Speaker 1: Oh, hello, what Mike You made eye contact with me again?
Speaker 2: Sorry?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the role with Mike. You don't make eye contact.
Speaker 1: Right everyone, I'm Dan. We are fire Escape, and by
Speaker 1: we I mean me Dan, I mean Mike Maharty, I
Speaker 1: mean Mary Kish. We will explain this other entity in
Speaker 1: just a moment here and gives me just walking around.
Speaker 1: That's razor, folks. We are here for Game of the
Speaker 1: Year twenty twenty five, one of the best years in gaming,
Speaker 1: I think since we have started this podcast, it's a
Speaker 1: big one. Be content number one. This is we were
Speaker 1: talking at dinner last night. I think this might be
Speaker 1: the most unpredictable top ten. I think in the past
Speaker 1: we've look we had a lot to talk about. But
Speaker 1: first definitely have to introduce the fourth member of fire Escape,
Speaker 1: the coolest member of fire Escape. It's that time of year, folks.
Speaker 1: It's cool Judge Jay. Look at that guy there is
Speaker 1: looking cooler than.
Speaker 3: The things on track here. No, rants, if you talk
Speaker 3: too long, I'm gonna hit you in the head with
Speaker 3: my gaffle. Oh we're just gonnaet assault at this point. Now, Okay,
Speaker 3: great this year fresh wow, fresh out of cryo sleep.
Speaker 3: Where we keep him all year until we need him
Speaker 3: for game year.
Speaker 1: And then we wake them up to edit the podcast
Speaker 1: and social clips and stuff like that. One dirty dirty
Speaker 1: wig that SHU to think where it's been. I think
Speaker 1: that's I think that's the super Dan sixty four wig
Speaker 1: that I wore when I was playing Superman sixty four.
Speaker 1: So it's just my bald head. There's not a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, hair, there's no hair going on. So
Speaker 1: you're good, folks. What are we doing? I'm sorry I
Speaker 1: made our contact with the not that you might you
Speaker 1: can make eye contact.
Speaker 3: It was that when you you did it twice and everyone,
Speaker 3: folks looking right at me point blank.
Speaker 1: Where you want to explain? Like the loose format? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So if you have not seen our Game of the
Speaker 1: Year before, are we on here at table cam now? Okay,
Speaker 1: hello everyone, high. This is the came we'll be working
Speaker 1: with most of the time. We have twenty five category
Speaker 1: you know, some favorites, some new, and then we will
Speaker 1: end with the top ten games of the year ordered
Speaker 1: and we will be debating each and every one of these.
Speaker 1: We can see the nominees here. We will be having
Speaker 1: picture and picture for you folks watching the video version
Speaker 1: and we're gonna whittle every one of these categories down
Speaker 1: to a winner and then two runners up. And if
Speaker 1: you're again, if you're watching the video version, you will
Speaker 1: see that, and if you're listening to the audio version,
Speaker 1: we will be going over all this stuff, so you
Speaker 1: will know exactly where we are at any other housekeeping here,
Speaker 1: We're gonna be here for a long time.
Speaker 4: We have we have some very serious categories. We take
Speaker 4: this really seriously around here, so try and keep with
Speaker 4: us as we go through. Anywhere between four and twelve
Speaker 4: nominees per category, we will debate them and we're and
Speaker 4: then we have a top ten as well, so we
Speaker 4: actually have a lot to get through in this time.
Speaker 1: And first category is very serious too. Yeah, a should
Speaker 1: we start? Like you know, it just kind of a downer.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a serious one. It's been a serious year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been a tough one. So we are going to
Speaker 1: start with Jake Decker, cool judge Jake. What is our
Speaker 1: first category? There's the list, people can see it now.
Speaker 1: First up, best balls, First up ball x pit Rematch,
Speaker 1: Rosary beads, the hollow night silks, you belave that. Have
Speaker 1: you seen this?
Speaker 3: Have you heard about I've heard about these beads Doom
Speaker 3: the Dark Ages. Just generally you use a couple of
Speaker 3: balls when you're attacking the.
Speaker 1: Questions about that, but we'll get to it. I don't
Speaker 1: know we'll get to that one. Basically, all the characters
Speaker 1: and Kirby air Riders are balls, specifically Rick Lololo and
Speaker 1: La La La waddle d and Kirby.
Speaker 4: It's just like so much specificity doesn't make it more valuable,
Speaker 4: Like there's other ones like Rematch that also does.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you're already insulting the judge because, hey, Judge,
Speaker 1: balls are in Rematch. I don't need to ask where
Speaker 1: the balls are in a soccer game. I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty clear.
Speaker 4: Our next nominee is those robot arc balls in Arc Raiders,
Speaker 4: Once Upon a Katamari morph ball, Metroid Prime.
Speaker 1: Four bomb, Catterpillar in Okay. Well, uh, you know, Rematch
Speaker 1: it just it has balls in it. It's a soccer game.
Speaker 1: I don't think there's anything extraordinary about these balls. I
Speaker 1: think we can cut Rematch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what balls and do in the Dark Ages? Who
Speaker 3: has that?
Speaker 5: Boss fights are all ball based.
Speaker 4: They throw balls at you and you have to make
Speaker 4: sure that you avoid the red balls and get the green.
Speaker 1: The projectile just about projectiles, I mean there's spiracle the
Speaker 1: projectiles and balls such.
Speaker 4: A minor point though, the idea that like in some
Speaker 4: places it's projectiles and some but they're they're like a projectiles.
Speaker 1: The bullet hell aspects they use like round projectiles. Yea,
Speaker 1: truly balls. Robot arc balls those are ones that they
Speaker 1: roll around that such on fires.
Speaker 3: I don't want them on this list. I hate the
Speaker 3: it's just best balls, I know. I don't like the walls. Yeah,
Speaker 3: let's cut the robot arc balls and rematch. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: I actually don't think the robot art balls are particularly
Speaker 3: interesting to fight even I hate them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're not. I don't. I don't like them. Who
Speaker 1: wants to go to town for the bomb caterpillar and ooh?
Speaker 4: I mean it's I just started playing this in my
Speaker 4: first few hours of ooh, this is a really awesome
Speaker 4: concept of your caterpillar is made of bombs. It's a
Speaker 4: ball for a head, a ball bomb one and ball
Speaker 4: bomb two and use it to solve puzzles.
Speaker 5: They are absolutely balls.
Speaker 1: I don't know if.
Speaker 3: Well, hold on, I have a question. I'm gonna cut
Speaker 3: you off. Are we is it the most spherical balls?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: Is it at implement implementation of balls? I think that's
Speaker 3: something we need to clarify.
Speaker 1: These are all balls. We're at the point where you're
Speaker 1: no longer you know these are all great balls. Well, okay,
Speaker 1: judge honorably with respect. Uh the Kirby air Riders being balls.
Speaker 1: I mean every character is a ball. Have you seen
Speaker 1: there's a lot of spherical Kirby But they're lumpy balls.
Speaker 1: They've got like feet and little wing hands. Well, I
Speaker 1: mean they're.
Speaker 3: Ball and once once upon a Catamara, that's a lumpy
Speaker 3: ball too, and it gets lumpier.
Speaker 1: That is true. Like we aren't saying the most perfectly
Speaker 1: geometrically spherical balls here.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's what That's what he was asking, is it
Speaker 3: or is the best implementation of what we can agree?
Speaker 3: I think it's our favorite balls? Okay, yeah, fos a
Speaker 3: favorite balls?
Speaker 1: Ok Actively, you know, I think But hold on, have
Speaker 1: you guys seen Rick. He's the hamster. He's a hamster
Speaker 1: and he's a ball pretty much and he runs. His
Speaker 1: name is Rick. I do like that? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: you could have just put Rick on there. Yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: it should have been more sulky. Can we do it?
Speaker 3: I mean, we can change your right too, thick, just
Speaker 3: straight through everything except Rick.
Speaker 1: Just just delete it and just put beer writers. Okay, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that'll help once upon. I don't know about
Speaker 1: this doom stuff. I will buy your thesis that they
Speaker 1: are balls. Now. I don't think they are best balls.
Speaker 4: I don't think they're the best balls. They are against you.
Speaker 4: You want to get the green balls, but I don't
Speaker 4: think it's gonna win.
Speaker 1: Just competition here, Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1: Give me an argument for ball x pit.
Speaker 3: The whole game revolves around utilizing balls to overpower your demons.
Speaker 4: Whether or not it's got balls, I'm saying, whether they're not,
Speaker 4: they're the best.
Speaker 3: You interrupted me while I was making my point. The
Speaker 3: whole game revolves around amplifying the power of your balls
Speaker 3: to do creative and magical things, to take out demons
Speaker 3: and skeletons and caterpillars.
Speaker 1: The new evolutions of your balls and stuff like there
Speaker 1: is the most like ball flexibility and come from behind right,
Speaker 1: and then also there's like the ball your characters kind
Speaker 1: of become balls when you're doing the town building ball. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what he was talking about. Yeah, that's interesting, it is. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: we'll leave her. I like ball x pit Rosary beats
Speaker 1: are good. We cut doing the dark ages. Yes, okay
Speaker 1: with that Katamari. You know the judge is right. It is.
Speaker 1: It is a lumpy ball. It is the whole game
Speaker 1: is based around that ball. Though it is like the
Speaker 1: whole Katamari is a ball based game.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but they.
Speaker 4: Can't all be ball winners. Some of these have to
Speaker 4: be ball losers. And Katamari is probably not going to
Speaker 4: beat Metroid prime ball or Rosary bead ball or rick ball. Like,
Speaker 4: let's be reasonable.
Speaker 1: I noticed you didn't mention ooh are we thinking ooh?
Speaker 1: Is maybe it's got.
Speaker 4: Great balls, But I'm I'm eyeing it for like things
Speaker 4: that I think it excels at even more than balls.
Speaker 4: I don't think balls is why this game is so amazing.
Speaker 4: I think bombs is why this is so amazing.
Speaker 1: What shape or bombs? Well, it has like a little
Speaker 1: nowble on it. It's not best bombs either. This is
Speaker 1: best ball. I don't think it's the best balls or
Speaker 1: beads balls. Yes, yeah, but bombs are bomb. The bombs
Speaker 1: and video the interperfect there's not enough on the rosary beads.
Speaker 3: We're going on shape and Kris out I agree, that's
Speaker 3: just a conglomeration of random ship that you ball.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what, we can cut Rick? I love Ricky,
Speaker 1: but very honorable of you, judge.
Speaker 4: All right, so we've cut Rick Katamari and oh so
Speaker 4: are we down to the threes that ball x pit,
Speaker 4: rosary beads and.
Speaker 1: Pick who's the winner. Hold on rosary beads. Really it's
Speaker 1: the most important currency.
Speaker 3: It is, and it's it's terrible, actually, I kind of
Speaker 3: I think I backed the rosary beads only because when
Speaker 3: you break something, they fly everywhere and it's really annoying
Speaker 3: and role But I kind of like that that's the
Speaker 3: all in there ball.
Speaker 4: Sound effects, you know, the noise that it makes when
Speaker 4: they crash on the ground.
Speaker 5: You're like my balls and you have to grab.
Speaker 1: Them because of their value. They are like some of
Speaker 1: the best balls to get in this list.
Speaker 4: They are the most coveted balls on this list.
Speaker 3: In my opinion, No ball x pit is a game
Speaker 3: around The balls themselves are are the power of the
Speaker 3: projectile that takes out enemies. The beads are a currency
Speaker 3: with which to acquire more power. But the balls and
Speaker 3: bocks pit are the power, are the chief attraction. That's
Speaker 3: why you're in that game.
Speaker 1: I am not. Is it fair to say bomb caterpillar
Speaker 1: can go now? Oh yeah, I think we just got
Speaker 1: a lifetime achievement, you know, for the more fall is
Speaker 1: still the more fall. It is tremendous. It looks great,
Speaker 1: it sounds great. You hop around and lay little bombs.
Speaker 1: It's a ball that makes other balls that explode. Yeah, great,
Speaker 1: it's fantastic. It's maybe if this are a mount Rushmore
Speaker 1: of balls, I think the more fall might be George Washington,
Speaker 1: do you ever think about a mount Rushmore of balls
Speaker 1: than what that would look like? You have no idea
Speaker 1: how much? Who get four sets of balls? So it
Speaker 1: would be eight balls or two scrotums? Whoa, you're getting
Speaker 1: dirty sets of balls because two scrums are really one entity.
Speaker 1: That's true. Okay, can you run George washing lower like
Speaker 1: beneath the mount Rushmore? You see them? So actually, can
Speaker 1: you change this category from best balls to mount Rushmore
Speaker 1: of ball?
Speaker 3: And then we got to put on our what was
Speaker 3: the fourth but then we need the fourth one?
Speaker 1: I mean I think, yeah, I think, Rick I would
Speaker 1: like to see Rick on a Mount Rushmore. Sure, can
Speaker 1: we just do that? And then the George Washington boy Ballpit?
Speaker 1: You got a good argument for that, Mike. That's a
Speaker 1: game about balls. It's in the title of all the Balls.
Speaker 1: The variety balls is insane. It's in the title.
Speaker 3: There's there's electric balls, there's fireballs on.
Speaker 1: My favorite balls from balls.
Speaker 3: The more they bounce, the more, the faster they go,
Speaker 3: and then you get them into the one of the
Speaker 3: alcoves between enemies and then they're just fucking I.
Speaker 1: Think we I think we have George Washington. But who's
Speaker 1: the winner. I don't think it matters. All that matters
Speaker 1: to the George Washington. I think ballpit is George Washington.
Speaker 3: Yeah, therefore the winner of Yeah, yeah, I agree, we're
Speaker 3: in ballpit, all right?
Speaker 1: I think yeah, So I forget who officially announces the judge?
Speaker 3: All right, judge, still the winner of the Mount Rushmore
Speaker 3: of balls is ballpit?
Speaker 1: Ball x pit? Excellent?
Speaker 3: Are you supposed to say ballpit? Have E been saying
Speaker 3: it wrong? I think it's I think it's like cross pit. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it looks like rre supposed to cross or no fighting games.
Speaker 3: You're supposed to say, cross the ex.
Speaker 1: Cross pit. Oh, I just came back from France, so
Speaker 1: I should understand that Follock's Pit Mike did fly here
Speaker 1: directly from France. What what region of France, the South?
Speaker 1: What's the best vineyard this time of the year in
Speaker 1: the South region of France.
Speaker 3: This time of year. None, the vineyards are good bozo,
Speaker 3: but it's bullsh pete.
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, I think we have a winner. Great,
Speaker 1: all right. Next category is most dewey game of the
Speaker 1: Year are Megabunk, Donkey Kong, Bonanza, Keeper, Kirby Air Riders,
Speaker 1: ball Pit, Shinobi Tower Dominion, Mario Kart Worlds, Once Upon
Speaker 1: a Katamari, a game about digging a hole Sectory. Oh,
Speaker 1: I knew he was gonna do something weird with that.
Speaker 1: And Powerwash Simulator too. It's Powerwash Simulator too cozy, too
Speaker 1: laid back to be like. When I think dewey, I
Speaker 1: do think just like, hey, we're just going, we're going,
Speaker 1: you know, like there's like a thing where you go
Speaker 1: back to a hub and you're taking missions and stuff.
Speaker 1: There's things that aren't just.
Speaker 3: Like ah, don't you also like put down furniture and
Speaker 3: stuff that seems yeah, interface scene, I would say we
Speaker 3: cut powersh Okay, any games here that, like, there's a
Speaker 3: bunch of games here that you literally don't even get
Speaker 3: an intro cut scene.
Speaker 1: You're just playing immediately. I Sectory is like Sectory Megabari
Speaker 1: almost like intentionally doesn't give you any kind of tutorial.
Speaker 1: Megabonk is also right. I think those are two extremely
Speaker 1: strong condenders.
Speaker 3: And believe Ballpit you're also right in it right when
Speaker 3: it starts. Yeah, my point being, are there any obvious
Speaker 3: ones we can cut because they literally start with a
Speaker 3: cut scene?
Speaker 1: I mean like Ninja Gutting four. Actually, Ninja Gutting four
Speaker 1: does drop you right into like a train fight with
Speaker 1: the billion dudes, But there are a lot of cut
Speaker 1: scenes and stuff in Ninja Gutting four. Do we ask
Speaker 1: Ninja game but it's got a lot of cut scenes
Speaker 1: in it. Where agreed, Yeah, I think we cut Ninja
Speaker 1: Gutting four. I think Donkey Kong is doing this is
Speaker 1: a very dowey game, but it does start with some exposition.
Speaker 1: I don't think Punching Ship that it's immediately dewey. They're like,
Speaker 1: I don't think a cut scene or occasional cut scenes
Speaker 1: disqualifies something.
Speaker 5: Let's think about other things like is there text in.
Speaker 1: The game ever? All of these are going to have
Speaker 1: some texts.
Speaker 3: I mean no Keeper Keeper, I don't think had any
Speaker 3: text that who has no you start off and you
Speaker 3: gotta squeeze out.
Speaker 4: Of the ground, or has no text, say like game
Speaker 4: about digging a hole.
Speaker 5: There's menus you have to read.
Speaker 1: You have to buy things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for anybody who's new, because I know
Speaker 3: this is like fire Escape par Dewey should we yeah,
Speaker 3: really talking.
Speaker 1: About like we like probably Dewey games or just games
Speaker 1: where you're just doing stuff thinky games, or you're like
Speaker 1: thinking and doing puzzles, and then there's talking. There's Dowey
Speaker 1: thinking and talking is the oppossete of talking. There's really
Speaker 1: there's not a ton of exposition. It's not like stopping
Speaker 1: for cut scenes every five minutes. You're just playing the game.
Speaker 1: You're in the ship. I think of like old arcade
Speaker 1: games like an Asteroids or galag We're just playing. We're going, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I Shouldoby's extremely dewy. I think cut it for some reasons,
Speaker 1: as they're just a story and stuff. There's a story
Speaker 1: Tower Dominion. There's a lot of texts. I actually bounced
Speaker 1: off because there's a this amount tutorial and stuff there too.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, for sure. I think Katamari has got a story.
Speaker 1: We can cut that.
Speaker 5: Uh what I think it's just like very unprecious about.
Speaker 3: These Well, okay them cut Donkey Kuong Bananza, which has
Speaker 3: a story. There are villains, there's a robes gallery of
Speaker 3: villains to get to know.
Speaker 1: But like that, the actual just playing that game, that
Speaker 1: is just such a fucking dewey game. Well so is
Speaker 1: Katamar isn't it Once you're actually in it. Katamaria has
Speaker 1: like a decent amount of like listening to the scale
Speaker 1: or the extent of the story. Yeah, And it's like
Speaker 1: you're so rarely getting interrupted in Bonanza and Katamari. It
Speaker 1: is like these levels are kind of short. In between
Speaker 1: each one of them, you are going to go back,
Speaker 1: you're like kind of a hub world. Then you're going
Speaker 1: to go in and talk to the guy. And in
Speaker 1: the middle of doing sometimes his head talk to the guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm saying that, I'm arguing we should cut this. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: which one Katamari? Oh gocha talk to the guy?
Speaker 3: I would say ball x pit. There's some management going
Speaker 3: on in between runs. That you're reading a decent amount
Speaker 3: because you're, yeah, you're strategizing your town. There's a lot
Speaker 3: of downtime where you're not exactly do it Like the
Speaker 3: town mini game, you don't actually, I mean you line
Speaker 3: them up, but then they ad auto run.
Speaker 1: I guess that's kind of the game though. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we can cut that. You know, ooh is
Speaker 1: very dewey from what we just saw it, like Jake
Speaker 1: has played before, but we just saw it today and
Speaker 1: that's really cool. But it's I think it's almost more
Speaker 1: thinking think than dewey. I think I put it in thinky.
Speaker 3: I probably shouldn't have put it in both, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I was gonna argue though this it's really really not
Speaker 3: a talking you literally, it's not there's no tutorially, you're
Speaker 3: figuring it out through the mechanics the whole time, like
Speaker 3: they don't tell you anything like Sectory actually has text
Speaker 3: telling you how certain things work up front.
Speaker 1: Okay, not that that's the only metric.
Speaker 3: I just wanted to point that out because they're right
Speaker 3: next to each other, and I saw the comparison.
Speaker 1: But I'm fine with let's cut ooh ooh not being there.
Speaker 1: Mario Kart World. I mean it's a racing game. It's dewey. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's downtime, lobbies, open world stuff. I think we got
Speaker 1: Mario Kart all right out of the Nintendo racing games.
Speaker 1: I think Kirby Air Riders is like that. It's just
Speaker 1: so dewey, dowey, dowey in your face, like Dewey to
Speaker 1: eleven where it's too dewey. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, now
Speaker 1: we're gonna does someone defend Keeper staying on this list?
Speaker 1: I mean the reason I put did you put Keeper?
Speaker 1: One of us put on it?
Speaker 3: But the reason I think it makes sense for this
Speaker 3: list is because there is no text. There is a story,
Speaker 3: but it is mostly just told through the environment. In
Speaker 3: the second like a limbo type thing kind of the
Speaker 3: second you pick up the controller, you're like wiggling to
Speaker 3: break free with the lighthouse. And sure there's lots of
Speaker 3: different ways you doey things in it without spoiling very much.
Speaker 1: There's no here's how you do it.
Speaker 4: They just throw you in there and you have to
Speaker 4: figure it out with environmental you know, trial and error,
Speaker 4: which I also really like. It reminds me of ooh
Speaker 4: in that way where which is just like, at no
Speaker 4: point does the game stop you and say this is
Speaker 4: a new system for you to learn. It's just it
Speaker 4: shows you, doesn't tell you.
Speaker 1: It seems dewey for sure, But I think in the
Speaker 1: face of games that are just like almost like Vampire Surviving,
Speaker 1: like I think Vampire Survivors is like the patron saint
Speaker 1: of of this you know category, and Keeper seems like
Speaker 1: more of.
Speaker 3: A mellow Donkey Kong Banan's a pause for a while
Speaker 3: to show me who this teenage girl was, who I
Speaker 3: was like helping out from now on the journey and
Speaker 3: telling setting up the stakes of her journey and how
Speaker 3: it aligns with Donkey Kong's Jesus.
Speaker 1: Christ, I love this game so much, tel What are
Speaker 1: you talking about right there? And I love this game.
Speaker 3: I don't know, It's tough to say, because the heart
Speaker 3: of that game is literally just DK smashing everything possible
Speaker 3: to get bananas, which is as dewey as you can be. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think I think I would cut Kirby aer Writers
Speaker 3: over Donkey Kong Bananas. Okay, I think just because there
Speaker 3: is Menuing and Kirby aer Writers and you might be
Speaker 3: tweaking your machine.
Speaker 1: Customer Tatorial stuff. There's these amount of like learning and
Speaker 1: going through a million different modes, and so let's cut
Speaker 1: Keeper and Kirby, Oh hold on, oh wait Keeper. There
Speaker 1: I thought, is so smooth when like politicians sneak something
Speaker 1: into a bill and then it gets literally it was like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, it sounds dewy, but it's like it's not
Speaker 1: like a Vampire Survivors type thing where things are happening
Speaker 1: all the time. It's kind of more of a mellow thing.
Speaker 1: That was me basically saying I think we should cut
Speaker 1: it without saying we should cut it. Now, I'm saying
Speaker 1: we should cut it.
Speaker 3: Just clear it's exactly what I'm doing. Just try being
Speaker 3: underhanded about it for a second.
Speaker 1: I wasn't intending to, but I do think we should
Speaker 1: cut it.
Speaker 3: We're getting down to okay, so the Latin the next
Speaker 3: the next one we cut, the remaining ones will be
Speaker 3: the top three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we just have to set a winner. So like
Speaker 1: we're down to Megabank, Donkey Kong, Bananza Keeper for now,
Speaker 1: and Sectory. I do think I'm we haven't really talked
Speaker 1: about its pros for this category, but is there any
Speaker 1: knocks against Megabank? I don't see any no.
Speaker 4: Like, it's probably one of the most I think dewey
Speaker 4: games of the year ever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you're if you you just start you
Speaker 3: read menus like for a half second at a time,
Speaker 3: because it tells you, oh, you can jump sixty percent
Speaker 3: higher and you have dual sniper rifles now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and like Donkey Kong, I don't think it's
Speaker 1: disqualifying to occasionally have text or something, you know, Like, it's.
Speaker 4: Not disqualifying, it's just we're we're past disqualifying.
Speaker 5: What we're saying is is it's the most dewey.
Speaker 4: It's not the best game that's dewey, it's the most dewey.
Speaker 1: So at this.
Speaker 4: Level, what I'm saying is is that even text will
Speaker 4: not get you to the next level because it's not.
Speaker 1: Doing I feel like Lighthouse is moving pretty slow, right,
Speaker 1: I think dewey. I think be wh why you're also
Speaker 1: precious about fucking you cunt. I was looking at you.
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't think he's played it, but
Speaker 1: he seems very against it. It seems like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: a little tale of a little light. I was walking around.
Speaker 3: You know, well, that is very naive you to think
Speaker 3: that it's a lot more of that game than the.
Speaker 1: Let's say it's it's a double fine game, so I'm
Speaker 1: sure it's very charming and not fun to play. Wow,
Speaker 1: like every fucking game they've ever made not called psychoonots too,
Speaker 1: soa Cananza has some weak points. What oh Bonanza? You
Speaker 1: got to get into a menu and pick your skills.
Speaker 1: There is a skilled tree in that game. Yeah, Young
Speaker 1: is a skill tree. It's awesome to pause the game.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I love that game. It's very high
Speaker 3: up my personal top ten lists. But I think compared
Speaker 3: to these other ones. I haven't play Keeper, but from
Speaker 3: what they're saying, it sounds.
Speaker 4: Like in Sictory, when you want to upgrade, you have
Speaker 4: to do it mentally while you're playing the game.
Speaker 1: You can barely move you you don't have time to
Speaker 1: move your eyes, and sometimes you forget to upgrade.
Speaker 4: That comes into play with the way that they've built
Speaker 4: this game, where you'll be like, ah shit, I forgot
Speaker 4: to do shield.
Speaker 1: Because I'm so in the zone. That's dewey.
Speaker 4: When you get to pause a game to think about
Speaker 4: how you're going to upgrade your character. Now you're into
Speaker 4: thinky territory. Now you're into strategizing. I mean, it's not
Speaker 4: just Dowey.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and also sectory that I unless I'm missing
Speaker 3: a whole lot of it. They don't bother to set
Speaker 3: up why you're a triangle shooting at squares and stuff
Speaker 3: like this, doesn't they say it's about like attaining a
Speaker 3: higher sense of consciousness.
Speaker 1: But then they're done for the next twelve hours about
Speaker 1: they took you, like the strike mechanic, like these lines.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can do the charge thing, but they
Speaker 1: intentionally don't explain a lot of stuff in sectory.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just to get you doing Oh, it took me
Speaker 3: a while to figure out how I was like, I
Speaker 3: took me. It took me a while to figure out
Speaker 3: how they're kind of forcing you to either bank points
Speaker 3: to climb up the ladder in value of the upgrade,
Speaker 3: the blaster being the most valuable in there in in
Speaker 3: that progression.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that later in a different category here,
Speaker 1: but in terms of just like Dewey, I mean, looks sectory,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really get me.
Speaker 3: I haven't played keeper, but like the heart of the
Speaker 3: categories between sectory or megabonk.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, I think, and I think secretory it's
Speaker 1: great to have Donkey Kong on there is number three.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so do we all agree on the top two.
Speaker 1: I think we have the top five we got.
Speaker 3: Oh god, oh god, Donkey Kung Bananza gets cut with.
Speaker 1: Respect Judge, that's insane. I'm gonna mute you. He has
Speaker 1: that power to shit.
Speaker 4: If only you had played the games that you would
Speaker 4: have a better argument.
Speaker 1: Donkey Kong Keeper, Oh Keeper, I don't okay.
Speaker 3: I will say though it's definitely between Mega Bunk and Sectory.
Speaker 1: I don't think Keeper would would hang between those. I
Speaker 1: would say Sectory is the number one, Mega Bunk is two.
Speaker 1: I haven't played like megabonk is. The thing is, like MEGABONK,
Speaker 1: you can almost like kind of zone out and just
Speaker 1: kind of walk around to kind of like auto shoots
Speaker 1: like Vampire Survivors. Sectory. It is so dewy, and your
Speaker 1: brain is also like has to be extremely locked in
Speaker 1: on what's happening at all times you are doing and deciding,
Speaker 1: And like.
Speaker 3: I disagree that you can just zone out during MEGABONK
Speaker 3: if you truly want to do well. However, I agree
Speaker 3: with your point that Sectory definitely requires way way less earlier.
Speaker 1: It's like that flow state. There's also a lot of.
Speaker 4: Menus in Megabunk where you have to be like, oh right,
Speaker 4: this one is a double upgrade, so it's better to
Speaker 4: do early on because I want to get more points
Speaker 4: early on the upgrade faster.
Speaker 1: This is all.
Speaker 3: Sectory has the upgrade tier list. It's but it's not
Speaker 3: while it's pause. You're still like in the ship. While
Speaker 3: it's while you're kind of making the choice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's got to be Sectory, right, h Sectory?
Speaker 3: All right, the most dewy game of twenty twenty five
Speaker 3: is Sectory. Put us to Dan for telling us all
Speaker 3: to play it like a week or two ago. I
Speaker 3: think I think it was I think it was gmart people,
Speaker 3: so like you kind of know what you're getting into
Speaker 3: wars and Housemark the end like some Vampire Survivors.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's got a lot shooter.
