Press B 196: Game of the Year 2023

The Game Awards are long gone, DICE has ended, but now; now it's time for Press B To Cancel's annual Game of the Year episode! Good news everyone, it can't all be Elden Ring THIS time!

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Special thanks to The Last Ancient on SoundCloud for our podcast theme.

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00:00 --> 00:15 It. Well, it's a new year. We're not even halfway through it. But it's a new year, guys. You know what that means, Mario. 64 brackets, today on. No. Game of the year 2023. Today on.
00:25 --> 00:26 Um.
00:29 --> 00:33 I'm just gonna talk right over the intro. I'm just gonna talk right over it.
00:33 --> 00:35 Almost clicked early.
00:35 --> 00:40 Yeah, I would have been great if you had just clicked on it and went, wait, no, we're in the wrong episode.
00:40 --> 00:45 Look, look, nobody really knows when 2023 ended. It's a very fluid term.
00:45 --> 00:46 Just super fluid.
00:47 --> 00:50 Like the souslu flurries.
00:50 --> 01:45 Whatever, guys, welcome. This is an exciting episode. I'm excited to have this episode. It's been meh. No, it's been a great week. It's been a great week, guys. I'm so happy to end a stellar week here, not only hanging out with four of my favorite people on the planet, but also talking about my favorite game of the year last year, which I know we all brought to. Yes, all four of you are up there. You're up there. Just so you know, when you're not trying to smoke bomb me out of my bug hunting democracy, liberation. Jake, speaking of, I am not alone, nor am I ever alone, because these guys just will not leave my house. I have a lot of rooms. Let's go ahead and say hello to everybody, Jake, since I called you out first. How are you, sir? Happy day in Canada. How are you?
01:46 --> 01:58 Look, we are allowed to have Fridays in Canada. It is, in fact, also Friday in Canada, like it is for you guys down there. And I'm just going to say, hell divers two is my game of the year. Can I just do that? Even though I didn't play it last year? Can I just pick that one?
01:58 --> 02:01 Yeah, it came out this year. Spoilers for next year.
02:01 --> 02:05 If we're just going to make up our own rules, if we're just going to make up our own rules, why not?
02:06 --> 02:10 Custard pie is my favorite game for this year. Winner.
02:11 --> 02:13 Sorry, orange YouTube.
02:15 --> 02:20 Sistar. Hi, friend. How are you, sir? How's your week? How are you doing?
02:21 --> 02:38 It was good. It was good. Had a hard time engaging in work the last couple of days, but I did it anyway. But otherwise, I'm good. Yeah, no, I'm good. I'm excited to tell you my game of the year for 2024. No, it's hell divers, too.
02:39 --> 02:43 It's hell divers, too. Yeah. GP, my friend. How are you?
02:43 --> 02:46 How are things to me, my X Men?
02:46 --> 02:47 So good.
02:50 --> 02:58 No, I'm doing well. It's been a great week. For nerdom. And, yeah, happy to be here. Thank you.
02:58 --> 03:10 Beautiful. And the man who followed the assignment with me and only didn't half ass it, but actually went all the way in. Werewolf, you dapper looking son of a bitch. How are you, sir?
03:11 --> 03:18 I am well. I am damn excited to talk about this game. I've been dying to talk about it on the podcast for, like, two, three months now.
03:18 --> 03:27 You can tell the two people that are most excited for this episode because I actually got dressed up for the event, which was the plan. Everybody's like, wear a suit or a suit jacket. Wow.
03:27 --> 03:30 I wore pants. What else do you want for me?
03:31 --> 03:32 Pants?
03:32 --> 03:41 Yeah. Sinister. That's like the twelve pieces of flair. Okay, you just met the requirement.
03:41 --> 03:44 If you want me to wear 13 pieces, you make that change.
03:46 --> 03:51 Well, you can't really see them, but I have at least 13 piercings, so we're going to call those my flare.
03:52 --> 04:14 I want to hear you clack when you walk around with all the flare that you're missing. Well, we might as well dive into this bad boy. So how do we want to do this, gentlemen? Do we want to go around Robin? And do you want me to select and say, sinistar, let's talk about your game. I know that most of us came with two. That was a runner up.
04:14 --> 04:15 Runner up.
04:15 --> 04:16 We got a runner up.
04:16 --> 04:17 Start the runner up.
04:17 --> 04:18 Okay, so the way this will work.
04:19 --> 04:20 For the audio at once.
04:20 --> 04:21 Who didn't?
04:22 --> 04:22 Everybody.
04:22 --> 04:23 Same time.
04:23 --> 04:24 No.
04:24 --> 04:26 One, two, three.
04:28 --> 04:29 Finally.
04:31 --> 04:32 Delete that.
04:32 --> 04:34 Finally you can come off the screen.
04:34 --> 05:10 So, for the audience members who are unfamiliar with this, we do this every year. We talk about our favorite game of 2023. Now, here is the catch. With us being a somewhat retro podcast, the Game of 2023 doesn't necessarily mean it was released in 2023. What it actually means is the game that we played during 2023 that we fell in love with, it may have been released in 2023, it may have been released in 1923. It may even be the game. 1923. We don't know. I have no idea. But that's what makes it exciting, because it could be anything.
05:10 --> 05:15 So, with saying that 1923 is a hell of a good year for video.
05:15 --> 05:25 Fantastic game, beads and flapper girls and all kinds of fun shit. Is it okay to say that? Sorry, YouTube. Anyways, I don't know. I don't know if it's offensive or not. I have no idea.
05:25 --> 05:27 Does YouTube not like flappers?
05:27 --> 05:29 Flappers? Wow.
05:29 --> 05:30 Fappers.
05:30 --> 05:39 Fappers. Fapper girls. No, that's too current. That's too current. And that's definitely offensive. I really like the Knight Rider sensor you got in the background there, wolf. I'm mesmerized by.
05:39 --> 05:41 That's for you, my friend.
05:41 --> 05:43 I love somebody flatlined.
05:43 --> 06:10 So what we'll do is we'll do our runner ups. Games that were just there. They were right there on the cusp of getting game of the year. But there was something about our game of the year that just overtook it and just kicked it out and said, not this year, son. Maybe next year. So with that, I will go ahead and call upon werewolf and ask you, sir, what is your runner up for 2023?
06:11 --> 06:19 My runner up is tears of the kingdom, legend of Zelda. Tears of the kingdom is my runner up for the year.
06:19 --> 06:22 You're just going to drop that right off. I love that.
06:22 --> 06:23 No, that's exciting.
06:23 --> 06:25 Yeah, that's my runner up.
06:25 --> 06:26 It was start.
06:26 --> 07:33 I like it, but I did play something I enjoyed better. However, tears of the kingdom was great, but I know it felt very different from breath of the wild, but it also kind of felt a lot like more of the same. I feel like it didn't set itself apart enough from breath of the wild to be something that pulled me in the way breath of the wild did, because breath of the wild was a breath of fresh air for what the Zelda franchise was. Tears of the kingdom took that and said, all right, let's do that. But more fun, which they did. But it wasn't mind blowing the way breath of the wild was. So tears of the kingdom was great. I absolutely loved it. I had a lot of fun with it. I probably did more extra stuff in tears of the kingdom than I did in breath of the wild. And the fact that the game lets you play it so out of order the way I did, massive points because I did near endgame content before I touched the first dungeon. Any of what I remember first, yeah.
07:33 --> 07:36 I remember you saying that, my friend.
07:36 --> 07:45 Was like, the game let you do that. Tears of the kingdom was a good.
07:45 --> 08:34 I remember watching a lot of streams, obviously, when this came out, and kind of living vicariously because I never had a chance to really dive in. I think I played maybe all of 15 minutes of Tears of the kingdom, but all I saw were people building gliders in weird ships, and I felt like I never got beyond that. Everywhere I went, someone was just making a freaking glider or some kind of. I don't know, some kind of something. I know there was a lot of quality of life improvements from the first one that I had beef with. Jake has told me on numerous occasions that they've increased some cool things with some fusions and things like that. But I'm actually excited to hear that did not make your top, because now I'm excited to hear what the top actually is. So that's pretty cool.
08:35 --> 10:00 Yeah. I wanted to say something about Tears of the kingdom because Wolf and I did a great episode on that one. I think we had a brief discussion on Tears of the kingdom. It's probably an hour long at least. It's fantastic. To me. It's the game. If I ever do want to go back to a Zelda game, that's the one I would probably go to. I wouldn't go back to breath of the wild. For me, everything that was done, I liked in breath of the wild was done better in tears of the kingdom. And I'm with you on runner up, I can see that because I liked it a lot too. But the narrative, the story parts of it, I didn't like at all. I didn't like how every single dungeon, which I liked the dungeons, but the ending of every dungeon had a very similar seeming cutscene with the hero of that area, and it felt lazy to me. It felt a little bit cheap. I know it's because you could do them in any order, and I get it, and I like how the memories that you unlock through Exploring are all very unique and they're all very good. The lead up with Link and Zelda is awesome. Yes. It also runs in the deck. I do like that part, but I didn't like that part of it. So the overall story was kind of loose. It was more of like a exploration experience type of game, which is good. I thought it was good, too. And I'm still mind blown that you and I played it in completely different ways and we both found something that the other person didn't. My mind is still blown. When you told me you can fuse stuff to the Master sword, I just assumed the Master sword was the master sword and you couldn't do that, but you totally can. So I found that that was pretty cool. So I think that's a great game. That's a great.
10:00 --> 10:18 Yeah. That's actually probably one of the reasons it made my runner up is because it lets you have so much freedom with just about everything in the. I mean, first off, I'm not used to Nintendo allowing that in video games, let alone most video games allowing.
