Game of the Year 2023

[00:00:00] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Pre-Order Bonus podcast. It's the end of the year. It's December 18th 2023, the final episode of the Pre-Order Bonus for 2023. And it's the one you've all been waiting for, the Game of the Year. Game of the Game

[00:00:33] of the Year. We have great audio effects in here. There's going to be a reverb that Jake is going to add in, and it's going to be great. And it's going to just be perfect. It'll blow

[00:00:43] your mind. He's going to spend hours working on that. Well, Jake, we're, yeah, we're joined by Jake Price. You guys know it right now. Come on. Always. We were supposed to do

[00:00:56] this last week, but I'll just let our listeners know that I came down with a flu confirmed. And let me just tell you the flu zero out of 10. Do not recommend. Sucks, man. Sucks. Yeah, the flu is not great. Super bad. Didn't play any video games. When

[00:01:17] you're sick, when you're so sick that and you're laying on the couch and you don't even feel well enough to like crack open a video game, that's when you know it's really bad. Yeah. So instead I watched the three and a half hour Martin Scorsese

[00:01:29] epic killers of the flower moon while I was like barely alive, which in hindsight, I do not actually recommend watching that movie. That's not the intended viewing experience has come down with a bad case. Pretty good movie. Yeah. Good, good, very

[00:01:46] good movie, very good film, but extremely depressing. You'll watch it once and they were watched again. So if you're looking for some Christmas cheer, you will not find it in that movie. So save that for the new year. I would recommend.

[00:02:01] Very cool. Yeah, I let's see. I actually have been to the movie theaters. I saw the boy in the heron and Godzilla minus one. I got all I'm going to say is that I've never seen any Godzilla movie before. And I don't know if I want to

[00:02:15] watch any other ones because this one was actually like super emotional. Like it was awesome to watch. I really enjoyed it. I have heard nothing but incredible reviews for Godzilla minus one and I really wanted to go and kind of lost my chance, I think to go.

[00:02:32] Well, at least with another person, maybe I'll go by myself like everybody listening. I did the morning solo matinee experience. Highly recommended. Yes, people will look at you like you're a sad lonely person, but you will have the best viewing experience in the theater.

[00:02:49] You know what? Best way to watch a movie, man. Get your popcorn or get your drink. You're just chilling there in the seat. No one's bothering you. You don't have to, you know, that's great stuff. It's just you and the screen.

[00:02:59] It's wonderful. Jake, I didn't play any video games last week. What did you play? I finished Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion. Wow. Really? Yeah. I liked it. It's a remaster or something technically from

[00:03:23] a PSP game from like 15 years ago and it feels like a PSP game from 15 years ago, but so I don't know. I put it on like easy mode and there's enough like build crafting and stuff that you can personalize how you fight. You

[00:03:39] can do all the battles. So I like had fun. I enjoyed it. I think if you're diehard Final Fantasy 7 fan or if like me, you want to do some prep before Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, it is worth it. Otherwise, maybe just watch a YouTube

[00:03:54] video. I don't know. I'll probably watch the YouTube video, to be honest. Fair enough. Although speaking of Final Fantasy, I came upon this article while I was ill. Nice. That was here's the games that were in the GeForce

[00:04:14] now leak from like two years ago that still don't have release dates. Every single one of the games on that list have either been announced or have come out. Holy crap. And one of them is Final Fantasy 9 Remake, which is

[00:04:31] my favorite Final Fantasy all time. So I'm ready for it. So I'm guessing we'll get some marketing for that after Rebirth comes out. So the rumor with that one though, if I remember correctly is that it's not

[00:04:45] going to be at the same scale Final Fantasy 7. It's just going to be one singular game and it's going to be relatively faithful to the original like turn based combat and stuff. Is that correct? Right. Right. Right. I've heard that. Yeah. I've heard it's more of

[00:05:00] like a facelift than like a complete, you know, Final Fantasy 7 Remakes obviously like a crazy level of remakes. Right. OK. Well, interesting. So yeah, we've heard nothing official on that. But I think you're totally right. We're not going to hear anything

[00:05:17] official on that if we do, right? Until after Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is kind of the hype has died down a bit. They need to spend at least $100 million more dollars on paid ads before. Before you're going to be, you're going to see

[00:05:35] so many ads for Rebirth. Just yeah, just get ready starting. I mean, they're everywhere now, but I feel like the start and starting January 1st, right? They'll be everywhere. Well, Jake, it is the end of the year. Obviously, like I said,

[00:05:50] December 18th is going to be our last episode of the year. So we're going to be going into the holiday break. Prime gaming time. Yes. Obviously, you know, we've kind of we played everything right? We're doing our game of the year episode like

[00:06:06] we've pretty much played everything. Jake, what are you going to be playing over this winter break backlog? I am so excited actually. Crisis Core was in my backlog. The only current games that I'm playing right now are Spirit T and

[00:06:22] Wild Irons Hot. And they're games that will just take forever, but Finish Crisis Core, I'm playing through Alan Wake's American Nightmare right now. I'm going to do some more return to the Oberden and then I'm going to actually start Final

[00:06:38] Fantasy VII Integrate to the Yuffie episode. And I think I actually have a bunch of PlayStation games that I'm going to crack open. That's kind of where I'm going to my backlog. I'm excited though. Yeah, I'm also excited, planning to take some daytime gaming time. Nothing better than

[00:06:57] playing games during the day, you know, when you're a 35 year old father, like there's just that that daylight gaming time is just so rare that it's a special time. When do you get it? Oh yeah, it feels good. It almost feels wrong, you know,

[00:07:14] it feels wrong, but you know, like, you know, a little bit right. Yeah, away. Oh, yeah. I'm saying. No, I have a let's see, I am planning to play against the storm, which just at Game Pass that's been on my backlog for a while. Have you

[00:07:28] heard of this one? No, actually, I thought I did, but I'm thinking of something else. So it's a survival city builder with as interesting concept where you have like this queen or king overlord that's like telling you to do stuff, but