Speaker 3: The gathering experience experience like Glints whatever they call the
Speaker 3: next Glimmer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is the game that once this is all done,
Speaker 1: you guys going to Mark like that is the game
Speaker 1: I can't wait to get back to. Yeah. I love
Speaker 1: that game. All right, So that is well, I guess
Speaker 1: all right, I'm sorry. Next category is most thinky game.
Speaker 1: That he's going to announce the winner. That's what I was. Oh,
Speaker 1: I already did denounce it. I hit my hammer. Remember
Speaker 1: you're your honor Yes, I apologize, like you.
Speaker 3: Wait, can you honorably? Can you hold the like the
Speaker 3: what is the thing you hit? You hold that and
Speaker 3: then hit that in the air as long as it's
Speaker 3: on the table.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like honorably. It's not getting a lot of cow
Speaker 1: and I'm not getting a lot of ground. You know.
Speaker 1: That's good. Oh, that was that's why I needed. That's
Speaker 1: the good stuff. If it peaked that, it's fine. I'll
Speaker 1: be I'll be light.
Speaker 3: Next category is most thinky game of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: No, these are blueprints Monster Train.
Speaker 4: Two, Expedition thirty three, Bionic Bay.
Speaker 3: Is this seat taken seance of Blake manor Lego Voyagers
Speaker 3: the Altars? I would like to offer up. I do
Speaker 3: like this game a lot.
Speaker 1: What thing? What he's going to offer up? One of
Speaker 1: your picks? Just a little politician, I'm offering one of mine.
Speaker 1: I like crossing the Aisle.
Speaker 5: I like that one of yours.
Speaker 1: I put it in here. I think I played it first.
Speaker 1: One that wasn't his nomination Bigger person, this is my game,
Speaker 1: Mary put In. I want to offer up someone else's passion.
Speaker 1: I just want to say someone who loves this game.
Speaker 1: I think it's almost more dewy than it is. Thinky.
Speaker 1: I mean there are puzzles, but like it's a lot
Speaker 1: of platforming. It's it is a platforming heavy game. What
Speaker 1: the am I blanking on Biome?
Speaker 5: It's the one where it's all reminds me of Limbo.
Speaker 4: It's like a silhouette based game and you have to
Speaker 4: like avoid machines and if you make a mistake, you
Speaker 4: get like killed, you die a log probably learn but
Speaker 4: it is completely puzzle based. Will be like how do
Speaker 4: I get past these lasers? I guess I'll die six times.
Speaker 1: To your point, I think there's probably more puzzley game.
Speaker 1: Don't finish that.
Speaker 4: I'm here, but I think, like, I don't think it's
Speaker 4: going to be a top three, but I do think
Speaker 4: it is a it was worthy of being nominated, So
Speaker 4: it's gone.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone's gonna fight for it, and I
Speaker 1: think I know that, and it's one of mine. So
Speaker 1: I'm fining seeing I can.
Speaker 3: I'll I will offer up a game I suggested, say
Speaker 3: once a blake manor I think there's some cool stuff
Speaker 3: going on.
Speaker 1: I have not finished this. People recommend it.
Speaker 3: It's it's sort of in like the return of the
Speaker 3: Oberdin style vein of puzzle game, like eighteen sixties Ireland
Speaker 3: Castle Murder Mystery. However, there's large swaths of that from
Speaker 3: my like five hours I've played where you're not really
Speaker 3: doing any critical You're you've kind of stopped thinking a lot,
Speaker 3: and you're just trying to find what the next thing
Speaker 3: you're supposed to do is, which again, if it's it's
Speaker 3: a game where you're supposed to be exploring this castle,
Speaker 3: I think it works in that context. But within the
Speaker 3: context of this category, I think I would say we
Speaker 3: can cut it.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna toss out, is this ce take in total
Speaker 4: puzzle game?
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was that hard. It's not how
Speaker 1: hard it is though, I mean to me that is
Speaker 1: it's a lodge. It's purely a logic game, so like
Speaker 1: I would not cut that before, like, for instance, something
Speaker 1: like Expedition thirty three, I think is the Seed Taken
Speaker 1: is a much thinkier game than Expedition thirty three. I mean,
Speaker 1: sure you have there the picto system in the loss.
Speaker 5: We should cut both of.
Speaker 4: Them, yeah, because I don't think they're exemplary of this category.
Speaker 3: Clear Obsciar is gonna come up throughout the entire night
Speaker 3: in many categories. But I also think there's a large
Speaker 3: stretches of that game where like you can get away
Speaker 3: with having the same kind of for like, yeah, thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: I didn't think about it much at all.
Speaker 4: I think they're in the same category of like they're
Speaker 4: not gonna make it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, like before we cut that, I was gonna
Speaker 3: throw out Lego Voyagers because I think I was the
Speaker 3: one who added that that is a thinky puzzle game,
Speaker 3: but I feel like more of it is based around
Speaker 3: puzzle platforming and working together cooperatively. So I think that
Speaker 3: one and I'm the only who played it, so I
Speaker 3: think that's the one pretty safe to cut.
Speaker 1: That's very big, your honor.
Speaker 3: That's a very big taken kind of like puzzle game
Speaker 3: meets cozy game in a really nice way. I think
Speaker 3: it's a fun game, but like I also, yeah, I
Speaker 3: don't know that that. I would also say we could
Speaker 3: cut is the seat taken? And I was just gonna
Speaker 3: cut them.
Speaker 4: Because I don't think that they're the most exemplary if
Speaker 4: we know they're not going to make it, Like we
Speaker 4: know they're not going to make it, I'd like to
Speaker 4: hear arguments for the Altars.
Speaker 3: Was I the only one who played the Altars? The
Speaker 3: Altars was too thinky for me. I fell off. It's
Speaker 3: very thinky. I feel like it's Mike's kind of game,
Speaker 3: like Laurin lays her Eyes, which I have definitely just
Speaker 3: sayed kind of thinky because Alters is very resource management
Speaker 3: heavy and you've got a time crunch and that.
Speaker 1: Is too stressful for me. But I had to think
Speaker 1: a lot too much, not the thinking I like doing.
Speaker 1: So I stopped a good game. But that's fine.
Speaker 3: I think I think we can cut that. We have
Speaker 3: our top three. We've got our top three. They are blueprints,
Speaker 3: Monster Train and Eh.
Speaker 1: I think these are a strong throw. We haven't really
Speaker 1: mentioned Monster Train two, but it is a it's a
Speaker 1: really great just kind of a card battler. It's a
Speaker 1: it's a rogue light in the ban of a slave
Speaker 1: the Spire. If you haven't played it, it's just like
Speaker 1: multi tiered train. I don't need to go into the
Speaker 1: whole extlanation of the game. But basically it's a lot
Speaker 1: of thinking.
Speaker 3: Theory, crafting some really cool synergies between cards, and like
Speaker 3: deciding what to throw out, what to keep, where to
Speaker 3: position them, how you can exploit it. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 3: fucking incredible game. High up my list, it's Thinky. I
Speaker 3: will say, there's sometimes you can get to a point
Speaker 3: where you've just set up your factions so well that
Speaker 3: you need to stop, but I guess you still had
Speaker 3: to think pretty critically about the mechanics to get there.
Speaker 3: So I'd say if it wasn't for Blueprints, that would
Speaker 3: be my front runner here. Blueprints, though, is like.
Speaker 1: Blueprints is like one of the things I.
Speaker 3: Think Blueprint is really thinky and I absolutely love that game,
Speaker 3: and I'll be bringing up every chance I can. I
Speaker 3: think there are stretches though, early on, where there's some
Speaker 3: parts in that game where it's absolutely genius and like
Speaker 3: completely recontextualizing certain kinds of rooms and resources and like
Speaker 3: we can like it's to the point where we can
Speaker 3: kind of like spoilery right now, I'm not going to
Speaker 3: spoil Blueprints, but I'm saying, like there's there's parts where
Speaker 3: you realize it's not just the mansion that you're rebuilding,
Speaker 3: and there's a lot more going on in this.
Speaker 1: There's layers upon layers upon layers of even like the thinking.
Speaker 1: There's the initial thing where it's like, oh, just get
Speaker 1: to this room, and there's enough thinking involved for that.
Speaker 1: But then it's like, if you want to go beyond
Speaker 1: that and beyond credits and stuff like that, there's just
Speaker 1: the amount of you have to be like reading books
Speaker 1: about the lore of a kingdom and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: Yes, and the water and the steam systems and the
Speaker 4: art on the walls.
Speaker 5: Everything is also a puzzle.
Speaker 4: And I think that in itself shows the layers of
Speaker 4: thoughtfulness in every space. There are rooms that have puzzles
Speaker 4: in it that you don't know about until another twenty
Speaker 4: hours in, and that is very special.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm gonna throw something out there though.
Speaker 3: Mary, when we were playing Ooh, you had a moment
Speaker 3: and you had said, I hate it when a puzzle,
Speaker 3: when you know the answer to a puzzle game or
Speaker 3: to a puzzle and you can't actually do it.
Speaker 1: And that's my.
Speaker 3: Core issue with Blueprints is I you know the solution
Speaker 3: to a puzzle, but you are so reliant. I mean,
Speaker 3: you can manipulate it at some point, but that RNG
Speaker 3: is such a progress blocker, and I know you get
Speaker 3: to a point where, like there are so many puzzles
Speaker 3: happening at once that you can pursue different ones. But
Speaker 3: I would say early on, in particular, I found the
Speaker 3: puzzling very unsatisfying because of that.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it shouldn't be the.
Speaker 3: Pick, because I think it is, but but for me
Speaker 3: that I think the rogue Light stuff kind of not.
Speaker 3: It feels the it gets in the way of the puzzling,
Speaker 3: the thinkiness. In my opinion, yeah, because I feel like
Speaker 3: the most I think I liked Blueprints the most in
Speaker 3: like the mid game, when the puzzle aspects and the
Speaker 3: rogue Light aspects were matching up in the most compelling way.
Speaker 3: Early on, it's like, I want this to be more
Speaker 3: of a rogue Light and I was just trying to
Speaker 3: figure out what the hell all these things were foreign
Speaker 3: to Mary's points, Like, I think the game is absolutely
Speaker 3: brilliant in recontextualizing so much to the point where you
Speaker 3: didn't even realize things were puzzles, like I'll have the
Speaker 3: Witness from twenty seventeen or whatever it was. Later in Blueprints,
Speaker 3: I agree when it became way more of a puzzle,
Speaker 3: I feel like the rouge light elements were kind of getting.
Speaker 1: In the way. Well, okay, I think we're onto some
Speaker 1: interesting stuff here because I think everything you're saying is
Speaker 1: right about Blueprints. One we haven't really talked about much
Speaker 1: is ooh, and that was the one Jake has played.
Speaker 1: And just you know, we had like an hour and
Speaker 1: a half or so this afternoon we half of it.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, we could actually kind of check this out.
Speaker 1: I watched Mary play for a while. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: like it seems like a very pure think ye game.
Speaker 4: I think it's pure think Ye. And I know you
Speaker 4: have a lot to say about it. But because it's
Speaker 4: so fresh in my head because I played it to
Speaker 4: day for about two hours since Bias every sincy.
Speaker 1: Bias, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 5: This game is so interesting.
Speaker 4: Because I would come across spaces that I couldn't get
Speaker 4: past and I was like, Oh, this must be a Metroidvania.
Speaker 5: We're all get a skill later, and you said maybe.
Speaker 4: And I kept playing the game and I learned how
Speaker 4: to do things. My character didn't get any stronger or better,
Speaker 4: and I realized that I was actually able to solve
Speaker 4: puzzles from.
Speaker 1: The very beginning of the game. I just didn't know
Speaker 1: how it is the second bomb. But yes, other than that.
Speaker 4: You can be in a space maybe like let's say
Speaker 4: there's like a gap and you're like, you know, there's
Speaker 4: like spikes, and you're like, oh, I guess I can't
Speaker 4: get past here.
Speaker 1: I'll come back. You could. You can do it. That's
Speaker 1: how smart this is.
Speaker 3: I think that's the thing for me that I love
Speaker 3: about it is pretty much every new level you get to,
Speaker 3: there's two paths to take, and one path is seems
Speaker 3: impossible to solve you like, I don't know, and then
Speaker 3: you take the other path and it slowly teaches you
Speaker 3: those mechanics through simpler puzzles, so you can go back.
Speaker 3: So in theory, except for that second bomb you get,
Speaker 3: you can like mainline that game just by doing those puzzles.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be very interesting because, like I
Speaker 1: probably watched you play about a half hour of it today,
Speaker 1: and just in that half hour, you know, there were
Speaker 1: some like aha moments we had about oh, you can
Speaker 1: do this. I want to play this game now, And
Speaker 1: now that I know even just a couple of these mechanics. Now,
Speaker 1: just the knowledge is gonna make my play through a
Speaker 1: little different thing. Though, the highs of blue Prints I
Speaker 1: thought were s where do you feel like a genius?
Speaker 3: Well, like, well, i'd say always consistently, like for three hours,
Speaker 3: it is just like bang bang, yep, yep, I'm a genius.
Speaker 1: I'm getting through this.
Speaker 3: But like, man, when you push through a puzzle in
Speaker 3: Blueprints and just the whole manner opens up to you
Speaker 3: and you're like, oh my god, yeah yeah, if I
Speaker 3: can like get these two rooms next to each other,
Speaker 3: and if I'm able to get the garden over here
Speaker 3: and I have this, then I can do this.
Speaker 1: And it's like those moments really make me yeah again,
Speaker 1: most talking most thankye, not best thinkye. So you're right,
Speaker 1: and I think that's why something like Blueprints will probably
Speaker 1: go higher on like a top ten of the year.
Speaker 1: But is it more thinky than you.
Speaker 3: I would say, ooh, though I will point out Mary,
Speaker 3: there's a few times when you're like, I don't feel
Speaker 3: like this is how I'm supposed to solve this puzzle,
Speaker 3: Like you were kind of like inching across that poison
Speaker 3: lava pit like that was the only time other than that, yeah,
Speaker 3: I just I I work, Yeah, how about this, because ooh,
Speaker 3: I feel like the type of is like, all right,
Speaker 3: how am I going to use the abilities at my
Speaker 3: disposal to get across this thing or past this thing?
Speaker 1: Whereas blueprints it's most thinky the different types of the
Speaker 1: variety of thinking you have.
Speaker 3: To there's little residuval puzzles where there's like the black
Speaker 3: box is a lie, the white is truth, and then
Speaker 3: the other one.
Speaker 1: There's always one lie. Math puzzles. There's the math puzzles
Speaker 1: that the generators turn on the power, and then there's
Speaker 1: like but like again, one of my favorite moments in
Speaker 1: every video any video game I've ever played, as much
Speaker 1: up its ass as the Witness, is when you realize
Speaker 1: that there are actually puzzles in the world and you
Speaker 1: have not been seen. I never realized that game. Did
Speaker 1: not realize that.
Speaker 3: Like, even when you beat the game, it's just these
Speaker 3: puzzle stack stack, and stacking the blueprints is like, I'm
Speaker 3: thinking about this individual puzzle, and then you're thinking about
Speaker 3: how to manage resources, and then you're kind of mapping
Speaker 3: out the mansion in your head and making sure you
Speaker 3: can get back to a certain room with the footsteps
Speaker 3: you have left footsteps, slash energy, whatever you want to
Speaker 3: call it.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: The different layers of on which you have to think
Speaker 3: about Blueprints. I don't think I've seen that in a
Speaker 3: game before before.
Speaker 1: Aside from the witness lower lying the laser eyes, I
Speaker 1: haven't played the yet. I need to best game of
Speaker 1: the last ten years, and Outer wilds Outer Wild is
Speaker 1: up there with Blueprints in terms of games like you
Speaker 1: have to think about it on so many different levels
Speaker 1: that it's the fact that they kind of scale.
Speaker 4: The scale of thinky is is on another level with Blueprints.
Speaker 4: I was really impressed by you. I'm really glad I
Speaker 4: played it. I hope people listening to us were like,
Speaker 4: I've never even heard that game. This is a great
Speaker 4: puzzle game and you should play it.
Speaker 1: And it's super short. Blue Prilower is.
Speaker 4: The most challenging game of the year, that feels the
Speaker 4: most rewarding. It challenged me math, It challenged me spatially.
Speaker 4: It challenged me with linguistic puzzles. There are there are
Speaker 4: like hundreds of different types of puzzles in Blueprints, and
Speaker 4: I think it is the most thinky game of the year.
Speaker 1: I just don't.
Speaker 3: They could have cut the math, but you know, oh man,
Speaker 3: after like fifty times of doing that, I'm like, come on,
Speaker 3: another fucking symbol.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it does get harder each time. And what's really
Speaker 4: interesting is you probably got this. But there's one thing
Speaker 4: that you can unlock that will make the math puzzles
Speaker 4: really easy if you unlock it.
Speaker 1: Yes, I got something that made the logic puzzles easy,
Speaker 1: Like you choose right, so maybe you oh, because I
Speaker 1: was pretty good to the math and the logic ones,
Speaker 1: like we're always just kind of like it would stop
Speaker 1: my tracks.
Speaker 4: You can get two keys so that your box you
Speaker 4: would get a second attempt wrong, which is really interesting.
Speaker 4: So they had ways to make it easier, but those
Speaker 4: math puzzles were crazy to put in there.
Speaker 5: I think unless.
Speaker 4: Anyone's like, no, I got something to say about it,
Speaker 4: I think you probably all agreed.
Speaker 1: Blue Princes the right one, most thinking and like one
Speaker 1: of the best thinking games of all time. God, it's
Speaker 1: crazy crazy.
Speaker 3: Good low line laser eyes, but you know, not much
Speaker 3: his We didn't do the this year.
Speaker 1: The oh sorry good and yeah, the most.
Speaker 3: Thinky game of twenty twenty five is Sorry, Fire Escapes
Speaker 3: most thinking game of twenty twenty five is Blueprints.
Speaker 1: Yes, all right, very dainty.
Speaker 3: I don't want to blow out people's ears drums. I
Speaker 3: think I'm already gonna do it, though if Dan has
Speaker 3: no sure?
Speaker 1: Am I yelling Dan down a little?
Speaker 5: Every time we try and cut Donkey Kong Bonanza.
Speaker 1: He almost folks, what don't sound like that? Judge, Judge,
Speaker 1: you're wrong. I would not tell the judge he's wrong.
Speaker 1: He's delightful. He said you're wrong.
Speaker 5: You said you didn't say he was wrong.
Speaker 1: You said, I think that's crazy. It's not wrong crazy. Okay,
Speaker 1: Look he had like a party for that. I'm mad.
Speaker 1: Next category is most talking game of the year. Are Dispatch,
Speaker 1: Hades two, Kingdom Calm, Deliverance to Death, Stranding to Split Fiction, Huma,
Speaker 1: horse Racing. I'm not saying U Trails in the Sky
Speaker 1: first Chapter, Meddle of your Solid Delta, Snake Eater.
Speaker 3: Yeah, not to not to throw things off a little,
Speaker 3: but I was thinking. The game I've I've talked the
Speaker 3: most in is Our Creators. That is a very talky game.
Speaker 3: If you think.
Speaker 1: About I don't want to throw you talking is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, he's a letter of the law kind
Speaker 3: of guy. He's doing his job. He's just keeping everything fair.
Speaker 1: Judge.
Speaker 3: I think you're doing a great job job. Nominees. We've
Speaker 3: done just did that.
Speaker 1: Let's do him again for me? Okay, I uh, I
Speaker 1: don't like the idea of like Meddle Year because yes,
Speaker 1: it's talkies. Is one of the talkies series of all time.
Speaker 1: But this is just three It is a like word
Speaker 1: for word.
Speaker 3: Remake, you know, because you weren't like, I'm going to
Speaker 3: offer up one eye at it here.
Speaker 1: I mean I think I did add you know, but
Speaker 1: you didn't like make fanfare about it. I'm going to
Speaker 1: be a hero. There you go, and I would like
Speaker 1: to cut Meddle your solid delta same thank you. Yes,
Speaker 1: yes haities two. You can skip all that ship and
Speaker 1: just play the game. Yeah that's what I did. That's
Speaker 1: the way to go with that game. It is a
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, yeah. It was not a talkie game to me.
Speaker 1: Not to me, I was pressing a lot about Uma Matsume.
Speaker 1: I don't I haven't played this. I know it's the
Speaker 1: horse racing game, but how talky is that I think
Speaker 1: it is?
Speaker 4: I don't think it's Uh, it was not a game
Speaker 4: for me. So very clearly not the best talkie game.
Speaker 4: What I want to express is the amount of communication,
Speaker 4: because this is a game about understanding the nuances of
Speaker 4: the horse that you are trying to up level and
Speaker 4: grow takes an outrageous amount of dialogue. You are listening
Speaker 4: to these girls yap on and on and on about
Speaker 4: what they need.
Speaker 1: To make the horse race faster and faster faster.
Speaker 4: They will not be quiet. It is a very talky
Speaker 4: talkie game. But I don't I don't love this game
Speaker 4: so like, I'm not going to fight for it. I
Speaker 4: just want to let you guys know it is a
Speaker 4: tok city of these horse horse girls.
Speaker 1: They talk a lot. Oh god did they talk?
Speaker 3: Ques just just for for people, it is the best
Speaker 3: talkie game or the it is the most, but it means.
Speaker 1: Does it do we want it to be a good
Speaker 1: like game people like cors. I don't think it's like
Speaker 1: an honor to win this. I think it's just a
Speaker 1: statement effect. It can't be an honor, but not necessarily.
Speaker 3: But I would say if it's like a talkie game,
Speaker 3: but that talking is engaging and exciting, it can be.
Speaker 1: It can be preys good or bad.
Speaker 3: I would I would cut Death Straining two from this,
Speaker 3: I do. It's like the first game was very very talky.
Speaker 3: The second game it's not long before you're playing like
Speaker 3: a triple A open world game.
Speaker 1: It's like right away. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I also say there's long stretches that game where
Speaker 3: it's very solitary and you don't talk, you don't see anybody.
Speaker 3: There's more time the best moments in that game, or
Speaker 3: when it's long stretches when Kojima is kind of just like.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean in the same vein, then I would say
Speaker 3: Kingdom Come Deliverance too, probably shouldn't be on here. There's
Speaker 3: like a lot of cut scenes that front loads that story.
Speaker 3: But I feel like once you get into it, once
Speaker 3: you're exploring like it is and you are, you're fighting
Speaker 3: that world like you mentioned to be.
Speaker 1: You're fighting that world.
Speaker 3: Right when it kind of starts, I'm I know where
Speaker 3: I should be going because the places I'm not supposed
Speaker 3: to be I get my ass kicked.
Speaker 1: And that's very dewey to me.
Speaker 3: And like to Beyonca's point, like you can kind of
Speaker 3: pick a like a vocation almost in that game, Like
Speaker 3: she's saying she just spends all her time making potions
Speaker 3: like it's pretty complex. It is like interactive. I mean,
Speaker 3: you're still hitting, but it is I think I think
Speaker 3: it goes. Yeah. Did anyone play Dispatch? Absolutely little bit?
Speaker 1: I can.
Speaker 3: I played Dispatch played by the first episode. That game
Speaker 3: should stay because it is it is just talking. It
Speaker 3: is even more talking, which is Telltale games, like it is.
Speaker 3: Let me get this out now because I don't want
Speaker 3: to be talking about this the rest of the night.
Speaker 3: There's such a cool fucking kernel of a game in
Speaker 3: this game, and that you are literally just deciding where
Speaker 3: to dispatch, whether it be superheroes or like speck op
Speaker 3: squads across a city. Like that's in itself an amazing
Speaker 3: strategy game idea. And I feel like the fact that
Speaker 3: it's I came to it hoping there will be more
Speaker 3: of that, probably foolishly, because it's the X, It's the
Speaker 3: wolf among us devs, and that's those are like Telltale
Speaker 3: games are the talkiest things ever. I agree that you
Speaker 3: should stay because it's I was waiting through a lot
Speaker 3: of cut scenes and that's my fault for not knowing
Speaker 3: what it was.
Speaker 1: But it's Takias. Shit, what about splip Fiction. They talked
Speaker 1: way too fucking much in that game. But you're doing
Speaker 1: stuff while there are some like cut scenes of them
Speaker 1: just like.
Speaker 4: Dude, even when your pigs flying around, they're fucking talking
Speaker 4: to each other the.
Speaker 1: Whole time, the bad clips. And you know, I'm from
Speaker 1: the city and I don't know anything about pigs, and
Speaker 1: it's just like, shut up, my cigarettes. If I'm saying
Speaker 1: shut up in a game a lot, it's gotta be
Speaker 1: t They're not likable characters. It's like, yeah, okay, it's
Speaker 1: the most unwanted talk Tell me about Trails in the Sky.
Speaker 3: Trails in the Sky is a I think it's like
Speaker 3: a sixty eighty hour JRPG and there is just yeap, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's a good game.
Speaker 3: However, you sold me there is you know, it does
Speaker 3: that sin where like the first five hours are just
Speaker 3: like cut scene, you walk ten steps, cut scene you
Speaker 3: walk into there.
Speaker 1: Do you like it? Yes? I like it?
Speaker 4: Okay, then I'm gonna I'm gonna throw out use because
Speaker 4: I didn't like it. Like, I know, we're talking about
Speaker 4: the most talkie, but at this point these are all talkie.
Speaker 4: Shouldn't we get rid of ones that were like I
Speaker 4: didn't want to read all of this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to me, that's what that's what I was
Speaker 1: trying to say. I guess I worded it poorly.
Speaker 3: With split fiction, at least there is some good implementation
Speaker 3: of action and like there's some like the mechanics change
Speaker 3: pretty RC yeah, yeah, doing different compared to Dispatch, which
Speaker 3: you're literally just like it's you're interacting with other characters
Speaker 3: and it's it's it's almost like being on the bridge
Speaker 3: of the Normandy and that's the whole game. Oh god,
Speaker 3: I think there are oh you Dan dispatches like anathematic.
Speaker 1: They they told me I should play it for the
Speaker 1: Giant Bomb game. Of their discussions, it's like I'm going
Speaker 1: to do everyone a favor and not because I would
Speaker 1: be insufferable. Yeah yeah, the game made to make me
Speaker 1: oh yeah no. But like superheroes and talking and tell
Speaker 1: Tale great, all of my least favorite things in one game, Claire.
Speaker 3: I think some of the writings like actually really solid writing.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's what it's trying to do. I
Speaker 3: think it's a good game. It's it's never anything I
Speaker 3: would even try to get past people on this podcast,
Speaker 3: and that's why I didn't recommend you play it when
Speaker 3: I played it.
Speaker 1: But it's the talk should we just not have?
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess you've played Dispatch because I'm the
Speaker 3: only one the first episode that's it. It should stay
Speaker 3: then yes, yeah, I'm saying like because I didn't play
Speaker 3: Uma or Trousing the Sky.
Speaker 1: But I think for me, between Dispatch and split fiction.
Speaker 3: Describedume, I don't think we cut that either, because that
Speaker 3: sounds and their.
Speaker 1: Horse Girls no less as much as I don't like
Speaker 1: the talking and split fiction, there is a lot of
Speaker 1: really good Dewey stuff. It's a Dowey It's like there
Speaker 1: is stuff that gets my goat. It's like Disney Adults,
Speaker 1: horse Girls. And I don't sorry you were saying notch
Speaker 1: or great people. I love both of them. Yes, you
Speaker 1: describe both of them. I say we cut split fiction
Speaker 1: split fiction. I think, yeah, yes, that's what I was
Speaker 1: trying to convey. Were you poorly boy? It sounds like
Speaker 1: Dispatch of the Winner to me? I mean these definition
Speaker 1: I don't play any of these. I mean I haven't.
Speaker 3: Played anybody sides played all three of these. I Dispatch
Speaker 3: and Trailer I haven't played. And you played I've played.
Speaker 3: We're all pronouncing it differently to the weird horse girl.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I think for me it's got to be dispatcher.
Speaker 3: What Mary's Do you even like race? Did they actually do?
Speaker 1: Yeah? But do you do anything? Or do they just
Speaker 1: race on? It's an auto? I honestly think might be
Speaker 1: the just from what I hear about it.
Speaker 5: Because at least run Fast.
Speaker 3: Dispatch, you're actually sort of playing where you're like sending
Speaker 3: people out and I love that part, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: I want the game to be this, but that doesn't matter.
Speaker 4: So like the only thing you do is read about
Speaker 4: the horses and then you level them up on things
Speaker 4: that they need, like maybe one of them is too shy,
Speaker 4: and it's like, okay, I'm gonna work on your like,
Speaker 4: you know, your self esteem.
Speaker 1: You need to be outgoing to win races.
Speaker 5: Well, you need to have guts.
Speaker 4: And then like there's other ones and you get carrots
Speaker 4: and the you know, the carrots are a currency. The
Speaker 4: carrots are their money. You get them to be stronger,
Speaker 4: but they also need endurance. If you make them too strong,
Speaker 4: then maybe they like run out of the gate really fast,
Speaker 4: but then they.
Speaker 1: Don't win because they run out of stamina.
Speaker 4: So's it's all about knowing all of the logistics of
Speaker 4: the game and picking the right things.
Speaker 5: Did I love it?
Speaker 1: No? Did it Talk Forever?
