Press B 182: The Game Awards 2023

You've heard us say it more than once; 2023 goes down as one of the greatest years for gaming. From dead franchises reborn, niche genres now booming, and even remasters no one asked for; suddenly becoming critic darlings. The Game Awards are a decade old now, and we've been fans as they've grown. Sure it's cliché like any awards show, but it's still fun to pick at the nominees and declare our favorites.

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00:00 --> 00:00 You.
00:01 --> 00:39 It's a wonder that this game doesn't have more nominations. The Game award is 2023, according to Press B Today on Presbyter. Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Press Be to cancel. I'm your host this week, Sick Jake, and I'm joined by two friends of mine, Chard, how you doing this week? Good.
00:39 --> 00:46 I was trying to get my puppies to not talk over the intro, so. Sounds like we were successful, young.
00:47 --> 00:52 It's okay. That's what post is for. And also joined by Werewolf. How are you doing this week, Wolf?
00:54 --> 00:58 Happy to be out of the bed, walking around a little more than I was. It's nice.
00:58 --> 01:02 Yeah. We're glad to have you back because I know you've been out for a number of weeks.
01:02 --> 01:13 For those unfamiliar, I messed up my left foot and that messed up my right knee. And so I've been hobbling around like a drunken toddler, which I was told today by the wife that that should not be a point of reference. But.
01:16 --> 01:18 If the shoe fits, man.
01:19 --> 01:29 Look, if somebody doesn't make a podcast with a drunken toddler audience, then what are we even doing, right? We got to cater to all our audiences. We got to spread that wooden net wide.
01:29 --> 01:33 I thought that was my pool. I thought that's what brought me on here.
01:34 --> 01:37 Many drunken toddlers in your pool chart? Is that a thing?
01:37 --> 01:38 Apparently.
01:38 --> 02:36 Okay. Wow. Way off track. All right, I want to get right into this week's episode because it's going to be a big one. I'm a big fan of the Game awards. I know award shows. I get it. I know they're cheesy. They're subjective, whatever. They're still fun. And the guy running the game awards for the last ten years and even before that is Jeff Keeley. And I love the Game awards. I love the lead up to it, the hype. I love the companies get nominated. I love the whole damn thing. And it's particularly exciting this year because there's so many damn good games. We've been saying, I think almost every other episode on Presby, there's so many good games to play. I don't have time to play them all. There's just so many. All those games that were in the works and were got delayed because of 2020. We all know why all came out this year, and it's packed. And I almost feel bad for the future versions of Presby next year because 2024 might be a little bit dry. We might be more focused on retro as is on brand next year because most of the games have come out this year.
02:36 --> 02:49 Listen, I need a break. I need a break from some awesome goddamn games that have come out this year. And I just think the 2024 for me is going to be reviewing the last half of 2023.
02:49 --> 02:50 Catch up.
02:50 --> 02:55 Yeah. Too much good stuff. It's like Amp, man.
02:55 --> 03:19 There is a ton of lens. So what we want to do is they did announce the nominees on Monday and so this is the Friday. So we wanted to just talk about them like we did last year, me and Char, but now we got Wolf because he's also interested in this stuff, too. Just want to talk about the nominations. There's some controversy over one particular category. What do we think there's anything missing? Do we think it's wildly off base and there's no Elden ring this year, so maybe the conversation is a little bit easier.
03:19 --> 03:20 I don't even know what I'm doing.
03:21 --> 03:31 Well, before we jump into it, I would like to say that if you think back on just about any year of the Game awards, they tend to get dominated by one game.
03:31 --> 03:40 Yeah, I think we're seeing it. I mean, I've been kind of perusing the nominees and I think we're going to be talking about one quite a bit.
03:40 --> 03:48 I have not looked at any of the nominees yet. I was waiting until tonight, but maybe.
03:48 --> 03:49 It'S a good thing you're laid out.
03:52 --> 03:56 Last year was what Eldon ring dominated it. Right.
03:56 --> 03:58 It got as it should have.
03:58 --> 04:12 And if you remember, Tears of the Kingdom won a ton, even Best soundtrack, which was kind of weird because the music, you don't really notice it in Breath of the Wild. Not Tears of the Kingdom. Breath of the Wild.
04:12 --> 04:13 Right.
04:13 --> 04:24 So, yeah, in 2017. Yeah, there's a couple of good tracks in the game that I absolutely love, but for the most part, the game was just like little piano notes here and there, right?
04:24 --> 04:25 Yeah.
04:28 --> 04:28 Exactly.
04:28 --> 04:32 When you get chased by something, it sounds like a cat or a puppy, like.
04:34 --> 04:38 Yeah. And it's not obnoxious. It's not bad. But I wouldn't call it best soundtrack.
04:38 --> 04:40 Right. Yeah.
04:40 --> 04:48 But I expect tears of the kingdom to kind of jump and pounce on a ton of awards this year as of right now.
04:48 --> 05:10 Okay. I don't want to spoil it because I've been kind of knee deep into the social media of seeing what people's reactions were to it. So we're going to go through category by category and you'll be surprised, I think, Chard, you know, a few of these already. We'll kind of just get everybody's takes around the table for each of the categories, at least the categories that matter to us. I don't think any of us give a damn about esports. I'm sorry for those people who are into it. It's just really not, I don't think our thing.
05:10 --> 05:12 Yeah, it's not our gig, and that's fine.
05:13 --> 05:19 We're here to talk about just the gaming categories, really, not the esports and creator categories.
05:20 --> 05:50 And they added quite a few more categories related to esports. So we'll start from the bottom. I think that makes the most sense because game of the year is the last one, so we're not going to do the esports like best esports coach. It's okay. I don't think so. Athlete, content creator, most anticipated game. So this is the weird category. This is almost like which game commercial are you most excited for? Do you guys want to look at this one? This is her best upcoming game that's not out yet.
05:50 --> 05:51 It's like most patient, right?
05:51 --> 05:52 Anticipated.
05:52 --> 05:52 Yeah.
05:54 --> 05:56 Because all my anticipated games have come out this year.
05:57 --> 06:01 I can go off on a tangent on one of these if we want to.
06:02 --> 06:25 Okay, so I have guesses for this. I don't have guesses for everything because some I just don't care to, or I wasn't informed enough. But for most anticipated, I have four guesses as to what's on the list, obviously. Final FF seven R two. So rebirth, whatever I figure that's on there. Infinite wealth. Is that on there? It is like a dragon.
06:25 --> 06:26 I'm looking at them right now.
06:26 --> 06:27 Let me pull it up.
06:27 --> 06:28 I got it pulled up.
06:29 --> 06:31 I thought this is the subject we were starting on.
06:32 --> 06:40 Yeah. So most anticipated game. I haven't opened it yet for people watching and listening, so I haven't named what's on there. So if you want to give your guesses, and then we'll pull it up and then.
06:40 --> 06:46 I don't know if a Mario RPG qualifies for this or if it counts as 2023. I'm not sure how that works.
06:46 --> 06:59 So the cut off date is November 17. So Mario RPG came out on the day. Technically, I think it doesn't count this year, but it could next year. Although by the time we get to next year, I don't think it's going to get anything.
06:59 --> 07:00 So that's a shame.
07:00 --> 07:01 Four bars.
07:02 --> 07:04 Spoiler. It shouldn't.
07:05 --> 07:07 Alone in the dark is my last guess.
07:07 --> 07:11 Okay, so let's pull it up and then charge. I'll let you give you a rant.
07:11 --> 07:16 Well, I was going to say I got them already pulled up. I can read them off if you want to. I'm looking right at them.
07:16 --> 07:18 Sure. Okay. You read them off. I got them on the screen, folks.
07:18 --> 07:36 So, Wolf, you had Final Fantasy rebirth. Correct. You had like a dragon. Infinite wealth. Also correct. The other three games that are on here are Hades two, really Star wars outlaws.
