Games of the Year So Far + Most Anticipated Fall Games 2025

[00:00:09] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Pre-Order Bonus Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Cameron Warren, and I'm joined, as always, by the Pixel Professor, Jacob Price. It's July 3rd, 2025. We're back to talk about layoffs in the video game industry. Because every week, that's what we're talking about. 9,000 layoffs at Xbox. Well, at Microsoft.

[00:00:38] Microsoft, yeah. I think predominantly in gaming, I don't know what the percentages are. 10% at King. Perfect Dark is dead. Canceled. Dude. Hey, everybody. Welcome into our five-hour episode on ranting about things that are happening. No, we won't take that long. But, man, this is just crazy disheartening.

[00:01:03] And even in the message itself, the memo that went out from Uncle Phil himself. He was like, we understand that we're doing really well in hardware, software, revenue, blah, blah, blah. And then you just lay this out. Dude, there's no two ways to slice it. It feels bad no matter what you say about this. Yeah, he basically came out and said, like, Xbox has never been in a better position. And then, goodbye.

[00:01:34] Laid off a whole bunch of people. And look, this is because the same, it's the same thing as it always is. Number must go up. Margin must stay above a certain percentage. EBITDA, you know, profit per head must stay above a certain percent.

[00:02:00] And so, whenever that number goes below for a long enough amount of time, what do they do? They don't sell more stuff. They don't say, well, we need to make better products and sell more things. They say, how many people can we cut? Yeah. Dude, that Perfect Dark cancellation is crazy. My guess is, my guess is that that, now, we kind of know this to a certain extent, right?

[00:02:28] That all game trailers, especially when they're early and especially in the old days, are actually not truly always representative of the final game as evidenced by a lot of different situations, right? Right. My guess is that this Perfect Dark thing was way more vertical slicey than anyone thought, right?

[00:02:49] Like an old school E3 fashion where they would literally spend, you know, thousands of man hours just to create like a vertical slice for E3 specifically. Right. My guess is that's what this Perfect Dark thing is. And then the actual game, my guess is the actual game was going to take another two to three years and probably another 150 to 200 million to finish. And it probably would have been really good.

[00:03:18] But Xbox is not in that game anymore. I, yeah, dude, the Perfect Dark thing is by far like, and obviously this is just in terms of what we know in cancellations, right? Because the worst part about all this is all these people just losing their jobs in the worst way possible. Yeah. Yeah. And a bunch of people at a whole bunch of studios too. Yeah. They log into their Slack and they can't log in. And they're like, why can't I log in? And they're like, oh, you're laid off.

[00:03:47] Like, I can't think of, it's just such a heartless way. It actually, it actually feels like a really cowardly way to lay somebody off. We're just going to close you out of everything instead of giving you a conversation. Right. But anyway, what I was going to say that that Perfect Dark thing in terms of software being canceled is by far the biggest pain point. I think like that last trailer that they showed was incredible. But I mean, I think you're right. Let's see.

[00:04:16] The initiative was formed in 2018, I want to say. And maybe we first heard about Perfect Dark in 2020. Is that right? I was reading a bunch of recap things today. And I want to say, I want to say that was the case. But I was reading about like, for example, Everwild.

[00:04:45] I had actually, I had entirely forgotten about Everwild. And I think everybody has. And I mean, that one to me, like, listen, I'm really not trying to defend the higher ups here. But if any of the games that were going to get canceled that were announced today, that one made the most sense. Because we know that game went through several major reboots. They never found like the right path that they wanted to take with it. And I don't know.

[00:05:15] It's a huge shame. I think Everwild could have been something amazing. But that one had been sitting in incubation for a crazy long time. And they weren't even able to show any of it. Versus something like Perfect Dark. They couldn't figure out how to make it good. From all the rumors and stuff, they just couldn't figure out how to make it into a game. You know. Yeah. A viable game. And I would love to read the story on that someday. Let's see.

[00:05:40] Something that really surprised me, though, was this MMORPG that was being made by the folks at Bethesda who work on the Elder Scrolls online. So I don't have any eggs in that basket. But I was reading something that apparently Phil Spencer and Matt Booty visited the studio. And they couldn't get Phil Spencer to stop playing the game. It was like cutting. What game?

[00:06:05] This is this Project Blackbird, maybe, from the Elder Scrolls online. That was the MMO that got canceled. Yeah. So I read somewhere today. And folks, I'm so sorry. I don't have all these sources up for you right now. But I read somewhere that they couldn't. It was like cutting into meeting time when Phil Spencer was visiting the studio. He was enjoying that game so much. And man, I want to believe that story is true. And it probably is.

[00:06:35] And it just makes me think that Satya Nadella says to Phil Spencer, listen, we've invested a lot of money in AI and we're not making enough money on it yet. So you need to cut X amount of people across Microsoft. And then Phil Spencer has a job of like, wait, who do I cut?

[00:06:56] So I think kind of my takeaway after digesting this is like you were entitled to be mad at any one of these people. I think if you're going to be mad at Phil Spencer, I don't think you'd get mad at him. I don't think it was his decision to make the layoffs. But you absolutely can judge what projects he decided to cancel because those were absolutely his call. I personally think Phil Spencer is a I don't know this for sure. And I've said this before.

