It's the Internet. You're busy, Let's do this. Welcome to the Game
Mesticides podcast. This is the podcast where we decide everything about the world of
games, so you never have to think for yourself. I'm your host Jeff
Grubb, and with me is official speed runner Mike Minatti. In today's episode,
Saber Interactive has extracted itself from the embrace. GTA six is the biggest
game in human history and it will bring world peace and Battlefront is borked.
But first, Mike, how are you doing? Great? Great? I
play even more Mortal Combat Mythologies before this and managed to get a time of
a about fifty one minutes. Now we are sub one hour. If that
run gets approved, which I'll submit after this show, that would be number
seventh in the world. And there's still plenty of room to improve. So
yeah, I got that going for me. I'm is it encouraging that you
have so much more room to improve or does it like that You're like,
are you at a point We're like, Oh, I gotta play more of
this game because I'm kind of committed to it. Yeah, the game's fun
to speed run. Yeah, you know what a lot of people come to
those streets. So it's fun to have so many people there, like,
look at that number. I bet maybe maybe my next partner requests will be
accepted this time. Now you seem to have the market cornered on Mortal Kombat
mythology sub zero. I sure do. It's a good little niche carved out
there. It has been fun to speed run, especially right now because there
are so many big rooms for improvement we're narrowing in. It's gonna have to
come down to you like grinding and like small optimizations depending on like how far
I want to go. I think top three is realistically where I want to
take it. I don't really want to get number one, for one thing,
Like Scott, who is number one, is the one who like taught
me everything, So it's not like I don't want to like them and like
take this record, which I can't do anyway, so we'll probably leave that
alone, right It would be that would be like real long term commitment to
get a lot of those specific tricks correct, and yeah that's the start play
other games. Yeah exactly, Yeah, like that, it's just not really
realistically in the cards unless you became a full time speed runner, which you
know you know a couple of layoffs that might happen. Who knows right,
Yeah, exactly, I'll tell you what if that happens. I'll be tuning
into every single one of those streams because I think you could do it.
But as is, who got a lot happening? You can get more from
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All right, big topics of the week, let's just go ahead and
get Saber out of the way real quick. Saber bought themselves out from Embracer,
and it's part of that wider story of these companies are either closing down
or they're figuring out other ways to go out from underneath these big companies that
have huge debts, and Saber is a kind of pretty massive publisher on its
own. Underneath Embracer with several studios. They were able to take many of
those studios with them as long, along with many of the games and the
projects they were working on, for about two hundred and fifty two hundred and
seventy five million dollars in that range. I'm struggling to remember exactly what the
number was, but it was not ninety five hundred million dollars two hundred and
forty seven million, yes, yep, yes, thank you. So that's
not the five hundred million that Embracer bought the studios for in the first place,
but Embracer is keeping some of the studios. They are also continuing to
have hands in some of the projects that Saber will work on now independently.
This is the result of what seems like a couple of weeks of Saber trying
to get the investments so they could buy themselves out. We heard about the
reporting. Now it's all confirmed, and I just wonder what's your sort of
position now on how you're feeling about for one, Embracer and then two,
how a publisher like Saber, a publisher slash developer like Saber can thrive or
vibe in the industry on its own. Now, I mean, I feel,
I don't know, feel good about Embracer. I have no idea what
the endgame there is. But asides from like selling off more studios just destroying
more studios, there's no way that this ends Like a few years like,
well, Embracer did stabilize and rebound and like no, right, no,
very unlikely. This was kind of like you said, this was a giant
arm of Embracer, everything that fell under that Saber Interactive umbrella, right,
that was a huge umbro for them, and now that's just gone. So
yeah, it's just another sign of just wherever that's going with Embracer, that's
going nowhere good Saber. You know, they're their future could be fine.
It's they're gonna have the same troubles that every game studio is gonna have right
now, right, it's definitely better to not be under Embracer, So that's
going to help them. And they have a lot of talented studios that are
following them. Still a few are staying at Embracer, I know, but
it seems like they got a lot of big ones. You get the sense
though, that a Saber on its own if it does something like puts out
Space Marine two, which I think pretty sure Embracer's still involved with that to
a certain extent. But regardless, I think if they play out a game
like that and it does very well, I get the sense that that's going
to benefit Saber in a way that it just would not help Embracer situation at
all. So maybe that's the good sign here is if Saber puts out good
games, they are in a situation where, well, that pays the bills,
that enables us to green light other projects and keep this whole thing going,
and they should have multiple projects that have the potential to do that obviously,
not just Space Marine two. Recently they did put out Expeditions, a
modor Runner game seems to be doing pretty okay. And then they do have
like somewhere around ten other studios. They had more, but like I said,
many of them are staying with Embracer. They have around ten, and
they're going to be churning out games stell because that's what they do. They
just work on games constantly. And they're kind of in that double A space
that seems to be maybe more comfortable now than the exponentially more expensive and unsustainable
Triple A area. Right, So yeah, I think they might be in
a better position than some I still, so what's what's going off koetor Jeff,
Like, is that really going to be a thing still? I mean,
I'll just repeat what I've always heard is that Sony seems very uninterested in
anything to do with that anymore. And so that game that we saw that
was announced at the Sony showcase or State of Play, I can't remember exactly
what it was, but it was at a Sony event and it was here
is Aspire making Knights of the Old Republic remake. Well that's already moved to
Saber from Aspire, So that's one thing. But internally at Sony, they
are not looking at that project as something that's ever going to have become to
fruition for them, I think, And that's what I heard, and that's
why I said that that game was done. It's done as it was announced.
Now Saber has continued to work on it, though I heard that it
will follow up pretty quickly from multiple sources after that. And so, hey,
what does that mean. I'm with you know, Jason Tryer who keeps
saying like they're they're working on it, But does that mean it ever comes
out? No idea, Absolutely, no idea. And you know they they
did mention Lars Wingifers, who you know, they are still going to be
evolved in Knights the Old Republic. That's one of the things that's stole part
of this deal. They've said, Hey, that game's going to need at
least more than a year. It's going to need a lot of love and
attention. And it's like, well, uh, it's definitely gonna need more
than a year. It's probably gonna need several years if that thing ever comes
out. In any way that resembles how they announced it. It won't be
until like twenty twenty seven. It's just such a that's a big ask to
remake Code Tour without some big backing like a Sony. It's something like,
you know, Saber Active has a lot of talent and they have resources.
I wonder if they have the resources to do the kind of remake of Code
Tour that I think most people are expecting. Yeah, it is. It's
going to be a tall order. It absolutely really something that's just like the
old game with some like slightly better graphics. I'll be okay with that.
Most people won't though most people would not. Yeah, that's not what h
That's not what anyone is asking for when they are getting all excited in the
way that they got excited after after the initial announcement. It's also not what
they promised. What has been talked about publicly is a full on remake from
the from the ground up. We have all kinds of potential changes, including
how the game functions at a fundamental level, and so yeah, I think
if they put out a game that even just replaces all the assets with more
with newer, remade assets, even that seems like it would be pretty short
of what people are expecting from that. We'll see, I'm I would I
would wager that that game probably doesn't ever actually really come out, not in
the way that not in any way that it's related to what they announced.
But we'll see. Could be wrong. GTA six is the biggest game,
and it's going to save the industry, or at the very least, it
is potentially going to be the most important game release of all time. That's
how Matt Piscatella is framing that, and he does that. He couched that
in terms of what this year is going to look like compared to last year
in the United States in terms of spend on gaming. He gave a couple
of scenarios where he said, listen, the optimistic scenario here is the industry's
been down about two percent year over year. The real like the more realistic
scenarios, and then the more pessimistic scenarios can go all the way down to
ten percent decrease in spending on gaming this year if things go really sideways,
he said. He pointed out the big reason for that is tough comparisons.
Last year had games like Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, and Harry Potter.
The big Harry Potter game, and these are Hogwarts legacy. They had
massive sales, and they were big budget, big, big priced games,
seventy dollars games. The games that have done so well so far this year,
they have propped up the industry, Powell World and held these games are
not sixty dollars, not seventy dollars, they are forty dollars. And so
already, like the big games that are selling a ton are not being able
to replace what happened last year. So the comparison is going to be tough
just on that side of things. And then also we're looking at a second
half of the year where we don't really know much what's going to happen.
And then there's the factors of the switch to moving out of this year,
GTA five moving out of the fiscal year, So there's these big gaps.
And then He's like a lot of the industry is looking to GTA six as
like this bell Weather of can the industry support massive games like that anymore?
Are games of that scale going to make sense after GTA six, Because I
think the assumption here is GTA six, if all things are equal, should
be massive almost no matter what it's going to be massive. But is it
massive in a way where everyone feels great about it, or is it like
begrudgingly massive, where it's like, well, it's GTA, We're going to
buy it. But this feels like it's missing something because the budget's so massive
they weren't actually able to accomplish what they set out to do, or GTA
Online is broken in some fundamental way. There's a lot of important factors that
go into releasing that game in a state where it can justify all of the
hubbabaloo that's going to be around it, and so people are gonna be looking
at it. Hey, is does that side of the industry the biggest of
the Triple A the Quada games? Are they gonna make sense after that?
And I think a lot of companies are gonna It's questionable, like is anyone
really gonna try to make a game anywhere close to a GTA six or a
Red Dead Redemption two after GTA six. Yeah, A lot of it makes
me uneasy, uh, Like maybe GTA six is the biggest but supporting game
ever. Uh. It kind of scares me that we have so many eggs
in just that one basket, right, Yeah, I mean look, it's
almost certainly gonna be a big game. It's gonna probably be ridiculous in sorts
of the success. But like, what is something weird does happen? Like
nobody's moving over to this version of GTA Online or I don't know, maybe
all the people who boycotted Bud like are freaked out that you play as a
woman, or are shocked to learn that a game based in Miami has a
lot of you know, Latino people in it. Like, something weird could
happen. But even if it doesn't, this game does you know it's hu
Jenesus Giants success. It is like, okay, that's great for that game,
and yes, like all that money is technically money for the industry,
But there's not going to be a thing like that again until we wait another
eight years or whatever for red de Redemption three. I mean, spoiler alert,
you're Jeff. We're talking about the best games of twenty eighteen and a
big here twenty eighteen sometime ago six years ago, now that that's when Red
deb Redemption two came out. Have games, normal games, even the top
games, really caught up in terms of scale and scope and fidelity to Red
deb Redemption two used to be six years was the same difference. They somehow
got more more expensive still, right, and we're not necessarily seeing that money
on the screen in a way that we used to. So, yeah,
this game is going to be very expensive. It's going to be a big
hit, I just don't and it's going to help video games for that quarter
in that year, and then it's going to continue to help Take two for
a while because that game is probably gonna sell very well for a very long
time. Is it really going to overall be a net positive for the industry
in any kind of meaningful way past that opening window. I don't know.