07:36 --> 07:37 Okay.
07:37 --> 07:42 And Tekken eight are the five most anticipated games coming up accordingly.
07:42 --> 07:45 Get a new Tekken. Or is this still the same Tekken that's on the.
07:45 --> 07:48 This is the same one that's on the horizon. I don't think we got a new one yet.
07:48 --> 08:40 Yeah, Tekken seven came out a few years ago. I think it had a bit of a renaissance, though, because the fighting game scene has kind of exploded over the last year. We've been very fortunate to get Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, but we also had a resurgence in Tekken players as well as other games. So fighting game scene has kind of picked up. And Tekken was like a go to for a lot of folks. I even tried Tekken seven for a bit to see what it was like. But it does seem like a lot of folks are really looking forward to Tekken eight. Not my kind of game. It's a bit slow, but I get it. I just want to mention Hades two, though. I am definitely hyped for Hades Two. Hades one is one of my favorite games. Super giant games. Even if you just like listening to the soundtrack because they always kill it on the music. It's always amazing. But I'm curious to see what they do for the gameplay because Hades one, pretty all around solid game and I'm not sure what else they can bring to the table to improve it.
08:41 --> 08:47 I'm curious as to what the Star Wars Outlaw is going to be about. I don't know much. Or if anything about that. If what kind of.
08:47 --> 08:48 Yeah, I've not even heard of that.
08:51 --> 09:04 Han Solo. You're basically Han Solo kind of role. And I heard it's a bit more open world because that's Ubisoft's thing, is open world Action games. So I think it's Ubisoft's style of open world games, but they got the Star wars license, so it could be interesting.
09:05 --> 09:09 Is it going to be on the same vein as Star Cry? Right?
09:11 --> 09:15 More like watchdogs. I think. If anything it'd be like watchdogs or Assassin's Creed.
09:15 --> 09:28 I was going to ask if it's still got that feel for the last two that just came out. Jedi Survivor. Like, is it going to have that kind of feel to it. Just you're. Now that was EA respawn.
09:28 --> 09:38 I think it was. So, yeah, it's going to be a different feel. I guarantee you it's going to be Watchdogs feel, but it's Star wars themed and that's not bad. I mean, who knows?
09:38 --> 09:54 I like watchdogs. That's a good game. Like a dragon. I've heard nothing but good things about the first RPG based LEM. Oh, help me out here. The game that it's based off of like a dragon. Well, no, it's like a dragon, but it's the Yakuza.
09:54 --> 09:55 Thank you.
09:55 --> 09:56 That's the Yakuza?
09:56 --> 10:02 Yeah. Well, I mean, it's always been called like a dragon in Japan. It's just we finally got there.
10:02 --> 10:03 Okay.
10:03 --> 10:10 They didn't think, yeah, it's basically Yagaza Eight.
10:10 --> 10:11 Okay.
10:11 --> 10:59 Right. But the thing to keep in mind is this series, it's a new protagonist, like they brought in in the last one. And the style of the game is different. It's very much a JRPG and it's a lot of callbacks and Easter eggs based on JRPGs. I never finished the first game. I really should finish it. I did like the beginning of it. One of your party members is a homeless guy and he's the mage, he's the wizard of your party. And his spells are like making pigeons fly out as an attack spell or taking a swig of whiskey and making a spell of fire. That's the kind of game it is. It's very weird. Probably not very PC, but it is a fun one, though. The combat is actually really good. I heard it was very. The main protagonist is a bit of a dork and I do like him quite a bit.
10:59 --> 11:15 Well, to be fair, the whole Yakuza franchise, like a dragon franchise, has been kind of wacky amidst very serious storylines. There's a lot of wackiness. It does the game favors. I'm not going to say it's unwanted.
11:16 --> 11:24 Yeah, Hades two is great. And we only have a couple of hours, so I'm just going to say Final Fantasy. You know how I feel about Final Fantasy Seven and this whole fucking thing.
11:24 --> 11:26 I didn't even finish the first one.
11:26 --> 11:41 Yeah, but I get it. I understand why people are hyped for it. It's going to be huge, and that's fine, but it's probably not my thing too. I will probably want to check it out when it's completely done. Ten years from now when you could.
11:41 --> 11:43 Buy Final Fantasy Seven, the complete set.
11:44 --> 11:50 The complete saga exactly. Complete saga. Rebirth remixed. RFR. Four fifths of the third or something.
11:50 --> 11:50 Renaissance.
11:51 --> 12:05 That's what they're going to do. Recompiled. Best adaption is where they take a video game and it's been brought into another media. So, like a movie or a TV show. Do you guys want to look at that one?
12:05 --> 12:12 Yeah, I've got guesses for this one, too. First off, let me start with this. Last of us better fucking win this year.
12:13 --> 12:15 It's that simple, right?
12:15 --> 12:16 Fair.
12:16 --> 12:18 I still haven't seen the show.
12:19 --> 12:20 Oh, it's so good.
12:20 --> 12:22 I know. I got to play the game.
12:22 --> 12:29 The Super Mario movie just has to be on there. Twisted Metal. Please tell me Twisted Metal made the list.
12:30 --> 12:31 You're on there.
12:31 --> 12:40 It's better than it seems, I swear. And then I guessed five Nights at Freddy's movie and Castlevania Nocturn. Something.
12:40 --> 12:41 Nocturne origin.
12:42 --> 12:43 You missed one.
12:43 --> 12:45 Oh, there were no, no.
12:45 --> 12:46 Read them off. Chard.
12:46 --> 12:56 You gotta swap one for the other. Castlevania Nocturn, the Last of Us. Mario movie, Twisted Metal and Gran Tourismo.
12:57 --> 13:04 Which I didn't even know that was a thing until two days ago. I was like, they made a Grand Tourismo movie.
13:04 --> 13:15 I didn't know it was out yet. I kind of want to see it. I heard it was okay. But if you were to take a list of video games that I think would be great for movies. Grant Turismo is definitely not on that list.
13:15 --> 13:24 Go watch the Fast and Furious and go away. I don't understand how that could be an adaptation of anything.
13:24 --> 13:42 I think the idea was they recruited video game players in a tournament or something, and they scooped them out to be race car drivers. I think that was literally the plot of this movie. And that just. Maybe this is what video games movies are, though, right?
13:42 --> 13:42 I'm out.
13:43 --> 13:53 Yeah, I'm out. I'll Netflix it. Twisted Metal. I know, Wolf, you said Twisted Metal. You really like that one. It's campy, it's weird, but it's good, right?
13:53 --> 14:12 Yeah, it rides the whole wave of emotions. It's very serious and sad and angsty at points. And then there's points where it's just laugh a minute, right? It goes back and forth that it's great. And basically, if Sweet tooth's in the episode, you know it's going to be a fun one, right.
14:12 --> 14:17 They got Will Arnett for the voice, right? For Sweet Tooth. I think I love him. Yeah, he's good.
14:18 --> 14:43 And then there are a couple of really somber episodes where they explore sort of the history of some of the characters and even exploring the history of Sweet Tooth was a little dark and messed up. They did a good job with everything I felt like. And I'm really looking forward to season two because then it'll actually be. And I hope this isn't a spoiler, because the first season of Twisted Metal is not the competition, but season two should be.
14:44 --> 14:48 Oh, interesting. Okay. Didn't realize that season one is an.
14:48 --> 14:52 Introduction to the world itself and a number of characters.
14:53 --> 14:54 Got you.
14:54 --> 15:04 Interesting. I do have to watch that. I think for a lot of these. I haven't seen any of these. The only thing I saw was the Super Mary Brothers movie, which was a good movie.