Speaker 3: Yes, that's fine by me if that's it, because like
Speaker 3: Dispatch had these, Dispatch has stretches where you're actually sort
Speaker 3: of doing stuff and strategizing. Also, like I would watch
Speaker 3: a three hour Netflix show of a single camera on
Speaker 3: Dan while we explain games like this to him, it's.
Speaker 1: Just we're doomed as an industry popular are we are?
Speaker 1: We agreed?
Speaker 3: Then, um Racing Ship is the Why is that? Is
Speaker 3: that what it's called? No?
Speaker 1: One's the weird Horse perfect game? Yeah? Okay? Is it? Well,
Speaker 1: it's our winner, sure Game twenty twenty five, Mass Horse
Speaker 1: Racing Ship. All right? Oh a favorite? All right? Next
Speaker 1: up is Worst Title of the Year. The nominees are
Speaker 1: Dreamy Syrup, bad Geez Death, Stranding, Two on the.
Speaker 3: Beach, Tayotama, Kissed On My Deity, Tainted Grail, The Fall
Speaker 3: of Avalon.
Speaker 1: That's fucking cool, Okay, I'll get to.
Speaker 6: It, Fantasy Life, I, The Girl who Steals Time, Puela
Speaker 6: Maggie Modica, Magica, Maggia Egg.
Speaker 1: Start Over, The colon, punctuation.
Speaker 3: Important question is this what? What language is this game?
Speaker 1: I assumed it was just weird magic bullshit. I assumed
Speaker 1: this was like not a natural language.
Speaker 3: It's the first word looks Spanish like play yeah, does
Speaker 3: anybody know? I think it's Jepanese, Twela, Maji, motoca, magica,
Speaker 3: Maggi et cetera.
Speaker 1: Uh, Kirby and The Forgotten Land m Dash Nintendo's Switch
Speaker 1: to edition, plus Star Crossed World.
Speaker 4: The Hungry Lamb Colon, Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty.
Speaker 1: Dynamic Cord featuring.
Speaker 3: Bracket reve Parfe, Bracket and Bracket Remaster Edition.
Speaker 1: Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in
Speaker 1: a dungeon? Full end of water and Light?
Speaker 4: One of my favorite categories we do every year. There's
Speaker 4: some real trash here. I have to say. While I'm
Speaker 4: glad that you put them on because I like reading them,
Speaker 4: I think bad cheese.
Speaker 1: Isn't that bad? Actually? Geez? I'm very curious what kind
Speaker 1: of game it is. I want to know about a
Speaker 1: break dreamy syrup, like, yeah, what what the fuck is
Speaker 1: going on? Is that a person? It could be anything? Well.
Speaker 3: I put Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon because I
Speaker 3: thought that was the most generic fantasy game ever.
Speaker 1: It might seem to like it, but I could only
Speaker 1: hear it in like Conan O'Brien's nerd voice. I can
Speaker 1: Tainted Grail the Fall of avalon the nerdiest possible game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I mean I can keep it on here.
Speaker 3: But Dreamy Syrup, I'm so curious what it is. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it makes me want to know, Like, go check the game.
Speaker 4: Out, Dreamy Syrup should go. It's a it's a decent name.
Speaker 4: Is it a good game?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: I'll offer up my nomination earlier today, which is death
Speaker 3: Straining two on the Beach. As a diehard fan of
Speaker 3: that series, I like the first game a bit more,
Speaker 3: but I still love to.
Speaker 4: It.
Speaker 1: I still just think death Stranding is a stupid name,
Speaker 1: but like it kind of is Meddle your solid when
Speaker 1: you think about it, I know, mid your Solid's got
Speaker 1: some like fucking metal gear solid sounds cool. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean anything.
Speaker 5: I don't think death Stranding actually, like.
Speaker 3: You saw a few things in a room, the Naked done.
Speaker 1: Miss Cherry Cherry Rosevelt, fat chowing spaghetti.
Speaker 3: I would say we could take dest Ranting two on
Speaker 3: the Beach out at least it's like it evokes some
Speaker 3: sort of mystery.
Speaker 1: Hmm. Well, since we didn't even know, maybe this is
Speaker 1: just another language. I think puela, magic, modoica, magicamagia, et ceterra.
Speaker 1: It's kind of fun to say. Actually, yeah, maybe we
Speaker 1: just take that off that it's a bit of a
Speaker 1: tongue twister, and I just like, don't.
Speaker 3: I don't want to have to announce that as the winner. Yeah,
Speaker 3: let's kind it. Yeah, uh Mary, what's the old Fantasy Life?
Speaker 1: Oh? I put that one? Why is there an eye
Speaker 1: in there? Case? I don't know what's a d S
Speaker 1: I wear game? It's I was doing my Roman bunch
Speaker 1: of them? Is it so Fantasy one and Rock? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I put it in there because I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't know what the eye is all about?
Speaker 1: Put it in there. I thought you put this on
Speaker 1: something else, a cozy game or something. I put it
Speaker 1: on just Jake both times? Okay, Yeah, what's up with that?
Speaker 3: I I don't know Fantasy Life if I didn't finish it,
Speaker 3: So maybe if I finished it, they would have explained
Speaker 3: the eye. Oh wait, actually, if we're doing that, put
Speaker 3: Silent Hill f on here.
Speaker 1: Nobody knows.
Speaker 3: They didn't know if you if you google it or
Speaker 3: talk to anybody, they cannot figure out what it's for.
Speaker 3: I would no, I don't think Silent hillf should be
Speaker 3: on here, but I think this because also the girl
Speaker 3: who steals time?
Speaker 1: What does that mean? That sounds cool? Time? You can't
Speaker 1: can't fight City Hall, you can't travel in the Late
Speaker 1: Ning Dynasty anymore. I would hope you can't try to
Speaker 1: pick up a girl in a dungeon. Okay, we're just
Speaker 1: talking like weird choices. As far as punctuation and capitalization stuff,
Speaker 1: I think dynamic chord feature wherever you parpa whatever is
Speaker 1: there's way more egregious stuff going on there than just
Speaker 1: a lowercase I I agree. Yeah, get rid of fantasy life.
Speaker 1: It's not that bad. God.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now that you say it, tainted Gral the Fall
Speaker 3: of Vavalin really is just generic, like you put you
Speaker 3: put name a fantasy video game into chatchipt.
Speaker 1: Like NCIS had an episode about a video game that
Speaker 1: doesn't exist, and they just thought that sounded like a
Speaker 1: video game. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I also think, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna go
Speaker 4: after the Hungry Lamb.
Speaker 1: That in itself not bad. Yes, they added too much,
Speaker 1: but the Hungry Lamb is here. Yeah, yeah, I'm kind
Speaker 1: of curious.
Speaker 3: I want to know what the Hungry Lamb is doing
Speaker 3: while traveling in the late Ming dynasty. Kind of like
Speaker 3: this pacificity of the late Ming Dynasty right and evokes
Speaker 3: an image.
Speaker 1: I loves cut it. Hum. Yeah, I think we should
Speaker 1: now keep Kirby because I do think Jake, you were
Speaker 1: mentioning too like every like Nintendo Switch to itition now
Speaker 1: has it plastered on the title. This is just an
Speaker 1: extremely egregious example of Nintendo being very specific with their
Speaker 1: type of stuff. Well yeah, like, also, I don't if
Speaker 1: a game title is hard to parse, what the fuck
Speaker 1: I'm about to buy? I think that makes it terrible.
Speaker 3: Like, Okay, if it was just Kirby in the Forgotten
Speaker 3: Land Nintendo Switch to Edition, I get it. But the
Speaker 3: fact that Starcross World is listed after the Nintendo Switch
Speaker 3: two Edition, I'm like, wait a minute, is this not a.
Speaker 1: Switch to Edition? Like what is what? And I get
Speaker 1: that it's a DLC. It's just like, yeah, if you
Speaker 1: weren't like following the game and it says that.
Speaker 3: Tennis Switch to Edition and then be like DLC included
Speaker 3: or something I don't like. That's that's almost like the
Speaker 3: Grand Theft Auto Trilogy with the M dash in the title.
Speaker 1: That's just a mistake to do that. I don't like it.
Speaker 1: I don't like this. These are all losers.
Speaker 4: But I will say, like, is it wrong to try
Speaker 4: and pick up girls in a dungeon? You wouldn't know
Speaker 4: that's a game? In a million years? Who names their
Speaker 4: game as.
Speaker 1: A question And I wrote this down so it's it's
Speaker 1: colon full Land of water and light now full land.
Speaker 1: There are three l's in a row there. That is
Speaker 1: not a typo on my part. I look at that
Speaker 1: several times. It's fall. The question mark colon also does
Speaker 1: not right before his question mark colon? And why are
Speaker 1: we picking up girls in a dungeon? I don't like
Speaker 1: anything going on in this title. What about uh to
Speaker 1: my Kiss?
Speaker 5: Because that's so fucked up on my Deity?
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I'm I'm lowing up my VP and
Speaker 1: and I'm googling that game. I'm going into private mode
Speaker 1: and I'm checking out kiss on my Deity. Do not
Speaker 1: google the search kiss on my Deity. We're not five here.
Speaker 1: Let's just say I'm all out loud again, Let's just
Speaker 1: got field. Let's do different ones, like who said Tatoyama
Speaker 1: last time? Okay, then I'll start with Okay, tot tay
Speaker 1: you Tama, kiss on my deity.
Speaker 2: Tainted Grail, the Fall of Avalon gets worse, I'm here God,
Speaker 2: Kirby and the Forgotten Land and dashing Nintendo switch to
Speaker 2: a plus Star Cross World.
Speaker 1: Exhausting.
Speaker 3: That's the worst one in one breath, That's that's the
Speaker 3: winner in my opinion. Dynamic Card featuring Bracket reve Parfe
Speaker 3: and Bracket Remaster edition.
Speaker 1: Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in
Speaker 1: a dungeon? Question Mark Colon, Flan of Water and Light.
Speaker 3: I really really hate the construction of Kirby and the
Speaker 3: Forgotten Land. It's exhausting to even read without saying out
Speaker 3: loud at least is it wrong to try to pick
Speaker 3: up girls in a dungeon? I like, I get the
Speaker 3: the person's point of view, like sentence itself is like
Speaker 3: I don't like what it's even like like.
Speaker 1: Kirby's just a bunch of Nintendo bullshit? Is it wrong
Speaker 1: to try to pick up girls in the dungeons? Like?
Speaker 1: I super don't want to play that game? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that's the worst type. You know it's a game
Speaker 1: because you're on like Steam or the shirt.
Speaker 3: Well, we got to cut some, We've got ta Yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: that's a cool table prompt curiosity at least tainted. Grail
Speaker 3: is really bad. Yeah, Like as soon as you said
Speaker 3: the Conan thing, I'm like, yeah, it's something he would
Speaker 3: make fun of Aaron for playing.
Speaker 1: What do we cut here? These are all terrible. So again,
Speaker 1: if you take out all the other crap, dynamic cord
Speaker 1: not so bad. Right, it's the featuring reve Favor remaster.
Speaker 1: You know what it says, remastered edition. That's probably just
Speaker 1: a remake of a shorter title. So maybe we just
Speaker 1: take that one out because remaster edition. I also know
Speaker 1: the brasketing. We should add this to best remake remaster exactly. No.
Speaker 3: Brackets also are often, like almost always a translation thing.
Speaker 3: It's not for English speakers always a lot of these
Speaker 3: are transl thanks down to three now, granted Grail the
Speaker 3: fall of Apple avalon Kirby in the I'm not saying
Speaker 3: it again.
Speaker 1: Is it wrong? It's exhausting Grail. So I announced this,
Speaker 1: I don't have to say to it. I think, do.
Speaker 4: You know how like sometimes when we do I forgot
Speaker 4: that came out this year. The one that wins is
Speaker 4: the one we forgot to put on the nominee.
Speaker 1: I think if someone can't get through it, that is
Speaker 1: the worst type. I do think Kirby wins this. I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, the.
Speaker 3: Worst title of the year is Kirby in the Forgotten
Speaker 3: Land m Dash Nintendo Switch to Edition plus Star Cross World.
Speaker 1: That's a bad title. I ain't saying all that.
Speaker 3: All right, Okay, this is a new category that we're
Speaker 3: going to like this best form of attack. We need
Speaker 3: to discuss this, Yeah, do we want to tell people like? So,
Speaker 3: we initially had best mechanic as a big category.
Speaker 1: And then we actually broke it up into this and
Speaker 1: the next category. We were describing different things here.
Speaker 4: I think we had to be more specific because we
Speaker 4: found that a lot of times we were saying something
Speaker 4: was great mechanically, what we were actually talking about was
Speaker 4: a very specific type of attack that we enjoyed doing.
Speaker 4: And so we decided to split them and this is
Speaker 4: the best form of attack. Specifically, best is like what
Speaker 4: is the best way.
Speaker 1: To It's like a satisfying damage, Yeah, satisfying offense. Nice
Speaker 1: way to put it all right, let's go. Nominis are
Speaker 1: Soap in Powerwatch Simulator two, Haiti's two mech.
Speaker 7: Suit, the Yo Yo in Pipistrello, The Shield and Doom,
Speaker 7: The Dark Ages, Ghost of Yote, Chain Assassinations, the Strike,
Speaker 7: Attack in Sectory, Pizza Doo in Death Straating two.
Speaker 1: And balls from the Back in What in ball Pit
Speaker 1: Ball x Pit. Hmm.
Speaker 4: I don't know if soap is truly like the craziest form.
Speaker 1: Of attack you were taking offense on dirt.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm not saying it's not attack that would make
Speaker 4: it not a nominee and stupid.
Speaker 1: Yeah it's yeah. I don't know if it's gonna win here,
Speaker 1: but it is like I was watching the way Bank
Speaker 1: plays this game, and she like covers the entire object
Speaker 1: in soap before she even turns on a powerwasher, and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh man, that's it's like weakening a boss
Speaker 1: before you attack it. You know. It's it's cool. And
Speaker 1: it did add that like there was soap in the original,
Speaker 1: but it was like you had to buy it and
Speaker 1: it was finite and stuff like this and this, Like
Speaker 1: I like the soap better in Powerwash Simulator too.
Speaker 4: I think an improvement of powerwashm one and that's cool
Speaker 4: and definitely worthy of a NOOM.
Speaker 5: I don't think it's gonna be the best.
Speaker 1: I agree we can cut it, so we're cutting. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So uh, I was gonna say ghosts of Yotae chain assassinations.
Speaker 3: I think these are cool, but it's it's pretty much
Speaker 3: the same one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say specifically for me, that's fair.
Speaker 3: It doesn't get like way less cool each time, but
Speaker 3: it is like I wish there was one other animation.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm happy every time I see it when it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: those guys are close enough and I leveled it up
Speaker 1: so it's like, yeah, I can do like three of them.
Speaker 1: Like that's awful to me.
Speaker 3: The thing, the ghost of Yota thing that sets apart,
Speaker 3: I probably should have nominated this.
Speaker 1: It's doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: I like when the wolf is involved in the ota
Speaker 3: because then the wolf is actually helping you assassinate. But
Speaker 3: I else, I agree, there's cooler stuff here.
Speaker 1: We can got it, okay.
Speaker 3: Haiti's two mech suit specifically, that's that's almost less a
Speaker 3: form of attack and more suite of attacks.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean there's like weapons, so it's actually get
Speaker 1: this in The last like weapon you unlock is the
Speaker 1: mechs Suit. Basically, so you're right, though it is a
Speaker 1: sweet it's a punch, it's you know, the missiles and stuff.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you're right, there's an assortment of attacks. Let's
Speaker 1: keep that for now. The yo Yo. I think you
Speaker 1: might have played the most pipistrello.
Speaker 4: Let's discuss the yo Yoah wait, yes, So the reason
Speaker 4: I like it is because it has like eight different functions.
Speaker 4: This is a metroidvana where the yoyo improves over time.
Speaker 5: It ends up being something that you.
Speaker 4: Can dog walk across water, it becomes something that you
Speaker 4: can spin around. There's like a bunch of different use
Speaker 4: cases for this yoyo at the end. It makes it
Speaker 4: an extremely powerful tool, and I just think it's a
Speaker 4: really neat how they were able to expand on a
Speaker 4: yo yo in so many ways. You can float, you
Speaker 4: can fly, you can stab, you can do a surrounding attack.
Speaker 1: You can do a lot with this yo Yo. By
Speaker 1: the end of the game, I would put it with
Speaker 1: the mech Suit.
Speaker 5: As as you scale your.
Speaker 4: Character build, this becomes like the ultimate mecha that everyone
Speaker 4: would talk about, and it's it's just a yo yo
Speaker 4: I think it's really neat how they imagined all of
Speaker 4: these things that you could do with a toy that
Speaker 4: we've all had for our whole lives.
Speaker 1: But man, they use it as like such a cool
Speaker 1: weapon in this game. I think that's worth keeping. I
Speaker 1: agree that's cool. They get so much versatility out of
Speaker 1: one item.
Speaker 5: It's a very versatile weapon.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be a hero again. You know, pizza
Speaker 1: dough is all right, weizza do. Sorry, it's funny. Now
Speaker 1: you don't need to say it. We'll cut it. I
Speaker 1: had very thoughtful things to say. All right, continue tell
Speaker 1: them what it is for anybody who there's a pizza
Speaker 1: chef that you fight and as you bring stuff to him,
Speaker 1: he will get into the pizza chef. Later he teaches
Speaker 1: you pizza dough, which is like, you know, different time.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like a psycho crusher, like a like
Speaker 1: a spin attack thing or a roundhouse kick with pizza
Speaker 1: dough and stuff. The thing is, it's funny. I think
Speaker 1: it's funny that it's in there. It's very destranding. It's
Speaker 1: not something that's like I think this category should be like,
Speaker 1: oh this feels good to do. I like like It's
Speaker 1: not like, oh I unlocked pizza dough now I'm playing
Speaker 1: this game totally different. It's just it's a funny gimmick. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I think it's a ghiro. I think I I
Speaker 1: cut it. Yes, it's a gimmicky. I think I can't.
Speaker 4: I think it was me who put the Shield is Doom.
Speaker 4: Somebody else can step in if it was them, but I.
Speaker 1: Think it was. You were talking about Doom and uh,
Speaker 1: yeah it was shield.
Speaker 4: The shield is sick because obviously people it's defensive, but
Speaker 4: you can also hurl it at enemies and kill them
Speaker 4: in the perry fun.
Speaker 1: It's fun to perry in Doom. I think that they
Speaker 1: really can. I is it.
Speaker 3: The No, I'm so sorry. I couldn't continue. I have
Speaker 3: something else that I mean. I was gonna say, like,
Speaker 3: I am like the fucking skull gun that you're crushing
Speaker 3: a that's maybe the coolest gun in any shooter ever,
Speaker 3: when you're putting skulls into a thing and it's grinding them, you.
Speaker 1: Shooting out the awesome. I think Shield difficult too.
Speaker 4: When I was reading Shield, I was thinking, like, man,
Speaker 4: that that bone shark is so cool.
Speaker 1: I think it's more cool visually than mechanically, and it
Speaker 1: used to be mechanic.
Speaker 5: So I think going.
Speaker 4: Back to yeah, your point, the reason I putshield is
Speaker 4: because originally this was mechanic and mechanically a shield that
Speaker 4: does a shit ton of damage, it's innovative. It's interesting
Speaker 4: to me, and we can like discuss this. I think
Speaker 4: this is going to come up. Best form of attack
Speaker 4: also means the evolution of attack if it's something I've
Speaker 4: seen before that's not as interesting.
Speaker 1: To me, and it was something that is just like
Speaker 1: new to like, you know, if you played Doom twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen or Doom Eternal, it kind of changes up the
Speaker 1: whole way combat works in a Doom game because like
Speaker 1: it becomes more of a very focused thing and it's
Speaker 1: very satisfying. Like it's kind it's got a bit of
Speaker 1: a generous window. It's not like a Bloodborne type thing
Speaker 1: where it's like you gotta be framed perfect. It's like
Speaker 1: you green think you hit it roughly in that window,
Speaker 1: you're gonna do a cool thing and perry back and
Speaker 1: that's all the shield.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, you like heat up those metal shields
Speaker 3: and then you throw it and then everything blows up.
Speaker 1: Yah as hell.
Speaker 5: Shield's sick, and I think it. I think it has
Speaker 5: a point to stay here.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say something risky like balls from the back.
Speaker 1: It's funny to say I didn't nominate this. I think
Speaker 1: we did because we thought it was funny to.
Speaker 3: Say I didn't say that. Okay, No, I have a
Speaker 3: point against that. For some characters in that game, balls
Speaker 3: from the back do not work. There are certain no,
Speaker 3: I know the character builds in that game. There are
Speaker 3: a lot of characters. You fuck yourself if you get
Speaker 3: the ball from the back upgrade. There's one character. There's
Speaker 3: one character where the balls from the back that's their default,
Speaker 3: but you want to build on that by getting the
Speaker 3: like oh you can you go through the backs of enemies,
Speaker 3: but you don't go through the front.
Speaker 1: Like it doesn't always work all that well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, balls from the front is a better tactic most
Speaker 4: of the time in that game.
Speaker 3: M all Rightye yeah, I think I mentioned ball expit.
Speaker 1: I was like, there's a few in there, and then
Speaker 1: I think someone else mentioned I think we can cut
Speaker 1: the Mex suit. I think I think the fact that
Speaker 1: it is kind of like I guess you could argue
Speaker 1: that the Shield and Doom is kind of a suite
Speaker 1: of abilities and stuff too, But I think that is
Speaker 1: a better version of this than the Mex The Mex
Speaker 1: Suit is awesome. Yeah, the shield is more interesting as
Speaker 1: cool as the Mex Suit is, It's it's still not
Speaker 1: my go to when I play using the acts of
Speaker 1: the Daggers. You know, like me too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I did the mech suit once and I'm like
Speaker 3: this and then I never touched it again.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I'm I'm a I'm a torch guy. So
Speaker 1: we're down to three with out of the Yoyo and Pipistrello,
Speaker 1: the Shield and Doom, the Dark Ages and the Strike
Speaker 1: Attack and Sectory, which we have not talked about. So
Speaker 1: this is like such a critical part of sectory where
Speaker 1: it's like it is basically any of the Triggers or
Speaker 1: bumpers will do this, and it's just the way that
Speaker 1: like whenever there's a power up or something on the field,
Speaker 1: that is the way you dash into it and it
Speaker 1: does this shockwave. It is offense and its defense because
Speaker 1: when you dash in, it does the shockwave that kills
Speaker 1: a bunch of things. But it's also you're like, oh fuck,
Speaker 1: get out of jail free card thing when you're like
Speaker 1: backed into a corner and you're like, fuck you, you've
Speaker 1: got like invincibility frames you go through it. It's also
Speaker 1: your way of getting a ton of like score and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, getting this strike combo.
Speaker 3: If you see clumps of it, even if you're not
Speaker 3: trying to escape something, if you see a huge clump
Speaker 3: of enemies, I go right to them with that because
Speaker 3: then it just pops them all.
Speaker 1: It's very satisfying and it is just so core to like,
Speaker 1: if you've played it, it text a little bit to
Speaker 1: kind of get what's going on in sectory, but once
Speaker 1: you kind of get it, you realize that, like the
Speaker 1: strike attack is kind of like that is the core
Speaker 1: of what you're doing here, is timing that right.
Speaker 4: It's not my main You told me it was like
Speaker 4: the main way that you play, and I think that's
Speaker 4: really cool that, like you found something that works really
Speaker 4: well for you.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm really into the missiles is the way missiles
Speaker 1: are mine.
Speaker 4: Because it's an auto and I'm not saying it's it's
Speaker 4: not important. I think the strike attack is important, but
Speaker 4: to me, it is not core to how I play.
Speaker 4: And I will also add I don't think it's super
Speaker 4: innovative that there's a dash attack.
Speaker 1: No, I think that's the thing. It's like, it's not
Speaker 1: just a dash attack. I think it is core too.
Speaker 1: It's not just this is more satisfying than the blaster
Speaker 1: of the missiles. It is that the whole system. If
Speaker 1: you start playing that at a high level where you
Speaker 1: want to start like getting on the like leader words
Speaker 1: and stuff, you can't do it without going after the
Speaker 1: strike so much because that is how you get that
Speaker 1: combo up like blasters eat missiles great. Getting those upgrades awesome,
Speaker 1: feels good and everything, but it's not changing the way
Speaker 1: that you like attack the leader boards and things like that.
Speaker 1: The strike attack is again offense, defense, and scoreboard. It
Speaker 1: is just objectively the most important thing you can do
Speaker 1: in that game. The shield is offense and defense as well, and.
Speaker 5: It's my favorite thing to do I can do.
Speaker 4: I can play this game and focus on other things
Speaker 4: to do. But sheild in like Doom, I get so
Speaker 4: freaking excited to throw that shield around. It's like one
Speaker 4: of the best parts of that entire game.
Speaker 1: It definitely is. I honestly think it is my favorite
Speaker 1: part of Doom. The arcades. I don't disagree with anything
Speaker 1: you said about the strike it. I agree. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's don't.
Speaker 4: I think it's a fantastic attack. But when I think
Speaker 4: about the best form of attack. When we played Doom,
Speaker 4: which is a reimagining of Doom again, very interesting game.
Speaker 4: That they've tried new things with, the shield is like
Speaker 4: the coolest part in my opinion.
Speaker 3: Would you say more so than the yo yo only
Speaker 3: because the way you describe the yoyo I was kind
Speaker 3: of that was like how it evolves and stuff that
Speaker 3: sounds pretty yo.
Speaker 5: Yo is sick. I mean, I I don't. I didn't
Speaker 5: think that the yoyu had a chance because.
Speaker 1: I didn't see how it ramps up because I think
Speaker 1: it's towards the end.
Speaker 4: Again, like, the yo yo is everything in that game,
Speaker 4: and I do really encourage people to play it as
Speaker 4: a metroidvania.
Speaker 5: It's super fun to watch how it scales.
Speaker 4: It's such a different thing to compare to UH with
Speaker 4: these other options, But yeah, the yo yo is UH.
Speaker 4: It is thrilling to be able to have such a
Speaker 4: variety of tacks with one object but use it in
Speaker 4: such an incredible amount of ways. And it is also
Speaker 4: traversal and attack and defense. It's every it's everything that
Speaker 4: you're talking about. It's all in one. Is this is
Speaker 4: this yo yo. But it's not an attack. It's the
Speaker 4: type of attack. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: It's the entity, it's not the type of attack. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it sounds like shield. I mean that's shield
Speaker 1: is so cool?
Speaker 3: That is that is the thing with that when you
Speaker 3: first get any he like, does the bump and the
Speaker 3: spikes come out of this chance?
Speaker 1: It looks shield?
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Shield.
Speaker 3: It's fucking hard, right, yeah, yeah, let's put it down.
Speaker 3: It's like Captain America was actually cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like that's what he wishes. All right.
Speaker 3: Best form of attack in twenty twenty five is the
Speaker 3: shield from Throom the Dark Ages nice.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: We have another new category here and it is best Feature.
Speaker 1: That is right and best feature this year brought to
Speaker 1: you by Wendy's. Uh new Wendy's Chicken tenders are here, Crispy, juicy,
Speaker 1: dippable down for new dips.
Speaker 3: Sauce is so good, we won't blame you for double dipping.
Speaker 3: Wendy's signature scorching hot, sweet chili, creamy Ranch, honey barbecue,
Speaker 3: and don't forget honey Mustard. Play our new game in
Speaker 3: app daily for a chance to win a trip to
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six Fox College Football game of your choice,
Speaker 3: inclusive of a meet and greet with talent and a
Speaker 3: behind the scenes tour, plus earned rewards points in an
Speaker 3: app all First, It's sorry, Marry, what time is it?
Speaker 1: Thank you? Wendy sponsoring Best Feature. Give me some of
Speaker 1: those tenders.
Speaker 3: What sauces you want? We got to get onto the
Speaker 3: nomination ye pass.
Speaker 1: Them over, please, yeah, thank you. The nominees are Mary
Speaker 1: passed that to Jake. Please judge Jake. Sorry, I got
Speaker 1: some sauces. I got Honey mustard, and I got Honey barbecue.
Speaker 1: Take some of the barbecue. Thank you. Sponsor nominees are
Speaker 1: the Crest System from Silk Song, Going Up or Going
Speaker 1: Out in Hades, two destructible environments d K Bonanza, prox
Speaker 1: Chat from Arc Raiders head Tracking, and good Night Universe.
Speaker 9: Mary You're up plays two characters ball x Pitt Stack
Speaker 9: Upgrades from Sectory.
Speaker 1: Picktose an Expedition thirty three.
Speaker 2: First Mode luminais Arise, Cannibalism in Peak and Bombs and
Speaker 2: ooh all right, thank you.
Speaker 1: Wendy's Let's go with Okay, Mary, I believe with going
Speaker 1: up and going out you were not sure why that belonged.
Speaker 1: I need you come back. I what I like the
Speaker 1: Hades thing a lot. I think going up and going
Speaker 1: out is I think it adds a lot of variety.
Speaker 3: Not to jump an argument for Hades later in the show,
Speaker 3: I'm hesitant to bring up a knock against Haites two
Speaker 3: that many people often bring up, and I feel like
Speaker 3: going up and going out is kind of the anti argument.
Speaker 1: I think going up and going out is.