[00:07:46] then you have this like a poison rain, which is this thing that's going to come and come on down in your city. And so you have to it's like frostpunky slash city buildery slash some like other stuff looks really cool has overwhelming overwhelmingly

[00:08:03] positive reviews on steam and just hit PC game pass. So I'm gonna try that one out. I dipped back into the Hitman Ooh. Hitman World of Assassination roguelike mode, which is just really, really good. Just like incredible. Just like an amazing

[00:08:22] arcade style version of that game that's like really addicting. So did back in that and I'm like committed to do a full run. It's it's super hard. I'm sure it's really, really hard. Because, you know, obviously the targets

[00:08:37] are random every time you go into a level. And if you don't know the levels extremely well, it just is really tough. And then they give you bonus objectives to get like more cash that are like sometimes impossible to pull off because

[00:08:53] of the random roles that you get. But you still try and figure out if you can do it and you can't and then you fail and die. So That is cool. Yeah, World of Hitman is what it's called now, right? It's kind of morphed into this live

[00:09:06] service, C type of thing. Yeah, I mean, it's it's done. It just is like everything they've done for those games packaged up into one game. And if you haven't played this like World of Assassination, this is one of the most valued, like

[00:09:19] chunky pieces of game out there. And I think it this is still on Game Pass actually. Yeah, actually, just to our own horn, please go listen to our Hitman three episode we covered this game. This is this game floored me and this is not my

[00:09:35] jam, typically. It is just so well done. Yeah, so go listen to that episode if you're on the fence. And even if you don't think you like Hitman, just keep in mind this studio is making a bond game. Yeah. And if you

[00:09:52] like bond and you kind of want to know what you should expect, play this and you'll understand why this is the perfect pairing of a game. Yeah. Yeah, shoot, thinking about it. Hitman three I was surprised at myself because I didn't think

[00:10:05] I was going to beat it and I ended up beating it on normal mode not uneasy, which for me was a real shocker because it was just too much fun. Yeah. Love that one. Great game. Anyway, so I'll be dipping the back into that and then I

[00:10:19] also started my dark urge playthrough of bouldersgate three on tactician mode, which I'm about 10 hours into that. I think I started a dragonborn monk. Nice. Nice. Is struggling with wanting to murder literally everybody. And let me just tell you the dark urge thing like story twists,

[00:10:46] having played like a good just normal playthrough are absolutely wild. Like I've had my literally jaw drop to the floor multiple times of just crazy crap they do in the story. That's insane. Yeah, basically it for for without giving away

[00:11:06] too much. The dark urge is basically that you are a psycho killer inside and you have crazy dark thoughts about wanting to kill everybody. And you're doing this on tactician. Yeah. And I'm doing this on that sounds nuts.

[00:11:22] What's it you want to hear something even more nuts? So they added in a most recent patch. Honor mode. Oh, which is one save file. No. So it's it's an Iron Man mode. And it's tactician difficulty plus for bosses. They've added quote and I quote

[00:11:45] legendary move sets to the bosses so they can just do random crazy shiz to like blow you up. And this is a on this is like a real mode that like they say is like beatable and people are doing this like they're streaming their honor mode

[00:12:02] runs. And obviously, you know, being 25 hours in and just randomly dying to some crazy thing because the game is crazy. Like there's so much RNG and obviously dice rolling. And I anyway, apparently if you beat honor mode, you get like

[00:12:19] they like ship you like dice. I think that's like the yeah, it's crazy. I gotta find a streamer who's doing that. That sounds like the same thing to watch because because I'll never attempt it. The other thing that I'm also I think going to dip into is

[00:12:38] the God of War Valhalla DLC God of War Ragnarok DLC is supposed to be amazing. So I feel like I got to jump in like that's and it's free and people are loving it. Oh, I forgot to mention I actually did pick up Resident Evil 4 remake. So

[00:12:55] listeners, if that's a game you want to hear an episode on you'll probably get one in the near future. Dude, if you start that, you will not. That'll be your game. So just be aware like that will be excited to hear because it

[00:13:12] takes place like in Spain, right? I think we've talked about this before. Yes, I'm excited to hear. I'm excited to hear that. You know, it's very not very often you get to hear that really nice thick. It's fun

[00:13:26] hearing that every time every time it just you know, it just gives it just pleases me to shout out to our Spaniard listeners. We're excited that there's a game that takes place in your country with the formal the formal ascento, which

[00:13:40] is nice. Also, you know, I do they say Tios like are they always just I don't know I'll play it. I'll play it and I'll give you guys my linguistic analysis. There's a mix. There's a mix. Yeah. So yeah, now I'm looking for to

[00:13:55] break looking forward to some games should be super fun. Also the finals. Oh, dude, the finals is great. I haven't been loving that. And the finals is great. Have you ever played the finals yet arena shooter? Like probably the

[00:14:07] first FPS I played in a while where I where I feel like they actually like legitimately have done some interesting stuff that's like, okay, like I can buy into this. This is this is super fun. Yeah, it's cool objectives for the arena shooter. I think listeners

[00:14:23] you could probably anticipate an episode on the finals sometime in the in the beginning of the new year as well. Well, Jake, with that, let's dive into our game of the year episode. Jake, tell everybody how are we going

[00:14:36] to break down our game of the year selections? I know we do it a little bit differently than than everybody else. How are we going to do it? Alright, folks, you cannot escape our categories if you're a first time listener, all of our episodes are based

[00:14:50] on certain categories. We always talk about the narrative mechanics gameplay loop and then what we believe to be the impact on the industry for each games. And so what we do for a game of the year episode is we kind of use those categories. We pick

[00:15:01] our favorite narrative game for like best narrative, best mechanics, best gameplay loop and then Cameron and I each talk about our favorite game of the year. So we each have separate lists and what we're going to do this time which is a little

[00:15:14] different just to kind of celebrate the amazing year that was 2023 for games that came out is that we'll each talk about three from each category. So for example when we do best narrative, I'll go first, I'll talk about three games that I