It's kind of scary. Yeah, And I think it is going to be
a marker of something. And I think the likeliest thing that's the marker of
is this is the kind of the end of that kind of game, or
at least that being the video game right where it's where the whole industry revolves
around only those kinds of games. Obviously a huge proportion of the marketing and
hype and excitement will always revolve around these massive games. They just have a
gravity well all of their own. But I think that we're going to come
out of years of fewer and fewer games from companies like that, and like
you pointed out, even when we do get games from the biggest developers in
the world right now, they are spending more money to kind of get the
same amount of game that they always had, so that they aren't able to
catch up to Red Dead Redemption two because doing that would be even more expensive
and they're already spending more money. They don't want to do that, excuse
me, So like they're in a situation I had ARBs for dinner, So
this is just gonna happen. You blame this on RBS. I'm enjoying it,
but it's, you know, not the other way for lunch. Look
at us, we're beef and cheddar boys. Where the beef and cheddar boys
everybody, And so I think it's gonna we're gonna be in a situation where
someone on Twitter like pointed this out to me, and I'm like, this
is a really good point. It does feel like the industry is kind of
in that point where the film was in the seventies where all of the massive,
big production movies from the huge movie studios was like, that's all we
had for a very long time, and those just kept getting bigger and bigger
and bigger until they once of them starting to fail. Entire studios were collapsing,
and then they were replaced by independent films in the seventies, stuff like
Easy Rider, and that took over for a very long time. It feels
like we are in that moment for gaming right now, and I think something
like GTA six, whether it works for itself or not, it is going
to mark it's going to set such a high bar that it's so impossible to
reach for even the biggest companies that compete with rock Star, that everyone looks
around goes, that's impossible for us what we were not even going to try,
And so I think everyone's going to start looking for more independent and gorilla
ways to make games. We know how how very expensive spider Min two was
to make because of that leak, and then also because of that leak,
like an early demo version of it came out and like this, like just
like pre build test thing had destructible environments, and I saw a lot of
people's response to that was like, Wow, they rushed this game because they
did. Finally it didn't have like so even with the amount of money that
takes to make a Spider Man two. You are doing as much as some
people think that you should anymore. Gosh, it's just it's just yet.
I think it's definitely a reckoning. We definitely can't keep doing this. Rock
rock Star is the one person in a position that can. There's maybe a
few others like Naughty Dog. Even Naughty Dog in terms of the kind of
games they make, they are big open world games. Necessarily, they're gonna
be able to make very big, expensive games that are the top of what
they're trying to do that other people just can't really compete with. But yeah,
I think there is gonna finally be by necessity people looking around saying,
we gotta we gotta rein this in a little bit. This arms race is
going nowhere except destruction and then Battlefront. You know, well we can talk
a little bit more a Battlefront and what we've been playing, but Battlefront launch
today. It's Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection, I believe, is the name.
And people are frustrated because I think one for the price, it's a
pretty expensive game for what is not a remaster. It literally is a collection
of older titles, but you know, some quality of life stuff in there,
and it works. It works online, so if you want to play
these games online, it's pretty seamless to do that if there were enough servers
and the game wasn't quite as buggy for some people. Now I say that
when my experience was mostly pretty bug free. We did have one instance,
though, I think Sean, your game bugged out and we had to restart,
But it was like my game run pretty ran pretty flawlessly, and we
played online. We had a bunch of people in there. I think we
had like around ten people of twelve, ten to twelve people in there at
times, and then the rest was filled out with bots, and it just
kind of it worked for me. So I'm like, I'm not going to
be like, oh, well, the other people saying that this is a
problem, that that's not true. I'm sure it is. I just I'm
like, I didn't experience any of it myself, so it must be a
case by case basis. But I also don't blame people who are like,
this is not what I was expecting. I was expecting any more from this,
and so I getting out. But there's been there's been quite a reaction
to this, so a little bit more than I was expecting I think,
hey, look, Jeff, we learned this the hard way. These gives
me a lot to a lot of people, I think, look like I
do think they missed a trick by not maybe doing more here, like maybe
just they should have actually spent resources really remastering that Battlefront two and making it
more modern in some pleasant ways, but still being that game, you know,
like even when like you said, it's not a remaster. So when
you're joining games, it is like you're joining an online game from two thousand
and three or whatever. You have server lists and things like that, but
I think, you know, and again like there's you know, servers were
rough or there weren't enough of them because maybe either they didn't anticipate the demand
or they knew that there would be an initial rush of demand and they weren't
going to pay for all the servers just for that when they knew it was
going to die off so pretty quick. At some point, reprobably there were
only three servers per platform, so we had I understand, like there was
three servers, but three official Aspire servers per platform, and there were like
twenty thousand people trying to play. So it's like at any one time there
was one hundred and ninety two inch people playing the game now, But you
could do peer to peer servers and that worked great for us. So it's
like, you could have a ton more servers in there. I think,
actually these games used to work as people would, you know, make servers
and you're joined them. But again, not what people expect these days though,
And yeah, probably should have been more infrastructure there for them. And
that said, when we logged on today, the first thing I saw was
a couple dozen servers from Aspire to the point where there were several several with
three people in there, a handful more with zero people in there. I
was like, oh, maybe we should just hop into one of these,
But then we tested it. We did peer to peer and that worked mostly
fine. Like I honestly didn't notice any issues with that, and that worked
better for our purposes. You could go online and play this game and enjoy
it if you want to enjoy it. Nothing is stopping you from doing that,
except for if there are bugs that I'm not accounting for that I did
not experience them myself. But as far as my experience was, I had
a pretty good time. And I can see why people hold this game at
such high regards, even though it's like I definitely don't I still don't agree
it's like the most important game of all time. Everybody but nobody still that
weird, weird thing we got yet. Look, we had a lot of
pushback for not including it as in the Mount Rushmore of Star Wars games.
That's where it's from. And I played it. I really enjoyed it.
I was having fun. You know, I love games of that era.
But I still feel pretty comfortable with that take. I don't know if I
put it on the Mount Rushmore of like PS two era Star Wars games still,
but look, I totally get it, especially you know you were there
at that time. This is a game that you could play a ton of,
right, It is sort of a forever game in a lot of ways.
Back then, I totally understand why this game meant a ton to a
lot of people. It just was anything that I devoted a whole lot of
time to myself back then. Yeah, and it's when I was talking to
Sean, we were setting the stuff up. It was it does. The
way you all talk about this game reminds me of how I feel about GoldenEye,
and I don't remember we do we do a mount Rushmore first person shooters?
Did I put Golden Eye on there? Like I could see me maybe
doing that, But even that's like a stretch. I think we might have
it. I think I think, yeah, you did, and you didn't
put it on top of there? Yeah, and I could probably. I
think it's kind of where I would expect people should be with this game,
where it's like, uh no, it's enough that I personally think maybe you
can make this mount Rushmore, But when we really talk about it, I
could see why it doesn't. That's it. I'm not trying to take any
of the fun away from anybody. This. It was a very good time.
It's a you know, in a lot of ways, better than better
than those Star Wars Battlefront games from EA, and in other ways I would
sometimes be rather be playing the Star Wars. Was surprising how much it's still
reminded me of those in a lot of Yeah, it was much more similar
than I was. Just a testament to them. It is a testament to
them, all right. That does it for the big topics I wanted to
talk about this week, We got some super chats. Let's take a quick
break. We get back Michael read off those and we'll answer your questions and
all that right after this. It sounds to me that you hate about front.
I don't know. And we're back, and that means it's time for
super chats. Mike Manaudi take it away. Big Fresh thirty seven says,
you guys are play Extreme Warfare Revenge dope. I have not. That's a
very generic sounding name, but maybe it's fun. Do you ever played Extreme
Warfare Revenge? I've not played Extreme Warfare Revenge? What the is this game?
It's a real It's a professional wrestling management text simulator that goes back to
nineteen ninety five. This is not what I was expecting, but it does
sound like a res wow game. Okay, not what I was expecting.
Okay, cool. We'll make a stream and I'll control it, but I'll
make Mike, I'm make and Dan make all the decisions. It'll be funny
like that. The tenth Direk says I had have my appendix removed. It
sucks. I do not recommend it. What games your recommend? While recovering
from surgery or illness? I hope you are feeling better in a tender Sorry
you had to go through that. I hope everything as well rough, sorry
your end. Hope, hope you got a lot of ice creamated that when
you're in the hospital, at least when you're a kid, you have to
go to the hospital. They always try to like soothe you by saying you're
gonna get a lot of ice cream, though, and I'm always like,
bitch, I can get ice cream now? When you said that when you
were kid, or do you say that now? I had a big potty
mouth of this kid. No, I was terrified to swear. I get
yauta. What games you should play to recover from surgery or illness? I
like Summer Center. Yeah, I actually do like playing like the thing that
is like dealing with the thing I'm dealing with. Like I watched a lot
of like pandemic based movies during the pandemic. I would I like playing one
those one more turn games, so Civilization, Bilatro, things like that,
things where it's like you can turn off your brain and the game's going to
kind of drag you along and ca you playing to fill up time. I'd
play something that is both kind of chill but time consuming. So Stardu Valley
would maybe be perfect for me. It's a good one. Big First thirty
seven says, for the first time in a decade, I went back to
Mass Effect three multiplayer unbelievable how it holds up still getting full games without waiting.
Yes, criminal for not having a current version going. Yeah, a
lot of people still do hold a torch for that multiplayer mode. So it
is a shame that we almost certainly will not get something like that in the
next Mass Effect because you can't just release a multiplayer mode, right, You'd
have to be like, well, we'd have to support this forever. And
that was even a concern back then a bit right like this was kind of
at the beginning of these every game having a live service component. But then
that's I don't know, do you think there's a chance that Max Effect has
a successor to the Mass Effect three Horde mode thing? There's a chance.
When Legendary Edition was coming out the collection, I remember people asking like,
will there be a new version of the multiplayer? And when I asked about
it back then, they're like, no, the the multiplayer in three is
still going and they don't want to sort of split that or shut one down
to replace it with the same thing. Basically, so it's like they're they're
just going to keep that going. That same thing wouldn't necessarily apply with a
new mass effect, so maybe they would do it, but my guess is
probably not because it's a lot of extra work, and you're right, these
days, how do you justify doing that if you're not going to keep it
making money forever? Jason Fulton says, do you think we'll get Firebom Awakening
or Zoda Link between World's remasters for switch To? And do you think we'll
get a new mainline Zoda game for the fortieth anniversary March twenty twenty six?
Mainline by twenty twenty six seems unlikely. Maybe we'll get a collection or a
remaster something cute like that. But I mean, just look how much time
it took to make excuse me, Tiers of the Team of Matter Breath of
the Wild, and that's you know, it was a sequel, the sequel
that we used a good amount of assets and stuff, and that still took
like seven years, right, So twenty twenty six is gonna be too soon
for the next main line? Yeah, But I mean, I if it's
twenty twenty six, if something does happen and there's something new, a new
Top Down two d Zelda from like Grezo or something that's that's possible maybe,
but like, yeah, even if it's that team though, like the Top,
people still have to be involved, supposed to be like a Numa producing
or and like the guide directing, right, that's how those games usually worked.
They're not gonna have gonna give total creative control to Grezo to make their
own main line. You're right, but I mean I think they would give
a lot of control over to them, and then they they would provide the
guiding producing hand to do something like a follow up to a Link between Worlds
or something like that should get Capcom again. Uh, I am good,
quite you. I wouldn't be shocked if we see Awakening and Link between Worlds
get remasters or even remakes on twitch to at some point. Especially Awakenings wlish
people gosh, that's the fire freaks like me. A lot of people do
love that game, especially and Linke. Buttran World is basically the same,
really they yes, they both those games should be on switch or switch to.
That would be great, but but yeah, I don't know. I
think I would settle for not a whole new game but like the Oracles,
Oracle games getting remade, just like Next Awakening. I would like that.
Doctor Ryan says, is that Mike sub our sub zero min naughty? Thank
you? I do like that sub hour sub zero? That's cute. Did
you beat it and listen an hour? Yeah? Beat it fifty one minutes?
Was that? Was that earlier tonight? Earlier today? Yeah? Well
done, Mike, thank you very much. I am a hero. Sign
Guy Bubsy says, I wanted to be a hero. I want to be
the center of attention. I wanted the glory. I wanted the fame.
I wanted the pretty girls to come up and say Hi, I see that
you're good at Mortal Kombat mythologies. Sub zero, thank you. Sign Guy
Bubsy. Coddy Bishop says, have you ever read or seen Stephen King's Desperation?