Speaker 3: For me what separates it from the first game the most,
Speaker 3: almost like structurally in terms of format. I think it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: you've got a bunch of new weapons, your character plays
Speaker 3: very differently, You've got new characters, there's new resources, there,
Speaker 3: news to upgraded weapons. The overall structure of the game,
Speaker 3: to me, I think is what makes it very special
Speaker 3: and more than just more Haites one.
Speaker 1: I think it's great at mixing things up. I think
Speaker 1: it is the thing that in one I never did
Speaker 1: the full ten runs or whatever to beat the game,
Speaker 1: because it is just kind of the same thing over
Speaker 1: and over again. As good as that is, at least
Speaker 1: with this it's like what Mike Okay, Mike, Sorry, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, it's not the Tendi's fault. I think being
Speaker 1: able to mix it up is critical. The prox chet
Speaker 1: our Damn, why didn't I get a card?
Speaker 3: The prox chat. The prox chat and arc Raiders is
Speaker 3: truly like defines that game for me. It's what makes
Speaker 3: that game. I mean, have you watched the upf with Kla.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The fact that you can actually like the sociology of it,
Speaker 3: that you can actually scare, like convince other players that you yourself,
Speaker 3: the person behind the avatar in the game is a
Speaker 3: psycho and ready to fuck people up.
Speaker 1: The fact that you can.
Speaker 3: Use your own personality to drive them away or bring
Speaker 3: them in. And then we saw what I did, like
Speaker 3: we gained that one dude's trust, and then I used
Speaker 3: a code word that he himself heard. The last thing
Speaker 3: you heard before he got killed was oh maybe that's
Speaker 3: why my butt itches, And like that is amazing to me.
Speaker 3: And also like I think that without that, Arc Raiders
Speaker 3: would not be this amazing entry point into extraction shooters.
Speaker 3: I think the prox chat is the key that unlocks
Speaker 3: the whole the brilliance of that game.
Speaker 1: Here's the question I have, as someone who's not played
Speaker 1: any extraction shooter prior to this, is that, like, are
Speaker 1: other games in this genre? Have they utilized it? Like
Speaker 1: you know, a tarkab and stuff like that, Like is
Speaker 1: that I think? Yeah? Right? So I answered that, so
Speaker 1: other games definitely have used this.
Speaker 3: But I think the threat of the machines kind of
Speaker 3: forces you to work together in arc Raiders and that's
Speaker 3: where that prox chat kind of comes in hand you.
Speaker 3: But there's still that question that always lingers right where
Speaker 3: it's like is this player friendly?
Speaker 1: Do they want to help me hunt robots? Or are
Speaker 1: they going to shoot on site? Yeah? But okay, so
Speaker 1: the other ones didn't have the pbpv E. No, they
Speaker 1: they did. They are like the whole point was to
Speaker 1: fight other players pretty much like that's not the point here.
Speaker 3: Yes, I would say escape from Tarkov you can team
Speaker 3: up with other players, but I'd say of the times
Speaker 3: you see other players, it's probably closer to like eighty
Speaker 3: five percent, you're going to automatically assume they're going to
Speaker 3: try to kill you, and you kill them. I would
Speaker 3: say arc Raders is reversed. It's like you kind of
Speaker 3: assume m Maybe it's fifty to fifty, but the odds
Speaker 3: that someone's actually going to try to work with you
Speaker 3: is a bit higher.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is the thing I love about Arc Raiders.
Speaker 1: I think, to me, it is the most interesting thing
Speaker 1: about that game. But you know, I am just new
Speaker 1: to the genre. So yeah, I've just been hesitant to
Speaker 1: be like, wow, revolutionary because I just don't know if it's.
Speaker 3: Yeah, can I suggest a cut? Yeah, Pictos and Expedition
Speaker 3: thirty three. I think I love the variety. I love
Speaker 3: how many options there are to synergize them. I love
Speaker 3: the way that you can you're basically as opposed to
Speaker 3: a system like Skyrim, where you're using a skill in
Speaker 3: order to learn it. You learn these but then you're
Speaker 3: basically using them in order to be able to lock
Speaker 3: them in without having them equipped, which allows you to
Speaker 3: overput like it can overpower a character while they try
Speaker 3: out new stuff. However, I think one of my only
Speaker 3: knocks against that game is it gives you pictose at
Speaker 3: such a rapid pace.
Speaker 1: I stopped caring.
Speaker 3: About them for a while, which there's nothing I could
Speaker 3: have cared more about them and been theory crafting more
Speaker 3: with the characters. But like I don't think they were
Speaker 3: essential to progressing until a certain point, and then at
Speaker 3: a certain points like I really need to min max
Speaker 3: these different characters in their strengths, But like.
Speaker 1: I would argue, you don't even really need to because
Speaker 1: like I think it was a cool system, but I
Speaker 1: really didn't spend any time, Like I know, if you
Speaker 1: wanted the min max and really go deep on it
Speaker 1: and make this like unbelief of the killer building stuff,
Speaker 1: you could you could do that. But you can absolutely
Speaker 1: just go through this game and enjoy it and not
Speaker 1: really have to think about it. You know that, I
Speaker 1: would say as well, Jacob married you have thoughts on
Speaker 1: the pictose, I just don't think we've We've covered a
Speaker 1: lot of ground. The fuck is going on? Best feature?
Speaker 1: They are some of the best features. We remember we
Speaker 1: they were originally best mechanic, but we thought it'd be
Speaker 1: better to split it into form of attack and features.
Speaker 1: Like I'm losing my mind. What do you guys want
Speaker 1: me to talk about? Any you have any unlocked Mary kids?
Speaker 1: First stand fucking first ad read over here.
Speaker 4: Delicious is destructible environments of feature?
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I think in Bonanza it is a
Speaker 1: core like there are certain games that I will think
Speaker 1: about the destructable environments before I think about anything else
Speaker 1: Red Faction, Battlefield, Bad Company, and the k Bananza, where
Speaker 1: it's like that is the core of that game, and
Speaker 1: it is a feature that has done so well, from
Speaker 1: just how satisfying it is to break through all that
Speaker 1: stuff to the way like it's actually kind of readable
Speaker 1: and even like the camera stuff you're going through these
Speaker 1: mountains and because of the way you use the silhouettes
Speaker 1: and things like that, you can actually like you never
Speaker 1: really feel lost. So like, I think it is a
Speaker 1: core feature of Donkey Kong Bananza and it is the
Speaker 1: thing that most differentiates it from other like three D platforms,
Speaker 1: Like it's the Odyssey team that made it. Bonanza feels
Speaker 1: completely different than Odyssey because of this feature, and it
Speaker 1: is so satisfying throughout.
Speaker 3: They're also not afraid to let you we were talking
Speaker 3: about like solving stuff and ooh in an unintended way.
Speaker 3: There's so many times in Donkey Kong where I'm just
Speaker 3: bashing my way through a fucking like cliff face and
Speaker 3: then all of a sudden, I stumble into this this
Speaker 3: room where you could tell by the title of the
Speaker 3: Banana when I collect it. That was not how they
Speaker 3: quote unquote intended me to get it. And I actually
Speaker 3: go back out the way that it would have if
Speaker 3: I hadn't used the destructible environment. I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 3: was supposed to do this like platforming challenge. Instead, they
Speaker 3: were confident enough in the game design to just say, like, sure,
Speaker 3: let them let Donkey Kong just bash his way into
Speaker 3: this anti chamber and grab it.
Speaker 1: If they are just you know, chewing through this rock.
Speaker 1: It is satisfying to do and it is critical. Unlike
Speaker 1: you know, we cut the pictose and from Exhibition thirty
Speaker 1: three because it's like, oh, it's a cool idea that
Speaker 1: really you don't have to pay that much attention to.
Speaker 1: You're not playing Donkey Kong Bananza. If you're not constantly
Speaker 1: destroying the environment in a million different ways to a
Speaker 1: million different ends. You know, it is it is what
Speaker 1: that game is, you know.
Speaker 3: For a potential cut, what about going up, going out
Speaker 3: Hades two. I know we kind of talked about this briefly,
Speaker 3: but it's cool, but like it's just another area, you know,
Speaker 3: I guess, yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it does a lot to me. Those areas
Speaker 1: are interesting. It adds a lot of variety, but I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess I do also like that the ones when
Speaker 1: you go out are a little more linear, a little
Speaker 1: more like the first hades, and going up is like, man,
Speaker 1: they're very different, you know that that first area where
Speaker 1: you get to like to pick which ones you want
Speaker 1: to go to from that hub world, and then you're
Speaker 1: on the ship that's going from station to station like
Speaker 1: there is. It just does a lot to make Haiti.
Speaker 1: It is the main thing I think that makes Haiti's
Speaker 1: too much better than the first game. So I'm just
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think it. I like it. I
Speaker 1: like it. I would cut I love sectory. I don't
Speaker 1: think the stack upgrade system is the thing that makes
Speaker 1: that such a special.
Speaker 5: I think it makes it dewey.
Speaker 1: I don't think it makes it like the best feature.
Speaker 1: But yeah, clever risk reward, it's a very way to
Speaker 1: do it. It helps, yeah, but I don't think it
Speaker 1: hangs here. I'll cut Verse Mode. Luminous Rise. I'm a
Speaker 1: big Luminous guy. It is the main thing that separates
Speaker 1: it from the original Luminous and it's really cool and
Speaker 1: it's really satisfying the way it kind of like almost
Speaker 1: creates its like black hole of sorts of like, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the types of blocks, and it clears up
Speaker 1: so much of the field, and it caused it the
Speaker 1: other ones to kind of rain down and clean those
Speaker 1: up easier. It's very, very satisfying. I don't think it hangs.
Speaker 3: I will also say I nominated this. I'd say despite
Speaker 3: the fact that playing as two characters in ball cross
Speaker 3: Pit whatever we're calling it, there's a certain point in
Speaker 3: the game where you basically get a building that you
Speaker 3: can put in your town that allows you to combine
Speaker 3: two separate characters. And if you played it, you know
Speaker 3: there is a character that is already like Allah of
Speaker 3: the ice climbers, a single character, but it's two entities.
Speaker 3: You can combine those with a third in that case.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 3: You then from then on you're not just thinking how
Speaker 3: am I going to amplify this one character's abilities? You
Speaker 3: are thinking, how do I amplify both these characters abilities?
Speaker 3: How do they work in concert in a way that's
Speaker 3: going to help me destroy these demons by like, the
Speaker 3: only reason I wouldugus cuting is because there's like four
Speaker 3: I like more.
Speaker 4: Than that here, speaking of things, I would cut because
Speaker 4: there's things I like more. Cannibalism and Peak is really funny.
Speaker 4: The idea that you can kill one of your well,
Speaker 4: one of your friends dies, you can die of hunger
Speaker 4: in that game, so eating them to sustain yourself is
Speaker 4: very funny. It kind of revitalized that game for a
Speaker 4: second round. Uh, it's really it's a great addition, but
Speaker 4: I don't think it's the best.
Speaker 1: Feature of a game, but it's it's very funny. The
Speaker 1: bombs and U. I mean, it seems like it is
Speaker 1: like the core mechanic, but is there anything particularly like.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think the way you have to manipulate
Speaker 3: the bombs and learn how to work with the bombs
Speaker 3: and what they can do, uh, is very satisfying and
Speaker 3: like that is the main feature of the game.
Speaker 1: But I guess I don't really see it as like
Speaker 1: a feature feature feature.
Speaker 3: You know, like it doesn't it's not like I think
Speaker 3: of like the Crest system and Silk Song that is sick.
Speaker 3: Like that changes how you play, it changes everything in
Speaker 3: the in the bombs and U, like, I think that
Speaker 3: can go.
Speaker 5: I think we've we've pushed OO as far as it
Speaker 5: can go.
Speaker 4: It It is not going to have like the most
Speaker 4: incredible mechanic. I would also say we compared OU to
Speaker 4: Animal Well earlier in this way where it's like, oh
Speaker 4: my god, I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I could do all this stuff. That's really cool.
Speaker 4: An Animal, well, it's one device I can do lots
Speaker 4: of different things. It's just bombs, Like, yes, you can
Speaker 4: use it for different maneuverability, but doesn't make you fly
Speaker 4: or anything.
Speaker 1: It's just bombs that push you a certain direction. That's
Speaker 1: a we'll cut that.
Speaker 3: Good Night Tracking good Night Universe is something we haven't mentioned.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think it's gonna be a tough
Speaker 4: one to get through, but I will make an argument
Speaker 4: that this is the same devs.
Speaker 1: That did Your Eyes, which is the eye.
Speaker 4: Tracking game, and every time you blinked time past in
Speaker 4: the game. In good Night Universe, it tracks your entire face.
Speaker 4: When you smile, the baby laughs, when you frown, the
Speaker 4: baby cries, And when you turn your head and you
Speaker 4: have to close your eyes, you become a radio signal.
Speaker 4: And so you hear this wiry noise as if like
Speaker 4: you're looking for a radio station and you literally turn
Speaker 4: your head left and right to find the right station
Speaker 4: and lock in. I just think it's very immersive, and
Speaker 4: it's again it's very innovative.
Speaker 1: I've never seen a game that tracks your head Do
Speaker 1: that continue And I think I think that's about it.
Speaker 1: I'll argue this, I think that is that sounds really cool,
Speaker 1: and that is just like like I was talking about
Speaker 1: Bonanza and how it's a feature that is the core
Speaker 1: of that game. It sounds like that's the core of
Speaker 1: good Night Universe. Is that head tracking? So I would
Speaker 1: I bombs anew or at the core of that game too,
Speaker 1: though that's true, But I mean this is more novel.
Speaker 1: I think the destructble environments, the head tracking is a
Speaker 1: little more novel. I love Hollow Night Soilk song. I
Speaker 1: will say I didn't mess with the Crest system. I
Speaker 1: liked the first one. I liked the diagonal down attack.
Speaker 1: Oh you missed out. I know there's more stuff you
Speaker 1: can do. I know people love the Pogo one and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. I unlocked every one of them. I
Speaker 1: looked at him for a second, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe tried out on Boston having trouble with always just
Speaker 1: went back to that first one. So like, to me,
Speaker 1: that's like the pictos in Extra in thirty three, where
Speaker 1: it's like cool idea, not really critical to the experience.
Speaker 1: You don't have to do it to enjoy and play
Speaker 1: through this whole game.
Speaker 3: I think the defense I have against that is were
Speaker 3: there any bosses in particularly that you had trouble on?
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you ever experiment with cress to kind of
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I'm like, Okay, this attack is a
Speaker 1: little better for this for me.
Speaker 3: It is, especially like when I started to play through
Speaker 3: two is when I really started to mess around with
Speaker 3: those crests, And I think that's when you realize how
Speaker 3: much thought has gone into those different mechanics and how
Speaker 3: you can do an entire run with just one and
Speaker 3: be totally fine. But there are ones that like kind
Speaker 3: of I don't want to be too hyperbolic and say
Speaker 3: fundamentally change how you play, but they can really tweak
Speaker 3: your build in a way that I think is not
Speaker 3: even tweak. I'd say it's more than tweak. But they
Speaker 3: can do a lot, I think to make that game interesting,
Speaker 3: change up combat scenarios, change how you think about enemies,
Speaker 3: Like I think there's a lot of cool stuff going on.
Speaker 5: Raker is a game changer.
Speaker 4: If you're struggling on an enemy and want to do
Speaker 4: more damage more quickly, and essentially say I don't care
Speaker 4: about healing anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm going to just be an attack person.
Speaker 4: I think, like, I agree, yes, you can get through
Speaker 4: with one. But what makes Silk Songs so interesting is
Speaker 4: the amount of ways that they have allowed you to
Speaker 4: alter your character. Your play style can change so dramatically.
Speaker 4: My build is probably really different than Jake's build. It's
Speaker 4: probably really different than your build, and they're each catered
Speaker 4: to your each unique individual style, and that is such
Speaker 4: a rad upgrade for a.
Speaker 1: Game like this.
Speaker 3: And I think like layering on how cool the equipment
Speaker 3: and items are in that game, and how I do
Speaker 3: have some problems with that system. I think we'll get
Speaker 3: into it at some point, but I think like the
Speaker 3: way you can kind of not even exploit those items,
Speaker 3: but like the combinations you have between them, and there's
Speaker 3: like some really cool stuff you can do there.
Speaker 1: It's tough. All five of these are kind of like
Speaker 1: actual game changers and core to the experience. Proxchat, Like,
Speaker 1: without that, I don't know if by Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I play nearly as munch arc Rader as
Speaker 1: I did without prox Chat.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I feel like it's coming down to we
Speaker 3: have to distinguish between is it integral to the game
Speaker 3: or is it the best feature on the list, Because
Speaker 3: like I was gonna suggest practice chat, I think that
Speaker 3: is still like the int the key feature in our Graders.
Speaker 1: But destructile environments is the key future for that game,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, But I would say, like.
Speaker 3: Destructible environments on that scale and the three D platform
Speaker 3: are almost unprecedented. I don't know that proximity chat is
Speaker 3: totally Psimity chat isn't as much as proximity They found
Speaker 3: like a good rap. They the proximity chat is put
Speaker 3: to very very good use there. I would I would say,
Speaker 3: like that's probably I could.
Speaker 1: See a think cut.
Speaker 3: I would say that and haiti's too much as I
Speaker 3: like the going up, going out and the variety of
Speaker 3: it adds to the overall format of the game. I
Speaker 3: would also say the Crest system at a certain point,
Speaker 3: like trying to remember which one it was that actually
Speaker 3: like felt like it spurred me up to my next
Speaker 3: like a few hours of like really strong momentum. I
Speaker 3: think the Crest system is a very almost like pic Dose.
Speaker 3: I think there are long stretches where you don't think
Speaker 3: about it, or at least where I didn't think about it.
Speaker 3: Maybe if I did another play through like you mentioned,
Speaker 3: I would, but like destructable environments the head tracking, I
Speaker 3: didn't play Good Night Universe. I loved the eye tracking
Speaker 3: in Before Your Eyes though, that was genuinely innovative.
Speaker 1: I think they're both good.
Speaker 4: I mean, if I would have to cut one of them,
Speaker 4: I head tracking.
Speaker 1: Is really cool.
Speaker 4: There's parts where you don't need it. It's one of
Speaker 4: multiple features in that game. There's also there's different types
Speaker 4: of innovation in that game.
Speaker 1: And which are also really cool.
Speaker 4: But the one I'm specifically talking about, yeah, it is
Speaker 4: like the way that you move, it's not completely isolated
Speaker 4: to you. So there's an area where you're trying to
Speaker 4: scare your babysitter's boyfriend because you don't like him, and
Speaker 4: I I was trying to see if I could do
Speaker 4: it differently than someone else. But essentially, when you close
Speaker 4: your eyes, something happens to the environment to scare him.
Speaker 4: I didn't get to alter what happens or how it happens.
Speaker 4: I'm closing my eyes in the game, is like cool,
Speaker 4: go to that cut scene, so very cool.
Speaker 5: Really glad that they did it.
Speaker 4: It helps immerse me, but it is a controlled space.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense?
Speaker 4: It doesn't allow me to have a unique experience in
Speaker 4: that game, whereas like the Crest System, Now I get
Speaker 4: to cater that game to my style. I get to
Speaker 4: fine tune it to the way I want to play
Speaker 4: a game, which is why we play games, right.
Speaker 5: It's because you get to your way, you get to
Speaker 5: do what.
Speaker 4: You want, and that's why I think that's a way
Speaker 4: better version of what a feature is.
Speaker 1: Meant to be. I mean, am I hearing that? Like,
Speaker 1: probably the two clearest cuts to me would be proc
Speaker 1: chat and head tracking. I think that makes sense to me. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: let's do it. That would mean our three finalists are
Speaker 1: the Crest System and Soak Song going up and going
Speaker 1: out in haities two in destructual environments, and DKA Bananaza.
Speaker 1: I'll just say, my mind is the dkay That's that's
Speaker 1: what that game is to me. Yeah, it's.
Speaker 3: I told Dan I got the switch to and I
Speaker 3: was like, well, we talked about Bananza on a couple
Speaker 3: episodes ago, and I actually feel like it it should
Speaker 3: be considered more of a system seller because that I
Speaker 3: love Mario Odyssey, and I don't know that I would
Speaker 3: get close to saying this game is better than Mario Odyssey. However,
Speaker 3: the destructible environments and the the freedom you're given to
Speaker 3: just fuck up the level in a genre that historically
Speaker 3: is one of the hardest genres to craft, like the
Speaker 3: level design and three D platformers, I feel like is
Speaker 3: just so difficult and good three D platformer level design
Speaker 3: is just un rivaled the fact that they put these
Speaker 3: amazing levels together and then just let you just tear
Speaker 3: through them, and is it's bananas to me? It really,
Speaker 3: it really is, Like I don't want to say it's
Speaker 3: a game changer, because no one else is going to
Speaker 3: even attempt that. Ever, I don't think it really truly
Speaker 3: is just I was I'm continually astonished. I'm at the
Speaker 3: forest Layer, the eighth one or whatever it is, so
Speaker 3: I'm not fully done with the game. But the more
Speaker 3: and more I play that game more, I'm like, they
Speaker 3: really are just letting me get in there.
Speaker 1: Put it this way, like when you first saw the
Speaker 1: reveal of DK Bananza, it is a feature that is
Speaker 1: so striking and instantly recognizable and fun looking that that
Speaker 1: was the takeaway in just a trailer. It's like that
Speaker 1: is the star of like, oh my god, you can
Speaker 1: break through anything. Like It's not like when people were
Speaker 1: first seeing, you know, Exhibition thirty three, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: well picked out this menus level of system or this
Speaker 1: crust system or whatever. You know, these are all very
Speaker 1: good systems, but it's not a thing that like, upon
Speaker 1: first glance at the game be like, whoa, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: You can do that, you know, and it's not just
Speaker 1: a gimmick. It is like it is so much fun
Speaker 1: and it's pulled off so well too. I think they
Speaker 1: easily could have done this poorly.
Speaker 3: And then there are boss fights later on where they're
Speaker 3: making use of that. When I was like, oh, these
Speaker 3: are the boss fights I want to see in this game.
Speaker 3: And you actually kind of have to use the destructible
Speaker 3: environments and not just like a platform or you're fighting
Speaker 3: a boss.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's my big for sure. Mary.
Speaker 3: How are you feeling about, uh, destructible environments versus Crest system.
Speaker 4: I'm in support of destructible environments for this very specific feature.
Speaker 5: I will still.
Speaker 4: Argue like, I think the Crest system is incredible and
Speaker 4: so nuanced and so important to the intricacy of what
Speaker 4: makes games games because it allows you to play things
Speaker 4: differently at the same time, like games are meant to
Speaker 4: be fun, they're meant to be like whimsical and wild.
Speaker 4: And the fact that in DK, it's very important that
Speaker 4: this is specifically for Donkey Kong. If this was a
Speaker 4: different game, I'd be like, who cares? Like, why is
Speaker 4: that so integral? Donkey Kong destroys things, That's what he does.
Speaker 4: They took a character and they said, how do we
Speaker 4: min max this? How do we dial him up to eleven?
Speaker 4: And the way you do that is you make him
Speaker 4: be able to destroy every fucking thing onto the planet.
Speaker 1: And they did it well and even to your point
Speaker 1: of like doing things differently, you know, like as mentioned
Speaker 1: with Hollow Night, like like Mike said, it allowed him
Speaker 1: to get too objectives and get bananas and stuff in
Speaker 1: totally different ways because of that freedom of what it
Speaker 1: allows you to do.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean, I think there's a world in which,
Speaker 4: for this very specific thing you can argue for destructible environments.
Speaker 4: So I'm not like, I don't think I'm going to
Speaker 4: like fight this too much. I think destructible environments is
Speaker 4: a fair like it's an incredible feature I think, like
Speaker 4: my last argument here is like the Crest system was
Speaker 4: built on top of an existing system.
Speaker 5: Hollow and I had already had badges.
Speaker 4: That were meant to allow you to customize your character,
Speaker 4: and there was an obvious reason that players gravitated towards this,
Speaker 4: because it's so neat that maybe I have an extended nail,
Speaker 4: but you have something that allows you to have a
Speaker 4: couple extra bubbles that give you more health, and so
Speaker 4: you could play more defensively and I can play more aggressively.
Speaker 4: And I think that's it's such a unique use of
Speaker 4: a system that allows you to play in individual ways.
Speaker 4: And the developer said, let's do that also times ten, right, Like,
Speaker 4: let's like make that such a huge concept in the
Speaker 4: next game. So the CRES system is truly built to
Speaker 4: allow you to customize how you play. I hope that
Speaker 4: more games duplicate this in the future and allow you
Speaker 4: to play more defensively, me to play more aggressively, you
Speaker 4: to play and mix it up based on what.
Speaker 5: There's no punishment. You can just change your crest.
Speaker 1: You have to spend money.
Speaker 3: I will say, though, it just sounds like you're also
Speaker 3: describing how elden Ring works as an entire game, Like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like, how does that?
Speaker 3: How is that different from any from software's games where
Speaker 3: you can tellor your character, especially system actually changes mechanics
Speaker 3: in the game. Okay, well like from software.
Speaker 5: Like yeah, use, you're stronger in certain ways.
Speaker 1: The stronger I guess different weapons can kind of change mechanics.
Speaker 3: But it's still like there's a rhythm I would say
Speaker 3: to Hollow Night that changes depending on the crest that
Speaker 3: I guess eldin Ring does too.
Speaker 4: Let me let me say this, Elderering isn't a platformer.
Speaker 4: This game is a platformer. And then there's certain platforming
Speaker 4: spaces that you need different crests in order to execute
Speaker 4: much easier.
Speaker 5: There are certain crests.
Speaker 4: That have you dive at an angle, which makes platforming
Speaker 4: more difficult, and then there's crests that let you essentially
Speaker 4: pogo vertical down, which makes platforming a lot easier. So
Speaker 4: when I'm platforming, I would change crests to make those easier,
Speaker 4: and then I would change So it's like, I don't
Speaker 4: think from software has platforming in the same capacity that
Speaker 4: they needed to do.
Speaker 1: But it's infuriating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, it's they It's the thing they need to
Speaker 3: get rid of in their games. Yeah, yeah, uh okay,
Speaker 3: I so destructible environments kind of seems like that's where
Speaker 3: it's swaying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't. I don't think I have a problem
Speaker 1: with that. I think it's a great feature.
Speaker 5: I think it's really cool what they did.
Speaker 3: Okay, Best feature twenty twenty five is destructible environments.
Speaker 1: Thank you to Wendy's thank you all right?
Speaker 3: Next up, next category is Coziest Game of the Year.
Speaker 1: Your nomine use are Fantasy Life, I The Girl who
Speaker 1: Steals Time, Powerwash Simulator, Too.
Speaker 3: Cast in Chill, a game about digging a hole, Wheel World,
Speaker 3: Time Flies.
Speaker 1: There's no Agent World. Sorry, I brought shoemaker that sorry spilled.
Speaker 1: Henry Halfhead, who needs a beer? Uh you do? Henry Halfhead?
Speaker 5: Isn't that cozy?
Speaker 1: I actually thought it was a little annoying. I thought
Speaker 1: it was annoying because it was a little too cozy
Speaker 1: kid bullshit be oh, Henry loves season his crip and
Speaker 1: now he wants to go play with his blocks. I
Speaker 1: just thought it was a little too baby cozy.
Speaker 5: You know, it's too much talkie for me to be cozy.
Speaker 4: I actually think my most coziest games don't talk to
Speaker 4: me at all.
Speaker 1: They allow me to just do a task and do
Speaker 1: it well. So that seems like an easy cut right
Speaker 1: out of the gate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I put in Fantasy Life. I I
Speaker 3: don't think anyone else played it. But this is a
Speaker 3: life sim except uh sim not really a sim.
Speaker 1: But you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Uh, Except you can pick a vocation and there's different
Speaker 3: stories around each vocation. It's it's kind of like an
Speaker 3: RP if Animal Crossing was an RPG. And I think
Speaker 3: this is a very cool cozy game. But I think
Speaker 3: to Mary's point, the game is talking at you a lot.
Speaker 1: You know that.
Speaker 3: It's like sometimes it can be hard to get into
Speaker 3: that cozy flow state because you're just like going through dialogue,
Speaker 3: watching cut scene. There's a story. It kind of guides you.
Speaker 3: I think a little too much for for cozy game.
Speaker 3: And I imagine no one's gonna I can cut that.
Speaker 1: Manage your call, Bud, it's gone.
Speaker 3: Uh Okay. I've only played a couple of these, but.
Speaker 1: I've played all of them. But I welcome anyone to
Speaker 1: chime in and then.
Speaker 5: All I have a lot of opinions.
Speaker 1: Obviously, it's kind of.
Speaker 3: My I can ask you a question, then uh would
Speaker 3: why would? I mean maybe this was for Dan because
Speaker 3: I think he added it. But why is Powerwash Simulator
Speaker 3: to considered a cozy game? Is it because you can
Speaker 3: get into like flow state and just kind of yeah.
Speaker 1: But it's it's like the opposite of a flow state
Speaker 1: of like a sectory where it's like a sectory is
Speaker 1: something where it's like, yeah, we talked about like flow
Speaker 1: staying stuff, but that is like requiring one of your attention.
Speaker 1: Powerwash is a different type of just like that is
Speaker 1: the game. Like I would say nine out of ten games,
Speaker 1: if I'm playing it, I'm focusing entirely on the game.