[00:15:28] liked and then I'll tell you which one was my best narrative. Then Cameron will take a turn, he'll talk about three best narrative games he enjoyed and then talk about the one that was his best narrative for 2023. We'll work our way through the narrative mechanics and gameplay loop

[00:15:42] categories, then we'll each talk about our game of the year and sort of decide or you know explain why that's our favorite game of 2023. Before we get into that though I asked our discord community that same thing I said hey this is

[00:15:57] how we're doing our game of the year episode, what would you guys pick for these categories? So just a quick run down there and then we'll start with my best narrative picks for 2023. First one on here is from real Dave Jackson who

[00:16:10] runs a Tales from the backlog podcast. Please go check that one out, fantastic one. So his narrative game of the year was Baldur's Gate 3 for mechanics, Tears of the Kingdom, gameplay loop, Resident Evil 4 and then game of the year Baldur's Gate 3 which he has been hyping up

[00:16:29] Resi 4 also so I'm excited. Narita Boy narrative game Octopath Traveler 2 if there were a handful of games that got snubbed at the game awards it was Octopath Traveler 2. Not even best RPG right? So narrative for him there and then mechanics,

[00:16:49] Tears of the Kingdom, gameplay loop, cocoon and then game of the year Juson which folks do not sleep on Juson that's still on game passes from Don't Nod. Let's see I also challenge people to pick what they thought mine would be and Narita Boy put

[00:17:06] for mine he thinks narratives can be Alan Wake 2, mechanics Liza P, gameplay loop on guard and then game of the year Alan Wake 2 sit tight and you'll figure out if you were correct. Narita Boy, Black Orchid I love these picks too narrative cyberpunk phantom liberty

[00:17:21] now you played that right Cameron are you played some of that yes yeah so that was that was their pick mechanics Star Wars Jedi survivor which another one of the game awards that I was kind of expecting a little more

[00:17:34] um gameplay loop high-fi rush in the game of the year Star Wars Jedi survivor which dude is I think a very worthy game of the year pick right absolutely let's see we've just got a few more

[00:17:47] to get to uh Snacktaku mentioned some now I know that they felt like they didn't play enough but I did want to talk about some of the games that they picked which were mechanics Tears of the Kingdom they said that they hadn't played enough of

[00:18:03] Day the Diver but they felt like gameplay loop was probably their number one their narrative Baldur's Gate 3 as well and then I think we've just got one more here yeah here's the last one last one is from Stefan Neuromaniac Maniac Mac I can't sorry I'm butchering your your

[00:18:21] handle but a narrative Alan Wake 2 mechanics armored core six gameplay loop armored core six game of the year Alan Wake 2 and I just love how very these lists really are there's a lot in common there but also it's just been a great year for gaming so

[00:18:36] shout out to those great lists that you guys all put together and shared with us alright absolutely talking a lot but I'm going first here it is drum roll I'll probably edit this in if I remember Jake let me preface this

[00:18:53] so we're doing three we're doing one but we have but wait I just because this is how we did it I just want to make sure mm-hmm we're doing three each yes so three each per category but there's one winner

[00:19:09] but just like one winner like two okay you know what I mean got it because there's too many games too many games yeah yep yep okay cool all right so best narrative of 2023 for for me

[00:19:22] my three picks were Baldur's Gate 3 uh Alan Wake 2 and then El Paso Elsewhere El Paso Elsewhere is an indie game that came from Strange Scaffold maybe some of you haven't heard of it that's why I'm taking the time to talk about it phenomenal writing phenomenal voice acting just

[00:19:41] really really wonderful storytelling there so one of the best for me obviously Baldur's Gate 3 I think it's like the ultimate narrative sandbox but folks if you know me my pick was Alan Wake 2

[00:19:53] for best narrative and if you want a lot of deep reasons and analysis why please listen to Alan Wake 2 episodes that just came out but briefly what I want to say is I think Alan Wake 2 for me marks

[00:20:05] a turning point in stories that are focusing on meta narrative which is great I think meta narrative and making you know references to people you know breaking the fourth wall and all that

[00:20:18] stuff has become quite commonplace there's a lot of tropes surrounding that Alan Wake 2 I think is actually taking it a step further by just thinking about how what meta really means but also not

[00:20:31] just what art piece does to the person who's consuming it but what the person does to the art piece that they are enjoying or viewing or in the case of Alan Wake 2 playing so I'm a huge

[00:20:43] fan of that I think narratively it just really embodies the interactive nature of video games in a super cool super wacky way super unique way so to me best narrative 2023 Alan Wake 2 amazing picks narrative so my two runner-ups are Alan Wake 2 and cyberpunk phantom liberty cyberpunk phantom

[00:21:13] liberty I think has the most Hollywood-esque narrative of the bunch and obviously like it helps you have Idris Elba in there bringing his chops just super duper cinematic you know high

[00:21:35] fidelity AAA of AAA like experience the best content in that game I put in you know quite a few hours in cyberpunk and played the main narrative and the phantom liberty stuff is the

[00:21:48] best stuff that's in the game by far it's just very cool very interesting like spy stuff with some like interest very interesting like branching stuff not not like RPG branching choice type stuff but just like you choose one thing and it makes a different outcome happen and those

[00:22:07] outcomes are pretty wild Alan Wake 2 you know Jake you already said it kind of the reasons there but you know I can't really deny this one even though it didn't impact me from a narrative

[00:22:19] standpoint like as much as I think it did other people I can't really deny this one just because of like it just does so much so well and I just have to put it on my list even though for me

[00:22:29] personally it didn't it just it didn't resonate like specifically like the type of story it was trying to sell which leads me to my number one pick which is boulders gate 3 without a question um yeah boulders gate 3 I mean

[00:22:45] this is like just such a well crafted fantasy story that is just dripping with cool dripping with suspense and like real stakes paced just impeccably well despite being a 100 million hour game all the way through you know

[00:23:15] act 3 it finds ways to kind of change things up to surprise you to shock you to like bring loops into this just wild and crazy like fantasy story and then on top of that the reason it's number

[00:23:30] one which I think it should be number one is the fact that you can manipulate that story and every single thread that you pull as the same level of quality as any other thread just to like the