15:06 --> 15:34 From what I've heard from the last of us, it's going to be good. And I'm excited to actually. I have to watch it. I've been trying to play the game so that I can understand the references, but time is just not easy to get underneath me right now. One of these days I'll finish it up. I have it. I've been playing it on my PlayStation Five, but I just can't find the time to sit down and play it for more than a couple of hours.
15:36 --> 15:54 Yeah, same. I want to play it. I just don't have the time. But I mean, the show was always interesting to me. I've seen clips of it. I know Sinistar, one of other hosts, he raved about it as well as you, Wolf. And I mean, Pedro Pascal is a great actor. I love him. He's great. I can't see them picking anybody. The winner is going to be last of us. It has to be.
15:54 --> 16:35 It has to be. Another good example of this is my wife is not a gamer and she saw most of these with me. Right. So we watched the Mario movie. She thought it was good. It wasn't anything amazing to her, but she thought it was good. She loved the Last of Us, particularly episode three, but she loved the Last of Us. And episode three is the Bill. Episode five nights she was out. I know that's not on the list, but she was out. So I don't think she'd care about Grand Tourismo. Twisted Metal. She enjoyed. She quite enjoyed it, but she thought last of us was better. And Castlevania.
16:38 --> 16:39 The other anime, is really good.
16:41 --> 17:24 The first Castlevania series was great, but if you remember, the first season was just four episodes, and it kind of took some time to ramp up. This time, the first season is eight episodes, and it takes the eight episodes to really ramp up like it ramps up at the same pace spread out across eight episodes instead of four, so it's a slower ramp. But they did some cool rocks. You know, one of the bosses from Symphony of the night, they made him an Aztecan vampire instead of just whatever. And he's important. They did some neat stuff, like Zeust Belmont from Harmony of Dissonance, the one I hate the most. He was in it. So they did some neat stuff because it makes a little bit of sense that juiced would be in it at some point.
17:24 --> 17:30 I'll be honest with you, I'm surprised to not see cyberpunk edge runner on here.
17:30 --> 17:33 Edge runners came out last year, September last year.
17:33 --> 17:36 Oh, is it that old? It seems like it's so new.
17:36 --> 17:37 Wow.
17:37 --> 17:42 I just finished it this week and it was awesome. I loved it. I was glued to that show. That was awesome.
17:42 --> 17:47 I got that one when you were watching it. I was like, when did that one come out? September last year.
17:47 --> 17:48 That's why. Interesting. Okay.
17:48 --> 17:51 Really surprised to see it. And that makes sense why.
17:51 --> 18:00 Yep. All right, so, yeah, it's going to be last of us has to be. Okay. So moving on to next category is best multiplayer. Any guess? Wolf?
18:00 --> 18:02 I think Mario Wonder's on here. That's my only guess.
18:03 --> 18:09 Okay. I would never have guessed it to be on here, but, yeah, you're right, it is on there. Do you want to read off the rest chart?
18:09 --> 18:21 Yes, I got it. So Bulgers Gate three, Diablo four, party Animals and Street Fighter six on top of Super Mario Wonder.
18:24 --> 18:29 But Street Fighter Six is only two players at a time, right? Or did they introduce that open world?
18:29 --> 18:33 It's an open world multi game where you run around the world.
18:35 --> 20:00 Okay, hold on. I played it. It's an open world single player campaign. Yes. And in there, there's also a battle hub, which is the multiplayer arena system. And in the multiplayer arena, you can run around and see other players and challenge players. There's arcade machines to sit down at and you can play each other at the machines in a real match, or you can play final fight together or something like crap like that. So it is neat, but it's mostly. Yes, it's a Street fighter. It's a one on one. That's the multiplayer aspect to it. It's great because it's Rollback net code and it's quite responsive. There isn't much in the way of lag. Things run pretty well. There's been a big problem with some fighters recently not using Rollback Netcode, which is that lower latency. Somebody else can explain it better than me, but Rollback is the way to go for fighting games and there's been some prominent releases in the last few years that didn't have it, even though it was kind of established. Like, this is what players want for online play, especially with the pandemic. You're trying to play games online like you try and play Smash online. I gave up because it's just ridiculously bad online. But if it had rollback, it would be a lot better. That's why people started playing melee quite a bit for a period because some fans implemented Rollback net code into a client to play it that way. So Street Fire Six has it from the get go. A lot of fun. Characters are returning, the graphics are great, the music is great. It's got a really fun, interesting vibe. It's not gritty and dark at all. I'm not going to call it cheerful, but it's a very vibrant.
20:00 --> 20:03 It's bright, yeah. Vibrant, yeah. That's the best way.
20:03 --> 21:37 Like the graffiti styles in effect. So I mean, it's a fun game, but I don't think I would give it the award. What I'm surprised about is Diablo Four being put down here for multiplayer. My complaint, I had a few complaints about Diablo Four, multiplayer was one of them. In Diablo Three, if you wanted to just join a group of randoms to play, totally easy to do. You can't do that. In Diablo Four. It's online. It's always online. But they deliberately made it a design decision to make. The overworld that you're traversing sparse of players. When you're in a village or town, you'll see a couple of people, but it's very, very sparse and few and far between. It doesn't feel like there's a lot of players playing with you. Even if there are thousands playing. The only time you see other players is after you've beaten the game. You unlock world bosses and then during world bosses for a couple of minutes, you'll see a dozen players or so, maybe more. But after the world boss is dead, everybody kind of goes off their own direction and you never see them again. You don't remember names, you don't really make friends. There's no voice chat, there's no contact. You don't make any connections with people. They might as well be random NPCs. Whereas Diablo Three, I mean, I remember people's names, therE's chat involved. I would say hi, the people help out. None of that. In this game. The only way you get multiplayer in this is with friends. But I mean, there's so many other games. I would rather play multiplayer with friends. I'd rather play, like, guild wars or I would rather play Path of Exile or Shredder's Revenge with you guys. There's so many other games better than Diablo Four. I feel like that's such a waste of a pick for this category.
21:38 --> 21:42 I still feel like we still need to do a Balder's Gate thing with all of us.
21:42 --> 21:43 We do. Yeah.
21:44 --> 22:15 My only issue. I know, right. I didn't play Diablo Four because honestly, I barely put any time into Diablo Three, so that was just a bad investment in general. But Street Fighter Six is a weird pick. I don't think of two player, like one on one as multiplayer. I feel like three people or more have to be able to play together or against one another to qualify. And that's just how I think.
22:16 --> 22:16 Right.
22:16 --> 22:31 No, that makes sense. That makes sense. I feel like the true multiplayer game on here probably would only be party animals, which I don't know enough about it to really support that. But I mean, you're right. I mean, Balder's Gate, is that a mobile game?
22:31 --> 22:34 No, it's like a Gang beast clone if you play Gangbeast.
22:35 --> 22:37 Yeah, it's like the goofy animation.
22:38 --> 22:41 I wanted to play it, but I never did. Yeah.
22:42 --> 22:42 Okay.
22:44 --> 23:06 I mean, Balder's Gate could possibly be on there, but I know that when you play multiplayer with somebody, you're committed to that world, regardless if that person's there or not. They're like, in your party and they stick around whether they're playing it or not. And then Mario Wonder, I mean, you're playing together. You would know best Wolf, because you actually played it with wife Wolf and the kids.
23:06 --> 23:07 No, I didn't.
23:08 --> 23:10 I thought you played it at his family.
23:10 --> 23:11 I played it with my kids.
23:12 --> 23:15 It's a demo, but you still played it.
23:15 --> 23:21 That was kind of fun, but it was like a rush job because we were just trying to experience as much as possible in 15 minutes.
23:21 --> 23:21 Right.
