Infinite Scale - A podcast about Video Games
Listen to William Chandler, Chris Crossley, and Christopher Merced discuss the games they're playing, the news, and even (TOPIC).
Infinite Scale - A podcast about Video Games
Our Top 10 Games of 2025
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
We're back! Let's do the damn thing.
LISTS BELOW
Team Top 10:
10. Ball x Pit
9. Battlefield 6
8. Hollow Knight: Silksong
7. 2XKO
6. Monster Hunter: Wilds
5. Donkey Kong: Bananza
4. Dispatch
3. Elden Ring: Nightreign
2. Arc Raiders
1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Merced Top 10:
10. Hollow Knight: Silksong
9. Ninja Gaiden 2: Black
8. Chronos: The New Dawn
7. Elden Ring: Nightreign
6. Ninja Gaiden 4
5. Battlefield 6
4. Monster Hunter: Wilds
3. 2XKO
2. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
1. Arc Raiders
Crossley Top 10:
10. Lego Party
9. Mario Kart World
8. Ball x Pit
7. Borderlands 4
6. Arc Raiders
5. Pokemon Legends Z-A
4. Monster Hunter: Wilds
3. Donkey Kong Bananza
2. Elden Ring: Nightreign
1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
William Top 10:
10. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
9. Atomfall
8. Avowed
7. Hollow Knight: Silksong
6. Blue Prince
5. The Drifter
4. Elden Ring: Nightreign
3. Dispatch
2. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
1. Arc Raiders
How are we feeling? What have you guys been up to? I'm feeling good. You know, dude.
SPEAKER_03I played Cairn. Oh yeah? Yeah. Well, I haven't beaten it, but um, I'm kind of hoping that the game goes on for a while because I played that uh that one other rock climbing game. I think you played a little bit of it. I don't know. I finished that game, yeah. Yeah, that one's pretty that one's pretty short. Not baby steps. This one came out, I think, the beginning of last year, I think like a year ago. But um uh that game was like very, very short, like disappointingly so, but it's a very cute game. Um I'm hoping that this game is longer because the controls and everything are just a lot more involved. The climbing moment to moment. They really captured the feeling of not wanting to fall. Uh, or they they they really did a good job making you feel like you don't want to fucking fall. Uh it's uh but it's it's a lot of fun. It's the I mean it it it it does, I think, exactly what it sets out to do, which is like make every single part of the process feel methodical. Um and when it's not, like you'll you'll have moments where you're like you're climbing and you're like checking everything, you know, like you're looking where you're gonna put your next hand and your next foot and everything like that. Yeah. Um so like you have those methodical moments, and then you'll have moments where you're just like you almost like you just kind of like get stuck, and there's a button you can press that like you zoom out a little bit, and then you can see like it doesn't highlight anything for you, it never does this, which I think is an amazing choice. Um, but you can basically see the wall that you're climbing just at a you know, taking a step back and being able to look what route you might want to go. Um and sometimes you'll you'll you'll stop, you'll zoom out, and then you'll be like, okay, well fuck. I don't know how the fuck I'm gonna get to that rock. And the really the only way is like you can you can chalk up your hands and you can move as fast as fucking possible to get to like the the next like rung where you can get like a good foothold and and shit, and like you are legitimately trying to scramble as fast as you can to get to that next spot before your shit slips and you're fucked. Um stuff like that's really really cool. And uh, but they do give you like you can create checkpoints for yourself, so you can take uh where uh what are they called pinions and you can like stick them into the rock. Um that way if you do fall, you don't fall like an insane amount. But those can break too.
SPEAKER_05So oh really, interesting.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but they um yeah, the game, I mean I I think they nailed it. The the actual like moment-to-moment gameplay is really, really cool to me. I like it a lot, but uh I don't know if like I'm getting worked or what, but this main character is dog shit. This main character is is uh not a good person. She's very mean to everyone. I don't like it.
SPEAKER_05Okay. I mean, um I I don't know really anything about the game at all. Um, I watched like 12 seconds of it, uh, of somebody doing the climbing, and I was like, um, okay, this looks like something I would like, and it also looks more mechanics heavy than Gisant, which was the other one you're talking about. The yeah, the one from uh 2023 that was like very like story focused. I mean Gisant had some good like feeling climbing, but it wasn't it wasn't out to punish you. You're you're supposed to get you know where you're going uh without too much trouble. Uh it seems like Kairn is more focused on the actual act of climbing, um, which is cool. I I'm I'm I'm definitely gonna play it. I mean, um I don't I don't know anything about the story or the world or what's going on in it, so I'm kind of interested in seeing what that is, but more than anything, I think I just want to see how the mechanics work. I think climbing is one of those things like you know, it took a long time for people to realize um like remember when Mirror's Edge came out and everybody was kind of like, damn, is this game kind of better without the combat? Oh yeah. Is this game better if you just do the running and the jumping and the climbing? Um and uh I think it's it's cool to see more games kind of taking a like let's just really focus in on a specific thing. Uh climbing in particular, I think is is a good uh uh I guess avenue for games to go that they don't that much. Like what Breath of the Wild doing then stamina thing where you could just walk at any wall and climb it was like such a fucking big deal and pretty cool. And I like imagine just a game like that where then it has like more mechanics focused around climbing or whatever.
SPEAKER_03Uh that's essentially what this is, yeah. Cool, yeah. And I think one one thing that this game really thrives on, which I think is an interesting thing, just in like terms of like, I don't know, kind of like the zeitgeist of where we're at in gaming, is that like the the um the get up and those types of games, you know what I'm talking about? Uh and like get over it and all that. Yeah, it showed that like gamers really have an appetite um or the ability to have major setbacks in games and like persevere, you know, like they have the ability to fall down and then redo the same thing all the way over again and then try to get farther this time and that kind of stuff. This game very much, I believe, is like a byproduct of that realization where like you can fall and you can fall very far, and you'll have to climb again and get back to where you were, and it's not as bad as things like get over it. Um just because like the actual like the technical movement and everything like that isn't necessarily as precise. Like you don't have to be as precise as you need to be in things like get over it. Um, but uh but like just the ability to like fall like and lose like 10 minutes of progress or something like that is uh is pretty cool. It makes every moment feel you know, it has a lot more gravity every single moment of climbing and every everything that you choose. I I get like the the fun of like looking at a wall and then just being like, I don't know how the fuck, how the fuck are you supposed to fucking do this shit? And then you try it and you fall, and then you're just like, okay, well fuck, I don't know. And like you just do it again and you try and like it's actually pretty it's cool, like it's fun, genuinely.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, it's it's kind of interesting that um we're in a in a good uh part of the year for like that's historically for catching up on stuff from last year that came out that you haven't played yet, but there's actually a decent amount of things coming out at the beginning of 2026 in a way that like's coming out soon. Yeah. Yeah, I mean um I I I was kind of thinking like, oh shit, it's basically as soon as we're done with our game of the year stuff, uh there's still a bunch of stuff that I didn't even touch from uh 2025 that I that I need to get to. Yeah. Um yeah, I mean I've accepted it. It's it's uh it's a sad state of affairs, but um I have the Santa Blake Manor, Skate Story, and Skin Deep all downloaded and ready to go, and I haven't played any of most of them. I played a tiny bit of skate story, but um maybe a couple hours.
SPEAKER_03There's so many like good indie games now that are coming out too.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um
We're back
SPEAKER_01we're back. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Welcome. It's time. Uh it has been twelve months since we did one of these. That being a uh a top ten games of the year. Um I guess we technically have never done one of these because this is for 2025. Um can you believe it? 2025 is over. First of all, it happened, uh, in in the sense that 2025 sounds like one of those made-up numbers. Um, but it did it did arrive uh and it also ended. And now we're in 2026. Um, I spent a lot of January catching up on stuff. Um so I think that there's gonna be a few things in here um that are relatively recent things that I've played. Um how are you guys feeling? Grossly, what are you how's how's your top 10 looking?
SPEAKER_00Uh it's fine. Uh I like it. There's a few things which we'll get to, I guess, or wait. Yeah, we'll start at the bottom. So we'll get to pretty quickly where I like added more recently just because I decided they're more fun than what I had there. Uh even if they're like, I don't know, you'll see. But um, you know. Uh the the top half I feel pretty great about though. I mean, I like it a lot. The bottom half made me realize. I don't know. We'll we'll get to that, but I like my list overall, regardless of whatever I just said.
SPEAKER_05It's it's kind of a weird year. Yeah. In the same way that you're saying, like, I I think we agree on this. Um, the bottom five slots were actually harder than the top five for me because I felt like everything after number five had like a similar level where I did really enjoy it, but they were all kind of in that same quality tier where it's like at the the order barely matters, and more than that, I I I actually still have 11 games on my list because I'm trying to decide which of the two I want to take. You know what I mean? Like there's yeah, um, what about you, Merced? What are you what are you thinking?
SPEAKER_03Uh I don't know. I feel like uh I feel like it all fell fell together pretty nicely for me pretty easily. Because I I looked at I looked at all the things that I played and uh it other than like honestly, it was like the top two. The top two, I was like, fuck. I mean, yeah. What are we doing here? That's gonna be difficult.
SPEAKER_05That's gonna be difficult for sure.
SPEAKER_03Other than other than that, I think it was fine. I think we had like a lot of like very solid games this year. It's not like you know, like we didn't have like straight up fucking catastrophic bangers or anything like that, but like I mean, these are good games, man. These are good games.
SPEAKER_00I agree. I want to catastrophic bangers is interesting. I feel like we did.
SPEAKER_03I mean uh I mean I mean like the entirety of my top ten. I think we had I think we had amazing games this year, but not like like not all of them, you know. Okay I think I think the vast majority of the games that came out this year were like very, very solid games. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I um I had I I had a lot of difficulty.
SPEAKER_05I thought there were a lot of really good games, but there's also a lot of games that are really good for someone, but only pretty good for me, if that makes sense. Um like which whatever, that's how taste works. But like there's definitely games more it felt like more than a lot of years that I played, and I was like, damn. If I wanted something slightly different from this, I'd be eaten right now. You know what I mean? Like, um I think that's what my honorable mentions list mostly is of. Um so we could uh we could we could kinda run that train if you guys want. Does anybody want to get started maybe with something that they played that they just wanted to touch on before we get into the top 10?
Honorable Mentions - Hell is Us
SPEAKER_03Um we had uh Hell is Us was the recent game that I played that I feel like in terms of attempted world building, phenomenal, really, really good. But damn, they just really fucking dropped the ball on the moment-to-moment gameplay is just not that great. Yeah. Uh but like having but having a world that like exists um with multiple factions that are like very expressly uh arbitrary morally, um, and having to like piece together everything that's going on and the conflict and all that type of shit is was pretty cool. Um I feel like that that game definitely exists in a realm of like I can see this being like someone's like hidden gem. This game is just like really amazing in some ways and just like completely drops the ball uh in terms of just the the actual combat in and of itself. And that happens like um to to to be fair to the game in and of itself, that does happen like maybe I think I put like 14-15 hours into the game. Yeah. Um but uh but like yeah, the actual the hack and slashing mechanics aren't aren't incredibly satisfying. Um the the upgrades that you get for your weapons don't seem to be incredibly impactful. Um yeah. Uh the but the um but the actual like conflict where you essentially have uh a like a sectatarian split in a church that causes like this giant cascade of uh of a war. Um and like one one side is extremely militant and the other side basically uh proposes to be uh only defending itself. Um yeah, that that stuff that stuff is really, really neat, especially as you meet people throughout the entirety of the game. Because there's there's a subplot, which is honestly the the part that gets the most boring. The actual world itself is the most interesting part, but there's a subplot that you're doing the entire time that allows you, the player, to be as um impartial as possible while you're observing the world around you and you're meeting all these people and they have their explanations as to what's going on, their perspectives on the church, um, and all that kind of stuff. Uh but it was it was a little it was a it was slightly disappointing to have like the the perspective of the world be presented to the player in a way where it's like, oh well, both sides bad. It's like oh well, we could have dealt with this in a much more mature fashion rather than um rather than just being like, you know what, if both sides do something bad, that means both sides bad, but that's whatever. Did you finish it or no? No, I got like I think I got like 16, 18 hours into the game. Okay. And uh and like like I said, it's like this there's a s there I I call it a subplot, which is really funny. The main storyline becomes very uninteresting. The world itself is the most interesting part, and I feel like I literally learned everything I was gonna learn about the world, and so I became uninterested after a certain point.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, this this is one of those games that I intended to play and just didn't, mostly because I mean I heard you and and a few others say something kind of similar. Um, the things that people liked about it was like the feeling of exploration, the fact that it didn't really guide you by the hand, and the vibes. I think the vibes seem really interesting, and it seems like everybody kind of agrees with that. It's like good atmosphere, good, good world building, uh, environment designs, things like that. Uh, pretty much everything I heard about the combat, no um just about nobody was like singing the praises of the combat. And then the other thing was um I just heard it it kind of went on a little long. It got a little old after a while. Um and you know, I mean, maybe I will still go back to it one day. It's one of those that I was kind of disappointed I didn't get to this year, but it it uh it also I was kind of just like, you know, I don't, I don't I could prioritize things that seem more interesting to me.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, I think um the funny part is like the devs could definitely make another game and they could learn and make a combat system that is fucking phenomenal because this combat system has a bunch of bits and bobbles and pieces where it's just like you guys know what you're doing, it just you might have just maybe made this like a little bit too complicated. Yeah, yeah. So but yeah. Okay. That was just one game, didn't make it in my top ten, but still.
