that you can maybe insert your

1198
01:10:45,640 --> 01:10:48,079
own personality into them, right,
that kind of blank canvas sort of character.

1199
01:10:48,560 --> 01:10:50,720
But then with the other characters.
When it gets a bit more spicy,

1200
01:10:50,880 --> 01:10:54,520
maybe it would have been better if
they had a bit more flavor of

1201
01:10:54,560 --> 01:10:57,399
those main characters. But for the
most part, it's like I didn't really

1202
01:10:57,720 --> 01:11:00,720
that didn't really bother me because of
the surrounding cast and that being so interesting.

1203
01:11:00,760 --> 01:11:04,399
So girl character of the Year for
me. I love that man so

1204
01:11:04,560 --> 01:11:09,680
much, such great moments. He's
such a selfless character. He's funny,

1205
01:11:10,119 --> 01:11:13,600
he's cool, he's confident, he's
just a great friend. You know,

1206
01:11:14,039 --> 01:11:16,239
off games just have a great friend
in them. Teaks, I think is

1207
01:11:16,319 --> 01:11:21,039
such a fun idea of having this
kind of lower character so that once again,

1208
01:11:21,319 --> 01:11:25,199
if people want to opt into more
story content, you can do it

1209
01:11:25,239 --> 01:11:27,920
through Teaks at the campfire, but
you don't have to do it, and

1210
01:11:27,960 --> 01:11:30,680
instead it makes the game not have
just tons of these additional story beats that

1211
01:11:30,720 --> 01:11:34,760
are a slog to get through.
So smart, Sarah, SARAHI I don't

1212
01:11:34,760 --> 01:11:40,560
still another PRONOUNCERR name such a cool
character that I think just one has like

1213
01:11:40,560 --> 01:11:42,760
a cool esthetic and look for the
first half of the game, but then

1214
01:11:42,840 --> 01:11:47,840
in the second half just has all
these crazy plot twists that blew my mind.

1215
01:11:46,319 --> 01:11:50,039
I don't want to spoil it.
Cause I feel like, for the

1216
01:11:50,079 --> 01:11:53,439
most part the STEPSOD it has not
been very spoilery, and that's okay.

1217
01:11:53,760 --> 01:11:56,079
Once again, I'm Kirkland. Please, if you're listening to this, beat

1218
01:11:56,079 --> 01:11:58,760
that game so we can talk about
some of these things and spoilers. There's

1219
01:11:58,800 --> 01:12:01,479
so many things about this game I
want to talk about. I'll just say

1220
01:12:01,520 --> 01:12:04,600
the character Beast, I don't just
spill much about him, but I freaking

1221
01:12:04,640 --> 01:12:09,640
love this character too. Every character
in here, I kind of forget the

1222
01:12:09,680 --> 01:12:14,079
name of the the mage guy,
the time keeper guy, but he's super

1223
01:12:14,079 --> 01:12:16,680
cool as well. Even some of
the villains, I think we're really compelling

1224
01:12:17,000 --> 01:12:18,960
because you get a lot of time
with them. Some of them were a

1225
01:12:19,039 --> 01:12:25,560
bit more just kind of blank evil
boring, but it didn't really bother me

1226
01:12:25,600 --> 01:12:28,880
so much. And then yeah,
they get The game takes all sorts of

1227
01:12:28,960 --> 01:12:33,840
crazy twists in the story, in
the narrative, twists on twists and twist.

1228
01:12:33,840 --> 01:12:35,880
There were like three or four times
where I thought this game was about

1229
01:12:35,880 --> 01:12:40,159
to end, but then it didn't, and it blew into this whole other

1230
01:12:40,199 --> 01:12:44,079
section of the game, and never
was that like, oh okay, one

1231
01:12:44,119 --> 01:12:45,720
more section. It was like,
oh damn, I can't wait to see

1232
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:48,239
where we're going next, and yeah, I just never wanted this game.

1233
01:12:48,279 --> 01:12:54,119
And to end this was like I
think I spent probably three full months playing

1234
01:12:54,119 --> 01:12:58,319
through this game, just slowly plugging
away at it, and when I finally

1235
01:12:58,359 --> 01:13:00,119
finished, it was like it was
sad. It was like, Okay,

1236
01:13:00,119 --> 01:13:03,359
it's done, and I'm not gonna
see this thing anymore. It was just

1237
01:13:03,359 --> 01:13:08,680
like it became like a familiar part
of my weekly or daily routine. So

1238
01:13:09,600 --> 01:13:15,439
I freaking love see the stars.
Amazing story, amazing combat, amazing characters,

1239
01:13:15,119 --> 01:13:18,359
so much extra content that is all
super super good. As I said,

1240
01:13:18,680 --> 01:13:23,279
every single hour was enjoyable, not
a dull moment, And it gave

1241
01:13:23,319 --> 01:13:26,520
me like forty hours, Like that's
insane because you know I love Starfield.

1242
01:13:26,800 --> 01:13:28,720
That was eighty hours and there were
a ton of hours and there we're like,

1243
01:13:28,720 --> 01:13:30,800
eh, okay, what's going on
here? But yeah, Steve star

1244
01:13:30,920 --> 01:13:36,479
is just such a consistently quality game. Cannot praise it enough. Please go

1245
01:13:36,640 --> 01:13:41,479
play this game if you haven't.
It is worth every penny. It's also

1246
01:13:41,880 --> 01:13:45,319
like game Pass and PlayStation Plus,
I think, so easy one to go

1247
01:13:45,399 --> 01:13:47,920
check out. I played it on
Switch and really enjoyed the the portable aspect

1248
01:13:48,000 --> 01:13:55,199
of it as well. So there
I've done it. That are that are

1249
01:13:54,840 --> 01:14:00,800
there is my top ten plus plus
six top sixteen games the year, as

1250
01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:03,760
well as some of those preamble topics. Yeah, you know, not quite

1251
01:14:03,800 --> 01:14:09,720
the same top ten gala that I
guess it feels like it has been in

1252
01:14:09,720 --> 01:14:13,600
the last couple of years. But
hopefully this was still enjoyable to hear me

1253
01:14:13,760 --> 01:14:16,720
ramble on for an hour fifteen here
about my favorite games. And yeah,

1254
01:14:16,800 --> 01:14:21,920
just quick reminder once again, next
week is going to be Travis Taylor Kirklan.

1255
01:14:21,920 --> 01:14:25,600
You're gonna hear their games of the
year, and then whenever Dante's feeling

1256
01:14:25,600 --> 01:14:27,920
good, I will bring them back
on a cyclist. You guys can hear

1257
01:14:28,319 --> 01:14:30,359
his top games of the year.
And yeah, very much looking forward to

1258
01:14:30,359 --> 01:14:33,079
next year. I think there's a
lot of fun things. We don't have

1259
01:14:33,119 --> 01:14:35,640
time to release dates yet, so
it's a bit nebulous, but we'll see

1260
01:14:35,640 --> 01:14:40,920
what happens. But yeah, thank
you everyone so much for listening to this,

1261
01:14:41,439 --> 01:14:45,199
and yeah, I will talk to
you in just a few short days.

1262
01:14:45,560 --> 01:14:45,560
Have a good one by buy