It stars Ron Pearlman and it's set in a desert town where an ancient
god has taken over people's bodies. I have not seen that. I'll check
it out when I like the I like the bad Stephen King adaptations like Lengolers.
That's a fun one. Yeah, you got wrong from in a really
really bad makeup and that's just we should we should watch that bad Dark Tower
movie together some time. I have a heart. I have a hard time
getting over Stephen King's like weird relationship with the Shiny movie. And look,
I get it, like, you know, he wrote the book, he's
allowed to be, not like to be. But I'm a little shocked he
doesn't get it right. Who cares how faithful it is to your book or
not? Clearly this is incredible and he just doesn't care. I still have
never seen the Shining. Oh really, I mean I can't say ship.
I didn't you know I was a coward forever since I came out of my
coward era. It's definitely one of the the best movies I've ever seen.
Though, Shining, it's great, Ali miracle, says am I in the
minority, thinking Stellar Blade looks like midtown mid so oh, I see if
it's gameplay on socials just coombers and nut Job's praising it. Also busy Days
boys take any three you can. Yeah, you know, as somebody who's
like I want to play swar Blade, I don't care that a game was
to be sexy, but it's getting like, you know, if everything else
going on, it's being propped up as like this is the game that isn't
woke, and like this is a smarter fraid to have sexy characters. And
now it's like, well, it's like and it's like they clearly have brain
damage because like finally someone put a butt with jiggle in it, and it's
like most people are beating exactly past Jeff. It's like, oh, you
guys didn't play you know, near automata, Like her butt is hanging out
that whole Exactly what are we talking about with games? Like all the time,
the entire cast that Overwatch, But some of those Overwatch characters are gay,
so they don't count Mike that they don't woke. It doesn't matter that
they're sex. They're gay, so it's woke, right. I Mean,
it's just the other thing is always frustrating because it's just so obviously that's what
it is. There's too many gay people and people of color and not us
anime supermodels for them. These people are freaking out and un ironically saying things
like the revolution is starting now while posting a picture of cleavage from Stellar Blade.
I swear to god, they're just gonna like start openly having circle jerks
on acts or whatever and be like like, this is us fighting like wokeness.
Well, they're fucking I don't like, it's just weird, Like go
watch pornography like a normal person. Yeah, And no one is trying to
take this away from you, a Stellarlay. We all like this. She's
a cute character. No one's like, oh man, this is bad.
Honestly, no one's like that. I pointed laugh at it, but I
got so mad at her that we did Mortal Kombat nine and I was just
pointing and laughing at the ridiculous tits and cleavage in the game. Of course,
everyone was like, what's the matter with that? I like that.
I was like, yeah, cool, me too, Like how could like
I on it, Like, how could no one like look at Dragon's crown
and not laugh at the absurd proportions of those characters? And no one was
trying to take it away even when they were criticizing it, no one was
actually trying to take it away. That's honestly, Mike. I can't handle
what's gonna happen with Resident Evil five. I'm gonna fucking insane because it's like
IGN's like, hey, this there's you know some trouble troubling imagery here.
Every quote tweet is just like if you think this is racist, you're the
real racist. Oh so killing poor Spanish people, that's okay. I'm like
that made me feel weird too. What are you talking about? We just
want to talk about it. It's just what I like, have a conversation
and they just can't handle it. It's gonna be a goddamn right there.
It's wrong because like I know, you can't play defense with these people,
and like it just trying to be crazy. And then you see fucking you
know elon like being like, yo, something's been weird about video games on
it and it's like, wonder what it is and the fact that fucking grumbs
grumbs is the biggest piece of shit loser, he sucks. Please, what
this is is what you got. You can't fight anybody else on your side.
There must, by coincidence, be somebody, some large numbers should dictate
that you can find someone who just does. And the best part about that
is when I was like, this guy sucks. If you are buying what
he's saying, like you're a sucker. There are a lot of people who
are like fighting the real fight to keep the sexiness in gaming and all this
other bullshit. Who are like, well it doesn't matter, Like they know
he sucks too, They're like, well, that doesn't invalidate our claim to
guess that's their favorite. Thing is always like, well that doesn't matter,
because even is the same thing with the first game or Gate. It was
the whole thesis of it that game developers are having sex with game journalists to
get good reviews. That was wrong, and they said, well that doesn't
matter because this and this and this, this whole original thesis the sweet baby
ink or whatever was like, well they're they're ruining video games by turning characters
into lesbian ugly woman who was like, well that wasn't true. It doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter, so I don't know. And now that's about
that. Well, actually they started targeting this one guy. It's like,
honestly, they just felt attacked by this thing. And then they like,
there's just one person from one company was like, hey, do something here,
and then they all there's a lot of losers, a lot of idiots
on the internet. I can't change your mind. It is going to be
best to just ignore them. I had to vent every once in a while.
You know what I did today? It made me feel better, Jeff,
because I was like, this stuff was bothering me. I drove home.
There was a kid on my street had a little like stand up by
her driveway. I thought it was lemonade. So after I parked, I
walked over there. She was selling bracelets. It was so cute. I
bought up bracelet. I like it was like two dollars, and I gave
her five instead. She was so thankful. I'm like, man, that's
doing little communities. It's so nice to be bought back to a micro level
like my street, where you could actually make it difference and interact with people
in a real human way. I'm like, oh, this is real life,
not this bullshit social media nultural arts destroying our brains. Yeah. We
when we were in at Arby's tonight, we dined in because Steph was an
important meeting tonight, so where like the kids couldn't be loud, so we'll
just go dine in at Arby's like crazy people. And it was just us,
and so I was kind of let the kids like go up and get
the food and stuff, and the workers were just like, these are the
cutest kids, and it was so nice just to like let them have this
like fun interaction with these little kids. You could tell it was such a
relief from their job. And I'm like, oh, this is so nice
compared to the insanity that's happening online. And at the same time, people
are like seeing ig and be like, people are saying nice things about how
hell divers is it pay to win? And everyone's like, you fucking think
hell Divers pay to win. I am going to drop my pants and shit
on the floor right now because I can't handle this. Guys, bring it
down. Take a deep breath. What they said, I mean, if
you said this, Cheff, And I've seen our people say it's like,
look, people just get worked up in election years. I guess we are.
Everyone's on edge for a million reasons. And that's going to be the
biggest determining factor is that it's an election year and everything is amped up and
we are gonna have to like get through this together. Everybody. You know,
we're complaining, we're ranting. Uh, this audience, the giant bomb
audite guys, fucking rule got so mature, you so nice, Thank you
so much. Honestly, it's what keeps me grounded in all this, so
thank you all right, Socrtaise friend Darryl says Battlefront Classic has me replaying PS
two Xbox era Star Wars game. Jedi Academy is still great, and these
Xbox back combats are fantastic. Yeah. I think Jeff and I say all
the time, it is the golden era of Star Wars game I feel that
way. Yeah, even like the stuff that's not great, like ob One
for Xbox, I'm kind of like, hell, yeah, let's go one
Xbox. Yeah. I mean like coming out of Phandom Menace for PlayStation one
and being like, yeah, just kind of rules, and then having just
fifty different Star Wars games in that Xbox PS two game Cuber era and all
like bespoke for each console. Yeah, that stuff rules. Yeah, absolutely
fantastic. H next one here is a FRA Sorry it's from Tom Raptors,
says Jeff. Did you ever hear anymore on the Xbox Shadow run rumor you
talked about in November of twenty twenty one. We're testing your memory here,
Jeff. Yeah, I don't think I ever heard much more basic. Basically,
what I remember at the time was it's like they were interested in doing
it. They were trying to round up the rights to ensure they could do
it. I wonder if that kind of got derailed at some point. I
never checked back in on him. That seems likely, But at the same
time, it's like, yeah, that was only twenty twenty one. Things
could quietly be boiling in the background and still take another four years before we
ever hear about it publicly. So I don't know right now, but I'll
look and see what I can find out. Super harm it says I have
a twenty six year unbroken run of Superman comics. Super Dan sixty four filled
me with both sadness and joy. Man. That last episode of super Dan
was I don't know if we've ever had more fun or will beat you anyway?
I was a great time. Holly crap, was that funny? Super
Dan has been more than I ever could have hoped for. It has been
so much fun. Yep. And it's a miserable game in a really fun
way. At least again for me sitting on the sideline just throwing popcorn in
my face and enjoying the shows. It's almost validing du because when you do
say bad game. Superman sixty four is the one I always think of.
And I was like, am I being hard on this? Am my piece
of shit? And I'm watching this like, no, I'm glad that we
have super MAEO sixty four, just like being that game, like being like
Atlasson willing the goal of that burden for all of us, just having its
entrails eaten over and over. It's stole bad games from the gods, and
the gods have punished it forever. That's that's Prometheus. But yes, yeah,
I was going. I didn't feel like I had to say I'm going
to go with all right, you're right right, Max says, this is
a good show. Some chat right, Sorry, don't make Mike mad,
Mike game happy. Max says, can anything beat Bilacho for a Game of
the year? Is you know, in all seriousness, do you think Bolo
is your game of the year right now? No? But it's up there.
I think it's like it could. I could easily see at the end
of the year that's gonna be pretty lots solid in my number, in my
top three. But I think things will move around it. Like I think
that's like a number two or a number three, and then things move around.
I don't know, I think I think for you, that's the kind
of game that gets like in the top five, right, maybe not the
top in my top ten, right, Yes, I mean like as high
as your top five. It's not exactly, you know, I have a
little bit of that Jeff Backlar importance problem. There's it'll be like how important
is blot It could be a little bit of a ship about that stuff.
But no, it's definitely going to be a contender. It's fantastic. I
still play it almost every day. Oh, I got sass, a tiny
cool little bil. I got to the Balatro. I got this joker.
Yeah, I got this joker that turned every face car into a golden car.
And then I got another joker that takes away any upgrade to the cars
and added to the multiplier. So I got the multi car. Yeah,
and it will turn like all the face car into like gold and then it
will suck it up and it will give me like multiplier. And it was
really cool. I was, yeah, I've heard that. I heard about
that bill from someone else, and it's like, oh, that does sound
like that would be huge because by the end you could have like a like
an X twelve multiplayer or something like that. Yes, I was fishing for
that other joker that makes every car a face car, but I then I
never got it, so like, oh, this is like an incomplete bill
that I need to like experiment. I did have fun today because I was
playing one of the newer deck sign locked where you get the double tag stuff
where it's like when you skip yeah, and when you skip an anti or
whatever, you get like a benefit. And I had all these built up
and the thing I got was next the next joker is the negative jokers you
get on more jokers, So I was able to just have like nine jokers
for the first time, just all like so many jokers, just like I
didy't even really have a specific plan, but I just had so many jokers
that I want you can kind of do whatever you want. Yeah, that
was fun, all right, Oh, grug says. So it's been debate
in on who's weirder between Mike and Dan. However, who is weirder between
the Jeff and Jan man. But Dan's in chat so if you want to
argue that, right, Hi, Dan, Me and Dan will hash it
out some other time. But uh, it's interesting because Jan seems so normal
and then he'll just call, He'll just say something about his life or something.
I was like, why do you think that me and Jane are weird
and very similar ways? I do think that. I think pairing you and
Jan and me and Dan together is correct. Yes, absolutely, it probably
is me, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's like like you said,
like Jan will ocasually break out something. If he broke out something that was
just completely unhinged, that makes it clear that he's weird, weirder than me,
I wouldn't be surprised. Uh. Deachi says our GG studio should make
a seinefold game. Thanks, hey, that world for that would be great.