23:22 --> 26:10 I think this got nominated not for the local co op play, although that can be fun. But my kids kind of burnt out on it that this game was actually. They consider this one too hard. They rather play 3D land or 3D world instead. Because I've asked them about it, they didn't really care for it. I played a lot of this. This probably got nominated because of the online multiplayer. And it's weird because you're not actually joining a lobby or joining a group or joining friends online, although I guess you could. It's more that you turn it on and when you join a map or a level, you get matched with random players online and they're kind of ghosts in the background, but they are there, they are live. And where it became interesting was for me there's a couple of stages, there's a couple of puzzle stages where you have to find these coins, I think it is, and I couldn't figure it out, so I turned on multiplayer and joined a match to get in the game again. And the other players are there trying to mime with the basic emails that you have to show you where the coins are. You're working together to try and solve the stage. That was really cool. The other aspect is as an online player you can leave a standee, like a picture of yourself which you can spawn off of if you die. So I think before the big recorded chart you mentioned that you were playing Mary Wonder, you've beaten it, which is great, and that there's a couple of special stages that are difficult. I got through them with the multiplayer and maybe that's a cop out, but whatever, I'll take it because that's part of the game. There's a stage where you're a goomba and you have to kind of like meld your solid, your way through a freaking level. It's very difficult and at the end of it you have to kind of traverse these bubbles to get to the end. And me and like two or three other players, when I was going through it, we were on that stage, it felt like forever. We get to the end all through the level. We're like dropping standees. So the first person who makes a pass, an obstacle drops a standee. The other two, if they die, can spawn and get past it. We were working together through the entire stage for a good five minutes. It felt like, get to the end, we see the goal, we're trying to traverse the bubbles, we're dying multiple times. None of us can do it. And then I sacrifice myself to help one of them get across, thinking, yes, he's going to help me, he's going to drop a standee, but what does he do? Dips. He goes to the goal and dips the other player, he makes it across. Surely Daisy, you're going to help Daisy, right? You're not going to leave? No, they leave. Both those son of a bitches left me alone at the end of the stage and I couldn't get past it. It took me another twelve tries, like another 30 minutes to get through that stage. But when I finished it, I'm like, that was an experience I've never had before. That was a pretty awesome feeling kind of afterwards. But it's an interesting scenario that you don't see in games online. It's a novel aspect. It's different. It's weird. It's very Nintendo online. I think this is probably why I got nominated. I think it might actually win for how unique it is, but I don't know.
26:11 --> 26:18 I don't feel like there's any of these games except for maybe party animals as like a true multiplayer type game on here.
26:18 --> 26:38 Yeah. Like balls. Gate three kind of replicates the tabletop experience with your buddies. I know a coworker of mine. He's beaten it like twice now with his friends. I don't know how he's had the time for that, but he's done it. But I mean, that's why we want to try it because it'd be really fun. To play something like this with you guys and just mess our personality together.
26:38 --> 26:52 Would be freaking awesome. We'd have too much fun with this. It's just maybe shame it's not like a two hour game like turtles was. We burned through that pretty quickly, but we had a blast doing it.
26:52 --> 26:54 Do we have 200 hours free to do this together?
26:57 --> 26:58 We'll figure it out.
26:58 --> 27:05 I don't know. We'll figure it out. All right. Best sports and racing game. Do you want to look at these? Best sports and racing.
27:06 --> 27:07 Forza.
27:07 --> 27:13 I mean, we can go over it. I don't think I had any guests for this at all, but yeah, it's.
27:13 --> 27:28 Got to be Forza. I didn't even look at it. Let me see. EA Sports FC 24. I think that's their post FIFA football game. It looks like it. F 123. So f one racing Fourza motorsport, of course. Hot wheels unleash two turbocharged.
27:28 --> 27:30 Oh, interesting crew.
27:30 --> 27:34 They brought the crew back. Interesting. And the crew. Oh, I heard they brought the crew back.
27:34 --> 27:36 Yeah, that's right. The crew. Motor fest.
27:36 --> 27:41 Yeah. A lot of racing. I don't know. I don't have a stake in this race.
27:41 --> 28:11 I know Star is him and brother play Forza Five or whichever Forz is out. One of the more popular Forzas together, like on their video game Wednesday, church night. They invited me to come and play it with them. I haven't had a chance to do it because they do it on Wednesday. But I goofed around with it and it seemed pretty cool. There's some cool expansions and stuff on there, but it's still a racing game. It's beautiful. It's absolutely stunning. Just not my cup of tea.
28:12 --> 28:29 If you ever pay for Game pass, Force is on there. All the Microsoft titles are there. And to play that on Game pass, just to see the graphic fidelity, it is jaw dropping how amazing that game looks. It's a very pretty looking game. And it's been like that since the 360 days. It's always been a nice looking graphics engine. Always.
28:29 --> 28:30 Yeah.
28:30 --> 28:50 Running it on the PC looks absolutely spectacular. And you're driving around, I guess you're in Mexico or in that kind of area, and you go through different environments. You go through the jungle and there's deserts and oceans and all this stuff. So there's a lot of different terrains and it really pops when you're driving through the areas. It's really kind of cool for what it is.
28:51 --> 28:56 All right, best Sim or strategy? Best Sim or strategy.
28:56 --> 29:01 This is another one that I had no guesses for. Yeah, I guess I should have had.
29:01 --> 29:05 Two, but I know one on here that the other ones.
29:05 --> 29:13 Okay, how about we pull it up and you read them all? Because I think if City Skylines Two is on here, I'm going to throw a chair because that game, I will not launch.
29:13 --> 29:22 Well, yeah. Why don't you just sit down, Jake, and just calm down. I was going to give you warning. You go for it, Wolf.
29:22 --> 29:22 You got.
29:22 --> 29:33 All right, we got advanced Wars One and two reboot camp. Why was that wave of the arms?
29:34 --> 29:38 I looked at the list. I spoiled myself. I'd looked at the list. Keep going. Keep reading them off.
29:38 --> 29:40 Okay. City Skylights two.
29:41 --> 29:42 It can't be there.
29:42 --> 29:50 Company of Heroes Three, Fire Emblem Engage and Pikmin Four.
29:51 --> 29:52 Sure.
29:52 --> 29:56 What is Fire Emblem engage? Is that a mobile game, I think.
29:56 --> 29:59 No, it's the mobile game, but it is the newer Fire Emblem.
29:59 --> 30:03 Yeah. It's basically the successor to three houses.
30:03 --> 30:05 Yeah. Okay.
30:05 --> 30:12 I know everybody was freaking out about this one coming out because it's been, what, several? Correct me if I'm wrong, but several years since the fire element came out.
30:12 --> 30:15 No, three houses came out, like two years ago.
30:15 --> 30:21 Did it really came out in 2018? I want to say no.
30:21 --> 30:24 Not that long ago. Was it? Shit.
30:24 --> 30:25 Mind Palace.
30:26 --> 30:27 Yeah.
30:27 --> 30:32 The way is explained, 2019. Okay. I moved to Washington.
30:32 --> 30:33 That's four years ago.
30:33 --> 30:35 I must have been seeing trailers while I was down in California.
30:36 --> 31:36 So the way it's explained to me was that three houses was great. I played it. The story was actually good for a tactical RPG. Everybody says that the combat is better than engage, but Engage's story is nowhere near as good as three houses. So I don't know. So here's why. I don't like City Skylines too. I like City Skyline. The first one, yeah. But the second one it launched, it feels like half finished, unpolished. Right. I don't even think it has mod support, like Steam Workshop support, which is a big part of the first game. But you have a city and the performance issues. Like I've seen people play it on Twitch and it tanks. I know it's slim pickings, but this is like a C tier game right now. I know two years from now it's going to be amazing. It's going to have all kinds of add ons and stuff. It'll be great. But released right now, it does not feel like it hangs on a game of the year type of list. Right. Or at least in this category. That's disappointing to me.
31:38 --> 31:42 I don't even know what City Skylines two is.
31:43 --> 31:48 It's like a Sim City game. When Es Rid of Sim City, these guys came in.