10:20 --> 10:42 But that's totally in keeping with the spirit of the Zelda franchise. I mean, even the first one, open world, I suppose. But there's so many different ways that you can start that game off if you wanted to. You could go into the first dungeon with the mid level sword and the blue ring and six or seven hearts. So, I mean, that's scaled down. I get that. I'm just saying that's the spirit of the franchise.
10:42 --> 11:13 It is. But again, most Zelda games require you do the dungeons at least in somewhat of an order. Right. Especially the further into the franchise you get, leading to breath of the wild, because they just become a sort of tour of hyrule in most cases, and go here, do that, go there, do that. Okay. Whereas, yeah, in Zelda one, it did have that open world feel, but most dungeons still kind of required goodies from previous dungeons to complete them.
11:15 --> 11:17 Nice pick. I like that pick.
11:17 --> 11:19 That's a good, solid one.
11:19 --> 11:19 That's a great one.
11:20 --> 11:21 Solid product.
11:21 --> 11:28 I'm going to keep with how we entered and just do it round robin backwards, and I will jump over to Mr. Guy prime.
11:29 --> 11:30 Okay.
11:30 --> 11:32 What was your runner up, sir?
11:32 --> 11:39 I have a tie for runner up. No, I'm not going to do that. Damn it. I'm going to do that, though.
11:39 --> 11:39 One.
11:42 --> 11:56 Year before he starts, I have to say this. I was going to come in and say, because I always change the rules, my runner up is a three way tie. I was going to do that, and then GP just stole my thunder.
11:56 --> 14:12 You had me at three way. I will concede to the man in the t shirt. Thanks for dressing up against him, really going. I have a history of kind of not exactly doing great during these episodes, so I don't want to overtalk or oversell or anything, but a couple of years ago it was, of course, GP doesn't play anything new. He went with Final Fantasy pickle, remaster number three, whatever. And then last year it was Final Fantasy seven, and then later on I'm like, but I haven't really finished it yet. And Char didn't drop that for a while. So I'm trying to think. I can't pick what my runner up was going to be for the first one, even though I found this to be a wildly outside of my usual game. And I played it actually very little, but I watched the hell out of it, and it was Hogwarts legacy, which came out early last year. This household, even though we don't always agree with J-R-R. Rowling, even though we don't necessarily care for the author too much, we are very much into the wizarding world. And to watch my wife and daughter play that game and jump in from time to time was really fun. But see this is really the first thing where I've ever played an updated, newer unreal engine type of game and so that was out of place for me. So considering I haven't beaten it yet, that cannot be my game of the year. But I did love that one. The other one. And when I said there's a tie, this is going to fall the third. But I figured I could piggyback off of what werewolf is saying with a new game in an old franchise that in some ways stays within the original spirit of the older versions. And that's Mario Wonder. I couldn't pick this as my first one either because really anymore I don't care for the side scrolling types of the Mario games that come out, but Mario Wonder really was something special with the wonder seeds and just all the bizarre psychotropic things going on in that game. We've spent as a family collectively a lot of time trying to get through it and then I myself, just one on one or by myself have played it quite a bit as well. So take that however you want. That's my third Hogwarts legacy being in the second. Thank you for allowing me to. I concede my time.
14:13 --> 15:22 Wow. Hogwarts Legacy is basically my wife's favorite game ever right now. She does not game, she's not much of a gamer, she plays around with some certain things but Hogwarts just sucked her right in and she's doing another playthrough from a different house right now. After I build her pc, she's so excited. That was like the one thing she was telling me about building the pc for work and having it ready so that she worked from home and this, that and the other. And the first thing she does is fire up Hogwarts legacy and join Slytherin. So she's doing the best of what she's got. She loves that game and I played quite a bit of it. It's got a great story. The mechanics in it are fantastic. It's a little dark soulsies with the dodge rolls and all the stuff in there which I love. And having the open world of Hogwarts and Hogsmead and all that stuff available for you to explore in different fashions and fly around on the broomsticks and do all that crazy shit. Even get the terrible curses on top of that. It's a stellar game. Really impressed with what the devs did and the story that was written for it and how it works. So I think it's a great choice.
15:23 --> 15:53 If you look at some of the other games that that particular franchise has crapped out, they haven't all been great, the Quidditch cup games, whatever it was. And I understand that this pump breaks in a way, of course, but no, this one was very well done. Developed, executed. Yeah, visually, it's stunning. Music, score, acting. Acting has a few moments, but for the most, very enjoyable and never got old, at least not yet.
15:53 --> 16:42 Your second one's good, too. Mario Wonder is the most. I mean, it's obviously the most recent game, but it's one of the few Mario games that I actually played from start to finish and finished it. I was really impressed at first. I was kind of like tongue in cheek, man. But I just kept going. I just kept me wanting to keep going. And I was talking to Jake and Sinistar about it because we were kind of all playing around the same time. And I got it working on the deck, and I was like, there's no reason to not finish this. I can play it anywhere in the house. So I'd fire it up and run through it, and I actually completed it. I was pretty impressed with how that one ended, and I kind of do as tongue in cheek as it all is. I like the psychedelic trope of just. This is just spaz. This is just spastic. Doesn't make any goddamn sense, but it's good. So I approve of both of those choices. And it's strong choices.
16:42 --> 16:55 Super intense. It's intense in a level or at a level, I should say that I think that the last few Mario game side scroller types haven't reached in a while. So return to form.
16:55 --> 16:56 Totally.
16:56 --> 17:11 Yeah. The last few before wonder, I've said before, quite boring and forgettable. And when I heard Mary wonder, I crossed my fingers that'd be a good one. But I really didn't have much hope for it. And then once it came out and I got to play it, it's fantastic. It's a good one.
17:13 --> 17:15 All right, sinistar.
17:16 --> 17:17 Hi.
17:17 --> 17:20 What are your for some runner ups?
17:21 --> 18:05 So I actually originally thought to myself, I'm going to break the rules and do a three way tie. And I actually was like, I'm just going to make the joke and move on. But I seriously do have. I have banged my head against the wall trying to figure out what my runner up is. And so it really is going to have to be a three way tie, and the three way tie is vampire survivors. Balders gate. Oh, Balders Gate is glorious. And civilization six.
18:07 --> 18:08 Okay.
18:08 --> 18:34 Yeah. So each for different reasons. Each for different reasons. And this is why I've tried to figure out one. And, you know, Wolf, you talked about how tears of the kingdom basically gave you all this freedom. Well, I feel that way about Balder's gate, except for its freedom within an area. Right. But still, like, yeah. How many different ways did all of us.
18:37 --> 18:39 Played something that was the right.
18:40 --> 18:58 Right. So from Balder's gate standpoint, I need to get back to it. It probably is going to be one of my open world games for my sisfian. Plus my stretch goals. Vampire survivors ate so much of my time in such a glorious way.
18:58 --> 19:00 And steam deck battery.
19:00 --> 19:08 You're right. Yeah. I can't tell you how many times I'd be sitting there and I'd be like, well, time to charge. Hey, I've already gone through the battery again. Time to charge.
19:08 --> 19:10 And I had in 8 hours vampire survivor.
19:10 --> 19:14 And it's good on battery for the steam deck too. That's something that's like at least 6 hours, if not more.
19:14 --> 19:15 Yeah.
19:16 --> 20:06 And then civilization six. I played the hell out of it in 2023 for my Wednesday family game nights. It was just one of those like, hey, I don't feel like a ton of super action. And it was just okay. It's still a challenging game, but it also felt chill to a degree. And so I don't know how many hours I put into it in 2023, but I looked and basically every month on my steam history, it's one of the leading contenders. So fantastic game. I know it's years old. I mean, that's how we roll here. It's not a game that came out in 2023, and I didn't even start playing store. Yeah, I didn't even start playing it in 2023, but I played the hell out of it in 2023.
20:06 --> 20:16 Technically, Baldergate came out in 2023, so you're within the realm. And there was a lot of updates that came through Vampire Survivors 2023. So there's that too.
20:17 --> 20:22 Yeah, there's like three dlcs now, I think. I think they did an among us crossover dlc. I've not tried that yet, but it looked.
20:22 --> 20:23 Oh, that's right, they did.
20:23 --> 20:25 I messed around with that. Yeah, it's pretty good.
20:25 --> 20:39 So, I mean, if you pushed me, I'd probably say Balder's gate is two, vampire Survivors is three, and Civ is four. If you pushed me, well, we won't.
20:39 --> 20:43 Push you because I don't want to see what happens if we push you too far. That'd be bad.
20:44 --> 20:48 But I do have a single game of the year when we get there.
20:48 --> 20:48 Fantastic.
20:49 --> 20:52 We'll show off. Four way tie.
20:52 --> 21:00 Wow. All right. Sick. Jake, do you have a six way tie that we need to talk about.
21:00 --> 21:13 Or did you just. I'm going to break the rules that have been newly established by going back to the old rule, and I picked one. I've been fighting and struggling for months.
21:13 --> 21:14 Me too.
21:14 --> 21:17 I know we want it in a random bracket. Let's see what happens.
21:17 --> 21:20 Random canadian bracket, Olympic.
21:20 --> 21:40 Look, it's randomly allocated. No, I've been struggling, too. Just to narrow it down to two games has been very hard for me, especially when we're not constrained to just 2023, because 2023, we can all say, like, what an amazing banger of a year that was for gaming. It's going to be one of the best years in gaming, I think, in our lifetime. 2023 is amazing for game.
21:40 --> 21:41 Absolutely. 92 was great.