SPEAKER_05Yep. Crossly, anything?
SPEAKER_00Oh I don't think I have any honorable mentions.
SPEAKER_05Okay pretty pretty uh solid uh solid list that I'm looking forward to getting to it. Um it's because you played exactly 10 games this year. Is that what you're saying?
SPEAKER_00No, no, the stuff that I would maybe want to honorably mention, I feel like I talked about last time. Yeah. So I just it's there's nothing uh else to say about things that were there that aren't gonna be here.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's all I there's a couple things that that we didn't touch on last time that I'll touch on. I mean, I I'm just gonna I'm gonna go in the order that I have them here really quick.
Will's Bundle o' shout outs
SPEAKER_05I'm just gonna shout out NinjaGuiden 4. I don't have anything much to say about it other than I think that game's really cool and I didn't finish it, and um, I think it's good uh but didn't quite make my list. Um the Rhido remastered game I talked about a couple months back. I'm still playing that on the Switch, still enjoying it. It's a perfect mobile game. Um, I'm about 20 hours in or so, maybe a little less, 18 or so, and um it's probably about 30-ish to beat it, so I'll just keep trucking with that. Um skate story, I think uh you guys know this game?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know of it, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Okay, yeah. Um the controls in that game are fascinating. Uh it's kind of like skate in that not literally, like the controls are completely different from skate, but what I mean is that it's it's like skate in the sense that it causes you to rethink about uh how video games can um change up their control schemes. Like, remember uh skate came out and you're like, why would any other skateboarding game do a control scheme other than this? Unless you're Tony Hawk, in which case the entire purpose is different, right? But like, why would a skateboarding game do anything other than skate controls? Like that, yeah, you know, and then you play this and you're then you play skate story and you're like, oh shit, like there's actually still room to change up the way this stuff works, I guess. Um and uh yeah, it's it's it's well done. That's that's kind of it. Is it you know the most fun game I've ever played? No, it's got good vibes. Um, I don't really love the objective design. The setting is neat, but it doesn't like appeal to me um necessarily in terms of like what you have to do and kind of the context of everything. Like it it sort of takes something that is more of a vibes-based thing like skateboarding and turns it into something that has a little bit more um I guess purpose tied to the narrative, which is which is interesting. Uh but yeah, I don't know. It it but it just feels good to do stuff in the game, so um worth uh worth giving a shot, I would say. I know a lot of people really like this game. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I like the visual design. I mean it's it's it is one of those things where you play it and you're like, oh, these people had an idea. You know what I mean? Like they they had an idea and they they are doing it. Um which I think is is really nice. You know, it it just uh everything from the way the controls work to the visuals to the writing, um it's it's all just feels very authored, which is which is neat. Um and I think that kind of you know that's we talk about the the fact that there's a lot of indie games out there, but I think, you know, more than ever there's a lot of indie games that are like this where it's just like I mean, a triple A studio was never gonna make this. One, and two, I don't even think they would be able to do it better. You know what I mean? Like this is this is just one of those things that could only have been this, I guess.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because it's a focused project.
SPEAKER_05Exactly. But yeah, it's cool. Um let's see. Uh did you have any more Merced, or you want me to just keep going?
SPEAKER_03Um I mean, ball pit didn't make it. For you? Yeah. If uh but I think I both I'm pretty sure we talked about ball pit before, but that's like a very fun that's a good plane game. It really is. Whatever the fuck I can attest to you got a few Moments do do some ball pit. Get yourself in the pit.
SPEAKER_05They just added a bunch of stuff too. New de new uh free free patch just came out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah. Each run is like what like 15 minutes, 10, 15 minutes. If that's if you got the time, just fucking run that shit through and you're fucking good to go. Yeah, that's a that's a really, really it that game that game's very addicting too. So yeah.
SPEAKER_05Is ball pit on anybody's list? Or is I guess not you or me, Merced Crossley. Is that on your list?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. What why what yes?
SPEAKER_05Okay. I just wanna I didn't want us to waste a bunch of time talking about it now if we were gonna talk about it later, that's all. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um rematch. Well, I guess we talked about rematch. I think that was disappointment, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_05It was. I mean, I think we can tie a bow on that here and say even though it was disappointment, it we still put a lot of time and had a lot of fun with it. I think it was it was more of a disappointment in the way it turned that story turned out, I guess.
SPEAKER_06But you know. I think I put like 90 hours into that game or something. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's weird that there's not really like technique videos. Um yeah, I just wanted to I just wanted to say that.
SPEAKER_05It's over. Yeah, re- rematch, I there's still a chance for that game to to be good. You know what I mean? Like it could make a comeback for sure.
SPEAKER_01Um but uh we need some time away.
SPEAKER_05It's not you, it's me, I guess is what I'm saying. Um it's mostly you. But it's mostly you. Um You're the reason why me. This is a game that I guess I'll have to ask if this ended up on either of your lists, but it didn't for me. Uh and my honorable mentions I have Battlefield 6. Yeah, that's on mine. Okay. We'll we'll keep moving then. Um what about repo?
SPEAKER_03No, I didn't I didn't play repo once. I don't know if Crossley did. No, I would never.
SPEAKER_05Uh I mean that's crazy because I actually think that I mean, let me let me look. I I think uh, you know, if you if you want the repo master, obviously Jacob probably has more hours than anybody, but I still I have 25 hours in a game that is ostensibly a meme. I mean it it I think calling it a meme is kind of selling it short because it is legitimately well designed. Um like the thought process of the loop of gameplay is is really well done, and I think more than Lethal Company, it feels like the state that it came out in was the state it was meant to be in. You know what I mean? Like repo felt very polished and and ready when we started playing it, you know, at the beginning of the year, and uh compare that to Lethal Company, which felt a bit more rough around the edges, but also they've been added they they added stuff to Lethal Company a lot faster than they did repo, that's for sure. Um and they're not the same game or really that similar, they just have a similar concept, but um yeah, I don't know. I I mean it's clear that this game has attracted a certain type of person. I mean, this uh which I think is unfortunate because it is it is like legitimately fun. Um and uh I I considered putting it on the list. I mean, I I I was like, is this like a number 10, you know, just based on the number of times that I had like a lot of fun and laughed, and you know, uh we had a group of folks who were enjoying playing it. Um but yeah, for me, I think it just there were more there were things I liked more this year than uh than repo, but I I I do think that the studio who made this did a really good job similar to Skate Story. They like took an idea they had and and really ran with it. Uh and the core mechanic of the physics of everything being a focus is um a large part of the comedy, I guess, as well.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, it looks like a really funny game.
SPEAKER_05Umbeatable.
Honorable Mentions - Unbeatable
SPEAKER_05Um fun game. Maybe it's just not quite for me. I never played this.
SPEAKER_00Um Yeah, I haven't played it yet either.
SPEAKER_05Uh I there I think the s just the the vibes are immaculate. I think what they went for is really impressive. There's some good writing in here, there's some good character writing. Um the main story is like interesting enough.
SPEAKER_01Um the rhythm.
SPEAKER_05There is a lot of not doing rhythm game in this rhythm game, which I think is really funny. It is truly more like a RPG-ish, or like a a you know, a walking around talking to people game with rhythm stuff in it. Um, which is cool. I mean, I didn't know that going in. I kind of just thought it was gonna be like a bunch of rhythms stuff, and then like cutscenes is what I expected. Like dispatch, but instead of the the dispatching part, it's a rhythm game or something. But it's actually like you spend there's like hub worlds, there's like mini games. Uh it it's it's weird. Uh shout out to the bartending mini game, bro. It took me, I'm not even joking. I stared at the screen for like 15 minutes before I understood what the fuck they were asking me to do. I just didn't get it. Um I was like, I think that's your fault or their fault. I think I I mean I I I guess as with all things, it's both, but I do think that like the way the minimal um interface, I guess you you could say, does make things a bit unclear sometimes. And the the speed at which things move on occasion, you're just like, okay, I guess I'm doing this now. You know. Um yeah. So it it's it is uh it can be overwhelming. I think the soundtrack to this game, while not like always my personal taste, is just very well considered. Like I they just they just knew they knew. I mean, it it's cool. Um it's got a little bit of like how do you do fellow kids kind of uh energy, but not too much. Like I think it's just the right about where it's like ah yes.
SPEAKER_00What does that mean? What I mean is a soundtrack.
SPEAKER_05Uh sorry, I I that that was kind of an incomplete thought, I guess. I I just mean like the soundtrack is what it is. Um I think a lot of the vibes that in the original music and in what they um what they're doing with the writing is very how do you do like um breaking stuff is cool, you know what I mean? Like, I mean, sure, yeah, everybody, I mean, yeah, I think everybody agrees with that. But um, you know, it can be a little whatever. You guys watch anime, you know what I mean. So uh I mean it's for children. Um yeah, but it's uh it's it is uh you know, there there's a version of reality where this was also my number 10, and I think at one point it was gonna be. So um uh I did never finish it. I'm probably halfway or a little more, but um, yeah. Yeah, cool game. Um let's see. Just gonna run through this real fast. Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion Remastered, fun game, good version of a good game. Um, I think ran like a little bit of dookie, had some bugs, but what do you expect? Um Do you think we're gonna get that Fallout 3 one? I'm gonna be honest. I think yes, but purely because the show is gonna carry that on its back a little bit. I actually think that the Elder Scrolls 4 uh the Oblivion Remaster did not do as well as they were expecting.
SPEAKER_00Um didn't they like shadow drop it?
SPEAKER_05I mean, pretty much, yeah. But I mean, you kind of know if you're into that or not, you know what I mean? But I I do think that like they were like, okay, hey, can we get the Skyrim audience who rebuys Skyrim every five years to buy into um the one before that? It kind of as a test, and um, I don't know that it did quite as much as they were expecting, if that makes sense. Yeah. Um, but I think I I I saw some sales figures that suggested it did pretty well, especially on PS5. Um, but yeah. Um I liked that game. Um
Honorable Mentions - Silent Hill f
SPEAKER_05I just have these are these are two that are on here that might be a little bit surprising. Uh I have Silent Hill F in my honorable mentions. Um, I only played about five, six hours of that game, but I do like it. Yeah, I didn't finish it. Um I agree though, it's a good game. Part of this is just timing and the amount of time that I have to play it, and the amount of time that I want to spend that stressed out is maybe minimal uh at the moment, but I think the other part of it is just I think the combat's okay in that game, like it's good enough, but they make you do an awful lot of it.
SPEAKER_03Um, they could do they could do better.
SPEAKER_05They they could do better, and that's the scarecrow part.
SPEAKER_03Did you get to the scarecrow part?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it pissed me the fuck off. Bro, like yeah, they could do better. That was a lot. That was a lot, and it turns out so I had puzzles on hard difficulty, but uh combat on like whatever the second one from the bottom was or something. Um just because I'm like, I'm not here to fight, I'm here to do big brain shit. And I learned that that puzzle actually has more steps the harder the puzzle difficulty is set to. So I was pulling my fucking hair out, being like, dude, how many of these do I have to do? There's like seven. And it turns out if you have it on a lower difficulty, you have to do it fewer times.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, I had mindset to I had mindset to hard. And uh after, dude, I went to go change the settings and I forget what it was. There's something in the settings, there's something about the settings when you go to change the difficulty setting that kept making me go, all right. Well, I'm not fucking changing this fucking shit. I'm not changing it. Like, I'm not gonna make this easier then. And I think I think there's like literally only two, there's like two knobs, which is like please fuck me in the ass, and goo goo gaga, I'm a big baby. So it's just like like I just left it at like, you know, please rail me.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I don't know, I don't know the puzzle difficulty one. I know there's like four combat difficulties, which is interesting.
SPEAKER_03Um it was some it was something in the settings that like because I did want to, I want I wanted to turn it down a notch, and I just like I couldn't change it, like not not well enough to where I was like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Or willing to put on the diaper, huh?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like this is not it's not it, yeah. I couldn't I couldn't get myself to do it, but yeah.
SPEAKER_05I I may um I may still go back and finish it. And that's not to say this game is like too hard or anything. I think it's just annoying. It is there's something about it that like if you do enough combat and enough like thing, you kind of just start to it wears on you.
SPEAKER_03Like you're just like, okay, well um yeah, the things that I know was was there was there an actual way to figure out which one of those fucking scarecrows was the right one? Because I just kept pulling them over and over again and then being like, God, I hope this is the fucking right one. And so I just kept doing that over and over again. Yeah. Like dancing around all the other ones.
SPEAKER_05It got, it got I I think the first few, like I got it immediately, which was the what you're supposed to do is read the the text and then find the scarecrow whose the expression they're making relates to the character in the text. That's literally it. So they all have like different faces, they're making different emotions.