[00:23:42] nth degree and the quality is just ridiculous um and so and then you know and those are all impactful I think on an emotional level uh like on a cinematic level and just on like a well told

[00:23:57] interesting plot of just purely just being interested I mean I was riveted by this game for 120 hours and just could not pull away to the so much so that I'm playing it again

[00:24:08] and it's still like just draws me in so bg3 boulders gate 3 my narrative yeah I think what an achievement for boulders gate 3 to have as big of a cast as it does and give each

[00:24:21] member that casts like justice right and their due time and then the yeah to me it's the ultimate narrative sandbox you mess with it in this way and the game responds in that way wild that's its most

[00:24:33] impressive achievement is the cinematic voice acting and the fact that every single line of dialogue in that game is impeccably voiced every single line and it's wild and the other thing is it's all skippable too which that sounds like counter of two different me to say that

[00:24:55] but the fact is like nobody's got time to do that much reading sometimes you just want to like keep the game moving and the fact that like boulders gate 3 is like yeah you hit the space bar

[00:25:06] it's an immediate skip to the next scene like zero interruptions zero lag it's just such a insane quality of life feature anyway it's yeah it's just it's an insane achievement I don't even

[00:25:20] think we'll get another game like this ever again to be honest it's like one of those level of situations I said that about red dead redemption too as well I just like I don't think we'll get

[00:25:30] we'll ever get a game like that again like in that setting I don't think this will happen again I don't I don't either yeah which is funny I think with um thinking about remedy um controlled to an allen wake 3 I'm very confident there's gonna be a trilogy there

[00:25:50] it'll be I'm really curious where they're gonna go from there if they're kind of breaking down meta narrative how they can keep iterating on that and keep breaking it down to make something

[00:26:03] new we'll see but should we should we move on to best mechanics let's do it okay I'm gonna I like the way that you frame this so I'm gonna do this my two runner-ups for best mechanics of 2023 are

[00:26:18] on guard which dude oh my gosh so good those mechanics are so freaking good and you know please go listen to the episode that we did on on guard but it it's wild to me they must have

[00:26:31] spent I don't know 80% of their time perfecting the melee combat and interacting with the environment and then not to say that the other 20% is bad but when the core I mean to me on guard is just

[00:26:44] further proof that like when the core mechanics the chief way that you interact with the game are just rock solid your game is going to be so fun right so that's that's why for that's why

[00:26:57] I had to mention on guard is in there the next runner-up is the legend of Zelda tears of the kingdom obviously a mechanic sandbox that is just totally mind-blowing I just love that it didn't really

[00:27:14] rinse and repeat with breath of the wilds mechanics that you have different abilities you're interacting with the world in a different way you're building a lot of things but also a lot

[00:27:23] of like these abilities turn into quality of life you know like when you're deep in the mountain side and you're exploring a cave instead of trying to work your way out you can just use a send and

[00:27:33] zip to the top of a mountain for example right and then you're in a brand new place to explore and so I just feel like the mechanics interact with that with the world so beautifully

[00:27:44] that you know one of the best games mechanically 2023 but in here with my number one pick what I believe to be my winner of best mechanics of 2023 you'll see a bit of my prejudice and I picked

[00:27:56] lies of pee folks I'm gonna say it so I know it's a little controversial please go listen to our lies of pee episode but I think lies of plea lies of pee mechanically is on par if not better than

[00:28:10] some of from softs own games obviously it's following the bloodborne route when it comes to melee and exploration and in world to a certain extent but it is just so mechanically spot on everything

[00:28:27] is so rewarding there are tons and tons of complicated systems but also tons of quality of life that I really appreciate it and just to mention like one for example when you're down to your last when

[00:28:37] you run out of healing potions if you keep hitting if you keep landing attacks you can refill and keep going and so there's always like hope I feel like when you're progressing in that game

[00:28:50] despite how difficult it ends up being and that really chiefly comes down to the different mechanics of different builds that you can make the way that combat feels really snappy and responsive and

[00:29:01] the way that just the you're really put to the test when it comes to all the different bosses as well like okay what am I gonna use my toolkit how's my toolkit function

[00:29:10] like in this type of scenario so for me best mechanics of 2023 definitely goes to lies of pee lies of pee great game man and speaking of which lies of pee is one of my runner-ups nice for mechanics

[00:29:32] so we have lies of pee you already talked about that my other runner up is boulders gate three for mechanics and I'll explain a bit more about that in a second but my pick for me for the best

[00:29:47] mechanics in a game in 2023 is a legend of zelda tears of the kingdom I think more than any other game this year tears of the kingdom suffers from reason see bias like really badly because even I

[00:30:03] even I who you know unabashedly love boulders grade three and was seeing his praises like throughout the whole year I put 70 hours into tears of the kingdom yeah I mean it was one of my favorite games

[00:30:19] of the year and it was incredible it was absolutely incredible um there's no denying like that that game is just an incredible achievement and when I talk about mechanics what I'm specifically talking about is the it's the it's the inner you know the physics building system

[00:30:42] that is insane yeah like it's just it's it's completely insane what they pulled off and like how every single puzzle in the game is like hey take this physics building crafting sandbox that

[00:30:58] we put together and just figure out how to solve this room and every single one of them are unique and they all work extremely well and there's like different ways to solve every single one of them

[00:31:09] and when you try and do something with a game like the developers thought of anything you could ever possibly want to do they thought of it ahead of you which is just insane because everything

[00:31:19] works like every literally you cannot break tears of the kingdom so for me that's why that game you know it just wins best mechanics I just don't think anyone else made a mechanical system

[00:31:32] inside of a game or even has made I think you could argue in many years like something like this that functions at this level inside of an open world like action RPG right I'll quickly mention I have bouldersgate 3 on here and the reason I have it is because

[00:31:52] I'm a turn-based stan nice but I do I think legitimately and genuinely I know there's been some like controversy quote unquote around the fact that bouldersgate 3 has turn-based combat and the turn-based combat's like old or whatever but the thing with bouldersgate 3 is it