21:41 --> 26:06 Quite insane. 91 is good, too. So I don't know, it's been tough, but I managed to narrow down to two games. So my runner up and I only have one, as is tradition, because, you know, I'm nothing but traditional. For me, it's making of Carateca, or Carateca, however you want to say. Even the creator of the game write the karate. Even he says you can pronounce it however you want. Because when he put the name onto paper, he realized people were interpreting in different. Different is for those who don't know. I did do a YouTube video on this, actually, for the channel digital eclipse, who is a fantastic game that has really kind of moved into preservation and highlighting, I guess, the key figures in gaming. And they've started what they're calling their Goldmaster series. And I'm all for it. It started with the Atari 50 collection a couple of years ago, which was fantastic. They have a great interface where they have, like, a timeline, and they have dots along the timeline that have video clips, behind the scenes, interviews, documents, business cards, sound bites, all kinds of great stuff. And of course, demos, prototypes, and games. And when they did master making of karateka, they went right to the source, they went to the man himself, and there's interviews with him and his father. His father is the one who wrote the music for the game. There is a little bit of music and just interviews with him and also interviews with the companies that he worked with to get it to come out. And I love it so much. And the reason why it's my runner up. There's not a lot of games in it. Although they did do a remaking or a reimagining of karateka in there at the end. But it's the history, and I'm going to call it lore behind this game that is so great and so compelling. The guy was like 1415 when he started making games. And I'm not just saying making games as a hobby, he was actually selling games and making pocket change. And on the side he realized he really wanted an apple too. So he ended up, he's an artist as well, and he's doing characters and selling them for pocket change. He saved up, I think, $7 in late seventy s money to buy an apple two. And he started making games. And they have the behind the scenes letters because this is before email, he was writing letters to publishers, pitching them games at like 16 and 17. And before you even get to Karotica, in this package, it talks about one of the first games he was developing, which was death bounce. And it's very much a game that a teenager would make. It's a ball bouncing around and deaths involved. But you see the various prototypes and the letters back and forth with Broderbund discussing it, the gameplay mechanics, how to refine it, how to make it more exciting. They talked about changing the enemies from balls to like flapping birds or flying bird like creatures to make it more visually interesting. Showing him other games that are coming out and saying, hey, you've made some great arcade inspired games, but here's what's coming out today. Go look at what they're doing and kind of expanding his mind to what a video game could be. And ultimately Broderbun didn't take the game. They went back and forth with him for a year. He went to college, or, sorry, university, and eventually they ditched the idea and said, no, we're not interested. But they talked about how influential it was for him as a developer. That was his first serious development process. And even though the game ultimately didn't get sold, it kind of set the groundwork for making other games. And eventually he had the idea for karateka. And it goes in the story of that, how the animations were so fluid and all this awesome stuff. And again, you get to play those prototypes and they also do those free version games for 2023. So it's a great, interesting package, quite a bit there. It's not a $70 game. I think it's like $40, if not cheaper. Totally worth it. To me, it's like the coffee table book of games for me. And I really do love it. I know that digital clips basically said they're doing a series of these for the next few years, that this is what they're doing. And they've got one coming out for what's his name? Joe Minter. Jeff Minter, who's got some wild game concepts. You want to talk psychedelic, look up Minter's games. He also is probably the one I know of who did Tempest 2000 for the Jaguar. He's that guy. But he's done some weirder games. So there's one with him coming out later this year, I think, in March, and I'm really looking forward to it. I mean, I just think the quality that digital eclipse does and the research they do is second to none. And just the whole presentation and package is amazing. So this is definitely a great one.
26:06 --> 26:38 You talk about a guy who puts a lot of thought into his creations. I understand they were giving him direction and saying, what about this? What about this? Here are the notes. But I remember watching this and they had said he did not want the people he was pitching to when he was writing these letters to know that he was a young man, a teenager. So he had the letters typed up and reviewed, written and all that by adults. But the way they figured it out was at the end of the letter he said, will you buy my game? Check yes or no. That's what gave it away.
26:40 --> 27:09 Now, Jake, I agree with this because obviously I have a significant place in my heart for, you know, of know, Prince of Persia et. You said, it's funny. You said his father did the music. The minute you said his father did the music, I hear the fucking beginning. Couple of tones to Karotica, right? And it just hit my, like, there's.
27:09 --> 27:13 Not much, but what's there is definitely standout, and it's great.
27:13 --> 27:27 I also loved making it all the way to the end of that game and then realizing that if you go into the princess in the fight pose, she won hit kills you. And you're like, why did I rescue you?
27:28 --> 27:31 She doesn't need help. She doesn't need you.
27:32 --> 27:33 She won hit kills you.
27:34 --> 27:43 You know what's funny here is that this is Jake's runner up, and he had a whole speech set up for this thing, so I'm nervous to hear. I might make him go last for.
27:43 --> 27:44 The.
27:47 --> 27:48 Implement, the music.
27:48 --> 28:00 It's a hard act to follow, you know what I mean? It's like if you were like, hey, gosh, I got to go on after this guy. His name is Elvis. Let's just see what he does. And then he goes out there and he wooes everybody and you're like, fuck.
28:02 --> 28:03 Jeff Keeley.
28:03 --> 28:03 Me.
28:03 --> 28:04 I'm going to start playing the music.
28:04 --> 28:18 Before I'm a minute in my self rescuing princess. My hero. I think it's actually a little bit different with karotica. I think she's letting you rescue her to feel good about yourself.
28:18 --> 28:20 About yourself, yeah. It's more of a self esteem thing.
28:21 --> 28:22 Yeah. He lacks confidence.
28:23 --> 28:25 Confidence booster.
28:25 --> 28:27 The morty of that universe.
28:28 --> 29:27 Yeah. We did a whole episode on Prince of Persia and rotoscoping, and we talked, actually quite a bit, quite a bit about karateka. I knew very little about it until we did that episodes ourselves. And we did our very extensive research that we do here, myself included, being very poor at that. But you can tell Jake really has done his due diligence on checking the thing out. He did a whole video. Go watch it on YouTube. It's on the pressped channel. Go check it out. He does some playthroughs of it. He talks about it, and you watch basically the first iteration of Karotica and then all the way to the remastered version of Karotica that they have on this game. It's a really good watch, and I've never played it myself outside of what I've seen Jake talk about and see, and just hearing the story behind it makes it that much more interesting to go and check out and play or at least watch the video. Good pick, good pick. You don't have any seconds or thirds? No, we're only at a half hour, so you can add another 15 minutes.
29:27 --> 29:30 His second is circus Charlie. It's fine.
29:30 --> 29:36 His second is sir. Yeah, I know. I can see it in the background. My eyes have been burning this entire episode. All right.
29:36 --> 29:39 Multiple kinds of gameplay. You know you love it.
29:40 --> 29:46 Yeah. The sheeple was shit, though. Circus Charlie, two. The circusing this time. Circusing, it's shittier.
29:48 --> 29:51 More clowns this time. There's more hoops.
29:52 --> 30:23 Very few cars. There's a lot of clown cars. So I guess I got to follow this up, and I'm going to break a personal rule, not a show rule, but a personal rule that I have been very adamant about. Jake and I actually had this discussion when we did the game awards last year when it was just the two of us. I am hell bent on not allowing remakes to be selected, to be picked for any kind of award.
30:23 --> 30:24 I love your choice already.
30:25 --> 30:38 I am hell bent already. I am absolutely. I don't get it. It makes me mad when they're like, oh, circus Charlie. Remake is selected for a game award, and you're like, well, why didn't the first one win? Why does the remake have to win?
30:39 --> 30:41 Because Trent Reznor did the soundtrack for the remake.
30:42 --> 31:21 Then it should win, at least audio. I don't know about everything else. Good analogy. But this game, which actually came out last year, sinister had to do the math with me about that. Actually came out in 2023. This game is the one that will break the rule for me because it is spectacular. Now, I will not give it the crown right out because there was a much better game that I played. But I have played all versions of this game and even the Wi shit version of the game. I love this franchise more than anything. Well, not more than anything, but pretty close.
31:23 --> 31:25 Bingo. Bingo?
31:25 --> 31:26 Yeah. Was that calf muscle?
31:26 --> 31:29 Gert is grabbing something from his shelf.
31:29 --> 31:33 I got bingo going with Dead Space remake.
31:33 --> 31:35 Oh, that's not what I thought you were going to say.
31:35 --> 32:00 Dead Space remake is getting my second place award. And I wouldn't say that it's so close that it's like nudging. It's not Wolverine and gambit in the race here, but it certainly needs something to be said about it. There are quality of life changes in that game that are spectacular. There's randomly generated scenes that adds a whole nother level of fear to the game.
32:00 --> 32:06 Of course, there is a terrifying AI that learns and messes with you even more.
32:07 --> 33:20 The graphics are spectacular. What is it? The frostbite engine that adds the extra gore and the shine to Isaac's stuff. I was even absolutely against hearing Isaac speak in the first one because he does not speak in the original. But it added that flavor. It added an extra level of actually giving a shit about the main character. I thought it was going to spoil some things because you get it in two and three, which is fine, it works for that. But it just didn't seem like it was going to work for me. And being a purist when it comes to dead Space, I didn't think there was anything they could do to dead Space to make it any better. And they completely proved me wrong. The game is spectacular. It is horrifying. Even playing it as many times as I had played that series and that game specifically Dead Space, still scared the shit out of me. Dead Space remake is worth everybody's. That game is worth $80 to me. I would buy it again and again and again because it is so well done and there's so much love given to the game and the quality of life changes that I didn't even know I needed really add to the rest of the atmosphere and I can't remember the team that recreated it sinister. Do you remember the name of the team?
33:20 --> 33:20 No.
33:21 --> 33:53 Whatever that team is, I can't remember. I'll probably remember it halfway through the episode or when we're done, it'll be like, fuck, that was the name. They just took what I loved and just made me love it even more. So I will renounce my bitterness to remakes, getting selected to being put into any kind of award show, and I'm giving it to dead Space as a runner up. This game, spectacular Chef's kiss, it's horror at its scariest and its highest point. So Dead Space remake is my absolute.
33:53 --> 33:54 Runner up to this.
33:54 --> 33:56 The studio was motive.
33:56 --> 33:58 Motive. Thank you. That's what I was thinking.
33:58 --> 33:59 Okay.