SPEAKER_03I might be autistic or something, who knows? Because I I read the thing and then it was really hard.
SPEAKER_05Like I I uh the first few I got, and then af like the last couple, I was like, I don't know how anyone would be able to figure this out uh naturally, because then the text becomes more and more complicated, and the emotions described become more and more nuanced in a way that you're like, okay, well, this person is saying that that oh uh that she's jealous. What does a jealous face look like? You know what I mean? Like what like that kind of thing. So it's kind of just I mean, whatever. That's part I I don't think they expect you to get it right on the first try every single time, but I think they just made it I think the puzzle itself is okay. What really started to bug me is if you take too much time, then enemies start wandering in out of nowhere off the field, and they do the the it is it is creepy in the sense that like they move when you're looking away from them. So like they do the the thing where you're constantly juggling, like looking back to stop that, and then going and doing the puzzle.
SPEAKER_03Um it it's a good the movements in this game are fucking awesome. Yeah, like the way that the the enemies move and shit is so fucking sick, it's so good.
SPEAKER_05Unbelievably good looking game, really, really well done animations, the vibes are insane, like uh vi graphics visually, graphics artistically, all of it is just really impressive. Um story is interesting, like I do want to see it through. Uh, and I've heard that the you know, you gotta beat it a few times to really there's like at least there's like basically one there's the main ending that you're gonna get when no matter what, like I think everybody will get the same ending the first time they play. And then you can get the real like I figured some shit out ending the second time around. Um, and somebody was saying that like it's a new game plus, you bring all of your upgrades and stuff over with you, so you can kind of just blast through the game really really quickly on your second playthrough, like in a few hours. Um, but yeah, it it I do I want to see it through, I just uh haven't felt like it, so that's why it's on my honorable mentions.
SPEAKER_03Um that's cool that they did the the extra endings like the other Silent Hill games. Yeah. Did you ever get the Shiba ending in Silent Hill 2?
SPEAKER_05I did not finish Silent Hill 2 remake, but um when I played original Silent Hill 2, I didn't know that they were like other endings. Like I I that wasn't I guess I wasn't aware at that time.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, there's one there's one in Silent Hill 2 where uh you you stumble into a control room, basically. It's like uh it's just a random room and it's got like all these like it's got a million different monitors and like fucking all these bits and bobbles that this uh person's operating, and then the person turns around in the chair and it's just a Sheba.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I I remember hearing about that. It's it's like a riff on the Matrix or whatever. Uh it's like the old guy. Oh, I didn't know that. It's like the old guy in the Matrix. Um yeah, it's really funny. There's a UFO one, I think, in Silent Hill 1. I think something like that.
SPEAKER_03I don't know.
SPEAKER_05Um anyway. Uh was the Shiba ending in remake as well?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05That's cool. Um yeah, good games. I think Silent Hill is as a franchise is on is on the incline. I think they're they're uh they're they're starting to re-enter the the consciousness for a lot of people, uh, which is cool. I think they'll keep making good ones.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they're cool games. Let's get that combat.
SPEAKER_05Let's get that combat worked out.
SPEAKER_03Funny, funny enough, this game seemed more supernatural than the other ones for as much as I've played.
SPEAKER_05Uh yeah, as with all Silent Hill games, I think it's hard to tell what the fuck is real and what it's like going on in their head. Yeah. Um
Honorable Mentions - Outer Worlds 2
SPEAKER_05Outer Worlds 2. This is my last uh honorable mention. Um this game's probably number 11 for me. I think this game uh is is really good. Um, but I gave it uh to the I gave the the the list slot to the other obsidian game this year that just had a bit more of a story impact on me. I actually think the gameplay in Outer Worlds 2 is better. Um, but uh just oh I guess generally, but um Yeah, I would have thought you would have liked this game more. I think it's it's really uh this is a classic case for me that you guys you guys know who I am, you know my whole deal. Um I uh I just value the the character writing and the story stuff so much uh more than gameplay. I think Outer Worlds 2 is objectively a better game than Avowed uh from a playing perspective. Um, but there's just something about the world of Avowed and the stuff that happens in that story that I just found so much more interesting.
SPEAKER_03Um read a fucking book, nerd.
SPEAKER_05I know. They need to I won't, by the way. I'm too busy. Too busy playing these fucking slop games. Um, I think there's uh they what they you know what they should do at Obsidian? They should take the two teams that worked on those games and combine them and make one really good game.
SPEAKER_03They should meet each other, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, they should, they should uh go walk down the hallway in their office and share ideas.
SPEAKER_03Um It seemed like you had more impact on the world in Outer Worlds 2 than you did on Avowed. On like the moment-to-moment interactions and the way that the character stories can unfold and things like that. Character stuff. I don't know.
SPEAKER_05The companion and character stuff, I just think Outer Worlds 2 plays like a really good um like little mini RP, like tabletop RPG campaign where it does the game is constantly making you feel like you're making these little impacts that are remembered and and in a lot of cases are. Avowed does better at the big stuff, like the big, like this is a huge choice level that you made that is changing the the state of the world and stuff like that. Um, there is some of that in the Outer Worlds 2, but it never feels quite as major, I guess. But I think there are more touch points in the Outer Worlds 2 where you're like, okay, shit that I'm doing actually is having an effect. And then in a vow, there's not as many, but they're bigger in scale, if that makes sense. Um, and certainly the end of the game, I mean, they kind of both do this, but the end of the game in in uh Outer Worlds 2 very much does feel like a natural extension of of all the little choices that you made over time. Um, but I will say that like I think Outer Worlds is just a victim of its tone. Like it being so silly, goofy, haha, like this is all a joke sort of stops things from impacting kind of by default, right? Like you're kind of just like you get to the end, you're like, that was neat. Yeah, you know, I got to the end of a vow, and I was like, damn, I fucked some shit up in this place. You know what I mean? Like I made some wrong calls, you know, or whatever. Um, so I don't know. Yeah. Good game, though. Really good game. Um
Starting the Top 10 list
SPEAKER_05okay. So I think uh let's let's let's start building the list here. I'll close this for now. We we each have our own top ten. I think we'll go through those later. But I think I think we need to start uh getting our list into place, the the group.
SPEAKER_01Group list. Um how do you guys want to start?
SPEAKER_05You want to start you want to start at number number one? You want to start at number one?
SPEAKER_00I guess I don't remember how we do this, but I'm down for whatever.
SPEAKER_03Uh we'll just throw shit in there and see what sticks. How about that? Let me know. Yeah. I throw in 2XKO. Oh god.
SPEAKER_00How did I forget? I saw this coming. Uh my only regret is not playing more of this myself to be able to genuinely support Merced wanting this there. I haven't played it at all, which is tragic, really. Um it's free. Yeah, I know. I almost installed it the other day. Uh but yeah, I don't know. I just feel like I'm not gonna play it as much as I want to, and the only way I could is to ignore other things I'd want to play, and so it's just yeah. Why even start if I won't really commit?
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um what are you gonna throw in?
SPEAKER_00Uh we we're just throwing stuff in in general, or are we aiming for a spot right now? Sorry.
SPEAKER_03Gotta start building somewhere.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, just uh I mean, just just throw throw stuff in.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because if you say something, we can put it above or below 2xko, and then it'll just build itself.
SPEAKER_00I'm cuz like Chandler kind of touched on, I have my top 10, but my goal right now is something I think would actually be on our group top 10. So I don't want to throw in like my 10 because that's my 10, it's not gonna be here, right?
SPEAKER_05Well, throw it, yeah. So the way we've always done this, I didn't realize I had to explain it. Dude, it's been years. No, I'm just kidding. I'll I'll explain it for the viewers and then uh Yeah, there we go.
SPEAKER_00We have so many.
SPEAKER_05Crossley's Crossly's acting like uh we actually do. Crossly's acting like um uh the playing the role of the uh you know the audience.
SPEAKER_01Let me let me let me know. Crossly's playing the role of the audience here.
SPEAKER_00Because I don't know why. I for some reason I thought we just did all of our top tens. I totally forgot we made like a group top 10. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_05No, you're good. I'm just fucking with you. So so what we're gonna do is we'll we basically we're trying to uh come to an agreed upon list of 10 games that represents the the group top 10. Um of course we all have our own top tens that those will get you know shared, but the idea here like because if we did those first, then it would just kind of give away the whole deal about what's gonna end up in our top ten. So I think it'd be fun to like uh kind of come at this from the side, right?
SPEAKER_00So I'm gonna throw in something I want here that I don't think either of y'all have on y'all's personals, uh, which is ball pit. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Ball pit can make it. You never know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was uh not sure how I felt about ball pit in terms of my own personal list. I knew I enjoyed it a lot um and stuff like that, but one of my big things about it that was holding it back for me was that it I hit the the end of the content wall way faster than I thought I would. And those type of games usually is like I almost know there's like too much content to really tap into to where I'll like waste too much time. Whereas Bulpit, it was like the opposite, it's like, oh yeah, I hit the wall of content within like I don't remember the exact number, but let's say 20 hours, right? And that's a lot of time for a game like that. But vampire survivors like on release had like genuinely over 40 hours worth of content, and that's too much, but that's like the difference there is like now I don't even play ball pit because there's no more content to play, like whereas vampire survivors I could come back to off and on for a while because there was just that much content, and now ball pit is doing free updates already. Uh so assuming they keep up this pace, which is not super fast, but fast enough for me, um, then I can keep coming back to it and keep enjoying it. Yep, or let the content build and just play it a bunch at once. Uh yeah, I'm uh I'm officially in love with the game. Official ring on it.
SPEAKER_05I do I like uh I like ball pit. I will it make it? It's possible. I I kind of agree with Merced, it it could happen. Um sorry, I'm I was wanting to share the list as we were building it, and then I realized that um I had my list up, so I had to kind of move the whiteboard around. Uh Merced, because I'm a I'm a uh you know a backpacker. I refuse to use obsidian because everybody's using it, so I had to use something.
SPEAKER_03That's what I was thinking. What the fuck is this shit?
SPEAKER_05I had to use something fucked up.
SPEAKER_03You realize Obsidian does this. Obsidian can do this. You don't need to use some other random shit. This one's open source. Obsidian is open source, is it? I don't know. That's true. At the very least, you can mod it. You can't. I don't know if you I don't know if it's actually open source, but you you can mod the fuck out of Obsidian. Um okay.
SPEAKER_04Uh this is so fucking stupid to use obsidian.
SPEAKER_05Uh I'm gonna chandler. Thank you, thank you. I'm gonna nominate Silksong.
SPEAKER_03Cross, I hope you know obsidian looks just like this.
SPEAKER_00Then who cares?
SPEAKER_03It's ca it's the it's the principle of the only reason he's doing this is to not use obsidian.
SPEAKER_05Damn. This guy seems mad.
SPEAKER_03I think uh yeah, Hall Knight Silksong goes in. Okay.
SPEAKER_05Um I'm just gonna keep fucking with this until I'm satisfied. Uh Crossly, you're up again. Really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oof. Um, I'm gonna get a little crazy and go ahead and throw in arc raiders. Just get in there.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
unknownActually, sorry.
SPEAKER_05Um I realize I went out of order, but that's okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Merced, I skipped you, that's my fault. Wait, sorry, someone just fucking messaged me. What'd you say?
SPEAKER_05Uh your turn.
SPEAKER_03Um so we got we got these these fuckers in here. Um I think Monster Hunter Wilds just goes in there. Monster Hunter Wilds in there. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_05I'm going to throw in Night Rain. Since we're uh saying shit that is obvious. Okay. Well we already have some.
SPEAKER_03I'll put in I'll put in uh well, I'll put in Ninja Gaiden 4 before you put in the the obvious one.
SPEAKER_05Oh, okay. So I should have asked you, I guess, uh what I like Ninja Gaiden 4.
SPEAKER_03I didn't really enjoy it. And for whatever reason, I have huh? No, sorry, go ahead. I I was gonna say, in fact, I have two Ninja Gaidens on my top 10 list.
SPEAKER_05Oh, Jesus, so we got a rage bound guy in here. Okay.
SPEAKER_00My turn.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_02Um let's go ahead and get expedition on there. Just get out of the way.
SPEAKER_00Good stretch. Okay. All right, now it's getting more interesting, right? Definitely. Pretty much the big ones all.
SPEAKER_05Okay, I'm going to nominate um. I'm gonna nominate Blue Prince.
SPEAKER_06Oh, Jesus. Oh man, I forgot about that game.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Um I think we're probably at 10 already, but it feels like there's still some stuff missing. Um we're at eleven right now. Okay. I'm going to throw whatever, we just mentioned it, but I'm gonna throw a vow in here. Even though it may not make it, but it might. That's a good that's a good high up on the list number.
SPEAKER_03Um said the only one that's in there that or that is on my list that is not in there yet is NinjaGuiden 2 Black.
SPEAKER_05What? Yeah, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03That's a great game.
SPEAKER_05What's the actual title of that? Is it like remaster, remake, whatever?
SPEAKER_03It's NinjaGuiden 2 Black, dude. I don't I don't know what it's actually like. What remastered remake? Is that I don't know.