[00:07:25] I don't know this for sure. I could be completely wrong just to throw that out there. But I think he's a real one. And I think he does his best to I think he does his very best for the gamers within the constraints of being a direct report of Satya Nadella. Okay. And Satya Nadella reporting to the board of Microsoft.

[00:07:45] And ultimately, at the end of the day, the giant pile of gold in the sky for every single major tech company right now is how do we make AI the trillion dollar profitable venture that we think it's going to be. And in the midst of that, they're spending hundreds of billions of dollars trying to figure that out. And so they're bleeding money. Bleeding money. Yeah. Right now.

[00:08:13] Now, do they still have trillions of dollars? And so it doesn't really matter. Yes. But yeah, don't feel bad. All these people and acted like basically nothing was happening. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Just to be clear. But that not how business work. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't think you really need to feel bad. Right. In that sense of like, oh, no, big company can't figure out how to use AI or how to figure out new things. Yeah.

[00:08:43] That's their fault. And they have the money to keep all these people. This stuff. We can't have nice things because of chat GPT. That's the bottom line. We lost Perfect Dark. Well, okay. Perfect Dark is a little different. I do think genuinely Perfect Dark is a situation of we could finish this game someday and it will be a cool AAA spy game. We need 200 million more dollars. Right.

[00:09:09] And Phil Spencer was probably like, man, that really sucks because this looks cool, but can't do it, man. Can't do it anymore. It's not the world we live in. You said this a few months ago and I think that this is probably this layoff situation right now is indicative of what Xbox is trying to do with their games, which is shorter games, less development time. Right. And I think we've seen this. I mean, Cameron, you said this months ago. I'm falling in line with this with what you're saying here.

[00:09:38] Like, I think we're going to see a lot more games like South of Midnight and not in terms of gameplay. Like if you don't like the combat, you know, don't freak out. But I think in terms of scope, highly polished, like something that really stood out to me about South of Midnight is you walk through some of those houses. Incredibly detailed. That world is jam packed with things. It's crazy dense. Right.

[00:10:02] But the game is going to take you 10 to 15 hours, 15 hours max if you're like doing collectibles and stuff. Games like Avowed that are just scaled down. Scope is smaller so they can actually have a decent turnaround time. And I just kind of wouldn't be surprised if what we see with Xbox is games like this and they score in the 80s in Metacritic. Maybe they don't get their 96s or whatever. But I think that's where we're headed.

[00:10:33] Yeah, man. I mean, yeah. What else can be said? We've said everything I think that could be said on this topic. No, it's... It sucks. And it has to be said every time. This massively sucks. It doesn't need to happen. But it's the reality of the world we live in. And what am I supposed to do about it? I don't know. Well, I don't know. I guess. Yeah. Stop. Stop paying for game. Am I supporting... Are we supporting the devil by paying for Game Pass? Probably. Is that... I mean, Xbox is never going to go away.

[00:11:02] Like, I don't know. I don't know. The last thing I want to share on this topic, because I really don't want to spend a lot of time on this. You can... Yeah, yeah. It's super easy to go down a doomsday rabbit hole with this. And like we said, it sucks. Like, it's... We're not trying to excuse anything that's happened here. It's all bad. But something I want to point out is... One of my... Cameron and I's favorite people on social media is Matt Piscitella. So this guy does... Was it the Circona Gaming Reports?

[00:11:31] He's that analyst, head analyst, head guy over there. Yeah. Love this guy. He's amazing. He says this. Over the past 24 hours, I've received the what does this mean for gaming question on everything that happened yesterday in reference to the Xbox layoff. And he says, it's been very tough to answer. The players and engagements are there. The revenues are there. This isn't a demand problem. Right? And so then there's this whole thread where he kind of talks about this. Right?

[00:11:59] He says, in any case, it's incredibly difficult not to fall into despair for the industry. But the players in demand remain. People love the new games. And there are billions of players worldwide. And so I think what I kind of got from this is like... Is the demand going to change with all these things that happened? Because something that's wild about the video game industry is like... I don't know.

[00:12:24] The next Xbox showcase, Xbox dropped something insane with their October Halo thing that they teased. And maybe the whole world just forgot about Perfect Dark. In that moment. Like the video games industry attention span is so short. And it moves so fast. And people still want to play games. You know? That... This is maybe me sounding too like Doomsday-y. But like... Are you...

[00:12:53] Are we as consumers actually exercising any agency in what's happening here? Or are we just to the sidelines watching? No. No. But Switch 2 sold 5 million units. So... If that tells you something... Yeah. People are buying it. Right? People are buying stuff. Now, consumer spending is down among like younger demographics for just games in general. But...

[00:13:22] I don't know, man. I think as long as you and I are breathing, there will be cool video games to play. I have no doubt about that. So... Yeah. Now when we die, jury's out. Someone else can figure that out. It's over, actually. Yeah. There's no video games after we die. So keep us alive, world. Thank you. Subscribe to our Patreon. Patreon.com. Give us money.

[00:13:52] Don't give your money... Actually, if you're not going to give Game Pass, you can just give that subscription to us. Patreon.com slash PeterCast. That's what happened to you. That's right for you. All right. We always joke about this, but I actually was reading some things today about Patreon. And I do want to take a moment. Cameron and I are both extremely grateful for the people who subscribe to our Patreon. But there's a lot of you, and we really appreciate the heck out of you. You're paying for Donkey Kong Bonanza, just to be clear. Yes. Full transparency.