[00:32:10] does turn-based combat so incredibly well especially for like the modern application of this idea like tactical third tactical turn-based combat it's so slick it's so smooth it's so snappy it's super deep but like not so deep that it's impetable and it just feels incredible to play that

[00:32:34] game and and third and like it makes turn-based feel not like a burden or something that you have to wait around for but what it makes it feel like is hey you're expanding and allowing me

[00:32:49] to do all of the insanely complicated like unique things that you can pull off in this game like in a combat scenario or in a non-combat scenario in a turn-based setting which I think is just

[00:33:02] such an impressive achievement and it's hard now to go play other games with turn-based combat after what bouldersgate 3 did with turn-based combat because it's just that good yeah dude very nice yeah um I agree I think you know first going into bouldersgate 3 all the mechanics like for

[00:33:24] the combat were overwhelming but the more I experimented and the more I learned the systems the more I was like there really are no limitations with the turn-based stuff and the best thing you can do is kick somebody off a cliff

[00:33:39] that is the best thing you can do or tell I can use this I'm off naster too yeah um every spell works in that game by the way like it's not you know a lot of RPGs

[00:33:51] especially turn-based like you use like a super powerful spell with like some crazy debuff and it does nothing in bouldersgate 3 I mean you have to roll the dice but if you roll the dice like it works um and so like you can be doing an insane combat encounter

[00:34:11] and then cast a super powerful like locking spell and just completely block like a like a final boss and anyway the game just lets you do it which it sounds stupid stupid that would be like

[00:34:24] just a crazy thing but I don't know yeah you could throw bosses off the edge of the map yeah I love that love that power I love that about it all right folks we are on to best gameplay

[00:34:34] loop of 2023 my runner-ups um the first one I got here is and listen sure you can fault me for bias but I'm picking Moonstone Island and I'm picking it because um you can kind of mold your own gameplay

[00:34:50] loop with all the different things that are happening you can focus on doing town you can focus on doing your card battles or your resourcing and your farming and uh while they're all deeply tied together the craziest thing about that you should go listen to our episode

[00:35:02] on Moonstone Island is that it all actually works the fact that this game has a bunch of different mechanical systems that do function into a coherent gameplay loop is super impressive

[00:35:11] right so that one is is there the next one I have and this might feel like a bit of an unconventional pick but is armored core six fires of Rubicon now I loved this for its gameplay loop because it's old school and that's refreshing right in 2023 just going

[00:35:30] through level by level like mission by mission or sortie by sortie um to progress in there are little nooks and crannies and secrets that you can find different sorties but also that's kind of balanced

[00:35:41] with this this whole well there's PVP right in a new massive PVP update just hit armored core six but also there is sort of like these training arenas where you can do mock PVP battles that

[00:35:53] you versus in AI and you kind of work up the rank there now I did all of those and it rewards you with a specific currency that helps like tremendously to power your mech and to to get

[00:36:09] money so that you can buy new parts and you can do more customization and so the gameplay loop I feel like an armored core six is really split into halves for me right there's like the

[00:36:17] main quests and the sorties and the narrative and what you're doing there but being able to sort of beef up your different builds and then create new ways of approaching all the sorties and the different bosses I use as you get through armored core six by doing

[00:36:29] like this sort of one-on-one arena training mode huge fan of that really really big fan of that and then finally my number one pick for best gameplay loop of 2023 is Dave the diver the

[00:36:43] indie not an indie game nice I just isn't it yet I just found that loop super satisfying of diving and getting resources completing story stuff running the sushi bar at night other little

[00:36:58] mini games and quests are sort of introduced throughout gameplay as well and it to me was so immensely satisfying a lot of it kind of hinged on the fact that you can find

[00:37:10] oxygen oxygen tanks while you were diving in the water so you were never limited by time you know you weren't like oh crap I have 10 minutes to try to get as scramble get as many resources as possible

[00:37:22] it was more like no if I want to spend 20 or 40 you know real-time minutes doing this part of the game I can do it and the game has I feel like relatively simple currency systems everything

[00:37:36] works together and everything has a purpose and so I just felt like the sort of the economy baked into that gameplay loop was really immensely satisfying I never felt like I wasted a second

[00:37:47] of time doing any sort of task in Dave the diver so that's why it's my number one best gameplay loop of 2023 very nice what do you got Cameron my two rudder ups are number one dredge

[00:38:08] nice yeah this is just like they took the fishing concept and they just made it addictive yeah I know there's like other fishing games and other games with like fishing mechanics but they really

[00:38:22] like dug into that and they just made it addicting and like made each you know a little biome have its like new nuances and like new things that you had to do and it just all just works

[00:38:35] like works so well for me and like works seamlessly and so yeah I just I have to give credit to that loop Resident Evil 4 because it's a little bit of a cheat because it's an old school style of sort

[00:38:49] of level design it's a little bit old school but I freaking it was so comfy to play that way you know it's just like level sections of level with a big checkpoint with a random dude

[00:39:02] who's selling rocket launchers you know in the middle of the level and that was just like like so refreshing but number one for me is Jedi oh nice yeah so Jedi survivor another one that I

[00:39:17] think suffers from two things number one it launched really unpatched and probably a little bit too early and number two obviously reason see bias as well like it came out earlier in the year

[00:39:29] like in middle of the year beginning of the year actually I think March right yeah March or April March or April yeah I can't remember but yeah this is a just I mean this is a Metroidvania ish

[00:39:44] you know similar to like Fallen Order but they obviously added some really great mechanics I actually could have put this in mechanics as well I thought about it expanded and really fun interesting cool ways like the mechanics from Fallen Order with you know new lightsaber stances and

[00:40:03] you know ending like the boost like the mid-air boost situation but then just having sort of the Metroidvania ish style that they've stuck to and just stuck with that with this with the series and with this game and then adding that little open world middle ground and offered

[00:40:18] like just enough open world to make you feel that sort of open worldness of it but then have the Metroidvania like in other other parts of the level written into different levels