Someone should make a seine fold game. I'm sorry, I was thinking
about Elaine's business casual outfits there are Edgar Marino says I started playing through the
Akuza series at the beginning of the year, currently on five. Should I
play Trails or Ye's Next? Both are currently on sale. See to me,
both of those are series that like, I don't know if I play
through them, Like, there are so many Trails games and there are all
very long. I mean, if you if you want to devote that kind
of time, and yeah, I'll go for. That is interesting because that
stretches back, like way back, like you're talking about games like the original.
These games you don't really have compacts, you know, you just kind
of bump into people literally things fun. It kind of sounds good both foutcome
games that's not the same company Gore's in a big foulcome ever, end up
playing more of the Trails games. Mike, just no, I just played
Trails in Sky wanted to and love them, and I got zero and I
haven't, like just never got time to get around to it. I still
want to from for why, I've heard from everyone who's played them, like,
eventually, Trails does pay off if you have played all of them right
till a point that you pretty much everyone who plays them more like, yeah,
we know how ridiculous this is, but you do need to start from
the beginning. Whereas EASA's kind of final Fantasy ish where even though there's through
line with at least eight all the main character, a lot of people say
you can't just jump at eight. So it depends on how much of a
commitment you want. I think that's exactly right, Like, yeah, if
you want to play through when do Trail do you want to play some Ye's
games, like play Ye's eight or whatever else, and you know you can
have fun. You can go back to more if you want to. Uh.
Epic Open World says Folks freak out Triple A games cost too much to
make. They say they need to be cheaper. Game Pressed sensays Rise of
Ronin looks bad and cheap. Pick a lane. I haven't. I haven't
actually played much of Rise of Ronan. I don't know what the I haven't
really been looking into it too much. Like what has the reception been like
for rez of ron and Jeff It's, you know, it's it's a little
bit all over the board. It's generally for the preview period, which is
the first two hours, has been mostly positive, as Jan pointed out.
And Jan was like, that's weird because the first two hours for me,
I didn't like so much. And for me, I was like, I'm
I'm not sure if I could put my finger on the pulse of this game
in the first two hours. So I think it's people being cautious until they
can get to the review period. Jacob Bench says I finally rolled credits on
fil basically seven Rebirth last night at ninety hours and came to the conclusion that
it is my favorite game of all time. When was the last game that
you knew was now your favorites or in your top five? Hm, I
can pull up my list. I know that Resident Evil for Remake is the
latest game to get into my top ten. I think Mario Odyssey was the
last game to get into the top five. Where I played, I was
like, this is just absolutely one of the best games ever, favorite Mario
game, favorite, one of my favorite games. So yeah, I think
I think Odyssey is probably the best for what you're asking about. Yeah,
the clearest one for me is Breath of the Wild, where I played that
game for review and it was so good that I cried and I was like,
this is the best game I've ever played. And after that, there's
been a lot that have been like odysty Loudeste was quickly after that, Odisty
was like, oh, this is one of my favorite games of all time
too. But it was just so clear to me how important Breath of the
Wild was. Immediately that that's the one that stands out the most. I
mean, I guess I have Oughtyssey at three. My number two is File
Fantasy fourteen, which you know I played through, so that not too long
ago. No, it's just like, yeah, especially it's after you play
Shadow Bringers. I think for most people like, yeah, that's just one
of my favorite games ever and it always will be. Now. Next one
is Willow Davis. Where where were you when you realize gaming was a mistake?
That's probably at Arby's. That's where I was tonight when I realized.
So, yes, Arby's is where that revelation is most likely to happen.
And put video here says thanks for calling us a mature community. Anyways,
where did we land on the Pasuri debate? I was, I was vindicated
by Sean offline. I'll have you know that I use the term. The
scroll isn't going up and down, so it's not like, really it's good
enough of it. It's like when you have a mouse hiding down there and
you know, and they pull that out. It's a gag. I don't
see Spanish, so I know we're s that's a Columbo of us. That's
a Columbro's joke for you. No, the entire Wolf says, with the
popularity of Nintendo in Japan is Dragon Quest twelve guaranteed to come out day one
on switch slash switch to. Do we see it this year? I'd be
shocked if they're not going to try to make that work on switch to.
There's still a lot of questions about Dragon Quest twelve. They announced it by
just showing a logo. They had some vague language about like switching things up,
which kind of made people nervous and it maybe being darker. But we
really don't know anything about that game. But still you would think they would
want that on switch to. Drag Quest eleven got on switch eventually, but
not right away. But even still, there was a DS version of it.
There was like a D make right. I think that's correct. Oh
yeah, Cody, there was. There wasn't antendo version of that right away,
So yeah, I thinking about it. I bet they're going to really
try hard to make sure there's a switch to version at launch. Yeah,
I think. I don't know if it's guaranteed, but I think that's right
that. I mean, if there's only one or the other, it is
a switch one version, right like that, Like if they only have one
version of this game, it would be switch one and then maybe you get
we get a switch to or do you think it's the other way around.
I don't know, because, like you know, it's not like before we're
I don't know how much this game is going to scale compared to eleven because
a lot of it's already you know, like running thirty frames per second.
It's kind of pushing the switch in some ways. I just don't know how
we can scale down a Dragon Quest twelve that's going to come out in like
twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six to run on twenty seventeen portable hardware.
It maybe maybe I would pull my money on switch to But we know,
on these these kind of debates, Jeff, I usually lead towards these things
happening with switch to right, and I go with Switch one. Yeah,
I think the likeliest scenario is both platforms at the same time. I think
I also just think that this game's further out than maybe you do. Like
again, I think maybe twenty twenty six. I don't think it's Switch one
in twenty twenty six. That's fair. Ali Miracle says, I said,
take it easy, geez, you the best folks. They can't we got
shoot hot over. The Christian says he's nuts. That is a funny name
for a big why why? Yeah, people, we do. We should
probably clarify that because there's gonna be a significant portion of the audience every time
that are like, what the fuck are these people saying? Why? Why?
S Yes, I don't know. I forget why. I think because
yigre so the world trees involved, and they just shorten it to why.
I forget why. It's called that. That's my best guess, always showing
up and ship. Yeah, I'm gonna pronounce the why. Yeah, I
just I just feel better pronouncing the why. Look as if you get it,
guys, it's fine. Only two letters, and one of them is
why. I want to pronounce the on the capital one too. Why is
the apostrophe there? That's what I want to know, It's not why.
Yeah, that's messed up. Phantom twenty three says any excitement for the Triple
I initiative in two weeks, it's something from the studios behind Slay the Spire,
v Rising, Vampire Survivors and more. I don't know too much about
this, Jeff. Yeah, this is the first I'm hearing about it.
But that sounds exciting. Sure, I'll pay attention to that. See buckets
twenty three, says Jess beat Mega Man two. Always played that during the
Wii, but didn't beat it until now. Might try three at some point,
Hey, congratulations, Magnan two rules played Mega Man three. It's very
similar but better. That's Mike's favorite game. It's a fair game of all
time. I spent I spent a lot of time thinking about how pretty much
everybody like agreed that Mega Man three was one of the best Megama games,
even better than two, until like a quote from what's his face? The
Mighty number nine guy came out where he's like, yeah, Megne three was
rushed, and then everybody was like, yeah, meg Man three is not
as good as it was. He never caught that before. And then doctor
Ryan says, y'all should play the first Tales to see the best RPG villain
Gun Days. Motherfucker, we're talking about Tails of Fantasia here. I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, I lost I lost it. What's the boss's name?
The Gun Days? Gundees and nuts. Mike, you didn't pay attention.
I read ahead, and I was trying not to like jump out of my
seat, like hoping that that would happen. Oh boy, this is why
we keep the good, the Good Doctor Ryan, everybody. They indicted me
for AUDIR listeners. Mike has left the podcast. He's retired. Actually,
I expect a statement from his family in at any moment. Now, you
want to do a break, Let's do a break. We'll be right back
after this. Everybody, and we are back. We're gonna do the best
Games of twenty eighteen. As always, it's a top five list. Me
and Mike decide. We take input from the podcast producers. Let's get started
with Mike Manati, what do you think we should put on the list?
First? Right? That? Redemption two came out in twenty eighteen, one
of the critically acclaimed games of all time, one of the most high things.
Do you really like it that much as much as everyone else? Yo?
Okay, no, my second, I do like it. Maybe it's
always like it. I know you like it. I just for some people
it is like the patron Saint of video games. I think it's a nine
outs. I don't think it's a ten out of tight. Okay, and
that's yes, Okay, that's what I thought. Okay. Seriously, though,
game, I think I can actually get on here. There's there actually
are a lot I'm surprised, you know, twiceventeen again you're think about all
the time, lots of good games this year. I think I'll actually go
to Celeste first. Oh okay, interesting, not what it is expecting,
but definitely deserving of consideration. Yeah, I think we both like this.
I think we made a game of the Year at games Beat Jeff when we
were there. That sounds right, Celest rules, Celest is a an all
time great game. Yes, I love Celeste right, And you know,
like I love two D platformers, and what I My favorite mechanic in those
games is usually like like wile jumping, And here's a game that's kind of
really built about while jumping and dashing and just making that feel good. It's
got this fun, cute little story and character moments built in between there.
And I love, like, you know, the way the difficulty works,
Like the base game can't get difficult, but like the real difficult stuff is
this optional stuff that is fun to tackle when and if you want to.
I would probably keep it in a similar vein or maybe a similar scope.
I regard that this was a new beer I was drinking, so I tipped
it too much. A lot of beer skilled on me. It's never never
got I recently have had bad luck with my drinks from of like fast food,
and I'll just be like the straw on the lid on and I'll just
tip it a little bit and it's like the whole thing just spills out of
the very top of like how full it is. It's very frustrating. Into
the Breach that is the game that I would put on there. I yeah,
I really like Into the Breach. It is this small, condensed tactics
game that does everything right to make them get the most out of the five
turns you get for each round. And it's not like, oh, it's
five turns because it's a mobile game first or something like that. It's like,
no, this is everything just boiled down to its barest parts. And
then on top of that, it gives you all the information you need to
make these really tough choices, and you will be in these situations where you
are trapped by one of these bugs and you're like, it's a game where
you're a giant robots fighting kaiju and one of these kaiju will have you,
yeah, bug, we'll have you held down, and another one will be
about to hit a building and another one will be about to emerge out of
the ground, and you'll rack your brain for fifteen minutes on this one turn
and finally find the solution where you can kill everything, stop everything from happening,
and also make sure that you take no damage to your city. And
it feels so satisfying when you find those after I thinking about it for so
long, and it's like almost at any point you have enough capabilities and if
you're creative enough, you can find that perfect solution, and having all the
information makes it really easy to do that. And then having only five turns
gives you this light at the end of the tunnel of being like, if
I just can survive this next turn and that next turn, we can get
out of here without taking any damage, And it just feels so cool.
And it's also a rogue light, so you're like slowly unlocking things over time.
And if you get in this situation where you are playing a bunch of
the playing with a bunch of different different builds and different kinds of teams that
you can have, it could be a very different game from one run to
the next. So just love into the breach. I don't know why I
didn't get into it more. I play a lot of games like this.
I don't know why this was the one that kind of stressed me out.
I love the way the game looked, I loved its mechanics. For some
reason, I didn't stick with it. Yeah, it's kind of like I
think Austin Walker said, It's like a dance, but in a turn based
dance. And when I thought started thinking about it that way, it made
it feel like this these epic anime battles happening, even though it was clearly
like just turn based and not a lot happening in terms of the animation itself.