[00:14:23] But you're going to get a great episode on this podcast. Long, juicy one, man. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Anything positive from games you want to talk about? Are you playing anything that's fun? No. Long pause. Nothing positive. More Death Stranding 2, which I'll be frank at this current second. I'm finding boring. Whoa.

[00:14:52] I'm like six hours in. It's very much Death Stranding 1 again, except feels even easier, which is not a good thing. Okay. It's weird. It does feel easier. And is that what Kojima... I cannot play this game without thinking what Kojima changed in the last two or three months. Like, did he just like, you know, let's just make this game a little easier? Or like, what happened? I don't know.

[00:15:23] I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I'm going to give it a few more hours, but I'm kind of looking for something to like... Looking for some engines to start going here. Like, I'm going to give it a few more hours, but I'm seriously at a point... I'm seriously getting to a point where I'm like, do I put more time into this? Because I'm bored out of my freaking mind. Wow. Wild. Controversial. I'm actually enjoying the heck out of it. It's well executed. And I had a great time for about five hours, but then I just...

[00:15:53] Which, you know... And it's really well executed. Like, it's beautiful. Everything looks and moves and functions super well. And like, it's clearly very, very, very well crafted. I'm not saying... I'm not saying it's like bad. I'm just saying I'm bored. Yeah. Oof. What a preview. We're going to have a full episode dedicated to Death Stranding 2. And you can wait, sitting on the edge of your seat, for me to finish that game. Which will take... That's going to take a while. That's going to take a while.

[00:16:22] In the meantime, we're going to go off the beaten path a little bit on this episode of the Priority Bonus Podcast. We're going to... It's our... We're about halfway through the year, folks. If you can believe it or not. About to enter the dog days of summer. So Jake and I, typically around this time of the year, we usually like to do some sort of midway game of the year conversation. Check-in. More or less our favorite games of the year so far.

[00:16:51] And then our most anticipated for the rest of the year. For the back half. Yeah. I don't have, like, a list for this. Really. I'm kind of just going to go right off the hip. I thought about making a list. And I was like, you know what? I kind of want to see, like, what comes into my mind as we discuss it. Because I think that's going to be... A list felt forced for this time around. I'm not sure why. So I hesitated. So this is going to be more off the cuff.

[00:17:20] But Jake, what do you got for me? Let's start on your end. What's your favorite? Give me one of your favorites from this year so far. I've played a lot of games this year. So I had to go back and make a list. Because I was like... You played way more games than me. Yeah. I totally get that. A lot of indies on here. I would say that there's two from the beginning of the year that have stood with me four to six months since launch. Citizen Sleeper 2 and Dawn Folk.

[00:17:50] Dawn Folk is like this little tile-based city. It's kind of... I mean, it is like a city builder. But it's a strand game. No, I mean... You're fulfilling different objectives within these specific maps. And it's really a resource management type thing. Fantastic little game. Really enjoyed it. Those are the two early games from this year that have sat with me still.

[00:18:20] Yeah. I have a few others. I fell off. Citizen Sleeper 2. It just wasn't for me. But... But, yeah. I mean, I... Tons of people... I see why people like it, though. Yeah. Anything else? I have a few more. But do you want to go back and forth? Yeah. I mean, I'm just going to go right off the top. I am still in love with... And I'm waiting to go back because I own the Season Pass. And it's coming out with more content. So I'm going to wait until it's got, like, everything in there.

[00:18:50] But Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, for me, is still the game of the year by a long shot. Nothing is even close for me on it. Like, it's... It is... Not only one of the best games of this year, but probably one of the best. Might be top five. Might be top five of the past, like, decade for me. I don't know. It's really, really, really good. Yeah, man. Like, can't... I don't think it came out of nowhere.

[00:19:19] I think a lot of people were in love with this, with the first one, and had high expectations for it. But I played the first one at the very end of last year. So, like, got excited for it really, really late. Yeah. Like, really late. I came to this game super late. Ended up putting quite a few hours into the first one. I didn't finish it. Understanding that... From reading all about it and understanding, like, what the game was. Like, how janky it was. Yeah. And...

[00:19:47] But still had a really good time. And then was reading about the second one and how they were kind of going back through all the systems. And, dude, it just took the first one and it made... And we talked about this in our episode. You can go back and listen to that. We talked about that ad nauseum. But, like, dude, it just took every system in the first game and refined it. And made it, like, work so well. And so, at the end of the game, it just functions so well. And it's just such a cool simulation.

[00:20:17] It does so many really interesting things all the time. And the simulation is so good. Especially if you're into, like, medieval type stuff. Yeah. There's just... It's just a... It's this crazy sandbox sim that I just don't think many games can pull off. Like, almost nobody's doing it like that game does it. So, that's still my number one of the year. And I seriously doubt it will get dethroned going into the back half.

[00:20:47] Ooh. I'm going to circle back to that. Donkey Kong's around the corner. Donkey Kong's around the corner. I'm coming back to that when we get to the second half of this episode. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So, other games that I've really loved. I think as far as, like, really artsy games go, Des Pelote is probably my favorite from the first half of the year. Nice. Takes you 90 minutes to two hours.