31:48 --> 31:49 Yeah, got you.
31:49 --> 32:03 Yeah. When the Sim City always online single player game came out back in like 2013 or whatever or 2012, something like that. City Skylines came out not too long after and just kicked its ass.
32:03 --> 32:04 Nice. Yeah.
32:05 --> 32:25 You and Sinister were talking about Paradox Interactive, I believe, and relating them to cyber or CD Red project, like in the similar vein of they release stuff and then they will undoubtedly get together and repair anything that's wrong with it or upgrade it as it goes through. If I remember that discussion.
32:26 --> 32:37 Yeah, most of the games, they do get a lot of patches post release and then that's fine. But yeah. Pikmin four. Have you guys played any of the Pikmin games? I never did, but I know I.
32:37 --> 32:40 Played an earlier Pikmin, I think one.
32:40 --> 32:47 I played one and two and I enjoyed them. Okay, four looks fun. Just not fun enough for me to want to buy it.
32:47 --> 32:48 Yeah.
32:49 --> 32:50 Fair. Yeah.
32:50 --> 33:02 Especially this year. Yeah. Something tells me Pikmin Four is going to win it just because Skylines is not released in a great state. Fire Emblem engaged didn't have as good reviews as three houses.
33:02 --> 33:05 Reboot Camp Kind of lost its hype.
33:06 --> 33:10 Yeah. Came out a year after it was done.
33:11 --> 33:13 Weren't you excited about this one, Wolf?
33:13 --> 33:15 I was like a year and a half ago.
33:16 --> 33:17 Yeah.
33:18 --> 33:36 Have we been together? They stopped and I mean, they delayed it because of the whole Russia incursion in Ukraine thing. It would have been bad timing in that regard. I get it. But seeing as it got delayed a year, I kind of lost my excitement for it in that time. I'm like, just go back and play a GBA one, right?
33:37 --> 33:37 Yeah.
33:37 --> 33:38 It's the same game.
33:38 --> 33:45 I bet you it goes to Pikmin. I think people are going to pick Pikmin, and that'll be kind of a weird pick for this category. But I don't see anything else.
33:46 --> 33:51 I just want to point out. Doesn't it seem a little weird that Nintendo has 40% of this category?
33:52 --> 33:53 No.
33:53 --> 33:55 60% of this category?
33:55 --> 33:56 No, it doesn't.
33:57 --> 34:05 Well, has there anybody any real time, like, real time strategy games released recently? There's an Age of Empires.
34:05 --> 34:09 Age of Empires. Two HD collection or something.
34:10 --> 34:13 But that's just a reboot. Yeah, or like a remaster or whatever.
34:13 --> 34:17 Not even a reboot. It's like a remaster of a remaster.
34:17 --> 34:18 Right.
34:21 --> 34:22 Came out, like five years ago.
34:22 --> 34:24 So it's fucking Skyrim.
34:25 --> 34:25 Yeah.
34:25 --> 34:27 All right, sweet.
34:29 --> 34:36 Interesting category. I mean, we'll see what they do with this one, but I don't know. Yeah. All right, well, so we got best family.
34:36 --> 34:39 My only guess for that was Mario Wonder.
34:40 --> 34:44 Yeah. Who wants to read them off? You want to read them off? Chard?
34:44 --> 35:05 Yeah, I'll get it. Disney Illusion island, party animals. It looks dull. It's got that weird animation to it. Party animals, Pikmin, four sonic superstars, and Super Mario Brothers Wonder.
35:05 --> 35:13 I wasn't sure if superstars would make the list. That's why I didn't guess, like, all the reviews are like, yeah, it's all right.
35:14 --> 35:20 Yeah, it's okay. It's okay. Like, Game of the Year or Game Awards. Good.
35:21 --> 35:26 I need a sound bite of wolf saying, that game is terrible. At some point in my life.
35:27 --> 35:28 Oh, my God.
35:28 --> 35:28 I got passion.
35:28 --> 35:40 Play it at Nintendo Live. And my kid and I were just so bored for ten minutes. We were the most bored we were all day. It was more boring than waiting in line.
35:41 --> 35:42 Damn.
35:42 --> 35:43 Really?
35:44 --> 35:44 Yes.
35:45 --> 35:45 Okay.
35:49 --> 35:57 Your taste is awful, but that's a game for, like, three year old and dad wanting to play a game with his three year old.
35:58 --> 36:04 No, I mean, I did that with Mario with my to. I don't need a game specifically meant for mean.
36:04 --> 36:10 Well, because it's a Metrovania game with no combat. It's literally just exploration and platforming.
36:10 --> 36:11 Oh, gross.
36:11 --> 36:17 So it's just platforming and exploring. That's kind of lame fun.
36:17 --> 36:17 Not a fan of that.
36:17 --> 36:26 Okay. All right. That's not what I thought it would be because there's lots of great Mickey games over the years. Like, the 16 bit content had a bunch of them.
36:26 --> 36:38 Given the 2D Disney platformers of the past, I was like, okay, a Mickey shorts animation style Metroidvania Disney game. Okay, this should be interesting.
36:41 --> 37:10 Anything with Mickey and illusion was a pretty popular pick. I love Castle of Illusion. That's one of my favorite Mickey inspired games for the Sega Genesis. Castle of Illusion is freaking awesome. I love that game. So I just assume when they say Illusion Island, I was like, oh, it's like an expansion with other stuff. But that's the extent of what I know. I don't know much else about it other than Wolf freaking hates it. So that sounds like a good turning point for me.
37:10 --> 37:12 I'll never wear it.
37:14 --> 37:30 Just sits on the shelf. I don't know about this one. Sonic Superstars. Superstars. I'm with you, Wolf. The reviews were not bad, but I don't see, like, if it makes this list, then this is a pretty slim year for family games. I guess that's kind of bizarre.
37:30 --> 37:36 But, I mean, there were Sonic games on the PSP and it gives me the vibe of those games.
37:38 --> 37:38 Okay.
37:38 --> 37:40 Trying to remember what they were.
37:40 --> 37:40 They.
37:40 --> 37:41 Sonic Rush.
37:43 --> 37:44 Were the PSP.
37:45 --> 37:48 Yeah. What was it? Yeah. Sonic rivals.
37:48 --> 37:49 Rivals.
37:49 --> 37:50 Okay. Yeah.
37:52 --> 38:03 Like, looking at it gives me Sonic Rivals vibes. And I think I had Sonic rivals one at one point, and I was kind of bored. So I didn't play much more of.
38:04 --> 38:37 Like, when I think of games that I play with my kids the most this year on the Switch, for example, it was mostly tears of the kingdom. They just loved doing the Shrines. The Shrine puzzles were the big thing for them. They loved doing those. I couldn't even do most of them. Either my wife was doing them or the kids were taking it from my hand, the controller, to play them. They liked the Shrines a lot. They liked building things. The combat was maybe not necessarily family oriented, but all the puzzles, the Shrines were really great. So Mario wonder. Like I said, my kids just burned off it. It was just too hard. Even with Yoshi and Navit, they just found it too.
38:39 --> 38:57 Category regarding Disney Illusion Island. Another slap at it. I'm sorry, but my kid was more interested in watching me play control during a conversation sequence on my steam deck than he was in playing Disney Illusion Island.
38:57 --> 39:06 So big selling point. Big selling point. That just means good.
39:06 --> 39:10 Like, if you're not jumping on the heads of an enemy, then what's the point that seems.
39:10 --> 39:12 Or throwing apples? I mean, what the fuck?
39:12 --> 39:19 Yeah. I mean, it doesn't be violent. As a Disney game, we get it, but it has to be something besides exploring. We don't want Mario is missing.
39:19 --> 39:23 No, give a lad in the Scimitar to have him slash at people. Fuck that.
