Gentlemen, it's that time of year again. I think it's. I think it's a good time of year for all of us. See, we. We've been going forward, we've been going backwards. We've been talking about games in the early, early 90s and games of the late 80s and. And having a good time. But I'll tell you what, I think it's time to jump in the DeLorean and fly just a few years into the future of 2024. And I think we should all discuss our game of the year for this year. Game of the year, episode 2024 today on. No theme song. Over the theme song.
You crack the can now?
Yeah.
Over the DeLorean.
Guys. Welcome in, everybody. Who's coming to check us out. It has been a post Christmas episode. That's right. We are recording this on the 27th. We're going to talk about all the wonderful gifts that we got. But first we'll. We'll cover that towards the end. But today is your favorite podcast post Christmas, I hope. Anyways, I'm not alone. I never am. Even with the voices in my head. I actually have physical people that are hanging out with me as well today. Let's go round robin. Sinistar, how are you doing today, sir?
I'm good, but I'm actually a chatgpt bot.
What's that thing that Jake did? What was your line that you kept saying Sinis bot?
I can't remember.
I think it was I am Sinistar.
That's right.
Yeah.
I am Sinister. Yeah, Yeah. I don't remember because I'm a different bot.
You weren't there that day.
That's right.
Fill in the blanks. Filling in help. Filling in for sanity Wolf. How are you today, sir?
I'm doing all right. We got some good news this week. Not going to go into too much detail, but good news.
So, yeah, we heard it all. So congratulations to you and yours. That is the gift that keeps on giving. This Christmas, especially Jake's wonderful attitude, is also the gift that keeps on giving. Jake, how are you today?
What is that supposed to mean? My attitude's always a gift. I'm always in good mood, especially when we're recording on a Friday.
You said I was being sarcastic. Holy Christ.
Wow, hostile. And we haven't even started yet.
Hey, John, my Dr. Pepper. Yeah.
Look, I need some help. What's your pick for game of the year?
It's Mega Man X.
1985, right?
Yeah. 1986. 85.
Yeah. 86. Classic.
Yeah, we're doing 94 today. No, we're not doing 94. We're doing 24 today, which was a good year. It was a strong year. This is a pretty decent year. We had some good things come out. We had a lot of games hit the floor this year. Now remember, as Pressby goes, just because we play the game came out in 1987 or 2001, it can count for a game of the year for 2024 because it's the year that we played it in, not the year it was released. Some of our picks will be of the same year like some of mine will be and some of them won't. Some of them will be a couple years old, some of them will be whatever. So it's basically our game of the year that we played this this season for ourselves to select. So I might as well just dive into it because we're probably going to gush about a lot of games here. Now we've got two games to pick. We have a runner up for a game of the year, and then obviously the goat of 2024. So without further ado, who would like to talk about their game of the year first? Also, I don't believe anybody knows what anybody is picking. So this will even be a surprise to the hosts because we did not talk about this. So if anybody picks my game of the year, I quit.
I'm going first. Chard, what did you pick?
Yeah, okay.
Genesis was a hell of a system, guys, for JRPGs.
So my runner up is Mega Man X. It's also my game of the year. No, actually. Yes. Yes. It's Bards Tale. No, actually. So both of my games this year are RPGs. Funny enough. So my runner up is American Truck Simulator. It's an rpg. Fight Me.
I don't.
Fight me.
I don't think it's an rpg, but.
It'S a good experience. You get experience points and you upgrade your stuff with experience.
You level up, you have stats.
Is there randomized battles? Is that a thing?
There's randomized cars on the road.
Yeah, right. And the way I drive. The way I drive, it's a battle.
If you have the Washington dlc, every drive is a battle.
Okay.
No. Anyway, my game of my runner up is American Truck Simulator. I'm not going to say it's an amazing game. It's a good game. But the reason it's my runner up is because it saved my sanity for at least part of this year. I realized at some point that I had started getting up in the Morning I work from home, so I would get up in the morning, I would literally make my coffee and I would start working. And the problem when you work from home is you lose that commute time. So I started using it. I think of the suggestion of, oh, probably Jeff. I don't know, the suggestion of somebody. Or was it Jake? Did you suggest.
I think it was me. I think I mentioned it in the episode where we talked about simulators.
Yeah. So I ended up doing a commute every morning in my big rig and it was mind numbing in that commute kind of way where you're paying attention enough to the thing but you're thinking about the other things on your mind. I hooked up my IR tracker so that I could turn my head and it would turn the head in the game. At some point I think it has VR. At some point I should hook up VR and play it that way. But it's honestly a great game. I joke about it being an rpg, but it does have RPG aspects. There's the ability to upgrade, there's ability to get new equipment, there's AKA trucks or trailers or etc. And then there's all sorts of awesome DLC that you, you can buy if you feel like it. It adds basically states or areas. And driving around the state that I live in, I realize that it compresses time by like about 1 to 20.
Yeah.
So yeah, there's, there's a drive that, that would take me about an hour up to brother. Since cabin, it takes me about seven minutes in the game.
So yeah, when you do the, the Washington dlc, for those of you who know geography, when you leave Seattle to go to wenatchee, it takes 10 minutes when in actuality it's like a four to five hour drive.
Yeah.
So yeah, now that's.
That said, if it was, if it was like normal time, I probably wouldn't love this game nearly as much as I do if I had to be like, I'm driving to Vegas, so I'm going to take 17 hours, let's go. Like, you know, oh, I'll just save here and I'll pick it back up tomorrow. Right.
Just say you could fall asleep on the floor behind your computer chair and make it really feel like a big rig.
There you go. How do you, how do you know I have a cop behind me?
I know a lot about you, so sorry.
Okay. Anyway, that's my, that's my runner up. It's, it's, it is a worthwhile game. It's, it's not the greatest game in the world. But it is a absolutely epic kind of time filler. Like, it's a casual game. You pick it up and you're like, I'm gonna go drive a. I'm gonna go do a route and it's gonna take me 20, 30 minutes. Right?
Yep. Yeah. And that's, that's totally the spirit of this episode of how we do game of the year. Press B.
Right.
It's, it's not necessarily, you know, everybody else's game of the year, one that came out this year, it's literally the game that was just something you played so much this year that you love so much, no matter the reason, and it just happens to be your game of the year. Now. I think that's a great pick.
Now my second runner up. Just kidding.
This guy. Two picks.
We get two picks. Otherwise, target angry. It gets angry at us for stealing his games.
That's why I have three. So when somebody steals mine, I have a backup.
His backups. Yeah.
No, I played a lot of truck simulator myself this year, actually. I think I picked it up at the recommendation of you Sinister. And, you know, I had to get my state, of course, so I could drive around my towns in my areas and whatnot. And I, I laughed to myself as I was cruising through, driving like a bat out of hell, going off the road, getting tickets, all that fun stuff.
Driving on Meridian and just cursing.
Yeah. You know, just be. Yeah. Being. Being stuck in the normal traffic, being like, this is great. I'm simulating my everyday life, but I'm doing it from home. So. Because as a person that had a commute that was awful for many, many moons until I got this new job, it's fitting, but there's not as much traffic in the game as there is in real life.
Right.
It's not, it's not true to form. I mean, you could probably up the slider.
But I was going to say, speaking of which, I have, I have the whole like, obstacles turned up a little bit and just, just as a total side segue, I remember one drive where I'm. You know, you use, you use the GPS tracker, right?
Yeah.
Right.
And I'm following it. It's like. And, and there's, there's. They've closed one of the exits and I'm like, oh, great. So I. And it's the exit I had to take. So I get in the left lane and I keep going. And then it tells me to take this, this turn and it basically circles me back around. And so there's So I had no way to, like, find the correct exit. So I finally drove on the. The. The. The median and took the exit on the other side.