33:59 --> 34:07 Motive took that game and just made it so much better. They took my bugatti and made it prettier and run better.
34:07 --> 34:08 I'm sorry, your what?
34:08 --> 34:09 My bugatti.
34:10 --> 34:14 Okay. Yeah, I heard something much different and much more.
34:14 --> 34:16 No, not that.
34:17 --> 34:21 No, what I said was PG, Dead Space remake.
34:21 --> 34:38 Charlie, I think the difference for me, when we talked about remakes, not getting this award, I think for me the difference is this was remade from the ground up. It was redone from scratch. Yes, it's inspired by the original and there's a lot that's in common with it, but it remade from the ground up and it's a much better game because of it, I think.
34:38 --> 34:38 So.
34:38 --> 34:53 I think it's a totally valid pick. I think it's a good one. I have not played it, but I've seen you play it and how much you love it. I love how there's an AI that messes with your head. I like procedural generated stuff. I'm all about that kind of stuff. Presentation wise, it's amazing. It looks quite good.
34:54 --> 35:34 Hearing chards, I really thought I knew what he was going to say when he started saying, I've been against remake and remasters and all that, which, by the way, your rule of that is why I didn't have this particular remaster on my list. But it was something I was going to mention. And then you're like, I love the franchise. I love this, I love this, I love this. I really thought you were going to say Metroid prime remaster because we know how you feel about the series. It wasn't in one of my top two, but there's like a short list of games where I'm like, okay, I'm going to write down everything that I know I love from this past year that made it such a great year. And prime remaster was on there as well, so that was out of left field for me. But, yeah, great call, and yeah, well done.
35:35 --> 35:41 Metroid prime is a great series and also, of course, is deservedly so. That's definitely true.
35:41 --> 35:50 You know, I share your love with dead space. I'll let these guys talk because like everything you said, I'm just going to reiterate.
35:50 --> 35:53 Yeah, I cannot easy game to gush about.
35:53 --> 36:15 I cannot speak on this game other than from what I've seen and know of the original and this one, it almost seems more like it kind of straddles the line between remake and reboot more than just being a straight up remake. And I feel like therein is what qualifies it to escape your usual bounds of rules.
36:15 --> 36:25 90% of the story stayed the same, but basically, it's not shellac on a gelappy. Right?
36:25 --> 36:26 Right.
36:26 --> 36:36 This is. Hey, we're going to build a new car. We're going to build a new car, and we're going to go look at the diagrams for the frame for the old car when we build the new car.
36:36 --> 37:35 This is like west coast choppers took your piece of shit bike that you loved and made it into something cool. It's that kind of a style where it's just everything that you wish your bike had, that you loved, that you didn't think you needed. And they're like, oh, by the way, we put cup holders on it, and you're like, I didn't know I needed cup holders. This is amazing. So the procedurally generated horror aspect of nothing happens the same way twice. Like, if you get killed by something and you go back down there and expect it to happen, and then it doesn't, and you're like, oh. And then you keep walking, and then it happens worse somewhere else. Or a door opens, irrespective, it keeps you on your toes the whole time. It's almost an entirely new game. Because when I'm playing and I'm like, oh, yeah, okay. The guy's going to come out here and you turn around the corner, and you're like, oh, there's nobody here. What the Fuck? I thought there was a guy going to come out the corner, and then you take three steps and then it gets you, and you're like, oh, jeez. Goddamn it. So where you let your guard down, it gets you really well done earlier.
37:35 --> 37:46 Or it gets you earlier. That'll be my pick right there. It's the amusement park operator that does the countdown and goes on seven sometimes.
37:47 --> 37:56 Right or he goes one and then he hits it. You're like, faha. All right, cool. All right. Do we want to go?
37:56 --> 37:57 You're up next.
37:57 --> 37:59 Round the way we can. Or should we start?
37:59 --> 37:59 Bring it.
37:59 --> 38:01 We're going to do horseshoe. Horseshoe.
38:01 --> 38:02 Yeah, bring it.
38:02 --> 40:49 I don't know if I want to do mine next. I'm really excited about mine, but I'll do it. All right, so, dead space remake, second place only to this game. This game I have been waiting for, for, I think, three or four years when I heard it was announced being created by the same group of people that created another game that we love around. And it's in the same stratosphere. It's in the same vein of it, but it's a totally different style of play. But it's the same artist, the same musician. It's the same people that made everybody's favorite ninja side scroller. Retro inspired ninja side scroller. The messenger. My game of the year is easily see a stars. Sea of Stars was a fucking trip down memory lane for all the rpgs that I grew up playing that I absolutely adored. The story was fantastic. The characters were amazing. I know, Jake, you kind of fell off on it, which is fine. The twists and turns at the, like, even finishing the game, you're not like, there's still so much more to do. And it didn't feel like when I beat the game the first time. Spoilers. Sorry. But when you beat the game the first time, you're like, I feel like there's something missing, there's something lacking. Like, there's got to be more to this. It can't just be that. And there was. And there was so much more. And it didn't feel like I don't want to do all this stuff just to get the good ending. There's just more to do, more to accomplished. I love the music in the game. I use it in my own stream and setups. I love the artwork. I love the characters. I love the tech spells, everything about Sea of Stars. There was nothing that was going to top this game for me for 2023. Not a thing. I don't care if they made Final Fantasy remake six. And you can play as Edgar throughout the entire thing. As a first person show, I give a shit. I don't care. Sea of Stars was the greatest game of 2023. I would recommend anybody go and give this game a playthrough. Give it a shot and just sink it all in. Let it go. I know everybody here. Well, maybe not everybody, but most of you guys. Are big fans of the messenger. I don't know. I can't speak for GP on this. I know he likes it, but I don't know if he's like as gushy about it as Jake and Wolf are, but would take, I would take CS stars over the messenger, but it's just my style. It's my style of rpg and it's just such a great throwback. And they did their homework, they did their studying. They knew what we wanted from our nostalgia and they hit the nail on the head. So game of the year award goes to me. First place, Sea of Stars. Fantastic.
40:49 --> 41:37 Cannot agree with this pick more. This is a great pick, sir. Sea of stars. I fell in love with this game. My budy gave me an extra key he got from his preorder, like his Kickstarter preorder. And I beat it before him. And he's usually the guy to spend hours a day playing a game. When he gets into a game, he gets into the game right. And I managed to beat it first because I was. That sucked in. Every single free minute I had was spent playing this. And by that, I mean there was one night where I fired it up probably five times within 30 minutes because I was like, oh, I got a free minute. I'm going to go play. 30 seconds later. I was like, can you do this for me? All right. Sleep it.
41:37 --> 41:51 I remember. And it was like one battle, I think Chard might have been streaming and I think we were all watching like Boink, Sea of Stars. Werewolf. Boink, Sea of Stars.
41:52 --> 42:03 You kept popping up when we were playing it. Yeah, I remember that. I was like, wow, Wolf, you're really getting into this one. I've got a little humble brag that I get to throw out there when you're done, wolf.
42:04 --> 42:58 Oh, yeah. This was a game I absolutely loved. It hit the nostalgia of my childhood, but it also hit my interest in this universe that they built with the messenger. And so as I was playing, I was like, okay, how does this connect to the messenger if at all? And I was building theories as I went and it was cool to see some of those just completely fall apart and others just come together. And I was like, I knew it. And so it was so much fun to see all that happen and a lot of the end game content. This game hit me the way Lunar Silver Star story complete hit me back on PlayStation one. That was my first time playing the Lunar franchise. I fell in love with it to the point where I was like, as I was nearing the end of it, I was sad. It was coming to a close. And so I bought a Sega CD and Lunar for Sega CD so I could experience the game a second.
43:01 --> 43:58 This, this hit me the way that was. I was disappointed when I was finished with it because I was like. And I was like, wolf, we did everything I did as much as I could do in that game and I didn't want it to end. And I was like, when is DLC coming? When is there more content coming for this? I need to know because it was so freaking good. It played great on the Steam deck, it played great on the pc. It was an easy game just to pick up and run with. I actually was lucky enough that sabotage reached out and offered me a key to stream it and play it for them. And I was like, you're kidding me. I've been waiting for this for fucking ever. And I still went and bought it because I loved it so much. I'm like, here, please make more. Make more of these. Take my money and make more of these because I can't not let you guys be supportive. This is amazing. There's nothing more that I can say that wouldn't just break me down in tears with joy about how great this goddamn game is.
44:00 --> 44:04 I want to point out the trolling that is Jake's background.
44:05 --> 45:20 Mario RRPG I would never troll. I just decided to put up a great JRPG behind me. That is Mario RPG, which has great action combat, much like CS stars. I'm sorry, I don't like this game more at all. It's not bad. It's just not for me. And I think just my love for JRPGs has really faded over the years. I just feel like I don't have the time anymore. I've said before we did an episode on it, I was really hyped for it. I love the messenger. I wanted more story from that world. Kind of wish they went back to another platformer or Metroidvania or something. But the music is killer, graphics are good, the combat is really fun and interesting. There's a lot to love about this game. It's definitely a game of the year worthy for sure. I'm surprised it didn't get more attention at other game awards. For the press, this is the next best thing to a crone trigger sequel to be announced tomorrow. In fact, they could announce a crone trigger remake. I don't think they would do it justice. When I look at what they've done with Final Fantasy rebirth. Not to say that the game is bad, right? But I don't trust square to the direction Chrono trigger. Yeah. The direction would be way off the mark here. Sea of Stars is that Chrono game that we never got a sequel. And I think I love it for that.
45:20 --> 45:21 So.
45:21 --> 45:22 And I think it's great. It's a good pick.
45:25 --> 45:36 Okay, well, Jake, don't run out of breath just yet, because you're up next. Sir, let's hear. I want to point out Game of the year.
45:36 --> 45:53 I want to point out that throughout the entire year for our viewers, we would get Marco Polos from Jake all the time saying, I'm playing game x. It might be my game of the year. So we have like 150 candidates.