[00:40:30] just worked really well for me I'm you know love Star Wars and this is this is probably the best you know side maybe from and or like the best Star Wars stuff being done

[00:40:42] in that universe and on top of that it's just a really solid game with great mechanics and just a really satisfying loop so Jenna survivor for me yeah what a great pick that I was also sort

[00:40:55] of considering it for both mechanics and best gameplay loop I think you nailed it though like I know you kept saying Metroidvania ish which might sound vague but honestly it's probably the best way to describe that game right you go back to different areas

[00:41:07] with new abilities and you unlock certain parts of it but it also bar like I don't know I just feel like Star Wars Jedi survivor probably the biggest area of improvement it had from Star Wars Fallen

[00:41:21] Order was that it it took what it needed from the Souls formula and left the rest behind and it leaned in more to the Metroidvania sort of aspect of it which I think it kind

[00:41:35] of feels like its own thing which I love also best game best in-game joke of the year with Dave the mechanic boss or whatever it's in right Rick the technician dude dude oh

[00:41:54] so if you don't if you haven't played the game there's a moment where you go through this crazy gauntlet of enemies and it's just insane like it's super tough and then you you walk into

[00:42:04] this hallway and the stormtroopers running up to you and the boss bar shows up on the bottom and it goes Rick the technician and you're like what the this is weird and then you just kill

[00:42:16] him in one hit oh my gosh and the game is completely trolling with you and it's amazing like it totally it works perfectly yeah what I love about that moment is that it is such a

[00:42:29] stressful like overwhelming moment in the game like this section like as you're traversing this area is brutal it's extremely it's extremely long section as well there's not a lot of opportunity

[00:42:41] to rest I feel like most people probably got there with like one or zero like health pods or whatever and then dude just to see I remember this is my feeling I had I see the stormtrooper

[00:42:54] bolting it towards you and I'm like okay it looks like there's just one this is probably a trap there's probably like seven more behind them or something I got a thing about how I'm doing this

[00:43:02] and then you see Rick the oh it's Rick the door technician maybe right that shows up and then you see that boss health bar and I was just in full blown panic you're like no what kind of bosses

[00:43:14] is this dude like what is he gonna throw at me right now and so I panicked and I used I think it's the force like you pull him down to the ground so they're somewhat stunned yeah so I like

[00:43:26] pulled into the ground and then I just went ham slashing him I was like please I need to get as much damage in as possible and then I over killed it right because it took like

[00:43:37] after he was pulled to the ground it took like two hits and I'm just like there's mashing buttons swinging at nothing forever and I was like oh my gosh he was just a normal dude he was just a normal dude yeah oh what a great great moment

[00:43:51] whoo I'm feeling well Jake that brings us to finally the game of the year done done Jake you're up what is your game of the year 2023 period about his podcast Jake price blewy the video game no folks blewy the video game was probably one of my biggest disappointments

[00:44:11] but did I think I ripped his shreds for being a bad guy did you know I didn't think because I have did you buy it I'm waiting for it to go down to 20 bucks and then I think I'll get it okay

[00:44:22] anyway yeah but it hasn't yet so okay jokes aside my game of the year is Alan wake two nice all right um we just uploaded our episode on Alan wake two but to sort of explain

[00:44:36] why this is my personal game of the year obviously for narrative reasons um a lot of the stuff that's in there and like if you enjoy that type of meta narrative and you like the sort of detective

[00:44:46] story you are obligated to read short stories from Jorge Luis Borges a famous Argentine mid-20th century writer who published all sorts of lots of short stories pretty much exclusively short

[00:44:58] stories during the height of his career and his fame and they were all very meta and some of them he loved detectives and he also loved dictionaries he loved playing around with words and so if you

[00:45:09] like writing if you like weird um you have to read some Borges hit me up in the DMs and I'll give you some short stories in particular to read but part of the reason why I loved this game so much

[00:45:21] and it's my personal game of the year is that beyond the narrative I just loved the environments that I was in I loved the areas I was in I'm not a big horror fan although maybe I'm going that route

[00:45:35] because I played more horror games in the last few months than I have in my entire life but with Alan wake two it just so perfectly nailed the atmosphere of of what it's like to be in the

[00:45:46] Pacific Northwest during the rainy season um what it's like to walk around the woods at night armed with a flashlight and being so dependent upon that flashlight to get around to see in

[00:45:57] the solve mysteries I love the way that it dealt with um trying to figure out what the truth was um and how you can use that truth and how you can change and better different truths that you come

[00:46:09] across um I loved um I mean I love that slow sort of gameplay I know a lot of people didn't really love the gameplay or say that was one of its weaknesses for me I thought it just fit in

[00:46:22] super well with what the game was trying to accomplish and so I I liked sort of walking and jogging through the woods through different places looking for key items and when I was you

[00:46:33] know jumped by some taken I love the flashlight mechanic on I love that from Alan wake remaster to Alan wake remastered also just being uh your best defense is a good offense I love stun builds anyway so having mechanics is sort of built around stunning enemies and then

[00:46:50] taking them down when they're in a weakened state um that really works for me um yeah I don't know so I was a really big fan of that I was the story was gripping it was pushing me forward I was

[00:47:02] super invested in solving the riddles and exploring all the different areas and really getting to know Alan wake better as a character but also getting to know saga saga Anderson better I thought she was a fantastic character in a wonderful counterpart to Alan wake um I feel

[00:47:19] like she and her story were like really necessary to to sort of level out a lot of what Alan wake is as a as a personality and as a character so obviously narrative is the number one reason

[00:47:32] why this is my my game of the year pick but I just saw everything else that it was constructing in terms of atmosphere um vibes and just kind of that slow methodical really thinking about

[00:47:44] what you're doing and thinking about with resource conservation it made uh game of the year for me not to mention the quirkiness dude oh that game is so off the rails weird at some points

[00:47:55] and I feel like we need more weird in games the way that Alan wake to accomplish it so there you go game of the year Alan wake two well this will come as no surprise to probably any of you

[00:48:07] but my game of the year is indeed balder's gate three uh also one game of the year the game of words which I think as well deserved yeah this is sim this is simply not only the best game of 2023

