Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Game Informer Show, a weekly
podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Thursday
for discussion with the latest gamming news, reviews, and exclusive reveals,
alongside game and former staff and special guests from around
the industry. I'm one of your hosts today, Alex van Aiken.
I'm joined by Marcus Stewart. Hey doing, Marcus.
Speaker 2: Hey, Happy July everyone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Happy July. We made it.
Speaker 2: We did it. And you know what they say about July.
I guess what's up. Well, when it's time for July,
you're gonna fly.
Speaker 1: All right. Also, we're also joined by Kyle Hilliard. How
you doing, Kyle?
Speaker 2: Hey? Good.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna fly because it's July's we all know. We
always say that.
Speaker 2: Every year, and yeah, there's no different obviously. Spread your wings, yep,
spread your rings.
Speaker 1: It's July. Hello. John Carson, special guest, former game and
former editor, freelance journalist at Large. How are you, John?
Speaker 4: I'm doing all right, stretching out my wings. I'm gonna
be flying this week out of town, except I'm staying
on the ground the whole time.
Speaker 1: So I thought you you were telling me you're going
on a boat.
Speaker 4: Actually, I will be on a boat, so that is.
Speaker 1: Not around crucially.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean there'll be minimal ground touching hopefully.
Speaker 1: Are you all big like hot dog people Fourth of
July people or is it just kind of a day off?
Speaker 2: I like a hot dog? Yeah, I'm not really big enough.
I'm not really big into fireworks honestly, Like I don't
mind them, but I don't go out of my way
to see them, and I definitely never buy them. I
don't think I've ever bought a firework.
Speaker 3: Yeah, celebrating America.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a tough one. I'll at least be like
close to Canada, so I'll be like, see that's true.
Speaker 1: Yeaeah. I like the movie, Okay, all right, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: Born on the Fourth Jo that matters?
Speaker 3: John, the movie Come On, the only one that matters.
They made a whole sequel to to Kyle.
Speaker 2: You didn't have to bring that up.
Speaker 1: But did the producers of New Year's Day and Valentine's
Day ever make a July fourth movie?
Speaker 4: There has to be one.
Speaker 1: I don't know series.
Speaker 3: Those are all Gary Marshall joints.
Speaker 2: And he passed away a couple of years ago, so
I think did he pass away on a holiday. Let's
look it up. It was like, was he basically the
calendar man of the film industry?
Speaker 1: Of course?
Speaker 2: Uh, iconic batman villain. Calendar man is what I'm referring to.
Speaker 1: The one we all know in love of Yes, yes.
Speaker 4: What's it? A big ensemble funeral, just.
Speaker 3: Lots of stories all coming together for the funeral and
the Yeah, that's a shame, okay, because Gary Marshall, of
course died on National Urban Bookkeeper Beekeeping Day, National Football Day,
International Karaoke Day.
Speaker 2: July nineteenth.
Speaker 3: To tell you coming up on it, Yeah, exactly, so
get ready for National Dakery Day on July nineteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sorry. Urban Beekeeping Day, like not just beekeeping Day,
but there was an what is urban beekeeping?
Speaker 4: What do you keeping in the city?
Speaker 3: I don't like, I don't understand what you're asking. It's
it's National urban Beekeeping. You got these got these honey
bees in the streets. Yeah, just just making honey, I guess, okay.
Speaker 1: It's like people that have like the rooftop gardens in
the city, beekeepers in the city. I know some documentaries
you should watch.
Speaker 2: I would like to see an urban beekeeping documentary, genuine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually don't know if there is one. I'm
just assuming. I think there's a highlight a.
Speaker 3: Day, so it's got to be a documentary.
Speaker 2: It's on Apple Plus.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Well, welcome to the show, everybody. We're gonna
be talking about our favorite games of the year today
from January twenty twenty five to July first, when we're
recording this, and it's gonna be a good show. I
think if you're gonna if you're a listener, you'll probably
get some recommendations maybe you haven't heard of, or you'll
get our impressions if you missed it earlier in the
year when we were shut down. You know, there's some
bigger games that came out. This is a chance for
us to talk about them and a fun way. So
I think we were shut down, believe it or not.
Speaker 4: Yes, Okay, you know many.
Speaker 1: People have forgotten this apparently, and yeah, we're gonna be
going one at a time. We'll kind of I'm sure
our lists will, we'll share some entries and if so,
that'll kind of sparker a larger discussion on that game.
But I think it'll be a great way to kind
of catch up on the year so far. And if
you're listening, we'll make sure you have time stamps and
all that for for the games mentioned.
Speaker 2: But yeah, isn't it a wild that we're halfway through the
year now, by the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, it really is.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I feel like we're we're already close to like having
to be like, oh, I gonna have to start playing
some games, get ready for the game of the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's there's one big game in particular. I'm gonna
save it until one of you. I don't know if
any of you have in your list, but there's one
big game I'm like almost stressing of, like I have
not played this at all, but I noticed it's a
GotY contender and I need to get to it because
it's going to take a while to get through.
Speaker 1: We'll get to it. We'll get to it. Uh, Kyle,
you want to kick us off though?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: You want to? You want to share one of your
games from your your favorites of the year.
Speaker 3: Should I start like at the like, should I try
to end with my favorite? Number one likes mine? Because
really I haven't either I know my number one. I'm
going to start with a promised mascot agency, which is
a game I haven't I actually haven't beaten. I played
the first couple hours. It's it's really weird. It's kind
of like an indie like Grand Theft. Auto of three
is almost what I where I would put it, because
it's like you're driving around an open world a lot,
but it's not like you're not getting out of the car,
you're not shooting, you know. It just it just feels
like a throwback to that PS two open world kind
of era, and it's wrapped in this really bizarre story
that takes place in a universe with like yakuza and
like mascots, right, people in mascot costumes, but they're like
they're like a species in this world, Like there exists,
you know, these creatures that look like mascots and you
have to like send them out on jobs and stuff
like that, and you drive around the city to like,
you know, make sure you can find these jobs, and
you like collect people and like then you can have
them as playing cards to do combat. It's a really
funky game, and I really liked what I played. It's
it's the one where every time I'm if I'm not
like actively playing something that I'm like really really excited
about or playing.
Speaker 2: Something for review or something.
Speaker 3: It's the one that I'm always like, Ooh, I should
go back and play more of that when I should
finish that one.
Speaker 1: Are you collecting? Are your cards like collecting the souls
of the mascots essentially, or are they like more yakaze
like summons where it's like, oh, the the restler guy,
I'm gonna summon him into combat?
Speaker 2: What is Card Captors?
Speaker 3: You're you're actually playing like a card game at certain moments,
which is really outside of my tipic. I know, John's
like eyes are like lighting up.
Speaker 2: And he's not.
Speaker 4: I mean, but I'm downloaded now.
Speaker 3: I'm not usually into card games like that. But it's
such a it's such like a minor portion of it.
It's more about like the mood and the story. And
then like when you send characters out on jobs, if
they run into an issue, then it kind of turns
into like a card game. And what happens is like
you meet the mechanic who can upgrade your car to
make it go faster, and he'll be like, yeah, add
me to your deck, and he like gives you a
card of himself. Is kind of like the the premise
of it. It it's it's one of those games that's
like really bizarre to explain, but after you spend like,
you know, half an hour with it, the world kind
of makes sense because they do such a good job
of like you know, setting the table for it. Yeah,
it's it's weird, it's gosh. What is the the is
it Paradise Killer? Is that the name of the developer? Yes,
the developers of uh that it's their follow up to
Paradise Killer, which was another very strange game with like
bizarre world building, but that was also quite effective at
like you know, setting its table and giving you something interesting.
So yeah, promised Mascot Agency. I think it came out
right around blueprints and got kind of a little bit
more shadowed black blueprints, but like there was there was
a group of people who are like, yeah, this and
blueprints are are super hot right now?
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, yeah, that's one that that kind of I
remember hearing about it when it was first kind of
shown off. Whether was it a direct or something? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and uh it seems really cool. So thank you for
recommending that one. Yeah, John, we'll go to you next.
What about you? It's your what's one of your recommendations.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my list is kind of chronological. So I'll go
at the first game that I that I finished this year,
and that was Blade Chimera, which is a uh it's
a metroidvania by a studio called Team Ladybug. They've been
doing Metroid Venus for a few years that have been
solely gaining more and more popularity. But but it's it's
just such a tight experience. It's very symphony symphony of
the Knight meets Contra kind of. You have your your
melee weapons, you have guns that you can equip, and
you're working with with both of those two get get
through this world.
Speaker 1: You're a fighting predominantly are they like eating creatures?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're you're fighting demons. You're you're a demon hunter,
part of like this organization that that hunts demons and
is trying to protect society after like an apocalypse happened,
happened when the demons invaded Earth. But your your character,
uh meets this demon and like forms a bond with it,
and that demon like becomes a weapon for him. So
he's kind of betraying his his own organization and and
hiding the fact that he's working with this demon to
kind of solve the mystery of where he comes from
because he has no memories. But he's like this like
top agent at this uh at this organization. It's super
it's super fun. It's all pixel art. Like I said,
just really tight kind of sympathy of the night style controls.
Uh just uh. It's it's one that a lot of
people missed. It came out like mid January.
Speaker 1: It looks I'm looking it's screenshots the enemy designs like
really neat.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I realized I have played one of their other games.
I played, was it Tohu Luna to So Yeah, I
didn't finish it, but I was impressed with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And this is also it looks like this is on
switch and PC, which I'm like, yes, I'm looking for
stuff to plan my switch too. Maybe this is one
to pick up.
Speaker 4: And it's it's it's like a nice like eight to
twelve hours or something. It's not it's not anything. It's
not a huge time commitment. It really it really blows by.
I tried to. I think I tried to, which I
don't often do with games, but like it had me
hooked enough that I want to check out everything. Hell, yeah, yeah, yeah,
check it out. I think it's on the Steam sale
right now for like fourteen bucks. O.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, Marcus, what about you, what's one of your recommendations?
Speaker 2: So my first real obsession for twenty twenty five was
a lovely little puzzle game called The Root Trees Are Dead.
Speaker 1: I have heard about this game. I don't know much
about it, though, so tell.
Speaker 2: Me so if you were. I recommend if you're a
puzzle fan, particularly if you're into investigative games like Her
Story or Return of the Ober, then you should absolutely
give this game a look. The premise is that you
play a some sort of investigator that is hired after
a plane crash where the president of a candy slash
fashion company, along with his wife and his three teenage
celebrity daughters all die in his plane crash, and you're
hired by a mysterious client to try to trace every
blood relative of the root Tree family, which is a
family whose sort of wealth goes all the way back
to like the late eighteen hundreds, just like a generationally
wealthy family, and you don't know why you're doing this yet,
and sort of like the entire game is set in
the nineties, so you're sitting out a computer and you're
just pretty much just using a search engine to try
to dig up articles and like find websites and just
find any evidence to try to fill out this giant
family tree on this corkboard that's just got a bunch
of spots and they're all blank, and you just need
to find a photo. You need to find the names
of each member, which for the women, you need to
find their maiden names, which is a puzzle in itself
because some of them have remarried, maybe more than once.