45:53 --> 45:55 Hold on. There's a lot of games last year.
45:55 --> 46:11 Though, I have to say, I'm sorry to do this to you, Jake, but because of that, that central fact, I almost want to make you go last because you have so goddamn many that I almost kind of want to sit with bated breath to hear what you.
46:13 --> 46:14 Want.
46:14 --> 46:22 I just think, all right, Citastar brought that up and was like, yeah, I kind of want to end it with finally hearing what Jake has settled on for Game of the year.
46:23 --> 47:47 I'll tell you why I like that, though. There was a bunch of them, though, but that's because we had so many games last year. So because pandemic, a lot of games that were supposed to come out in 2021, 2022 didn't come out and basically got pushed to 2023, and some of them this year. Even so, because of that, last year, every month it feels like we got an amazing game. And I'm not saying. I'm saying amazing as genre defining, system selling major blockbuster. When I say 2023 is the best year in gaming, in forever, you go back to 2011 and 2013, both fantastic years for gaming. 2023 has so many more hits. It's wild how much came out last year. It was at the point where I thought that this year would suck for game releases because they all came out last year. But I'm being proven wrong by a bunch I've played this year so far, which I won't go into in this episode. But next year, 2023 was crazy. It was every other month there was something new, and I got hooked on a few games, like, for example, Ballsgate three. I think that would have been my game of the year had I finished it. But because I got stuck in act three with technical issues, I bounced off that game so hard. And again, it's an rpg and it's not a short one. It's a long ass game. I mean, I think we all played it. We all liked it. I don't know how many of us actually finished it. Did anybody finish it? Nobody?
47:47 --> 47:49 Yeah, I don't think I got out of act one.
47:50 --> 47:54 Brother of sin finished it. Okay, my brother.
47:54 --> 51:30 I put 40 hours into act one, I think at the very least. And act two, I kind of rushed through it, and then I got to act three and technical issues. But that game was so good, and I could have sworn that would be my game of the year. And that's why I struggled trying to figure out what I would pick as game of the year. But ultimately I decided I wanted to go with a game that. What is a game that I would go back to and play again. What is a game that was unexpectedly good for me, that I didn't expect to be great, but turned out to be fantastic. And a game I would play again. A game I want to play with my kids, I'd play with my wife. A game that was very surprising. And to me, that's Mario Wonder. So GP, I know that was your runner up. Mario Wonder is. I never thought I would say Mario gaming would be my game of the year. Not after the last ten years of 2D Mario being boring. The only Mario 2D Mario in the last ten years I've liked was Mario Maker. And that's because the hands of the levels was done by the community and not Nintendo. Nintendo really dropped the ball with Mario and they made them too bland, too easy, and it just didn't hit with me. Mario Wonder, though, completely opposite. There is definitely easy levels in this one. This is the first Mario game in ten years where my daughter can play it and she's not coming up to me saying, daddy, I need more stars to proceed to keep going the game. Because the last few were like that. Like, as much as I loved Mario 3d world, you need to get all the stars. Every level. You need all the stars. Otherwise you can't beat the game. Mario Wonder does not have that problem. There are wonder seeds in every stage. There's like two or three of them, depending on the stage. You don't need to get them all. But I enjoyed the level design so much and the psychedelic trip and seeing what the worlds were like with and without the lsd involved that I went and got them all, but I didn't have to. So my kid can play it and beat this game and not have to rely on me to play it, play four. And I like it when my kids can beat a game on their own because that's that sense of accomplishment I had when I was their age playing Mario brothers three or Mario World, but, yeah, Mario World. The level design is fantastic, as GP mentioned. The one thing I'll mention, too is the badge system, which lets you mechanically change how Mario plays. And it's wildly different, too, stage by stage. Yeah, and you can change it stage by stage, but one of them is like a vine grappling hook. How wild is that to play Mario with a grappling hook? There's another one that makes you turn invisible. It's like a challenge badge. Cool as hell. I've seen people beat the hardest stages in the game invisible, which is wild to me. So I love the badges. One lets you do a power jump like Mario brothers two, so it's like nods to that. Another one gives you, like a double jump. The Easter eggs and hints toward the franchise and where it comes from is pretty good. So I do love that, and I do love how Mario world. One of the things it does really fantastic was the concept of special stages where they're super balls to the walls, hard stages, but they're optional. Right, but you could do them. Mario one has that. They have special stages, and they're all very difficult. I think anybody who's listened to this or watching this episode has probably seen the TikTok or the YouTube videos of people doing something to the beat stage where there's music and you have to bounce off these walls. And it's pure wall jumps and speed, and it's a speed run of a level beating that was so good, and I felt accomplished beating that enough that it drove me to beat the rest of them. I have not 100 percented a game in forever, but I went back and 100% did Mario wonder. It was that compelling to me, as a game, it's just like as a platformer, but it hooked me with his charm and his level design. It's just a great package.
51:31 --> 52:05 I think it's great. I think that's a great mean. Here's the thing about Mario Wonder. For me, I nearly bounced off of it. I nearly bounced off of it sitting there. It's a Mario weird. Great, cool. Fine. It's Mario weird. But yeah. Honestly, once you actually do start involving yourself in the badges, et cetera, and once you kind of get past that first initial area, it does open up. It's a great game. It's one of those games where.
52:07 --> 52:07 I.
52:07 --> 52:25 Would be tired from doing a little bit of work, and I would sit down and play a level for five minutes and then just move on to my day. So, yeah, I didn't beat it. I still need to, but I think it's great because I nearly bounced off of it and it pulled me back in.
52:25 --> 53:21 Yeah. The entries that led up to this were very kind of evolutionary for the franchise. Like, okay, it's more the same, but there's a few tweaks here and there. This is more revolutionary, where not only does it take a very old franchise and a very celebrated franchise and does the good things as well as it usually does, it shows us there's still a lot more that we haven't even begun to think of things to do in video games, which to me is exciting because there's such. Not fatigue. But there's a flood of games that came out. Some great, some not, some mid. But it shows that there's still a long ways to go before we can even consider saying we've hit the bottom of the creative barrel. So it was wonderful. I'm glad somebody had this as their top one. I feel bad for mentioning it for my runner up, but, yeah, awesome pick.
53:21 --> 53:34 This is a great choice. I've gushed about this one already, so there's not much I need to cover, except for it is a callback to Mario three and Mario World. I mean, it's the same kind of layout. I love both of those games. Yeah.
53:34 --> 53:46 Super Mario Wonder. Makes me sad that such a boring game got the title of Super Mario World two, because essentially Mario Wonder is Mario World sequel.
53:46 --> 53:54 Right. Well, the sequel to this one will be Mario Tudor instead of wonder.
53:54 --> 53:55 Yes.
53:55 --> 53:56 Tudorful.
53:56 --> 54:00 We're the. Never mind.
54:01 --> 54:04 Right. I'm picking up what you're putting.
54:04 --> 54:06 Thank you, sir.
54:07 --> 54:59 Good choice, Jake. This is a good game. And I know we kind of poo pooed it when we did the episode and stuff, and Citizenstar and I were kind of like, it's just a Mario game, but it really did pull me back in. It really did. It really drug me kicking and screaming. I was like, I don't want to like this game. I don't understand why this is so appealing to me. And it scratched that nostalgia side. Mario itch that I've been wanting to play. It's a great platformer, it's a fun story, and it's got all those challenge levels. But like you said, you didn't have to do all that stuff. I went back and did everything except for the challenge levels. But you didn't need everything. But I couldn't leave a world without gathering all the goddamn seeds. I just couldn't. So I felt compelled to go back and get everything. And I did. I got all of them except for the challenge worlds. I was like, I don't have the patience to deal with all this. Got it. I got too much shit to.
55:01 --> 55:29 Shows. I think it shows that Nintendo with Zelda and Mario now both, they've decided to kind of take risks with where that franchise can go with Mario Wonder and tears of Kingdom and yeah, it's great. And I hope to see more of that in their games. I'm actually kind of excited for Mario Prime, Metroid prime four, because that's supposed to jump either later this year or next year. And I'm curious to see if they've done risks there as well. If they try to redesign what the franchise could be. I'm hoping they do.
55:29 --> 55:41 Right. All right, great pick. Solid pick and good discussion as to how that sinistar, sir, what takes the crown in 2023 for you.
55:41 --> 56:03 So it's a game I never thought would make a game of the year for me. It's a game that it is game of the year for its side quests. My pick, Chrono trigger.
56:04 --> 56:06 Okay, good.
56:06 --> 56:07 All right.
56:09 --> 57:27 And I don't want to go too deep into it because we did an episode, if you're catching up, we did an entire episode on Chrono Trigger. If you play this game and you don't do the side quests, you are doing yourself a disservice. Honestly, I feel like it is a game that is better for its side quests and if it didn't have its side quests and you didn't do its side quests, it would be a relatively generic JRPG. But because of the side quests, it's funny. When I finally beat the game and I made it to Lavos and I made it to Lavos two and I made it to Lavos three. Right. And blah, blah. Sure, those were cool reveals, but honestly, the character story arcs in those side quests were some of the best backstories and info. I nearly never get teared up over games. And last year there were a couple of moments when I was playing Chrono Trigger and this year there's been a couple of moments with Witcher. That's basically what I remember for tearing up in games. So it's one of those that's enough. It touched me enough that in the good places. In the good place.
57:27 --> 57:28 In the appropriate places.
57:28 --> 57:29 Yeah.
57:29 --> 57:31 You don't need the challenging places. Bring the tears.
57:34 --> 57:47 No. Solid game for sure. I agree, Jake, that I think it is better for not having a remake at this point, seeing the landscape of remakes.
57:47 --> 57:52 Go play csars if you want a remake. Sure, that's as good as it's going to get.