39:26 --> 39:39 Just no blood. Just knife them. It's no blood. All right, next up we got best fighting game. It was a banger of a year for fighting games. I don't know. I know two games are on this list.
39:39 --> 39:40 Yeah, Street Fighter.
39:40 --> 39:48 It's got to be hard to fill the category out. Yeah, but what else is there in this list? Let's take a look. All right. Do you want to read these ones?
39:48 --> 39:49 Yeah, I'll read these ones.
39:49 --> 39:49 Okay.
39:49 --> 39:51 I have no horse in this race whatsoever.
39:52 --> 39:52 Yeah, same.
39:52 --> 39:57 We got God of rock. What the hell is that?
39:58 --> 39:59 It's a game.
39:59 --> 40:00 That one been selected.
40:02 --> 40:13 Mortal Kombat one. Nickelodeon All Star brawl Two that just came out. Pocket Bravery and Street Fighter Six.
40:13 --> 40:17 Pocket Bravery sounds like Sinistar's high school nickname.
40:17 --> 40:21 I can't tell you which one's going to win, but I can tell you three losers.
40:23 --> 41:04 So the first All Stars brawl. The only thing notable about that game to me is that the first game came out like two years ago and it launched without voice acting and it was a huge problem. And they patched it in later when it actually made money. And now it feels like they've done a sequel and it's just a cash grab to me. The other game just came out two years ago. Not even there is room in the genre to a platform fighting game. There is room for something that has solid online that can take out Smash because Smash online sucks. I want a game that's like Smash but can play online. But, man, Nickelodeon is not the kind of characters I really care about. But Jake, even if they do have Cora.
41:04 --> 41:10 But Jake, you can play as Garfield the fat.
41:10 --> 41:10 Oh, boy.
41:11 --> 41:15 Sonya Cat is in all Star brawl, too. Right?
41:15 --> 41:16 Next.
41:16 --> 41:19 I don't need Rocco from Rocco's modern life.
41:20 --> 41:23 Holy shit. Ninja Turtles are.
41:26 --> 41:33 Aang's in there. The Airbender, leT's guess. So now they're just trying.
41:36 --> 41:38 Is it a fighting rhythm game?
41:38 --> 41:42 Listen, they put Sifu in best fighting game last year, and we both were.
41:43 --> 41:52 Very adamant that's exactly what it is. Chard. Sifu was a fighting game last year and there's no way that's a fighting game. It was like a single player adventure or something, right?
41:52 --> 42:00 Exactly what it was. It's like a 3D street brawler with souls like tendencies. It was not a fighting game.
42:00 --> 42:04 Yeah, it's a versus rhythm game with health bars.
42:06 --> 42:07 Gross.
42:07 --> 43:03 How is that? It's going to be MK Street Fair Six. I have not played moral combat one yet, although I would like to, but I think it's two different styles. Right? Moral combat. NetherRealm Studios has been killing it on the single player stories. The story people are actually interested in, in a fighting game, which is kind of wild to say in the last couple of years. I want to play for the story. I don't give a shit about the combat itself. Street Fighter Six I was into. I did buy that one. I love playing. It was really good. They brought in a modern control style layout to bring more people in who are maybe fans or new to the genre. The open world single player. It's kind of boring. Not going to lie, it's fun for a couple of hours, then it gets kind of boring. But it's definitely a unique risk that they took adding something like that into fighting game, especially Street Fighter. And I think that gets points, but I think gameplay wise, it's probably going to be Street Fighter Six. Even if Morocco One plays good, I think story alone is what made that stand out.
43:03 --> 43:10 Either could be the winner. It really just depends on whether more modal combat fans vote or street Fighter fans vote.
43:10 --> 43:17 Honestly, I've heard more positive stuff out of Street Fighter Six than I have about Mortal Kombat. So I would hang my hat on the Street Fighter Six.
43:17 --> 43:21 I have not really heard much negative about either. And by much, I mean any.
43:23 --> 43:29 All right, next up we got best RPG. This is a good category. There's a bunch of RPGs.
43:29 --> 43:36 Here we go. Now we're getting in the good stuff. Now I'm actually torn on this one. I'm not really.
43:36 --> 43:45 Balder's Gate three and CSR has got to be on here. I'm not sure what else. Maybe octopath, but I don't think so. I don't know.
43:46 --> 43:47 Okay, let's see.
43:47 --> 44:07 I'll read your resident RPG enthusiast, Balders. Gate three, Final Fantasy 16, Lies of P, which I don't really agree with that. I don't agree with that. Steve Stars and Starfield are.
44:07 --> 44:09 The. Starfield got a nomination.
44:09 --> 44:11 I didn't know that it did.
44:11 --> 44:16 It made it. Good job, Starfield. Good job. You're not going to win, but good job, Liza.
44:16 --> 44:16 P.
44:18 --> 44:32 It's an RPG. It's a souls like, but it's still an RPG. You're still leveling up stats, you're still role playing. I mean, if Final Fantasy 16 is going to be in here, that's the other complaint.
44:32 --> 44:37 I have to be in here. Why is Final Fantasy 16 here? Is that even an RPG anymore?
44:37 --> 45:06 Yes, it is an RPG. You're playing the role of a character and it's very heavily story driven. I love 16, but there are bits and pieces of 16 that take it out of my favorite and it's the goddamn fetch quests that they throw in there which pisses me off. See a stars from fucking start to finish. And I know Jake. I'm not going to get into it with Jake because I know his feelings about it. But Wolf and I share the same.
45:06 --> 45:08 Feelings about I fell in love with this game.
45:08 --> 45:55 It is incredible. And I finished it a couple of weeks ago, probably about a month ago, and the hits just kept on coming. It just kept getting better and better and better. And then I beat it the first time and then I went back and did a few extra things and did some cool shit with that too. And we did the messenger stuff. Then I saw the correlations between the messenger characters and stuff that was in there. It was really freaking cool. I'm sad to say that CSArs isn't popular enough to get to like a game of the year kind of status because of all the other major companies with their Game of the year stuff. But this, for me personally, is easily the Game of the year for me, even though it's probably not even on there.
45:55 --> 46:06 I suspect it will at least get Indie Game of the Year from Game awards, and I do think it has a fighting chance in best RPG, as it should.
46:06 --> 46:31 It is incredible. This is my favorite game out of this entire setup. It is the one RPG out of these groups that I've played. I played a demo of Liza P, which was cool. I didn't play Starfield because I wasn't super interested in it, but out of the other four, Sea of Stars easily ranks above all of these guys just because it was so perfectly well done for me as an RPG.
46:31 --> 47:37 Starfield. I played a few hours of Starfield. It's not good. I mean, it's fine. It's that studios games, but that's a game where two years from now on, Best ongoing Game or Best Community Sport category for the Game awards in 2026. You're going to see Starfield win that I'm guaranteeing you. And I will be excited to say the game is good at that point, but right now in its current state, forget it. Don't even bother. It's fine. CSRS, I mean, as an indie game, getting nominated for this category is a huge freaking high five. I would love to see it actually win this category because it's nice when an indie game follows through on what they did. I may not like the game, but I definitely understand how it's good and why you guys like it and its influences, and it's pulling from. Obviously, it's the spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger in many ways. In some ways, it even pulled in some of the stuff from area RPG, which is cool. So if it wins, I'd be happy to see that win. I'm always happy to see an indie game rise above the indie category, because what the hell is an indie category? But we'll get to that ball as Gate three, though, is Ballasgate Three is really fucking amazing.
47:38 --> 47:45 I honestly think Balder's Gate will take it, but I would not be upset if Sea of Stars took it.
47:46 --> 47:59 My only concern is if it doesn't get it, then I think Balder's Gate three will get Game of the year. If Balls Gate three is not getting Game of the Year, then I see it getting Best RPG, but I don't think it gets king, if that makes sense.