Speaker 1: I don't have something on in the background. I'm not
Speaker 1: listening to something or watching something. Power Wash Simulator two
Speaker 1: is the best. Like I'll put on this aw pay
Speaker 1: per view and I'll know mainly be watching that and
Speaker 1: I'll just have this on my stand back whatever kind
Speaker 1: of exactly. It's a podcast game, so it's like it's
Speaker 1: just a very cozy, like I'm just gonna spray this
Speaker 1: stuff for a while. There's no time limit, there's no
Speaker 1: fail state, there's just like it is just satisfaction that's it.
Speaker 3: The question I have is does that, like, is a
Speaker 3: podcast game a cozy game.
Speaker 1: That's a good question, and I guess that is two
Speaker 1: different things. A podcast game is when you don't really
Speaker 1: have to pay that much attention to and you can
Speaker 1: do other things. And a cozy game is I think
Speaker 1: a lot of like I don't know, like what is
Speaker 1: what is the like animal crossing a stardoo?
Speaker 5: You know, a game that's meant to relax you and
Speaker 5: camm you you.
Speaker 1: It sounds like kind does I mean, that's also a
Speaker 1: good playing game for me. But that's a whole different
Speaker 1: It's the next category. Man. It's not cozy in the
Speaker 1: way that like the aesthetics are not cozy. It's not
Speaker 1: teddy bears and pastel colors and stuff like that. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not like it's harsh. I mean, it's just like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm just going to clean up a
Speaker 1: fucking doghouse, you know, like it's it's it's it's relaxed.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that equals cozy, And Okay, it does.
Speaker 4: I think it absolutely belongs and I don't think we
Speaker 4: have to remove it yet. It's it. It remains a
Speaker 4: cozy game. Absolutely, I'm going to challenge a game about
Speaker 4: digging a hole, because while digging the hole is really cozy,
Speaker 4: the ending is not cozy. And anyone's actually finished this
Speaker 4: game would tell you it's not a cozy game.
Speaker 1: I didn't think the whole had a bottom.
Speaker 4: You're going to blow your mind, and I'm going to try.
Speaker 4: I don't need to spoil it. If we all are
Speaker 4: in agreement, it's it ain't cozy at the end.
Speaker 1: Oh, the end is not you know. No, I never
Speaker 1: got the bottom or the game. It's a really cool game.
Speaker 4: I hope people play it, but the ending is like
Speaker 4: a surprise and it's not cozy.
Speaker 3: So cutting that. So we have a few other games.
Speaker 3: I think Mary added one that I've seen. I haven't
Speaker 3: played his Cast and Chill, and that game looks cozy
Speaker 3: as hell.
Speaker 1: This game is like the definition of cozy.
Speaker 4: You're a guy on a boat. You choose where your
Speaker 4: boat is left and right. You choose to cast, and
Speaker 4: then hopefully fish catches your line. You have a couple
Speaker 4: buttons to try and pull the fish up, much like fishing.
Speaker 5: It's just so zen.
Speaker 4: And then you use the money from the fish that
Speaker 4: you catch to upgrade your fishing line, your boat, your hook,
Speaker 4: your pole, so you're just being able to catch fish
Speaker 4: that are deeper, stronger fish. The first time you catch
Speaker 4: a salmon, it's like nice, try bitch, like it can
Speaker 4: get away. After you upgrade your line enough, you can
Speaker 4: catch like the most crazy fish in the lake. And
Speaker 4: your dog is sleeping in the boat with you, and
Speaker 4: every time you catch a fish, he's just like, you're amazing,
Speaker 4: You're so good, and the dog gives you a little heart.
Speaker 4: It's so cozy. Nothing really bad happens to this game.
Speaker 4: It's extremely relaxing.
Speaker 1: That sounds kind of hard to be say.
Speaker 3: I love real World, but there's some like it's it's
Speaker 3: fairly it's not high stakes, but there's some racing involved.
Speaker 1: There's a race. I can never be cozy when I'm
Speaker 1: racing it. And did you get to the second world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it just it becomes like industrial healthcare, corporate, and I
Speaker 1: like that game.
Speaker 4: Game world isn't cozy. I think my biggest issue with
Speaker 4: this game we talked about this when we covered it,
Speaker 4: is I find it almost shocking that this second area
Speaker 4: is so unattracted.
Speaker 1: It's bad. Yeah, I just thought it was gonna be
Speaker 1: that first Yeah, I thought it was gonna be this
Speaker 1: nice biking island, and then it's like, oh wait, the
Speaker 1: game is not over. Oh wait, this is where I'm at,
Speaker 1: And honestly that's where I fell off the game. You're
Speaker 1: like fighting oil. Yeah, I just if credits rolled when
Speaker 1: I finished that first island, I would have been like,
Speaker 1: what a great little INDI game. I agree, And then
Speaker 1: it went into that second thing and I played it
Speaker 1: for like thirty forty five minutes or something like you
Speaker 1: want to plays anymore? Very good, but yeah, yeah it's great.
Speaker 1: But okay, that Time Flies is that cozy might.
Speaker 4: Be more of a thinker, which I should have added
Speaker 4: to the incomes category. Upon reflection, I think it's easy
Speaker 4: to play and pick up. You are just a little
Speaker 4: fly and you do these little puzzles. I think it's
Speaker 4: whimsical in the sense that it's punny. So maybe the
Speaker 4: puzzle will be become a musician, and so you come
Speaker 4: across the guitar, and as a fly, you just fly
Speaker 4: across the strings of the guitar. It plays the guitar,
Speaker 4: and thus you've checked off learned to become a musician.
Speaker 4: I think that's very sweet. It made me really happy.
Speaker 4: There's something that's not very cozy in it, which is
Speaker 4: the life expectancy of your fly. Is you choose it
Speaker 4: based on the country that you're in, and it's actual data.
Speaker 4: So if the average lifespan in Argentina is seventy two years,
Speaker 4: then your life expectancy as your fly is two seconds.
Speaker 4: And so there's certain countries where your flies life expectancy
Speaker 4: is like fifty seconds because their life expectancy of the
Speaker 4: country is fifty And I was like, kind a dark, Ye,
Speaker 4: I don't think that's very cozy at all.
Speaker 1: Do we have our top three?
Speaker 3: Then if I think if we're willing to cut time
Speaker 3: flies and we've got our time, I think so that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So we are left with powerwash simulator to cast and
Speaker 3: chill and spilled.
Speaker 1: We haven't heard anything about spilled. Spilled is very cozy,
Speaker 1: you are.
Speaker 4: This is an indie ass indie game. I should I
Speaker 4: should start with because sorry, uh chairs, these chairs, these
Speaker 4: these WrestleMania chairs are really squeaky. So Spilled is an
Speaker 4: indie game made by one person.
Speaker 1: You are a boat and you are cleaning up.
Speaker 4: The rivers and the lakes that have oil spills in them.
Speaker 4: Every time you clean up a space, animals come back,
Speaker 4: so you'll see fish and otters and birds.
Speaker 1: And it's so cute.
Speaker 4: And and then the money that you get from all
Speaker 4: the stuff you're cleaning up upgrades your machine. You become faster,
Speaker 4: you have a wider arc to pick up trash, and
Speaker 4: you can even like send people onto islands and different
Speaker 4: things to upgrade in different ways.
Speaker 1: Again, it's a very basic game.
Speaker 4: So I just want to say, it's like it's limited
Speaker 4: because this is a one person game.
Speaker 5: It's it's not super intricate, but.
Speaker 4: It sets off to what it does very well, and
Speaker 4: it's it's extremely calming and thoughtful with environmentalism and cleaning
Speaker 4: up the environment in a suite and simple way.
Speaker 1: Boy god, I feel like this is a category that
Speaker 1: Mary vote should count for like three and but I
Speaker 1: will say for what it's worth. Just hear you describe it, boy,
Speaker 1: cast and chill sounds like exactly what this category is.
Speaker 1: You know, this game is a sedative.
Speaker 4: I think like if you play this, it's gonna relax
Speaker 4: you and camm you. So I think that or Powerwash
Speaker 4: Simulator does the job.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've I know power Simulator is my pick.
Speaker 1: And stuff, and not even my pick. I just it's
Speaker 1: the one I played. I haven't played the other, but
Speaker 1: your description of Cast and Chill sounds like I would
Speaker 1: I would put my vote in for that, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so zen.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I think I think they're both good, and
Speaker 4: I think depending on this is what I would say too,
Speaker 4: Just for people who are listening, it's not just about
Speaker 4: who wins. It's like about the game that will appeal
Speaker 4: to you the most. Power Wah simulator has a lot
Speaker 4: more to do. There's dirty, dirty invit youse players are dirty,
Speaker 4: and you have a lot to do. So there's a
Speaker 4: lot of time that you get to spend cleaning these environments.
Speaker 4: Cast and Chill is only what I said. You're fishing,
Speaker 4: that's it. So if you're like, that's you know, I
Speaker 4: wish there was more. I wish there was more gameplay.
Speaker 4: This is going to be really limiting for you. That's
Speaker 4: all you do. You pish and that's it. So I
Speaker 4: will just say like that for how limiting it is
Speaker 4: powerwashed simulatory, but you get to upgrade all sorts of
Speaker 4: different ways and yeah, and do different things.
Speaker 3: I vote for Cast and Chill, all right, all right,
Speaker 3: I'm I'm cool with that. Cast and Chill.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. All right. Fire Escape's coziest game of the
Speaker 1: year is Cast and Chill.
Speaker 3: All right, Next up, all right, Next category is best
Speaker 3: playing Game.
Speaker 1: Amines are Haighties, two ball Pit, megabonk Sectory, Luminous Arise.
Speaker 5: The Pistrello, and the Yo Yo Thing, Once.
Speaker 1: Upon a Katamari, Hollow Night's.
Speaker 5: Soak Song, Monster Train two, Hoday one.
Speaker 3: Right now, Yeah, I this is I think Hollow Night
Speaker 3: is an amazing It's great for steam back.
Speaker 1: That's not what we're talking about. I was gonna say
Speaker 1: the thing, you want to.
Speaker 3: Play that fucking game on a in a place I
Speaker 3: already hate being the first twenty hours of that game
Speaker 3: I played on a plane, And I agree because I
Speaker 3: even just like not even like a long was the
Speaker 3: flight Well, I flew there, I flew back, which was
Speaker 3: ten hours, okay, contu And yeah, I mean I think
Speaker 3: the thing is is like, first of all, I like
Speaker 3: it here because it absolutely like that flight flew by.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, I wish I had a control of the
Speaker 1: entire time, Like I wish I was playing on a proper.
Speaker 3: Controller with a proper deepet, you know, playing on steam
Speaker 3: deck and make your thumbs eventually played on switch to
Speaker 3: Like my wrist still hurts. This is gonna sound very stupid,
Speaker 3: but like because I was playing it on a plane,
Speaker 3: and like I don't know, I was like holding in
Speaker 3: a certain way that hurt my risk because I was
Speaker 3: so tense up.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, that's not what you went on a plane,
Speaker 1: And like, I love this game.
Speaker 3: I adored this game, but I wish I could have
Speaker 3: played the first twenty hours not on a plane.
Speaker 1: It's kind of I think that I know you played
Speaker 1: a lot on the on a plane.
Speaker 4: I've played the Ships game on and in fact I
Speaker 4: played it on the way here as well, because I
Speaker 4: was taking down another boss on the way to this conversation.
Speaker 1: And it's funny you say this.
Speaker 4: I played this game a lot on a plane, so
Speaker 4: it's on here for a reason.
Speaker 1: It does belong on here.
Speaker 4: But I was playing it hunched over also because I
Speaker 4: wasn't using a control and then when the plane landed,
Speaker 4: I was like, oh I should straighten.
Speaker 1: Up, and my back.
Speaker 8: Like, oh my god, Like it was too The game
Speaker 8: is so tense that I was like hunched over, really
Speaker 8: focused playing, in my opinion, the best plane game is
Speaker 8: actually something that's not too insane that.
Speaker 1: You have to be that locked in. It should make
Speaker 1: time melt. That is an occasion, I think, yes.
Speaker 4: But you also shouldn't be so stressed that you're upset
Speaker 4: that you like have to shift in your seat, that
Speaker 4: you're uncomfortable.
Speaker 5: There's like a nice middle ground here.
Speaker 3: I was doing Biowater on the flight, and I was
Speaker 3: losing my because I couldn't look anything up too, because
Speaker 3: I was on a plane.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know Biowater. I don't know
Speaker 1: because I think it's an optional area.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've been to Biowater. Oh yeah, but oh
Speaker 1: my god. I was getting so angry. I would say
Speaker 1: cut it because of everything. But I also would almost
Speaker 1: say Sectory. Now. I have not played Sectory on a
Speaker 1: plane yet. I probably will in about a week. But
Speaker 1: I find myself just down in my computer, like if
Speaker 1: I die in a stupid way, like oh I had
Speaker 1: four shields, but I died because I was on the
Speaker 1: red triangles were I'm involunteerily. But you know, like I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't want that feeling on a plane.
Speaker 3: I'm sure again a game, Yeah, I played a lot
Speaker 3: of it on the plane yesterday. It I thought it
Speaker 3: was great on a plane, it is, it can be
Speaker 3: frustrating in a way that I was I would not Yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't want to subject to other people to that. Ye,
Speaker 3: I think I still think it was amazing on the
Speaker 3: plane because like you can sort of tune out for
Speaker 3: a bit if you want to beat like the first
Speaker 3: boss in that game, you don't have to think too hard.
Speaker 3: But then again later on it requires like a state
Speaker 3: of tension that is not conducive to like you know,
Speaker 3: killing time sectory.
Speaker 1: Yeah cut that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I also was gonna like I actually played a lot
Speaker 3: of Hades too on planes as well.
Speaker 1: And while I.
Speaker 3: Think it does fulfill that like like it would just
Speaker 3: burn flights, you know, I wouldn't even realize it, Like
Speaker 3: you know, they'd be like thirty minutes to landing.
Speaker 1: I'd be like enough time for a run, and then
Speaker 1: next thing I knew, I'd be landing.
Speaker 3: However, once again playing when I finally like played it
Speaker 3: docked at home, Oh man, this art really pops like
Speaker 3: the set like hearing it, and like it is kind
Speaker 3: of twitchy too, not as twitchy as something like Hollow Night,
Speaker 3: but I do think like that game is not best
Speaker 3: experienced handhealth.
Speaker 1: I agree it's not the best way to play Hates.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because like Haiti's one and two, I probably
Speaker 1: played ninety to ninety five percent of that on a handheld,
Speaker 1: whether a switch or I guess, I don't think it's
Speaker 1: a bad way to play it, but I do think
Speaker 1: like it's better on a screen with a deepad and
Speaker 1: all the.
Speaker 4: Stuff flying at you and all the Visually the game.
Speaker 1: Is very busy, it's very saturated.
Speaker 4: And so on a small screen. Sometimes I got hit
Speaker 4: and I didn't know why, And I think if I
Speaker 4: was on a bigger screen, I would have seen the projectile.
Speaker 1: I would have seen the thing that I needed to
Speaker 1: do a little bit better.
Speaker 5: Again, it's incredible. We're going to talk about it more.
Speaker 5: But for a plane, you want.
Speaker 4: Something that where the graphics are functional. For a small screen,
Speaker 4: MEGABUONK is like I don't know why we're even doing this,
Speaker 4: Like megabunk is like I'm gonna run around and throw
Speaker 4: bananas at people.
Speaker 3: The most you have to think is like, where's the
Speaker 3: next jar I can open? Or like Shrine I can charge,
Speaker 3: or chest I can unlock. While you're just automatically shooting things.
Speaker 3: I will I will say we should cut Monster Train two.
Speaker 3: That's one of my favorite games of the year. On
Speaker 3: a small set, there's a lot of texts, there's some
Speaker 3: complex mechanics that, like, even the first faction you have
Speaker 3: you need to get across.
Speaker 1: I played a lot of it. I did play. I've
Speaker 1: played all of Monster Train two un handheld, but I've
Speaker 1: seen it on a TV and it's like, there is
Speaker 1: a lot of text that if you're sitting kind of
Speaker 1: far away from a TV, it's almost kind of hard
Speaker 1: on my PC, like right there. Oh, that's why. And
Speaker 1: it doesn't disqualify from being I love it and handheld still,
Speaker 1: but I just kind of went ahead and cut it.
Speaker 1: But it sounds like maybe not if you disagree talking well,
Speaker 1: I didn't know Dan, I knew Mike played a lot
Speaker 1: of it. That's why I was like, you know, I've
Speaker 1: put a decent amount of it. Boy, I didn't mind
Speaker 1: the small text thing on the screen.
Speaker 3: How about a question for you, then, did you enjoy
Speaker 3: playing Monster Monster Train two more on a plane or hades?
Speaker 3: I didn't cut Hades. It seemed like some people had
Speaker 3: a case for it. I'd rather keep adies, Okay, we
Speaker 3: have to start cutting. Yeah, pi Ostrello, is there anything?
Speaker 1: Is that? A time melts away? And you don't even
Speaker 1: realize that I played it on a plane a lot.
Speaker 1: Here's my argument to cut it. Oh okay. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: was like, what am I supposed to do right now? Oh? Okay?
Speaker 1: If you're picking it up randomly.
Speaker 4: To me, a perfect playing game means you didn't have
Speaker 4: to like remember where you were last. You don't have
Speaker 4: to remember anything. You can just pick it up and
Speaker 4: play it again. Ball Pit, Megabunk. You don't have to
Speaker 4: be like, where was I in this game? There were
Speaker 4: times in Pipastrello where I was like what was I?
Speaker 1: So? Anyway, a great game, but it can get cut.
Speaker 1: I will cut Katamari. I think I've almost exclusively played
Speaker 1: it on planes. But there's nothing about Katamari that makes
Speaker 1: time necessarily melt away or anything. It's just just an
Speaker 1: easy game to play on a plane. It's yeah, it's
Speaker 1: but it's there's much better on here. I think Megabank
Speaker 1: is kind of the one to beat here. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess we simply to cut one more.
Speaker 3: And what we're left with that we haven't really talked
Speaker 3: about is Lumine's arise. So I guess my question Luminous Luminous, Ye,
Speaker 3: Luminous Arise. So I guess my question is does that
Speaker 3: seem like more of a playing game than Hades because
Speaker 3: Hades is kind of on the fringe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what, I would say Hades might be
Speaker 1: better because Hades is one where you more frequently get
Speaker 1: kind of break points where like you know, whether it's
Speaker 1: in between areas or even better, between runs, you can
Speaker 1: end it, whereas like Luminous, I like playing Luminous when
Speaker 1: like there's this journey mode, like if we played Tetris
Speaker 1: effect it's similar, where's just kind of flows from one
Speaker 1: thing to the next, and like I want to be
Speaker 1: able to like just keep going through that journey as
Speaker 1: long as possible. And so I think there's less natural
Speaker 1: just like, oh here's a little break in this Hades
Speaker 1: two thing. It's easier to just kind of stop Hades two,
Speaker 1: pause or something, you know, talk to the you know,
Speaker 1: get a drink or whatever, and then like you know,
Speaker 1: Luminous is kind of like you're in it for a while,
Speaker 1: you know. So I think I would rather have Hades
Speaker 1: two on a plane. My pick for a winner would
Speaker 1: be Megabonk. I mean, yeah, reasons we said it was
Speaker 1: like seven hours yesterday on a nine and a half
Speaker 1: hour flight. I it was by the time I looked up,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh my god, we have two hours left
Speaker 1: in the flight. This is amazing.
Speaker 4: Megabonk is my ultimate time melting game because I don't
Speaker 4: get stressed when I play it, but I do have
Speaker 4: fun when I play it, and I don't need to
Speaker 4: know shit before I play it.
Speaker 1: Perfect again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, brilliant. And also if you
Speaker 1: want to listen to a podcast, it's great for that too,
Speaker 1: So yeah, podcast game playing game.
Speaker 4: I honestly think second is Ballpit. I think it's it's
Speaker 4: very very good for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these are three great playing games. Outrageous, it's just
Speaker 1: so fun.
Speaker 3: All right, So Fire Escapes best playing game of twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five is Megabonk.
Speaker 1: I guess we started saying that the runners up to
Speaker 1: like and runners up run Haites two and Ballock's Pit
Speaker 1: excellent two hours. Do you want to do a break
Speaker 1: or you want to do we could do a break here?
Speaker 1: Yeah as well? All right, we are back and our
Speaker 1: next category is games game that is actually funny sorry,
Speaker 1: I can't read. First nominee is Peak Repo r V.
Speaker 1: Therea Arc Raiders Deliver at All Costs.
Speaker 5: King Oh, Kingdom Come Deliverance.
Speaker 1: Two two Claire Obscure Expedition thirty three, Death Stranding two
Speaker 1: on the Beach Baby Steps. Now this is interesting because
Speaker 1: I think there's a breakdown like the first view on
Speaker 1: here or actually vers four are not about comedy writing.
Speaker 1: They're about kind of emergent gameplay and humor and you know,
Speaker 1: friend slop type stuff. Well not Arc Raiders, but you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. It's emergent stuff. And then the
Speaker 1: other ones are largely writing, although I don't really know
Speaker 1: Kingdom Come Deliverance too. Jake, what is the is it? Uh?
Speaker 3: I think Mike and I kind of talked about this
Speaker 3: when we were setting up, but I just think like
Speaker 3: the simulation aspects of that game can put you into
Speaker 3: some very funny situations, like if you don't shower, people
Speaker 3: will smell you, and that can lead to consequences because
Speaker 3: you stink. So it's you end up in situations that
Speaker 3: you didn't necessarily plan for because of the world and
Speaker 3: how it reacts to the player, I think makes it funny.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's laugh out loud funny the
Speaker 3: way that like maybe some of this other stuff is.
Speaker 3: But I do think it says a lot about the
Speaker 3: game design and how those instances can be very interesting
Speaker 3: and tailored to the player. There's stories that you kind
Speaker 3: of create yourself through how you're playing the game, rather
Speaker 3: than like writing it's.
Speaker 1: Systems driven humor in the way that like Hitman can be,
Speaker 1: or like a Red Dead two. I feel like I
Speaker 1: keep hearing about Red Dead two when this game's talked about.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, kind of yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Similarly, I would say there's for this list. I
Speaker 3: think there's a clear break between games where the developers
Speaker 3: give you the tools to make the comedy and ones
Speaker 3: that are written with the express purpose of being funny.
Speaker 3: I would say clear obscure Exhibition thirty three. I don't
Speaker 3: think of that largely as a funny game. I think
Speaker 3: there are funny moments, So certain characters are funny.
Speaker 1: Who's the chubby guy Monaco or the big balloon man.
Speaker 5: Yeah he's funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's funny, and he sounds like Javier Bardem Spoogie.
Speaker 1: What was his name? Yep, that's his name. We're going
Speaker 1: with Spoogie. Okay, yes, Spoojie is pretty funny. I don't
Speaker 1: know where that is.
Speaker 5: He's made of wine.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that gave some weird stuff. The geest rolls
Speaker 1: and stuff are very funny. I think the gestrols are hilarious.
Speaker 1: The the big mechs that they're making to defend the village.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure the translation Soka patat just means sack
Speaker 1: of potatoes, which is very funny. I could be very wrong.
Speaker 1: It's probably French speakers or like this. I mean, I
Speaker 1: thought it was really funny. I say, let's keep that
Speaker 1: from now. One that I put on there just because
Speaker 1: I didn't know where else he would even be mentioned.
Speaker 1: Is Deliver It All Costs. This is a weird thing
Speaker 1: where it's like Kanami. I feel like, you know, we've
Speaker 1: talked about this year because like wow, they're kind of
Speaker 1: back with like you know, Silent Hill too and Miligar
Speaker 1: Delton Silent Hill f They're kind of like, wow, they're
Speaker 1: making games again. They also made this original game, Deliver
Speaker 1: It All Costs that I think it was based on
Speaker 1: like a demo or something, but it's just a goofy
Speaker 1: ass isometric delivery game and it's just like, oh, I
Speaker 1: gotta spray paint these watermelons and you know, resell them
Speaker 1: because they were rotting, and so like it just a
Speaker 1: lot of like very goofy scenarios where it's like I've
Speaker 1: got I'm strapping a swordfish that's alive to my truck
Speaker 1: and I have to drive it and keep it alive
Speaker 1: and have it like drive through crates of fish on
Speaker 1: the way to have it eat so it doesn't die.
Speaker 1: And it's situationally, you know, very funny stuff. It there's
Speaker 1: too much story in this game for what it is.
Speaker 1: But I did like this game a lot. I didn't
Speaker 1: know where else to mention it. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: going to be in the top three here, I'm fine
Speaker 1: cutting it, Okay, it's gone cool. Oh man destranding too,
Speaker 1: So I.
Speaker 3: Mean, looking at this, I think both Peak and Repo
Speaker 3: are funny games, but I think Peak is funnier and
Speaker 3: those I don't know not to I'm tired of the
Speaker 3: friend slob term and everything, and that kind of reduces
Speaker 3: what some of these games are.
Speaker 1: But I feel like they are kind of related in
Speaker 1: a way. And the comedy I hadn't Peak, I think
Speaker 1: is so much funnier than they're close. I mean we
Speaker 1: doing and like it changes your voice and stuff your control.
Speaker 1: You was so funny, like barfing everywhere, Like it's pretty funny. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's funny.
Speaker 3: We talked about proximity Chat with our creators, but didn't
Speaker 3: mention it with Repo. Did they use the prox chat
Speaker 3: for those.
Speaker 4: I don't think we should compare similar genres and be
Speaker 4: like it's one that's the funniest. Sure, I think I
Speaker 4: think that it's possible friend slop will be the killer
Speaker 4: for this genre because it is so funny what happens
Speaker 4: in Repo, even when you're not trying to be funny.
Speaker 5: Everything in there has a price.
Speaker 4: And if you even if you dink it on a wall,
Speaker 4: you lose like twenty bucks. It's funny when like Dan
Speaker 4: is the only person left, none of us are there playing.
Speaker 1: Alone, running around yelling Jake. Hell, you get a vase
Speaker 1: and you dink it and you're just like ship chitch. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's like fun And so if you were not a
Speaker 1: patron of the video tier, we did play this game
Speaker 1: and put it up on our Patreon, so check it out.
Speaker 1: That was a fun Yeah, yeah, I keep it so
Speaker 1: if we're just talking like there's four proc chat games
Speaker 1: on here, Peak Repo or be there yet and Arc Raiders,
Speaker 1: I would say cut arc Raiders. There are definitely funny
Speaker 1: things that happened in that game counts just because it was.
Speaker 1: I think that's what makes it funny is it's so serious.
Speaker 3: Have the stupidest like like the I think the I mean,
Speaker 3: I guess I should rewatch the Repo thing to see
Speaker 3: how funny it was.
Speaker 1: But that thing, that clip we took out of Mike
Speaker 1: with it, I don't endorse what he did. I think
Speaker 1: that was bad. Yeah, I was mercy killing him. We
Speaker 1: already riddled him with bullet holes. Another Patreon video we
Speaker 1: did funny it's I did see some comments like, you
Speaker 1: guys are ruining this game. This off they gave it.
Speaker 3: That's without any uncivility, there cannot the civility cannot shine through.
Speaker 1: I need to be the darkness that the light off
Speaker 1: and anti morelity.
Speaker 3: I teamed up with some random players and we're working
Speaker 3: on like, hey, have you guys killed a leaper before?
Speaker 1: And they're like no, I'm like, let's kill a leaper.
Speaker 1: I'm like okay.
Speaker 3: So we're like on a building and they're thinking they're
Speaker 3: safe and it jumps up and they scream into Proximity Chat. Yeah,
Speaker 3: one guy falls off, the thing hits the wall, tumbles down,
Speaker 3: everyone scatters and we're screaming.
Speaker 1: We don't know who's friendly or not, Like there is
Speaker 1: something special about it.
Speaker 3: And I think for me, why I love Proximity Chat
Speaker 3: in that game is because that's what makes it funny
Speaker 3: in my opinion, the interactions. I will say, though, there
Speaker 3: are some really awful people that you might run into
Speaker 3: that just sure, and that is not funny at all.
Speaker 1: I do think some of the funniest moments I've seen
Speaker 1: get like when I was playing on Giant Bond with
Speaker 1: my sister Kayla and she scared off the entire team
Speaker 1: just by like eating them into the mic. It's like,
Speaker 1: that's one of the funniest things I've seen definitely this
Speaker 1: year in games, and it's like they give you Like
Speaker 1: I do think it's that dissonance between like how serious
Speaker 1: the game is, like you mentioned, and how like just
Speaker 1: funny these situations is random.
Speaker 3: Players too, right, you know with Peek and Repo RV
Speaker 3: there yet it's friends. So I think that adds an
Speaker 3: element of predictability into like how they're gonna react.
Speaker 1: What do we cut here? I know it's hard.
Speaker 4: I mean I think we have to just think about,
Speaker 4: like how funny these games are. I will I will
Speaker 4: volunteer one. I think that r V There Yet is
Speaker 4: so fucking funny. And watching your friends smoke SIGs while
Speaker 4: they're like trying to figure out how to get an
Speaker 4: RV through these mud pits is so This game is
Speaker 4: so funny, you guys, And I put it on this
Speaker 4: list for a reason.
Speaker 1: I adore this game.
Speaker 5: I remember one of my friends being like, I'm.
Speaker 4: Gonna go Scout Ahead, running back from the woods, going
Speaker 4: bear bear bear bear bear, Like a bear just rips
Speaker 4: them apart.