Super Smash Brothers Ultimate came out this year. There you really really did
live up to its name with that Ultimate Moniker just a ridiculous roster in this
game, it feels so smooth, so good to play. Just just it
really is the ideal form of Smash Brothers in a lot of ways. I
know Mainley will always be Melee, but just really is the best feeling Smash
Brothers. You know, there's a little equips here and there. The online
still isn't great. That main Spirits mode or whatever could have been maybe a
bit more, but it us still pretty fun. But man, I could.
I could play this game till the end of time. It's somewhat fun.
Yeah. I like Ultimate too. The kids are playing it more and
more frequently, which is a did they play with no items? No,
Mike, they happen to play with items. They kind of said after I
said that, there's a big thunder strike, like, okay, sorry God,
God zach or is there to judge you? Okay, my path.
I didn't know God was a filthy casual. Hit Man two. Hit Man
two is really good. There's some fantastic maps in hit Man two. This
is the game where they were independent now, and they sort of like scaled
back some of the of the presentation, like some of the things were like
static images. I think this is the one where that happened. And yet
I also cared way more about Ancient forty seven in this game. They like
nailed that part of it, which was really surprising. And then on top
of that, it just it just has more and more of the great features
you want from this clockwork world and enabling you to go in there and throw
a wrench into the works to mess things up. I think it had the
reflective mirrors so people could see you in mirrors now and that like made things
really interesting. Hit Man two is just so good on top of what hit
Man sixteen or twenty sixteen was already doing, and this is that much better.
Yeah, Miami is such a good level. I love those two DLC
levels, the Bank and the Bank Island really good. Yes, they so
some of the best DLC ever. I think it's up there for me.
And then yeah, that that Miami race level is when I played over and
over and over and over again. Now yeah, yeah, when I did
that Bank level, I accidentally did the hardcore mode or whatever, and my
friend was like just happy watching me, so like I was playing it so
carefully and that made it so much fun. Actually, yeah. Yeah,
it's a game where where when they find the opportunities to ramp up the stress,
it just adds to the tension of the game and makes it that much
better. A Lot of War twenty eighteen came out this year. This was
a really fun you know, it's funny, like the name and everything.
It's it's a reboot, but it's also a sequel, and I think that's
what's really great about this is that there finally is some character growth, a
character change for Kratos. Putting him in this dad role is fun. You
know. Just doing the over to shoulder thing seemed a little weird at first,
but it actually did work in making the combat feel a lot more visceral,
up close and personal, you know, even something more gammicky stuff like
it's like one continuous take. That was also neat. I think this is
a tidier game than Valhalla, even I think the story is simpler in a
way that helps it and benefits it. It's not branching off into all these
other different paths, doesn't feel like it has any padding. Just a really
good time. Yeah. I didn't play a ton of this game. I
played more Valhalla than I did of I'm sorry, I mean, I'm getting
things mixed up. I played quite a bit of twenty eighteen, but now
I didn't finish, didn't get all the way through it, and I thought
it was good. It's one of those games where I could see why people
like it so much. It's not entirely for me, but there was nothing
I found offensive or bad, and most of the stuff I'm like, oh,
this is clearly a very well made game. So yeah, I appreciate
twenty eighteen. Mostly from a distance I would go with, Yeah, Tetris
effect, that is a one that I feel very strongly about, especially every
time I go back to it and it's like, oh, this still does
have all the magic of what I first experienced there. This is the game
that made me fully reckon with the idea that games are not just their mechanics.
It is the like, the meaning of games comes from where the mechanics
meet the audio visual experience. And when you have something that is still Tetris,
but then all this amazing music and visual delights are happening alongside it,
or in conjunction or in sync with it, it gives the mechanics of Tetris
even more meaning and it blew me away. It's a great game. Yeah,
you can always argue what's the best version of Tetris, but this is
a version of Tetris that's never going to be obsolete because that's both a great
Tetris game and is doing something unique and interesting and kind of timeless. I
love it, yep, I do too. Okay, quite a few here
to choose from. I'm gonna go Dragon Quest eleven next. This was the
game that really finally did get me into Dragon Quests. You know, especially
at a time where like Sweary Knicks was basically uninterested in ever making a traditional
final fantasy game again, like we're not going to do turn based. I
loved how this does just actually feel like a modern version of a very old
school Japanese gerrapeg was still being turn based, still having that party, still
having all these really classic and in a lot of ways simple Dragon Mechanics,
just doing it in a big world with just a ton of different towns and
dungeons to explore. It's a big game. It's a bigger game than you
even expect when you're playing it. Definitely one of my favorite Jrpgee's got him
there are There's still quite a few to choose from. There's some that I
think I would like to get to as honorable mentions when we're done with the
podcast producers. One that I want to go back to is Battle Tech.
I want to play more of that. That's one of those strategy games that
I enjoyed and wish I would have spent more time with. But I think
the next game I would actually put on here is Marvel's Spider Man. Yeah,
Marvel Spider Man. Gosh, I remember, I remember we played that
Devil for the first time at Sony's last E three press conference thing. It
was just so much fun because it did finally bring swinging back in a way
that felt incredible, felt right up. Yeah, I liked having this giant
New York to explore. I'm glad that they did jam a lot of villains
in there because I like, I like all those Spider Man villains, just
like great versions of Peter Parker, great version Miles Morause, a great version
of doc owk of Mary Jane. I loved how familiar yet slightly different this
interpretation of Spider Man fl especially you know, the New movies, but like
that Tom Holland Spider Man is such a different take that I appreciate it.
But I do like how this feels a little bit more like this is just
what Spider Man would have been like if it was made now instead of in
the sixties. Yeah. One of the biggest things I appreciate about the storytelling
of Marvel Spider Man is not an origin story. We are well within him
being a Spider Man and being able to like just get into things was really
cool, and that was one that I was happy I played all the way
through and got to the climax and the fight there with the boss. In
that game, they put so much good. Final Boss is a good Boston's
Too, does right, Absolutely yes, and and a lot of that is
you know, it meant more like it meant more with what is happening in
the first one, because I cared about the personal stakes a lot more in
the first one, and the second one gets a little bit more muddled with
that stuff. But you know whatever, Marvel Spider Man is also just like
the kind of open world game I want to be playing one with really great
locomotion and a fun New York City with the occasional distraction. Actually there's a
ton of distractions in the first Spider Man, but I didn't even know if
you did do them all, and that was fine, Yeah, exactly.
The Messenger came out this year. This studio is getting a lot of love
now because they did Sea of Stars, which is actually in the same universe
as this game. This game is really fun because it starts out as a
kind of eight bit inspired almost a Ninja Guidance style game, and then halfway
through it opens up into being more of a Metroidvania. It even sort of
shifts the aesthetics into the sixteen bit world. Just really clever design, really
great feeling platforming. I think it's still probably one of the more underappreciated Switch
games. I think a lot of people do know about this one now.
I think it slowly has built up a pretty good audience. I think CIA
Stars' success probably helped it. The last one I feel like I really need
to get on here is a Return of the Overden not you might bring that
one up. Yeah, I die you adore of this game. It is
well into my wheelhouse in terms of the kind of bullshit that I like,
mysteries, detective stuff. The game is mostly played in your head. It
gives you information and then you need to do the inferential and deterministic work of
putting the pieces together and then coming back to the game and saying, well
what do you figure out in your head? And the games like, yes,
that's correct. That is a really cool process and this is one of
the better games at doing that. Big fan of for Turn of the Overdain
a couple more I want to mention here. Astro Bought Rescue Mission is probably
still the best vr G game. Like that are halfway Alex, It's nuts
that's kind of stuck on platation VR of like all the games that The Sunny
should release on PC. Please this one God Rescue Mission is so much fun.
Then Mega Man eleven I got. I could tractually obligate to bring a
Megamus. He's such a important character. Jeff, you know series of solover
forty million cock gree here's the third third party character to be added to Smash
Brothers. Yeah, five percent of the Giant Bomb audience also agrees. That's
just a super majority, I believe, right right. That's how meg Mae
eleven is a ton of fun. I love the dual gear system. I
love how like the one gear slow things down, So it's kind of like
helps in an easy mode sort of way because you don't ever actually need to
use it, and it kind of feels good after you played a few times
and you don't need to use that one anymore, and you can kind of
go through these sections that you thought you needed to slow down, but actually
if you kind of learn those patterns, you have some muscle memory, you
can get through it. Actually, some of my favorite boss designs in the
series I do. I think I like a Blackman quite a lot A lot
of fun powers, tons of good stuff in Magnelman. I can't believe it's
actually been six years since Megan May eleven. I think I deserve a new
Mega Man game. Jeff, Yeah, you've been a good boy. You've
been a good boy. I've been speed running the talking. I'm gonna be
talking a lot about Mega Man and not doing anything about it other than like
you have a fucking skin on the numbers and they're gonna do something. I'll
do something with Mega Man. I think a lot of people are gonna start
realizing that actually a video game that can sell like one point five million copies
and not cost three hundred million dollars is a good thing, and I think
people might want to make more of this, uh anymore? Before I get
to the podcast producer, i's look at the podcast producers. I am spent,
all right, give me one moment while I get that suggestion on the
super chats. Okay, we'll get to that too. All right, there
we are. Let's start here with Slain, who says Red Dead redemption to
Cohen, Fuck you grub Wait, what the hell? It's a pretty good
to edit. I love it. Yeah, it's a really good edit that
uses the right fune and everything good. I wouldn't even noticed. I'll put
that is my my wallpaper on windows here. Super Harman says, Dragon Quest
eleven, Bench j C says Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. Mister Buller says God
of War. Uh wow, it was okay. Buggetilli says for real this
time, Dead Cells? Did Deed sales come out one point this year?
I believe that point in twenty eighteen. We'll consider that for sure. Remember
the teach integration with that, So that was pretty fun. Oh that's right,
Yeah, that was cool. Wonder if that still works. Dominal Crossing
says Mega Man eleven. I believe, no, no, no, that's
that's Super Smash Brothers. This is I got it. I got it.
Sorry, this is Super Smash Bros. Helped the Ridley reveal where he kills
a bunch of characters. I I was so like Smash Ultimate. First they
had the Everybody's here announcement, which was great, and then at that point
the two characters I won his Smash Brothers. Of them most were Ridley and
Simon Belmont, and they were like the first two to get announced. I
was so happy. Yep, that's I mean They're never going to be able
to replicate what it was like when they were announcing characters are Super Smash Brothers
Ultimate and so many of those all time requested characters from Oh my Gosh.
I still like to watch the trailer for Banjo Kazuoi with the life reaction so
good. It's so good. Two time champief Hammer says Return of the ober
Den. That's correct, uh Ali Maris Ali Maras Servesa. Crystal says Cristo
and one for my homies because I think this is dead. Dreglia lost right,
that's no longer a going concern. Yeah, that was Nintendo's mobile game.
Apparently they had a Magma crossover. A lot of people have crossovers with
Mega Man must be a very important character. Jamie h Christmas Christmas, Who
says Yakuza sixth the Song of Life title that sounds it is? It seems
have great They have great subtitles. This is maybe one of the best ones.
Maybe you adopted daughter villain Mac says God of War Chaos. Buckeru says
Grease or Chris. Then I think it's Grease back long for a very long
time. It's a gorgeous looking two D game. Beautiful, Zoob says,
play Situs too, which I think we will get to here. Yeah,
is beautiful also us okay, all right, all right, all right,
Christian, you can't pipe in the literally every single one. No Citus too,
Actually fucking rules is like all right, about to read a super chat
about good I forgive you beautiful Zoop since money to keep yelling about. Twenty
eighteen Game of the Year Situs to best rhythm game ever, a great evolution
of e leap bet agents and a banging soundtrack and a Bonker's anime story too.