I'm a very vocal driver when I drive in real life. So as I'm sitting in bed, planes, plane, truck simulator on my Steam deck, my wife's nodding off to sleep next to me. I, of course, get cut off by somebody. I go, what are you doing? What do you truck Waking everybody up in the house. So it's. It's very critical.
Learn to drive.
Good pick.
That's a strong pick. I enjoy that one. Thank you. And I. And I played it, so I can relate. That's a great one. Wolf, what about you, man? What is. What is your runner up for game of the year today?
Okay. I was kind of torn between two for my runner up, but I think I got to go with Outer Wilds.
Oh, okay.
I finally played through that this year. Just the base game, not the dlc, but the base game was really cool. I've read a lot of reviews that seem to put the game on a huge pedestal, and I don't think I'd go that far, but of the games I played this year, it's the second best.
Nice.
Okay, this is the one where it's like a loop, Right. There's a time loop that repeats.
Yeah. So whenever you die, it resets the. Well, most times you die, it resets the loop. If you die before you activate that mechanic, you got to start the game from the beginning. I did that once.
That's gross. The game's actually available on Amazon. I think so.
So what you're saying is you learned to beeline for the mechanic first.
Well, I didn't know that I had to activate the mechanic or where it was activated at.
So that's what I'm saying is exploring.
The town at the beginning of the game. I was like, hey, what's down this water spout? This geyser. Because it went down. So I dropped down the geyser, and then the geysers shot me back out and I flew up, like, way into the atmosphere and then fell to my death. Then had to start the game over.
Fresh, true to lunch.
Which not a whole lot different from starting over if you get the reset, except you have to sit through all the dialogue at the very beginning.
Again.
How long did this one take you to do? Because I. I've been on the fence about picking this one up. I just didn't know how. How long it would be to. To beat it.
Ah, let's See what my play time was. It was do, do, do type it in. I played this game for 33 hours.
Oh, that's. That's pretty good. That's pretty decent. Yeah.
Yeah.
And that was. I had beaten it, but I also spent a lot of time trying to find a few other things before I was done.
Now I want to point something out since we're talking about Amazon and games because Chard said it's on Amazon Games right now. I think it's on free or discount.
It's free.
If you use Heroic Launcher both either on your Steam deck or on your computer and you buy things through Heroic Launcher on the game stores that they, that they support, they get a cut. I'm just gonna say that. So it's, it's basically kind of an affiliate type of link. So they get, they get a. They get a cut.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Okay, there it is.
But yeah, Outer Wilds was really clever. And you know, my, my brother and someone else had told me that the game, you can beat the game from the beginning realistically because there's no. The. There's nothing really locked behind unlocking certain things. It's locked behind knowing how to do things. So it's your understanding of the mechanics as you progress through the game that lets you do new stuff, explore new places. And once you've unlocked the loop reset mechanic, a lot of your stuff, like if you have any, you find clues and hints and things around the world or the galaxy, I should say the solar system and, and they get saved into your ship's log. And so every reset, anything you've experienced before still gets saved because it's part of your memories, I guess.
Okay.
It plays like Fallout. Yeah. Is it kind of like a Fallout?
No, not, not Outer Worlds. Outer Wilds.
Yeah, that's why I asked. I confused those two all the damn.
I'm thinking Outer Worlds. I am so sorry.
Outer Wilds is, is a game more like mystery and that sort of thing.
Gotcha. All right. That's my confusion.
And it. Because it's very puzzle based, exploration based, but it is like it's a 3D solar system that you just jump in your ship and cruise around in. It's really neat.
Okay, right, nice.
Outer Worlds is the one that's on sale on Amazon. Not, Not Outer Wilds.
Outer Wilds different game. Outer Wilds is definitely one I wanted to check out. I might have to check it out and I like how it's that, that kind of game where once you've figured out how to play it or how to beat it. You can rush through it really quickly. It's kind of like, it kind of reminds me like a throwback to like Prince of Persia back in the day. Right. Like once you, when you're playing for the first time, you don't know where the hell to go. It's. It's definitely longer and you're exploring, but once you know how to beat the game, you can just beat the game. And that's kind of, that's kind of interesting.
Yeah. There's the thing is it's kind of hard to experience it a second time, I think.
Right.
It's. It's one of those games where the first time you get to experience the gameplay loop and like how it works and from beginning to end it, you kind of just can't match that a second time.
From what I understand the dlc, I.
Guess from what I understand, the DLC is the closest you can get to experience it for the first time again.
Okay.
But the DLC I believe, is a little more horror oriented and I'm just, I've not been ready for that just yet.
Hello?
I need, I need a new. I need a new audio sample similar to. Oh my.
That'd be good. You piece of garbage is my favorite. One of my all time favorites.
Give me the key. Give me the key.
Okay. Outer wilds. Not outer worlds. Outer wilds. Different. Ow. Not over a wild pick. Wild outerly. Wild pick. Fantastic. All right.
I remember you talking about this one. I remember you telling us about this one and I, I definitely have an interest in it. I feel like it's one of those that's like Subnautica where the first time you play it, you're like, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. And then like, you know, the story unfolds and it's, it's great. But oh man, I've tried to play Subnautica again and I'm like, yeah, I know the story like, right?
Yeah. It doesn't have the same bite as it did the original time because you're overwhelmed. Like when you first jump into that thing, you're like, what? I don't even know what the heck I'm doing.
Right.
All right. Good pick, Jake. What do you got there, brother?
Gosh, I've been flip flopping all week on what to pick for mine. There are games that I played this year.
Every game of 2024 is your pick. Can 50 games be game of the year?
All the games every year.
UFO 50.
Then yes, that's a good question.
Is that a bundle? No, not a package.
My runner up, I think is going to be Balatro, which is a game I think we're all very familiar with. I think if GP was here today, he would also say his pick is probably going to be Blotro because that game was something we all played at the start of the year. You know, mostly I played on the Steam Deck, but then it just released again toward the end of the year on mobile. And it is a perfect port of the game that I played on my Steam deck. Now my phone is a very dangerous app. I've lost my wife to this game because she's now playing it a ton, trying to get my kids involved. Like this is a fun ass game. This is the game for those. I mean, if you've been on a rock and you don't know what Blotro is, I don't know what to tell you, but go on to the IS store, Android store now and play it. It's the only like 12 app I've bought on mobile and not felt, you know, shitty afterwards. It is well worth the money. Blotro takes the, the tropes of, of casinos and, and opening of card packs from, you know, magic gathering, cards combining with poker. But it's so much more than that. It just doesn't do it justice. It's a game that is kind of hard to explain but once you start playing Balatro, you, you understand immediately what it is. And it's so good and it's so deep. There's was 150 jokers to unlock. They've been adding some new stuff lately, cosmetic stuff to it as well. It's got the same that, that just chill vibe track in the looping in the background. The overall aesthetic is very cool. The design of the jokers is just really ingenious and how they all work together. Just the idea that, you know, one joker is ripped up in a third and that and it gives you bonuses when you're playing threes. I mean the style is all over the place. It's really quite good. And it's in terms of roguelikes, this has got to be one of my top three roguelikes of all time. Like it's, it's really quite good and there's just enough progression as you play through the different rounds that I feel satisfied with it. So I don't have to win very often because I know even if I'm losing, I probably unlock the new voucher or a new deck maybe if I win. It's. There's just enough progression there that it keeps me interested. And there's still so much I haven't unlocked yet.
Right.
Like, I think my wife has gotten farther in the game than I have. That's how much she's played it. But just something of Balatro and the whole aesthetic, the music, the gameplay, utterly addicting. And then to top it off, the guy who created this game did a really great move. I'm going to call it a Chad move. He hates gambling. He's anti gambling, which is weird when you look at the game he made.