And then you also need to find their most recent occupation,
which is also another puzzle for some of them that
have maybe had multiple jobs. And it's a really fun
exercise because, like I fell in love with her story,
particularly because it made me feel like a real detective
just going through the search engine and just trying to
find keywords and just typing in. You're reading articles and
just typing in every anything that you think might get
a hit of, Like, Okay, this one root tree was
you know, involved with this school play? Maybe I can
find but her sister was also on to play, but
I can't get anything on her. Can I maybe figure
out which part she played or what else like she did,
what other activity she was involved with in school, or
you're trying to find like you know, like, oh, well,
who is like actually the blood relative of this person,
because there's been adoptions that have taken place and some
maybe some of the information has gotten obscured. And it
gets harder the older you go through the family tree,
because the older the relative is, the less of an
online footprint they have. So the game does a really
good job of sort of leading you along but giving
you just enough breadcrumbs that you can just kind of
connect the dots in a really fun way and also
not really ever feel like you're lost, because the game
also does a great job of telling you when you're
chasing a lead that has absolutely nothing, it's like, hey,
there's nothing here, Like there's some just sort of like
in game prompts or or like the musings of the
person that you're playing as will just be like, nah,
I guess there's nothing here. I better move on. But
besides about it, Since the family tree is so big,
you can kind of tackle multiple threads at once. If
you get stuck trying to figure out the relationship between
his aunt and his uncle, you can move on to like, well,
I'm gonna try to find the kids of this other person.
But it becomes really engrossing really quick. Like I spent
so many nights where I would be up till like
past midnight with a cup of coffee just feeling like again,
like feeling like I'm really trying to do this for
someone of like man, I'm just like one breakthrough a
way to figure out like who is who is the
husband of this person? Or who what is his job? Like?
And it's like the writing is so well done because
a lot of the clues are hidden right in front
of you, and so many times I would be stuck
on something only to figure it out later just because
I looked at the same thing, but with just new
knowledge attached to it, you know. So it does a
really good job of making old evidence that you have
collected feel new again once you find out one news
article or magazine piece that just completely shifts your perspective
of how you should look at somebody and the sort
of meta narrative going on of like, as you're finding
the family members, you're learning about their very tumultuous family history,
and the family becomes like very fascinating characters even though
you never actually meet or speak to any of them.
You're reading so much about out them that they feel
like fully fleshed out characters, and you almost, at least
for me, you kind of find some that you kind
of like more than others. Uh, because yeah, there's been
tho like a televangelist in there. There's like a Hollywood starlet.
There's of course, like the Candy Ceo, the the Root
Tree Girls are just like basically Mary Kate and Ashley analogs.
Speaker 1: Okay, And yeah.
Speaker 2: It's a it's a really cool game, Like you, it's
so easy to get wrapped up in it, I think
the the puzzle design and even just sort of the
quality of life stuff because it's definitely one of those
games where you're gonna be you need to write down
stuff like this is a note taking.
Speaker 1: Yeah did you play? Oh sorry, did you play? What
was that? Other? That sirie the Golden Idol? This kind
of sounds like that.
Speaker 2: I love Golden Idol.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is this is this kind of in the same ballpark?
Speaker 2: Then, well, Golden Idle it's a lot more like the
puzzle designs difference, it's a little bit more like kind
of like mad Libes style, like the structure. It's not
it's not really that like because at least for that
it's a lot of like looking at images and sort
of trying to pick things in a scene. Yeah, to
figure things out. This is like you're you're more reading
and occasionally listening to things like audio files, okay, and
then just sort of like again just picking out things
in a newspaper, thing that might seem like something you
want to search in this internet browser to see if
you get any hits. You know. So that's cool. Yeah,
it's cool. I like I said, it felt like it
had like because it was so early in a year,
I had a bit of a groundswell. I'm hoping that,
you know, especially with blue prints coming out, Like I
think those are to me number one and number two
for like Best Puzzle Game Convention. But it's definitely one
that I've had in my mind of like when we
get towards the Game of the Year, I'm going to
be like hounding you guys, like, hey, you guys need
flavor trees. The only one on this rout tree Island.
You guys need to go play it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's cool. I have been playing a new game
called Peak from Landfall and agro Crab. You might have
heard of it. It's it's recently gotten a lot of
support online. I think they crossed two million sales in
like a week or something. Yeah, but the peak is
this for one, it's eight bucks on Steam. But it's
a co op climbing game, and so it is first
person and each of you. At the start, you're kind
of flying into an airport and you all arrive in
like the airport terminal, and there's like a climbing gym
and that kind of thing for you to practice and stuff,
and you can if you pull out your passport, you
can like customize your character. So everyone's like very cartoony,
so like you're very like very simple looking people, but
it's like very cartoon like you know, purple green, orange people,
and you unlike hats and other outfits as you play
the game more. And so it's big on, very much
big on. Like here is a sand you have a
goal of climbing to the top of the peak, and
once you get to the top of the peak, the
kind of fog of ward dissipates and there's another peak
for you to climb with like different challenges and like
different biomes. So I've made it up until the first
area is like a I think it's called shore peak,
or you're kind of like you've crashed landed on an
airport airplane rather kind of lost style along the beach,
and you kind of gotta climb some pretty basic mountains
to get up to the top. And along the way
you are, you have a stamina bar that you're managing,
and so there are various like hidden objects in the world,
or sometimes there are a lot of times you'll run
into like luggage that has fallen out of the plane
that you crashed in, and inside will be things like
bandages to like if you fall, there's fault damage in
the game. And the cool thing about this the way
that the stamina bar works. The stamina bar and your
health bar are the same thing essentially, and so if
you there could be a number of d buffs that
you get for your stamina bar, so you could be
poisoned and that takes away you know, your your stamina bar,
and you can if you are injured or poisoned, or
you're you're too cold, or if you drink an energy
drink in the game, you kind of have a sugar
crash afterwards, and so your character's really sleepy and if if,
if you run out of energy, your character will literally
like fall over. And still in first person, you're like
rolling off a cliff because your character is so sleepy.
And there there's a lot of like cool physics stuff happening.
But yeah, you're trying to climb these these peaks by yourself,
and it's designed to be a co op game, so
like you can like reach your hand out and let
your friend grab yours. Like it's really all about like
who is in the best position to get one ledge higher?
And how can we get everybody up there too? And
it's there's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: Are there multiple mountains? Like what happens when you get
you like the top.
Speaker 1: Of amunt Okay, that's where that I was saying, that
fog of war kind of dissipates and then you have
a new mountain to climb, and they are swapping them out.
I don't know if it's weekly, they're they're like routinely
implementing new maps, like new levels for you to play through.
I think they're somewhat procedural. That's what it feels like,
like real mountains, yes, yes, and so this kind of
I guess this cycle of the map. I'm getting to
know the maps now that I've put in you know,
six or seven runs, but then they're gonna swap eventually
and it'll be a new mountain for me to explore.
But yeah, it's really easy to get injured. And you know,
there are certain areas when you get up to the
snow area there's these large gusts of icy wind that
will freeze your character and so you have to like
hide behind trees or go deeper into caves to escape
the elements. And all of that is kind of done
via this like stamina bar, and it's a really cool
idea that, oh, if I'm injured, I have much less stamina.
And so the the the more status effects you get
on yourself, the trickier it is to climb higher because
you have less stamina to use. So it's really a
game about item management. Do I want to use my
rope here and and or put a piton in the
side of this mountain so I have a handhold so
that I can recover my stamina halfway up this climb.
There are there are also like I'm calling them like
God items where they are like Pandora's lunchbox. You can
open it and like some strange stuff happens. I haven't
really understood everything that that item does at there's not
a lot of like tool tips or anything like the
The instructions come in the form of a diegetic end
game handbook that you have to carry in your inventory
to open it up and read. And as you as
you progress in the game, I guess you discover more
pages or something that seems like but there isn't like
a really big tutorial where it's like, oh, you unlocked
this lunch box, use it to Yeah, And so there's
a lot of like trial and error that lead to
very comedic moments. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. One
thing that my friends and I've been doing is races.
So we will all spawn into a level and the
starting it will essentially like rock paper scissors to decide
who gets to select the first item at the at
the starting beach. And so some people go for the
backpack so that you can you can carry more items.
But if you if you have the backpack on, then
you your your stamina bar is is decreased because you
know you've got extra weight on you. Other people will
go for you know, dumb items like.
Speaker 2: The trumpet, isn't it how a hunger game starts?
Speaker 1: Exactly? Yes, uh, and the charm of all it's all
like uh uh in game like Proximity Chat. So the
best way to play it is like, even if you're
on Friends with Discord, just mute everybody, Mute all your
friends and just play with Proximity Chat because there they
also add in a lot of like audio effects, so
if you're in a cavern, you're gonna sound like that.
You're gonna sound like you're in a cavern. There's a
lot of reverb on your voice. And it's just super funny.
When you hear somebody fall, you can't really tell where
they're at, like you've been separated, and you just hear
them like screaming as they fall to their death. It
just goes quiet. Exactly, Yes, exactly. It's it's a ton
of fun.
Speaker 2: I'm really just bought it on Steam because you remind me. Yeah, yeah,
I thought I did. I've been wanting to stream this,
but we've been so busy with the magazine.
Speaker 1: But like, yeah, like I would love.
Speaker 2: Sometime.
Speaker 1: I am totally down. It's it's it's a lot of fun,
but yeah, that was peak p e A. K. Kyle,
what's your next recommendation.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about Mario Kart World.
Speaker 1: Ooh nice, Yeah, yeah, it is good.
Speaker 3: It is a good game, which is surprising no one.
I will say though, like I thought, I knew what
to expect with Mario Kart World, and for the most part,
it met those expectations and it was what I hoped
it would be and thought it would be. But there
were there have been a number of moments, especially early on,
where I was like, oh, this is really cool. Like
there would be like you know, like bosses like Mario
sixty four bosses running around the road, or like there's
an early it's like one of the first races you do,
or at least in the first batch of races you do,
where you're driving up the uh the you know, the
Donkey Kong construction site as a giant Donkey Kong. Yeah,
And there was like it was there were moments like
that where I was like, oh, this is actually exceeding
my sort of I don't know, high expectations might not
be the right word, as much as it's like, yeah,
they're gonna Mario Kart eight is like amazing, They're gonna
sort of iterate on that and it's gonna be cool.
But I I it is. I think it's just like
a really good kickoff for the Switch Too. I know
people are already kind of sort of complaining about the
Switch LNA, which I think is fair. Mean, I think
in my review, I think I called it pitifole, But like,
I think it's like just a really great way to
kick off. The Switch Too is like Mario Kart, because
like it is, you know, with whenever you have a
new console, you're kind of like you hit a point
pretty quickly, like within the first.
Speaker 2: Day or two.
Speaker 3: We're like I want to play this thing, but like
I don't I don't really know what to play necessarily,
you know, But like Mario Kart is good for like
you could just hop in and do a race and
like get you know, a satisfying experience out of it,
and it looks great and it plays great and all
those things. It's like, you know, it's the A plus
student continuing to turn an A material. Like we kind
of like throw those things out, you know, like, oh,
it plays great and it looks amazing, which is like
they're like not incredibly difficult to achieve. But Nintendo just
like has hit this this point of like, you know,
we just kind of expect it from them, and yeah,
it's great, it's really great. I'm sure it'll be on
my like personal top ten at the end of the year.
I guess, I guess maybe I shouldn't say it and
with such confidence because I don't know what the rest
of your looks like necessarily, but like I know, but
I wouldn't be surprised if it's not on my top ten,
you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, is it weird that I would almost put like
Knockout too or is its own mode in my top ten?
Like I think it's one. I think that's one of
the best sort of like offerings of any game this year,
is Knockout more Knockout Mode. Like it's just such a
good idea for Mario Kart and really any racing game
that it's like it's one of the like, how has
no one thought of this, that it's like, this is
such a cool like I.