Speaker 1: This game is so so good.
Speaker 4: These all can't freaking win. And I don't think r
Speaker 4: V Area Yet is as funny. I will fight to
Speaker 4: the death. I think Peak is one of the funniest
Speaker 4: goddamn games I've played all year. I had the best
Speaker 4: memories of of like my life this year playing Peak
Speaker 4: with my friends, Like that is so important to me.
Speaker 1: That one I will fight for. But I can't fight
Speaker 1: for all of these.
Speaker 3: There's something so funny about Peak, where it's just like
Speaker 3: you know your friends like maybe a little ahead of you,
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden, like they're making a
Speaker 3: jump and they just miss and you watch them die
Speaker 3: and you're like, Okay, well sorry, I gotta keep going,
Speaker 3: and they're like bleeding out down.
Speaker 1: There, and we're talking about proximity chat.
Speaker 5: It's so funny hearing someone go.
Speaker 3: And then and then ahead and they're just like it's like, hey,
Speaker 3: have you seen so and so, like, oh, they're dead.
Speaker 1: Do we cut babies? Yes?
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, like, I think that game's frustrations
Speaker 3: start getting in the way in the comedy real.
Speaker 1: No, I do think that, like the actual way they
Speaker 1: recorded the dialogue and everything, like when Bennet Fatti shows up,
Speaker 1: and like some of that dialogue is like awkward in
Speaker 1: a way, and we're kind of realistic in a way
Speaker 1: the games writing typically isn't. It's just weird and abstract
Speaker 1: in a way. That made me laugh quite a bit.
Speaker 1: But I don't know the game itself. I didn't like
Speaker 1: enough to keep playing.
Speaker 4: So like, it's very funny the idea of like this
Speaker 4: person being like you sure you don't want this map?
Speaker 4: The game would be a lot easier, and the guys
Speaker 4: like I don't want it, and he's like you sure,
Speaker 4: and I'm.
Speaker 5: The player, I'm like, please give me the please give
Speaker 5: it to me.
Speaker 4: I think that's funny having the camera be like kind
Speaker 4: of ass focused and it's just this sweaty ass, sweaty
Speaker 4: fat ass.
Speaker 1: Trying to get through these things.
Speaker 5: It's a very funny game.
Speaker 4: But I think collectively we probably all agree we didn't
Speaker 4: love playing this game. And for me, there are games
Speaker 4: that I would fight for more, so it was I
Speaker 4: think it's it was meant to be extremely funny and
Speaker 4: it works for so many people.
Speaker 1: I don't like playing it, but I like watching other
Speaker 1: people play it. Okay. I also like, I think Kingdom
Speaker 1: Come Delivers can probably go. Can I just say that?
Speaker 4: So, Like, I mean, I know you're gonna cut it,
Speaker 4: but like I would just say, like the idea that
Speaker 4: we have we're cutting Baby Steps, and like, are we
Speaker 4: sure we're gonna cut it? Before Death Stranding him, I
Speaker 4: was just gonna like, yeah, Baby Steps is funnier than
Speaker 4: those games.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like Death Stranding two is really filled
Speaker 1: with that kind of very weird kaJama humor that I
Speaker 1: always have been a sucker for, Like doll Man's fucking funny.
Speaker 1: Uh Like, I think I've told the story before about
Speaker 1: how like the little things they program in where it's
Speaker 1: like he was mid sentenced and I started getting waist
Speaker 1: high in water and he's hanging off my belt and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, his voice like, hey, Sam, you
Speaker 1: should go that. I like started laughing at this preview
Speaker 1: event in Japan, playing like God, that's so fucking funny.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think laughing out loud is something we should
Speaker 4: talk about. Like I thought there were funny jokes in
Speaker 4: Clare Obscure. It's not very often that I laughed out
Speaker 4: loud and was like that.
Speaker 1: Hurts my sides.
Speaker 4: There are games on this list where I was crying
Speaker 4: because I was laughing so hard, And I think, if
Speaker 4: it didn't do that, then we have to start.
Speaker 5: We have to start taking an ax to it.
Speaker 3: I think Kingdom Come Deliverance two falls in the same category.
Speaker 3: It's like, you're in a lot of funny situations, but
Speaker 3: I'm not like Belly laughing.
Speaker 1: But I didn't play a whole lot.
Speaker 3: Of it either, So maybe that's like an we cut it.
Speaker 3: I would cut both of those. They have funny moments,
Speaker 3: for sure, but so we're down.
Speaker 4: I think I think we should cut tet stranding too.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's that like splitting sides funny.
Speaker 1: I don't how much did you play of it? Not
Speaker 1: a lot? Sixty hours and I didn't laugh. I agree
Speaker 1: with Dan.
Speaker 3: There's many moments where I was like, this, that's really
Speaker 3: fucking funny, and also like the pizza dough stuff is.
Speaker 3: Initially I'm like that's funny, but then the more I
Speaker 3: saw it, the more I'm like, this is actually stupid,
Speaker 3: and like this is just cutting room floor the game,
Speaker 3: like you know, in a.
Speaker 1: Something.
Speaker 3: I'm not blaming the people who like I just don't
Speaker 3: think it's as I think the real humor in games
Speaker 3: for this year for me was game the games where
Speaker 3: we had the tools to be funny as people, and
Speaker 3: then they were just kind of amplifying that.
Speaker 1: I'm fine cutting us training too, Like, yeah, this this
Speaker 1: was a hell of a year for prox chat and Mary.
Speaker 1: Your judgment on this, I very much you, because I
Speaker 1: know you've played the most of these.
Speaker 4: The idea of like your side splitting, you're losing your
Speaker 4: mind because you're laughing so much. That happened to me
Speaker 4: in Arc Repo and Peak. These are the funniest goddamn
Speaker 4: games of the year. Like bar nun I will die
Speaker 4: on this hill. I think that these are all winners,
Speaker 4: and they're winners in different ways.
Speaker 1: Repo is designed to make you laugh. It is designed
Speaker 1: to have a funny.
Speaker 4: There's a duck that looks yeah and then grows giant
Speaker 4: teeth and eats you. These things are meant to elicit
Speaker 4: funny responses from your friends.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think Repo. Okay, I think Peak
Speaker 1: might be a better game. Yeah, I think Repo might
Speaker 1: be funnier.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's when everybody else is dead and we're all watching,
Speaker 3: like hiding under a table as the ducks or circling.
Speaker 1: The tables play Somebody Is Anybody?
Speaker 3: N and Philip heads and say that's supposed to be
Speaker 3: funny in a way Arc Raiders is.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's intentionally funny, tending to be funny,
Speaker 1: funny because.
Speaker 3: We're funny people, like I'm I'm the funniest person I know.
Speaker 3: That's why our Raiders is funny to me. But like
Speaker 3: Peak and Repo, I think I think Repo is definitely
Speaker 3: just not yeah, all right, well, Fire escapes game that
Speaker 3: is actually funny is Repo, and the runner ups were Peak.
Speaker 1: And Arc Raiders excellent.
Speaker 3: And the next category is a new game that most
Speaker 3: seems like an old game.
Speaker 1: It's an important distinction there. It's not best game that
Speaker 1: seems like an old game. This is new game that
Speaker 1: most seems like an old game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you watched last year, or if you watched
Speaker 3: all of our game of the years, we changed the
Speaker 3: wording there because it was getting it.
Speaker 1: Why that like we picked one and it's like, well,
Speaker 1: we're saying that that's better like that kind of yeah. Anyway,
Speaker 1: and all of these are good.
Speaker 5: This is about embracing an old.
Speaker 1: Game, bringing the feeling back of an older game, and
Speaker 1: reviving nostalgia. The good good Go ahead nominees. Then your
Speaker 1: guide in Rage Bound and you go in four Tainted Grail,
Speaker 1: The Fall of Avalon Shanobi, Art of Vengeance, Luminous Arise,
Speaker 1: Once Upon a Katamari Metroid Prime four Beyond Lego Party.
Speaker 5: Luminous Rise. Didn't we have that on there?
Speaker 1: Kirby air Riders, Oh boy, does Kirby air Riders look
Speaker 1: like an old game? No, this most seems like an
Speaker 1: old game. Yea, So it's one of that feels most
Speaker 1: like you remember an old game feeling.
Speaker 3: I think the weird thing about Kirby A Riders is
Speaker 3: like it is very similar to that original, but I
Speaker 3: just every once in a while I kind of really
Speaker 3: see him again, like oh yeah, yeah, he's talking.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: But but I think no other game has really done
Speaker 3: with Kirby Air Ride. There's has done since then, so
Speaker 3: it's like, I don't know, it just feels like Kirby
Speaker 3: Air Riders, I guess, or Kirby Air Ride, but it's
Speaker 3: more polished. I mean, does it feel like how you
Speaker 3: remember playing the old GameCube game, Yes, but I mean
Speaker 3: it feels better, like it is a more complete, better
Speaker 3: like it is. It has that Sacharai polish that I
Speaker 3: guess was in the original, but like it feels like
Speaker 3: a fallow up to Smash Bros. I I it makes
Speaker 3: sense to be in this category, but I don't know
Speaker 3: if we'd cut it right away, but I think if
Speaker 3: it's coming down to it, I think that could be
Speaker 3: one that might make sense.
Speaker 1: I think an easy cut. And I also think it
Speaker 1: might be the best game on this list is Shanoby
Speaker 1: because it's using the IP but it's like it is
Speaker 1: just too polished and modern feeling, and it's like it
Speaker 1: is kind of Shanoby in name only and the fact
Speaker 1: that you're a ninja. You know.
Speaker 3: It's it's also like just gorgeous in a way that
Speaker 3: like I don't think reminds me of anything old.
Speaker 1: It actually looks like a new Yeah, it doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like a Justice game by any means, so I think
Speaker 1: we can cut that. But yeah, I also it's one
Speaker 1: of the better games this list. Same with Radbound, I
Speaker 1: would say, same with Ragebound.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 5: Rage Bound feels classic.
Speaker 1: That sprite art is very modern sprite art. I mean
Speaker 1: maybe like Saturn had some detailed stuff like that, but
Speaker 1: like the old Ninja Guiden games certainly didn't look or
Speaker 1: feel like in the same way as I was saying Shinobe.
Speaker 1: It just kind of feels modern like some of those mechanics,
Speaker 1: and definitely the spright art it feels more modern to me.
Speaker 1: What about Ninja Gaiden for that, I think feels a
Speaker 1: lot like I remember those old the Xbox Ninja Gaiden
Speaker 1: is feeling because everyone just has that weird like action
Speaker 1: figure plastic kind of slick. Everything just looks wet and
Speaker 1: plastic in a way that I remember, like playing that
Speaker 1: two thousand and four to one mic Okay got really excited. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the way it feels it, it feels like just
Speaker 1: one of those, you know, the stylish action genre as
Speaker 1: we used to call it a game and former like
Speaker 1: it straight from the mid two thousands. It doesn't really
Speaker 1: feel like they added a lot. There are new mechanics
Speaker 1: and stuff in it, like that we'd blood raven mode
Speaker 1: or whatever, but like that feels like something that could
Speaker 1: have been in an Guiden game in two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven or whatever, you know, So I
Speaker 1: wouldn't cut that quite yet.
Speaker 3: Uh taintan grail can probably that's when I put in
Speaker 3: But it is like a Skyrim. They basically did what
Speaker 3: Bethesda did but made it. I'd hesitate to say better,
Speaker 3: but it's probably a more interesting game because we've seen
Speaker 3: Skyrim so many times. But I think I'm the only
Speaker 3: one who played it, and I didn't play a whole
Speaker 3: lot of it. But it scratches that Skyrim mitch in
Speaker 3: a way that I'm like, yeah, I've I recognized this.
Speaker 1: I think an interesting thing. The way to think about
Speaker 1: this is like if one of these games had been
Speaker 1: released era era appropriate and you're playing back on a
Speaker 1: CRT or like Luminous, if you're playing on a PSP,
Speaker 1: would you even bat an eye you know? Or does
Speaker 1: it just feel like it is from that era that
Speaker 1: it's kind of going back to you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: It's like Lego Party. I think I would cut because
Speaker 1: Lego Party feels like a modern Mario Party. It feels snappier,
Speaker 1: it feels like there's quality of life and stuff that
Speaker 1: the Mario Party series never had. That's fair, No, we
Speaker 1: can about that. No, No, I'm not sure about that.
Speaker 1: I think it feels it's too good to feel like
Speaker 1: an old Mario Party game. Yeah. Whereas like, yeah, think
Speaker 1: about like Kirbyer writers, like you know, Jake, if we
Speaker 1: travel back in time to you in a couple of
Speaker 1: years after the first Kirby aer writers came out and
Speaker 1: gave that to you on a GameCube disc, would you
Speaker 1: be like, this seems like it's from the future or
Speaker 1: would it seem.
Speaker 3: Like no, it would it would be like, oh, wow,
Speaker 3: they made a sequel to Kirby Yeah, it feels ra appropriate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, that's why I would say cut raid found
Speaker 1: I think I mean if You're back to the days
Speaker 1: of two D and Ninja Guid and that would feel weird.
Speaker 3: What about so this is one that I think only
Speaker 3: you have really played, Dan, I've played a couple hours.
Speaker 1: But Metroid Prime flour Beyond. I see that here it
Speaker 1: it feels a lot like it could have been a
Speaker 1: sequel to Metroid Prime one.
Speaker 5: I do think is this the right category for it.
Speaker 1: I don't think it is. It's there's a it's such
Speaker 1: a weird one because graphically it kind of looks the
Speaker 1: way I remember Metroid Prime one looking back then, even
Speaker 1: though I know it's a lot higher fidelity, But nothing
Speaker 1: about the design of it is anything that couldn't have
Speaker 1: been done on the game cube. You know, Uh, I
Speaker 1: would cut Katamari or over Metroid. I think so Katamari
Speaker 1: has gotten these online features and co op and stuff
Speaker 1: that the old ones said. I like, it adds stuff
Speaker 1: like the Yeah, it's it's got like co op modes
Speaker 1: and stuff. It doesn't. It's added stuff that like PS
Speaker 1: two games didn't have. We've got we need to cut one.
Speaker 3: We've got Ninja Gidding four, Luminous Arise, Metroid Prime four Beyond,
Speaker 3: Kirby aer Riders, I did say I think kirbyer Writers
Speaker 3: is probably like on the on the chopping block, it's
Speaker 3: really if it comes down to it.
Speaker 4: I think I would fight for a Ninja Guide in
Speaker 4: for I think it's a good fit for this category.
Speaker 1: It belongs here. I think it's up Okay, I think
Speaker 1: Loom this is very much like again that could have
Speaker 1: come out on the PSP. And do we think it's
Speaker 1: two thousand and six prime in where it could be
Speaker 1: in this category? Two? Do you think it's between prime
Speaker 1: in air Writers for That's.
Speaker 4: What I'm trying to say. Yeah, it's like we know
Speaker 4: they're ones able to cut. Well, I'm saying these are
Speaker 4: two that are locks, so they're not up for discussion,
Speaker 4: but we have to cut one.
Speaker 1: I think Kirby air Riders have a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: like you know the online city Trials mode.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the online I think is a good example of
Speaker 3: like they didn't do that, you know, like yeah it
Speaker 3: was Yeah, I think that's yeah.
Speaker 1: I think Kirby aer Writers. I kind of think the
Speaker 1: one I would pick to win this would be Luminous
Speaker 1: Arise because it's like, obviously the resolution is much better,
Speaker 1: but like if you put those down on PSP in
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, two thousand and seven and told
Speaker 1: me it was just the sequel to Luminous and took
Speaker 1: it back to me in college. I'd be like, sweet,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't Batny, you know. I mean, I think you're
Speaker 1: the only one who's played all three of these, so
Speaker 1: I would say Luminous, Okay, Luminous all right.
Speaker 3: The runner ups are Ninja Gaiden four and Metroid Prime four.
Speaker 3: Beyond new game that most seems like an old game
Speaker 3: winner is Luminous Arise.
Speaker 1: Right, Wait the runner up? Would you say? The runner up?
Speaker 1: I did figuring out the format here how I want? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Runners up first, like three.
Speaker 1: Hours into the show is it's a living document. We
Speaker 1: have next category who I'm looking forward to? This most
Speaker 1: up its own ass. Your nominees are Blueprints, Baby Steps,
Speaker 1: Split Fiction, Wander Stop, Dispatch, Mike Maharty. You just want
Speaker 1: to give it to Mike and move on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, he's a shoe in, But I think
Speaker 4: we can talk about why we think some of these
Speaker 4: are up their own ass.
Speaker 3: We put me on here specifically because there's a game
Speaker 3: called Hegante and Jake said, like Giant, We're like, I
Speaker 3: think it's age. I'm just speaking for forty three million Americans. Sorry,
Speaker 3: but uh. And then I also said FATA level thinking
Speaker 3: at some point to describe a post that's not it
Speaker 3: today like this, Actually, Dan was the winner last year.
Speaker 3: I remember when last year it's like, oh, it was
Speaker 3: me somehow, Dan one.
Speaker 4: I think there's a lot that we can say for
Speaker 4: so many of these, and we should get into it
Speaker 4: a little bit. I think they all have reasons to
Speaker 4: be on here. Blueprints has an arrogance to it.
Speaker 1: It just really.
Speaker 3: I feel like charming, and like, yeah, I felt it
Speaker 3: was charming in Earnest, Like yeah, at the beginning, it's like,
Speaker 3: thank you so much for coming home.
Speaker 1: You inherited the mansion. There's a lot you learn about it.
Speaker 3: And then past that, I was like, it always felt
Speaker 3: very cozy to me almost in the storytelling, and I
Speaker 3: think it's.
Speaker 1: Totally fitting for just kind of this mystery and the
Speaker 1: backstory of this, like you know, kingdom and things like
Speaker 1: that in the house itself, and like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: to me, it all just kind of fit. It felt right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there's more aggressors on here, but I
Speaker 4: think there there were times when I felt like that
Speaker 4: game smelled its own farts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I like this and I'm kind
Speaker 1: of with Mary here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it gets a bit up its own ass,
Speaker 3: but I don't know if it's further up its own ass.
Speaker 1: Than some of these.
Speaker 4: There's worse contenders, and I would actually even say it
Speaker 4: can be deleted. I'm just saying I think it deserved
Speaker 4: to be on here, but I think there are ones.
Speaker 1: That are silk Song on here, like the more right here.
Speaker 1: Everybody talks some song should be on this list. It
Speaker 1: wasn't on here. You had a chance out there.
Speaker 3: Just putting it out there. Uh yeah, Blueprints sometimes was
Speaker 3: full of itself, but I think it earned it. I
Speaker 3: would agree. I think we could strike that. Okay, let's
Speaker 3: get that.
Speaker 1: I want I want to hear the argument from Baby
Speaker 1: Steps to stay on or take for why it's up
Speaker 1: atone ass because it's not my favorite game. But like
Speaker 1: I was more just kind of like laughing at it
Speaker 1: than like when I think of like uptone ass, I
Speaker 1: think of like pretentious. I'm kind of rolling my eyes.
Speaker 3: I think it was when Chris Plant described Baby Steps
Speaker 3: that I started thinking it was pretentious. It might not
Speaker 3: be the game no No. Chris Plant always has a
Speaker 3: way of like, describe me a game away. I haven't
Speaker 3: thought of it before, so I think that was just
Speaker 3: maybe why.
Speaker 1: You're like new ideas pretentious. Yay, exactly, I don't. I
Speaker 1: haven't played enough of Babies. I feel like I've heard
Speaker 1: some people talk about like there's that final like man
Speaker 1: breaker thing where it's like, here's this crazy mountain that
Speaker 1: you have to climb and it's just the stupid thing.
Speaker 1: You got to beat your head against time and time
Speaker 1: again and you fall down everything. But then the game
Speaker 1: gives you like an easy staircase you can use to
Speaker 1: get to the top. And I feel like I saw
Speaker 1: some like Blue Sky chatter like wow, this is like
Speaker 1: a real meta commentary on gaming and how like should
Speaker 1: we take the easy route? And it also extends to
Speaker 1: like life choices like do we take the easy We're
Speaker 1: so quick to take the easy route. There's a star
Speaker 1: staircase right there. Just accept help and you can go
Speaker 1: up it. Don't make it harder. I don't know. You're
Speaker 1: a guy in the onesie if you want to climb
Speaker 1: the mountain or up.
Speaker 3: The stairs, up his butt this which is why, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it balances out. I think in a way that at
Speaker 3: least for the two hours I tried the game, it worked.
Speaker 3: I just didn't is the game of.
Speaker 1: Its own ass or is it just people playing it
Speaker 1: and needing stuff to sayd Blue sp That's connected.
Speaker 4: Because if you're interpreting art as this like unbelievable existential
Speaker 4: experience but ultimately or just this like dude who keeps
Speaker 4: falling downstairs.
Speaker 1: Into wet wet mud, I question.
Speaker 4: Genuinely how much you extrapolated from that experience and how
Speaker 4: much you put your own thoughts into it and said,
Speaker 4: this is a really deep experience.
Speaker 1: And that's what I think is. I think it is
Speaker 1: a lot of people that just wanted stuff to say
Speaker 1: I'm Blue Sky or which is.
Speaker 3: Cool that I can like speak to people in that way.
Speaker 3: So I don't know that it makes the game up
Speaker 3: its own ass though.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. I'm arguing that, like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's not my favorite game this year, but like I
Speaker 1: didn't think of it as pretentious. You know, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think maybe some people in Blue Sky are pretentious. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so we cutting it or should we talk about the
Speaker 1: other ones first? I think we could cut that. What
Speaker 1: the fuck is Wonder Wonder Stop. Wander Stop is the
Speaker 1: game where you make tea. Okay, no, actually I know
Speaker 1: what you're talking about now. Actually did seem to have
Speaker 1: a really good aesthetic and everything. I really wanted to
Speaker 1: like this game.
Speaker 4: I really like the concept of meeting people and they're like,
Speaker 4: I need to be I'm stressed, so I need to
Speaker 4: be relaxed. But I also need to be able to
Speaker 4: process serious thoughts, and so I'm like, okay, I need
Speaker 4: to tee. That relaxes you, but it also allows you
Speaker 4: to process difficult thinking.
Speaker 1: What does that? Is?
Speaker 5: You to find herbs. There's a book where you like
Speaker 5: find what herbs.
Speaker 1: Would suit them.
Speaker 4: Mike, you and I played this game ages ago where
Speaker 4: we like had to concoct specific herbs into.
Speaker 1: Oh strange horticulture, yeah or no the same year.
Speaker 5: There's two of them that were really so similar.
Speaker 1: Alchemists or potions.
Speaker 4: Some potions, potion, alchemists whatever, So you had to brew
Speaker 4: these potions to solve issues.
Speaker 1: And I love games like that. So I was like,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to play this.
Speaker 4: But this game is very talky, and you would go
Speaker 4: through ten pages of dialogue about how this person was
Speaker 4: like going through all this drama in their life and
Speaker 4: they've really lost touch with their sister, but they like
Speaker 4: do love their mom, and they they also would like
Speaker 4: a sweet tea that has jasmine. And it's just like,
Speaker 4: all right, Like what am I doing here? And I
Speaker 4: found that I was spending so much more time listening
Speaker 4: to people and determining their trauma and trying.
Speaker 5: To solve very serious issues.
Speaker 4: And this game makes an effort to say, hey, we're
Speaker 4: solving serious issues, but ultimately I'm I'm I'm just a
Speaker 4: tea brewer here, Like I can't solve all this stuff.
Speaker 4: I didn't feel sold that I had agency to fix
Speaker 4: these things. I felt like I was just giving them
Speaker 4: a cup of tea. And then they were like, I
Speaker 4: am back, baby, and then ran out the door. And
Speaker 4: I was like, I don't know if it earned that.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it earned it. I don't know
Speaker 4: if they I needed all this backstory. Your own character
Speaker 4: as well, and this is why I put it on
Speaker 4: this list. Your own character has your own trauma. You're
Speaker 4: like a warrior, but you don't want to fight anymore,
Speaker 4: so you're making tea and it gives you these options
Speaker 4: as a character. When someone says do you like, you know,
Speaker 4: do you like what you're doing here? And like making tea,
Speaker 4: and your three options would be something like, no, I
Speaker 4: don't like it because I want to be a warrior.
Speaker 4: It would be like, yes, but I miss being a warrior,
Speaker 4: and the third one would be like, I have so
Speaker 4: much trauma, but Tea's fine, And I'm like, all of
Speaker 4: these are awful, and none of these give me an
Speaker 4: identity that's different. They're all you forced me to be
Speaker 4: a sad person that wishes that they were a warrior
Speaker 4: and has.
Speaker 5: To now make tea.
Speaker 4: So anyway, I feel like it belongs here because it
Speaker 4: didn't allow me to grow, it didn't allow me to
Speaker 4: express myself, and it didn't allow me to solve any
Speaker 4: of these problems. I felt like I was on a
Speaker 4: I felt like I was on a train. I did
Speaker 4: not want to be on you guys, and I could
Speaker 4: not get off, so I quit.
Speaker 3: Like ky, you said it's about tea, and immediate we're like, okay,
Speaker 3: I should be on the.
Speaker 9: Here.
Speaker 1: That's good a context because now I'm like okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I feel there is a certain like you could
Speaker 1: have described a game where you make tea and it's
Speaker 1: like the most merry shit ever and you love it,
Speaker 1: so I think the fact that it rubbed you the
Speaker 1: wrong way is kind of damning of maybe the tone.
Speaker 3: Top one thing that I think we can cut is Dispatch.
Speaker 3: I know, Dan, you suggested it going here because it's
Speaker 3: three things you don't like.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if I even suggested this. I
Speaker 1: just think this, that's the game I would most hate.
Speaker 1: For sure, this I think, yeah, I think you most
Speaker 1: hate it, but yeah it is. I mean there's like
Speaker 1: dick jokes almost immediately, like it is a very like
Speaker 1: come like there's a lot of uh like humor that
Speaker 1: y that's Marvel type humor no no, no, no okay
Speaker 1: type first episode at least, and it's not even snarky.
Speaker 1: It's I think the writing is really good in this game,
Speaker 1: but like it's not up its own ass. I think
Speaker 1: they're aware of they're they're they're doing the whole like
Speaker 1: superhero thing without being annoying about it. And also but
Speaker 1: they're also tearing down the superhero thing without being like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna dissect superhero fiction. But like they kind of
Speaker 1: are in a very grounded way, which I appreciate, but
Speaker 1: I don't give a shit about superheroes and they I
Speaker 1: think they know that it's it's reached its last legs,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I don't know. Like that team's still really
Speaker 1: good at writing a lot of stuff, and I think
Speaker 1: they distanced themselves from the material enough.
Speaker 3: But even like I'd say, compared to like some of
Speaker 3: the tell Tale games that I have played, it felt
Speaker 3: like those games are trying to answer much bigger questions
Speaker 3: than this, And you know, with the Telltale games, I
Speaker 3: think it's pretty hit or miss. Like sometimes I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: you came to you know, this is interesting, But I
Speaker 3: think Dispatch kind of knows what it is and it
Speaker 3: tells that story and you know, you may look at
Speaker 3: it and think it sucks, but I don't think it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't. It doesn't stream up its own ass to me,
Speaker 1: and I think we cut it. I did add one here, Okay,
Speaker 1: argument we're adding that.
Speaker 3: Can we add Hollow Night Silk Song if we're already
Speaker 3: adding one, I think there needs to be the one
Speaker 3: that's like.
Speaker 1: The most up its own on Mike mahrty I and
Speaker 1: silk Song or you want to talk about Tester. I
Speaker 1: think we're going to add silk Song, but I want
Speaker 1: to hear Jake's argument for dester Hnning. First, did you
Speaker 1: play the same game? I did? Oh my, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I think it is significantly less up its own ass
Speaker 1: than the first game. The first game took itself way
Speaker 1: more seriously. This is the one where it's like, like
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk a little bit of spoilers and stuff.
Speaker 1: It's like it's ending with like guitar battles against you know,
Speaker 1: Tory Baker Joker, while a giant fucking baby comes out
Speaker 1: of the sky and farts and eats you or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's just like there's a little doll man that's on it.
Speaker 1: Like it is a goofy game. This is a silly
Speaker 1: game that is reveling in its goofiness. Sure, it definitely
Speaker 1: has it's like Kajima, you know, just kind of like ponderous,
Speaker 1: you know, Oh, I'm saying really deep stuff right now.
Speaker 1: Like it's got moments of that where it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: settled down Kajima. But overall, I think it is more
Speaker 1: fun than it is up its own ass, you know,
Speaker 1: with even like story wise.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I have a good risk because
Speaker 3: I played sixty hours of that game, and I don't
Speaker 3: remember much of it, so like, I just I don't know, Jim,
Speaker 3: I'm tired of Kajima's writing.
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of where I'm at. But you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just think I just remember thinking it was silly
Speaker 1: more than it was pretentious, you know, And it definitely
Speaker 1: can get pretentious, but the first one was a much
Speaker 1: bigger offender.
Speaker 3: I think you could be silly and still up your
Speaker 3: own ass though, Like, yeah, I think that game is
Speaker 3: up its own ass because like agreed, try being the
Speaker 3: person that tells Kadima not to put something in a game.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I I think it's less deathstreating too is and it's
Speaker 3: more the people who made it sure are up their
Speaker 3: own ass, like oh so like yeah, there are editors
Speaker 3: for a reason, and like that game is the cutting
Speaker 3: room floor of video games to me, And I love this.