Right.
But he went so far as to write in his will, his estate, that when he dies, his family can't sell the likeness of Velatro to casinos. So we're never going to see this game exploited as a pachinko machine like Konami would love to do, or like, you know, a slot machine or, you know, was a doodle jump. I think I saw the casino the one time. We're not gonna have any of that crap with Balatro and I respect that. Flappy bird, the guy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like 3.5 million in sales of this game. He could easily take that money and ship it off to a casino and make even more and. But he's good and I can't not respect that. So for me, my runner is Balatro.
It's a great pick. I, I spent, I spent too many hours playing this as well.
Spend hours playing.
Yeah. Absolutely perfect. On the steam deck.
Yes.
The, the, the music, the music is not tiresome. It's. It's. Yeah, I, I'm with you. It's probably also in my top three roguelikes.
Easily. Yeah, easily. Actually just got past the black deck a couple nights ago, so I'm, I'm slowly inching through all the decks. It's a great game. I play it on my tv, in my bedroom when I'm trying to undecompress and go to sleep. It's a good game to kind of wind down from because there's not. There's thought, but it's not like a super thought provoking game that's required a lot of, you know, a lot of brain power. It's easy to unwind on. It's easy to just kind of forget what's going on around you kind of game. So it's really cool to the point of. Even my wife would poke, poke her head out from under the covers and go, what do you. That game looks kind of cool. I was like, I know everybody else's Wives are getting in on this. You should probably jump on board pretty good. So I don't know if I want to lose my wife to Balatro, though, so I might have to keep her at bay.
It's great too, because whenever you quit, it just comes back to that round. Like, it's just, it's great.
Yeah, you can't leave the game. Like, I have to physically shut off my Steam deck because I just keep going. Okay, just one more round. Damn it. I missed that one. One more round. Damn it. Oh, that's a bad start. One more round and I just keep pressing X and I keep starting over until three hours have gone by. I go, I have to go to work in two hours. So it's, it's one of those, it is a very addictive and very well, well created games. Was definitely, definitely a top game for me this year and well out of left field for me, so was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I enjoy it. All right, I guess that leaves me for my runner up this year. As I stated in the beginning of the, the podcast, I played a lot of games this year. I played a lot. I played Inscription. I played Bellatro, Vampire Survivors. We played Liza P. Like, there's so many games out there that even I just kind of, I just sipped from the, from the cup. I didn't, I didn't drink the whole thing, but really got committed. So this, this decision was not an easy one for these two to be made. But these two games, for what it's worth, stand out the test of time for me from 2024. And I'll start with my runner up being Horizon Zero dawn is definitely my runner up for 2024. That was my Sisyphean game for this year, and I couldn't put it down. I, I, I know the, the joke about the Sisyphean game, which we'll have a whole episode about that later, is it was games that we just kind of fell off of. But for whatever reason, this time I was locked in. I was focused. The story is incredible. I already knew the graphics were amazing because I've played, played that, you know, I've played it so many times. I really like Foreheads aside.
Foreheads aside.
Foreheads aside. Yeah, well, they fixed that with a remaster, but you know, it's J.J. abrams, the game, right? There's everything's got a lens flare attached to it. So I'm either watching new Star Trek or I'm playing Horizon Zero Dawn. It's, it's an incredible game. I I love playing it and the story just was riveting and I think that was the big selling point for me was that when I play it, I always just kind of play it as background noise and just kind of just messing around with a, you know, overworld kind of game and I'm not paying attention to what's going on around me. And then I get lost in the. The side quest stuff that don't pertain to the main story. They're just side quest things. And then I get bored and I walk away. This one I soldiered through and I played most of the main story quest to begin with and holy crap. Everything that came from, like there were realizations on stream when we were playing this together where everybody was like, oh, like there's just.
I want to comment.
Go ahead.
I want to comment on that because I watched you play it, but I want to go through this game and I want the story.
Yeah.
So I literally had your window on my side monitor so I could hear you, but I was doing other things because I knew it was going to wreck the story. So it is. So I still don't know the story. I know little snippets, but I still don't know the story.
Right. It's. It is so good. And if anybody has been. I mean, now is a good time to get it. The remaster just came out. If you're been like, if you're held up on trying to play it and something about it just hasn't clicked with you, get the remaster. Play it with the new look and the new vibe. It. They've taken a lot of chunks from like Horizon, Forbidden west and kind of meshed it into the original. I still don't exactly support making a remaster of a game that hasn't out for more than 10 years, but that's another story altogether. This game is fantastic. And if anybody is on the fence about it, I'm going to go up and push you over to the. Play this freaking game side of the fence because it needs to be played. The, the combat, the mechanics, everything's great. Play it on PC so you can use your mouse and keyboard. Make. Make shooting your bow and arrow a lot easier than. Than doing it with a. With a controller. My man. Good. Great game. Fantastic game. Fantastic story. Yeah, I love, I love a game that makes me go, oh, like this one did. And it really, really. It dug deep into my brain. And I played this in January, so I've literally thinking about this all year, that it was going to be my game. Of the year until I played my actual game of the year later on, and it still was rang so true that I needed to at least give it a shout out for this year.
I. I think there's only, for me, a handful of games that have a very unique world setting and lore. Right. Like, I think Mass Effect dsx. And then I would also consider Horizon to be that kind of game where the. The world lore is very unique, very, very much its own. And I. I feel like it has not been copied or duplicated. I feel like a lot of games, even though they may be good, that maybe their storylines are too cliche or they're too, you know, they're obviously ripping off something else. But that's not the case with Horizon. Horizon's got a very unique world and concept. Enough that I kind of wish it was a movie. Like, I would watch it as a.
Movie turning into a TV show. They've already announced it. Really? It's becoming a TV show.
I'm in then. Yeah, I'll watch that. Yeah.
I think the. The girl that plays Max from Stranger Things is going to play Aloy's character.
Oh, interesting.
Complete rumors that I've been hearing, but.
That'S gonna be a. That would be a good pick.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, man, I. I loved Zero Dawn. I think I played through that back in 2018. Oh, man, that was so much fun. That story also was just like. It starts off as just this futuristic world, like this. Well, this prehistoric slash.
Prehistoric futuristic. Yeah, exactly.
It's like, it's. It's already engrossing because you're like, how did the world get like this?
Yeah.
And as you get to dig in and reveal all that. Oh, that was so good.
Yeah.
And that's the best part about it. It's so polarizing that the humans are very prehistoric in their. In their thought processes, how they fight, how they do the hunter ford, you know, the hunter gatherer whole thing. The tribes getting together and do this. But there's giant mechanical robots walking around the world. And you're like, why? Yeah. How is this happening? And this, the way they explain the whole thing as you dive deeper and deeper in. You don't even have to read, like, all the hidden stuff that you find around the world. It is. It's exceptionally. Well, I still did.
I loved it.
I'm just saying, if you're like me and you don't like to sit and read every last damn thing, like, this is a game that Jake would absolutely adore because the lore translates fantastically. It. It Carries over really well. No, you do not have to read the item descriptions and the weapons before you ask that question. I can already see it in your eyes. It's. It's so good. It's so good.
I will, I will say after watch, I wasn't able to watch your entire playthrough, but I watched a good chunk of it. And I will say after watching one stream, I'm like, I need to know. So I went and looked up the story beats on. On the wiki and I was. I was a hair away from picking the game up to play. I just don't have the time. But if it's a TV show and they can do that, well, I'm all in. Because the story really was. Was pretty great. Quite, quite good. The idea of it being prehistoric robot dinosaurs is wild. It's crazy. I'll laugh at some of the costumes they wear because it's made of. Of the bones of these robots and I find that funny. But considering the world they've built, it makes total sense. It's just one of those weird things.