Speaker 4: Mean they kind of did though before, like F zero
ninety nine had something similar, true, I mean.
Speaker 3: F zero X has a mode that I always loved
when I was young that it was like you versus
I think it was fifty other races and you would
just keep going, you know, until you were the last
driving one.
Speaker 2: Like you.
Speaker 3: I remember the when I booted up F zero X on.
Speaker 4: Switch.
Speaker 3: Right, it is on N sixty four, right, I think,
so show this. This is a weird thing to call out,
but I think I might have actually in the last
couple of years been playing it on weu, which is
very random, but like.
Speaker 1: It is, have zero X is on switch okay.
Speaker 3: But yeah, you can play that battle mode. And I
remember even at the time thinking like, yeah, it feels
like an early like a racing pub, like a Battle
Royale kind of, you know, which is what they have
now in Mario kar World, and it's cool as hell.
Speaker 4: I think one of the one of the things that's
really helped with I think keeping the excitement around Mario
Kart for at least the past few weeks is having
those those bigger races like you do have you have
twenty four racers in there, like whether it's people or PC,
but like anytime someone drops like a room code on
social media, like you could just like hop in there
and then like all of your friends are just going
to be racing. It's I haven't seen something like that
in a little bit at least for like a like
a bigger multiplayer experience at least between I guess people
in the game industry. But everyone's still like I have
I haven't. I've seen people complain about the game, but
like even even with those complaints, those same people will
will stuff themselves into a room with other people and
and and knock out some races.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I feel like the complaints are mostly just
like the free Rome could have more to do. Yeah,
like that.
Speaker 4: My main complaint was the whole like, oh, we're not
doing multiple laps on on a course, Like the courses
themselves don't feel as like bespoke and like you don't
really have to learn the intricacies of like a specific course.
But they have now they have so like if you're
if you're doing multiplayer, like a lot of people were
talking about this last week, but where uh Nintendo had
patched out doing like three three lap races, But you
can actually whenever you're you're choosing next course, you hit
the star button, you get to choose from the map
where you want to go. If it's if it's a
map that's not connected to where you are currently you'll
do a three lap race instead of traveling to that
place and then doing one lap there.
Speaker 3: I gotta say, I don't understand that complaint at all.
I don't want three lap races. I don't like I like.
Speaker 4: Having the option.
Speaker 3: Sure, okay, yeah that's fair, But like it's so odd
because I've heard some complaints that are like I want
to be able to do the race like over and over. Right,
It's like, it's Mario Kart Man, You're gonna play these
races over and over. That's like, like that's that doesn't
that gets exhausting to me? In standard Mario Kart It's
like I want the newness. I want to move on
and be on a new race, and if I want
to play that race again, it's I will play it again.
Some I don't know. It's just an odd complaint to
me to want that three lap structure, you know.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it feels like I mean, I think that's
I think I've talked about on the show before, Like
that's the novelty of this Mario Kart is you see
the in between? You know, Yeah, it's the road trip.
Speaker 3: My favorite course is an eight. Are the ones that
were just straight shots like going down the Mountain, Like
I don't. It just gets redundant to me. But I'm
also a very impatient game I.
Speaker 1: Love, I love what is that Warrio?
Speaker 3: Like I don't even like, I don't even like I
can't get into Monster Hunter because I don't want to
fight the same monsters over and over, you know. So
it's like I think that's also my just the way
my brain, like I don't repeats my brain likes about
video games. I just want novelty, you know. It's just
like constantly give me novelty.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I'm with you. I am really loving
this Mario Kart. It's really the only game that and peak.
Right now, I'm kind of in a weird spot. I
think I'm a little burnt out just on you know.
It's been a lot of a lot of work with
games lately, and I just haven't found my There's so
many great games I know I would enjoy if I
just booted them up, but I just haven't found the
energy to. And so but anytime, like John said, when
somebody puts out a social code, like a race code
on social media, I'm like, I want to play Mario Kart.
Let's do it. I'm just having a blast with that.
That and Peak. You know, so Mark Kart's very high
for me this year.
Speaker 4: Cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, really enjoying that. Great pick. Kyle John, what's your
next one?
Speaker 4: Oh geez, let's all I guess we're still going chronological here.
I'm gonna go with a vowed from Obsidian Entertainment. Avout
really surprised me, and I'm not like I I like
the whole fallout e Bethesdy formula, but like this, I
think this was painted as that, but it's it's more
it's more mass effect than anything else. So avowed as
a first person fantasy RPG where you are brought to
new Land, uh and there's uh just stuff going on
with nature. There's uh tumultuous things happening with with the
residents there, and then you have like this weird voice
that starts talking to you yes, and a lot of
the the things that you do, like you're trying to
figure out what this voice is and trying to calm
these these issues that are happening with with the residents.
But there's there's so many choices that you make in
that game that make it such a like kind of
like mass effect. Back in the day, like the choices
you make really matter and will will uh truly affect
the path that you take through it, and like what
your endings are going to be. I I feel like
games try to do that occasionally you can kind of
see like the the flow chart through it. But this
is one where like there are certain points where I
didn't expect it to be such a such a like
a game changing choice that that I would make, and
by the by the end of the game, like I
could see like where that broke off, and I have
no clue like where the other paths would have taken me,
or like what what minor decisions I would be taking
throughout that game that would take me somewhere different. I'm
sure a lot of it flows to the same the
same spot regardless, but there's like characters that can die
and yeah.
Speaker 2: People leave your party and stuff too, right, people.
Speaker 4: Leave your party. Yeah, it's it's really it was a
really really impressive game and actually makes me way more
excited for the outer world's too, and and what they're
what they're doing with that, if they're they're touching any
of any of that like decision making. I think that
that game is going to be really really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I I didn't get to talk about it on
the show because I think we ran into technical issues.
We were we had a segment recorded about outer worlds too,
But I got to play it at at SGF and
really walked away impressed with it, with kind of the
choices and like the way they're changing the flaw system
is really neat. Yeah, people want to check out my preview.
I've got a two pager in this issue of Game Informer.
You can go and read on the website right now
gameingforwar dot com slash subscribe.
Speaker 2: I just want to add for a vow and I
think the thing that maybe impresses me as much as
the choice stuff is the combat. Like I think it
is the best first person sort of like RPG combat.
Like I guess if you want to say like that
bethesa style like easily, like to the point where I
fired up the Oblivion remaster and I play through that,
you know, the intro dungeon got out to the world,
and the first thing I thought was, man, I really
missed that combat at a VOWT Like I knew it
was good, but it feels even better when you go
back to how you know, it used to be in
the in the olden days of just like because like
the combat doesn't feel floaty, Like all the attacks, like
the melee weapons all feel weighty and fast. Yeah, there's
a nice pace to it and then.
Speaker 4: You have to be on your toes too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like it's not easy either, No, like you really
have to Yeah, like it's like blocking.
Speaker 1: Played the first couple hours, I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like there's a sense of maneuverability in that game
that you don't see in a lot of first person
kind of like action games like that, where you have
a dash, you have a block, you have a perry,
the enemies force you to use all three of those
pretty copiously, and then the ability to combine like basically
anything of like I could be a spellcaster in one
hand and I can have a gun an the other one,
and let's just see how this goes. And I got
a book that shoots like five different spells, and then
I also have like a sick like scimitar or rapier,
and I'm just like going at these guys. It is
as much it is so much fun to just fight things,
and then it's fun to get around because there's like
park horse style. It was like platforming, Like there's a
lot of verticality in the game that you don't normally
see where it just feels good. They're just like I'm
just gonna run and jump over a bunch of stuff,
and you're just like mantling over things, and they just
they just made getting around and just like aging with
the game outside of just talking to people feel really good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I those environments too, are just oh ridiculous looking. I
mean they're beautiful.
Speaker 2: And like unique too, like because a lot of ansy
games can bleed together, but this one has like weird
mushroom motif, like your character is like a mushroom person basically, yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're touched by a god. So yes, you got
it all all the plant stuff. I think it helps
that it's not a big open world like it is
open zones, but that helps to like focus uh, their
their direction on like making things super dense and making
things look good and make it just be It's just
an interesting area to explore wherever you go.
Speaker 2: It's got a real purposeful design to like we put
this here because we thought it was the most aesthetically
pleasing place to put this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it rules That's that's a game I want
to go back to at some point when I forget
a little bit more of what happened and then just
take a different course through it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well cool, how about you, Marcus, what's your next game?
Speaker 2: This is the game I feel the most bad that
we weren't able to do a proper review, just because
it came out right when we were just kind of
getting our getting started again. Yeah, and it's also a
game that you kind of can't play on your own
free time because you need two people to play it
and had a split fiction which I finished after working
through it for like pretty much since launch with a
buddy of mine. We took kind of, like not intentionally
took our time, just we took as much as our
schedules call allow, especially him because he is like a
recent father, so he's got a newborn that he has
to to deal with. But we would play every every
other weekend or so, like sometimes just for an hour
just because of timing. But that game is good as hell.
Speaker 1: It is it okay, all right?
Speaker 2: It is a fantastic game personally.
Speaker 1: For some reason, the themes weren't really jumping out to
me like they did with with the other games.
Speaker 2: It takes it takes two and it takes.
Speaker 1: Two and a way out. Yeah, I don't know. I
don't know why. I think it was just like the
very it felt more on the nose with like fantasy
and sci fi.
Speaker 3: Yeah it is, it is, but it like it lends
itself to gameplay, you know, like it's it's like it's
not a great like you know, they announced like a
film adaptation of Split Fiction recently, and my reaction was
kind of like yeah, like.
Speaker 2: I'm good after it takes to film that's also supposed
to be happening.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, yeah, there's all these like video game film.
I mean, Claire Obscure is a film than any second now,
but but I mean it actually, but I think it
is like yeah, I mean the the sort of setup
is kind of silly and the dialogue is silly, but
like what the the levels that it sort of lets
you jump between is worthwhile. Like it's good. I haven't
finished it because my co op partner, my daughter is
a teenager who's who's not usually available. I was because
I mark as I is gonna review it, like that
was the plan. I was like, I'll play with my
daughter and then I have to like schedule with her.
I gotta I gotta talk to her secretary. We got
a Docker pay. But I also did like it, and
I've been carefully and I don't betray me here, Marcus,
but like I hear the ending is amazing, and so
I've been really careful to like, I don't want to
see any of it. I don't want anything spoiled about it.
I just like that's a goal. I hear it's amazing,
So my kid and I will get through it at
some point, is the plan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really liked it. Tastes too like I thought
it was. That was also a fantastic game, Like just
the sheer amount of creativity and variety was just kind
of staggering. But I was like not a fan of
the story, which I don't think is a controversial opinion.
I'm not saying this story is like leaps and bounds better,
but I do think it's better, and I think it
does get better the deeper you get into it. But
I think they've I would honestly say, like, looking back
at it now, I think they might have topped what
they've done. And it takes too just that it's got,
you know, the same amount, just like variety and just
surprises of just like the way mechanics change constantly. But
I think having the novel you were talking about, Kyle, Yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah,
And I do think that theme they were talking about
it like sci fi and fantasy, you know, two different worlds,
the two different writers, like the two things they play
with that in gameplay in like really really neat ways
where it takes two was you know, it was all
one theme of like little person in a Big World basically,
you know of like they do the genre mashups really well,
and like I would say like eighty percent of a
time in ways where I was like, oh, I know
we were doing this. I didn't think you could do
it this way or that they were taking this different direction.