SPEAKER_05Is that really just the title? They didn't they didn't put like remaster or anything in there?
SPEAKER_03It just says NinjaGuiden 2 Black.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I mean it technically counts. Oh yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um I mean the only other thing I could really think that I would want to fight for would be like other Switch 2 stuff, and I feel like I would rather just use that energy all for Donkey Kong if I have to, if that makes sense. So because y'all haven't really played any of the other stuff I would mention. And at least Chandler has dabbled with Donkey Kong, I think.
SPEAKER_05I have, yeah. I'm gonna be a meme and I'm gonna throw the two games that I care about in here, which is Dispatch and the Drifter.
SPEAKER_00You're not gonna put the altars up here. I'm not. Wow. Did that fall down for you?
SPEAKER_05It's uh it's it's in my list. Okay.
SPEAKER_00I was just curious if like it did it got to a point where you're like, actually, I don't like this as much, or if these other things are just cooler to you.
SPEAKER_05I guess uh these other things are better. I mean, uh another game that I would try, but it probably wouldn't. I mean, Tainted Grail of Fall of Avalon is in my list as well. I don't think that game would make it in this list realistically. I mean, neither of you guys played it. Um, but that is a game that is is like in the top, like not top five, but like in the higher five, like five through ten for me. The altars is also in five through ten. So I my five through ten games, I'm not even putting over here because it's like okay, yeah, yeah. Most of them are ones you guys haven't played. I just feel I feel very strongly about dispatch and the drifter. Um, I feel uh everything else on here, I mean blueprints, I feel strongly about everything else on here that you guys suggested. I kind of agree with uh as well.
SPEAKER_00So I so what do we think leaves, boys?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I'm willing to take out Ninja Guide and two black. Okay, I would like to nominate Blueprints to leave uh I didn't want to I didn't want to tell someone else's thing to leave, so I was like, I I would like Blueprints to stay.
SPEAKER_05So how's that?
SPEAKER_02Uh okay.
SPEAKER_05I'm I'm not even kidding when I say that uh I think in terms of just the inventiveness and the level of like I fell down a hole, uh blueprints would beat most of the games on this on this list. Like I I just that game had a pretty big impact on me at the start of the year.
SPEAKER_03Well, we can keep all these things here and then we can just start raiding from here.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And then do you want me to remove you want me to remove Ninja Gaiden 2?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you guys didn't play it, I don't think, and I'm not gonna go to back. I played it.
SPEAKER_05I mean, it's it's a really good game. Um, yeah, it is a really good game. I did play it, I should have put it in my playlist. I kind of forgot about it. Like Ninja Gaiden 4 sort of took over in my mind.
SPEAKER_03Ninja Gaiden 4, I think, is just objectively better.
SPEAKER_05That game is probably really good. That's weird. I don't know that I would agree with that, but it is new and interesting. I think Ninja Ninja Gaiden 2 is just old. It's not that one's better than the other. It's just all it's you see the seams a little bit.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I think there are I wish you would have beaten four, because there are some things that I objectively could say is like there are problems with four. Like I stopped playing four because I had problems with it.
SPEAKER_05So, but uh okay. Um yeah, we could start ranking, seeing where we end up.
SPEAKER_03Uh I'll put two X KO at five. How should I do this? Um okay. I'm gonna do this in the most belligerent way possible. You want 2x KO at five? Yeah, put it at five.
SPEAKER_01I mean that's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_06I think we so let's just speak speak your mind, brother.
SPEAKER_00Just what do you I feel like before we start ranking, we need to decide what's not gonna be in the top ten at all. I'm moving wrong, I can get over it.
SPEAKER_05I'm moving the ones that are definitely gonna be on further down, and then we'll see what happens.
SPEAKER_06I'll move hmm. I feel like Monster Hunter Wilds is probably gonna make it battlefield six.
SPEAKER_04I I I don't agree.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03It's literally the best battlefield that's come out in like 20 fucking years.
SPEAKER_05That is absolutely correct. I mean, 20. Wait, 20? Hold on. What year is it? It's 2026. I don't I don't know. He doesn't bad company two, I think, came out after 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_03Since Bad Company 2, 15 years ago. That is opposed to that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. I mean I I'm open to the argument.
SPEAKER_03I I think it's a good ridiculous. Battlefield 6 should be on there. That is a great game. It's it's fucking battlefield. It's literally just good battlefield.
SPEAKER_00I don't know that I agree. Let's get let's let's get it.
SPEAKER_03Wait, Crossley, did you play it?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Let's keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It didn't appeal to me enough.
SPEAKER_01Um it's my oh, Night Rain's gonna make it, right?
SPEAKER_02I'd be shocked if it didn't. If we all liked it, I mean.
SPEAKER_00Did you guys did not play Dispatch? I did not. No, I didn't play it. But I from the outside looking in, like it more than blueprints.
SPEAKER_03That's just my Crossley's just a hater today.
SPEAKER_00No, it's just my two cents. That's all I have. I I can't. That's all I can say. I'm thinking I didn't play either of them.
SPEAKER_05I like them both a lot. I think dispatch is like a place or two higher on my they're both in my top five.
SPEAKER_03Dispatch is higher than blueprints for you?
SPEAKER_00I think so, yeah. Settles that for me, buddy.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00It's the drifter again. What the fuck even is that? Get that shit out of here.
SPEAKER_03Jesus. It's like a point and click adventure. Who done it, right? I mean, the drifter did it.
SPEAKER_01Didn't realize I had to uh had to teach you guys about what games are.
SPEAKER_06Um what are we doing? Put Hollow Knight. Put Hollow Knight down there. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
SPEAKER_03Crossly, I don't even know what games you like anymore. What do you want? Put the put the banana game in there.
SPEAKER_00I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. Put the damn banana game in there. I didn't say anything.
SPEAKER_01The drifter is this. It's uh that looks kind of cool. It's fucking awesome. Dude, who done it? It's it's I played through it this week.
SPEAKER_05Wow.
SPEAKER_00Uh as much.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05This is the January's the catch-up period, dude.
SPEAKER_03I don't have this could be your game of last year.
SPEAKER_05I have I have fucking responsibilities. All right. I can't be playing games. I don't know what you're trying to say.
SPEAKER_00He he's right. January is the catch-up period.
SPEAKER_05Um yeah, I uh I I feel I the drifter is like probably number five for me. Like it's it's it's high up, but it's not uh the top, so I'd be willing to let it go. But it is just really cool. Like I played through it and I was like, damn, more people should be playing this. Um that's all.
SPEAKER_03Hmm.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03Seems very neat, very uh classic.
SPEAKER_05It's got a it's it's got like because I I haven't played a point-and-click game in a kind of a long time. I mean, Disco Elysium's like close-ish, but obviously more of an RPG. Um this is one of those games that uh really reminded me of why the genre was as big as it was, because it's just got enough going on, like mechanically, story-wise, like it it just moves. It moves at a good pace, it feels good. There's there's a lot of intrigue, a lot of good, good character writing, and um mechanically, it's got a little bit of that classic like LucasArts bullshit, where it's like, How do I solve this problem? and then it's kind of a thing that you wouldn't naturally intuit, I guess. But uh that's more rare, and it's more in the moments where like there's like action stuff happening, and you die and then kind of have to do it again, but it's not frustrating, it's kind of just well, how the fuck was I gonna know that was gonna happen? You know what I mean, or that kind of shit. Um, there's a lot of like I mean, the moment like I kind of laughed because the game starts off with like bad shit happening off the jump. Uh there's not really a build up at all. It's literally like within the first 12 seconds, a guy you're staying next to gets executed, and you're like, all right, cool. Um, so uh it's it's it's cool. Yeah. It's really cool. I was impressed. Like I I got it. Thinking that I was kind of just gonna give it a little bit of a shot and then move on, and I ended up like kind of obsessing over it, um, which is why I I played through it. It's also pretty short, it's like nine hours long.
SPEAKER_03So that's not bad at all.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's it's it's a good length. Honestly, perfect. Um I think dispatch is also about nine, ten hours. Like it's just exactly what you need.
SPEAKER_06Um that's the drifter. What were you saying? Oh, you want silksong to move down? Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we'll we'll see. I think I think so. I think it probably would make it as well, but we're literally at five here.
SPEAKER_03What do you want to see down there?
SPEAKER_06Where did Baldur go? Oh, it's right here. Balder. Try it out. Two XKO. Did you did you play it? No.
SPEAKER_02But goddamn, do I respect it.
SPEAKER_06Between two XKO and Ninja Gaiden, I mean.
SPEAKER_03Why can't oh are you asking if I had to choose?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Because if I had to choose, I would put two XKO. I played a shit ton of two XKO.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that is true. You did actually. These kind of feel like more obvious ones.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think those are for sure. But I mean we're still only at even if you only keep those, it's five. It's only five. Yeah. I'm gonna move why Battlefield should be there. Frosty wants Donkey Kong Bananza in there. Put Donkey Kong Bananas in there. And then Chandler wants a vowed.
SPEAKER_00I do think we need Chandler to pick one of these.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00And maybe Sisai and R to the rest.
SPEAKER_03I didn't play Dispatch, Blueprints, or the Drifter. I have played Ninja Gaiden 4 and Avowed.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I this is the me block of games that's unfortunate because uh there's more games on here that I that I uh like a lot that you guys didn't play.
SPEAKER_03I mean, really, all these are just games that we all played.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, that's how the list works. But I mean, I think these are like I guess I would say obvious ones.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00My my only thing with Silk Song is that it's in like the same camp as Hades 2 for me, and I don't want Hades 2 here at all. And I played that. So by no means do I want a game that took longer to come out and I didn't play. But that's just that's it. If y'all really think it should be here, then I'll shut up. But I just don't feel like it's that great. And I but I didn't play it, so whatever. I'll I'll stop there.
SPEAKER_03If it makes you feel better, crossly, Silksong was my 10 in my top 10.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, it's like I said, if y'all think it should be here, then that's fine.
SPEAKER_03But it's objectively one of the best games I played this year, but it's not like the greatest.
SPEAKER_05I think if it makes it onto our list, I think it would be weird if it didn't make it at all, but I think it's probably gonna be low. I think it's gonna be low.
SPEAKER_00No, I just wanted to get that out real quick in case y'all maybe felt similarly but didn't want to say it out of respect, like I don't have that respect for it.
SPEAKER_05I mean, I'm I'm gonna be honest, I think other than avowed, all of these games are higher on my list than Silksong. I haven't played them. I know. But that's that's what I mean, is like that's why I'm having such a difficulty figuring this out. But um, if I'm gonna move one down what's the highest on my list of these?
SPEAKER_06Um It would probably be dispatch. Like that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh and we don't want Ninja Garden?
SPEAKER_03It's 10, I believe.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but that's what I'm confirming. We don't want Ninja Gaiden.
SPEAKER_03Uh uh, I really, really like Ninja Gaiden a lot, but like if I were to supersede anything else on this, then it would be ball pit, um, or it would be it would be something like Donkey Kong Bonanza or Dispatch, and I think Dispatch is fucking awesome from what I've seen. And Donkey Kong Bonanza is also like I feel like if I played Donkey Kong Bonanza, I would fucking love Donkey Kong Bonanza.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, that one, that one fight for, I think.
SPEAKER_03Um personally, I really really enjoyed Ninja Gaiden 4, but there's too many flaws in the game. Like the hack and slashing is just fucking amazing, but there's too many flaws outside of that that like I'm willing for it to just not be in the top ten.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So
Ordering the Top 10
SPEAKER_00I think we are getting somewhere then we think this is it, right?
SPEAKER_03Unless Chandler wanted to swap out.
SPEAKER_05Let's let's work with this for now and see where we end up. I yeah, we can pivot if we need to. I think the two that are on the edge for me right now, like Bananza obviously didn't make it for me, but I also didn't play. I gave up like four hours into that game, so but I kind of acknowledge that it needs to be on the list. So I think that I'm good with. The two that I'm the most whatever about are Battlefield 6 and Ball Pit, I think. But um let's let's let's do some where let's let's let's rank. Let's start low and go high, because I I mean high is gonna be, I think, where the difficulty comes in. Really?
SPEAKER_00I disagree.
SPEAKER_05Really? I mean you might be surprised. Um let's let's go let's go ten first. What's what's number 10 in this if we were if this is our list, what's number 10?
SPEAKER_06Battlefield. Either it's ball pit, battlefield or hollow night silk song.
SPEAKER_00Oh song. He's so right, he's so right.
SPEAKER_06Um below Wait, as in higher or lower, sorry.
SPEAKER_03No, like ball pit would be rank 10, hollow knight would be rank nine.
SPEAKER_00Oh. You just said you thought silk song should be 10, right? Or no, oh, between these, I see what you're saying now. Okay, never mind, never mind.
SPEAKER_05So Battlefield 6 is not making it higher than 10, I think. If it's on this list at all.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow. You said that. Um, I mean, I'm fine with what you just said personally, but I feel the same about Silksong, I guess. So that's my personal bias towards those two and the number 10 spot.