And that picture you shared, Jake. Yes. That is an actual armor set that I have seen and worn as a matter of fact.
With the dangly robot legs. Yeah. So she's got a robot chicken on.
Her head a little bit, but was that.
It was a robot chicken. Yes.
Yeah. It wasn't robot chicken.
Yes.
Seth Green. Thank you.
I charred. Regarding the bow and arrow aiming, doesn't the six axis let you like, sort of tilt the controller to aim as well?
Oh, dude. You know, I'm. I might be half Italian with how much I use my hands to talk and do things, so that's not good. That would. Because I'd. I'd be like. Oh. Like, I'd have to get used to it. I feel like I'm riding a horse like Murby Punching horses and Red Dead. I can't do it. I need the mouse. I need to have it all centralized into one hand and not the entire thing. Because if I'm fighting something, I'm fighting it. Like, I'm dodging it. This is really good. Not. Not so great for the audio listeners, but if you're, you know, he'd be.
Saying, learn to drive, but it's actually him talking about himself.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Well, what, Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero dawn came out the same week, did they? I think. I don't even. It might have been the same day, but I know it was the same week for sure.
Yeah. Murdered the sales of Zero Dawn.
Yeah. The fact that they have such similar control schemes is absolutely wild because it's. There's a similar feel between the two, and I don't know if it was inspired by at all, but Horizon does feel a little Zelda like to me. And that's not a bad thing at all.
No.
Right in my eyes. But yeah, it was.
Maybe we've got a little corporate espionage going on again.
There we go.
But yeah, the fact that you could, like, tilt the controller to aim the bow and arrow and nuance views and things like that. I was already ready for it with Breath of the Wild because it did the same thing.
Nice. Well, I mean, what the gorilla. The company, I think is Gorilla is one of the. The companies. So, yeah, Gorilla tactic to go and steal Legend of Zelda information.
There you go.
Yeah. No, Horizon Zero Down's great. I actually started. Started playing Forbidden west again on the p. On the PS5. And I was like, why did I stop playing this? This is really good. And I need to keep playing this. The battles are epic. I mean, it's cool to see the machines. Like, it's really neat to be like, what do they create? And it's almost like that's kind of the drive that brings me in more, is to be like, oh, I want to see what they created later on in the game. I want to see more robots that they've. They've designed.
The snacks. The snacks in Forbidden west, man, I.
Fought another one of those the other day and it was. It's. Those epic fights are so cool. So before I get into that one, but, yeah, Forbidden West. Great game, but Horizon Zero dawn needs to be put on your list to play. Everybody needs to check that game out. It is badass.
Yeah, perfect.
All right, let's go ahead and go back to the beginning. The alpha to my omega. Sinistar. What is your game of the year, man?
For By. For Horizon. Forbidden West.
There it is.
I'm.
Yeah.
The one you asked.
That Bardsdale at all?
Yeah, no, Horizon.
Bards Tale West.
Hang on, I gotta check. I gotta check my notes here. Oh, right. For the second year in a row, I'm picking my Sisyphean game, the Witcher 3. Epic. Epic game.
Yeah, you did play that this year. Jesus. It feels like I played that for.
Like, the first five months.
Yeah, I know.
No, I. I finished it in. I think I finished it in April. Yeah, that's.
That's one month short of what Wolf is.
Yeah, well, it did take. I did.
There were a lot of. There were a lot of MPs from Sinistar at the beginning of the year with. All right, I'm sitting down to play my Sisyphea tonight.
Yeah, well, he put it up on the Discourse so we can hang out.
Yeah, I did. I did. So my goal, my Cisfian goal. And we'll go over this in the Cisfian episode. Coming soon. Trademark I. I decided to take on an open world game, in this case, Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. And I decided not to, like, do 100% complete. I decided to complete as much as I felt like completing. Now, that said, and this is a point I wanted to make because, you know, Chard, you talked about in your horizon game how you'd get lost in the side quests. You'd get lost in the side quest and it would drag you away. One of the greatest features to Wild Hunt Witcher 3 is that the side quests almost 100% have some cool story to them. It's not, hey, you know, my son ran away. Go collect my son. Or I need 17 murloc eyes for this thing. Go collect Murloc eyes. Right? There's always, like, a backstory to it. And some of the side quests are so epic that they have, like, burned themselves into my memory. I'm going to give. I'm not going to give a spoiler, but I'm going to give, I guess, a hint of a spoiler. There is a side quest, and for those that have watched the show or played the games, everybody knows who Roaches. Roach is your horse. There is a side quest where you take a psychedelic drug and Roach starts talking to you. And it is the greatest dialogue, I think, in the whole game is Roach just. Just giving you no end of gas. Like, it is just like, you know, talking about, like, you know, the. The Witcher says at points, like, yeah, you're always missing, but you always come back. And there's an excuse for why that happens. Like, you know, like, anyway. But I also. So I did a whole bunch of side quests and then I also decided I was going to do both DLCs. And the first DLC, Heart of Stone, I actually almost bounced off of again. Like, I felt like I was like, oh, no, am I gonna. Am I gonna Mario Brothers this. This game? Am I gonna be spinning the wheel of pain 100 hours into this game? Probably 80 hours. Am I gonna be spinning the Wheel of pain after 80 hours into this game? And finally I got aft. I got past that. That part that I was about to bounce off, and I was like, oh, this. This. This DLC is, like, the lamest story ever. And by the time it had buttoned itself up and was done, you're like, holy shit, that was a cool story. So. And then you introduce Blood and Wine and Blood and Wine. I probably spent 20 hours on blood and Wine by itself. And it is one of the coolest witcher stories out there, period. And I'm not going to spoil it. I'm not going to kind of give any ending to it. But just know at the end of that, I was satisfied.
Nice.
I was absolutely satisfied. So. I know, Chard, you said this in yours. If you're on the fence, if you're going to play it, I'm going to push you over. Chard, go fucking play this game.
I know you. You and Jake have all been very adamant about how I need to fire it up, and I will play it eventually. I just. I am not ready to commit to something that's going to take me 140 hours to get through the intro to get. To get through the rest of it.
Dude.
I'm gonna play Persona 5 and get the same damn time.
Okay, well, I'm gonna tell you what's.
Up after the first three DLCs.
Sorry, Jake.
Right from the beginning, man, I'm gonna.
Sorry, Jake. I'm gonna say that wyvern part at the beginning, that first wyvern part at the beginning was the part I bounced off of so many times. And when I finally got past it. Yeah, when I finally got past it, and you end up going into the other, you know, cities in, like. Like, Skellige and all of those. Like, it. It really does open up.
Yeah.
And it's not after 100 hours. It's after, like, five. You just have to get past that first.
I've played a good chunk of it, and I think what really. I got into one of the major cities, one of the major towers. I don't think it was Skilligo yet, but I remember walking around and just seeing yellow dots everywhere for people asking for to happen. And I went, yep, I'm tired of this. I'm tired. I can't clean out my list of side Michael. It's just like a mile long. I feel like you take out the scroll and you're like, okay, what am I doing today? And it hits the floor and keeps rolling like toilet paper behind you. It's like, jesus, man, I don't have enough time for this.
No, I get that. And what I did for that, because, yeah, my quest log would be like, open it up. And what I would do is I would go do, like five or six side quests, and I'd be like, those are great stories. Okay. I'm gonna go spend a couple, you know, a little while on the main story. Right. And I'd go just lay down a main story quest or six. Right. I mean, you know, now there are points where you get diverging main story quests and you have to, like, pick. And those were a little bit of a struggle for me.
I'm like, that's the fomo. I'm like, if I do this, is it going to close all these out? And maybe I should.