And yeah, that final sequence is on my like list
of like this is one of the best I know
segments or sequences of the year. Like it is it
is the ultimate like flex of like oh you thought
we ran out of ideas, we'll check this out and
then you're like, oh my god, okay, and it's like
and it is like an extended final sequence that it
is just me and my and the whole time just
kept saying this is so cool, This is so cool,
Holy crap, this is amazing.
Speaker 1: I do have a question, is this a I know
a lot of people like to play these games with
like significant others or friends who normally maybe don't play games,
just because like the couch co op nature of it,
right yeah, And I think especially the themes of like
It Takes Two, people were like, I want to play
this with somebody that I you know, I care about, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, But It Takes Two was not an
easy game.
Speaker 1: I would say, like, like you do, like, is this
game is there a character that is maybe more more
suited for the newer player of the two or is
it pretty pretty even in terms of like challenge.
Speaker 2: No, they're the same, they're the same character. I mean
they get different things, but there's no like easy character.
And I would say that I think this is even
more of like a demanding video game. Okay, and it
takes too because it's a lot more of an action game,
where is it takes to us a little bit more
of a platformer, Like not that there isn't platforming in this,
but there are like straight up just like action sequences
more often than not in this game. And yeah, I
was talking without my friends. He was thinking about playing
with his wife, who was like, i'd say, like a
mid level gamer, like doesn't play a bunch of stuff
and he's but he like she doesn't play enough where
he he kind of has to curate what they play.
And he was saying like, I don't know if she could,
if she could do this one. This is a this
gets pretty intense. Like him and I are doing great
because him and I play games all the time. Sure,
but yeah, this is a lot more of like a
video game video game.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, yeah, cool, all right, well let's move on.
I will shout out, Oh this is the one that
I don't think I've talked about, so a picnic penguin.
This is a five dollars So it's two dollars and
fifty cents on the Steam cell right now.
Speaker 2: Okay, then I may as well just get this.
Speaker 1: Game has six user reviews on Steam like this is as.
Speaker 4: Of them from Alex Finny.
Speaker 1: I am one of them. Okay, hey, just yeah, let
me let me let me find it.
Speaker 2: I'm on the page, can I find it?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you d see my review, let's see. Yeah, you're
the first one. Okay, enjoyable, soacabond puzzles that are not
too difficult. The pixel art is also solid, easy to
read and full of personality. Enjoyable little casual penguin or
puzzle game for relaxing or keeping up in the background
in between work. Not bad, but you got to get
your character count up. Though we can't put Steam reviews
review roundup entries.
Speaker 1: I know it helps developers, and so I will write
the Steam reviews, but like they are the most It's
the same thing like I I track the games I
play on the gg app and I I played like
Blueprints or Animal is a great reference. I beat Animal WEL,
which I loved. I adored that game, and my gg
app review is like that's a masterpiece. Huh. Like it's
just like I just like, do the character the minimum
character count? And I logged the review.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah exactly, But yeah, picnic Penguin.
Speaker 1: It is vibrant and colorful and fun. It reminds me
of like something that you would find on the Game
Boy Advance, very like more of on the cartoony side
of the pixel art spectrum. So like nice thick black
outlines on objects, really like primary color driven you know,
blocks of color and yeah, they're they're just really fun
Socco bond puzzles that I found this game. I was
just like randomly searching on the Steamed store one day.
I was trying to find like really deep dive on
games that that didn't get you know, any highlight really
and I was like, Damn, this game is like really
good looking and I think I caught it like the
day it came out, and yeah, it's it's been really enjoyable.
It it functions well. I don't know if I've tried
it on Steam Deck or not, but is it no switch?
I don't think so.
Speaker 2: This seems like the perfect switch game. It's like I'll
buy it on Steam, but if I have the option,
I would like, don't switch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just Steam. I think this is like, oh
it might be on it's on Apple. It looks like, yeah,
it's on Apple.
Speaker 2: iPhone the two things I don't have an iPhone and
a Steam Deck.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry. I think this is actually could totally
be a decent iPhone game. Like I think Soakabon puzzles
kind of in themselves to that touch style. But yeah,
I mean I don't really have a ton of substance
to say about this game other than in like I
said in the review, I'm it's breezy. Uh, it's it's
cheap as hell, and it's just a really enjoyable vibe.
I enjoy the music, the art. It's just nice and relaxing.
And it's something I think I said it in that
short Steam review, like it's something you could have up
while you're in a meeting. We'll let me just do
a quick puzzle while people are grabbing water or whatever.
And now out of it is really I haven't gotten
to a point in it. I haven't gotten far enough
in it to where it's super challenging. But they're definitely
like you if I have to think on some of them,
and and yeah, I check them. I recommend that Picnic Penguin,
and the developer is called I want to shout them
out because they're so small neutronized. Yeah, this thing came
out in Oh, yoh, they just released a new game.
What's up with this? Dino Quake releases? Joe. Oh, they're
about to release it no. June nineteenth. Oh, and it's
the same art style.
Speaker 2: All right, sorry, already review, all right, we see you neutronized.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's my my next pick. I'm gonna send
it back to you. Kyle. What's your next recommendation?
Speaker 3: Uh, let's talk about you know what, let's talk about
Like a dragon piriy yakus in Hawaii certainly the longest title.
It's like a dragon pirate yakuz in Hawaii is what
it is, which is I'm a recent Yakuza person, like
like most people, you know, I feel like it's kind
of become like there were six other Yakuza games and
then seven came out, and I feel like now it's
kind of mainstream and I and I like watch my
wife play seven and she loved it. And then I
played the man who erased his name to kind of
that was like sort of like I'm going to use
this to sort of like dip my toe here, and
enjoyed that. And then I really loved Infinite Wealth, and yeah,
Piracus in Hawaii was one where it was like I
felt like it was like perfect for me, right, this
kind of player who like I don't really know Majuma,
you know, like I didn't play those other six Yakuza games.
He shows up in eight, you know, but it's like
I know this guy. He's like an iconic looking guy.
I know he's important to Yakuza. But like the nice
thing about Hawaii Pirate because in Hawaii Is it was
like you got to learn who Moduma was, but also
like you didn't have to worry about any baggage of
him because he's an amnesiac, you know, like he lost
his memory. So like I I understand that I didn't
get the full Moduma experience, you know, like I don't.
I still don't really know him because I know a
version of him. But yeah, the the story of that
game is is is weak compared to like Infinite Wealth
or you know what I saw seven, But I I
it's one of those that just like sucked me in
and like I wanted to do everything, you know, like
I did every side quest, I like did all the
eye like got my pirate ship upgraded all the way,
and uh, it's just it was just super fun to
play and super fun to unlock things, and that those
worlds are always fun and those characters are always fun.
And there's like when we talk about Moments of the Year,
there's this like insane sequence in that game that I mean,
I don't want to spoil but like if you're a
fan of like reality TV, like The Bachelor and stuff
like that, Like there is there is a sequence in
that game that is just absolutely hilarious and unexpected and
I really loved it and I'll be talking about it
when we talk about the end of the year stuff.
But yeah, just just a charming as hell action game.
Speaker 1: You know that sounds awesome. You definitely piqued my interest, Kyle.
Speaker 3: You said the keywords if you don't, if you genuinely Alex,
if you don't think you'll play, like if you're honest
with yourself and you're like, I'm not gonna go play this.
I'm not going to spend you know six.
Speaker 1: I probably won't, So I want you to tell me
I should.
Speaker 3: I'll send you that. I'll send you what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: It's it's yeah, please do that sounds awesome, John, what's
your next game?
Speaker 4: Should we go big or small?
Speaker 1: Let's go Let's go big?
Speaker 4: Okay. I feel like it comes in and out of
the conversation this year, but it came out March or so.
But Monster hun or Wild m y. I'm I'm a
big Monster Hunter fan. I actually I haven't played this
much past hitting the first set of credits, but I
think like expanding the world of Monster Hunter into like
these these vast maps and you need amount to get
around quickly. It has been really cool and like seeing
monsters just kind of like living in these environments and
seeing how they interact with like the smaller ecology and
all of that is super neat and kind of just
going out and want Like you could in previous Monster
Hunters you can kind of go out into whatever map
and see what monsters were out there, but this is
more like I'm gonna go out into this what whatever
map I'm close to, and it feels like the monsters
are kind of living there as opposed to what's spawning
in this area today. The combat's really cool. They added
like new systems for uh, like wounding the monsters and
then capitalizing on those wounds. Everything about it's just just
super super fun. There's a new update out for it
now that added uh the Gaia Cruz from Monster Hunter Try,
which is like they're they're big, uh water monster. So
they added some underwater sections to the game now. As
I've been received, uh, it's it seems alright. I was
talking with Jesse Fettli last night about it, and he uh,
he's he's played through that fight and there's it's not
like full underwater combat. You can't swing your weapon or anything,
but you can like maneuver around and like uh like
grapple onto the monster and and do uh like some
interactions with items under water. But that that could uh
that that could just be the first, uh like the
start of more underwater mechanics kind of moving into what
her expansion might come out for this game later. That
seems like a pretty big aspect you add during like
a patch without like building that out further.
Speaker 1: Am I wrong? Wasn't wasn't like swimming a bigger deal
in past Monster Hunter games?
Speaker 4: Yeah, specifically in three that was that was like their
their big innovation there was was doing underwater fighting and
you could like actually swing your sword or shoot your
bow or whatever underwater. I don't know if we've if
we've gone to a place with games where maneuvering underwater
is like all that fun. But for like little breaks
during the fight. It sounds like most most of this
fight happens on land, but you do have like these
little underwater sections to kind of break it up, which
I think is probably a nice accent to what they're
doing with all the on the ground stuff. But yeah,
Monster in or Wilds it's just a solid entry in
that series. It's probably gonna be at my top ten.
It's something I'm going to be playing throughout the year.
It has like I kind of missed the verticality of
Monster Hunter World as opposed to the more vast and
open maps that they have here. But I still love it.
Like that game's great and has some really really cool
boss monsters the hell.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, that's one I want to go back to.
I think I played probably five to ten hours. It
came out like this is right as we're bringing the
magazine back, and so there was just so much going
on behind the scenes work wise that most of those
games came around around that time. I just missed because
of that kind of stuff. But yeah, I feel like
I kind of missed out a bit on Wild's. I
really enjoyed on TikTok watching people live stream it or
you know, show off just ridiculous moments. That's the problem
with that those games. I always feel like if you
aren't in on the first two weeks of that game,
like you've kind of missed the boat. Sometimes it feels
like yeah, uh, like I want to be earning stuff
with my friends simultaneously. I hate when people are like, well,
I'll just run you through everything and you know Grandpa,
Yeah yeah, I don't like that. And I also don't
want to play alone necessarily.
Speaker 4: So it's like, ah that that kind of happened to
me too. Like some of the people that I want
to play with were reviewing it and so they were
playing it multiple weeks early and by the time like
I got my hands on it, they were like done
with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've mostly been doing single player stuff.
Speaker 1: That's fair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I still got to finish it really bad campaign.
It's just like it's like the gatekeep to like the
there's fun stuff like to get to the Promised Land.
On the other side, you gotta hang out with this
stupid kid with his story.
Speaker 4: The last like act of that I think is is good.
It's it's kind of like I think the last act.
I think it's kind of like Pokemon Scarlet Violet, Like
when you get to areas zero, you're like, oh, okay,
this is what I've been playing this for. That there's
some really really cool fights at the end.