SPEAKER_03Then put Battlefield 6 at 10 and then ball pit, yeah, and then hollow night silksong.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, what how is that where we got from there?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Chandler said Battlefield 6 is gonna be 10. Yeah. I I just and you also do not like Battlefield 6. And me and Chandler like Hollow Knight.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, so this to me right now, if if this is if this is the 10 games, 10, 9, 8, this makes sense.
SPEAKER_00I I was thinking it would be uh silksong below battlefield, that's all.
SPEAKER_05However, it should be you mean you mean like number 10 or whatever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, just wherever they are, I would think I like Battlefield 6 more than Silksong.
SPEAKER_03That's I would put Battlefield 6 higher than Silksong, but I figured the way you guys were talking as a kid.
SPEAKER_00Like, I'm fine with that.
SPEAKER_03If that's these we've done every combination.
SPEAKER_05I'm just saying, it's like it's like when you get it's like when you get tired of a puzzle and you just start plugging in random fucking solutions.
SPEAKER_00I'm just saying I think battlefield should be above silksong. That's all. I don't care if one is 10 or not.
SPEAKER_03All right, ball pit ten.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Hollow Knight than Battlefield. I kind of want Hollow Knight higher than Battlefield. I'm sorry. Okay, Battlefield and Hollow Knight. All right, let's let's just leave this for now.
SPEAKER_03Wait, is that are we cool with that? 109-8. I'm trying to gel everyone's feelings of these games and emulsify them because it feels like y'all feel stronger about Battlefield 6 than I do. I think ball pit's cool.
SPEAKER_00I just didn't play it. But if it if it's between that and silksong, I think Battlefield 6 is like a way cooler thing and better achievement as a video game than Silksong is. It's just Hollow Knight again.
SPEAKER_05I mean, that is insane to say. Battlefield 6 is Battlefield the sixth time. Add-on 12 expansions. What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it it and it look how many times they fucked it up.
SPEAKER_05I mean, I don't disagree, but I mean the U very could have very easily could have fucked up Hollow Knight. Hollow Knight's all hand drawn.
SPEAKER_03They kind of did, actually. They kind of fucked it up a little bit.
SPEAKER_05What do you mean? Hollow Knight?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Soaksong. Soaksong was not as well received as it should have been. I think that's just a fact. It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination.
SPEAKER_05I I think it depends a little bit on who you're who you're talking about, but this is so much easier in Obsidian. Buddy, I just started using this today. Just give me some time.
SPEAKER_03If you just number things in obsidian and start moving them up and down, it changes the number automatically, by the way.
SPEAKER_05I don't I'm sure you could do that in this, I just don't know how.
SPEAKER_03Okay. That's probably an actual fucking obsidian wrapper, is what you're fucking with right now. It's just obsidian under the hood. Dude, it's called log sec. It's open source.
SPEAKER_00Well then why are you upset if he's just using obsidian in that logic?
SPEAKER_05It's it's open source, no profit motive. Okay. Uh I this this is fine to me right now.
SPEAKER_06I mean, this this is fine. Okay. What's next?
SPEAKER_05Because to me, to me, it's either Monster Hunter Wilds or 2X KO.
SPEAKER_00It's Dispatch. No.
SPEAKER_03Mercedes. I wish I had played Dispatch so I could give like it just I every every cutscene I've seen of dispatch I adore. So I don't know. I truly don't know.
SPEAKER_05Every time I'm just like you've you've seen if you've seen the cutscenes, you've played dispatch. Congratulations. No, I'm just kidding. No, I'm I'm joking. I actually thought that that would be the case, and then the dispatch mini game is actually fucking insanely fun. So I I was shocked by that because when I was watching somebody else, is it just porn?
SPEAKER_00Is it like a porn game?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, mini-game. Yeah, exactly. Nice. Yeah, you nailed it. Oh yeah, bro. No, it's like a fucking strategy. It is like an H game level of C though, right? I mean, well, that's what I thought. Like, I thought it was gonna be like brain dead moron shit, and then like it turns out the the minigame, the first two levels of it, you're like, this is well, the first one's a tutorial, then the second one's like baby mode. By the end of the game, it's intense. Like it you actually have to think a lot about the stats. You you level up the individual heroes, and then you allocate stat points and different um powers to them. It it actually gets very involved uh at a certain point. I've like a strong seven, bro. I became really enamored with it. Dispatch is like top three, maybe two, depending on. I mean, my feelings on certain games have waned over the months, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00Do you what what Merceau, what do you think about 2x KO or no? 2xKO at seven?
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Yeah, we could do that.
SPEAKER_01And then Monster Hunter Wilds belongs at six.
SPEAKER_03Uh I don't know how do you feel crossly?
SPEAKER_02Um I think that is okay.
SPEAKER_00There's enough reasons why I could not see it being higher, I guess. Would you put it would you put it higher or lower than Donkey Kong Bonanza? Uh that's really tough. It depends on the day. They're kind of in a similar spot on my own list. Uh um.
SPEAKER_06Fuck, man.
SPEAKER_00Either way, I'm okay with it going here if it has to, but it's really tough for me to decide where it goes. Because I think I like it more than most people. So I really enjoyed Wilds. I liked it. Yeah, exactly. And um, but I know there's performance issues and this and that, and people. So I I understand that it's not like and it's kind of just world two. So it's kind of my same issue with Silksong, which this is this has just been done already.
SPEAKER_03If they would have just made a couple more, uh a couple different design decisions, I literally would have put like probably an extra like at least 60 hours into that game. But they made like a couple of design decisions where I was like, okay, I guess this is just that's it.
SPEAKER_00There's like a few ingredients missing, it feels like, for me to be able to be able to fight for it really hard. It's like not quite there.
SPEAKER_03Well, they they did the thing with worlds where they were like, well, we're not really gonna make the elementals matter all that much, plus we're also going to decrease the amount of match required per weapon, and we're gonna decrease the amount of match required per armor. Um, and also we're gonna release artisan weapons like on release. Uh like you know what I'm saying? So it's like it's just a bunch of different design decisions where it's like, oh, well, I guess I hit endgame, huh? Like, whoops, all these things like culminate into just like but otherwise I would have put a shit ton of hours into it if it was like world uh on release. So the gameplay itself is fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I think um I I think that the thing for me with Wilds is I kind of did want worlds to or world to, excuse me. Uh but I actually didn't I don't think it was uh enough. Like the thing that I thought was cool about World was its like commitment to bridging the gap between old and new Monster Hunter, like very like let's remove some of the tedious preparation stuff, but um, but maintain, you know, at a certain point the level of like kind of plotting nature of the pacing and the the punishing uh gameplay. Wild's feels a little bit too in the other direction, like it's a little too like Monster Hunter light or diet, in my opinion. Um like Wilde's I mean, we've already complained about the auto-run chicken monster enough times, but like that shit is retarded. But there's that there's nice optional good catch, good catch.
SPEAKER_04Uh yeah, you really you really you jumped in front of the bho holy closed one. You fired the gun yourself and then left it in front of your own bullet. Oh my god. The chicken's dumb. That's all the chicken is dumb. Yeah, uh uh.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we we already talked about how whatever. Yeah, it is optional. I mean, I guess it's it's it's optional in the same way that like anything's optional, except running around in the wilds environment is just sucks. But um I I really just like in every other monster hunter, what what is the argument? I disagree. Think about the opening area of world and the way that that's designed to be enjoyable to move through on your on feet, like like slowly uh soak in the environment. It feels like they it feels like they designed wilds with auto running on the chicken in mind. Like they're literally like, let's make a fucking wide open, empty desert because um because one, we don't need to have loading zones anymore, and two, you have the chicken. So here we go.
SPEAKER_00Here's the thing that I'm willing to give you is that it is lazy game design. And if they feel like what existed needed to change, then their solution shouldn't have been oh, we'll just put them on a mount that takes them there quickly and efficiently, and they won't have any effort from the player. What they should have done, and this is my opinion, but you might agree, Chandler, is something like Wild Hearts, which is actually come up with something new and interesting to traverse the terrain in a new way that you're still taking it in, but you're still moving it across it quickly and doing what you need to do uh efficiently, but you're not like literally walking around wasting a bunch of time. Like maybe the first time you're there, you'll be on foot, and then after that, you have all your shit set up and you just zip zoom, go to all your places, and like that that's the only argument I'd be willing to budge. Not that it's fucking stupid because it's it's honestly not, and they've done it before, and people didn't have a problem with it in Rise or in World, when you can literally get on a mount and it'll take you right to the thing in both of those games.
SPEAKER_05I still think Rise I like more. I I don't know. I I mean there's something weird about I think just the construction of now. I will say the thing uh to me that that does make sense. I mean, this this wasn't always the case, but increasingly with each monster in a game, it does become the case where the end game is really the game, right? So admittedly, I didn't get to the end. Game and Wilds, but I also think that is the game's fault that I didn't, right? I mean the reality is I think the onboarding of Wilds is less enjoyable than even in World. But I in I think you know there they're uh Wilds it is a good game. I I I I kind of see the the vision, I see the the way that they're trying to take the series, it does make sense. I think they can continue to improve things and make it good. It just doesn't it it's not what I wanted. And it and I think really you said it crossly, which is that there's something that Wild Hearts does that uh that the the when Wild Hearts sets they ab they have the same goal as the Monster Hunter devs. They're going, how do we take this genre and make it appealing to a wider audience? Let's speed up the pace a little bit, let's do some other things with it that make it a little bit more interesting to people who maybe aren't diehard you know fans of this genre already. I think the the solutions that Wild Hearts came up with were just better than the ones that Wilds is is coming up with. And I think it it makes it frustrating for me because I went into Wilds just fucking desperate to like it. I mean, I really I've I felt like an intense desire to finally like in the way that you and I played Wild Hearts and had a really great time.
SPEAKER_00I you're like, this is the one. Like I'll Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Like I'm like, okay, Wilds is gonna be the game. And and by the way, me and you were the only ones who wanted to play Wild Hearts. Um but I mean, like, I I I felt like okay, Wilds is gonna be the one, and I'm gonna play it, and I'm gonna be there with everybody else as we're going through it. And then it just I don't I it didn't work, and it makes it more annoying to me than it would be if I just wasn't interested, you know what I mean? But yeah, that's all. I think that's that's where my passion comes from. But again, I played more of it than I played Donkey Kong Bonanza. So uh maybe there's something to be said for that, but I mean, you know, and Donkey Kong Bonanza objectively probably more of more fun on some level, but uh I think I just my brain kind of I I sort of smoothed my brain smoothed itself over as I was playing uh bonanza in a way that um didn't didn't quite carry me through, but um well you could put monster hunter, it seems or dispatch. We're putting monster hunter. I mean we could put bonanza here, I'm also fine with that.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Bonanza is just so original that I'm gonna try to push it as high as I can, basically.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_01Night Rain goes at number five. That's whack. Maybe I'm crazy, but that that's whack. It's a really good game.
SPEAKER_00Any anything? Do you have any thoughts about what should be here, even if it's night rain?
SPEAKER_03Um I don't know. I think this is where the this this three is going to be the difficult part, right? It's gonna be night rain, dispatch, and bonanza. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I think uh Oh, that's how we feel. I guess I guess that may no, that does make sense. That's what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00For me, for me, for me, night rain is infinitely more fun and more replayable than our graders. So uh I was thinking, and I didn't realize what was left. So yeah, our craters is like gonna be really high up. Okay. So then I feel like it has to go. If I'm wrong, tell me. Some combination of dispatch and Donkey Kong for four and five, and then one, two, and three should be clear obscure arc raiders and night rain.
SPEAKER_05I mean it it could.
SPEAKER_00I I feel okay with that, yeah. Yeah, okay. So then just put Donkey Kong here, unless Dispatch goes here, because I think Dispatch is not as original as Donkey Kong, but I haven't played Dispatch, I don't know what all it offers.
SPEAKER_05Other than the two obvious ones, dispatch is the highest game on my list. So I would ride this one out basically as long as I can. But I mean, that that's the sheer impact of the beating that game and being like, god damn, I wish there was a lot more to keep playing. I think makes me feel very strongly about it.
SPEAKER_00So let's go Donkey Kong dispatch. Is that cool?
SPEAKER_05We can. The reason I was willing to kind of throw Night Rain out there is because I know we all really like it. I didn't know how much quite how much you liked it crossly.
SPEAKER_03So they spent like 300 or something hours across both.
SPEAKER_05Fair enough.
SPEAKER_03Fair enough.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. We're gonna like I I really want Night Rain to go above Arc Raiders, but I think I understand that can't happen, so it's okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it seems unlikely. I think Night Rain is great. I just feel like Arc Raiders has given me such a unique experience that I don't think I'm ever.
SPEAKER_05Let's just try, let's just try something out here.
SPEAKER_00Nah. It's really not. Let's let's just let's just let's just see how we feel. How do how do we feel? You want you want my opinion? The list like stays the same, except Arc Raiders is like number six, and everything else makes up one. That was literally what I would do right now. Actually, in fact, put two X KO above Arc Raiders.
SPEAKER_04That's so funny.
SPEAKER_00It's better than the ones at the end for sure. It is not like oh man, I don't know. It's a great game, though. I don't wanna I don't want to make this another. They're all they're all really good.