Speaker 1: I love this game.
Speaker 3: This is in my top it almost is in my
Speaker 3: top ten, Like I like it quite a bit, but
Speaker 3: like I don't. I just don't think silly and pretentious
Speaker 3: are mutually.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't prevent you from being up your own
Speaker 1: it doesn't, I think ultimately, though, you speaking of pretentious,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's the American dream, right, Lar. I
Speaker 1: think it's the white pick and fins. It's Yeah. For
Speaker 1: those who don't know, read Mike Maharty's Polygon review of
Speaker 1: Death Stranding, which maybe this is the point from Mike
Speaker 1: Maharty on this list.
Speaker 4: You want to make that big a little bigger, Timmy
Speaker 4: says something pretentious.
Speaker 1: Split three, Yeah, Mary, I think you are the one
Speaker 1: who the pretentious are lame. I think it's pretty lame that.
Speaker 4: Comes up to and we have to separate those two.
Speaker 4: But like most of its own ass is something that
Speaker 4: is kind of insisting that.
Speaker 1: It's really good and obvious that we're supposed to really
Speaker 1: like it.
Speaker 4: I sometimes I'm always shocked by how much when I
Speaker 4: play these games, these co op games, I feel like
Speaker 4: it's telling me, Wow, this is so inventive, it's so incredible,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, but a lot of these are really
Speaker 4: basic principles that you're applying. It is awesome to play
Speaker 4: a game with another person, and I've enjoyed playing split
Speaker 4: fiction with a co op person and going through it,
Speaker 4: but so often I'm like, this is really basic mechanic.
Speaker 4: This is a really simplified system, and you've dulled it up,
Speaker 4: or you've made the pigs fart rainbows, like ha ha,
Speaker 4: this is a hot dog random. A lot of times
Speaker 4: I'm actually like, oh, I didn't think that was that
Speaker 4: innovative or interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm trying not to be like too down on it.
Speaker 1: I just didn't. I didn't buy what it was selling.
Speaker 1: A lot. I think those games, I think those studios
Speaker 1: is that studio is incredible at making mechanically impressive, very
Speaker 1: imaginative co op games. But the way I don't want
Speaker 1: to paint the whole studio with a pressure. It's Joseph Ferris.
Speaker 1: The way he talks about this stuff is like he's
Speaker 1: acting like he's creating the greatest video games of all time.
Speaker 1: He did an interview with Ben Hansen where he was
Speaker 1: basically saying like I would basically say this is as
Speaker 1: good as Super Metroid and was like, oh dude, come on.
Speaker 1: It's like so, I think he is extremely up his
Speaker 1: own ass. But I don't want to paint the whole.
Speaker 1: But the game itself is just like it insists upon
Speaker 1: itself in a way where I think it thinks it's
Speaker 1: punching above it. I think it thinks it's more important
Speaker 1: and more innovative than it is. Very good, go up.
Speaker 4: Sometimes the dialogue as well, like the two girls will
Speaker 4: be like, you know what's really the problem.
Speaker 1: It's this corporation and they're taking ideas. Man, wow, what
Speaker 1: a crazy idea.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's not that innovative, but they really it's
Speaker 4: such a simplified concept that they focus on is like
Speaker 4: very important.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the story is just so just like black
Speaker 1: and white, like up nearest corporation. They're stealing ideas and
Speaker 1: we're the authors. Now we're going to play through her creations.
Speaker 1: It's like, all right, I understand where this is like
Speaker 1: a children's book level of like totally, and that's fine
Speaker 1: for me.
Speaker 4: It is for children in that regard, and in that case,
Speaker 4: I would I would respect it as like, I see
Speaker 4: what you know what your audience is. But I'm actually
Speaker 4: not confident that I know who split fictions audiences. It's
Speaker 4: usually like person and others the audience. They're trying to
Speaker 4: make it as broad as possible, I think.
Speaker 1: I think I think all four of us here don't
Speaker 1: necessarily get into like the family game genre. I know
Speaker 1: a lot anecdotally, I know a lot of people who
Speaker 1: find those games this and it takes too. It takes
Speaker 1: to being like very valuable for playing with partners who
Speaker 1: don't play video games, or playing with children or I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that makes it. What's that? Who cares about
Speaker 1: like kids? We don't. That's not our I know.
Speaker 3: I'm just putting it out there. I'm just saying, that's
Speaker 3: what you said. You don't know who it's for, is like,
Speaker 3: it's not for this podcast. But I do think there
Speaker 3: is an audience, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I get it. I get why there's
Speaker 1: an audience. I get why they're successful and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I don't really get what we got. We got a
Speaker 1: cat for the audio listeners. We we have a major
Speaker 1: cat situation happening for the audio listener. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I like slip picture. I might like slip fiction more
Speaker 1: than anyone at this table, but I also kind of
Speaker 1: am annoyed by the whole deal. Oh Jesus, this is
Speaker 1: more important sorry, audio listener, cat's entire head and the US.
Speaker 1: All right, uh so we need to cut one. I
Speaker 1: am okay just cutting death straining because I did add
Speaker 1: it last minute. I would like to cut it.
Speaker 3: I will say, did you guys see that story where
Speaker 3: uh dest straining was getting too good of metacritics.
Speaker 1: Or people to know the preview, the early preview things
Speaker 1: where like people like this too much. It needs to
Speaker 1: be more polarizing, Like, yes, I don't know. That is
Speaker 1: absolutely pretentious, but it's also that ship that I love
Speaker 1: about Kagima. It's oh, bless you for this, like yeah,
Speaker 1: but like knows on about it, but I'm a mark
Speaker 1: for anything. It is a Kajima people like I'm an
Speaker 1: Nintendo mark and I'm sure I love Nintendo stuff, but
Speaker 1: like Kajima is kind of the one guy where's like
Speaker 1: he will do objectively annoying things and I'll be like,
Speaker 1: that guy's great.
Speaker 4: Maybe we should change death Stranding too to Kojima, and
Speaker 4: maybe we should change Split Fiction to Joseph Faris just people.
Speaker 1: We're just change at least two people. I like this. Yes,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Just take out what fiction put Joseph
Speaker 1: Ferris and.
Speaker 4: Then wander stop because it has moments. But it wasn't
Speaker 4: that annoying all right, So.
Speaker 1: It has turned into who is most up their own
Speaker 1: ass Joseph Ferris, Mike Mahardy or Headeo Kajima Mike Mahrty,
Speaker 1: Mike Mahrty, can I make a case for striking? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I feel we have a vote going on here.
Speaker 5: Fortunately the crowd has spoken.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's gotten pretty big. I don't know how
Speaker 1: that happened, but I think I just can't really Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: got too big. I think we got a lot of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, most of its own ass is Mike Mahrty and
Speaker 3: runner up Sir Kajim and Josephairs team chair Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, next up? Oh yeah, Team Cherry. Yeah we
Speaker 1: should have been on there.
Speaker 5: We've moved on.
Speaker 1: Next category is Lamous Tone. Your nominees are Quarterlands four,
Speaker 1: Dying Light, The Beast, Megabank, Split Fiction, Call of Duty,
Speaker 1: Black Ops seven. I'm gonna start.
Speaker 4: I think we all know why we put Megabank on here,
Speaker 4: which is that it says stuff like when you lose,
Speaker 4: It says stuff.
Speaker 1: Like maybe skilly she Yeah, it has.
Speaker 4: Internet humor that doesn't land and I actually really don't
Speaker 4: like when memes are in games like that. But the
Speaker 4: game is so damn good I am willing to let
Speaker 4: it go.
Speaker 3: I would go a step further. I also think it
Speaker 3: should be cut. I'm not saying I like the humor.
Speaker 3: I think there's a reason it's in this game, which
Speaker 3: this game was designed it. Like I there's a very
Speaker 3: real sense that they are making a like very bad looking,
Speaker 3: like almost memeable game in a way that like I again,
Speaker 3: I don't laugh at that game.
Speaker 1: I love that game.
Speaker 3: But the game is so good and it's easy to overlook.
Speaker 3: I do think there's a purpose for putting it in there.
Speaker 3: I would rather not be there, but I think it's
Speaker 3: a game where, like again, you're flying through the air
Speaker 3: with like dual revolvers and sniper rifles and your jump
Speaker 3: is like six hundred percent and it's just a bear.
Speaker 1: Like skateboarding skeleton es skateboarding skeleton.
Speaker 3: It's like it's already like the wrapping is so meaningless,
Speaker 3: and I think they acknowledge that.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know why, Like I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that's the reason they did it for me, like kind
Speaker 1: of fits. They're kind of clever with it, Like it's
Speaker 1: like the Chad character. Chad, he's just like a beeping guy.
Speaker 1: His his skill is aura And it's like I don't
Speaker 1: like that humor at all. I hate it, but I
Speaker 1: think there's like it. There's a it's intentional here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not just there for force spoken to connect with
Speaker 1: the kids. It's not Steve Buscemi with the skateboard.
Speaker 3: It is like, we know what kind of game we're making,
Speaker 3: and we know it's actually really intelligent under this the hood,
Speaker 3: but on the surface, it's a really fucking dumb game.
Speaker 3: And I think they lean into that in a way
Speaker 3: that it's like the humor almost just it's it's part
Speaker 3: and parcel with Chad and the skateboarding skeleton and a
Speaker 3: bush with a sniper rifle sticking out of it with
Speaker 3: googly eyes.
Speaker 1: I honestly, I do kind of like it. Like I
Speaker 1: I like it so much more of the way it
Speaker 1: is than I would if it was just like generic
Speaker 1: fantasy trope like here's the Night, here's the Wizard, here's
Speaker 1: the you know, like that's a pass. Yeah, I say,
Speaker 1: we take it off. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I thought I would hate it way more than I did,
Speaker 3: and all I like, forget it's there until I die.
Speaker 3: It's like him dead. Maybe skill isssue like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: tapping through it.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Man, Black Ops seven is fucking lame,
Speaker 1: but it's lame and kind of that ex just a
Speaker 1: little worse version of the Stave Frosty who like that
Speaker 1: type of it's not fun to talk about how lame
Speaker 1: it is, you know. It's just like, yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: like it's a bad call of duty. It's it's not
Speaker 1: anything we haven't seen before, you know, whereas like I
Speaker 1: think if we're talking that type of lame tone dying
Speaker 1: like the Beast, I don't know how much you've seen
Speaker 1: of that. But even like the name of the main
Speaker 1: character and what this fucking guy looks like. I think
Speaker 1: it's like Kyle Crane or something, and he's just the
Speaker 1: most like just like just generic looking, angry protagonist dude.
Speaker 1: And just the whole tone is just this very Eastern
Speaker 1: European You're just badass dudes, We're good. Like it's just
Speaker 1: like no sense of like there's no sense of self
Speaker 1: awareness of it. You feel like people, the people making
Speaker 1: it were just kind of like this is a badass man,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's like, oh God, you just watched
Speaker 1: this and it's just the lamest.
Speaker 5: Like it's a bummer because lights a sick game.
Speaker 3: The first the first game, the first game was the
Speaker 3: first game is good and second game started dipping its
Speaker 3: toes into this kind of storytelling, and I've tried so
Speaker 3: hard to like too many many times.
Speaker 1: The Beast I did not play, but I sat through
Speaker 1: SGF like one hour demo of this and it was like,
Speaker 1: oh boy, this is a this is just a real
Speaker 1: lame tone. I haven't played it.
Speaker 3: Just keep in mind that whatever we cut like then
Speaker 3: it's just not the Yeah, it's it's our runner up.
Speaker 1: I would cut out of these because I think Dying
Speaker 1: Light and Call of Duty Black Ops seven we are
Speaker 1: talking about two different games with the same type of
Speaker 1: just like the military you who were tone or whatever.
Speaker 1: I think Black Ops seven is. We've seen this before
Speaker 1: before you do that.
Speaker 5: We have not discussed Borderlands for.
Speaker 1: I think that is lamer and like it is toned down.
Speaker 1: It is certainly toned down from the like Borderlands three,
Speaker 1: uh you know, humor or whatever. But it still feels
Speaker 1: like a relic. Uh you know. It definitely feels more
Speaker 1: modern than three did in a lot of ways, from
Speaker 1: gameplay to open world and all that stuff. And the
Speaker 1: villains are not uh streamammers. Yeah, that's the thing. It
Speaker 1: is less lame. It's maybe fifty percent as lame as
Speaker 1: Borderlands three. But Borderlines three is like short list like
Speaker 1: lamest game of all time, you know.
Speaker 3: I would say Borderlines four also is very very contingent
Speaker 3: upon which character you're playing, as there are certain characters
Speaker 3: that use more of that that kind of humor, but.
Speaker 1: But it still doesn't like even at the beginning when
Speaker 1: it's doing the very border Lands like freeze frame, here's
Speaker 1: this person, here's she's a freaking witch, and it's just
Speaker 1: like cut up. It's so fucking it still has enough
Speaker 1: of that. Or I'm like, h like I think I'm
Speaker 1: like audibly like like sighing as you know, yeah, it
Speaker 1: was like call of duty. He's like, man, whatever is stupid?
Speaker 1: You know. Okay, so it's call of duty, we think.
Speaker 1: I then we could call of duty, yeah, which would
Speaker 1: marry Mike. Yeah, I'm okay with it.
Speaker 5: As long as Split Fiction stays.
Speaker 1: All right? Mary, should Split Fiction be the lamest tone game.
Speaker 3: Of the year.
Speaker 4: I based on what Dan is saying, it's really hard
Speaker 4: because sounds like Dying Light was really obnoxious. I think, uh,
Speaker 4: my problem with the tone and Split Fiction is that
Speaker 4: both of the women are really irritating to be around,
Speaker 4: and it's hard to have two people that are both
Speaker 4: the protagonists and not like either of them, and have
Speaker 4: them both have such I can't do anything about it.
Speaker 4: I just have to deal with their their dialogue. Ones
Speaker 4: a city girl and one is you know, country They
Speaker 4: I don't I don't think I really understand their nuances,
Speaker 4: and I don't think they're fair to each other. I
Speaker 4: think their dialogue is poorly written to make them very different,
Speaker 4: but not make them nuanced or really appreciative or understand
Speaker 4: each other.
Speaker 1: They're just.
Speaker 4: Uh, staunchly opposed to each other until they decide the
Speaker 4: corporation is truly the real evil, and I don't think
Speaker 4: that that is earned.
Speaker 1: So capitalism is the real enemy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right. I don't think that, uh, that game
Speaker 5: earns what they're trying to do.
Speaker 4: So I just have to suffer through them constantly saying
Speaker 4: negative things about each other.
Speaker 5: It does remind me of It takes two. I don't
Speaker 5: like hearing.
Speaker 4: Couples basically talk about their divorce through a you know,
Speaker 4: six hour video game and a.
Speaker 1: Lot longer than that was. That was one of my
Speaker 1: main complaints was way too long. Yeah, I wish it
Speaker 1: was six hours. Actually two hours of it, and I
Speaker 1: had to stop because of this, the chatter I just didn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was very core. I guess it's to the point
Speaker 1: where it's kind of like my favorite as far as
Speaker 1: game is still Brothers. It's oh yeah, so understraded and yeah,
Speaker 1: so good. No dialogue and in fact no co op.
Speaker 3: Is just one person playing two characters, and then when
Speaker 3: you can't play both of them, it's fuck, oh shit.
Speaker 4: I will concede that there are times in split fiction
Speaker 4: when I thought, oh, mechanically, I understand what you're trying
Speaker 4: to do here. You're making us talk to each other
Speaker 4: and work together, and they're they're are elements, not as
Speaker 4: many as I would have liked. But there are times
Speaker 4: in split fiction where I will respect the game mechanics
Speaker 4: that they put in for getting us to work together
Speaker 4: cooperatively and communicate effectively. And I think that is actually
Speaker 4: wonderful that they were able to do that. There is
Speaker 4: almost no redeeming dialogue in that game, no, and so
Speaker 4: it is so it is such a bummer that they
Speaker 4: made me listen to those hens gack at each other
Speaker 4: for as long as they did, so that I could
Speaker 4: make us jump through hoops.
Speaker 1: At the same time, I think I really like that argument.
Speaker 1: I do think slip fiction is maybe a front runner here,
Speaker 1: Like I guess Dying Light's tone was so bad and
Speaker 1: that like our demo I saw, It's like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: never playing that slip fiction. I did play the entirety
Speaker 1: of and everything Mary just said, she just said it beautifully.
Speaker 1: It is a It takes what should just be a
Speaker 1: fun co op experience and it's just non stop just
Speaker 1: annoying you.
Speaker 3: And uh yeah, the tone is fucking terrible. No, I
Speaker 3: don't disagree. I would say the I think the thing
Speaker 3: that's hardest with split fiction and with it takes two
Speaker 3: is like I love the fact that there is a
Speaker 3: studio that's like single handedly just trying to make compelling
Speaker 3: couch co op game is still in twenty twenty five way,
Speaker 3: So I think it's like a byproduct of us wanting.
Speaker 3: For me at least, it's a byproduct of wanting the
Speaker 3: quality of the dialogue and storytelling to line up with
Speaker 3: the quality of the gameplay and what they're trying to do,
Speaker 3: because it's really cool and I want them to keep going.
Speaker 4: It's just like Sonra is untapped, make more of these
Speaker 4: games and make them better.
Speaker 1: This is must talking. Yeah, it's just this studio kept
Speaker 1: making those games without dialogue. It's like, Split Fiction is
Speaker 1: a good fucking game. And there's stuff, especially at the
Speaker 1: end of that, like the last hour, so it's doing
Speaker 1: remarkable stuff. And I'm a big couch co op guy.
Speaker 1: I love their games. I hate their tone.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think we're kind of all in agreement
Speaker 3: then that. Uh yeah, that's why I think was I
Speaker 3: think that was it? Okay, lamest tone. Honorable mentions are
Speaker 3: Borderlands for and Dying Like the Beast. But the winner
Speaker 3: is Split Fiction. All right, next category moving along here. Uh,
Speaker 3: this is a fun one and the winner will be
Speaker 3: one that we forgot. But this is things we The
Speaker 3: things we most forgot came out this year.
Speaker 1: The nominees are Monster Hunter, Wilde's Assassin's Creed, Shadows, Order
Speaker 1: Lands for Mafia, The Old Country, Elden Ring, Night Rain Sieve,
Speaker 1: Battlefield six, FBC Firebreak, Eternal Strands, the.
Speaker 3: Nintendo developed and published wheelchair basketball game for Switch to Still.
Speaker 1: Weird, frag Punk, South of Midnight.
Speaker 3: And The Outer World's Two. Can I make a suggestion
Speaker 3: for this category? How about we picked two from this list?
Speaker 3: Those are the runners up because again, the winner is
Speaker 3: always going to be one. We didn't even think to
Speaker 3: fucking put Okay, so.
Speaker 1: We're just gonna whittle it down to two and it'll
Speaker 1: be a miss every single year. The common answer like,
Speaker 1: you guys forgot this, and I'm like, fuck, we did,
Speaker 1: all right, so well we'll look down two. Okay, that
Speaker 1: sounds good. Whoever put elden Ring Night Rain on here,
Speaker 1: I got a fucking problem, And I'll just be honest.
Speaker 1: It's because I never played it. Well, sounds like Ring
Speaker 1: is one of the best games of all time.
Speaker 3: There's memory, but I want to play a multiplayer one
Speaker 3: Night Rain as memorable, like you need people to play
Speaker 3: with Because I played, I don't want to was my
Speaker 3: most played game.
Speaker 1: I don't want to put it on going on.
Speaker 3: That was just me Like all right, I mean nelden
Speaker 3: Ring multiplayer thing, I would say Battlefield six I did
Speaker 3: not forget that came out this year. I had some
Speaker 3: very fun multiplayer sessions of that game. I mean, I
Speaker 3: don't think it's my favorite battlefield, but I think it
Speaker 3: is getting back to what made like three one of
Speaker 3: my favorites in the series. And I think like the
Speaker 3: emergent gameplay of the different class and your friends. I
Speaker 3: had a memorable moments of that game. I definitely get
Speaker 3: why we added it there though, because what it came out,
Speaker 3: and then Call of Duty came out, and then Arc
Speaker 3: Raiders came out, and like it was just like we're
Speaker 3: timing one after the other.
Speaker 1: But I did play a lot of Battlefield six. Oh
Speaker 1: interesting is it that there was a time, like maybe
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, twenty twelve where it's like that November time
Speaker 1: frame where it's like, man, it's gonna between Battlefield and
Speaker 1: Call of Duty for that November weekend. These are the
Speaker 1: two big heavy hitters, And now Battlefield and Call of
Speaker 1: Duty this year are just like we're not no one's
Speaker 1: fucking talking about those two games. I mean maybe Battlefield
Speaker 1: Battlefield broke the record for the current players on steagectually
Speaker 1: Battlefield more than Call of Duty like a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I guess I just don't know a lot of
Speaker 1: people that play Battlefield, so maybe that's why I'm not
Speaker 1: hearing about it much. Yeah. No, I'm.
Speaker 3: Not that that's the criteria for this category. A fuck
Speaker 3: ton of people played that game. But if it's the
Speaker 3: ones we forgot, it seems like you like it. I
Speaker 3: was paying attention to it a lot for various reasons,
Speaker 3: but I definitely after it was released, I played it
Speaker 3: a good deal. I had some memorable I'd say that's
Speaker 3: like covering around my number ten game of the year personally,
Speaker 3: like I had some fun, very very fun nights.
Speaker 1: Coo cool.
Speaker 4: Oh sorry, Assassin's Creen Shadows. I did not forget either,
Speaker 4: because you know what, I actually liked it.
Speaker 1: Do not like that series, And this is when I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm kind of I kind of see what
Speaker 1: they're doing here.
Speaker 9: I liked it.
Speaker 1: I liked the lady.
Speaker 4: I think it was a fun game. Is it like
Speaker 4: the thing I'm gonna really fight hard for at the end?
Speaker 4: Probably not, but I remember it. I remember that game.
Speaker 3: There's some I also like the fact that, oh my god,
Speaker 3: it's it's so funny when you play Yota, how similar
Speaker 3: the set up in the story for so much better.
Speaker 3: You're getting You're yeah, you're getting revenge against like kill
Speaker 3: bill style against these this cast that killed is it
Speaker 3: your dad? In both time games, I forgot the whole
Speaker 3: family family and yo te but like family and yeah,
Speaker 3: I just I think the reason that people might see
Speaker 3: that as being forgotten is because Yote came out and
Speaker 3: kind of ate its lunch in the similar, very very
Speaker 3: different time periods. But yeah, also like Assassin's Creed was
Speaker 3: just because it came out in February right into January
Speaker 3: or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a lot of time. I played a
Speaker 1: lot of that game. I did a'tyone play FBC Firebrick.
Speaker 1: I played a little. I did not like it. Not
Speaker 1: after it No, not really did you forget it?
Speaker 3: I forgot about it until I think you added it
Speaker 3: because I mentioned, oh, we got to add FBC fire Breaking,
Speaker 3: like I already put it there, and I was like,
Speaker 3: I do think Remedy itself did not super I don't
Speaker 3: know how to phrase this. I don't think Remedy Itself
Speaker 3: is putting that game on their resume. So I think
Speaker 3: once it came out and kind of fizzled, I think
Speaker 3: like even like the people behind it were like they've
Speaker 3: done some updates to like try to fix it. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I think you're right for the most part.
Speaker 1: I think we can cut Monster Hunter. I mean that's
Speaker 1: I remember, just because it's like it was built up
Speaker 1: to be. I member Monster Hunter World was such a
Speaker 1: success and it was the one that kind of got
Speaker 1: me to understand Monster Hunter for the first time. And
Speaker 1: then it was like it was like the big one
Speaker 1: more thing and like the TGA's or something a year
Speaker 1: or two ago, and so it's like there was a
Speaker 1: lot of hype to it, and I played it and
Speaker 1: I was excited about it, and I was kind of like,
Speaker 1: I don't really like this approach to it. So but
Speaker 1: I do remember being excited for it, playing it a
Speaker 1: bit and everything, and falling off quickly. But I remember that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: The thing with Wilds is that like it's not that
Speaker 3: people forgot about it, it's the people are still frustrated
Speaker 3: about it. Yeah, because like I played a lot of
Speaker 3: it and haven't thought about it since, but then I
Speaker 3: see a bunch of people online complaining about it still
Speaker 3: something Okay, people are still talking about it. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: didn't forget it came out. I just didn't love it.
Speaker 4: That's different and Borderlands, for I don't think people forgot either.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have.
Speaker 4: There are a lot of people I know that play
Speaker 4: this game religiously. Yes, I think it's still popular.
Speaker 3: And there's people that don't care about the writing in
Speaker 3: that game, like they just get on discord their friends
Speaker 3: and like they figure out we used to system link
Speaker 3: with that, or we used to play online with like
Speaker 3: two often, and then same thing with three. We played
Speaker 3: like that, this isn't worst game. This is genuinely were
Speaker 3: like what. I totally forgot that there was an outer
Speaker 3: world too.
Speaker 1: Did any of us play it? Yeah? I played a
Speaker 1: little bit. But still sometimes I'm like.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, there's an outer why elds too?
Speaker 1: Oh oh, I wish there was an outer wild scene.
Speaker 1: I forget that. The thing is I I liked the
Speaker 1: first one. I thought it was a good one of those,
Speaker 1: and then I remember being excited for this one because
Speaker 1: I love about about early this year, I thought it
Speaker 1: was fantastic and I was like, oh man, can't wait
Speaker 1: to see it, you know, and like on the Space Vibe,
Speaker 1: you know, if city is kind of leveling up in
Speaker 1: this way. And then it came out and I feel
Speaker 1: like no one was really like this game is fanta
Speaker 1: you gotta play this one.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 1: And it was at a time when there were like
Speaker 1: a million other games and I was playing, so it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, this is gonna be like a fairly lengthy
Speaker 1: game that people don't seem super hot on. If there's
Speaker 1: one game I need to just like, it doesn't seem
Speaker 1: like I need to prioritize this. It's that one. But
Speaker 1: like I remember, came out but no one seemed to care,
Speaker 1: but he talked about it. I think that stays. Do
Speaker 1: you guys know what the Nintendo game? I added that
Speaker 1: I literally couldn't remember the name.
Speaker 3: This drag is a trag X drive. It might be
Speaker 3: that sounds right. I was about to look it up,
Speaker 3: and I was like, this is kind of proves my
Speaker 3: point a little.
Speaker 1: Where like that's thing name.
Speaker 5: I forgot the point.
Speaker 1: It's such a baffling fucking game. It's like if if
Speaker 1: it was fun, it's like okay, it's like this is
Speaker 1: like a whack in motion thing like it's I still
Speaker 1: remember being at that Nintendo Switch to reveal event in
Speaker 1: New York City and that all these kiosk set up.
Speaker 1: It was the first time that the Switch Too was playable,
Speaker 1: and I mean everyone was lined up to play everything. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there's a million Bonanza kios a bunch of Mario Kart
Speaker 1: World kios and we're super sided lining up for all
Speaker 1: this stuff. People are even lining up to like play
Speaker 1: like cyberpunk and just like switch to editions of games
Speaker 1: that have been out for years. And then there were
Speaker 1: like six fucking kios for Dragon Drive and there were
Speaker 1: just these born endo you know, hired people or whatever. Hey,
Speaker 1: you guys want to play. It's like trying to get
Speaker 1: it's a six player game, and so they were just
Speaker 1: trying desperately to get anyone to play this new switch
Speaker 1: to game that just got revealed, and everyone was kind
Speaker 1: of walked by. I was like, I'm gonna go play.
Speaker 1: Uh uh yeah, Mario Carter or something. No one cared,
Speaker 1: and it just wasn't good. It's not like people do
Speaker 1: play it.
Speaker 5: It's just that it's so forgotten. I think that stays.
Speaker 4: I think we can get rid of South of Midnight.
Speaker 4: I do remember that game. It is a nice game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, it okay. I would say we should get
Speaker 1: rid of SIEV seven. I think I remember it came out.
Speaker 3: But also, like the conversation around that game is not
Speaker 3: within the strategy game for x community. It's not I
Speaker 3: forgot that game came out. It's like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: I want that game to be better in so many ways,
Speaker 3: and they're working toward it. And for acxis is famous
Speaker 3: for expansions, kind of pushing a game to its full potential.
Speaker 3: Although for Axis had quite a few layoffs this year,
Speaker 3: so I don't know that they have the same bandwidth
Speaker 3: as they did with six. But like SI seven, I
Speaker 3: absolutely remember it came out. I just sounds like a
Speaker 3: monster Hunter wild. Yeah, it was like I think it
Speaker 3: was like the same week I have problems that game.
Speaker 3: I had stuff I liked, but I did not.
Speaker 1: You don't forget it. Let me describe my thoughts on
Speaker 1: Eternal Strands, and you guys tell me if it's more
Speaker 1: of an argument for its staying or going. So Eternal
Speaker 1: Strands came out early this year January February. I want
Speaker 1: to say, at a time when there was a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff going on and I heard I think, you know, say,
Speaker 1: a couple of people that told me about it. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, that sounds kind of interesting, and I
Speaker 1: hop in and I Homember having a really good time
Speaker 1: with it. It had like an interesting kind of like
Speaker 1: gear leveling up system, and it had this like almost
Speaker 1: Breath of the Wild and shadow of the Classes and
Speaker 1: like a lot of different obvious influences. It was wearing
Speaker 1: on its leeve like kind of a fun Magic System.