Speaker 2: I know, I've been dragging my feet because every time
I go back in and I was like, I don't
want to talk to any of the people. Just get
me to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel you, Marcus. Well, Marcus, actually it is
your turn. You want to give us another recommendation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll go big too, Doom the Dark Ages. I'll
review that game.
Speaker 1: I really need to play this.
Speaker 2: It's fun as hell. I give it a nine to
five out of ten. That's how fun it is. It's man,
what if you gave Doom guy a shield? That sounds
absurd on paper, right, even more absurd than what if
he was like in vaguely medieval times. Sort of it's
like dumber than that. But then it's like it literally
is the the best thing of the game, and it's
kind of like everything around it in terms of a
combat encounters is sort of revolves around how well you
use that shield because it is a lot more like
it's the same like fast paced like running Gun of
the old Doom games, but like a lot closer to
twenty sixteen. Doom is as opposed to Eternal because you
can actually like kill anyone with everything, whereas Eternal. One
thing I really didn't like about the game was how situational.
A lot of the combat encounters felt like it felt
like they were encouraging you only use certain weapons because you.
Speaker 1: Have to almost like puzzle like yeah.
Speaker 2: Which I was not the biggest fan of, so they
get away from that in this one. But now enemies
can attack you with uh like moves that you can
parry back at them, and it feels it's it's wild
how well it works in the Doom formula, Like it
adds a really fun defensiveness to combat where you feel
like you're feel more encouraged to get like really up
in the face of demons because you can just like
block their attacks and just like you have like a
Captain America shield bash where you can just like close
the gap by like zipping like a mile across the
battlefield to just shield bash someone. You can throw the
shield like Captain America, which feels great. So it gives
you know the range option and it can just like
instantly kill like the smaller fodder enemies and it feels great.
And it can also like embed like it can embed
itself into bigger enemies and kind of stun them because
it's like sawing into their flesh and you just kind
of like blow them apart with a shotgun. And but
it doesn't feel like a crutch either, which I think
is like crucial because you can only block so many
things before the shield becomes unavailable temporarily, so it's the
game is still about, like, you know, don't stop moving,
like just keep moving, DoD dodge everything you can block,
block and perry what you can, and then try to
dodge everything else. But I just love how much more
like you know, this is maybe the most overused term,
and then video games like journalism, but like visceral it
is because it is a lot more like melee focused
because of that, especially because you have like they revamp
the melee's combat, where basically melee is like it has
like Ammo now, so you can only punch people three
times and you replenish it by shooting people. So like
every pillar of combat feeds into another one where it's
like the more people you melee, the more Amma you get,
whereas the more people you shoot, the more juice you
get for your melee attacks. And then you get different
like that you literally reload your fist. It's fantastic, and
you also get like other melee weapons, like a like
the big flail, which was my favorite, and it just
like feels so satisfying to just smash that into people's faces.
It looks fantastic, just like visually, like just it's like
that medieval setting is like a really cool like you know,
we always say like those games look like metal, like
metal band covers, and I think I don't know if
that has rung more true than this one because of
just how like it's like this cool blend of like
high tech sci fi or everyone just looks like a
night but if they are like also a borg from
Star Trek a little bit, it's like a really cool mix.
I'm kind of glad it wasn't just purely medieval stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I'm kind of experimenting with that with Eternal,
with like the sword.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, like a bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but this is like kind of like you know,
you got your feet wet and Eternal with that kind
of style. Now let's just make everything kind of this
hybrid fusion of the two themes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But honestly, it's it's that shield that does it
for me, Like I think, yeah, this is the best
playing Doom game. Like I even more so in the
twenty sixteen and I adore Dooming twenty sixteen, but like
it's gotten to the like you can tell that they
did a good job when I'm like, I'm gonna miss
the Shield if I go back to the other Doom games, Like,
I don't know if they if they make a fourth one,
how you can take this away now? Because I it's
just it works so well and I would love to
see them iterate on it then just have it be
a one and done and they try the next new thing.
But yeah, it's also on my short list of like
best like I don't know, mechanics of the years, Like yeah,
that that Shield saw is fantastic in a game, and
I love it and it's such a Doom the Dark
Ages in general, it is an absolute blast that you
gotta make time to play.
Speaker 1: Is this your favorite game of the year so far?
Speaker 2: No, but it's high up, Okay, you're just it's like
top five for sure?
Speaker 1: Cool? Hell yeah, well I guess I will go. Next.
I want to talk about elden Ring Night Rain. Have
you all had a chance to play this final year?
Not yet?
Speaker 2: No, I still I'm mister elden Ring too, But it's
just it's more of a co op nature. Like I
have two friends that I tend to play a lot
of games with, but neither of them have gotten it yet,
and I've just been also, I mean, I've been busy
with my own stuff, like I've ever right now. So
it's it's it's somewhat frustrating to have a new elden
Ring game that I can't just pick up and play
by myself, even though I technically can, but it seems
from everyone I talked to it was heavily.
Speaker 1: Discur No, yeah, I want to do that.
Speaker 3: I did start it, but and I will. I want
to hear what you think, Alex, but like, yeah, my
my reaction was kind of like, this isn't what I
want from a from game. I like the lonely, single
player scary experience, you know, not the fast paced kind
of but like but I I, yeah, that's why I
want to hear. I've the arguments of for people that
love it, Like I love hearing those and I and
it's like I get it. That sounds cool. I just
don't really want to play with eldon Ring with other people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I I really enjoy it. It's it's it's it's
up there probably my favorite game that I've played so far,
maybe between that and like Mario Kart. Honestly, I'm I'm
I'm a simple man, but yeah, it's it's I love
speed running, and I love you know, There's been a
few games in the past that I've like, not like
officially speed ran, but like I would have little competitions
with my friends, like the Kooper ray in Mario Odyssey.
I got like pretty into for a while hit Man
I in the review period for I think it was
hit Man three, the World of Assassination trilogy, the most
recent one. I know, me, Jeff Grubb, a couple of
other people, like before the game came out, I had
like the number one time in like some of those levels,
and I just love, like, I love that idea of
really like maximizing you know, your your performance, and that's
like absolutely required with with with night Rain, it is
the core game revolves around whether or not you can
complete what you're trying to do and the most efficient
way possible, and there's something about doing that alongside I
prefer to do with friends, and I don't really have
as great of an experience with if I matchmake with
random people because they're off doing their own things. You know.
Speaker 2: It seems like a terrible way to play that game, honestly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because there's no voice chat, which is which is
so dumb too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like there was. I don't know if I just
want to talk to strangers about that.
Speaker 1: But at least like you can communicate on like let's
get on the same page, yeah, about what we want
to do, and so that I think that's like one
of the biggest factors. Like that that kind of curbs
folks enjoyment with it. You really have to have like
two other friends that are are willing to kind of
go on that path of of refinement and like hitting
your head against the wall because you know, I just
invested forty five minutes into this run and we got
wiped in the first thirty seconds of this boss fight
just because the way the cards were dealt and we
didn't we didn't you know, prepare correctly, or we didn't
you know, get you know, the right role at the start.
And it's really fun when you get those bad roles
at the start, you still turn it around and you
like kind of sirp those those kind of those challenges
and yeah, I really like that game a lot. I
haven't beaten it. I have two bosses left I was
trying to beat. You can technically beat the game after
I think you defeat like five of the of the
eight bosses, I think, but I want to do all
of them.
Speaker 2: Can you say your progress, like, do you have to
beat the game in one run or can you like no, no, no,
come back later.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So it's also like that.
Speaker 2: Kind of rope like where you quit and you know it's.
Speaker 1: The roundtable hold is your kind of in between match
checkpoint hub. You know you're going to vendors purchasing ruins
to like build to help your character build, and you
know you're there's secret characters you can unlock there. And yes,
it's very much like it's more of a rogue light
like you're getting things to that carryover between those runs.
Speaker 2: Okay, I was worried this was a maternal situation.
Speaker 1: No, no, before.
Speaker 2: They patched it fixed it.
Speaker 1: No, oh god no, that that totally threw me off
of that game. Like I lost probably five or six
hours of progress on that game. Yeah because of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I thought it was because you paused the
game and like put your system to sleep and then like, yeah,
the system up.
Speaker 2: They basically can't quit. Like when you start a run,
you were committed to the end, you cannot leave.
Speaker 1: I I yeah, I could not believe that people let
that slide, and like their criticism of that game, I
it totally ruined it for me.
Speaker 2: And it's a great game. I could see why, like
it's that was the only like bad thing. Otherwise it
was like, yeah, it's a huge bad thing. I mean,
I'm glaring problem.
Speaker 3: I man, I don't know. That's a different conversation. But
like a run in Returnal is like forty minutes an
hour if you go an I love, I adore Maternal,
but like my.
Speaker 1: Runs are like I would be on like the third
area and I'm like like.
Speaker 2: A half hours if you're just going yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe I was playing it differently or I died
faster or something, but like, I don't know, I just
never thought that was I think it felt like every
other roguelike to me, Like what roguelikes are you stopping.
Speaker 2: Halfway gamer down here? But I'm not. I was terrible
in seconds.
Speaker 1: Internal run was like way longer.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like that's a game where you clearly
need to like get your footing and and figure out
like what's important in a room? Uh what what kind
of like what kind of rooms are you are you
going to be seeing so you can kind of like
speed through them. But like those those first few runs,
at least, like I was kind of exploring quite a
bit and taking my time walking through, So those those
runs did take quite a while.
Speaker 2: Are we still talking about Eternal? Yes?
Speaker 4: We are everyone game or Eternal?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, So that that's my piece on Night Rain.
I'm really enjoy ain't it. It's one that I'll probably
go back to as they add more bosses. I Also
you're kind of talking John about like Monster Hunter Wilds
feeling like the monsters live there, right, it feels lived in.
There are moments of that in Night Rain as well,
where like you'll run up and there's like a dragon
fighting the troll and it's obviously like it's a very
scripted fight, but when you first run into those moments,
it's it's very cool. It kind of doesn't it, doesn't,
you know? I think Monster Hunter probably that happens in
perpetuity because the the behaviors that are scripted. This is
just like a sequence that happens. But nonetheless, I think
it's cool.
Speaker 4: I have seen that comparison where like Night Rain is
kind of like them trying to do more of a
Monster Hunter like repeatable missions, going out with friends and
trying to take down these these really hard encounters. Yeah, yeah,
you learn, I mean, just like Beldon Ring or Dark Souls,
Like you're learning the mechanics of that boss and trying
to coordinate to to take them down. Like, I think
that fits well with that, with that genre. That's kind
of how I got into Monster Hunter originally, was playing
that and Dark Souls around the same time and kind
of like getting like both of them have very like
deliverate combat and and like animation heavy combat and and
everything you do has to have has to have meaning
behind it, otherwise you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna die.
So that like playing both of those kind of simultaneously
helped it click both ways and really enjoy what what
both of those were putting out.
Speaker 1: Well, cool, Kyle, let's go to you. What's the next?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I I had a little bit of a longer list,
but in the interest of I don't know, maybe you
kind of getting as close to the finish line, I'm
gonna jump to what is still my game of the year,
which is Clare Obscure Expedition thirty three, which was a
game that, like, when they showed off, I remember thinking like, oh,
that looks cool, and then when they showed the turn
based combat, I was like, that looks amazing, right, Like
that was the thing that put me over the edge,
and it was. But up until release, it was one
of those things where I was like, well, this looks
really cool and unique and like different, but it's like,
you know, it's a new game, it's a first time team.