[00:21:16] It's just kind of day in the life sim kid from Ecuador during the Ecuadorian World Cup qualifier matches in the early 2000s. So, I mean, probably one, it's probably this year's 1000X Resist. But it's an extremely different story that's being told. But yeah, I loved it. I thought it was really good.

[00:21:40] I actually was able to write a review for so many games on that one that's an online, just kind of like review press media. Very cool. So, and then one of my favorite games is this little $5 indie game called Kabuto Park, which has one of the best combat systems. I freaking loved it. I think it's, I mean, listen.

[00:22:09] Oh, is this the bug sumo thing that I never got a chance to play this? Yeah, it's a bug sumo thing. So, like, this story is this nice, really cutesy thing. Like, you play as this 10-year-old girl who, like, spends a summer in Kabuto Park. And then this game has this incredibly tightly packaged turn-based, I mean, it's like a monster catching game. You're catching on these bugs. These bugs have stats. And you can get, like, a perfect roll on each species of bug.

[00:22:39] You assemble teams of three. And I just freaking love how this turn-based goes. I'm going to, Cameron, I don't know if I've told you this, right? But I would say if Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy has the best fusion of turn-based and real, like, and why am I about to say live action? That's a movie term.

[00:23:03] But turn-based and just, like, action combat in a AAA game, I think this has the best one in an indie game that I've played. And basically, there are two different phases. There's the push phase and the hold phase. And you have different cards that can manipulate what your bugs are doing during those phases. And they have different stats. And, like, I would say if you're like me and you have liked Pokemon for a really long time,

[00:23:31] but you want something along those lines that feels much fresher, dude, Kabuto Park is the game for you. I might have to pick that up. I love that combo. Is that on the Steam sale? It might be, but it might also be, like, incredibly cheap. Oh, it's already five bucks. I was going to say it's five bucks. So, I mean. I might have to pick this up. I might have to pick this up. It's a great little cute game. And you can do all the grinding. I did a lot of grinding to get, like, really good bugs.

[00:24:02] I still don't have a three-star bug. Like, that's like a, you have perfect stats in all three stat categories. I got a few two-star bugs, but no three-star bugs. But, yeah, those are two other games that I really like from the beginning of the year. If you're a long-time listener and you listen to the Indie Game of the Year episode, you're going to hear a bunch of these games all over again. Very nice.

[00:24:26] Anyways, the next one I'll bring up is, it did not come out this year, but it's been updated this year, and the 1.0 will come out this year. But I really enjoyed, and I still would like to go back through, but it's not something that you play by yourself, in my opinion. Abiotic Factor. Yeah, that's a good one, man.

[00:24:50] So, Abiotic Factor is a science fiction, it's basically if Half-Life was a survival game. I mean, that's, if we're just being honest with ourselves, it's just like Half-Life. Yeah. Except instead of, like, punching trees, you punch office chairs, and you use, like, stuff around this, basically this scientific headquarters

[00:25:18] to break down and turn into trinkets. And so it's got this really cool thematic, it's got this very cool thematic element to it, where you're making cool, interesting things as a scientist in this building out of, like, office furniture and computer parts and monster parts from the monsters from the other dimension that you're killing. And then it has these cool kind of story, episodic moments, where you go to parallel universes where these aliens are,

[00:25:46] and there's crazy crap that happens and fun moments. Found this super endearing. It's very janky. It's very kind of graphically, you know, doesn't look the greatest. It looks very much like kind of the old Half-Life game. And, yeah, dude, it's... But, yeah, I liked it a lot. I think we got to, like, the...

[00:26:13] I think we just got, like, to the second area, I think, or the second... We got a pretty good way into it, but there's still, I think, a lot more game left. And 1.0 either came out just recently or is coming out really, really soon. So... I don't think it's out yet. I want to say it's coming out this summer, though. Don't quote me on that. But, yeah, that's a great one. And, honestly, that's a game where a little bit of jank actually works in its favor. Yeah. So... No, they got their last major update, I want to say,

[00:26:43] for Abiotic Factor. Yeah, when does it leave? It's on sale right now for Steam summer sales. Normally $35 and it's going to be... It's $28 right now. Yeah, it's solid. Last batch of games that I'll share. I ended up playing the viral hit, a game about digging a hole. This, like, $5 game where literally you're in a back there. Dude, I need... That's another one I've been meaning to play.

[00:27:13] It's a lot of fun. It's great. I mean, I would just say, if you're interested in this game at all, watch out for the clones. There are a bunch of clones of this game. And so you want a game about digging a hole. The one... Check the reviews. I think it's got some absolutely insane number of, like, reviews right now. That's the one that you want.

[00:27:43] Don't get a clone. Don't get tricked. You want the one that's called A Game About Digging a Hole. Yes. Yes. Okay. None of these other digging hole Faco games that are dumb. I mean... Yeah, okay. So this game, I'm looking at it very positive. It has over 14,000 reviews. That should be the indicator for you. And then the other one I'm going to put up here is Claire Obscure Expedition 33.

[00:28:12] We did two different episodes on this one. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I think it's a really phenomenal game. I'll be honest. You can hear the hesitation in my voice it's in the running for Game of the Year, but I don't think it'll end up being my Game of the Year. Loved it, but I just think that there are other games that are going to fit my tastes a little more. They're just going to align a little more perfectly with my personal tastes.