48:00 --> 48:00 Yeah.
48:00 --> 48:01 Think so?
48:01 --> 49:42 Which one? I wish I could gush about Final Fantasy 16. There are so many cool things in 16. The fighting and the boss fights and the fighting with the Edelons and all of that crap. The story is really good. It's very in depth, but they do some good things to allow you to follow it. But it feels like there's section in between each major story point that is filler, and it feels like filler. And I get so annoyed because they did the same thing with Final Fantasy Seven remake where it was like, there's this lull in between story turning events, and they just fill it with like, go and find me seeds. Go and find me this. Go and find this person that's lost. It's like, no, you did this awesome, epic battle with Titan and it was huge, and it was just amazing. Then I got to go find Berry seeds after that. Dude, I'm still coming down from this fight. Don't send me to go do fetch quests, man. Not in an RPG. Just keep the story going. Why do we have to have all this filler and all this crap in there? And it doesn't feel like when you do fetch quests or you do story stuff and say, I don't know. I don't want to say Sea of Stars because there's not a lot of fetch quests, but there is like, go out and find things like the Conchells and shit like that. But that doesn't feel like a fetch quest. Like Cyberpunk. Like, if you do something in cyberpunk and you go get a fetch quest. You usually get some cool gear out of it, right? You get some cool armor. You get Mantis arm blades or something.
49:42 --> 49:47 You get a neat gun or a cool attachment or whatever you get in 16.
49:47 --> 49:51 I don't feel like I get anything cool. I just get experience.
49:51 --> 49:52 You get story.
49:52 --> 49:58 Yeah, but it's not even story. It's like not even relevant to what's going on at the time.
49:59 --> 50:00 You get a thanks for the berries.
50:00 --> 50:26 Yeah, basically it's like, hey, cool, now we can make sunflowers in our spaceship. And you're like, why did that fucking have to happen? It just upsets me so much because the outer core of this game is so badass, but there's little pieces of it that are just. There's too much of it. And it makes me sad because I was hoping this year I was going to be gushing about 16 and it killed it.
50:26 --> 51:03 You explained why I didn't like Seven Remake is because of the side quest. The side quests were boring. I didn't like the fetch. I mean, you got story and some. You get a handful of money and it was really boring to me. It feels to me like Square is kind of not sure what to do with Final Fantasy anymore. It's clear they don't want to do the JRPG anymore, and that's fine, but they haven't committed to the whole idea of making it a straight up action game. I think they should just make it an action game if that's what they want to do. Make it stand up to Horizon Zero dawn, make it an Assassin's Creed competitor, they should just embrace that at this point and it's good. The battles I saw you play were epic.
51:04 --> 52:18 And if they lean into that side of it, and I know the purists are going to be like, well, this ain't mine. And they're already arguing about that. It's already happening. If you just lean into the action RPG side of it and you just turn it into, like you said, horizon Zero dawn or Assassin's Creed or Dark Souls or whatever and just lean into that and just commit to it, it's going to be good. Do a devil may cry spin off the action team did the fighting scenes for Devil May Cry. It's cool, it's fun, but don't add MMO elements of having to go do fetch Quest shit just for XP and maybe a few items that you might be able to put into a better weapon or something. It's more annoying to me than like, yeah, I got to go do this. If I want to grab that and it's just going to sit there and that little fucking exclamation point hovers over the character every time I see it. And then I start having my OCD of like, I got to finish it, I got to clear it out and I hate it. I feel like I waste 2030 minutes doing fetch quests and then I can get back into the good part of the story. I've done so many fetch quests, I forget what the fuck's going on in the story. And I don't feel like doing the Game of Thrones thing.
52:18 --> 52:18 So.
52:18 --> 52:20 Sorry, I didn't mean to go on a tangent about that.
52:20 --> 52:41 No, I have not played it. I don't have a PlayStation. I wish it was on PC, so I could have given it a go, but I probably would have not have liked it. Just like you, it feels like it's probably the next evolution of what the franchise is going to be over what found final seven remake was. And I'm not opposed to that, but it just doesn't seem like it committed.
52:41 --> 53:01 Yeah, just got to commit. You got to lean into it and commit to it because it's great. Everything else about it is fantastic. The artwork, the fights. Everything else is great. But there's too much fluff. Too much fluff to really make me sell it. It's still a great game. I would advise anybody to give it a try and play it and see what you think. But it's just so much fluff in that fucking game.
53:02 --> 53:14 All right, let's look at the next category. The next two categories. I always have trouble telling them apart. It's Best actionadventure game. Keeping in mind there's also another category, Best Action game.
53:14 --> 53:15 Yeah.
53:17 --> 53:20 We have too many action games. Let's separate them out.
53:20 --> 53:35 I feel like Best Action adventure is probably going to have Tears of the kingdom, Horizon, Zero Dawn, God of War. Maybe Spiderman. Spiderman could end up in action. I'm not sure. Let's find out. There it is.
53:37 --> 53:38 Read them off. Go ahead.
53:38 --> 53:49 All right, we got Legends of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, Star Wars, Jedi Survivor, Resident Evil Four, Spiderman Two, and Alan Wake Two.
53:51 --> 54:50 I'm so excited for Alan. I am so excited for Alan Wake Two. I have to wait for Christmas to get it because it's on my goddamn Christmas list. But I want to dive into this game so bad. I freaking love Alan Wake story, at least the first one. I did not play American Nightmare because it didn't get a lot of good reviews. But I've played it. This was a game that Rogue sat down and watched me play because of the way it lays out. It plays out like a TV show. Like every chapter in the game is the next episode. And they do this whole thing where it's like, on the last episode and it does like a review of what happened, and then it bleeds into the next set and it just plays so well. And I've heard nothing, absolutely nothing bad about Alan Wake Two and how absolutely spectacular this game is. And I'm so hyped for it that I will be very sad if it does not answer any of my expectations because I didn't know what.
54:50 --> 55:04 Because that game just came out. It just came out last week and it's on the game awards. So it's better to be released, I guess, a week before than a week after. Because if this was going to be not eligible this year, but next year, it probably wouldn't get anything next year, right?
55:05 --> 55:36 This had a lot of anticipation for Alan Wake, too. Alan Wake's got a pretty deep cult following. And when they announced it, I was like, they're finally doing something with it. And I thought it was going to be, you know, whatever, Microsoft Remedy games, do your thing. And then it turned out to be this fucking, like, I don't even know if my computer can run it. Like, spectacular is what they're talking know, I got a pretty decent PC, so I'm a little worried that I'm not going to be able to play it to the level that it can be played at.
55:40 --> 56:02 It's going to be interesting to see. I think this is going to be another category where there's a lot of games that's nominated for this category that are likely on the Game of the Year category. And I feel like whichever one doesn't win the Game of the year will likely scoop up this category. When I think action adventure, I think the definition of action adventure is probably Zelda. But Spiderman Two, I've heard a lot of great.
56:02 --> 57:02 I think Spiderman Two would have a similar vein on Zelda because it is open world. It's explorative, it's action packed. You've played the first ones or whatever. I think the new Marvel Spiderman for PS Four and PS five came out. I'm playing Miles Morales right now is epic. And they've added my favorite antiherovillain into Spiderman Two. Finally, you guys know me. I'm a Huge Spiderman nerd. So very. As you can see, venom behind me right there and carnage. Get your ping. Go cards out, pointing at thOse. Um, I'm very excited to play this because I love the way that they've designed the Spider man game and give you the freedom to just go around and do all the collection things, the assassin crate thing, you know, where you collect all the shit, get all the stuff. I'm interested to see, because it's supposed to be two or better than one kind of deal and how they're going to flip flop between Miles Morales and Peter Parker Spider man in this version. I'm interested to see how that plays out.