You know, it'll it probably won't live up to my expectations,
or rather I was, I was, I was setting kind
of middling expectations for it as like a new team,
especially RPGs, like they'll just kind of like you know,
they they they're really long in the tooth at a
certain point. But man, Clear Obscure just pulls you in
from like its opening hour, like it is like the
most successful opening for any turn based RPG.
Speaker 2: Ever.
Speaker 3: Arguably, I don't know I would be. I mean, that's
a that's a larger argument to happen. I don't know
the last time I've like booted up a turn based
rpg and was that enthralled that quickly?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean is incredible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it just maintains that pace throughout the end.
I mean it's it's a maybe a minor spoiler here,
maybe press that little thirty second four button. But there's
multiple epilogues, but it's still didn't feel like too long,
Like they all felt earned and like and just like
the style of that game, and the combat is so good.
It's what I want from turn based combat. I was
playing recently a Sea of Remnants. I had an early
build for Sea of Remnants, which was shown at the
PlayStation State of Play event recently, which is a turn
based RPG, and it looks great and it seems interesting.
But like I was there pressing buttons wishing that I
was getting like extra damage or like being able to
like block and stuff like that. Yeah, it's just it's
just beautiful and the story is so good and interesting
and like it's like heart wrenching. It's just it's amazing.
It's a it's a fantastic game, and it's like it's
just one that I would I recommend to like anybody,
you know. It's like It's the kind of video game
that you could show to someone who doesn't really video
games and not be embarrassed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's another one of those games where, like a Vowed,
where it stands out among other sort of like fantasy
games because it feels like it has like its own
unique art direction and it's got a very I mean,
it is a French developer, and you can tell because
it has there's a French flare to the art direction
that you don't see in a lot of games. Like
that underwater section you get to pretty early in the
game is like one of my favorite locations in any
game that I've played this year. And yeah, the combat
is so much fun and I love that if I
like knowing that if I was really good, I could
basically never get hit in this game is like a
really strong motivator to want to get better at blocking
and pairing. Knowing that, like, man, if I was on
my game, you guys would never touch me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, there are people who really don't don't enjoy
doing countering and blocking, and I understand that, Like they
just don't find that gameplay enjoyable. You know, someone lifting
a sword slowly and then being like you know, like
I understand why that's frustrating for people, but like for me,
who's the kind of player, even in an RPG, who
will just slam their head against a brick wall for
an hour rather than like walk backwards and level up
a couple of times. Like I love that you can
learn these like sequences and like be successful and like
live through like what like fights that you're like way
underpowered for and it just and it looks amazing. It's
just an incredible game. You don't feel helpless in No,
you never feel it.
Speaker 2: It's like I can't like this. This is going to
kill me if it hits me, but I have an
out instead of most RPGs where it's like, well this
is just going to hit me, I guess, I guess
I gotta take this. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So yeah, claib Scare Exhibition thirty three really like maybe
I was Maybe I should have had higher expectations, you know,
based on those early looks, but man I was. I
was just enthralled throughout. Yeah, I miss it.
Speaker 1: It's one of those high on my list. I have
started it.
Speaker 3: It's it's not crazy long, right, That's what I've heard. Yeah,
Like because you can mainline it, which I did mostly
like I wasn't. I didn't do a lot of side quests,
but I think I was like I came under thirty
five hours or something like that, so like, don't I
wouldn't be intimated by like if you want to just
rip through it, like that is an option, right, and
it's good. It's really good.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 4: I was kind of worried about that game being a
little bit too linear, like early early, like previews and stuff.
You would look at the maps, it looked like Final
Fantasy ten kind of just like I'm going down a
hallway or whatever. But like it is a little bit
i'd say inspired by like the Soul's genre, where like
you are going to be like, yeah, it might be
a little bit linear, but there are very specific challenges
along the way, and like every time, like you you
save one of the flags, like everything kind of respawns.
Speaker 3: And you have Vanestas flask essentially.
Speaker 4: You have a flask. Yeah, Like there's there's a lot
of mechanics in there that are i think very specifically
like souls Souls like mechanics. But also it gives you
a lot of just systems to play with, like the
the picto's and lubinas and the different abilities that your
characters can can get, Like like what you guys were
saying before, you're you're never really ever stuck, Like there's
always a different like combat puzzle to figure out, And
maybe that's that's adjusting what what pictos you have, what
abilities your characters are using, and what kind of synergies
you get to apply between them. I'm I'm only in
like the beginning of Act two, but there's there's so
much of that game that I like just makes my
my brain goper and like I'm just like trying to
figure out the numbers and and and seeing how I
can kill things the fastest or or survive crazy attacks
or if I get to a certain point in the
game and I unlock an ability. I'm thinking about like
that boss uh two hours ago, that I would just
die against no matter what, just they would just one
shot me. That I finally could uh figure out how
to defeat them. Yeah, yeah, that game is incredible. I
need to actually sit down and finish it.
Speaker 3: And also it also opens up more john too, like
later like if you oh, yeah, if you do feel
like it's being linear, if it feels a little linear
for you, like the latter portion of the game is
much more free rome you know.
Speaker 4: Cour Okay, Hell yeah, thanks?
Speaker 2: Who's next, John, John?
Speaker 1: John, in the interest of time, probably got about twenty
five minutes left. So yeah, not that we can't dive
deep into some of these, but your pick, your pick
the ones you want to dive into deep.
Speaker 2: John.
Speaker 3: I'm keeping my headphones on. I don't want you to
think I'm ignoring you. I'm listening, but I'm gonna.
Speaker 2: Go grab some water.
Speaker 4: Okay, sounds good. I don't know he's listening. My next
one is a recent release and it's Fantasy Life I Yeah,
which is I'm not usually into like gathering in crafting games,
and I like things like animal crossing well enough, but
it's never like my obsession and Fantasy Life Eye kind
of strikes the balance between like doing the crafting stuff.
Like you have different different classes that you have for
like chopping chopping down trees or or mining or fishing,
and then you have crafting classes that where you can
make furniture or carp blacksmith, yeah, all that stuff. And
then you have your combat class classes like thinkure's like
Paladin and magician and stuff like that. So you can
kind of like choose how you want to play through
the game and which of those you want to take on.
You can take on all of them if you want.
You don't have to, but it always gives you little
things as you're working through to achieve, Like every every
class has its own little like board of quests that
that you're constantly working through to become a better blacksmith
or carpenter or whatever. And that's really just been That's
been my game that I've been picking at for a
little bit since before the switch To launch and then
since then because it has a switch To edition that
greatly improves the frame rate resolution. It's like a transformative
update for that.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm playing on switch To and really enjoying it.
This is my first Fantasy Life game out. I picked
it up on your recommendation, John, and yeah, it's it's
very enjoyable. I am somebody who kind of gravitates to
those kind of crafting games. I do combat just for
like if I need ingredients or there's a quest for it.
But like I love, you know, doing the cooking stuff
and the carpenter stuff. I do have a question for you, John,
as somebody who's furthering it than I. You know, as
I'm building up like so far, Like I know the
intro quest for the carpenter, right, you have to go
and make a couture whatever or a chair I think
for somebody in the city. Is there a point where
like you get your own place and can start doing that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you actually get an island where.
Speaker 3: That's the thing that I has been missing for me
in this It's like when I mentioned cards during Promised Masters.
Speaker 4: So fantasy life is like weirdly big. You're working with
like different points in time, Like there's the past, the present.
There's like a whole island that you could explore if
you want, like that that big, like if you want
to kind of go into exploring and and and mining
and and going on adventures and doing combat and stuff. Like,
there's a whole island with like different zones with different
like levels of enemies and and like items to collect
that you can like level up those zones. Like it's
just super weird thing that you can get into if
you want.
Speaker 1: Okay, I was just in the story where I'm at
in the story right now, I was getting the vibe like, oh,
I'm not going to get to like live at this
place because spoilers, you're trying to get off of where
you're trying to leave the place that you start at.
And so I was like, oh, well, I guess I'm
not going to be getting the house if my main
goal is this.
Speaker 3: Does the I stand for I don't want to be here?
Speaker 4: Is that what that is?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Sure, yep, okay, but but that's not the case. Then
it's not the case. And like you you're you're different
classes and stuff, like if you're if you're doing carpentry,
like you're, you could build couches, beds, whatever. Like that's
kind of the animal crossing side of things where you
can you can create your own your own village and
like house everything. Like there's buddies that you get that
can go with you and you can give them houses
and gear them up.
Speaker 1: Says I playing that this evening because I've been joining
the game plan, I'm like, where am I going with this?
Cause and the and the intro quests. You're just doing
favors for other people. I'm like, I want this stuff, okay.
Speaker 4: And you you can have that stuff and you can
make it for all of your your like your village
of friends.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's very cool.
Speaker 2: You want it for you, Yeah, you want to work
for yourself?
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly small business. Yeah, I'm enjoying fantasy life. I
really like the characters. Uh, and the character designs, like
my dude looks like a freak. Oh and I love it. Yeah,
he's just the art styles like is really I don't know,
it kind of sets it apart. It's it's definitely fantasy.
And it's kind of like I don't even know if
it's chiby, like a little dolls like they look like
it reminds me of like Links Awakening three D, like the.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's like there's like a quality to the
characters that it's like it's not quite full anime. It's
not quite chibi. It's like and and that stuff I
don't love. Whereas this it's a little it feels a
little more like grounded in its own style in a
way that's really appealing.
Speaker 2: I like the horse. I'm looking at a screenshot of the
way the horses look, and it's a good looking horse,
got like a little spine on it, like he's a
little sassy.
Speaker 4: I think, like everything has a little smile on it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this horse though.
Speaker 2: You should look it up.
Speaker 4: I really, I really think that game. It hit at
a weird time because it I think it released like
a week or two before the Switch to launch. But
I I think it's one of those if people are
looking for something to play on Switch Too, I think
people should be looking there. It's there's a lot to do,
you can play a multiplayer, it's cross play with PC.
So I don't know where I'm really going with this,
but it's it's just something that I think it's going
to be overlooked in the grand scheme of things that
seems like we should should really check out.
Speaker 2: It seems like the perfect handheld game. It is. It is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really enjoyed it on Switch Too. I'm liking
it a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll try it. I was kind of like indifferent
to it, but I kept hearing more and more good things,
and I generally like Level five who was the developer, Yeah, yep, yeah,
and I need things to play him I switch to.
Speaker 4: So Yes, it's fascinating like reading about that development and
what happened in like the last year or so since
kg Inafune left the company, and how that game is transformed.
So look into that as well.
Speaker 1: Cool, well, Marcus will send it to you. What's what's
your next one?
Speaker 2: I love saying the name of this game. It's called
a Shotgun cop Man.
Speaker 1: It sounds like it's full of nuance, you know, it.
Speaker 2: Might it's it might be nuanced and its simplicity because
all it is is that it is a a super
meat boy asque kind of precision platformer where you play
as what I think is a parody of Steven Seagull
is the vibe that I get, but he looks like
a weird eraser head man with big shoulders and you're
just trying to arrest Satan and everyone. Yeah, like every
literally every stage starts with him running up to Satan
saying you're under arrest, and Satan says the same thing
every time, and he just goes f you Shotgun cop Man.