[00:28:42] That's the other one on my list that I still haven't finished, by the way. Because despite respecting it and finding it really cool and seeing how many really cool things it does, I just couldn't fall in love with the world. And I don't know why. It's crazy because I feel like I'm such an outsider on that. So many people just absolutely are enamored by this world.

[00:29:12] To the point where I will be shocked if we do not get some massively budgeted sequel for this in the next five years. Like, for sure. Oh, yeah. And then we got the merchandise boom and we got all sorts of stuff. This game is a cult. This game is not just a hit. This is a new franchise. In my opinion, this will become sort of a new franchise where we look forward to whatever the studio is doing.

[00:29:43] And I watched sort of the mini documentary that... Oh, my gosh. Who's the giant YouTube review guy? Australian dude. Skill Up? Oh, the Skill Up thing. Yeah, yeah. I watched Skill Up's little documentary on how that game got made. And it's insane. It's absolutely insane. That game is a miracle. Yeah. I mean, all games are a miracle to a certain extent, but this game is crazy. Much miraculous things. If you haven't had a chance,

[00:30:12] go watch that video from Skill Up. It's really cool and kind of gives insight into kind of the magic that brought this game together. And it truly was magic. Yeah. So for that reason, it made my list. But I'll be honest, you know, like looking at back, looking at the games I played this year, yes, a lot of cool games, a lot of like interesting stuff, I'm not like dissatisfied or whatever. Pretty weak year for me though, so far. I have to admit.

[00:30:42] KCD2, without KCD2, this would be one of the weaker, if not one of the weakest years for me personally in a long, long time. KCD2 elevates it where it's like, oh yeah, it's pretty much on par with every other year, if not, you know, pretty, because that game was so huge for me and so great. Yeah. But without that, it's not, it's, you know, I'm ready to see what this back half is going to bring. I'll just say that. Yeah. Last game that I'll mention from the first half,

[00:31:11] you did this great segue into talking about what we're anticipating. And I'm so sorry, I'm going to backtrack on that. I didn't check with you, Jake. I just went ahead, you know? No. No, it felt natural and I felt right. I really can't fault you for it. I just got to mention Elden Ring Night Rain. That came into my brain and I, yeah, I made the segue and then forgot, yeah, we need to talk about Night Rain. I mean, incredible game. It's still doing things. Like, I swear that they're patching in things quietly,

[00:31:41] secrets, new boss encounters, or maybe they're just really rare encounters that I'm finally seeing. Yeah, yeah. They are doing these, like, super, like, these souped up boss fights of some of the existing ones. I keep seeing new ones that keep coming. It's crazy. It's, it's really wild to me that that game is getting kind of this soft live service treatment and it's, it's still good. I personally am a little frustrated because there are two bosses

[00:32:10] that I simply have not beaten yet and I'm like, dude, I should have beaten these bosses. So, I'm getting annoyed but it's, it's mainly a skill issue, not, not like a game design issue. Are you ready to just queue with randos and just hope you get, like, an elite group and just power through it? Yeah, for some of these bosses, I'm like, dude, I just want to sit in a queue. Let me sit in a queue and play with randos for three hours until I just get the golden, yeah, the golden boy who's going to be crazy. Yeah.

[00:32:40] But yeah, I think super remarkable game and funnily enough, this kind of sits in the same camp as Claire Obscure Expedition 33 for me. Loved it, loving it, still playing it. I just don't think it's going to be my game of the year by the time December rolls around. So, Will this be the first game? Will this be the first year in remembrance when a FromSoft game

[00:33:09] is not your game of the year? Actually, no. Because Armored Core 6 was not my game of the year. Oh. What was last year? Or two years ago? Dude, when did Armored Core 6 come out? Was that last year or two years ago? That's two years ago. That's two years ago. Yeah. So, 2023 is when it came out. What was my game of the year? What came out? That doesn't really count. That doesn't count.

[00:33:40] How about Dark Souls? Well, so Elden Ring, obviously, like, when Elden Ring came out, that was easily my game of the year. That's a game of a generation. So, all right. Yeah. Yeah. But the other games actually didn't play in their launch years, believe it or not. That's true. That's fair. That's a fair call. So, but yeah, Night Reign, I think it's an incredible game. Also, a game they think is super well designed. It's funny because I'm wrapping up

[00:34:09] an indie game, Pipistrello and the Cursed Yo-Yo. Yeah. And Pipistrello and Elden Ring Night Reign, what they have in common is that they have super steep learning curves, you know, and the game is really good. Like, the game is designed really well, but I think both of those games are like, we said this in our Night Reign episode, Night Reign to me is the FromSoftware game that says get good more than the others, to be honest. Yeah.