It's perfect and it's right there on your phone, just wanting you to
play. So I see. I don't even I don't think I've even heard
of Citis too. Oh you're I need to check this out. I need
to check this out. I don't think i've heard of it either. I
will check this out. If it's like eb A people giving me ship for
buying it for ten bucks on Andre, it was like you boy paying ten
bugs for a ship man, okay, always be clothing slash Cardy says God
of War twenty eighteen, Fusion says Celeste. Casual says, oh bloodstained,
Curse of the Moon. That's a good one. Really, that was this
your tech game rule d Make? Yes, this is the d Make.
This is them just making like a new Castlevania three. It was so much
fun. I played way more of this than I played the other the like
the real blood Stained game. Yeah, this is a This is a really
great one. I like this a lot. It's fantastic. Guess the best
Castlevania game we've gotten in a long time. Isaac Clark says, Dragon Quest
eleven getting a lot of love, Hot Jade. How's it going, girl
Hospice says spider Man. Uh Phlobotron says The Witcher Tales Throne Breaker. Oh
my god, I forgot about this thing. I forgot about so much.
I'm not sure I know what this is. This is like a narrative Went
game, isn't It's a what is it? Went games? Yeah? I
think it's the narrative gwittin game. Yes, right, which is weird?
Doctor Ryan, says spider Man. Nick Turbo says, among us got eight.
That's incredible. Oh, it's weird. I didn't realize it is.
Yeah, that's right, I was gonna say that. That's right. It
came out in twenty eighteen, and then really popped off a couple of years
later. Input name here, says Valkyria Chronicles four. I want to play
more of this game. I played a little bit out of free and it
was very fun. Yeah. I think I started it and then I abandoned
it for some reason. I should go back to it. Oh, yes,
Lenny Cool, Dick Denver. I was well. I was figured we'd
get to this in here. I was going to ask you when we got
to the end if no one mentioned it. Monster Hunter World, oh man,
Monster Monster Underworld. You're fine, Chris. It is such great.
I know it's okay, I give you a Clemency's fantastic. It's a I
mean, this is the game that finally made Uster Hunter World big in the
US. I love its aesthetics a lot still. I think it's it's my
favorite. All that colonialism, you know, Jeff, I can't get enough
of it. Oh yeah, that's what makes a game good to me.
Not true? Is this a lie? I don't know why people say that
it's not true. There's I want to kill you. It's not real.
Christian always defending his problematic games, like always crazy laya cool, says Monster
Hunter World. Tommy Pencil says, what I have to assume is Monster Hunter
working. Yeah, Devil Joe Baby, look at that beautiful motherfucker. Oh
my gosh, he's so hot on your arms. Freedom MC Liberty Ball says
God of War. Alex says God of War A skirmly doink bingle Boink is
angered, sure, screaming Madden says, a Celeste, but has, of
course John Madden edited into the place. We disgusting Pittsburgh Steeler in there.
Get that shit out of here, Get out of here. Willow Davis says,
just dance twenty nineteen for the Wii, be specific for the Wei.
Was this the last WI release? I hope? So I feel like I
feel like just coming leave. The last one was twenty twenty, Okay,
I was going. I thought for at least one more year. Joy Z
says last of their return of the ober Den Man. I bet I could
replay that game and not remember anything that would rule. I also think you
could do Terioki Blue says into the breach. Yeah. Matt Rare Monkey says
battle Tech Slash Yeah, ku'sa Kowami two. Yeah. I should have hot
battle Tech on the steam deck. I bet that would work well. Diggy
sixty four says Donut County. This is this was gonna be one of my
honorable mentions. Oh yes, exactly, Ben Esposito, The Rebirth Rebirth Wolf
five says Octopath Traveler Mike, anything to say about that one? I think
I'll refrain this time. Wow, that's way worse than if you would have
just said something we's been says Fallout seventy six. Mike, you want to
say anything? Yeah, a great preview event, not a good game.
I always daydream about getting into Fallout seventy sixties days play. That would be
a pretty funny professional Friday. Oh that's yeah. We can have like a
slightly longer one where you can do a couple of quests in there. That'd
be fun. Uh. Rees Racers says Mega Man eleven. Uh, that's
that's a good name. And also yeah, Mega Man eleven, Mike talked
about that one. Yeah, that's a good name. Uh, Jeff,
you gotta stop teasing us, buddy. There's be some kind of development on
all that Ridge Racer diving or doing. My contacts are are mad at me
for pronouncing the name of the company wrong. Get the ordering back Jeff,
I did. It's one step foward, two steps back, major step back.
I'll take them out to dinner. I will. I'll make amends.
I will get this fixed for you, all right, better Clink says Tetris
effect b A. King says Shadow of the Colossus the remake. I like
the original better, but I don't hate this or anything. I mean,
I think I I think I'd rather play them. I don't know. It's
hard to say. I've played the original while I liked this remake a lot,
but I I just love Shallow the Colossus really shape or form I could.
I freaking can't get enough of that game. It's so good. Wardencliff
says On Rush is this game still playable? Because I've never touched it and
I can always wanted to. I don't know much about on Rush. It's
the game where you need to hit the ramps to like land your car on
the other cars to like take them out. I think, okay, oh
okay, and that always sounds good to me. Okay, this is okay,
and it's not playable. I wonder if I could like get a like
local version running or something. I don't know. Let's just play that monster
truck game where it comes out, because that kind of looked like on Rush
that they look a little bit like on Rush. DMC depressed me crying,
says Horizon Chase Turbo. This is yeah, this is a solid outrun like
I know a lot of people really like these games. Corley Pooh says astro
Bots rescue mission, right, that's what that one's calling. Yep, I
can never be one straight. Adam GC says a way out. Did you
ever play this one? No? Actually, which is because I've played Brothers
and I've played the you play the divorce game, right, yeah, you
know. I'm just I'm a big rule follower, Jeff, So I don't
want to help these uh these criminals, right person. They need to do
their time and then if the other one is a divorce game, to get
you get married at the end on this on this one, yeah, probably
all right. I kind of want to check this out eventually, but I
don't know, I don't know when. Stereotypic stereotypically hot villain Eden says Reckfest.
Reckfest is a fun time always, like when we do Reckfest stuff at
Giant Bomb. We'll probably do that again eventually. U barspackl says Red Dead
Redemption too. I haven't seen a ton of that. I mean, I
think we had a couple earlier, but not nothing. Everyone's afraid to draw
your ire I don't think. I don't think so. I don't rule this
discord with an iron fist. That's absurd, rub it, says Pocket Monsters.
Let's go peek at chew. Yeah, I was like, I thought,
let's go pick. It was going to be a baby game, and
then I had a ton of fun with it actually, So yeah, babies
are to have fun. Are allowed to have fun, says Assassin's Creed Odyssey,
which is a good game. This has not come up yet, No,
I think I think this is my favorite of those three really big open
world games. I still think it has the problem being like like too big,
of course, but it's definitely the prettiest of them. I think the
ancient Greece setting is the most interesting of the lot. It's definitely the one
I would want to go back to. Wong Gibbs follows that up with Assassin's
Creed Odyssey. Hammond of Texas says Insurgency Sandstorm It's like yes, so yeah,
it's it's in the counter Strike like Orbit, a little bit more stimulator,
a little bit more, Yeah, like a Dylan infinite Well, says
Celeste. Laser wolfs says Red Dead, Redemption two. Now that bunch more
gonna come in. Adam Juice a boy boy God of War twenty eighteen.
Uh t money Og says read Edward emptionoud too, that's strange. Michael Riley
says The Messenger Nice Vision forty nine comes in with Dusk, which I like
Dusk a lot. That's one of those boomer shooter throwbacks from New Blood.
Weed Hater says wreck vest Surface Kan says Monster Hunter World. Edgar Edgar Marino
says Monster Hunter World. Bay Leaf Moon says Forts of Four, Forts of
Riison four. Excuse me? Which does it change everything? This was the
one in England, right or okay? I suppose to? Okay? Yeah,
that that I liked Forts Horizon for a whole bunch. JD. Camp
says Subnautica. I was wondering if Subnautica come up. This is another big
one on my back catalog. Me too, I uh and again, I'm
afraid of playing games where there are things underneath me in water, So grub
Nautica will still have to happen. At some point we will uniter that,
yes, and I'll be I'll be in v Jesus Christ. ZOOMR says PlayStation
they actually have a pretty good year. Huh. I guess PlayStation did have
a really strong twenty eighteen. As that Spider Man God of War. I
mean, yeah, that's a good year. Klaus Rainer says Kingdom Come Deliverance,
which I always thought was kind of a corny game, but I know
lot of people would like it. It's it's yeah, I know, it's
not me. Dorachi says, yeah, Kuzza six the Song of Life,
I believe that could be anything. No, the Song of Life. Alexa
a Go Go says Monster Hunter World, Big Tony, the Final Fantasy Guy
says Super Smash Brothers Ultimate Daisy Man two also coming in with My Smash Brother's
Ultimate. Wow, first look at you know what what character my eyes are
drawn to here? I mean Mario first, sure, but then like this,
Mega Man right really front and center, visiting as protesting. I think
I tried to convince himself he seems pretty important in this picture, doesn't he.
Mike, you won the poll. Come on, dude, I'm a
sore winner. We all know that not wrong. Freshly streamed games Monster Hunter
World, Mitsurugi says, Dragon Ball Fighters, Yes, let's go a game.
It's a great game. We should. We should play some of that
again, we should. It has to be roll now, Yes, I
would want to play as if I played Dragon Ball Fighters, I would just
play one of the Goku disgusting maybe yo. I don't know now, but
Jana was like top tier back in the day. I would have Life Savings
and Michaeho plays Android eighteen. I love, and I think that was my
tent. I think that was my Budekuei. Three Man Mike says that Mike
earlier sisters grew up thinking is flat like Florida kinda I kind of think that.
Yeah, I'm just not imagining Colorado like mountains is all I think,
says the Messenger. Turbo Sean says Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and that does it
for her time. I forgot to post She's why is the best smash?
We all know that. Yeah, there's a lot of support for Monster hundred
worlds in the thread. Huh yep, Monster Hunter World and it actually played
as much of it as I wanted to, just because I don't. I
played a lot more Rise just because it was convenient to play that game portably.
I didn't, Sorry, I didn't play a lot of Monster Hunter World
when it come out because he didn't come out of BC the same day as
in console you had to wear like eight months or something like that. That
was something ridiculous. So yeah, I played way more than the next year
when it came out on PC. And also I kind of like more of
the expansion Ice Warm than the Bass game Ice Worn. Is that really what
it was called? Yeah, So like, yes, sir, I will
I will put eyes on eyes one was on this these years. But no,
here's what Here's what we have, Red Dead, Redemption Too, Celeste
Into the Breach, Super Smash Brothers, Ultimate hit Man to God of War
twenty eighteen, Tetris Effect, Dragon Quest eleven, Marvel Spider Man, The
Messenger, Return of the ober Den, Astrobot, Astrobot Rescue Mission, Mega
Man eleven, Nintendo Labbo, Monster Hunter World, and Dead Cells. Right,
what did Labbo get on there? Okay, I'm removing Nintendo Labo.
Fine. The good thing that came out of Labbo is that one guy who
did that awesome Mario Medley using the Labbo piano. Yes, I listen to
that. That's great fun. All right, So no Nintendo Labo, that's
fine. I'll settle for that. Hey, look, that's a lot of
games. Yeah, I like mag Man eleven. It's not gonna it's not
gonna make it. And get rid of Magnet eleven. Yeah, I'm not
gonna have eleven. Check the check the John Bone video they did with Labo
is one of the funniest videos. Yeah, that was That was a good
time. I'm not in that one. I'm not interested. Uh god,
I love Yeah, says lab a bear the red the Redition two. Look,
yes, I know Redemption two is not making it. You can get
rid of it. It's fine. Yeah the relation to I love read the
relation too, but fuck it. Ah yeah, okay, well let's pick,
like pick what we think we should definitely go up, Mike, because
it's kind of hard to cut things now for me. Ah, I think
the lesson is all is definitely gonna get up there. That's yeah, that's
an easy one. There we go. I can go up Let's and I
think kit Man two is definitely getting up there. I would I agree,
Yes, that is one of the five best games of twenty eighteen pretty easily.