I'm censoring myself. And that's that's that's literally the story
of this game. And so it's a dozens and dozens
of these really tight platforming stages where, uh, the hook
the thing that separates from me boys that you use
a shotgun as well as other guns to basically jump
like you don't have a like you can't jump inherently,
you can only jump by pointing your gun to ground
and shooting and just sort of using the force from
your shots to propel yourself upwards. And it's got twin
stick controls, and the sort of like puzzle element of
the game is like how long can you keep yourself
airborne with the limited shots that you have and whatever
weapon you're using, because you can only reload when you
touch the ground, So a lot of the platforming is like, oh, okay,
I'm like I'm gonna shoot, I'm gonna fall here, I'm
gonna shoot again to get over this gap or get
past some spikes, but I also need to aim and
shoot and shoot this enemy that's in front of me.
And the game encourages speed running because if you're really
on your game, you can fly through this stage in
the like seconds. And there's like optional objectives of the
end of the stage for like, oh did you get
the high score or for how quickly you got through it?
Or did you kill all the enemies in a stage,
which you don't have to, but if you want one
hundred percent of stage you gotta do it, as well
as like oh, did you get through without taking any damage?
Because you can only take like two hits basically and
then you die. But it is it's very fun and
like the sort of shooting the jump thing works really well.
The level design of CsFr has been very like it's
well designed, and they do some really cool platforming gimmicks
with each chapter that you go through, like oh, you
have these switches that you need to flip that open doors.
You need to find a way to stare airborne while
flipping these switches and then getting through the open doors
while also maybe dodging like some rotating spikes or like
three dudes shooting at you at the same time. Like
it gets really frantic in a really fun way, and
it's it's it's just really cool. It's just like I
love platformers, and I love meat Boy or any sort
of like meat Boy adjacent style, Like Okay, this is
about like just fast paced, like just real like pixel
perfect like precision jumping, and this is basically like a
a sort of like different spin on that stuff. But
I've been I've been itching for something like that this year,
Like there haven't been like a ton of like super
big platformers for me, which is one of the reasons
why I'm so excited about Donkey Kongs. I just want
like a good platform to stick sink my teeth into.
But yeah, this one's pretty cool. I feel like it's
been somewhat under the radar, like I wrote about it
for like a spotlight entry on the website when I
first started playing it, and I haven't finished it yet.
I've kind of been shipping away at it little by
little because one of those games you can do like
a couple stages here and there and then like come
back to it the next day or something like that,
or a chapter or whatever. There's like boss fights at
the end of each stage, which are pretty fun generally.
But yeah, it's cool. I think it's we're checking out
if you're and if you are a neat Boy fan
or if you enjoy those kind of platformers, keep an
eye out for Shotgun cop Man Awesome.
Speaker 1: My next one I want to talk about John with
actually it's on his list too, is The Bizarre, which
is I think I've talked about it last year on
the Game and Former show. I think it kind of
made my editor's choice list because it wasn't out in
one point h yet.
Speaker 2: Is it The Bizarre is in Bizarre Stranger bizarre.
Speaker 1: Like uh, like the like the shop.
Speaker 5: Okay, got bizarre aar, yes, gotcha.
Speaker 1: This is a while you aren't technically using cards, it
is effectively a deck builder in some.
Speaker 4: Ways build auto battler.
Speaker 1: Yeah, deck builder auto battler. But you aren't dealing with
You aren't really having to worry about like oh this
card has eight health and I have to play that.
Like you aren't playing cards in that way. It's more
you are collecting a series of items through battles with
enemies and a mixture of like player ghosts you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and other players to aspire if all the battles
or if like the battles getting to like the next
day is all ghosts of other players and their builds
that they've had online day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's a really really easy way to sink
a lot of a lot of hours into a game.
Speaker 4: It's money.
Speaker 1: Uh no, well no, there's been some there's been some
kind of the kind of gotten to a lot of
hot water with their one point zero release in the
monetization that has now been fixed to my understanding, and
everyone's happy again. I have only spent it is free
to play. I paid for like a founder's pack, back
when it was in beta. But each character kind of
has their own deck theme. So like one dude has
and I've saved up enough coins to just get him
the character for free. The one you kind of everyone
starts with is this like more like water themed Pirate Lady,
and her deck kind of revolves around poison and like
maximizing like really big damage dealing like cannons and stuff.
Whereas the second guy that I unlocked is the real
estate guy, and he's, yeah, the pig. He's more focused
on like how money can of influenced like the value
of like building value in your like real estate cards
and transferring that to like healing items and shields. Yeah,
it's it's interesting. And then there's a there's a robot
character that goes like all in on like more complex
like machinery and or like burning people really really quickly
their health and and.
Speaker 4: The way they were friends.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and each matchup everyone has you start with
a certain amount of health depending on like the choices
you've made in your run, so like sometimes you might
prioritize increasing your max health or your regeneration your health
regeneration stat instead of getting like a cool item that
you want. It's kind of like a lot of choices
like that, and after a certain amount of time fighting
the other person, because sometimes there are just moments where
like this, I, you are doing zero damage to me
because I'm my build is all about heels, and you
were just like not doing enough to to really make
a dent in my health bar. Eventually, a sandstorm kind
of comes in and starts ticking damage like increasingly like exponential, Yeah,
exponential damage to equally to each player, and it's like
who can who can kind of like survive in the
storm long enough? Essentially, it's there's some really cool ideas.
And I've I've been playing this game for a while
and have really enjoyed going back to it somewhat for
like every couple of months, I'll go back and I'll like, okay,
time for some bizarre and John and Eric fan Allen,
who's on the show last week, we kind of jokingly
referred to it as like the calculator game, because you're
just like seeing numbers go up and up and up
and up.
Speaker 4: Like you make things faster. Yeah, every every item has
like a cool down. Yeah, so you're you're trying to
like maximize those those cool downs or like try to
reduce the amount of time that it takes for something
to proc. Yeah. So yeah, we call it calculator battles
because it's all about just maximizing those numbers.
Speaker 1: It's a real game.
Speaker 4: It's fun. Like I feel like every patch it either
like saves that game or just kills it completely. So
it's it's still an open beta. I don't think it's
I don't think it's hit. Yeah, it's just it just
hit like you could just download it and play it
for free. This is not on Steam, right, this is
not on Steam. It has its own client.
Speaker 1: Yeah, at one point came out April third, Oh okay, yeah,
but it's like constantly still evolving. I don't know, it's
kind of weird.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they have they have like new seasons every month
that will add new new items for characters. There's there's
battle passes that you can work through to get uh
new items that you can encounter on your runs, and
that at the end of that season, all that just
gets added to those characters for free. So it's it's
more so you're you're playing to have that those benefits
throughout that season than anything else. Yeah, there's a lot
of cool things about that game. I don't think it's
anywhere near finished, even though it is in one point now. Uh,
there's there's a there's a lot that they need to
do to solidify what that game is and how it's
balanced and all of that. Yeah, it's it's very fun
and it's something I go back to you every couple
of weeks, like, like Alex.
Speaker 1: Says, well, cool, Kyle, you want to give us one
more recommendation and or you can give us a lightning
round if you really want to mention.
Speaker 3: So oh, I'll do. I'll do all lightning around it.
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 3: I had Blueprints on my list. An amazing puzzle game.
I have a number of qualms.
Speaker 2: With.
Speaker 3: More at the end of the year.
Speaker 4: But very cool.
Speaker 3: My wife and I played together and saw it to
credits and had a good time. Wander Stop I thought
was a really moving and interesting game about getting burned,
you know, just burnout, you know, just that sort of
idea of burnout in your life, which I played at
a time we're very busy launching a new magazine. It's
very good and I really want to play that. It's
not very long, it's and it's good. It's it's because
like I usually don't like I don't really like cozy games,
just not really my genre, and that game actually kind
of it's sort of it tricks you into thinking it's
a cozy game, but it's really more of a narrative game. Ultimately,
you know, it's good though, I.
Speaker 2: Want to stop.
Speaker 3: I like, And then I'm still thinking a lot about
Death Stranding too, And I'm still playing Death Strainding two
despite having finished it. I've hit a point now Jacob
Geller has finished it, so I've been able to DM
with someone finally about about the ending and talk about
the ending, which I'm sure we'll be able to do
a lot more of soon as more.
Speaker 2: People get through it.
Speaker 3: But I mean, yeah, death Stranding is a great game, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Awesome, John. Do you want to indulge in a lightning round?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I think I only have like one one more
thing to put on here. It's the first perserkerks on
a game that I really did not like it first
because is so damn hard, and then uh, it molded
me into a true gamer. You and we really made
a man out.
Speaker 3: I remember talking to you at the shop, singing at you.
Speaker 1: We met like I think you were like seven Bosses
in and we went to get coffee one night and
you were just like, I don't know, I don't know
how I'm gonna like get this in Bargo, Like I
remember that game being so hard.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I reviewed it for IGN, and I think
my review came out like two weeks after that game
actually really yeah, just just because like getting a third
of the way through that game took me thirty hours.
I think I think I played it for like eighty
eighty or ninety hours total.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: But it's it's I'm maybe I'm not the best at
at Soul's likes, I don't know, but like it really
Hammer's Home, like you you need like your perfect Perry's,
you need your Dodges. It really demands that of you.
And it really actually helped me with Clare Obscure right afterwards.
Oh sure, because like you're doing like very exact button presses,
especially for Perry's in there. And yeah, I think once
you get that locked in and start developing your your
character the way that you want to play them, I
think that game is fantastic and really one of the
best Souls experiences I've had in quite a while.
Speaker 2: I need to get back to it. I was playing
it for a bit, possibly for a review.
Speaker 4: And it just so yeah when I saw you were
playing them, like, good luck, Marcus, that's yeah.
Speaker 2: And then I had just had other games that I
had to play for work, and I just never were
able to get back to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Marcus, time for your lightning around, sir.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll shout out Blueprints suit. That's arguably my game
of a year. I love that game to death. I've
got a few qualms. I might have less than you guys,
but it is also my this is I've learned. This
is a very like twenty twenty five is a year
of note taking games for me, because this it was
Root Trees and I beat Lower Line the Laser Eyes
in the beginning of the year.
Speaker 3: I've like a note taking game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but I love Blueprints. I think it's again
arguably the best puzzle game of the year, maybe the
best game of the year. We'll see how that stacks up.
A Citizen Sleeper two really good game. I'm a big
fan of the first Citizen Sleeper. This one adds a
cool like party building mechanic to it, where now you
have other people that you manage, and also additional dice rolls.
It's also like harder on the survival side of it
because you can get like glitch now, and there's some
like very tense, like everything you do feels like one
hundred times tenser than the first game, which says a lot.
The first game you feel like you're kind of like
given by by the skin of your teeth for a
lot of it, and this one I think amplifies that,
but like in a way that is still really fun
instead of like frustrating, and also like a very engaging narrative,
much like the first game. So jut that out. There's
a cool game called Spilled that I play. Is also
a very short that was this year. It came out,
uh me, a couple of months ago. It was around
the time that we came back. I want to say, yeah,
but it was. It's like an hour long. You play
as a a boat that just cleans up oil spills,
and it's really pretty and it's a very chill, easy,
just laid back experience. You're just going to You're just
sailing around these really pretty river ways and then like
like open oceans and just cleaning up oil spills and
upgrading your ship in a very just easy upgrade loop.
But yeah, it is very much a like just decompressed
and feel like you're doing something like really rewarding and good. Uh.
So yeah, that one I recommend. And then there's uh,
South of Midnight is also one that I want to get.
Speaker 3: That one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one's you know, I like, I've got issues,
but I I like that it's basically a throwback to
like P S two PS three era third person adventure games.