SPEAKER_03They're all great games. It's just yeah, for for me though, R Criters is like that shit hit me really hard.
SPEAKER_00No, it's awesome. Love that game.
SPEAKER_05Yep, yep.
SPEAKER_00Um so we're all gonna play marathon, right?
SPEAKER_05I honestly I I am gonna play marathon. Yeah, I have to I have to know. Is it free? No, it'll be probably 40 to 60 dollars if I had to get it. Yes, if it's my PC though, when is it coming out? Uh like a month or two, yeah. March, yeah. Um, they're they're saying that uh I I they're so aware of what happened with Arc Raiders, I think that they will charge $39.99 or $49.99 for that game.
SPEAKER_00It's $40.
SPEAKER_05If if they're it did they confirm that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's there's a it's the same thing as Arc Raiders, there's a deluxe edition that's okay. I see for base.
SPEAKER_05I think that game changed the way games will be priced for a while because like people were just so fucking shook by how inexpensive that game was and how well made it is. Um you know there's a there's an executive in a boardroom going, God damn those motherfuckers. Uh why didn't they charge 70 for arc raiders?
SPEAKER_00Um my only regret uh is that we didn't finish finger quotes Night Rain. We're gonna keep playing. Yeah, but we're voting now, so I mean, uh listen, I'm gonna be honest, buddy.
SPEAKER_05I could finish Night Rain all day long, and I don't even play Arc Raiders anymore. I don't even play Arc Raiders anymore, and just the feeling that that game gave me the first time I played it is so far above and beyond most of the other games that came out this year that I mean I legitimately would put it at number one right now and feel no remorse. You're insane.
SPEAKER_00You just hate Claire Obscure because it's cool now. No, no, no, it's popular and cool. It is still nope.
SPEAKER_05Let's let's stop for a second. Claire Obscure is still, even on my personal list, still number two.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_05Still number two, number two, yeah, still still number two, but and by the way, it's becoming just as cool to hate arc readers right now because that game is blown up in a way that's that's crazy. And I'm both in both cases, it is deserved. I legitimately think that. I think in the case of Claire Obscure, it's one of the best stories this year, certainly. Go read a book, blah blah blah, whatever. Uh some of the best characters this year, certainly. And uh a game that is truly uh unique in the sense that a story-based RPG that after 40 hours, I didn't want to fucking poke my eyes out every time a battle started. That's crazy. I mean, it's it's a game that goes on for 40 hours and has you know RPG mechanics. By the way, it could be longer, right? If you do all the side stuff before you go and fight, you know, what's his face, then um uh you for sure could could uh get way more time out of it and probably still have a lot of fun with the gameplay. I think Claire Obscure is an excellent game. Um, and I think the discourse around both that game and Arc Raiders has become like it misses the point entirely, like uh, which is you know, people are like, ah, Arc Raiders another extraction game, and blah, blah, blah. But you you lose the nuance when you start having those kinds of conversations. Like um, you know, people being like Claire Obscure, oh, I won so many fucking awards, blah, blah, blah, you know, whatever. It's French. Um like France in Chinese, by the way. I thought this was really funny. Is it or something? It's Fogwal.
SPEAKER_00Nice.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Um learning, I'm learning Chinese right now, so um that's pretty cool. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, to me, I'm happy with them in either way. Uh, so if we're good with this, we can we can uh we can kind of keep it how it is.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm I I never reconciled in my head what I liked more.
SPEAKER_05I kind of I'm uh sort of in that same boat, although I think just by sheer sense of a of like constant emotion, I there was a point in time where I woke up and went to sleep thinking about Arc Raiders in a way that I think also is particular for me of this year because I'm in my competitive fucking multiplayer game moment of my life right now for some reason that I think like in any other year maybe it wouldn't have hit me as strongly. But there is something about right now that ArcGraters just filled like a very specific point in time where I was like, this is fucking amazing, and I really enjoy it. Um and even then it's obviously doing other interesting things where it's not just a competitive shooter and all that, but um yeah, it just hit me exactly at the right time in the in the right frame of mind. Claire Obscure is something that is very much a game I would like. You know what I mean? Like it's just it's it's got all the hallmarks of something that I'm into, so um yeah.
SPEAKER_03I just can't believe they managed to make a turn-based game that never got old for like three or fifty hours straight. That's just like fucking awesome.
SPEAKER_05And they kept introducing new mechanics as they went, which is impressive. Like uh each time you got one of those fucking what is it, like modifiers or whatever, and it was like a totally new thing. I was like, this is hilarious. Um yeah, really impressive. Is this is this where we're at?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I'm I'm definitely okay with this. Yes. I think this looks really good.
SPEAKER_05This was easier than I expected. Yeah, it wasn't that bad. I'm gonna be honest. I I mean I I left a bunch of things on the cutting floor that I didn't want to leave. I mean, avowed probably and the drifter I would like to see in here, but I think um I think this is an a little take off dispatch. Yeah. I think this is this is a list that's indicative of the year and like games that we all kind of touched at least, right? I mean, dispatch maybe being the exception, uh 2xKO being the exception for me.
SPEAKER_03I didn't play, but um do you not like dispatch crossly?
SPEAKER_00Um no, it's not that. It's just without having played it, I don't really see what sets it apart from any other game that is seemingly similar to it, other than it's just the newest, prettiest one of those, and that's fine. But when Chandler was talking about it today, it made me think, oh, you know what, maybe there's more to it than I understand.
SPEAKER_03So are you talking about the Telltale games? Is that what you're talking about?
SPEAKER_00Uh I mean, even like visual novel games, I mean, it just seems like a visual novel for superheroes. And as a guy that likes superheroes, hasn't been particularly interested in the idea. So I'm like, Yeah. I don't know what is there to say about it. But like I said, Chandler, the the stuff he said about it has made me think there's more to it.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, I I kind of went in. I was open to the idea of liking Dispatch, um, but it felt pretty unlikely at the start. Uh I kind of just started playing it. I watched uh Mossberg, because Mossberg was playing it in the in the Discord a little bit, so I watched him do the first episode and I went, you know, this is something that I think I just want to see how I feel about it. So I went and bought it and played it on my own. And um I it's it I mean, from a just yeah, is it the most complex mechanical game in the world? Certainly not at the start. It kind of the first couple of episodes play out like you would expect, like a telltale game or whatever. Um at a certain point, I started to realize that the true strength of it, one is the performance, two is like performances of the actors, um, but two is uh the fact that it has a lot of uh kind of story depth that I guess you don't really anticipate from a game like that. Um and then the fact that the gameplay, like the the choosing stuff is always interesting. They they do a really good job of making what you choose feel uh relevant to what's happening, and then the the dispatch mini game is like ridiculously fun. I mean, I I think I think they talked about this. They're gonna patch in like some kind of mode where you could just play the dispatch mini game forever, like an infinite uh mini-game mode, and I think that's because I would I would do that. I mean, it's it works well in the in the ways they insert it into the story, but like the dispatch minigame is good enough on its own to be like a thing worth considering. So looking it up.
SPEAKER_00What's the minigame? The secret calls?
SPEAKER_05No, it's it's um so it's like a you sit at a terminal and you assign different heroes. So your heroes have stats, and you level them up over time, and you point you put different points and different stats. The minigame is a call will come in and it'll describe what's happening. And you have to go, which of my bench of heroes effectively addresses this need the most? And so each at over time the calls get more complicated. There becomes more calls, there will be like moments where you have way more calls that you have heroes available. Some of the calls will be of more severity than others, so you might assign two heroes to that one instead of one. You always get the flexibility to choose how many and who and who you're leveling up and what powers they have. Then you you also get over time, you get consumables, which will allow you the like, oh, I have one pot of coffee, which will let me bring one hero off of rest. So, like after they get done with the call, they have a cooldown where they can't be sent immediately again. But if you use a pot of coffee, you bring them off of cooldown and then can send them. Um they get injured. If they fail a call, they have it's like a roll of the dice, they have a chance to get injured. Some heroes have different passive abilities which allow them to be uh not injured, or if they get injured, something else happens, or blah blah blah. And as you level up, those passives will change. It's it's just it gets a lot more intricate than I think I I didn't think that that's what it was. I didn't expect it. And if you like management sim kind of games, it which I do, then it will appeal to you. If you don't, then you can then like a lot of people were probably just there for the story. You know what I mean? They're just there to get the narrative and then leave. I ended up liking just about every part of that game, and I think the characters are really well done. Um yeah, it if I if if we were doing like a if we were IG in and I was giving it a score, it'd be like a nine. You know what I mean? Like it was just damn it was just really fucking good. I don't know. I'm you I kind of either play it or watch a playthrough or something, but I think you'll see what I mean if you just uh experience it, is especially if you like superheroes. Um yeah. Legitimately funny too. I mean it's just easy to like. It's it's like one of those, it's just one of those things where you just like play through it or watch it or whatever, and it you just like damn, like I just like this. Like I I it they it's almost cheating. Like they just they just knew what they were doing. The writing's good, characters are good, you just you're like this. I fucking like this. I don't know, it's charming.
SPEAKER_03Um I would say that's like underestimating the writing, to be completely honest. Like anytime I've ever seen a cutscene from this fucking game, I've been like, wow, this is some of the greatest writing that I've seen, like natural dialogue that I've ever seen written in a video game before. Yeah. It's just it feels it feels so effortlessly funny, like the way that the characters talk to each other and interact and everything.
SPEAKER_05I I I agree completely. Yeah. And it's it's uh, you know, they take some shortcuts to get there, I think, in some ways. Um, but but that's also part of the deal. I mean, you know, if you have the ability to write dialogue that well, and then you set up characters that like, for instance, um, the Karlac-esque character, I can't think of her name right now, the one who's like a demon uh lady succubus. No, it's something it's something like malevolu or some some something funny. But um, yeah, I mean, like the you know, you throw a character like that or like Invisigirl in, it's kind of like, okay, well, even Blonde Blazer, you're kind of like, alright, well, you know, uh, we know what you're doing here. Um But still same way by the way, the same way that Baldur's Gate 3 does it, Baldur's Gate 3 does the same thing, which is it intermingles legitimately good writing with like snappy, witty, fucking punching slightly above the caliber of like the best Marvel movie kind of dialogue. And then when you marry those two things together, you get something that kind of a lot of people will really like across the board. So but they do it well. There you go. Uh so this is the list.
SPEAKER_06Should I read it out? Crossly?
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00Okay. I was nodding. Sorry.
Reading the team Top 10
SPEAKER_05Uh so for the for the team list, uh, number 10, ball pit, number nine, battlefield six, which honestly surprised me that it ended up in here, but I I you know uh number eight, Hollow Knight Silksong, number seven, two XKO, number six, Monster Hunter Wilds, number five, Donkey Kong Bonanza, number four, dispatch, number three, Elden Ring Night Rain, number two, Arc Raiders, and number one, Claire Obscure Expedition 33. Um, do you guys want to go through your personal lists?
unknownSure.
SPEAKER_05Uh mine looks pretty similar to this, to be honest. Oh, that's funny. Mine's very different. Yeah, mine is definitely different. We gave we gave Merced everything he fucking wanted. We should have should have fought back more. Okay, crossly. Well, Merced, since yours is. The same. You want to go first?
Merced's Top 10
SPEAKER_03Yeah, sure. Mine was uh we're going ten down. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03B uh number ten is Hollow Knight Silk Song. Number nine is Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. Number eight is Chronos. Number seven is Night Rain. Number six is Ninja Guiden Four. Number five is Battlefield Six. Number four is Monster Hunter Wilds. Number three is two XKO. Number two is Expedition 33. Or no Arc Raiders. And then number one is Expedition 33.
SPEAKER_01Nice.
Crossley's Top 10
SPEAKER_06Crossly?
SPEAKER_00My number 10 is Lego Party. It turns out taking Mario Party and ripping it off 100%, but replacing it with Legos is pretty cool. Number 9, Mario Kart World. I kind of was low on that game when I first played it. And then the more I played it, I was like, this is actually really cool. I actually uh recorded some clips of like some of the shit that I thought was really neat about it, but I never got around to like sharing it with uh the podcast. But it's like um and they fixed some of my only issues with it too, with like a free update pretty quickly. So it was like fundamental things like about the way the matchmaking worked and stuff like that. That was like this is just Nintendo shit, of course. And then they fixed it quickly, and I was like, oh, that's crazy. Nintendo never does that. So nice. Uh uh and that game kind of fell under the radar this year, it seemed. I think it did and didn't.
SPEAKER_05Like uh, yeah, it's just anyway, but um I guess there's what how much is there to say about it, but like I mean, right what I mean is that the discourse died down really fast. I mean, it sold probably more copies than like I I didn't actually look at the end of the year top 10. I think Battlefield 6 ended up selling a shitload. Uh but uh I'm sure that Mario Kart uh was also up there.