Speaker 1: Remember having a really fun time with it, and then
Speaker 1: like something came out I stopped playing it. And then
Speaker 1: when we were putting this list together, I was like,
Speaker 1: what the fuck was that game? There was a game
Speaker 1: I swear to I can picture it in my head
Speaker 1: and I was fighting kind of Shadow of the Classes things,
Speaker 1: and like I it almost seemed like a dream. I
Speaker 1: was half remembering. But I was like, no, I know
Speaker 1: I played this game, and I had to like google,
Speaker 1: like shotow of the Classes, Magic Breath of the Wild game,
Speaker 1: and it took me like googling to find out what
Speaker 1: the fuck It was. Not not a great title anyway,
Speaker 1: but like, is that more reason to stay or go?
Speaker 1: If it's like because I do remember playing it, to stay?
Speaker 1: If you played it and forgot it, then that's more.
Speaker 1: I couldn't remember the name of it. I couldn't remember.
Speaker 1: I just like it felt like a dream. I think
Speaker 1: it's a reason to stay if you actually put your
Speaker 1: hands on and played it, and I think we're gotten.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. A lot of these games I think
Speaker 1: are like kind of bad.
Speaker 5: What's frag punk?
Speaker 3: I think that's oh yeah, yeah, frag punk is what
Speaker 3: the like, uh, Hero Arena shooter with very colorful casts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember getting like pressy meals about it, but
Speaker 1: I don't think I Actually, I'm guessing if any one
Speaker 1: of us played it, it would have been on the
Speaker 1: lamest tone. It's called frag punk. There's no way it's
Speaker 1: not lame.
Speaker 3: I want to say, Like, to me, it struck me
Speaker 3: as the fine the Finals meets Overwatch meats.
Speaker 1: What was the what was the the game that Cliff
Speaker 1: Platinsky's law Breakers Radical Heights? Yeah, my god, yeah, yeah, man.
Speaker 3: What about Mafia the Old Country did? Because I I
Speaker 3: guess I did play this, but like it definitely was
Speaker 3: like a game that I finished. I'm like, okay, I enjoyed,
Speaker 3: and then I just like I.
Speaker 1: Didn't play it.
Speaker 3: That one's tough because, like, yeah, I find that that
Speaker 3: game came and went, and I think there's different competition
Speaker 3: here than Mafia the Old Country.
Speaker 4: Okay, I think we should start I do think we
Speaker 4: should start cutting. We don't need all of these, Like
Speaker 4: if you didn't truly.
Speaker 1: Forget it, Drag X Drive is so weird. I don't
Speaker 1: think I'm going to forget that. Nintendo made a weird
Speaker 1: wheelchair basketball game for the launch of the Switch too.
Speaker 1: That's weird enough to be memorable. What about it is
Speaker 1: weird that Nintendo made a wheelchair basketball game for the
Speaker 1: launch of Nintendo Switch too, Like that's a fucking word.
Speaker 3: It is a similar situation that you had with Eternal
Speaker 3: Strands right where it's like you remember playing this game.
Speaker 3: I remember seeing this game. Couldn't remember the name for
Speaker 3: the life of me, you know, but I guess, but.
Speaker 1: You couldn't remember the name. You had to put weird
Speaker 1: Nintendo wheelchair game, yeah, which I think is like it's
Speaker 1: like memorable that like people will remember that, I think
Speaker 1: five or ten years from now. The way people remember
Speaker 1: like Arms like Arms is this weird fucking springy arm
Speaker 1: game at the onto the Switch, you know they Arms
Speaker 1: was kind of good. But I mean this is bad though,
Speaker 1: but maybe that makes it more memorable. It's just a
Speaker 1: when Nintendo was like killing it on so many fronts lately,
Speaker 1: and now it's like, what the fuck are they doing
Speaker 1: with this guys.
Speaker 3: You guys are talking about it more like with more
Speaker 3: memories than a lot of these other games.
Speaker 1: That's what I think we could I'm not saying, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it sounds like I will remember Drag and Drive more
Speaker 1: than I remember anything else on this The Old Country,
Speaker 1: like I haven't played.
Speaker 3: I was at least looking forward to it to the
Speaker 3: point where I was like where it was coming out
Speaker 3: this year. I don't love that series, but I still
Speaker 3: play them.
Speaker 1: There's there's a lot of wine in it. I didn't
Speaker 1: know that it's Addam rules too. Just a thing. Is
Speaker 1: it just a victim of like poor timing and the
Speaker 1: fact that we didn't really play it? Probably poor timing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure it's a pretty good game. I'm sure.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's a seven point five, you know, late
Speaker 1: enough of it. You can't just give a game a
Speaker 1: se can't. No, No, I'm sure it's pretty good. Uh.
Speaker 1: I think that was just a victim of we just
Speaker 1: had a lot of games were playing at the time.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's necessarily the games you'll want
Speaker 1: to play it too. Forgot about it. If there was
Speaker 1: a drought, you know, like early next year, I could
Speaker 1: see myself playing I love that, like Triple double a
Speaker 1: level Elder Scrolls in the Vein of a Vow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that might be in my top ten this year, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Mafia and Outer Worlds to me, are I could, I
Speaker 1: would see cutting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I still need to cut one more because mystery
Speaker 3: game right, oh right, right, the winner, M God.
Speaker 1: I think within three months I will forget Eternal Strands
Speaker 1: ever existed, even though I played a lot of.
Speaker 3: It for me, I know, if I remember FBC fire
Speaker 3: Break because it's so funny. Remedy can make some of
Speaker 3: my Allen Wake two might be in my top five
Speaker 3: games of all time. They're capable of making such singular, unique,
Speaker 3: groundbreaking games.
Speaker 1: They also get at to so like this.
Speaker 3: The way their studio operates, they get attached to so
Speaker 3: many different partnerships that they end up making these things
Speaker 3: that become fascinating to me. I didn't forget that game
Speaker 3: came out this year because I was so fascinated that
Speaker 3: they were making a live service, co op session based
Speaker 3: shooter in the Control World.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which when.
Speaker 3: They said that to me, I was like, I'll probably
Speaker 3: play the shit out of that. That I didn't, but
Speaker 3: I still like, didn't forget it came out.
Speaker 1: I think there's a high enough profile to the fact
Speaker 1: that it's Remedy and it's in the Control Universe that
Speaker 1: people will remember that it exists. I think Eternal Strands
Speaker 1: and Fragpunk you bring up now, even much less a
Speaker 1: year or two now, we were like, what the fuck
Speaker 1: was that?
Speaker 3: There's like a there's a sense of people have written
Speaker 3: stories about FBC and its failure as well.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen nearly as much about Eternal Strands or
Speaker 3: frag Punk. Like I could see FBC being the subject
Speaker 3: of one of those like what went wrong kind of
Speaker 3: features down the road. I can't for the other other ones.
Speaker 3: So then we've got our list then yeah, yeah, if
Speaker 3: you were happy with what I just cut based on
Speaker 3: those conversations Eternal Strands, frag Punk. But the thing we
Speaker 3: most forgot came out this year is something we.
Speaker 1: Forgot you fucking tell us, I don't know. Excellent. Next
Speaker 1: category is best play with Buds Play with Buds. Nominees
Speaker 1: are Peak Rebo, Arc Raiders, Battlefield six, ol Didn't Ring
Speaker 1: Night Rain, Lego Party, Absolute, Are we there yet? Mario
Speaker 1: Kart World and Fortnite. I think a lot of us,
Speaker 1: you know, we've talked a lot about like a peak Repo,
Speaker 1: Arc Craadors. Are we there yet? A boy? This is
Speaker 1: this was there's a lot of friends slap on here,
Speaker 1: which again I don't say that derisively at all. I
Speaker 1: think it's a great thing. Then there's more traditional ones
Speaker 1: Mario Kart World Fortnite.
Speaker 4: I don't think you need to play Mario Kart World
Speaker 4: with buds. I don't think that is the peak of
Speaker 4: this category.
Speaker 1: Also, it's a fun one to like, it's got that
Speaker 1: stuff that Mario Curte Delex had where you can just
Speaker 1: make a room with the code and like you know,
Speaker 1: for totally ice stream, and it's a really nice one
Speaker 1: to like, oh, at the end of the night, like
Speaker 1: let's all do a knockout tour or something like that,
Speaker 1: Like that's that's a lot of fun. And it's got
Speaker 1: like the camera mode stuff if you're playing, like you know,
Speaker 1: locally with friends and stuff like it's it's Mario Kart.
Speaker 1: It's always gonna be fun to play with friends. But
Speaker 1: like outside a knockout tour, there's not a whole lot
Speaker 1: of like, wow, this is a whole new experience, you know, like.
Speaker 4: It's I don't think it's going to hold a candle
Speaker 4: to these other friends slop games.
Speaker 5: I don't think night Rain is either. You can make
Speaker 5: an argument it was.
Speaker 1: Forgettable night Rain, and I played quite a bit of
Speaker 1: co op that was I I.
Speaker 3: I there's a reason why I love Night Rain as
Speaker 3: much as I do. I don't think the main reason
Speaker 3: I like that is like that game so much is
Speaker 3: because of the co op. The co op is definitely
Speaker 3: like the main draw of it. But I think it's
Speaker 3: how they design those runs in a way that kind
Speaker 3: of plays on expectations of from software games that makes
Speaker 3: it super interesting and co op is a part of it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, to like other people's point, I look at
Speaker 3: some of these other games, and it's like, what makes
Speaker 3: these games so much.
Speaker 1: Fun are the buds that you're playing with, you know.
Speaker 3: But I do think there's something to be said about
Speaker 3: like struggling with friends in order to overcome a competition.
Speaker 1: But I guess you could say that about a lot
Speaker 1: of the other games. Yeah, Like I think Peak does
Speaker 1: an incredible job of that. On top of being hilarious,
Speaker 1: like we talked about.
Speaker 4: It's also like a core mechanic, like lifting someone up
Speaker 4: who couldn't climb unless you took their hands.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the idea of like if you got your
Speaker 1: friend group that you play these games with regularly, the
Speaker 1: fact that they kind of change the mountain out what
Speaker 1: every week or so, that's just such a cool thing.
Speaker 1: If you had a friend groups like let's play, Oh
Speaker 1: it's every day, they every twenty four hours. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: I think that's so smart. And it's again it's funny,
Speaker 1: and it's just a really well designed multiplayer experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's a better multiplayer game
Speaker 1: than Repo. I think we said earlier Repo's funnier. Peaks
Speaker 1: a better game.
Speaker 5: Repo is funnier.
Speaker 4: I think Peak is designed to have a good experience
Speaker 4: with your friends, and its entire mechanics are about helping
Speaker 4: each other, hurting each other. There's a banana in that
Speaker 4: game that makes other people slip. Throwing it at somebody
Speaker 4: is a really brutal thing to do. Everything is designed
Speaker 4: to play with other people in a sandbox.
Speaker 1: That's its entire purpose.
Speaker 4: It's it's ultimate at playing with buds. I think you
Speaker 4: probably also make an argument.
Speaker 1: For our graders, because, yeah, Our Creators is so.
Speaker 4: Much more fun in my opinion, when you're playing with
Speaker 4: other people and they're yelling at you, or they're guiding you,
Speaker 4: or you're trying to do something together, I think it's
Speaker 4: it's just incredible.
Speaker 1: I know an online multiplayer game is good if like
Speaker 1: I am getting people together off work hours and putting
Speaker 1: on a fucking This is a game that like I
Speaker 1: dug out my PlayStation headset stuff for that I like,
Speaker 1: never ever use, and these aren't even sainct we don't like.
Speaker 1: It's like we gotta do Me and Bianca Kyle, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get together. We're gonna do our cradors and stuff like,
Speaker 1: not for not for content, not for Giant.
Speaker 5: I want to play together.
Speaker 1: Seems like a really fun experience, like Arc Creators is
Speaker 1: one to be very very few games that does that.
Speaker 1: I agree, I will say with our Creators, though the
Speaker 1: experience is very different solo, and it's almost like it's
Speaker 1: enjoy now. I will don't know if I'd seem more enjoyable,
Speaker 1: but there is there is value in playing it solo,
Speaker 1: like I don't think. I don't know if that's more tense.
Speaker 1: I like it, so I don't know that I prefer
Speaker 1: it solo, but but it's more tense.
Speaker 3: More cooperation too, I feel like because people are more
Speaker 3: willing to work together ECU wait other people to help
Speaker 3: it interesting. That's not to take away the fact of
Speaker 3: what you said, and how much fun it is to
Speaker 3: play with buds. But I do think like there is
Speaker 3: something to be said about like our creators. It's it's
Speaker 3: it's a game I play by myself, you know, peak, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I have to play with people. Like I think I
Speaker 3: did a run once by myself and I'm like this
Speaker 3: is fine, but like I want you know, co op.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think the winner of this category is
Speaker 1: one that like really shines when it's multiplayer, and like,
Speaker 1: for instance, I'll maybe cut one of mine here is Solemn.
Speaker 1: It's a game grub and I are playing on a
Speaker 1: giant bomb is a rogue light beat him up with
Speaker 1: this beautiful art style. It's a very fun two player
Speaker 1: rogue light beat him up. But I've also heard you
Speaker 1: can play the whole thing snoring. Okay, oh sorry boring
Speaker 1: you gizmo. This category suck move But I've talked to
Speaker 1: friends who just got obsessed with the planet Solo and everything.
Speaker 1: Like I saw him. It is just a really good game.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's one where it's like, oh, this
Speaker 1: needs to be like a multiplayer experience. Again, I think
Speaker 1: it's not required for this category, but I think the
Speaker 1: winners should be like this is a multiplayer. I think
Speaker 1: that's true.
Speaker 4: I think we should cut arc I think we should.
Speaker 4: I think that even like you were telling me, like
Speaker 4: Bonk likes to play it solo. I think this is
Speaker 4: like a great game. I don't think it's perfect for
Speaker 4: this category.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if it's like the best game to play with buds,
Speaker 1: and we're saying, well, Arc Raiders is good to play solo,
Speaker 1: that's not an argument for keeping it. Yeah, you're you know, like,
Speaker 1: can we cut Fortnite first? Though, Yeah, yeah, let's cut it.
Speaker 1: I think the only reason the sake of cutting it,
Speaker 1: let's cut it first. I guess the only reason I
Speaker 1: want to play it is, like I wanted to mention
Speaker 1: it was that this Simpson's thing came out this year.
Speaker 1: It was like maybe one of the best, if not
Speaker 1: the best, like IP integrations and a live game I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. And you know, back home for the holidays
Speaker 1: and online and stuff, I was playing with Kayla, and
Speaker 1: you know, I was just like, oh, this is grinding
Speaker 1: out this battle pass. I gotta get Homer, And I
Speaker 1: just was reminded of how much fun Fortnite is to
Speaker 1: just kind of like party up, Like it's a perfect
Speaker 1: amount of like you need to pay enough attention to
Speaker 1: kind of like coordinate and do stuff, but you can
Speaker 1: also just kind of go around and chat and catch
Speaker 1: up and stuff like that. So like Kayla and I,
Speaker 1: I think I had like two nights up till like
Speaker 1: four am over Thanksgiving, just like trying to like get Homer,
Speaker 1: and it's like, man, this is a great time, you know.
Speaker 1: So Fortnite continues to impress me. I don't played it
Speaker 1: much at all since like last time we talked about
Speaker 1: it during the Game of the Year Simpsons thing. Super
Speaker 1: got me back in and I was reminded like, oh
Speaker 1: Fortnite's fucking good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a really great ip for it to get.
Speaker 1: Oh they killed it. Yeah, so we're cutting arc we
Speaker 1: should Okay, So we got friend slops doing pretty strong here.
Speaker 3: Battlefield six I had some really fun sessions with friends.
Speaker 3: I also played a decent amount of its solo and
Speaker 3: just played on a team because I was going for
Speaker 3: challenges that I did not need people to be there for.
Speaker 1: Well, I heard the campaigns where it shines.
Speaker 3: I to say what you will about the campaign, I'm
Speaker 3: just talking about the co op and the multiplayer. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I enjoyed playing Battlefield six by myself as well multiplayer
Speaker 3: because I wanted to pursue challenges or unluck new weapons
Speaker 3: or you know, upgrade classes, et cetera. So I don't
Speaker 3: know that that's necessarily those were my that was my
Speaker 3: most memorable multiplayer game.
Speaker 1: So we cut that, and I think we're down to
Speaker 1: peak Repo, Lego Party and arby there yet. Now you
Speaker 1: guys have not played the Lego Party before. You guys
Speaker 1: know my history with Mario Party and everything and how
Speaker 1: strongly I feel about those, like I do think as bullshit,
Speaker 1: as like the Mario Party experiences, Like there is something
Speaker 1: about that format of a game, a board game, party game, minigame,
Speaker 1: bullshit game that is like, to me, the number one
Speaker 1: way to play multiplayer where it's like, look, I'm sure
Speaker 1: if I had three friends that were super into competitive
Speaker 1: Smash Brothers and I knew what I was doing in
Speaker 1: that game though, that would be amazing. But I feel
Speaker 1: like Mario Party.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like to me, Mario Party, you just imagine playing
Speaker 4: Lego Party by yourself.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, not or Mario, but that's an insane thing to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but like I think it's so perfect for like, you know,
Speaker 1: my memories of Mario Party and now Lego Party. It's
Speaker 1: kind of turned to is like, you got two in
Speaker 1: my family, me and Kayla that play games all the
Speaker 1: fucking time and we love it. But then Katie, my sister,
Speaker 1: Kayla's twin, who doesn't really play many games, but she
Speaker 1: loved Mario Party. You know, it's not it doesn't require
Speaker 1: like you don't have to play games to understand, like
Speaker 1: they're all like hit a and move a stick and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and moving forward real quick to Lego Party.
Speaker 1: It everything that's ever been good about Mario Party is
Speaker 1: in Lego Party and they've just made it all better
Speaker 1: and snappier. And I'll probably talk about it more later.
Speaker 1: But and even like Bank did, the hatred my wife
Speaker 1: has for Mario Party runs so deep I should. I've
Speaker 1: never seen her more unhappy. It's just, you know, grew
Speaker 1: that inside of it. Wasn't the thing that she's been subjected.
Speaker 1: This is from like the moment she played in the
Speaker 1: first time. She's like, this fucking sucks.
Speaker 3: She means, you mean, the games are just bad, and
Speaker 3: she recognized it as someone with good taste.
Speaker 1: She does have tastes. I will say it was.
Speaker 3: Real fun today the one mass we played to funk
Speaker 3: over Dan and we all he came in fourth, I
Speaker 3: think out of all of us, it was there's no
Speaker 3: total bullshit banana boys and their monkeys about yeah, but.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I I felt looking at the map planning.
Speaker 3: My that is the most I've ever thought of a
Speaker 3: multiplayer party board game genre entry.
Speaker 1: Instead of just like a battle of attrition, like just
Speaker 1: need to get through it, it's not actually I was.
Speaker 1: I was strategizing.
Speaker 3: It was nice to strategize and be like, well, fuck
Speaker 3: if Jake, if Jake the points across though, if Jake
Speaker 3: reverses this quadrant, then I'm fucked. But oh, if I'm
Speaker 3: win this minigame, I'll go before him and then I'll
Speaker 3: get out of it, and then we get fucked Dan,
Speaker 3: and then I'll get to the Banana.
Speaker 1: Burglars.
Speaker 3: And then if I get to the banana the first first,
Speaker 3: they'll then rotate around and then I'll put them even
Speaker 3: more out of Dan's reach. There was more intentionality, or
Speaker 3: they allowed for more agency on my part in a
Speaker 3: way that much as I love Nintendo and I'm just
Speaker 3: I'm really just you know, dogging on you, because I
Speaker 3: actually have had a lot of fun with Mario Party before.
Speaker 3: I do often like there it always sets in halfway
Speaker 3: through a Mario Party match where I'm like, it kind
Speaker 3: of doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: There's some blue shell esque thing that's gonna happen. Exactually,
Speaker 1: like in Mario Party, you get annoyed if you're playing
Speaker 1: with someone that's taking time to like go to the
Speaker 1: map and plan it out, because in your head you're like, not,
Speaker 1: nothing matters this one.
Speaker 3: We all sat back and like let people strategize because
Speaker 3: we're like, there, you can actually do that in this game.
Speaker 1: But would I rather for this can turn in a turn? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the and the act of just doing it, like
Speaker 1: just going to the map looking at thing like there's
Speaker 1: just so many like oh, it tells me exactly how
Speaker 1: many I need to get to this And like the
Speaker 1: map is very readable and easy. There's not a lot
Speaker 1: of just slowing down and talking to fourteen different shop
Speaker 1: vendors on every fucking roll. It's just a snappier, better
Speaker 1: Mario Party in every single way. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I one thing from the one mass we played today.
Speaker 3: I do think the mini games kind of lean very
Speaker 3: heavily on like QT E stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, we did twelve, So we did a twelve
Speaker 1: round game and like, I remember, you were giving it
Speaker 1: a little bit of shit because there were there were
Speaker 1: like fifty many games in it, and not a lot
Speaker 1: of them are the like we get a y B
Speaker 1: X A y B and say we got three the
Speaker 1: lock one lock, the one where it's all like in
Speaker 1: a line, and there some really creative ones, the ones
Speaker 1: where you're trying to balance the unicycle very tall race. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was fun.
Speaker 3: There's the like, there's the I literally stood up off
Speaker 3: the couch because I was Me and Mary were neck
Speaker 3: and neck and then Mary fell across with her head
Speaker 3: at the end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had to tell Jake to stop locking in
Speaker 4: because he kept leaning into my view of the because
Speaker 4: he was trying to win. I think there's good mini
Speaker 4: games with it, and I have some reservations about just
Speaker 4: the the caliber of games in it, but it is
Speaker 4: it is fun to play.
Speaker 5: I want to say, I feel like I'm the person
Speaker 5: who played RV there Yet.
Speaker 4: This game is so built to play with people and
Speaker 4: maybe someone who's not a gamer.
Speaker 1: We talked about that a lot with Split Fiction.
Speaker 4: But what's amazing with RV There Yet is like, let's
Speaker 4: say three of you guys are solid gamers and one
Speaker 4: of you is like, I don't know, guys like I'm
Speaker 4: not that good good news. And RV has three seats
Speaker 4: in one driver. You get to sit and enjoy the game.
Speaker 1: You can play. You can be the cook that makes
Speaker 1: the burgers smoke. You can smoke and judge people.
Speaker 4: You do need cooperation because somebody has to take the
Speaker 4: winch the winch and connect it to a tree, and
Speaker 4: then there's a separate remote device to use the winch.
Speaker 1: So you need cooperation this game. You can't.
Speaker 4: You should not play this game alone. You should play
Speaker 4: it with others. But I love the fact that it
Speaker 4: is inclusive of someone who's like I just want to
Speaker 4: be here.
Speaker 1: You have ritten for that person on that point though,
Speaker 1: Like let's say you have someone who's like not a
Speaker 1: big game or whatever, they're casual or whatever. This is
Speaker 1: just a game that's on PC, right, Yes, so think
Speaker 1: about this too. The thing about Lego Party as well
Speaker 1: is it is cross platform. So it's like I've got
Speaker 1: everything I'm gonna play on PC. Kayla never touches a
Speaker 1: PC game ever, She's gonna play on PlayStation or Switch.
Speaker 1: And then Katie my casual gamer sister. She's just got
Speaker 1: a switch. That's the only thing she has, and we
Speaker 1: can still all play together if we want to play online.
Speaker 1: So it is very conducive to that, like the idea
Speaker 1: of like a casual gamer or someone that doesn't really
Speaker 1: play games, they don't know what Steam is, you know,
Speaker 1: but they have a switch. Probably they might, you know. So,
Speaker 1: like I do think Lego Party is just like this
Speaker 1: is the like whether it's on a couch, whether it's online,
Speaker 1: it's just it's kind of made for multiplayer in a way,
Speaker 1: and there's less barriers, you know. I think it's more accessible.
Speaker 4: If I had three people say do you want to
Speaker 4: play a game tonight, I would choose RV there Yet
Speaker 4: more than Lego Party.
Speaker 1: I would prefer to play RV there Yet. I think
Speaker 1: I agree with you, but I can't tell who you're
Speaker 1: looking at in our general direction. I'm like, that's the point.
Speaker 3: Okay, So Mary's made a pretty good case for r
Speaker 3: V there Yet, Dan, you've made a good case for
Speaker 3: Lego Party in peak seems like immovable.
Speaker 1: I'd say I.
Speaker 5: Think the winner for me, I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 4: It's really hard for me to say any other game
Speaker 4: is better to play this year with buds than Peak.
Speaker 1: If there's one argument I will say against the Friends
Speaker 1: Slap Stuff, which I love all these games, is that
Speaker 1: there is kind of a one note thing to this.
Speaker 1: Like Peak, you are kind of just you're trying to
Speaker 1: climb that mountain. Repo, you're trying to put stuff in
Speaker 1: a cart? Are we there? No, you're trying to get bricks? Well, right,
Speaker 1: But there is there's a lot more variety within that.
Speaker 1: You know, there is strategy there. There's numerous different board games,
Speaker 1: there's fifty different mini games. There is like different strategies
Speaker 1: step can do and everything like Peak, Repo, are we
Speaker 1: there yet? Is just kind of like gotta get up there,
Speaker 1: gotta get this stuff, gotta move this RV.
Speaker 4: You're hurting yourself. Lego Party, you're just trying to get
Speaker 4: bricks and you're just trying to get money, and you're
Speaker 4: doing anything you can to do the very simplest things.
Speaker 4: I cannot tell you how many times we were playing
Speaker 4: today we were like, how many steps am I away
Speaker 4: from buying this thing with fifty dollars?
Speaker 1: Like that's not that innovative or interesting.
Speaker 4: But in Peak, the items you get are randomized, I
Speaker 4: cannot get up the mountain the same way. Ever, even
Speaker 4: if we try again and again and again, and this
Speaker 4: mountain the algorithm changes of every design and every level
Speaker 4: every twenty four hours. This game is one hundred percent different.
Speaker 4: But even when I play the same mountains.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I mean we're making a good argument, but they're.
Speaker 4: Changing even like the level variety and the size, because
Speaker 4: they have different biomes, so you might as you could
Speaker 4: pick right at the beginning, right, yes, And they're also randomized,
Speaker 4: so you don't know if you're going to get a
Speaker 4: lot more lollipops, or if you're going to get the cannon,
Speaker 4: or if you're going to get a bunch of ropes
Speaker 4: that completely changes how you're going to climb.
Speaker 1: Let me offer something here. I want to get Lego
Speaker 1: Party on the top three, because right now it's Lego
Speaker 1: Party and three friends slop games, three very good friends
Speaker 1: slop games. Yeah, I will argue that of the three
Speaker 1: friend slop Repo is maybe the weakest game. So I
Speaker 1: would offer take Repo off, put Lego Party on, and
Speaker 1: Lego Party doesn't have to win. Peak can win, don't.
Speaker 3: I've played doing my job before me, I've played Lego
Speaker 3: Party today.
Speaker 1: I've played Repo and I played Peak.
Speaker 3: I've not played every there yet, and everything I hear
Speaker 3: about it, I want to play Repo. I had a
Speaker 3: very fun night with you guys, and then I played
Speaker 3: with a couple of friends. I'm like, all right, I
Speaker 3: had more longevity with Lethal Company and way more with Fasmophobia,
Speaker 3: and I feel like it's in that same camp. It's like,
Speaker 3: enter this area and it's hilarious and extract some stuff
Speaker 3: for the various values. But I also I really feel
Speaker 3: like that ran out of juice quickly.
Speaker 1: And when there is the surprise of like, you know,
Speaker 1: as much as we laughed at like oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm vomiting or owe, this thing is like can reverse
Speaker 1: my controls? That's fucking hilarious the first time it happens.
Speaker 1: If you don't know what's going on, if you're really
Speaker 1: playing that game more than a couple of times, it's
Speaker 1: how quickly is it going to turn into like, Oh
Speaker 1: I got this thing, I gotta here's how I get
Speaker 1: past there? Okay, now I just need to reverse my
Speaker 1: controls whatever, Like it loses the novelty haha factor and
Speaker 1: it's more just another thing that happens.
Speaker 3: You know, I think, oh oh, we're gonna cut Repo
Speaker 3: and Peak is going to be the best game play
Speaker 3: with buds.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll take it. I'll take it. That's a fair judgment.
Speaker 1: That's a fair judgment. Thank you, your honor, and thank you,
Speaker 1: yourn say it again. Thank thank you, your honor. Mary.
Speaker 1: It's ten dy time.
Speaker 5: Thank you your honor.
Speaker 1: Thank you. That's fair. That's fair. That feels fair. That
Speaker 1: feels good.
Speaker 3: The best game to play with buds. The runner ups
Speaker 3: are are We There Yet? And Lego Party, but the
Speaker 3: winner is Peak.
Speaker 1: Yeah that feels that feels right.
Speaker 4: I feel I prefer Repo, but I think Lego Party
Speaker 4: is tired, tired, tired.
Speaker 1: I said what I said. There was a look of
Speaker 1: glee on your face. Lost. Those monkeys did their fucking throw.
Speaker 1: We'll get to the monkeys. Yeah, yeah, okay, h
Speaker 6: H what