[00:34:40] Anyway, that's all we got to say about that. I'm ready to talk about games we're anticipated for. No, I mean, my two cents on Elden Ring Night Reign, yeah, it's clearly an exceptionally designed, well-executed thing, and the bones being Elden Ring, it's like, the bones are so good. Yeah. It's like, how could it not be good? It'll be interesting to see how that game evolves. I hope, I know that maybe people, some people will find this in a bad way, but I hope that

[00:35:10] that kind of becomes like a live service type thing, and we see new Night Fares, and we see like new bosses, and we even see like updates to the world and stuff like that, and it's kind of becomes like a Helldiver situation a little bit, or New Man's Sky, or however you want to define it. Back half of the year, Jake, yeah, this is, what do we know that's coming that's pretty huge? I can think of two off the top of my head. That's,

[00:35:39] DK Bonanza, I think is, that's coming out in less than a month, two weeks from basically today. That has, that is confirmed to be from the Mario Odyssey team. The preview hype is astronomical. Dude, that 16 minute, like, just overview of the game, I watched, I know I already talked about this on the show, but I watched it with my kids, but like, my reaction was like, dude,

[00:36:08] this game is gonna be a lot of fun. This, this will be tough, I think, to beat for most, this will be the, to beat for game of the year, in my opinion. Like, being from the Mario Odyssey team, and Mario Odyssey is a generational game. Like, that game is so good. Like, it is so, so, so good. One of my, probably my favorite Mario game, by far, aside from Mario 64.

[00:36:39] And Switch 2's killer app. Yeah. So, and then the other one, obviously, is Ghost of Yote. Yeah, we'll just get this out of the way. Very likely, I think, still, Ghost of Yote is to be my game of the year. Um, I have been doing a, on Sunday evenings, I've been doing a replay of Ghost of Tsushima. And I'm in Act 2. I'm pretty far into Act 2, at this point. I'm about to go do the Iki Island expansion. So,

[00:37:06] you can probably expect that Cameron and I will do an episode on the expansion. Jake, let me ask you this question about Ghost of Tsushima. I have a quick side tangent. Have you unlocked the Monkey King armor yet? Is that the Gosaku armor? We need the six keys from the farmers? No. No, it's not. Then no. Dude. Bro. The Satugami armor? Uh, I don't know. No.

[00:37:37] What? I haven't. I didn't, in my first playthrough, I guess I need to now. It's an Iki Island armor set. Oh, well, I haven't started Iki Island yet. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you'd start it. Okay, never mind. No, I'm about to start it. So my, um, because you told me this, Iki Island unlocks as soon as you get into act two. Yes. I went to it and it gives, the game gives you this big warning, right? Like, Hey, this is going to be more difficult. Be on your A game. And it's, this is going to be a really long tail.

[00:38:07] Right. And it looked at, I think it's like five or six hours. I'm not going to beat. And so I was like, you know what? I'm actually going to go and do most of act two level up, get some things. And then I'll come back to Iki Island right before I go to act three. Because from what I understand, right. And don't spoil this. Cause it hasn't been spoiled for me. Iki Island has a lot to do with Jin's dad, right? That's what it refers to. Um, who put down what the, the, anyway, he had to deal with Iki Island people. Yeah.

[00:38:36] Yes. So I figured it would be really cool to kind of go back and get that history on his dad before you go into act three. So that's, that's how I kind of planned it out. Um, but that's coming up soon. Really looking forward to that. But yeah, ghost of quick question. Yeah. Other question on ghost of Tsushima. Will ghost of Yote have hot spring scenes? If it doesn't, they're zero out of 10. They missed the point of what made ghost of Tsushima so special.

[00:39:07] Gender equality. You know what I'm saying? If we don't see someone's bare butt getting into a hot, if you can't, if you can, if you can't see a lady's backside, then you shouldn't be able to see Jin's backside. Right. Make it equal. That's all I'm saying. Honestly, I'm actually, I would be shocked if they didn't have hot spring scenes. Yeah. I mean, it's, I feel like it'd be super weird if they didn't write it. It'd be weird if they didn't. Cause, cause they have to know that if they like, I don't, I don't, we don't actually care.

[00:39:37] But I'm making it sound like I really want the hot springs in this game. Uh, no, I literally do not care if the hot springs in this game, but it does feel like one of those things that if you don't do it, that you're kind of making a statement, even though you're probably not. Yeah. You just are like, you know what I mean? Yeah. I know exactly what you mean. Right. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah. And this day and age, it's like, well, oh, they didn't want to show a woman naked. They're woke or something like that. Something dumb. Yeah. You're a hundred percent right. I just feel like it'd be in there. Cause it's like,

[00:40:05] it's a game mechanic that makes sense to continue for whatever reason. But yeah, you're going to get a bunch of weirdos being weird about it. Absolutely. Yeah. I have ghost of you and DK very tangential. Yeah. But I have both of those. So you, you think this is your shoe in for game of the year. You think Donkey Kong is not going to take it. I'm going to remain open-minded. Okay. We still got plenty of year. We got plenty of games that I'm excited for. Um,

[00:40:33] DK Bonanza could absolutely still be game of the year for me, but playing through ghost of Tsushima again. Now it's kind of like the hypes, the hype is hyping. The hype is hyping. The, the hype hyper is hyping. The game is good, man. That game is so good. I'll say, I think I still adore ghost of Tsushima. One of the best games. One of my favorite games ever. I do think it has dated a little bit. Oh, really? Like I went to,

[00:41:02] I went back to a semi recently to try and go for a third playthrough. And I was like, you know what? I think I'm good. I think I'm ready for whatever, like the next evolution is. It's in what? Did that game come out? 2020, 2021, 2021. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, I think ghost of Tsushima with tweaks here and there. It's going to be incredible. Yeah. Rare, rare. Just the criticism I have though.