57:54 --> 58:24 It's actually had pseudo pixel remakes anyway. Right. But play it on the OG hardware. I played it on the SNES and it was fantastic. Yeah. If you want to hear me gush about it, go back and listen to the episode. But it is a solid. I actually had no hardship picking a game of the year this year because of Chrono Trigger as my sisyphian game.
58:25 --> 58:41 Good call. What can we say that we haven't already said thousands of times about Chrono trigger? All right. Werewolf. No. Did I go werewolf and then I did GP? Yeah. Or was it GP? Was GP first?
58:41 --> 58:42 GP would be.
58:42 --> 58:43 Sorry.
58:43 --> 58:54 Well, actually, if it's okay, I would like to bring up the tail end of this. If werewolf is okay with going. The only reason for that is. I'm sorry, said.
58:54 --> 58:55 I'm okay with that.
58:55 --> 58:58 Okay, go ahead and then. Yes, please.
58:58 --> 59:05 Wow. Okay. All right, werewolf. Never mind werewolf. Who are you crowning for 2023 this year for game of the year?
59:05 --> 59:30 Okay, so with the way I gushed about this game last year in mps, I would imagine some of you can probably guess what this is. This is a game my buddy has been telling me I need to play and I would absolutely love since 2019. And I finally got around to playing it last year and absolutely fell in love with it. This is control by remedy.
59:30 --> 59:31 Nice.
59:32 --> 59:50 This is the first game to make me care about Remedy's library of games, first off. And it was funny, while I was playing through it, as I got toward the end, I was telling my friend, I was like, dude, you love control so much, you might enjoy quantum Break.
59:50 --> 59:52 It's very quantum great, too.
59:52 --> 59:55 And I looked it up and quantum break is remedy.
59:56 --> 59:58 Quantum break's awesome, too. I love quantum break.
59:58 --> 01:00:34 I did not know that. And I enjoyed quantum Break. But to be fair, control is a much more compelling world. And the fact that it's connected to Alan Wake, which I didn't care about Alan Wake before, I will say that I'd never played it, but control made me buy Alan Wake one and two, intending to play them, because I want to play them now and see what the universe is that they've built. And control was so cool and so fucking quirky. It was amazing.
01:00:34 --> 01:00:35 Weird.
01:00:35 --> 01:00:36 It's weird.
01:00:36 --> 01:01:11 It was weird, but in the best way. It took itself seriously, but it sprinkled in silliness here and there that made it to where you were like, all right. This is serious, but it's still fun and kind of funny. Like the most badass segment in the game. I will not spoil for anybody. But you get dropped in this place where you're wandering through and the world is just shifting around you like crazy. And there's this badass rock song going. But the old gods of.
01:01:13 --> 01:01:14 Old gods of art. Yeah.
01:01:14 --> 01:01:36 Which is, it's not the real band name. But when they get in for remedy, they go all in on this fake band that they came up with for remedy. Right. And you go through this segment, the game's rocking out. The world is wild around you. It's action packed. And then you get to the end.
01:01:36 --> 01:01:36 And.
01:01:38 --> 01:02:10 Jesse just straight up goes, that was so weird. Jesse, you're such a, like, even she's not completely taking herself too seriously in this life or death circumstance she's constantly in throughout the game. And it's so much fun. It's somewhere between, like, I don't even know how to describe it because it's interesting that it's an action platformer that's supposed to be in what is a real world.
01:02:10 --> 01:02:11 Ready?
01:02:12 --> 01:02:25 But it's got some aspects of what you might expect from X Files and its sillier episodes and from, what's that? Twin Peaks.
01:02:25 --> 01:02:26 Yeah.
01:02:26 --> 01:02:38 And that sort of thing. And then it's all wrapped up in this sort of, like modern but fifty s and sixty s style of world that they built.
01:02:38 --> 01:02:39 Yeah. The espionage.
01:02:39 --> 01:02:58 And that's by design. They explain that away as part of the plot and it fits. And it was so cool. And I had so much fun exploring this world and doing everything I could do. I think there were only a couple of things I didn't do because I was like, that's too much DDM for me. But I had so much fun with this game. Control was great.
01:02:59 --> 01:03:00 Good pick.
01:03:00 --> 01:03:02 Definitely on my listing play this year.
01:03:02 --> 01:03:30 I know that from the beginning there are little moments like you're walking past a picture and then you go past again and if you don't look, you don't notice that things have changed. When you notice, you're like, oh, shit, what's happening? And then that first part where you make it into the CEO's office or the manager's office or whatever right there kind of at the beginning.
01:03:30 --> 01:03:32 Director. Yeah, the director.
01:03:33 --> 01:03:35 And, yeah, I'm sitting there watching it.
01:03:35 --> 01:05:04 And I'm just like, yeah, it's crazy. Like that game hits you hard and fast right out the gate. It's awesome. I love the 1950s, 1960s espionage thing and I love how they explained that the building that they're in won't let anything beyond that time come in. They just won't let it happen. And I love how they explain it, and they explain it so well that you're kind of like, all right, that makes sense. I'm not going to check that. Yeah, that's only a test. Passes the stiff test. I have not finished that game. But playing tidbits of Alan awake two, there is Bureau of Control stuff all over Alan awake two. So I've been like, I need to go back and stop playing this so I can go back and play this. There's actually the old gods of Asgard is in Allen awake too, as well. And they have a song that says it's the neighbor of the beast, and it's six six five. And I was dying. I was dying at that one. I'm really excited to. I've played like, the first half of control. I keep playing and I keep playing because I want to start it fresh and I keep wanting to finish it on and then I spin off of it. Could become a sisfian game for me because really, really want to finish that one. And it's not because I haven't liked, just I haven't had the time. So good call on that one. I'm very happy to hear that.
01:05:04 --> 01:06:10 For me on control, because I played that a couple of years ago. It was actually my first experience playing on Nvidia's game pass service or Nvidia go or whatever it was, because I wanted to see what the graphics would look like because this is one of the first or the earliest titles that took advantage of ray tracing. And when I played it on that way, it was amazing looking and it ran perfectly. It's a pretty ass game. It looks great even today. It holds up really well. But where I was starting to drop off, but the combat I didn't care for. I just went into the options. There's a whole screen of combat settings, damage, ammo, reload. Like everything you could want to tweak, you can tweak it and you're not penalized at all. The accessibility options are second to none in this game. And because of that, I toned down the combat difficulty because I just love the story in the world and I just want to go through the story and explore the world. And I was able to do that in the back half by toning those options down. It's similar to what we talked about with tunic in an episode before. Accessibility options like that are a game changer for gaming in modern era, and I love that you can do that.
01:06:12 --> 01:06:34 I played the entirety of this game on my Steam deck and just had to make a few tweaks to the graphics for it to run smoothly. And it was still very pretty on Steam deck. I could only sleep it so many times before. I had to actually save and close the game and reopen it and start it fresh because it would start to chug a little after probably 2030 sleeps.
01:06:35 --> 01:06:37 A little bit of memory leak.
01:06:37 --> 01:07:12 Yeah. But I mean, overall, I had a great time playing it on the Steam deck. More often than not, I would end up restarting it, not because of chugging, but because of audio clipping that it would start doing. Because of so many sleeps, it would start audio clipping, and so I'd have to close the game down, reopen it, and it'd kill the audio clipping. But the game itself was so much fun. The acting was actually really good. I found it interesting that the main character was modeled after and voiced by a soap opera actress.
01:07:13 --> 01:07:15 Oh, really? I didn't know that.
01:07:15 --> 01:08:17 Which I feel like that kind of helped the game because soap operas are generally super cheesy. The game was a little cheesy and it worked. So, yeah, control, I had so much fun with it. I actually dug into more of the universe to see how it connected. I read every single page that I picked up in the game. This was a game that I was actively like, I want to read what I'm finding to learn more about this world they've built. And then my only disappointment was there was closure at the end of the game. I wish there was a little bit more in that second DLC that ended up being more of a Alan Wake. Two is coming is what the second DLC ended up being. I was hoping for more control related closure from that. Didn't get it. Still loved the hell out of it. Nice. Even with its shortcomings, it was my favorite game I played last year.
01:08:17 --> 01:08:21 Nice. Great pick. Solid, strong pick.
01:08:22 --> 01:08:29 I hope it gets a sequel, to be honest with you, seeing what they do with already. Yep, I'm all for it. I'd love to see that.
01:08:29 --> 01:08:59 I think they're going to be marrying Alan Wake and control for quite a while. It seems like they're going to just be bedfellow throughout the rest of their livelihood together. Control. I think Control pretty much revived a lot of Remedy's shortcomings. Remedy did Max Payne, I think one and two. I don't think they had anything to do with three, but they started with the Max Payne series. With Rockstar, and then they kind of just went by the wayside and released some stuff that wasn't hot. I thought Quantum break was real good. I really enjoyed that aspect.
01:08:59 --> 01:09:03 But when Control came out, it reviewed kind of okay.
01:09:03 --> 01:09:04 Yeah.
01:09:04 --> 01:09:29 When Control came out, it basically breathed life back into remedy. And then Alan Wake kind of got an eyeball on it for that. And then it kind of made Alan Wake two the juggernaut that we were like, wow, this just came out and everybody's talking about it. Control has done a lot for remedy, and it likely as it should have, because it's a great series. So love it.
01:09:29 --> 01:09:29 Big.
01:09:29 --> 01:09:34 Good pick. Strong pick. All right, GP, are you ready, friend?