What a very cool art direction and also just tackling
like Southern folklore, which you don't also really see in
really most media, let alone video games. But I think
the like the representation of just like the the South
in that game is really well done and also has
like a lot of reverence behind it. And I think
the performances and I also think it has one of
the best soundtracks of the year. Uh And it's just
like it's just like a cool space to be Like.
I just loved running around and hanging out with the
different characters in that game. So yeah, and I think
that's it. Maybe the last one real quick is this
game has not come out yet technically, but I don't
Is it ball x Pit, Is it Ball Cross Pit? Like,
is it is?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know, but a pet is what I've
been saying.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying too. So this has not come
out yet, but there's a demo now and I believe
your progress from the demo carries over to the full
version if I remember correctly, So it kind of feels
like it's out. But this is the Wolver's new game.
Was the only game that they showed that they're yearly,
sort of like SGF direct and my god, is it good?
It is? I don't know if you guys have had
a chance to play.
Speaker 5: The Tetris sort of is it a freak out Tetris?
It's more Arcanoid. It's a weird It's like Arcanoid with
a little bit of Vampire Survivors with also like a
city building the component, Like it is a weird cocktail
of things, but it all sings real well because it's like,
so like Vampire Survivors, you play as a character who
attacks automatically and it's you're on a I can see
the Tetris comparison because the grid lane right, yeah, and
blocks are coming down.
Speaker 2: The way that they do in Tetris, But it's arcanoge
where you're just you're automatically shooting these blocks and the
ideas that you don't want the blocks to hit the bottom,
and but you were, balls bounce and ricochet, so you're
really playing arcanoid because you're trying to shoot these balls
against the crevices of all these block enemies and they
bounce around and just murder themselves. But you can, like
Vampire Survivors, the more things you kill, they drop literally
at the Vampire Survivors like blue and green little bits.
And then you level up and then you get a
choice of like one of three upgrades for your balls,
and you get like there's a ton of them, like
there's like fire ones, there's like poison ones, like a
ghost one that can pass through multiple enemies, and then
you can combine upgrades and to to form new upgrades.
So again like Vampire Survivors, but it works, and it
looks nice and it's super and not like not like
it just has like a cool look to it, you know,
not that y'a like some like graphical Powerhouse or anything
like that, but I just kind of like the the
art direction for it. But it is it like it
is a game that the time melts away in.
Speaker 1: Action like via Like I'm looking at gifts of it. Yeah,
it really kind of sells it more so than just
like single screenshots.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you need to. And it's also one of those
games like you really have to play yourself because it's
such a weird blend of like genres, which is why
I I heavily encourage people to play that, to play
the Steam demo that's out now. But I like, out
of all the games from Steam Next Fest that I tried,
this is the one I've by far put the most
time into. And I'll so fire it up a run
every now and then, and then in between runs you're
going back and you're building a city, which even that
is arcanoid because you're like laying down tiles and then
sending a character to bounce around the space where you
put your crops and stuff, and that's how they build stuff.
It's so weird. But no, I'm really enjoying it so far,
and I'm really psyched for the full release, which doesn't
have a release date yet but it is supposed to
come this year at some point.
Speaker 1: Cool awesome. I guess I will start my little Lightning
round right now. I'm just read in the timestamp. Sorry
about that, folks. So skin Deep is up there. I've
talked about it on the recent episodes of the of
the show Immersive sim set in space. You play as
an insurance adjust and you are going on these space
stations to rescue cats that you work for and and
all the while like kind of managing many different stealth systems, physics,
light and shadow, kind of like visibility, that sort of
thing within within while fighting off these space pirates. It's
a lot of fun, a lot of interactions, very funny game. Yeah,
really recommend skin Deep. Blueprints we've talked about definitely one
of my my higher ups. Actually today as I was
preparing for this list, I Bloodprints was my number one
game for a while this year, and I knocked it
down to like number three, And I will say what
my number one and two are, because I don't think
those are final either, but I.
Speaker 3: Still really got you got to commit on July first
to your game of the year, right.
Speaker 1: Now, I know, yeah, exactly exactly. Hey, maybe I'll continue
to think about it and it'll go up. But regardless,
really love that game. I think for me, where it
kind of falls short is and some of the storytelling
doesn't quite get there for me. Like some other the
revelations I think are cool and like a greater story
is like interesting, it's an interesting setting that you uncover,
but there are just some threads that I wish were
sometimes a little more easy to pull on than they are.
It's definitely a game that like you get the credits
and then you don't have the full picture still and
you have to keep going after that, and I think
like by the time you hit credits in that game,
you're just kind of thankful to be done, Like you
did it, you made it, you did the run. Maybe
I'll go back to it, Maybe I won't haste. We
talked about it via on our YouTube channel earlier this
year in a new gameplay today. But it's like that
sort of like three D Sonic esque free flowing parkour
racing game where you are like picking up power ups
as you go, and like it's a really really new game.
I think, didn't Landfall make that one or publish it
at the very least the folks behind like Peak and
totally accurate battle simulator, really great game with like really
fun movement and some really clever boss battles. Yeah. Uh,
and then lastly, Lonely Mountains Snow Writers. I don't know
if you all are familiar with that series or not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love down the Downhill. Yeah yeah, I played
all of that. Actually I forgot that. The snow it's
like snow or skiing.
Speaker 1: Right exactly. Yeah, yeah, it's skiing and I'm really enjoying it.
I've it's relaxing as it is as relaxing as it
is challenging in a weird way, like and there's like
a kind of a quiet like undertone of comedy, like
physical comedy, and just like some of the ways that
your character just whiffs it and and like when you
when you miss, when you like when you ail out,
it has like this weight to it. And it's just
even though like you're really zoomed out, you're looking at
like a top down sort of like not quite top down,
but you know, like you're very zoomed out of it
was like a bird's eye perspective watching controlling the skier.
And still when you when you hit something about the physics,
you're just your character goes flying.
Speaker 4: And to record that and make a fail comp Yeah,
that would.
Speaker 1: Be a perfect game for that. And there's like an
online racing mode that I really enjoy. It's a ton
of fun. Another game that like, if you can figure
out like optimal speed running routes, you can really kind
of get ahead of the competition in those online races.
But even if you don't want to do that, you
just want to play single player and you want to
vibe out. It's it's a really fun and relaxing game
if you want it to be. It's kind of like
it kind of molds itself to what you want it
to be in that way, and it's unlike some other games.
I think it's very like malleable and you can kind
of get a lot of different things out of it.
And yeah, that's that's Lonely Mountain snow Riders.
Speaker 2: Thank you for reminding me that exists.
Speaker 1: Yeah you should, you should add Yeah, Oh cool, I
played it. It's really good on Steam Deck as well
or PC obviously that's where kind of I've been playing it.
But yeah, excellent game pass game. I'd imagine much like
the first one. I think was like a big game
past that. Yeah, and I actually kind of missed out
on the first one. I played Downhill a little bit.
Playing snow Riders makes me want to go and like,
you know, sing a lot of time into that game too,
and like just the feeling of going downhill so quickly.
The sound design is incredible. It's you know, they've really
captured what what it feels like to be almost like
losing control, like on the verge of losing control in
a in a snow sport like that. The few times
I've been skiing, it's like you're kind of really you
It kind of captures that emotion of like I'm in control,
but at any moment I could make a wrong move
and just eat.
Speaker 4: It, or there could just be like a slick spot,
a little dip. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really captures that like feeling of and it's
something I praised Writers Republic for back when that came out,
just the feeling of like the feeling of racing downhill
on a bike in this case skis. They capture it
so well and it kind of like transports me back
to having that feeling as a kid when you're going
down a big hill for the first time. They really
capture it with with the sound effects. It's really cool.
But yeah, I think that's going to do it for
the show this week before we get out of here.
I do just want to ask folks, if you haven't,
please go and sign up for a Game Informer subscription
today in case you missed it, you can get our
print magazine straight to your door the first issue print issue.
I think the cutoff might I think the cutof is
probably over by the time that you are listening to this.
Speaker 3: I don't think we can guarantee Borderlands.
Speaker 1: Yes, but our next cover story is the one that
I've been looking forward to the most out of like
our early crop of of cover stories. Yeah, I'm not
going to tell you, but it's a really interesting one
that I think isn't as like obvious maybe as a
cover as Borderlands, and I think it's a really interesting one.
We did see the art. Yes, I played the game.
I really really enjoyed it. Yeah, I think it could.
I think it'll be a cool cover story, and that'll
be rolling out later this month in July. But that
will be well, we'll share more about that later on.
But really like the best way to keep the lights
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You know, no matter if you're watching on YouTube or
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reading the book. That's forty five a year, and you
can get out of your international as well. That latter one.
But also real quick, I just want to say thank
you John for joining us on the show this week.
I know people can find you online at John Carson
Games on social media. If you're on Blue Scott you
can follow John at John Carson. That's exactly how it's spelled.
King of Late Night, as we call him. But John,
where else can people What do you got cooking? Where
where can people find you? All that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've been messing around with YouTube stuff. If you
follow me on Blue Sky, I'll be posting stuff on there.
I'm opening Final Fantasy Magic card packs until i find Phoebe,
which is a fun little series that I've been kind
of learning video editing stuff with and and and doing
some longer form longer for like ten minute videos or
whatever on previews for games or just doing some extra
game content there. I'm freelancing for IgM dot com doing
tech reviews there, so so look out for that stuff
as well. Also, I just freelance for various other publications
for game reviews or previews or or whatever. So still
still hanging around the industry.
Speaker 1: Ellyeah, yeah, well thank you for joining us today. John.
It's thanks for privileged as your family, so absolute whenever
you need.
Speaker 2: Hey, when you're here your family, that's true, like July
or whatever we said to be on the show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, whatever thing Marcus said.
Speaker 2: It's a classic saying I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: You can also follow Marcus Stewart online at Marcus Stewart
seven on Blue Sky. That's really the only place he is.
He's he's not online very much.
Speaker 2: You got anywhere? Okay?
Speaker 1: Yeah that I like that. Uh, Kyle a little more
loose with that. You can follow him at Kyle Hilliard
on Instagram, blue Sky and elsewhere. Probably, Yeah, I upgraded.
Speaker 3: I did get the I did the r L thing.
So I'm Kyle Hilliard dot com on Blue Sky now,
oh cool, Okay, I should probably put a website there.
Speaker 2: That's a thing you can do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't have to have a Blue
Sky thing.
Speaker 3: We're Gaminformer dot com on Blue Sky.
Speaker 4: That's our that's o.
Speaker 1: Name I'm at. It's Van Akin dot games on Blue
Sky and it's Van Akin on Instagram. Yeah, Marcus, welcome
to the world. The world would be the Internet.
Speaker 4: Dot get a brand guy.
Speaker 3: You can if you can purchase that u r L.
Speaker 1: If you purchase it's really easy.
Speaker 2: They walk you through Argus Stewart dot guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can make that problem available, although you want
to buy it before this episode goes up in case
people squat on it, you know, really hotly in demand
r L.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, once again, thank you everybody for watching. If
you're on YouTube or listening on on major podcast platforms,
we really appreciate you sticking around and hanging out with
us today. I hope you have a safe Fourth of July.
Don't jump over fireworks like I used to do when
I was a teenager. Don't don't do dumb stuff with fireworks.
Speaker 2: It's bad. Please don't burn your homes down because it
always happens. Don't. Don't be one of those people.
Speaker 4: It always happens.
Speaker 2: Every time.
Speaker 1: One of those people. We better not see your name
in the news. Yes, please, yeah, be safe. Have some
good hot dogs. If you're near a lake, jump in,
have fun and we'll catch you next week. Goodbye.