Let's go, Mike. Yeah, listen, I like the big Triple
A games that are on this list. Spider Man's my favorite. I I'm
like, I like Super Smash Brother's Ultimate a lot, just not the kind
of game I was gonna play a ton of. Uh, So that's why
I'm not like rushing to it. But I think this makes the list.
I don't know who, do you? Uh what, Smash or spider Man
Smash? Yeah, I think Smash makes the list maybe number five again,
but like, I think Spider Man probably has a good chance, also more
so than God of War for me. Spider Man. Yeah, definitely for
me too. That's hard because like I do, And what about Monster Hunter
World? Is that something like that you would want to put up there?
Because I'm not really I like it a lot, uh some ways. I
like Riseing in a lot of ways. I think the next one is going
to really be for me for some reason. I agree. I think it's
God. God, It's God. Yeah, I'm like, I'm trying to
think, like I would like to see Return of the Oberdain up there,
but I would also select to see Tetris effect. I would rather I would
want touches effect more than over. Then. Yeah, it is a it
is a character flaw that you don't like Oberden as much as me, Mike,
But I did like it not as much. No, maybe I was
just bad at it. I don't know. It's like right, I beat
it, but I kind of felt like I was guessing sometimes, and that's
oh okay. I feel like I forced it a little bit, okay,
yes, and I didn't think I was expecting a bigger payoff at the end
than just uh and you know magic sure, So okay, so we didn't
put Spider Man on there. Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm down to
clown with Spider Man. I'm gonna miss into the breach, but that's fine.
I don't really know. Yeah, okay, if I'll keep into the
breach, if it keeps or an EMPI, I feel I feel worse about
I feel bad about no Drank Quest eleven, but I'm also not getting rid
of anything here for it. And also, like you know, the game
does have a better version later god like Drug Qust eleven. Uh what else
was there when you might scrolling down? I have to keep Yeah? Yeah,
so it's into the breach. God of War, Dragon Quest eleven,
The Messenger, Return of the oberden Astrobot Rescue Mission, A Monster Hunter World,
and Dead Cells. I mean, I think if any of these games
is going to get moved up, it would be into the Bridge and then
after that Dragon Quest eleven. Yeah, so you know, I think those
are just two games that like one of us really likes, the know,
the one does that much experience with so as a together this list. Now,
look, I played, I played a good ten to eleven hours a
Dragon Quest eleven when I was on I believe one time, and I enjoyed.
I enjoyed it quite a bit. I if there's something you want to
take off, I'll entertain it. I mean, I mean that's the thing,
not really, not really you You really like Tetris effective as well?
Right? You know what? Maybe I wouldn't have until I think just this
year I finally played through all of it on a switch on like some trip,
and like I always did like it, but I really got into it.
It's great, It's really good on that switch o led it really is
fantastic on the switch olid. Yeah. Okay, listen, In fact,
why don't we put it above Spider Man? Yeah, I'm I like that.
Okay, let's do that. In fact, let's put Smash Brothers above
Spider Man. All right, interesting, I'm okay with that too, Super
Smash Brothers. Ultimately, are you okay with Celesti at number one? Because
I am? I am also Celesti rules. I love Celeste. It's I
have not gone back to it in any real way since, so I just
playing the hell out of it, you know, doing those B sides,
doing as much of the challenges as possible. The core game getting to the
top of the mountain is such an awesome experience. I love that game,
honestly, I want to I want to play that again. And then there's
all those Super Mario World I think, or maybe a Super Mario Brothers three
hacks that make the game play like Celeste. I'm like, I want to
do that. God, I love Celestia. I remember you're playing Prince of
Personal Lost Crown. They were just obvious to lists is there and how happy
I was about them? Like yeah, And the DFC is like, We're
gonna have challenge packs of more of that stuff, and I'm like, hell,
yes, let's go. Uh if the list is number five, Marvel
Spider Man, then going up to Super Smash Brothers Ultimate at four, then
Tetris Effect, Hit Man two at two, and Celested number one. I
like it. What do you think? I like it. There's a part
of he's like, uh, Dragon Quest or Spider Man, but then I'm
finding the way and I don't know Spider Like we talked about great year just
for PlayStation. I think there should be eight play station game on there,
because yeah, that's a pretty good point. Yeah. I was gonna was
gonna say, no, maybe we should move it, but you're right,
that was a strong gear for PlayStation and I always felt that Spider Man was
like sort of underrated that year. Yeah, all these games were getting Game
of the Year consideration and Spider Man was never even really in that conversation.
And obviously we saw how much better it could get with I think, like
even Miles Morales, but then with Spider Man two in terms of like just
the the way the games play. But still Marvel Spider Man nailed that out
of the gate for that team. Yep, I like it all right,
Mike read the list for me one more time while I go ahead and put
this on Twitter. Game has decided the best games of twenty eighteen, and
they are a number five, Marvel's Spider Man, a number four, Super
Smash Brothers Ultimate number three, Tetris Effect, number two, hit Man two,
and the number one Celeste. All Right, we're gonna take a quick
break. When we get back, we'll talk about what we've been playing right
after this. All right, good job, Mike on coming up with the
top five games of twenty eighteen. Uh, that means it's time for what
we've been playing. And Mike, I played some Star Wars Battlefront today,
as did you. And this is a game that we you know, we
talked about it a little bit. Let's I was like, you know,
let's have a real conversation about it real quick. This is one that our
community is really hot and heavy on. They really like it. They are
frustrated with us for not giving it the respect they think it deserves. And
after playing it, I get it. I think comparing it to I think
comparing it to GoldenEye was a very like eye opening thing and really today it's
a much better game to play than gold and I in my opinion, it's
hard to go back to GoldenEye. For me, this was you just go
fit right back in and you're immediately playing a really fun multiplayer game. I
think that for like the big multiplayer games where you have like thirty two versus
thirty two or something like that, or that's a possibility. This one is
maybe works better for me than any of the battlefield games I played. I
always thought battlefield games were kind of messy, and I was always like running
back to the battle. These ones were just like, no, you're going
to get back to the action pretty quickly. I was really enjoying it.
How about you. I did, like I liked Baffle ninety forty two and
like Vietnam a good bit, and there's some of that. There's definitely a
lot of that in here. Some of it is like some of the negatives
were I don't know if this probably excushoe, but never like it. Somebody
in the other teams in a vehicle, it feels like they go around and
just win the game and then when I get one, I explode in two
seconds. But no, I totally get it, you know what, Jeff.
In a lot of ways, especially at the time, this was the
most Star Wars game, right, Yeah, like everything is here, it's
doing all of all of those movies, all these different characters. I think
it doesn't have episode three because that wasn't out. Maybe maybe I'm making that
up. Actually I'm not sure. Two thousand and five, so it would
have been. Yeah, that would have been like just coming out. I
suppose at least what we played Like, No, no, it would have
been because we were at that mushroom planet where that one Jedi di I never
mind, Episode three is in there same year. So yeah, it has
everything, and I you know, you get to play as all these characters.
I get it. It was a lot of fun. It definitely it
nails the mission statement of just being battlefield. But with Star Wars, yeah,
we were playing a time, yeah, and we were playing you planted
out like yep, it's just that music that you want to hear when you're
doing Star Wars stuff, and like, yeah, they had it all in
there and rules. When I was building the server originally, I was testing
things out. The maps are like, okay, here's the map. Here
is it wasn't haf Hoth was just the classic series. But there'll be like
playinget's like tattooing. Do you want to do tattooing in the classic trilogy or
in the prequel trilogy and you can pick one, so they like had everything
represented. You're right, there's just a ton of Star Wars stuff in there.
So if people were hopping online playing this game all the time with their
friends, or playing the split screen which I saw Barrett and Blessing we're doing.
I'm kind of funny today because I bet that's how a lot of kids
actually experienced this game, just playing two players split screen co op non stop
with your kid with your kid friend after you got home from school. And
I could see that being a very very good time. So I'm glad we
spent some time with it. I do have an appreciation for it that I
didn't necessarily have before. And yet, as you said, like, yeah,
it's not gonna it's not gonna go on my Mount rushmore Star Wars.
I'm just all very proud of you guys forgiving Fair's sake. Thank you.
Oh yeah, really quick. I'm heurious. Are you guys aware of the
single player content? I started playing that on treatment I remember that from the
time. The single player campaign in Battlefront two is actually really cool because you
start playing as a Kong Trooper and you kind of follow them through the movies
to the point like where they are a stormtrooper. It's actually a really fun
campaign for just you know, having you fight bought matches in these maps.
Essentially, it works really well. Yeah yeah, if it's like the diaries
of someone who ends up in the five Ozho first, Okay, that sounds
I will play through that. That. It has like cut scenes and everything's
pretty well. But the other thing is actually the thing that people really like
though, Galactic Conquest. It's basically almost like a board game, but the
board is sort of like a Katan shaped, you know how. It's kind
of like a hecks and everything with like branches, you and your you and
the Empire star and opposite sides, and you branch out to the different planets
that you each own with your ships. You like move ships in sort of
board game fashion, and you get points every time you win a match,
and you can then spend those points to get up You get new troop types,
you can get upgrades for your troops. You can buy heroes to use
like Luke Invader, or you can buy new ships where you can like move
multiple ships across the board and then kinds. It's very risk. Yeah,
I definitely recommend just get a shot. Okay, yeah, I will pay
that. That would probably be a fun like little switch thing in bed or
something like that. Yeah, I'm gonna throw it. I'll throw it on
the steam deck. And you know, it really makes me wish I actually
they they would just make another one. Uh. Battlefront two was already quite
a while ago, like the New Battlefront two yep, you know, like
that game got That game never had a chance because of its pretty atrocious loop
boxes, but it was a fun game. I think they were so close
to just really nailing it with a Battlefront three, and it kind of I
think they get that if they were to bring back the original concept for the
old Battlefront three that would have been on like three sixty ps three. The
idea was that was going to be seamless ground to space combat, So you
would fight like what weight day and they could gain a ship. You would
have like a pseudo cut scene, and then you would be fighting above the
planet and space bellt you could like go between them. Wasn't that the one
with like that the least concept art of like a lot one. Yeah,
that's one of like the great game stuff. Yeah, I had fun,
Jeff me too. And then beyond that plan some review games won't be able
to talk about some of these things for a little bit, so that's kept
me pretty busy a little bit more bolatro. That's still very like taking up
time here and there, really enjoying that. Uh but yeah, uh,
the Star Wars Battlefront That's what I've been playing. How about you, Mike,
I took I'm taking a little break from Persona three to to play Mario
Golf the Game Boy Color game. Oh fun. We talked about this,
how every always think of that Gameboy Advanced One really a similar and it really
played the Gameboy Color One as much. And it is also just just kind
of perfect, right, It's everything you need. It has just enough of
that RPG stuff. It's not blocked down and boring dialogue and like story,
it's a little bit of it, but yeah, it's just you know,
you're leveling up. You have these like clubhouses to explore. I love just
like having this little map. You go to the different courses and you challenge
these champions to match games, and the golfing itself is so simple and clean,
like the way that you're making me feel tonight. It just so long
as I don't have to meet your father. It just feels perfect, even
though it's missing some of the like the top spin mechanics that we had starting
in the GameCube games. I believe, you know AA for spin, a
B for super spin. Even without that, it kind of reminds me of
how the golf actually, uh does feel in the o Geo Turf Masters are
yeah urf yes, yeah right, it's a bit like that's that's that's the
ideal, a Neo Turf Master's RPG that would be the real deal right there.