[00:41:30] Following that yellow bird sucks. Follow, you know, if you know, you know, dude, you know, it's, it's crazy that that game got a ton of criticism at launch around like the side stuff, including the yellow bird stuff. The yellow bird is not my friend. That's what, that's, that's what dropped it like into the eighties was people saying like it, uh, but the side stuff was repetitive and like boring. And I was like, I don't know.

[00:42:00] This game feels so good to play. It's like, I could just do that forever. Yeah. Right. They're wrong. And it's so beautiful. It's like, who cares? Just run around. Yeah. Dude, that, that game still has the best art direction possibly. Dude, incredible art direction. Sorry. This is a ghost of Tsushima episode. Yeah. Okay. What else do we have coming in? Because those are the two, obviously heavy, heavyweights. Um, for sure. Let me run down a quick list of the, the big heavy hitters that I'm most excited for. Um, metal gear,

[00:42:29] solid Delta. I'm really excited for. I have never played. That's on my list. I haven't played metal gear solid three. I know that it's available. I've heard that the HD remasters are not great. So that's the only fun fact about Cameron. Uh, that is the only original, that is the only metal gear game that I played at release. Like ever. Oh yeah. Nice. Including metal gear solid five is I had a PlayStation two.

[00:42:58] And that was like one of the biggest games on PlayStation two was, uh, metal gear solid three. Yeah. So anyway, continue. So I'm, I'm super excited for that. Um, I'm excited for a Pokemon legend ZA. Um, and I'm excited for that final fantasy tactics remaster thing. Yeah. Um, that'll be fun. It's one of those games that people really love. Right. And people have been hankering for this. It is like a remaster more than a remake. Right.

[00:43:27] I'm a little confused there, but, um, so I'm excited to play it for my, for the first time. And I also love that it has a $50 price tag. Let me tell you, you want to sell me a hot new game and you price like price it at 40 or 50 bucks. And I'm like 40, 50 bucks. I'm very, very interested. So you get Jake. It's how you get them. That's how you get me. Um, this seems like a great switch to get as well. It seems like a fantastic switch to game. Yeah.

[00:43:58] Um, so yeah, I'm excited for those. I'm also excited for Hyrule warriors, age of imprisonment. Um, Oh, if it, Pokemon legends, ZA has got to be top of your list. Yeah. Oh, did I not say that already? It's, it's there now. Um, so those ones for like big, big names, I have a few indies here that I'll share in a second, but, um, I'm extremely excited for those ones. Yeah. I think for me, it's,

[00:44:28] um, I'm, it's not a, for sure, but I'm very interested in mafia, the old country. Yeah. That's like my B tier for super hyped games. Yeah. I want to play hopefully co-op with some peeps. I'd love to get a group together to do the gears of war. Oh yeah. Is that August to do that? Yeah. It's August snake eater. You already mentioned. Um,

[00:44:56] then we got borderlands for, you know, I'm just not going to do it. Ghost of Yote. We already talked about. Um, I have really liked Pokemon legends, Arceus. So I'm actually thinking I'm probably going to pick up. Legends EA, just cause I think the legends format is way better than the mainline stuff. Yeah. To be honest. Um, and then obviously outer worlds too. You know, the,

[00:45:25] the most recent showing, I didn't watch the specific showcase for it, but I watched just a little bit when Xbox did their thing in June. Um, it looks really good. Don't get me wrong, but I think, well, it's coming out in October. October is already overstuffed with games. And that's one that I would, I would probably play like in December. Just, I don't know if I'll play it at launch. It looks good, but man, this fall is already crowding up.

[00:45:55] And then I don't see it on here, but it's seems it's on GameStop. I'm looking at GameStop's list. I, for some reason, I don't see it on here, which is weird, but, um, which brook. Oh yeah. I'm, I'm really curious to see. And I've, I've, I've asked you this before, Jake, but it looks like one of those games that is too good to be true. Like there's no way they can pull it off and it will not be as good as it seems to show like in trailers, right? This whole,

[00:46:25] like, you know, wizard school and it's co-op and it's 16 bit and it's online multiplayer. It's cozy. And like all these things that on paper sound really cool, but it's like an execution. There's no way they can pull it off. And then you were telling me how, like you think they might actually pull it off. And then it suddenly got a lot more exciting. Yeah. So just to reiterate, I think it will. So this is a Chucklefish developed game. Um, Chucklefish has been publishing quite a lot and they are highly selective, um,

[00:46:55] in their games, but also specifically in like the pixel art direction, right? So Chucklefish has published some of the best looking pixel games you've ever seen. Um, just broadly. I would say that which brook, um, has a chance of being a really big hit because it's been in development for probably five or six years. They've been slow cooking it. Um, I think don't quote me on this, but if I am correct, uh,

[00:47:21] which brook like entered full development a few years ago, I want to say three or so years ago, I think Chucklefish was Chucklefish is a pretty small company. And I want to say that they were handling publishing and then just kind of plinking away at which brook, but that picked up, I want to say three or four years, three years ago. I want to say is when they brought on a lot of contractors and they started really ramping up development. Um, I don't know. Chucklefish, I feel like knows this industry.