SPEAKER_00But uh basically there's this thing that's uh like there's the the the open world aspect of the game, which is whatever and kind of lame, but it's it's fine, it's whatever. But uh when you're in between matches in the online, it throws you into the open world and you can just do the stuff. And there's like I don't know, I just didn't realize how they designed the thing, and so it'll like throw you on a course, let's say, and let's just say I just want to drive off the course. So there's like a clip of me driving off the course, and then like I'm like falling, falling, falling, and you can just like see all the other courses like there on the open world map that you can drive to, and just something about how it's all designed, and uh I don't know, they just do a lot of cool things with the game that I think people don't care about because ultimately you're just playing Mario Kart, but those cool things ended up really sticking with me, and there's just I don't know, it's a cool game. I think it's a good direction for Mario Kart.
SPEAKER_05Uh that's good to hear, actually, because I remember people were pretty harsh on that part of it um at launch.
SPEAKER_00Uh so I don't I think they just didn't market it well. Like, I don't know what people thought it was gonna be, but it's yeah, it wasn't what I thought it was gonna be, and I feel like I'm pretty like locked in, so it's like, yeah, I just think they didn't market it very well. But once I understood what it was, it was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_05Anyway, classic Nintendo, nobody uh everybody has an assumption about what a game's gonna be before it actually comes out, and then it comes out and everybody's like, okay, well, this isn't yeah, literally.
SPEAKER_00Uh so then eight was Ball Pit, uh seven is Borderlands Four, which I feel like I didn't talk about at all, but uh I also felt like y'all didn't care about it, so that's mostly why. Uh then I have Arc Raiders at six, and then five is Pokemon Legends, uh four is Monster Hunter, three is Donkey Kong, two is Night Rain, and number one is Claire Obscure.
SPEAKER_05Nice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I wasn't even Warlands 4 was a video game. I honestly I forgot about it. So it was a pretty good one, too. They fumbled on a few things, or it would have probably been much higher, and I would have fought for it on our group list, but um Yeah, they really fumbled. I don't know if y'all know this, just real quick on how hard they fumbled. Their first paid DLC, paid DLC, was so bad that they made it a free DLC.
SPEAKER_06Nice. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03Just because nobody was buying it?
SPEAKER_00No. No, because it was that it was that bad of like content that they like got so much negative feedback for it. I don't know if they were actually uh before I speak too much. I can't remember if they were like self-aware before release and did this decision, or if it was a post-release decision and they like refunded people or something. I'm not sure, but either which way it goes, they were the content was so bad that they made it like a free update instead. And I was like, wow, that's crazy. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, sad tracking. Um
Will's Top 10
SPEAKER_05so uh I was making additions and subtractions to my list literally moments ago. Um, but I actually removed the alters, which was number 10. Uh that game's good. I do still think that game's good.
SPEAKER_00And um I really want to play that. Watching you play it, like it made me really want to play it.
SPEAKER_05I thought it was really cool. I also think the thing that they really fucked up is that they took a strategy uh like decision uh resource management game and tied it really intricately with a story and then made it still really easy to fail. Um and so you're gonna be playing, replaying. There's a pretty good chance that you're gonna fail at some point and have to start over from the beginning, and then you're gonna be going through a lot of the same shit. Uh, which is how Frostpunk worked. So to be fair, that's that's it's their MO, but I think that they this is a gamble that for me didn't quite pay off the way that I wanted it to. Uh that said, I am probably gonna go back in and play more of this game, especially if they kind of patch and move some things around, which I hear they are doing, but they made a way for you to not have to start all the way over.
SPEAKER_00I think just to get you through the narrative, that would be cool. Yeah. Maybe I don't know. I yeah.
SPEAKER_05I got pretty deep in and had an out-of-nowhere failure that I didn't even know was a failure mode, and um it made me stop playing.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, I could see that too for sure. I didn't even know that was a thing, like I thought, you know, I didn't realize the game operated that way. Yeah, I went to bed and turns me off.
SPEAKER_05I went to bed in a in a tough situation for sure. Like it was a bad situation, but I there was like I resource-wise, like I had a lot of stuff that I I guess I'll say this. I balanced my meters, except for one that I didn't even know would cause you to fail. And it was like the morale was low, which I thought, okay, well, uh we'll we'll we're gonna address it. We're watching movies, you know, we're doing things, and then it turns out because there was a storm happening at the same time, which forces everyone to work overtime uh by default, to because otherwise the ship would blow up. Um, and working overtime pisses them off. So they mutinied against me, which is a fail state, it turns out. I went to sleep and they killed me in my sleep, which is hilarious, by the way. Wow, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But it it is until you have to start all over.
SPEAKER_05But it's like then it's like and then I looked, I looked at my save games and I was like, okay, well, even if I went back 10 days, I don't think that's enough runway to fix this.
SPEAKER_00Let me ask you this, and I hate to put it on you then, but if you would have saved like at a more recent time, would you have been cool? Or is the way the game functions you didn't have a save that you could or it's on you for nothing? There's like and I hate to print it on you, but no, no, no.
SPEAKER_05I mean it's it's a bit of both, but you know, but the reality is some people do it where they do the same, they keep saving in the same save slot. If you do that, you're definitely screwed. I do I do a rotating four or five, depending on the game, depending on you know what I always do this because that's a habit from my youth where like games like shit could happen, man. I mean, you never know. So even my fifth so I did four or five. Even my oldest save, let's say it was 10, 15 days ago, even that amount of runway didn't seem like enough to course correct in a way that would meaningfully be different. Like maybe I could have made it, but it it I would have had to have I think just the way the game is constructed, you're always uh perilous in some resource. So like I was always like, holy shit, things are tough. Um and I just thought that that was the game, right? You're you're kind of constantly bouncing on the edge. I didn't realize that if you hit a certain low with the morale, they'd just be like, Well, that's the end of the game. You know what I mean? I just thought that there were other story things or stuff that would keep coming up because they've been doing a good job of that. Somebody gets pissed off, they go, Hey, fuck you, motherfucker, and then two guys fight and somebody's injured, and then you have less resources or less this or less that, or something happens. I thought it was just that forever because it's a story game. I mean, there's a lot of cutscenes in this game. No, they're just like, you lose, motherfucker. And I was like, Well, I ain't doing all that right now. I literally closed it.
SPEAKER_03Closed pretty crazy.
SPEAKER_05I looked at my saves, I went, Well, that's not gonna work. Close the game. Um this is a hundred percent true. Closed the game and uninstalled it. Like it, it just it affected me that much. Like, I was literally just like, Well, okay. So I don't know. So sorry about that.
SPEAKER_03All the games that can cause you to fail stay like that, but it definitely should have given you at least some sort of idea that that can happen.
SPEAKER_05Um so the altars uh got removed. Tainted Grail, the Fall of Avalon is my number 10. That game's just I think really fun. I think if I'd played a caster, it probably would have been even more fun. Although by the end, my uh That game is funny in that you can get one shot all the way from the beginning of the game to the end of the game without really expecting it, but it's uh Skyrim-like, so it's fine because you just quick save all the time anyway. But um, I think the thing that ended up being the most fun for me in that is the sound effect for power swinging a two-handed massive sword is literally that meme. Have you guys seen that meme where they're like Berserk anime be like, and then it's like him swinging the sword, and it's like the sound of like a pallet of industrial piping falling on the ground and going and like clanging around.
SPEAKER_03That is what you mean, but I know I know what you're saying.
SPEAKER_05That is literally uh what it sounds like when you two-hand the sword and power swing it. So I the last 10 hours of that game that I heard that sound every 13 seconds, which I which scratched something in my brain that made it. I was like, I'm finishing this game either way. Um I literally see small things, I killed King Arthur by swinging a massive two-handed sword into him and it making that sound. It's fucking hilarious. Um, so yeah. I thought the game was cool. I think I watched a little bit of caster gameplay and what little spell casting I did. I think that's the way to play that game. Um, because it all looks ridiculous. You can kill somebody with cheese. There's like a spell that like fucking turns them into cheese slowly, or like fucking, I don't know, like suffocates them with cheese. I hell yeah. I don't fucking know. It's like literally you get it from an old an undead chef who's like, I'm searching for the perfect cheese recipe or something, and then when you bring him this old ass cheese, he's like, great. And then you get a spell that let I don't I don't fucking know.
SPEAKER_03Anyway, it that's pretty cool. I heard really good things about this game.
SPEAKER_05Honestly, I I had a lot of fun with it. Um number nine is Adam Fall. I forgot about this. This game was short, wasn't it? It was like 15-20 hours. Um not bad. Uh from the beginning of the year. It's basically if Tainted Grail is Skyrim but indie, Adam Fall is uh Fallout Stalker but indie. Um it tried to do a lot of really interesting things. I think it does not succeed 100% at any of the things, but it's ambitious enough and tries a bunch of weird shit and has some pretty good writing and a good narrative, uh, interesting characters, and it's it's one of those that kind of sneaks up on you uh in the sense that like I started playing it and was like, I'm intrigued, and then about midway through, I was like, holy fuck, I'm glued to this. You know what I mean? Um, and then I don't think the ending really does what it wants to do necessarily, but it is one of those games where the ending is pretty vastly different depending on which of the three or four choices you can make. There's like you can side with a few factions, you can just say fuck you to all of them. There's like a few kind of options there. Um, but yeah, cool game. Uh combat's, I think, really fun, actually. Uh Avowed, number eight. Um we talked enough about Avowed, but uh I think it's uh Yeah. Obsidian's doing good things. They they need to they need to keep keep it going and maybe widen their ambitions a little bit. Uh Hollow Knight Silk Song number seven. Um not as good as Hollow Knight, but uh still really good. Number six, Blueprints. Um it's a shame that people I think this is one of the most divisive games that came out in 2025. People fucking hate this game. Um I think Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, this game is popular as fuck.
SPEAKER_05This game had a very funny thing that happened to it where a bunch of people were like, oh my god, this game's perfect, and then like they realized exactly what it's asking of you after a while and went, no, fuck this. Um the same thing that I think is what makes it special is the the days, you know, the reset stuff. People started to realize over time that they didn't like that actually, and that they would be happier if you carried over some more things. I think those people missed the point, to be honest. Um, yeah, there is stuff that does carry over in very small ways that you will only perceive after enough runs. Um, and I think they chose the exact right amount of carry over. The only thing that I think this game really doesn't do that well is um explain a bit more about itself, I think. Uh, which also is a choice. Like I think they made that choice very deliberately, but yeah, I think so. Um, but I I felt very gripped by this game. I got to the end, I did a little bit of the extra stuff that you don't have to do um just to see a bit more of it, and then I decided, you know what, there's still secrets to uncover, but I'm I'm good. Like I I like it. I I can stop. So I think if there's a part of me where if I kept going a lot and banging my head against the last few things that were like hard secrets to uncover, I probably would like it less. It's one of those things where you know, you know that feeling when you're like, wow, I could stop at this number of slices of pizza I've had already, or I could keep eating and feel bad. And you know, I think it was that. Um The Drifter, uh, new addition, obviously, but I think number five is a good spot for it. Um, really good game, really good story, um, super fun. I actually recommend it to anybody. I think I think even if you don't like point-and-click games, you'll probably find something to like. Um voice acting starts out a little funny, but over time you you understand why they did what they did. Um, Elden Ring Night Rain. I still want to keep finish I I do want to finish this game. I think we should keep playing. Umber three is Dispatch. Obviously talked enough about that today, but good ass game. Number two is Claire Obscure Expedition 33, and number one is Arc Raiders, which um yeah. I think my feeling about that game right now is uh that it was special and maybe playing more of it is not necessary to show my love to it truly. But um I feel that same way about Claire Obscure, to be honest. Um but uh also I still think about some of the moments in that game that really stood out to me, and I go, god damn, maybe there's more of that to be found, you know. But um that's true for both of those games. Um that's the year. You guys send me your lists and I'll I'll add them into the the description as well. Um that was fun. Something about this felt uh different. Is that am I wrong about this? About what? I don't know if it's just that we a lot of the games we all played we already knew were gonna be high up, so maybe that removed some of the edge, but it definitely felt like we kind of just moved through it.
SPEAKER_06Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_03I feel like um I I don't know if it felt like uh the top the top games were self-evident.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Maybe that took away some of the some of the uh fun in arguing.
SPEAKER_00I mean yes and no, because there was the bit between us all of like the chunk of games that only us played. Like I basically have my yeah, little group, your little group, and Merced's little group of things uh that sort of we had to decide. But the top was kind of decided, and even then, for some weird reason, you don't have Claire Obscure as your number one, and I don't think our creators deserve to be top three at all. So it's like we're all kind of not aligned there as well in some way.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I do think you know more than ever though, we kind of knew like, yeah, we had our crop of games that were unique to us, which we all kind of knew the number of our own games we were gonna be able to sneak in there, and then um I think we also were not gonna fight over the Arc Raiders Claire Obscure story, even though maybe Merced and I feel interchangeably strong about those games in a way that makes it sort of hard to decide.
SPEAKER_03But um I think it's real I think it's really, really hard to decide between the two, between Expedition and Arc Raiders to be honest.