01:09:35 --> 01:10:59 Yes. The reason I wanted to go last was just because I want to celebrate real quick just a brief bit of some of the games that came out this year that haven't been discussed, because 2023 really was what they call an embarrassment of riches. And I didn't want to go through that list and mention whatever Wolf's pick was going to be because I didn't know it. I didn't want to take the wind out of his sails there. So thanks for allowing me to do this when I made my list of potential contenders. And of course, this is in no way comprehensive of everything that 2023 gave us. But here's what I got. Tears of the kingdom, Mortal Kombat one, Street Fighter six. Let's examine that. We have both of those that came out this past year. 92 was when the previous Mortal Kombat won, and I think it was Street Fighter two. Turbo came out that year. But anyway, I think that was great. I didn't want to do a remaster, but we got prime remastered. If you had asked me a month ago, I would have said that my winner for game of the year was going to be Mario RPG remaster, which is so funny because it's on in Jake's background, which I've played the fuck out of that, and it has given me the feels. Earlier with charge pick, you guys had talked about the chopper guys getting a hold of your bike and just pimping it out. The Mario RPG remaster to stick with that kind of idea is like, well, we gave your 88 Ford Taurus wifi.
01:10:59 --> 01:11:03 Yeah, right. Sure.
01:11:05 --> 01:13:13 That one gave me such good feels. But anyway, Final Fantasy 16, Spiderman two, so there's a lot. So that was kind of the list I was working off of. And then I remembered something that happened earlier in the year, which time has been wonky lately because of how busy I've been so it didn't really register with me that this was 2023. But, you guys know, I was working. I had also like a side hustle and a part time job, and I was doing school full time. I was just insanely busy for the first half of this year. And there was this very small four day, continuous four day break where I was done with classes. I left my job to rest over the summer, take care of my kids while they were on break. But their school wasn't out yet, and I knew Sea of Stars was going to be coming out, but I hadn't played the messenger, so I played the messenger, and I was addicted to that in a way that I hadn't really been addicted to a game since. Not just doing like, I mean, during the retro therapy days, absolutely. But it took me back to that obsession level of my youth. And it's so funny that Chard went on his thing saying, I don't know what GP's thoughts are on this, and this is my ugly ass handwriting, but as you can see, the messenger was the one that took it. Also, there's GP and chard, and I heart sinister and wolf prime and sick prime. Anyway, I love you guys. What I'm saying is, the messenger took it. I had every intention of beating it in preparation for Sea of Stars. I haven't played Sea of Stars yet. I will get to it this year. But the messenger, I played it, beat it, replayed it, beat it, like new game plus or new game plus plus, and then started new files, and I just can't get enough of it. I've played it so many times where I don't know that there are very many other new ways for me to experience it. But hell, I mean, I should have tried this after I watched werewolf play through it, but I didn't. And then I had this four day break, and that's basically what it was. I think I took a break to go to the bathroom, eat a little bit of food, and I think I maybe played twisted metal. But anyway, other than that, I got.
01:13:13 --> 01:13:41 To say the messenger is a GP game in all intents. Like, seeing how it's designed and how it plays and playing it myself, this totally screams guy prime all over it. And I'm very happy that you gotten a chance. And I don't know, we didn't plan this. I don't know. Just because starve, said the messenger, we're in the same universe. And I know that Jake and Wolf Gush about the messenger quite often.
01:13:41 --> 01:13:43 Oh, yeah, one of my favorite we.
01:13:43 --> 01:13:47 Did episode on that back in 2020.
01:13:48 --> 01:13:50 It's witty, it's clever.
01:13:50 --> 01:13:59 It's a great game. It's a really great game, and it's a great universe that spawned my all time favorite of 2023. So that's awesome. I love the music.
01:14:00 --> 01:14:07 I love how the music in the eight and 16 bit is different. I like how the music changes when you go under the water. It changes tone, and there's a lot.
01:14:07 --> 01:14:15 Of subtle changes and differences that happen in the game that are just kind of like the future is high res.
01:14:18 --> 01:14:25 After this episode goes out and gets published, go back and watch when you announce your pick for number one, and you'll see this like.
01:14:27 --> 01:14:28 It couldn't have.
01:14:28 --> 01:14:31 Been planned out any better. Well done.
01:14:31 --> 01:14:33 Excellent message is great.
01:14:33 --> 01:14:37 Thank you for kind of word vomit there, but, yeah, very nice.
01:14:37 --> 01:14:45 A strong choice. It is a good game. I finally got off my ass. I think it was gifted to me by either sinistar or Jake or somebody gifted it to me.
01:14:45 --> 01:14:48 Well, somebody gifted it to me, too. And it was one of.
01:14:48 --> 01:15:33 We were like, all right, I'll give it a shot. And I sat down on the steam deck, and I was like, you know what? We've been playing sea of stars. There's a connection to this. Wolf is dming me pictures of characters from the messenger for me to match up and see a stars, and he's doing his Charlie Dave fucking connection theory that he's telling you with a connected to every fucking mouth hanging out. All right, I got to play this so I can understand. And I did, and I was like, holy shit, these are all, like, all the same guys. He's not wrong. So messenger is awesome story. It's a lot of fun. I am not good enough to finish it. I've been trying, but I am stuck towards the end of the game. We have to collect all the stuff, but great game. Good choice. Good call. Love it.
01:15:33 --> 01:15:43 Yeah. Because of Sea of Stars, I went back and played quite a few hours of the messenger last year. I had so much fun doing that again, too, so, yes. Strong pick, sir.
01:15:43 --> 01:15:45 These are great choices.
01:15:45 --> 01:15:52 I feel like Jake and I have been telling you to play that for years. I'm glad you finally landed. So.
01:15:54 --> 01:16:12 Have to. I have egg on my face. I should have listened. I should have done it right then. And I didn't talk about it with you guys too much because I was so inundated with stuff. And on my hiatus from the show, that was truly a fun and memorable experience.
01:16:12 --> 01:16:13 Nice.
01:16:13 --> 01:16:24 I think at one point, I'd even brought down a tv so I could stream the Netflix daredevil. So I binged that while I was also playing this. It really was like 7th grade for me all over again. It was great.
01:16:24 --> 01:16:25 Nice.
01:16:25 --> 01:16:29 It says something that when you said the messenger, I'm like, I'm going to install it again.
01:16:30 --> 01:17:10 Yeah, I saw you get a little choppy there, so you must be downloading something or installing. Doesn't get old on your steam deck, bro. Play it on the steam deck. Plays great on the steam deck. Sweet. All right, nice. So that's 2023. What a phenomenal. This was a phenomenal year. Jake's not wrong, and GP is not wrong about the embarrassment of riches we had. There were so many options. I had Final Fantasy 16 that was going to take it, and then I got tired of picking everybody's goddamn flowers, so that pissed me off, so I didn't finish it. However, it's still a really good game. It couldn't beat sea of stars. It just wasn't going to happen.
01:17:10 --> 01:17:17 How embarrassing of riches a year is it when there's Final Fantasy 16 and armored core six?
01:17:18 --> 01:18:25 And neither of them got picked. Neither register game, by the way. Both armored core, fantastic game. Final Fantasy six is really good if you can get past the fetch quest crap. The fights are epic, epic, epic. The fights are so good, and they carry that game and it doesn't annoy me. Like Final Fantasy seven annoyed me. It just was like, there seems to be for 16, the fights are great, but there's like a lull in between each epic thing that happens, and it's almost too long. Like they need to cut some of that story filler down and then just let it roll because it's strong on its own. But I turn into Jake. I'm bored. I'm tired of all this filler. I want more of the stimulation that I've been getting from turning into a giant etelon and fighting these gigantic summon creatures. And then I got to go pick flowers. It's like you peek, you get up, you're climaxing, and then you just dive bomb, and then it starts to climb again, and then it dive bombs again, and it's like, look, I can't take this anymore.
01:18:25 --> 01:18:29 I have a phrase. It's called the work tax. You got to pay the work is.
01:18:29 --> 01:18:39 Yeah, apparently. Apparently I need to do a job, too. Armor Corps is really good. I haven't finished it. That's why I couldn't rightfully give it any kind of leverage. It's so good.
01:18:39 --> 01:18:55 I was talking even in the world of not just our game awards, but the actual game awards. How good of a year is it when Final Fantasy 16 and armored corps six are kind of like runners up in the award, right?
01:18:55 --> 01:18:56 You're not wrong.
01:18:56 --> 01:19:16 Any other year, they would have been number one for a lot of folks. Right? Easily, easily even. Like the other game was Cyberpunk 2077, which is. You want to talk about the redemption arc for a game? Phantom Liberty. We got 2.0 DLC and the 2.0 itself, which completely redoes the game. Yeah, and what a fantastic game. That is.
01:19:16 --> 01:19:20 Weird to throw in there with the DLC for ninja Turtles. Shredders, revenge.
01:19:23 --> 01:19:34 It's just too much like last year. There was so much good stuff. Balder's gate three was just left field for most of us. We were like. And then it turned into what it turned into.
01:19:35 --> 01:19:53 I think Balder's gate three could have been higher on my list if it weren't for my pc's issues that it was having. To be fair, Balder's gate three is what finally got me to figure out what the hell was wrong with my computer and why it was blue screening. It should win because it helps, right?
01:19:54 --> 01:19:54 Yeah.
01:19:54 --> 01:19:54 Right.
01:19:54 --> 01:20:22 And I haven't had a single blue screen since I found out I had a bad stick of ram. Sent it into g skill. They sent it back week and a half later, not an issue since. So now I'll be able to play through Balder's gate three and enjoy it instead of wondering if my computer is just going to crash the game or completely reset. Because I've tested it since and it didn't have any issues. I just have not sit down to play it.
01:20:22 --> 01:20:28 Larian. Yeah, Larry Larian got you off your ass to fix your.
01:20:28 --> 01:20:31 Thank you for saving our friend's pc. We appreciate it.
01:20:32 --> 01:20:52 Well, I want to take a quick moment. I want to take a quick moment and say, everybody listening, hey, please comment on the videos or like or subscribe or go to our discord. Tell us what your game of the year is and what your runner ups give us. 16 runner ups break all the rules, but come and talk to us.