[00:48:22] but probably my favorite game of the last five years um elton ring included oh the achievements in this game in terms of combat in terms of cinematic narrative voice acting dialogue story environments graphics just everything is you know aside from some minor

[00:48:51] performance issues that I experienced which are all being patched to an insane degree I mean this game has continued to get just ridiculous levels of patches and community feedback and notes constantly um aside from that I mean this this game was a perfect 10 out of 10 experience

[00:49:08] for me just an incredible high all you know 110 hours total that I put into it um through early access and then after one dot over leased um and so I put in you know three different

[00:49:25] playthroughs of act one including my final one which took me through that you know the entire game and yeah just just had an incredible experience just for me personally because of the setting

[00:49:39] because of you know the voice acting and how it pulled you in and how cinematic it was and then having tactical turn-based combat that was you know obviously I love this is literally like my perfect game so not only was it you know did turn out to be

[00:49:56] sort of this 10 out of 10 critical darling but for me personally right it just it checked all these different boxes as well and in terms of like the things that I like in video games um

[00:50:07] and yeah like I said I don't think we'll see another game like this I don't think larian's going to do they're not going to do this again I think it was too much right it was

[00:50:15] like too much to chew to chew on I mean I would like to hope so right I'd like to hope that we could see something like this again you know maybe in a different setting or whatever but it's one of

[00:50:27] those games that just feels like it's a once-in-a-lifetime situation and I'm going to be enjoying this game for years to come I already mentioned like I'm already started another playthrough I'll see that all the way through it might take me much longer this time but

[00:50:41] yeah bouldersgate 3 I cannot say enough good things about it 100% my game of the year for me stands towers above any other thing that I played this year and maybe in the last several

[00:50:57] years yeah um I don't think you can catch lightning twice in a bottle is that how that phrase goes no some lightning striking same place twice slash catching lightning in a bottle that's what I'm trying to communicate both those things in one phrase

[00:51:13] man yeah bouldersgate 3 what a game um allen wake 2 what a game awesome games um maybe those two picks feel like a little I don't know whatever they're not surprising yeah they're not that big a surprises but honestly they're just phenomenal games right they were just amazing

[00:51:30] um okay folks before we close out this episode I put down here just a few like random maybe like awards if you will to different games Cameron I know that you had come up sort of a list of

[00:51:45] of random yeah I've got sort of my honorable mentions many category yeah so we'll just rush through those real quick just a few other games kind of the shout out for me best family game

[00:51:56] goes to super mario bros wonder and uh it's I also had this exact same one yeah I can't yep and it's not because it's an Nintendo game you know what I mean I feel like the game awards it's

[00:52:09] like oh we need to give Nintendo award let's give them best family award um I honestly think that the way that super mario's um super mario bros wonder handled multiplayer and the asynchronous online multiplayer as well like local co-op plus asynchronous stuff makes it an absolute blast

[00:52:28] to play with your kids and to watch your kids play so I don't know freaking awesome right I have three more I'll just go through them quickly the biggest surprise for me was probably armored core six I was going to skip this one just despite being a from

[00:52:45] software stan but the allure caught me and I ended up really enjoying this I'm not like a mech person necessarily but I am now biggest let down this is more of like a razzie rather than

[00:53:02] like an award but um dang somebody commented in our discord that they were listening to an old episode of ours from early 2023 and the first like 10 minutes camera and I usually kind of

[00:53:14] shoot the breeze talk about games we're excited for what we're playing in our discord they're like oh man I was listening to whatever episode you guys were talking about redfall and I just wish

[00:53:23] at a time is a machine to tell you guys that it's that it's not going to be good and I I gotta say I really want to see that game turn around but um the more and more that my backlog

[00:53:37] piles up the new games are coming out the less of a priority I have for that game and I just wish it was the four player co-op game that it could have been I'm sad

[00:53:51] still sad yeah man that was tough last one best spectacle final fantasy 16 dude some of those final boss fights blew my mind just visually what is going on and just final fantasy listen I get

[00:54:07] it it can be really serious but it can also be very off the rails and it felt like some of the spectacles here was the best combination of like visually incredible and so off the rails um

[00:54:21] so that my best spectacle is final fantasy 16 I think my jaw dropped so many times towards some of those boss fights at the end but yeah those are sort of my random extras to hand

[00:54:31] out what have you got Cameron yeah I also had mario wonder his best family game we've had just a blast with that um I also I got Pikmin 4 on sale so that's that's going to be Christmas gift for

[00:54:46] my son so I'm hoping I've heard amazing things about that so hopefully yeah I actually be Pikmin 4 I did uh it's great oh I forgot you got that yeah my kids kind of fell off it which I was a little

[00:54:58] surprised but I yeah I'm hoping if they do then I'll just keep listen that game you can easily double its length I just did the main story and I was immensely satisfied with what I offered

[00:55:10] I also had a best combat on here I'm a big combat guy and I thought Eliza P just nice amazing combat just a wonderful souls like remix right just with that like challenging combat with enough

[00:55:26] of remixes in there and felt incredible like felt on the same level as from soft right I would say just in terms of quality um favorite indie was dredge I feel like dredge doesn't get talks about

[00:55:41] enough I freaking love dredge just great vibes love the mystery just love what they pulled off of that game I already talked about the gameplay looping that um if you haven't played dredge

[00:55:52] like go play dredge right now it's so good yeah uh my biggest disappointment this may be controversial but Final Fantasy 16 was my biggest disappointment and I do not disagree in the slightest that this

[00:56:06] is maybe one of the best productions of the year yeah it's a spectacle I mean it's an absolute spectacle like I'm not going to take that away from it incredible voice acting incredible visuals

[00:56:17] insane boss fights gameplay for me though fell flatter than you could possibly imagine I mean I was bored out of my mind playing this game and I don't know exactly why that is I don't

[00:56:29] know if it's like mismanaged expectations or just thinking this was going to be like an ff 16 ff 7 remix style thing and it's million percent not that uh I was so disappointed