Don't worry about it.
No, don't worry about it.
You can mainline that game for sure. And I think you're missing out if you don't do at least some of the monster hunting quests, because I think, like Sinister said, those are. Despite being side quests. The story and backstory is really interesting. I like the ones where you're doing witcher things. You're actually being hired for coin to go kill a monster. Because all the monsters usually have some kind of lore, a tidbit hidden somewhere on how to beat the monster. You feel like a witcher. You have to use your potions, you have to use your crossbow. You use all the tools that Geralt has. Yeah. Use your magic. You really are feeling like a witcher yourself. Like, you can't just focus on one thing. Like, there's skill trees and you can specialize, but you still have to use everything at your disposal. It's very much like why I liked Witcher 2 so much. But Witcher 3, I found was easier to get into. I'm with you. But the sheer amount of quests. But I would say don't do all of them. Just pick a few and do a few. But that story is so good. The first area where you meet the Bloody Baron, I'm not spoiling it. But when you meet the Bloody Baron and the outcome of that quest is, is there's multiple ways of doing it. They were all great. I've played through all the different ways of beating that encounter, and it just. It was heart. Heart wrenching every single time.
Yeah.
Right? The. The way the game can take what you think is the right side of history on certain quests, and then it just throws it in your face and says, no, you up. You took the bad path. Right. Like, nothing is white or black or white in. In Witcher 3, it's always gray. Right. And you have to kind of interpret, is this the Best way I could have done it, maybe. But it was. It still carries the story forward. Really great characters. Like when this episode airs. Go look at the trailer for Witcher 4 that just dropped today as we're recording this today.
That was two weeks ago.
Yeah, right.
Of course.
We're airing live.
Watch that trailer live right now. Yeah. It's CD Projekt does a hell of a good trailer. I can't wait for Witcher 4. And it's mostly because of how well Witcher 3 was done. I'm gonna say if you do play Witcher 3, like Sinistar, you have to do the DLC. I feel heart of Stone has one of the best villains ever in a game.
Yeah.
And Blood and Wine has like. I don't throw the word expansion out very often, but Blood and Wine to me feels like a classic old school expansion. Right. This is not dlc.
It gives you an entire area outside of the world that you've been playing. Like it is a new area.
So, like her dream.
It contains story too. Right? Like, it's. It's. And it's a Witcher story. It's not save the universe like the first game is. It's a self contained story that feels. That's something that would have been in a book. And I really appreciate that for sure.
Save the cheerleader, save the world. Get it?
Yep.
Watching a lot of.
Anyway, so two years in a row, my Sisyphus game is my game of the year.
It's funny. It's funny to think about because if you really like. These are games that we've been wanting to play. We've been wanting to play, and we keep falling off of them, and then we play them and finish them and we're like, these things were amazing. Why did I wait so long to do this? I'm stupid.
Last year for me was Chrono Trigger, which is arguably, like everybody's favorite. Like, old school rpg. Like, you know, for sure. Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Okay.
All right. So Witcher 3 to me is like Street Fighter 6 to Jake. I have uninstalled it already. So maybe I'll start reinstalling it again. I've. No, I'm serious. I have uninstalled it. Reinstalled it like 500 times. I put it on my Steam deck because you guys talk about it and I'm like, I'm gonna fire it up. That's taking up too much space. I want to play. I want to play Balatro.
It runs pretty good on the Steam deck. It runs pretty good on the Steam.
Deck runs great on there. Now that I've got the TV in the bedroom, maybe I will.
I mean it came out in what, 2016, I want to say 17, I think.
Yeah. Something quite a while ago. Yeah. Still holds up. Still looks great for. For a game.
Well, and it's had Xbox. It's had some. Some quality of life patches, including some graphical patches. Yeah, massive.
Yeah.
The last one they just did was like made it really beautified.
Oh, it's. It's gorgeous. I love that game though. Everything about it. Anyway.
All right. All right, Wolf.
All right. My. What is your pick? I came into this episode tonight knowing my picks would not be anybody else's picks. My game of the year is hi Fi Rush.
Nice. Really nice. Nice.
Yeah, I loved that game.
It just with a Niner snail song in it. I'm totally on board for it.
It took me back to that feel that Jet Set Radio had.
I was going to say it's Jet Set Radio in a modern day, right?
No, it's not. But the look kind of gives you that feel. But it's a rhythm based action beat em up.
Okay.
So you want to be, you know, clobbering people with your guitar at the beat of the music.
So it is a Nine Inch Nails.
Game like you do. Yeah, yeah. It's just people. I like it.
Yeah.
I think there's what, two Nine Inch Nail songs in the game.
That's what you said.
Yeah, I think it was two. Yeah.
Beautiful. So yeah, you guys did a whole episode on that. And actually after I was done listening to Jake and Wolf did on that specific game, I was kind of like that sounds really. You guys sell it really well.
One of. One of the most stylistic games I've ever seen in my life. Like just ooze style in all the best ways. Right. Like the animation quality is so good.
Yeah. The animation, like it's. It feels like you're playing a cartoon. And the. The game is. Some of the levels are kind of long, but that's because each stage gets broken up into pieces with like little bits of storytelling in the middle that are completely voice acted. Well written, well acted. Like it's. It's good.
So the part that's going through my mind since you said, you know, beat em up right. Is kick punch. It's all in the mind.
This guy. I just keep thinking a little 808 minion that you kept talking about. Little drum machine.
Yeah. A little cat.
Yeah, yeah.
When you said 808 and then char like oh That's a drum machine. I looked it up. I'm like, oh, that's clever. As.
Look at. Look at Chard knowing something about something. Wow. Hey, you know, Broken clock is right twice a day. Okay.
I was about to say it's.
Yeah. Just. It's weird, though, that the studio that made this game, they've had ups and downs, man. They got basically, they got shut down. But then what was left of the IP in the studio got bought by another company and they've hired some of the original developers back. So it sounds like we're going to get a sequel at some point to this game, which I'm happy for. Hopefully they have enough of the developers have worked on it to kind of come across to the new version of the company. I was real pissed off when that company got shut down. Like, you got a game that won awards and it got shut down, and that's really frustrating.
Two days later, Microsoft is like, well, we need to focus on properties that have awards.
Yeah. We don't have enough unique IP over here at Microsoft Studios. Like, motherfucker, you have. You have one of the most unique games in a decade and you. And you shut it down.
Do we need to have an episode on the inside ification of the games industry? Because I feel like we're there.
It's been rock for games. There's more than a few games that have won awards over the last three years, and the studio's been shut down or the team dismantled, repurposed. It's really frustrating, right?
More people working on it.
But what a great pick. This is an awesome game. And this is a game that goes on sale all the time. Like, honestly, anybody who has not played this, this is. You got to check it out.
Definitely worth your time. It's so much fun. And if you're not streaming it, because you can stream it and it has a soundtrack specifically for streamer mode soundtrack. So it's all original songs to that composer if you do that, but if you don't, you also get a bunch of licensed songs. And the songs they picked were perfect for the moments because I didn't play with streamer mode. I just played on my Steam deck.
Yeah, of course.
And it was a blast. I absolutely loved it. I loved the soundtrack. The world was just so wacky and vibrant, but for the world they built, everything just kind of made sense. And you're like, yeah, okay, I'm not.
Gonna argue with you.
No. My. My eldest actually said to me, you'd love this game. And I think it's Because I think it's. Because it has Nine Inch Nails songs in it.
Right.
But, yeah, he told me I'd love this game, so I need to. I really need to pick this up and play it.
Yeah, same. That's probably going to be on the list.
On the short list, like we just said. Horizon Zero Dawn's getting a TV show. Honestly, hi Fi. Rush should be a TV show. It could have been a. It could have been a Saturday morning cartoon as a kid. That's what it.