57:02 --> 57:13 Yeah, I really want to play that one. But my guess for what's going to take it, and you keep saying, like, if it doesn't get Game of the year, it'll get this category. It can get both categories. It's not unlikely.
57:13 --> 57:14 Right?
57:16 --> 57:17 The reason I say that, though. Go ahead.
57:17 --> 57:19 Okay, go ahead. No, go ahead.
57:20 --> 57:52 The reason I say that, though, is because the winners are determined by 90% of this is games media outlets voting on it, and they get a cue card and they go through their list and they pick the winners. And I just feel like a lot of games media people are like, well, this is the game of the year, but this one is also really good. So at the very least, I'm going to give it best RPG or best action adventure. That's my thinking. I could be totally wrong. Maybe they'll have a game that sweeps a bunch of categories, but I feel like this particular category is one of the big ones and I don't think they would do a double win.
57:52 --> 58:00 But can you imagine if Alan Wade action adventure and action and wins both of them? You'd be like, fuck you, man.
58:01 --> 58:33 Falls into one subcategory. But they all have the potential to be Game of the year. Like I said, breath of the Wild won Best Action Adventure and Game of the year in 2017. I think Tears of the Kingdom is likely to do that this year because, one, it gave people the most time to get to know it, first off. And it had probably the biggest and most broad appeal and an install base. Jedi Survivor, you said it was good, but I wanted to try it and I didn't.
58:33 --> 58:33 Right.
58:33 --> 58:42 Spiderman Two is currently limited to just the PS fiVe, so an even smaller install base. Alan, wake two just came out a week ago.
58:42 --> 58:44 Yeah, and it's on Epic.
58:44 --> 58:51 And Resident Evil Four is a remake. I don't expect a remake from 20 years ago to take it.
58:51 --> 59:10 It's good, though. It's a good remake. But I agree with you. No, I absolutely agree with you. It's going to be the redheaded stepchild in this category, unfortunately, which is a shame because it's a good remake. But we still argue about. Well, I argue about remakes being allowed to win awards after they've been out.
59:10 --> 59:20 I don't have any qualms with that. I am completely happy with the nominations in this selection. I just think they don't stand a chance to Tears of the kingdom as it is.
59:20 --> 59:21 That's fair.
59:21 --> 59:38 When we look at the definition of the category, best action Adventure game, combining combat with traversal and puzzle solving, to me, that screams tears of the kingdom. I mean, that game is literally combat, exploration and puzzles. It's not narrative, it's not story. It's just those three things.
59:38 --> 59:48 I mean, Spiderman has combat puzzles and traversal. It does. It does have puzzles that you do. Puzles, Resident Evil four. Combat, traversal with puzzles.
59:48 --> 59:49 Yes.
59:49 --> 01:00:19 So I don't know. I could see that. I could see that. And I would probably agree with you that it would probably win this category because it has the strongest resume of all of those things put together compared to these other ones. So I am not the biggest tears of the Kingdom breath of the Wild fan. There are things about it I don't care for, but I'm not going to not give it the credit that it's due. It is quite popular.
01:00:22 --> 01:00:26 All right, moving on to best action.
01:00:27 --> 01:00:29 And none of the predictions were in this one.
01:00:31 --> 01:00:35 I had no predictions for this category, and I guess I should have had at least one.
01:00:36 --> 01:00:38 I'm pumped one's in here that I'm excited to vote for.
01:00:38 --> 01:00:41 Yeah, I'm guessing that's armored core Six.
01:00:41 --> 01:00:42 You got it?
01:00:42 --> 01:00:43 Got it, baby.
01:00:43 --> 01:00:47 Ed, island two is in here, which I haven't heard squat about.
01:00:48 --> 01:00:51 I haven't heard anything positive about it. I heard it came out pretty janky.
01:00:51 --> 01:01:06 Okay, so let's read them off. Okay. Here, I'll read this one. Armored Corps six, Fires of Verbicon, Dead Island Two. Ghost Runner two. No idea. Hi Fi Rush I've heard a lot about. And remnant Two. Ghost Runner is cool. Souls, like.
01:01:06 --> 01:01:12 Yeah, remnant two is like. It's like a Souls like type game. Ghost Runner Two is pretty cool. Ghost Runner.
01:01:12 --> 01:01:16 I know people were pretty hyped for Ghost Runner, too, because Ghost Runner did really well, if I remember.
01:01:16 --> 01:01:28 Ghost Runner was good. It's good. And it's kind of more of the same thing. It's a lot of timing your jumps and action based, like, getting around. It's a great action game, and I'm not surprised to see it in here.
01:01:28 --> 01:01:29 Armor.
01:01:29 --> 01:01:33 Fucking badass. I love that goddamn game. That's getting my vote 100%.
01:01:33 --> 01:01:39 To me, Ghost Runner Two looks kind of like. What was that? Mirror.
01:01:40 --> 01:01:41 Mirror's Edge.
01:01:41 --> 01:01:46 It looks like Mirrors Edge were combat instead of parkour focused.
01:01:46 --> 01:01:46 Yes.
01:01:46 --> 01:01:47 I could see that.
01:01:47 --> 01:01:47 Interesting.
01:01:48 --> 01:01:59 That's a very good depiction of that. I like Dead island one. I thought it was pretty cheesy, but those are the only ones. The only four that I know about are those ones I'm not familiar with. Hi Fi Rush.
01:01:59 --> 01:02:43 Hi Fi Rush. It's not an indie studio. Yeah. Anybody who's interested is not sure about hi fi Rush. Go watch the trailer. Go watch some gameplay. It's like Jet Guy radio with a really strong story. And it's just cinematic. The whole game is cinematic. And the art style. This is a game that really embraces the style and just goes with it. It's really great. I have not played a lot of it, but I want to go back to it. I hope there's a sequel and I hope it gets some kind of recognition. I feel like if it's not an indie game, then this is the category that it's probably going to be best in. It's Bethetta owned, but it's like a separate subsidiary studio Software. But they're not small, though, and they're not big. They're kind of like a mid size studio, I think.
01:02:45 --> 01:02:45 Give me.
01:02:48 --> 01:03:10 I think we heard good things from Juby in the discord, but I also think they were the only one that actually played it in the discord. If anybody else did, I don't think they said anything. But yeah, I know he's a huge fan of Jetset radio. I'm a huge fan of Jetset radio. I'm disappointed. I forgot about this game. I need to play it. I love Jetset radio. I love Jetset radio. Future. I want to play this.
01:03:13 --> 01:03:34 And then armored core. I've watched you play chart. It looks really dope for people into that kind of game. It's also not short. It's a long game. If you want your money's worth, you get it. Surprisingly, it's like a 60 hours game if you want it to be. So that's a pretty good one. I don't think it's strong enough to win other categories. So I think it lives in this category and I could see it winning this one.
01:03:34 --> 01:04:13 It's a big action title and everything, like the fights and everything are really nicely compacted. There's a lot of gameplay and there's a lot of story into it, but it doesn't feel like you're taking too long on each level, you know what I mean? It feels like it's the right amount. The boss vitals are hard. I've already hit a wall and haven't been able to play it since, but I still love playing it. And even when you get to a boss, when you complete it, you feel accomplished and you're like, okay, I could put it down and go do something else for a little while and then come back and play it again. But it's not so ragey that it's your standard from Soft game. But it has definitely got that hockey stick difficulty spike.
01:04:14 --> 01:04:15 Okay.
01:04:15 --> 01:04:20 And Remnant two. I don't even know anything about Remnant one. I don't know what Remnant.
01:04:20 --> 01:04:32 I've heard good things about the sequel, but it's a souls like game. My attention span for those games is very limited. I do like Elder Ring, but Liza P Remnant, I can't.
01:04:32 --> 01:04:37 I probably into it. Probably something that I should give a shot and try. I've heard nothing.
01:04:37 --> 01:04:38 I could see you liking it for.
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