Yeah. I think that description of not not bogged down by a lot
of dialogue, I think we probably could have guessed that based on the fact
that I enjoyed the game. But it's it's also like my platonic ideal for
what I would want from going out learning how to play golf, where it's
like I'm just gonna go out on my own, I'm gonna try to get
better and that occasionally I will challenge someone who's better than me and see if
I could take them on and beat them in golf, and then it's just
going to go back and you know, kind of go to the next course
by myself and enjoy it. And that sounds so pleasant. And I think
I think that the game that's such a good job of capturing that right away
that I really hooked onto that. So glad you're playing it, Glad you're
enjoying it. That's that's really fun to hear anything else. Mike, Yeah,
I'm Mortal Kombat mythologies. But you know we've got a lot more about
the place though. You are going to be able to submit the sub hour
run right fifty one minutes you said, yeah, I'll submit that one.
What does that put you want? Where does that put you on? Seven?
Number seven? I want to be so or emmy for number for top
five. But the thing is wasn't in top five. It's not that much
for them to get to top three. So top top three is the real
end goal. What's it got? Top three is when I might be done,
right, I think, So we'll see hopefully, Like there's a day
this week, and so far I kind of been sneaking runs in here and
there. It's like one run and I want to day this week and where
I can really sit down right, just do several runs back like six hours,
like just like play this game and really try to grind out right,
very good run and you'll probably I mean, you'll probably have a good run
after that, but I bet then the next time you come back after that
like long session, you'll get your best run at that point. All right,
God, I mean Dragon's Dogma two is out here pretty soon. I'm
definitely looking forward to playing that. Anything else that you're like kind of eyeballing
right now? Are You're pretty happy with what you have and you're you know,
locked and loaded on your switch and your Steam deck and all that.
I'm pretty happy with that. I'm like looking for a dragons on with two,
but I'm actually kind of looking forward to some downtime to catch up on
things like, hey, you know, never got to never got to beat
Jedi Survivor or FOMP Fancy six. We'd still like to do both of that.
So saying here and I do need to make a point of getting on
the horn with you all and getting us back into some more hell divers.
I know, it's so much fun. Yep, it's it's a good time.
I did some random matches this week and had a pretty good time with
that, and I'm like it would be much better with friends that I'm talking
to, but it still definitely works. Matching up with random people. But
I'm like, I do wish I was just hanging out with the buds,
So try to make that happen. I might try to beat Penny's Big Breakaway.
I'm making progress there. God yeah, and there's a ton I have
a Touch WWE and I want to play. It's too much, all right,
everybody, I'm gonna hit the button. It takes a couple of months
to go out of here from there, so that means, Mike, I
don't know. We got planned this weekend? Anything fun? I think not
much finally, which is kind of good. I might see Dune too at
some point, but I could use a quiet weekend get and play some video
games. That's what I want to do. It would be hard for me
to get out there. I'm like, but let me know if you go
see Dune too. I'm looking for an excuse to go see it, so
just like loop me in. I know it probably won't be able to happen,
but if I that'd be great. I did stay up late last night
cleaning the house, so I won't have to do that this weekend, and
that's nice. Yeah, yes, but it was nice. I heard you
say that and like about how you felt good about yourself, and I was
like, God, I want that for me. I really need to do
a big clock. I put it off for like two weeks. In the
house was just an absolute disaster. So it had to happen. I have
a pile of floors in my bedroom. It's not a pile floors, a
pile of clothes in my bedroom. It's not of the dirty clothes. It's
of the clean. Sure, that's the that's the only marginally better, if
not worse. So I gotta sort all that. Yeah, clothes should clean
themselves. Clean clothes, right, someone should in vent that. By now,
fucking Eli Super we have more super checks. Sh ah. All right,
Mike read the super chats like Leary, thank you so much, Mikey,
thank you by Leary. God, someone's doing their job around here,
man, all you other assholes in chats. Actually a bunch of people mentioned
it in chats. By the way, Gold start for Mikey a fan of
twenty three. No, we did that one that the doctor Ryan said that
one fit, Sir says, is it just me? Or does Tyler Breeze
look very brad? Shoe maker coated on the menu icon for the my GM
mode in w W twenty K, twenty two, K twenty four also happy
belated three eleven day boys. I will look out for that. When we
played w what do you think Christian it does? I was thinking yes,
I was like, oh, this guy kind of looks like Russia Maker.
That's crazy the guy, but yeah, he does it. Is it here?
Nick says a new Locus Pope game just came out this week. I
don't know, I will. I will buy this. It's on My Little
God. I had it right here now. Of course I fucking lost it.
It's on the oh there. It is the Cranker God game. After
you play the first one, are you going to send another one? They
sent jan one at the same time, so I think they were just doing
a new They send you that case for it too, so you don't break
it again. Yep they did. Lucas Pop's game is six dollars on the
store on here. I will get that because I love Lucas Pope games.
We were talking about Return of the Overden, but I will make up to
it and make it up to him for not playing his game on the top
five by buying his game. You can blame me. Saraface King says Fall
seventy six is good now actually no really no, I know it's I know
it's uh in a pretty good place now, but Q magic you imagine what
what we've really gone to Fall seventy six now, like fuck me, no
way, Yeah, it's that seems insane. Do you think there's more active
players on fallse seventy six than uh scalling bones right now? We can check
that right now, check it. Check seventy six versus Squad Starfield Starfield.
Wow, Starfield. Oh you're gonna make like a big expansion for Starfield.
I wonder what that's going to be like. Yeah, they've got a ton
of updates and stuff. Yeah, absolutely bring super checks white checks that.
Yeah, well Davis is do not put rum dumb the dumb dumb too,
please, Yeah, I don't worry. It didn't make it. Yeah that
we're caught up there. Thank you. That's a close one. If you
put that would have been rough. Thank you. Hitting again. Uh yeah,
I mean Starfield. I bet Starfield does have more, but I mean
how much more honestly he has? Like Starfield has like five thousand and and
also five thousand like they will. Yeah, are just right now five thousand,
five thousand, same. Okay, hmm, I don't think. I
don't think it should be that Starfield has a little bit more and seventy five
all right, that's great. I like think if I were to go play
one of those games right now, I would would rather play fall Out seventy
six than Starfield at this point. I agree. I enjoyed my time with
Starfield. I did, but I beat that game, and I don't think
about, Oh I have stuff unfinished that I and all the stuff that would
be possible if I went back there. I just don't think about that game
in those terms. Yeah, and I haven't really played football. That's a
different thing. Well, and I really want I would, I really want
still to watch you play fall Out New Vegas. That still's kind of happen.
Yes, that does have to happen. God, I mean, do
that gentlist Jam plays a coach and we're just gonna play two thousands era like
computer RPGs or you know, Western RPGs. That'd be fun. Which one
can I play? I'll play Vampire the Masquerade or something. Oh that would
I would love to watch that. I mean, it would kind of rule
if games would slow down a little bit. It would kind of roll to
go back and play some old games that I haven't finished before. I would
adore that. It is like fitting so much stuff into that. Like today
was one of those days where it's like, Okay, work all day,
get all get all this stuff done, go from one thing to the next.
And as soon as work is done, it's like STEP's got work stuff
that she needs me to get the kids out of the house because she was
like, have an important meeting with a huge company and it was like they
can't. You couldn't have kids yelling in the background. So it's like,
okay, well I will help you with that, and then immediately get home,
get them a bath, and as soon as that's done, run to
this And it's like, man, this is It's kind of what life is
for me right now at the moment. So if I could get to a
point where I didn't also have to juggle five or six new games I wanted
to play at the same time, that would be good for me, just
for a little bit. All right, everybody, till next time. I
have a good boy, take care of yourself. So goodbye. I don't
get horny, I stay horny, and Dan you can't just say that three
inches a girl? What Aclar? It's a clean show. Guys, what
are you doing here? Did you get in here? Master Chief comes?
It's a classic, that's og the lich don't battles such a stupid ass.
Mm well that's that's the secret underneath what I'm saying. Yes, we are
both very famous for holding back our opinions. So I'm going to leave that
in perfect I'm ready. I'm ready. Yep, me too. Actually give
me one second here. You know I'm not cut it when I when I
say like that, you hate it, and I'm going to cut the other
part. I'm gonna be the funny one there. Did you put on a
metal gear solid codec filter? That freaked me out at the beginning because he's
had like his camera having me weird. Yeah. John Bama was like,
oh his camera is dying in a weird way. But now he's just like
a filter. What do you think Colonel Campbell sounds us? What do you
think Colonel Campbell smells like it smells like a cigar? I think he smells
like old Spice's leather, leather and cigar. Ready, yep, I'm bring
us back in right. Let's go damn it. He didn't hear me.
Fuck oh boy, he's just like, wow, what's Christian saying? Or
the victory heat rally? Jeff victory heat Rally. Okay, I'll pull in
the chat here in case anyone else wants to check it out to it's not
out yet. Oh okay, wow. Yeah, So I definitely I played
the demo of this because I remembered how I heard about it. It's a
Playtonic Friends game. I think it's well now so Playton's published. Okay,
man, this looks so goddamn cool. It's really funny. It's a nice
little game. Especially if this released that like ten or fifteen bucks, I
think it's gonna do very well. That's it for super chats break. I
fink you're for like fifteen miss. I had to go pee and I dig
in another beer. Have a game? Is that bracelet by the way?
Nice? Probably? Not? But yeah, do you? I mean?
Is this a child in neighborhood that knows you by sight? No? Not
really, it's a few houses down, But like you, is there anywhere
where you feel like weird? Like approaching a kid that at their standards because
it's a stand and it's out in front of their house, Like, no
one's gonna be like, who is this man talking to a child? I
mean she was, you know, selling these things. Yeah, Like normally
I would not go approach this child. And like, of course, of
course child. Are you like mister Manatti in your neighborhood? Dude? Like
people? Yeah, he said, oh man, not a penny ran away
a couple of days ago, which was funny. And then the neighbor too
down the streets who got her was like, I kind of a bag and
she recognized me more than I recognized her. She's yes, Mike, here's
her dog. Was like, oh, thanks, fucker rude, I'm appreciated.
Keep vamping. I'm getting set up. I'll just be one more secondized.
By the way, A big fan of Black Club. Yeahakway, yeah,
it' be funny. I got recognized at the airport when we left for
uh Florida. That was really big, man. What did they recognize you
for? Mike mccunch. Mostly actually like club I think was the big one.
Was it like T s A or does a random person just no,
it's just some person there with their uh, their partner. I was actually
at the charge rod station swapping out my charge Rod. It sounds dirty,
yeah, but yeah, I was working with my charge Rod. Yeah,
we'll have been a bit odd til I answer Mike mcquonchie questions while being frisked
or something. I thought I was embarrassed because, like they said, Mike
MINAUGHTI, and of course binding media response again is oh no, somebody who
knows who I am? I don't remember them. So I was like,
hey, goodness, see you, while you definitely don't know who I am.
Okay, great, what's up you? Yeah? Do you think they'll
let you on a plane, fool mcquantchie gimmick. I don't think so,
because uh, probably not. I mean with those spikes. I mean they
probably would, because the way you're dressed. I would just assume it's your
religion. I don't want to get if you put the mouse on his forehead,
yeah, I bet they would too, Dan, all right, I
think we are good to go. All right, let's get bring it back
in. We are on the break. You just go into it, yep,
all right, all right, just