Yeah.
To me, the animation was such, like, that level, and the story was that good. The characters were really fun. They could have done so much more with this franchise. It's. I hope they do something now with it.
Yeah. My favorite moment in the game. And I'm not gonna go into too much detail, but it's basically, you get this moment in the game where they're. They're planning this huge operation that's gonna be a huge pain in the ass to get done, and you start the level, and they're like, wow, that was crazy. And everybody's just gushing over what the main character just did is like, man, we're never gonna see anything like that again. So you missed the whole operation. That's the gag.
That's awesome.
Nice. All right, that's going on the wish list. Fine, fine. Twist my arm.
I. I literally just clicked add to wish list right now.
All right, good pick. Good picks, guys. I'm liking this so far. I'm. I'm eagerly sitting here with bated breath, waiting to hear what Jake has selected for his Game of the Year. Because, as you all know, Running gag. Running gag with Jake is every game he plays. Might be, guys. Might just be Game of the Year. So what. What is it that has actually become Jake's Game of the Year? What have you chosen, Charlie?
Like you said, I've played so many games this year that could have been called Game of the Year, and I have been calling them Game of the Year, whether they deserve that title or not. I can't pick just one. So I'm gonna pick 50 games of the year. Okay. I am picking UFO 50, which is probably a title I. I was not expecting to play this year. I forgot it existed. I remember seeing the announcement a couple years back, but when I saw all these rave reviews, I'm like, fine, I'll go check it out. It's like 20 bucks. It's super cheap, and it is for those who don't know if you've under that rock. Again with The Blotro. Rock UFO 50 is a. It's a compilation of 50 retro inspired games. And you may think like compilation like the Action 52 as you may have played as a kid, but every single One of these 50 games is not a mini game. It's a full freaking game and they're all pretty awesome in their own way. And when I say a compilation, these games range from like. One is a deck building game called Party House where you're trying to juggle various cards into your party. Another one is a full on JRPG called Grimstone that's 20 hours to play through. It's got sports games like Bushido Blade, which is kind of like Windjammers but not. There's fake sequels to games they've made up. So you have Campanella 1, which is like a race game with this cool gravity mechanic. Campanella 2 makes it a full flesh roguelike.
Does it have tunnels?
There are a little bit of tunnel.
Yeah, it does have tunnels. 3 which is the version when they took it to 3D. But like there's Mortal, which is kind of like lemmings. But not all of them are very unique in their own way. Each game has a hook to it. It is everything I love about indie games meshing with the pixel retro style of bygone days. It's a really great, fantastic compilation. A lot of modern ideas too. I think I spent the most time probably in Pilot's Quest, which is an idle game, which is more of a concept in the modern times. But they kind of did a throwback to what it could have been on. Basically an nes, I guess. It's all brand new. It's not based on NES palette or SNES palette, it's its own thing. But they took a certain style and a music tone with the whole compilation for this made up system they called, I think the LX40 I think it was called. But on top of all the great games, and there's so many great games I could spend. I mean I think we did an episode on UFO 50, so I'm not going to rehash it here. But there's so many different unique and different games on here that I keep going back to to play. But there's also a subset of Hidden Secrets, a meta game, if you will, behind it. Not as deep as I may want, but it's still. The fact that that's built into the game is pretty awesome. I'm still finding cheat codes even today as I play through the games that you can punch into the in game terminal and they all do cool stuff. So UFO 50 is, it's a fantastic game and I don't think we're ever going to see a sequel. I don't think we'll ever get a version of this in a 16 bit style. I think the work is just too much work. I think this is a one of a kind game of the generation where you have a small, a very small team of indie devs who came together and made something really wonderful and special. And again, this is not freaking warioware. These are not mini games. There's hundreds of hours of gameplay in this compilation and I'm not even talking about unlocking the, the secrets in each one. Like it's, it's quite insane how much is here. So I think we've all played a Fair amount of UFO 50 on. On press B. If you have listened to this and you somehow have not touched it, God damn. You got to go play UFO 50. It's like 20 bucks. It is the best value in gaming, I think in five years at least. It's nuts.
I'm a Quibbler master.
Well, it's the racing one where you bet on these aliens called Quibblers. You can decide to juice them up between with drugs, but you can get caught. You lose money. Or they can die randomly during the race because you've juiced them up. Or you can, you can Tanya Harding at a competitor with a bat. Yeah, it's freaking hilarious. It's so stupid in the best.
It's really bad. You can, you can sneak all this stuff. You go talk to the guy on the side, he's like, what do you want, bub? And you basically, you either give him steroids or beat the other one up with a bat before he goes out there. It's terrible and it's so fun. That game is dumb. It's just a horse racing game with aliens. There's not a lot to it. And then you put money on them and then you watch them race. But you do terrible things to them.
You know, I wanted to get the cherry on that one so bad. Like I fought to get. I did that several times. I'm like, I was almost there. It was compelling enough to do it. I still love Barbuda, which is based on these like the era of DOS games with no music, bare bones gameplay. But I was so enthralled with Barbuda. Even if it, you move, you move fucking slow. It doesn't tell you jack shit of what you're supposed to do. But just to figure it out, I think it took me, what, eight hours or something. And it was one of the most fun games I played of the year. Forget the whole compilation. Just Barbuda on its own was a memorable experience in a game I've not played before. And I loved it. So this game is.
I don't know how you got that out of that particular game.
I clearly is also a big Barbuda fan.
I. I love what UFO 50 was, but Barbuda was. I had a much better time trying to figure out how to get through a boy and his blob on the NES as a kid than I did trying to play Barbuda and understand it now as an adult.
Crazy.
It's just so good. Yeah. But you know, the good thing is, is there's a game in there for everybody. If not. Yes, a dozen of them.
It's true.
Right?
There's.
There's my favorite. The first person horror game that you are. Like a point and click adventure horror game that you do when you're walking around.
Shadow. Good. Yeah.
Shadowgate. I like the Quibbler game because it's dumb and it's fun. I also played a lot of pilots quest 2 just because it's, you know, you idle and you go do some other games and then come back to it. There's a. There's a whole thing with, with UFO 50 and I was. It's not usually a game that I jump on board for, but I gotta say, it's got something literally for everyone. Like there's a game for Sinister, it's a game for Wolf, there's a game for me, there's a game for Jake, there's a game for gp. There's games for everybody. And there's at least. Out of all 50, there's at least three or four games that we love. They may not be the same, but we definitely love it. It taps into everybody's different style of play and it's. It's a great pick. That's a good one. Still don't know if 50 games count, but we'll let it slide for this season.
So Jake's game of the year, from what I just heard, is Barbuda. Got it.
Yeah.
I'll take it. Yeah.
I think I. Okay. I checked my achievements. I cherried five games in that.
Nice. I have yet to cherry.
I think that's more than me. I think I got three so far.
I think it says I spent 53 hours playing that game. So I. I got a lot of time in it.
More than apt to discuss.
I never found A single code. I don't know how you found so many codes. I couldn't find anything.
It's weird. Yeah, I found at least four of them just playing through.
You were like, pause the title screen. And it took me like seven times pausing the title screen to get it.
Wow, that's great.
It's a deep game. There's a lot of lore in that game. You don't even have to read the armor for that one. But I have a question for you, Sinistar.
Yes.
Did.
Did we. Remind me. Refresh my memory. Was there an episode done about Witcher 3?
Yes.
This year. Didn't you guys do one? I wasn't a part of it. I know that because I didn't want any spoilers, but I thought we discussed doing one. I don't know if we have.