01:20:52 --> 01:21:24 Pressbytocancel.com yes, I was just going to get all that stuff. We do have a discord that we are in there quite frequently. Sinister Jake, werewolf guy, prime and myself are always available to chat on there. We talk about previous episodes. We talk about current issues. Well, current episodes, not really issues. And we even have fuck around stuff, food, all kinds of fun stuff you could post on there. It's a good time. You can find us@pressbeedocants.com. Obviously here on YouTube and over on Twitch as well. I don't know if we did both streaming today, but we've been trying to get that figured out, getting a new.
01:21:24 --> 01:21:31 Computer in a week. Once that happens, we will be doing twitch along with YouTube.
01:21:31 --> 01:21:59 Also, we post all of our audio episodes on Monday at all streaming platforms. So you can check us out on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, music all over the place. And if there's a place that you can't find us that you go to all the time, please tell us. Jake will make his magical wand make it happen. So please do so. Is there anything else? Let's go around, Robin. Jake, besides the brand new computer that you got coming in, what else do you have up on your docket, sir?
01:22:00 --> 01:22:20 Nothing, except that I just want to say hell divers two is fantastic. Everybody should be playing hell divers two, especially if you got friends to play with. That's awesome. We should do an episode on that, possibly. Yeah, and also possibly game of the year as Bellatro, which is a poker rogue. Like, it's like $13. I need you guys to all buy it.
01:22:20 --> 01:22:21 1350.
01:22:22 --> 01:22:22 Go buy it.
01:22:22 --> 01:22:26 You sucked me into inscription. Okay? You get one a year. All right.
01:22:28 --> 01:22:39 It's not like inscription in terms of the narrative, but the gameplay, it seems so simple, but it's ridiculous, and I'm hooked on it. I think I've spent more time in Belairo than I have in hell divers.
01:22:39 --> 01:22:42 Which is wild sinstress is playing, right?
01:22:42 --> 01:22:43 I saw her fire that.
01:22:43 --> 01:22:44 Yeah, I saw that.
01:22:45 --> 01:22:48 She says it's not a poker game.
01:22:48 --> 01:22:49 Yeah, well, I like.
01:22:49 --> 01:22:53 No, it's roguelike. That involves poker rules.
01:22:54 --> 01:22:58 I think Jake also intends to go through the Yakuza franchise at points this year.
01:22:58 --> 01:23:03 Yeah, the entire gamut of them.
01:23:03 --> 01:23:06 A number of us bought the entire gamut.
01:23:06 --> 01:23:07 Zero through seven.
01:23:07 --> 01:23:07 Thanks.
01:23:07 --> 01:23:09 When it's $30. How can you not?
01:23:09 --> 01:23:11 I mean, that's a steal.
01:23:13 --> 01:23:17 For me on the PS four, though, after I.
01:23:17 --> 01:23:22 Got that steam deck. I've been playing a hell of a lot more video games, so I have room to play games like Yakuza now.
01:23:22 --> 01:23:35 Nice. All right, sinister. Sinistar does have kind of a minor announcement that you brought up, I think, last episode, but you actually committed this week. So what do you got going on?
01:23:35 --> 01:24:32 Yeah, I am back to streaming on Twitch, twitch, tVCinestar 77, so that I don't burn out. I am currently sticking with one offs or rogue likes or something that I don't have to dread, either playing off stream and continuing past people that want to watch me stream it or something that I have to wait until the next time I stream. But yeah, that's currently the plan. And my next episode, which should probably be Monday, I picked up a pretty slick adapter that lets me use actual hardware, n 64 controllers. And there is the awesome Mr. Core for the n 64 that's come a long way. So I'm going to be playing some Nintendo 64 games this coming Monday.
01:24:32 --> 01:24:36 Can't wait to watch our drive through tunnels. It's going to be a great time.
01:24:36 --> 01:24:40 And half pipes and outside of tunnels and candles, space is cool.
01:24:40 --> 01:24:42 Inside and outside tunnels.
01:24:42 --> 01:24:44 Have you been through tunnels?
01:24:44 --> 01:24:45 Yeah.
01:24:45 --> 01:24:48 GP. What do you got going on, my friend?
01:24:48 --> 01:24:52 Most immediately a four minute piss coming up right after this episode.
01:24:52 --> 01:24:54 I could see you shake, so I'll try and cut it short.
01:24:54 --> 01:25:15 No, I'm so amped up for the Final Fantasy seven remake installment that I'm going to use that as leverage to get through a few things I wanted to do first. Most immediately, mega man eleven, Cinnastar. I need to fire that up and get that done. That was a gift and it's been killing me that I haven't done that yet.
01:25:15 --> 01:25:16 Great game.
01:25:16 --> 01:25:27 I'm going to get through Final Fantasy ten. That's going to be the big one. And then of course, for the reasons we discussed earlier, Sea of Stars. And once I've got those off my plate, diving into the seven remakes.
01:25:27 --> 01:25:31 Yeah, I know that seven is calling me.
01:25:31 --> 01:25:34 I know. And I know what that means for you because you hated that so much.
01:25:34 --> 01:25:36 So angry at it, so mad at it.
01:25:37 --> 01:25:37 Come on.
01:25:37 --> 01:25:39 I think I can change it. I'm like, I want to change.
01:25:39 --> 01:25:41 Come on, buddy, change it.
01:25:42 --> 01:25:43 I can change it.
01:25:43 --> 01:25:45 I can change the game. That's already done.
01:25:46 --> 01:25:47 Things are going to change.
01:25:47 --> 01:25:51 Listen, if it shows up in my steam account, we'll see what happens.
01:25:51 --> 01:25:53 Things are going to change. I can feel it.
01:25:53 --> 01:25:55 I can feel it. Wow.
01:25:55 --> 01:25:55 Loser.
01:25:56 --> 01:26:02 Soy Paradidor to me, my x man werewolf. What do you got going on, bud? What do you got coming up?
01:26:02 --> 01:26:10 Eventually I'm going to move that PS four down here and start playing Okami for my sisyphean game.
01:26:10 --> 01:26:10 Yes.
01:26:12 --> 01:26:43 The reason I haven't yet is because we were playing through the quarry and we kind of stopped, me and the wife. I do want to finish that before I move the PS four. That way I don't have to drag it upstairs again. And then I have a list of 36 games on my keep list that I intend on playing through and I don't have them in any specific order. I just actually made myself a list of. These are games I absolutely want to get through and I need to make that happen.
01:26:44 --> 01:27:05 I'm doing that right now with open world games because I've been playing the witcher three. I'm on the first dlc, so I'm toward the end game. And because my stretch goal is more open world games. Wolf, I have this problem as well because I have like 30 open world games that I've never finished and I'm trying to figure out which ones.
01:27:05 --> 01:27:16 Open world games just on this list. I've got the Witcher three. I've got the rest of the Yakuza franchise. I've got sonic frontiers. I have the Mass effect.
01:27:16 --> 01:27:17 How you beat that.
01:27:17 --> 01:27:18 No, I didn't.
01:27:18 --> 01:27:20 Mass Effect I beat so good. I love Mass Effect too.
01:27:20 --> 01:27:21 It's a great game.
01:27:24 --> 01:27:32 Balder's Gate Dragons, dogma, Final Fantasy twelve, grand Theft Auto five. So many open world games. It's stupid.
01:27:32 --> 01:27:34 Wolf, part of your list. Sounds like my list.
01:27:34 --> 01:27:37 Yeah, there's very reminiscents on there.
01:27:37 --> 01:27:39 Balder's gate three.
01:27:41 --> 01:27:50 I got Phantom Liberty, no man's sky near automata. I think I figured out seven years long.
01:27:50 --> 01:27:59 I think I figured out what my first stretch goal is. I think I figured it out. You guys know I said it on Mt. I think it's going to be Assassin's Creed, black Flag.
01:27:59 --> 01:28:11 It's a great game. Really good. My favorite of the franchise. Yeah, I've got Nero replicant and Nero Automata that I wanted to throw up on there. But yeah, I guess this is a good segue.
01:28:11 --> 01:28:12 Hundreds of hours?
01:28:12 --> 01:30:18 That's too much. I. I am an overachiever and have finished my Sisafine challenge and playthrough. So I finished Horizon Zero dawn. Amazing game. Holy shit. As Sinister stated earlier, we don't get choked up on a lot of games we've been playing. That game pulls at your heartstrings on a number of occasions, especially the ending. Absolutely incredible game. Go play Horizon Zero dawn. Fucking amazing. I have started up forbidden west. I have not gotten very far into it because the team decided it would be better that I liberate bugs on planets than it would be to watch Aloy run around and shoot robots with a bow and arrow, which was a good call because it was a lot of fun, but I will be returning back to Forbidden West. I have also done the unthinkable and purchased Shadow of the urge tree as soon as it was announced because I am that guy. So when we're done with Forbidden west, there's a strong possibility that we will be returning back to the lands between to get some fun stuff and Jake, Sinistar and myself have an idea that has brewed amongst the three of us for the next sampling of Elden Ring, which should be super entertaining and fun if I can pull it off the way we talked about it. So without spoiling anything, keep ears open and come check out Elden ring theater here. Hopefully in the next couple of months we'll see what happens, but June 20 Shadow the RT tree will be released and then control Alan Wake. Two bunch of games on my list that are going to get done this year hopefully and we'll see what happens. But come catch me on Twitch. WW dot Twitch tvchardbunk that's where I'm at and I'm usually hanging out with these guys there as well. So with that, I think that is our stellar episode of 2023. Strong choices, beautiful people. I love you guys. You know what my favorite thing of 2023 is? Doing this show with you guys. And that is the truth.
01:30:18 --> 01:30:18 Same.
01:30:18 --> 01:30:19 So there you go.
01:30:19 --> 01:30:26 Love you guys. All right, love you. And with that we have been press b to cancel.
01:30:27 --> 01:30:29 Lady, you are school and dirt for loosing.