[00:56:42] it just it did not land for me and I was expecting this to be like one of my best games of the year and I think I put it like too high up on a pedestal but man it fell off super hard for me I think I

[00:56:54] played like 15 hours of it maybe and it's just sitting there on my playstation unfinished I feel like um Final Fantasy 16 go listen to our episode on that one um that one might be one of our

[00:57:06] spicier episodes but um if you are curious I think is the demo still up because you can play the prologue with the demo right and I think so and I actually thought the demo was great and so that made me

[00:57:19] even more or I'm like oh man I'm gonna this is going to be so amazing and then anyway yeah the prologue to Final Fantasy 16 is outstanding um but it does fall off yes last two I just I

[00:57:37] real feel what I mentioned octobot traveler two for the music ooh ooh nice the music is insane in that game it is ridiculous the fact that this did I get recognized I it should have been like

[00:57:50] nominated for Game of the Year just so I could show up and that final orchestral score and game awards because it is so good this game is worth playing alone just for the ost like that's how

[00:58:03] good do it the OS it's insane it's insane last thing I wanted to meant just give a shout out to is you like monster hunter games you're been disappointed with the last few pokemons

[00:58:15] cassette beast is yeah okay like it is legit I'm not like a huge monster fan but this had like a fully functional co-op played it with my kids had a lot of fun with this game it's

[00:58:29] really good it's very solid this is like for me like this is like the pokemon contender which is kind of insane to say but like just had to give the shout out to cassette beast yeah oh

[00:58:41] something on cassette beast is that they're actually gonna come I don't think it's out yet but they're they're pushing like a huge multiplayer update where you can do like raid style battles

[00:58:52] with eight players if I'm not mistaken yeah folks when this game came out this is I want to say it's like February or March of this year like really early this year I think it was the first

[00:59:04] indie game to crack like of 2023 to crack like a 91 or something on Metacritic when it first came out do you remember that yeah yeah super highly yeah unfortunately it's just been nearly a year

[00:59:18] since it's come out so I think people are kind of sleeping on it but I'm with you man cassette beast is phenomenal um yeah the last thing I want to mention is you haven't heard me talk about my

[00:59:29] favorite indie games that's because I'm going to make this pitch to you right now later this week the week right up before Christmas day I'm going to launch my indie game of the year episode

[00:59:41] which is a free episode that will be hosted on our patreon and I have eight different categories plus my indie game of the year and it has been wild to put together I think I managed to

[00:59:53] beat something like 45 indie games that came out in 2023 this year um so yeah if you want to hear something that's relatively comprehensive please be on the lookout for us follow us you can follow

[01:00:05] us for free on patreon and then you'll be notified when the episode comes out or just I'll be posting it on our twitter and stuff but yeah so still a little bit more to come when it comes to game of the

[01:00:15] years uh things but I don't know Cameron is there anything else you want to mention in our game of the year episode that's it for me yeah I think that's it for me too it's been a phenomenal year 2023

[01:00:28] there are so so many games to buy and play and enjoy and hopefully your holiday break is full of lots of gaming hopefully first of all you have a great holiday break

[01:00:39] and you have a lot of time to play and that you play lots actually I will end with something which is oh here that 2023 will go down as one of the best years in video games ever

[01:00:53] yes next year will not be like this so don't if you're a gamer like don't expect another year like this it's not it's going to be a great year there's going to be amazing games next year

[01:01:04] for sure uh but it's not going to be like this I guess I'll end I'll also end following up that comment with um don't expect another year like 2023 until the video game industry figures out how

[01:01:15] to retain their employees and that's that leads me to my final thought which is let us not forget that 10,000 people in this industry were fired this year many of them right before Christmas yeah

[01:01:30] and I just want to give a shout out to everybody uh including colleagues at the former colleagues of the company I work at folks who work at other game companies around the world um in different capacities who are let go I'm sorry that is just that sucks yeah

[01:01:51] there's no two bits about it this is a volatile nasty industry that needs to be fixed and I fear that it probably never will and it sucks that like a medium that I think Jake and I love

[01:02:05] so much thrives and lives off the backs of folks who are just getting rung through these companies burned out fried out and then let go you know and then hopefully pulled back in somewhere else

[01:02:21] and then just doing it all again it sucks that it has to be that it is that way it doesn't have to be that way and it is that way I hope that we could see some change I hope you know companies

[01:02:30] who are doing amazing things can set examples and do it differently um you know it's just the reality of the world we live in so I can say there's a dichotomy right at the same time I can say

[01:02:42] that this is one of the best years in gaming ever and what an incredible year I can also say that man that freaking sucks that 10,000 people were let go so shout out to them

[01:02:52] whatever a fitting way to end this episode but yeah awesome awesome year for gaming folks we will see you in 2024 typically we start off the year with two fun episodes sometimes we combine them into one but our most anticipated games and then our predictions for what's

[01:03:11] going to happen in 2024 we have a bet Cameron and I after sort of our break we're going to tally up who made the most correct predictions for 2023 and someone's going to have to face

[01:03:24] the music oh my gosh what predictions did I make for 2022 I can't even I looked at mine and so we're always so off so be on the lookout for did I even get one because I don't think I got

[01:03:39] even one I'm pretty sure I stay tuned for the episode everybody stay that's a sneak peek 2024 well ladies and gentlemen like Jake said this is the end of the year end of the road for us

[01:03:51] in 2023 please tune back into the period of matters podcast in 2024 for new content new stuff new games new conversations if you want to keep in touch with us while we're on break join the discord

[01:04:04] link for the discord is in the description you can come chat with us you can chat about video games you can chat about Christmas uh come follow us on twitter at period of cast me at

[01:04:14] mass generic jake at jakeup underscore chip tip 18 and like Jake mentioned please don't forget to join the patreon like he said there's going to be jake's special indie game of the year episode

[01:04:25] jake played 45 different indie games this year he is the indie game master there's no one else consuming indie game content like he is go sign up on the patreon for free and you can listen

[01:04:38] to that we appreciate all of you have a very merry christmas and a happy holiday and have a great night