So I have this problem at work where I do. Where I do, like, a task. Like I, I, you know, I do a project or whatever and then like. And I feel bad because my boss is like, hey, can you go look at this thing? And I'm like, I don't know what that is. And he's like, you wrote it. I'm like, my brain is so good at, like, task is done. Call it and get rid of it. That I. We either talked about doing a Witcher episode or we did a Witcher episode.
I'm going to confirm right now. Press B number 204. You really need to play Witcher 3 if in 2022.
Okay, good.
I knew God is labeled, right?
So seven months ago. So basically right after you beat it.
Exactly. That's what I figured. Okay, so that, that, that leads me into my segue for. For my game of the year. Unless, Jake, there's anything else you would like to add about UFO 50?
No, just UFO 50 is. Is one of the favorite games I played in many, many years. And it's definitely like one. It's a generation game. There'll be. There'll never be a one like this again. Our generation. There's no way.
It's 50 good picks. Nice.
It is 50 good picks. Until next year where we get another bundle game. And Jake's like another retro.
Didn't he? With the Atari collection.
He did with the Atari collection.
It's good.
That's good. 250 games right there too. It's great. These. These are great compilations.
And I feel bad. I feel bad.
Almost picked Tetris Forever. So I had a combination.
I had literally three runner ups because I couldn't pick one. I feel bad. I had three.
Well, you don't have 50 game in the years. So you know, get good scrub.
Don't pick between your children. You gotta love all 50 equally.
That's just the way it goes. Perfect. All right. So.
Poor wife.
Jesus. My segue into into my game of the year has to be that we have all done episodes this year on each one of our Game of the Years. We did a UFO 50 episode. We did a hi Fi Rush episode. We did a Witcher 3 episode. My game of the year is X Men 97 spoil cast that we did about the new X Men TV show. That was. No, I'm totally right with you.
That's a GP pick right there.
That would totally be a GP pick to me. My X Men for gp. No. So my game of the Year was released not too long ago, a couple weeks ago, about a month ago. Now I think about it, this game was something I was excited about. After they had discussed doing it. I was hesitant, I was tentative. I was many other adjectives that involve excited but cautiously excited about it. And when this thing hit the floor, I bought it. I bought the expanded version so I can actually play it three days before, which is not something I typically do. It was played during my favorite time of month to play these types of games. I've. It is since left me on a kick that I have yet to be able to break from for some reason. I'm talking about Erdtree. No, I'm not talking about Erdtree. I am talking about Silent Hill 2 Remake. Silent Hill 2 Remake is my game of the year for 2024. Not because it was released in 2024. Because I would have picked this three 500 years ago if this game had come out 500 years earlier. This game absolutely knocked it out of the ballpark for me. I loved the original when I played it way back in the day in 2021 or 2021, 2001. Wolf and I had a lot of laughs because the voice acting is God awful in the original one. You don't think about it in 20 2001, but when you see it again 20 something years later, you're like, God, it's cringy. It's very cringy. But it's the good basic setup for an awesome, awesome horror survival game. And Blooper took this game and did exactly what motive did to Dead Space 2 Dead Space remake for me that they did last year and knocked this out of the park. They expanded on things that were quite simplified in the first one. So basically exploring the Town in the first half has a whole storyline that goes into it that you didn't had know before. Before you were just kind of aimlessly walking around trying to figure out where you were going. This one actually, like, you go into the different grocery stores and the. The burger place and the bar and all the stuff. It's not just stuff outside of it. You're physically actually entering these locations. When you get to the main areas like the Woodbridge or Wood Creek apartments, you walk inside. I think it's a Wood Creek. I don't remember what it is, but you walk inside and it is expanded upon it. The character model designs are absolutely stunning. And I remember we were talking about the game of the Year selections that we are. The, you know, the game award selection that we did a couple weeks back. And I was gushing about, of course, Umatsu's Final Fantasy 7 Remake soundtrack. Well, I did myself a huge disservice by not sitting down and listening to the Silent Hill 2 remake soundtrack, which I have literally been stuck on at work every single day, even through all of my Christmas jazz, because it is that time of season that I put that stuff on. And I'll tell you what, that soundtrack is an absolute banger. It has taken me on trips. And the best part is, is that I finished the game. And since I beat it, I know I recognize where each song comes through. So it brings me back to that time where I was like, oh, this is where we meet Maria. This is where we meet Laura. This is where we meet Eddie. This is. This is where we see Pyramid Head. Like, it takes me back on that adventure through Silent Hill 2 Remake. I couldn't love this game anymore. There's. I was so hesitant that I thought this game was going to come out like absolute hot garbage. I didn't care for the models. When I first saw it, I was very like, I don't know what they're going to do with this. But from start to finish, man, there are so many Easter eggs in this game. They didn't just carbon copy and clean it up. They took their own designs and put their own things into it. So the prison is a completely different layout than the original.
The.
The fight scene with like Pyramid Head in the first one is an Easter egg you find later on. All the stuff that you find in the original game are just Easter eggs hidden on. So they'll have the location of when something happens and it'll pause and it'll show you, like, what it looks like now. But you're like, oh, that's like, that's Maria's costume. We had a whole lot. There's a whole joke about Maria holding up the costume from the original and her saying stuff like, you know, I bet you think I'd look pretty good in this, right? You know, they just call back to a lot of different old stuff and expand and expand and expand. I think we beat the OG Silent Hill in five hours and it took me roughly 25 to 30, I think, to beat the new one. So, you know, when they're like, we're going to sell this game to you for 50 bucks as a remake, I'm like, that's a hard sell. But I'll tell you what, it was worth every extra penny that I put into buying that game. And I would gladly replay that game again. It's got really good replay value on there. The different innings that you could do, the fight scenes that they improved upon. It wasn't just tank controls being eliminated. It was so much more of a gut wrenching story and reliving James's decision. No spoilers for anybody who wants to, wants to play it themselves or don't know anything about it or just go listen to our episode about Silent Hill 2 remake. I can't gush about this game any more than I haven't in two episodes already. This game was absolutely incredible. You know me, guys, I love my horror Survivor games and this just hit it right on the head. So Chard, Monk's pick of the year. Silent Hill 2 remake. Fantastic game.
It's a, it's a great pick. I watched you play through it, most of it and absolutely it's, it, it. It takes that feeling of desolation that is part of Silent Hill and takes it to that next tier. You know, just like the Dead. Just like the Dead Space remake which takes that, that Ishimura desolation and takes it to that next tier. Right? I mean.
Yep.
Yeah, like there's been a few, there's been a few remakes of remasters over the last couple of years. Some have been shitty and some have been great, but this is the, this is what you want in a remake. This is the way you do it. When I saw Blooper Team, I seen Blooper Team get a lot of flak over the last few years. I wasn't quite sure. I know Capcom's had huge success with what they did for Resident Evil. I wasn't sure if Konami could do that because Konami is kind of a weird company right now. But it seems they, they sent that IP to the right Hands Blooper team really did knock out the park. And that's exactly the kind of remake you want to see. It takes the original, the sphere of the original and just updates it in a modern format with a whole lot more. It's not like Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Not to bitch on that game, but that game was not what I wanted it to be.
Right.
Silent Hill remake is so much better. It's more true to the original.
Hey, they didn't exactly. They didn't turn it into three games.
Right?
But I mean, but on top of that with. And not again, I'm not going to try and dump on it either. But 77 remake is more like. I don't know. It's. There's, there's. They went so far off the reservation from what the original was doing that it was almost too much. But it always felt like they were trying to keep it in the same vein with Silent Hill remake. And in that Space Dead Space remake they stayed true to the original but added flair. They didn't go like, we can't decide on whether we want this make us our thing or keep it the same thing. They made it every amalgamation.
It's an amalgamation.