SPEAKER_05I think knowing how Crossly feels about Expedition and knowing how strongly I feel about that game and how strongly, because it's like the consensus game that we all have in our top three, basically, it's like okay, well, that's the number one. I mean, that just makes sense, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um, and I think that's why it made it a little easier than some years. The like last year, I still can't believe the the I mean the Elden Ring story we allowed to happen, I think, is kind of crazy. It does make sense because it's like a complicated uh thing, which is like what's what is a fucking game. What are we talking about right now? The DLC, man, the fucking DLC. You're joking, right? I'm not, I'm not, I'm still, I still feel weird about that. But but it's like not, it's like kind of funny also, but it's just like I it in a world in which Elden Ring is a great game and the DLC is only like improving what is already great, it's like kind of insane that we just let that one slide. But that's okay. That's fine.
SPEAKER_00Uh at a category for best expansion or DLC, so if that's how you feel, like was there if they should have just done that well the first go around.
SPEAKER_05Was it they they did, by the way. Yeah, man. Was there was there a uh a DLC or expansion that came out this year that any of us gave any shit about at all enough to remember?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, off the top of my head, I can't remember, but it there was something leading up to the last discussion that I thought about asking if we could add that category, but then I was afraid that it wouldn't always have. An answer, and if it did, maybe not from all of us. So was it? I can't remember now. Um because I can't even think of anything. It might have been the Night Rain DLC. Uh honestly, I can't. Yeah, I can't remember now. It definitely wasn't the Pokemon DLC. Uh yeah, the only thing that comes to mind at this moment is Night Rain's DLC, which is decent. I mean, yeah, it's not even that good though. It's like Well, it's it's not worth inventing a category for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I guess I can it is good, but it's it's additional characters and bosses to a game that was already really good and came out this year. Yeah, like it's just extra content. It's not like breaking the mold.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. But hey. Um, yeah. Well, anyway. Till next year, maybe the DLC will show up.
SPEAKER_05Till next year. Um anything uh in the next few weeks that's coming out that you guys are like ready for? Are we all playing Requiem?
SPEAKER_03Requiem Romeo. Yeah. Uh Requiem Romeo is a dead man, and there was something else I feel like. Fuck, dude, it's February. Um it is. Oh god. That sucks.
SPEAKER_02That sucks.
SPEAKER_00Slay the spire comes out in March. That's huge. That's huge for me.
SPEAKER_01Uh Marathon.
SPEAKER_03The Animal Crossing update?
SPEAKER_00That that came out and I've been on the fence about it because the Pokemon Animal Crossing comes out in March as well. Uh you know, and I even huh?
SPEAKER_05Sorry, I just realized you know what's fucking me up is we considered 2x KO in 2025, but it also just came out in January. Does that mean it can run again in 2026?
SPEAKER_03It absolutely can, and it will do that.
SPEAKER_00I don't, it was just its official release and its console drop, but I think that was came out.
SPEAKER_05But it was like in open beta or some shit or whatever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but nothing like it's not like there's no meaningful changes, what's it? Yeah, 1.0 dropped officially, but realistically nothing changed.
SPEAKER_03I don't even know if they called it patch. I don't even know if they called it 1.0, I'm not gonna lie, because they just said it was a console release.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. It was it was basically just the release on consoles, like even if it also says PC on that release date, it was it it was already out.
SPEAKER_05The uh the Dragon Quest VII remake comes out in four days. Do you guys know that?
SPEAKER_03No, no, that the other remake that they yeah, well, the other remake that they did is supposed to be like fucking phenomenal. People want to look good out of that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they look really good.
SPEAKER_03Uh Neo 3 is in fucking five days.
SPEAKER_05What is Neo 3? Neo 3. Oh, wow. I already saw some reviews or pre-I guess late previews. No, I don't know. I don't think so.
SPEAKER_03Mario tennis? You guys are getting another Mario Tennis, you guys.
SPEAKER_05Switch owners.
SPEAKER_03What the hell? I have a switch, I'm not using it though.
SPEAKER_05Is it switch two only or switch one?
SPEAKER_00It's that's a good question. But anyway, to circle back to the Animal Crossing. Um, I thought about buying it, yeah, and then I realized that Pokemon Animal Crossing is coming out soon. Yeah, and I was even so on the fence that I was like, all right, I'm just gonna pick one. And I watched a content video that went over all the new content for Animal Crossing on Switch 2, which by the way, there's a crazy amount of content.
SPEAKER_05There is, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I did see that. It's just like a visual performance update.
SPEAKER_05Uh, but it's still 30 FPS, I saw. Kind of pissed me off.
SPEAKER_00That can't be right. It looks way nice. I think it is.
SPEAKER_05I think it is.
SPEAKER_00You might be thinking on Switch.
SPEAKER_05No, I I think.
SPEAKER_00I I I could be wrong, but it looked way nicer than that, so I'm shocked. Uh, if it is 30, it's a really, really smooth looking 30. Uh with some maybe like frame gen. I don't know if Switch 2 has that, but it looked way smoother. Anyway, so I watched a bunch of content for the new drop for Animal Crossing, and then I watched the Nintendo Direct for Pocopia. And dude, I'm all in on Pokopia. I don't give a fuck about Animal Crossing. They Pocopia has won that battle hard.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I don't know what the fuckopia is. It looks it looks cool. Pokemon Animal Crossing where your Ditto that turns into a human, and then instead of finding like the villagers and starting a village, it's that, but you're finding Pokemon and starting like a Pokemon map. Like you build the Pokemon Center and start building the routes, and you you'll find like a bulbasaur, and then you'll copy like his vine whip or whatever, or his like leech seed, and then you can grow trees, and then you'll find Squirtle and you can copy Water Gun and like start a farm with the water and so on.
SPEAKER_03Do I still get like an eclectic group of villagers with a Pokemon with awesome personalities that they're Pokemon complain and live their daily lives and want to hang out with me?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but they're Pokemon instead of animals, people.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And uh Pokemon. I think there's more like emphasis on crafting and structure placement and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00Uh the newest Animal Crossing is kind of that too. That's like in my opinion, where they they fell short is that they focus a little too much on that and less on the interactions between the villagers being cool.
SPEAKER_05Agreed, but they I think they I Pocopeia seems even more like there's more of those mechanics because like I think Oh, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00But but um I think it's I think it's I guess we'll see. I I I don't know if I'm actually gonna buy it. I'm gonna wait until it comes out and I see actual in-depth hands on it, but um just from that Nintendo Direct they did, the amount of like shit you can do immediately seems way cooler. Like uh Animal Crossing, one of the things I really liked about it was they had verticality and you could like go up a couple of like tiers and start building, yeah. Then once you hit like three levels, it's like capped out and you can't go any higher. And then once you start building on the verticality and starting to do all this cool intricate stuff, the game would run like shit in like literally like less than 10 frames, like it just couldn't handle it. And this game, there's like fucking so much verticality and like cliffs and shit, and then um off rip you can go to like different islands, and there's just a lot more going on, and it's a switch two only game. This is not a switch one game with a switch two version, yeah. So this is gonna have just like being designed with that in mind, like it's not gonna be held back by the Switch, it's gonna be, you know, in theory, got hopefully more going on than what Animal Crossing did, just from the foundation of it being a next generation finger quotes game. But we'll see. Maybe it's just gonna be really surface level, make a fucking map and then it's done. Uh we'll see. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I I'm interested in it. I mean, uh, it it isn't strictly a kind of game that I would be automatically a fan of, but I I I'm open to to seeing what they're cooking, I guess. Like it it it it is charming also, like the visual of it. I don't I still don't like the face of the ditto as the ditto person. Yeah, you need to change that. It's kind of a nightmare. No, I hate it.
SPEAKER_00It's it's scary. I'm I'm hoping there will be uh because I'm pretty sure you can change your outfit and stuff, so I'm hoping there'll be like a mask you can wear. Oh god.
SPEAKER_05Like it's it's like it's like body horror, but yeah, uh otherwise it's uh and the limbs are too long. Do you notice that? Like it is like really long arms.
SPEAKER_00It's silly in the wrong way. Yeah, it's like they tried to make this silly in like a a funny or cute way, and it's like silly in the wrong way. It's like, okay, I don't like this.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Uh but anyway, yeah. Yeah, I I am interested in that. I I think coming up in February. Um I'm just gonna run through some stuff here. Uh what do we got? Code Vein 2 just came out. That's January 30, that's two days ago. We got uh Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. That's the one that looks kind of 3D-ish. It's not the 3D, 2D stuff they've been doing, it's the like a full remake. Uh as I understand, Dragon Quest VI is a pretty divisive entry, so it's funny that they chose that one for a full remake instead of a remaster. Um Neo 3 is on the 6th. Uh we got there's another Blas Blue coming out. Entropy Effect X. Okay. Um yeah, Mario Tennis February 12th. Uh Yakuza Kawami 3 and Dark Ties on February 12th, also. High on Life 2. For some reason, I thought that came out already. Um Reanimal. That's the one that's I think by the by the uh little nightmares folks, the original folks.
SPEAKER_00Isn't Crimson Desert coming out really soon?
SPEAKER_05Crimson Desert, I think, is like March.
SPEAKER_03March 15th or something. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05There's a new let's see, there's a new Rune Factory. Rune Factory the 13th of February. Avowed comes out on PS5. Um another Sticks game? That's kind of weird. Uh, S C Y X. Yeah, correct.
SPEAKER_00Um in another YS game? Is that what you're just saying?
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Wow. Yep. That's on the 19th and the 20th. Uh I think it's I think it's actually a complete edition of the last YSX or whatever pro uh Nordics, YSX Nordics or whatever, the three-dimensional one. I see. Um Resident Evil 7 Biohazard Gold Edition on the Nintendo Switch 2. That's your chance, Cross Lake. Oh. February 27th. Uh Requiem is also the same day. Uh Resident Evil Village Gold Edition, also the same day that's on Nintendo Switch 2. The Tales of Bersaria remake uh or remaster on the 27th. I didn't realize this. The World of Warcraft expansion comes out March 2nd.
SPEAKER_01Marathon, March 5th.
SPEAKER_00I'm genuinely interested. Yeah. I'm with you. All the art theft or design philosophy theft aside, like it's just agreed. I like bungee shooters, and I think art creators put me in a headspace where I'm more willing to try this as well.
SPEAKER_05So and I saw some some of the I haven't I didn't really watch the deep dives that they've been doing recently because I'm already just gonna try it out, so whatever. But the um I saw some of the chatter around the changes they've made since the closed beta of that game uh are positive.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_05So people people think that there's a little bit more uh interesting happening with with Marathon, which is cool. Um yeah, I'll give it a shot. Did you guys really quickly before you wrap up, do you guys see that they added 5v5 to Highgard already?
SPEAKER_03Oh no. I mean, that's a very good um from what I've heard, that's a very good addition to the game because people were saying that the gameplay itself is like way too spread out and barren. Yeah. Just the map was too big for just a 3v3. So I mean that's cool.
SPEAKER_00I still haven't tried that. What have y'all? What are y'all's thoughts?
SPEAKER_03I haven't played it. I watched um Mossberg, Brandon, and Josh play it for maybe an hour, and they said it was like the most mid shit in the world.
SPEAKER_05So I kind of felt that from it. I I think I'm I still do want to just give it a shot, but I'm not expecting it to bowl me over. I think. I'm kind of just in a world where there's a lot of really good multiplayer games, playing a mid one, spending your time on a mid one seems kind of funny, but uh, but I I would try a 5v5 mode just to see if I like it. Maybe we'll maybe we'll give that a shot here in the near future. I have it downloaded. I mean, I I there's really nothing stopping me. I just it's one of those games that I'm like, I don't think I want to play this on my own.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, I I 100% filled that, and I haven't even installed it yet. Um yeah. I was kind of just waiting for the group to be like, this is good, join us, and then I would. And if it doesn't get to that point, I don't know that I'm gonna push for it. But I wanna I do want to try it, you know. I I want to give them at least a chance.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yep.
SPEAKER_05Um alright, guys. We did the damn thing. Yeah. Nice job. Another year down. Now we've been doing this, what, for like the last four years, five years?
SPEAKER_00I don't know how long Mercedes been with us, but what we started COVID year, right? Yeah. Yeah, we did.
SPEAKER_03If you started COVID year, then it'd be six years.
SPEAKER_05But we didn't we started like midway through the year, and I don't know that we did a game of the year in 2020. Maybe we did actually. Actually, I think we did.
SPEAKER_00I think we did in like B Paul and Merced, and maybe even Tyler. Like, I think it was a whole group. I think so too. We pulled in. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think so too. And then we kind of lost some over the years and then gained Merced permanently.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05But I think we had Sean.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05We still had Sean back then.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Oh, dude. I forgot that guy existed.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. If you listen to Sean, wherever you are, Godspeed. Um yeah, good good times. Let's let's keep it going. I hope 2026 is another good year. 2025 felt like a really good year, to be honest, even though there's kind of some you know, maybe uh obvious answers to the top five of this. Uh I do still think that um in the moment. Yeah, in the moment, I think I had uh a lot of fun with a lot of the games uh that we talked about and some of the games that were in the honorable mentions as well.
SPEAKER_03So good games. Where do you we're do you got so many games coming out? I know.
SPEAKER_01Alright, squad. Peace. There you go.