Thank you. It's exactly. It's a really good mixing pot of everything. And I just worried, I was so worried that I was gonna be like, I'm gonna beat this in five hours. I spent 50 bucks on this damn thing. And it just kept going. Like it just kept on going and kept on going. And I went, oh my God. And, and it's fun to be like, oh, hey, there's the, the old puzzle that I solved from the first one smashed in a corner. But it's still there to represent. Hey, just so you know, this stuff is still around. You know, we, we are going to keep, keep the nostalgia for you and I. You know, I love a good nostalgia bomb and these guys just, just crushed it for me. So big, big win, big win on this one. I think I picked. Did I pick Dead Space last year too for my, for my game of the year. So that's back to back remakes that I picked for my game of the years. Oh God, Shard, you're really losing your edge at your old age.
You can't about the game awards ever again.
I hope her tree wins. So I hope. I'm sure tree won because the game awards happened three weeks ago.
We know that our tree won.
I totally did.
So we got Charred picking remakes. We got Sinistar pick and Sisypheans we got Jake pick and compilations.
Yeah, what do you.
What was my pick last year?
I bet it better be a musically induced beat em up.
Wasn't it TI Rush? Was it Breath of the Wild?
Was it Tears of the Kingdom?
Of the Kingdom? Maybe.
I don't remember if it was that or if that was my runner up.
Yeah, guys, we don't have.
We gotta. We gotta write this down, guys.
Yeah, yeah.
We need to get a spreadsheet. That's what we need to do. Tracking the games.
We.
We talk about more spreadsheets. I love my spreadsheets.
Well, we have our game of the Year spreadsheet.
We could just add them to press B to Excel.
Yeah.
Give one quick honorable mention. I'll keep it really short. So I really, really want to speak on compilations. I really want to have Tetris forever be a game of the Year pick for me or runner up. I love digital clips, docu games. I talk about them all the damn time. But like, when we look at the history of Tetris and how it came to be, the whole communist government and the Infiltration Nintendo and then buddy, the. The publisher in between, the whole story is compelling. It's great. It's awesome. Materials and interviews they compiled together. There's the. The first game emulated on the electronica 60 in there. But when we talk about the history of Tetris, the three most important games of that franchise were always the original NES game, the Game Boy one, and then the Tenjin Tetris. Right. Because we had that whole rights battle between Tenjin Tetris on the NES and then the one from Nintendo. All three of those games aren't in the compilation. And I understand why. It's a mix of money, licensing and legality. I get it. But for this compilation, the story being told, referencing those three games you can't fucking play is really aggravating. There's Hatris, but there's no original Tetris. They give you a lot of great games on the compilation, like Tetris Battle Gaiden is there. It's fantastic. There's a Tetris 2, which I never played before, also fantastic. But not having those three games kind of ruins as a compilation or at least takes it a game of the year running for me. And I was very disappointed to see that because the documentary stuff is great and there's stuff that I did not know. You learned something about the history of this game, the company that built it, the creator of the game. That game is so worth playing, like just to experience It. But it's. It's not strong enough to be giving the year without those three titles. And it's very frustrating. But I really did like Tetris. Tetris forever.
Well, I have an honorable mention, too, that I want to throw out.
Fine.
So my honorable mention is Grand Theft Forza five. Not Forza five. Not Forza five. Grand Theft Forza five. So on Wednesdays, I play games with my cousins and brothers and we play Forza. And we found that there's a bridge that's kind of high up, and we found that you can push off the computer cars at high speeds. And here's the reason it's an honorable mention is we started doing this, and now, because you're always online, other people have seen us doing this and they join us. It is now a Wednesday evening in America time event where people, like, we start pushing cars off, and all of a sudden other people come and start pushing cars off. It's great. So grand theft forza 5.
That's pretty funny.
Are we all doing one more bridge?
So they'll play with your three?
We're gonna close this thing out with Jay Wolf. You got one because I got one.
I do. I got one because I was hit one between the two.
Looks like we're. Looks like we're doing three games. Jake, we are ragging real quick.
My honorable mention is Spiritfall, which is. Okay, it's a Roguelite. Um, it works a lot like Hades, except it's a 2D platformer that plays kind of like Smash Brothers. So. But you choose, like, you work through the map, choose what challenge room you want to take on, get your goodies, win the fight, move on, find a shop, things like that. So it's.
That sounds cool.
It's built like Hades, but it plays like Smash Brothers in that you have, like. It's literally got, like. It's not called a smash button, but it's got the smash ability that you can, like, quickly tap with the analog stick or charge with the actual buttons.
Certainly would smash.
Nice.
Perfect.
Had a lot of fun with that one.
All right, our last honorable mention.
Last honorable mention. This one. This one blew my mind. It was something that I was kind of very like, I don't like these kinds of games. I don't think I'm going to enjoy this. And then it ended up being, like, one of the coolest things we played this year. And I gotta go with Inscription Daniel Mullins. Crazy, crazy mind of Daniel Mullins, who did. Oh, God, I love that game. And I can't Think of it off the top of my head. Pony Island. Thank you.
Pony Island.
Yeah, he's. He's. He's the. The guy that did Pony island, which Pony Island 2 is coming out here probably next year. It's a wacky card building deck building game where you play against somebody like Magic the Gathering, essentially, but it's so much more than that. It's not just a card game. There's things around your area to help you escape this trapped room that you're in with this psychotic dude. And then when you get out, there's more and there's more, and it just keeps going deeper and deeper. And you know, Daniel Mullins, Danny Mullins is going to take you on a ride with anything that he has designed or he produced. And this is nothing short of an amazing game. Inscription is so much more than what it actually is on its surface. So if you're like, I don't know about deck building games, I am not a deck building player. I don't care for those types of games. This is so much more than that. Go check that one out. Shout out to Inscription.
That's the tagline. It's so much more than you think it is. Like, it really is something else. It's real good, too. I thought we played that this year, actually. Yeah, that was good. Yep.
Yeah, that was a fun one. I played through that one last year. Well, I had to beat it, I think this at the beginning of this year. But we did near the end. Yeah, I looked into it. By the way, my game of the year last year was control.
Oh, okay.
Which I finished this year.
Yeah.
Was that not your Sisyphean game last year?
No, I don't think so.
Okay. Look at us trying to reminisce.
I don't remember.
It's a good game.
Well, I'm gonna. I'm just gonna call out. GP's game of the year is Final Fantasy 7 Remake Revisited.
Remastered.
Yeah. Revisited. Remastered. Rewind.
Yeah.
Seriously, I bet you he would have picked the latro. I guarantee a lot. Yep. Yeah.
Well, gp, if you watch this, we miss you. Come back, gp, come back.
Hi, gp.
Gp, come back.
You can blame it all on sin wow. Jake was wrong and we just can't live without you Anyways, that's how we get everybody in the song together. Perfect. All right, well, that's a good way to end this fantastic episode. What do you think?
Like, subscribe, Tell your friends.
Yeah, yeah.
Where they can find us and also who we're affiliated with.
Holy. Can I get to that. Guys, this is not the first time I've hosted this.
It's been a while.
And subscribe and comment on things. If there's a game that you think should have won a better whatever you feel like talked about it, go over to Discord, join us on Discord, tell us how bad we are at our jobs because we love to hear about that. Also go check us out on super podcast, Super Pod Network.
Network.
Network. That's it. Superpod Network.com you can find us over there. We're part of a great group of podcasters and really cool people. You find us there. You find some other fantastic podcasts over there as well. Find us press b2cancel.com as well as press b.org because that's how cool we are. If you got a game of the year that you think should have made it on here, too bad because we didn't play it or we didn't like it. So with that, I would like to say Felice Navidad, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Merry Christmas, Happy Yule, Happy New Year. And into all a good.