[00:47:50] They pick hits for the most part. Their last, um, in-house developed game, Starbound. I was reading something recently. Somebody was like, why Starbound flopped? And a part of me is like, I feel like history is being rewritten there a little bit because it's like a Terraria kind of game. It like kind of plays a little bit like that. But I also feel like Starbound came out during the,

[00:48:16] like indie before the major indie gold rush that came from the pandemic. So it's like pre pandemic. And so maybe it wasn't the best game ever. I personally bounced on it, but I feel like it did pretty well. And I don't think it played poorly. So I don't know. Fuzzy, I guess my memory, maybe the collective gamer. Anyway, too long of a way to say that. I think which book really does have a chance to be everything. It's got,

[00:48:45] you think it's got the juice. Possibly. My only concern would be, I don't know, uh, where they're at in development right now and how QA is going. But I think, I think it's going to be a really good one. I'm looking at another list real quick. Um, uh,

[00:49:10] it feels like we're missing stuff in the fall that like still hasn't been announced yet. Like what is, what's Nintendo's big fall game? Is that going to be Metroid prime? Cause they haven't announced a release date. I think if it's not, yeah, I mean, it's probably Metro prime for, it's gotta be Metro prime, Cause they had all those leaked advertisements that I got like put out early on the London tube. Yeah, I saw that. And then, um,

[00:49:40] also they've shown a lot of that at the final switch direct. And then at the switch to direct, it was shown a bowl. Yeah. They're, they're going to wait till donkey Kong comes out and then start the campaigns for, for Metroid for the fall. Yeah. That's what's going to happen. Yeah. So honestly, looking at the back half of this year, I mean, obviously I'm saying obviously a lot for some reason, donkey Kong, Bonanza, ghost of Yote.

[00:50:09] That's two pretty massive games. Outer worlds too. I think also pretty huge. Yeah. Does that seem light to you though? For some reason, why does that seem light to me? Like there's not that much. Is it because there's just not that much like big time stuff this year in the back half of the year? I don't, does that sound, I don't know if it, I could be completely wrong, but my perception is it's like, Oh, I feel like in past, I guess borderlands for, maybe it's just stuff that we're not.

[00:50:36] Maybe it's just stuff that you and I maybe are not the most excited about. I don't know. I think that could be part of it, but I think if you do, let's say Metro prime four comes out this fall, you have one from the, which I'm like, you have, are you, would you, are you going to, are you going to get Metro prime four? If it comes up? I don't know. I, I want to get a Metro prime one remastered first. I haven't played any of the, the Metro prime, you know? So I, and I really liked Metroid dread,

[00:51:05] but I know this is going to play obviously way different, but, um, let's see if Metro prime four comes out this fall, then you have one major game from each of the major studios, right? Ghost of Yote from PlayStation. You have outer worlds two from Xbox, and then you have Metro prime four from Nintendo. Um, now I think that covers their bases, but I think as far as like major triple a, um, yeah, you have, uh,

[00:51:35] I mean, I think some other dates are going to shake. Where's, where's the third parties out this fall? That's the question I'm getting at. Where is it? So we have call call of duty, right? Did they, yeah. Like, which is technically Xbox, but still doesn't feel Xbox to me. Arc Raiders, right? Oh, they haven't given the date, but it is, they did say 2025, right?

[00:52:05] Uh, crimson. So I guess that's pretty big, but that, that doesn't really count. Cause that kind of, kind of comes out every year. Right. Um, I know you're talking about the big holiday blockbusters, right? Like, what are they? Yeah. Like we're not getting, there's no Ubisoft game. Capcom. Does Capcom? We got, we got Assassin's Creed shadows, which came and went essentially. Yeah.

[00:52:32] There's no Activision only makes call of duty. Now what's EA releasing this fall? Oh, college football, college football. 26. Is that even this fall? Yeah. Is that coming out in next month? That's, that's like soon. Yeah. Like this month. Yeah. I, yeah. You'll have to let us sound off in the discord or let us know. Cause like, I feel like maybe it's, it's a teeny bit of a light year. I mean, but the switch to released, right?

[00:53:01] So I guess if you're a Nintendo fan, you're going to get a new Metroid and then, and a new 3d Donkey Kong game from the Mario Odyssey team. That's pretty crazy. Plus a new Pokemon. That's pretty, I mean, that's pretty good. That is pretty. Yeah. I think, I think Nintendo is doing quite well. Um, I don't think Xbox will have anything else major. They do have that new double fine game coming out. The super weird one that I'm really curious about. That's also coming out in October though.

[00:53:28] And then they have actually one of my most excited things for this, the rest of the year is the Indiana Jones DLC, September 4th. Oh yeah. That's a good, that's going to be a good time. That's going to be a good time. How big do you think outer worlds too is like in terms of hours? I think it's like, Oh, silk song. I mean, we don't know until we know. I,

[00:53:57] I purposely was, I was purposely not going to mention hollow night silk song because I'm not, I'm not anticipated for it. I think my hype is dead, man. Like, I don't know what happened. No, no, no, I'm not, I'm not anticipating it, but analytically, I think it should come out this year. But yes, I'm never, I cannot ever say anymore when it comes to hollow night,

[00:54:24] that it's actually going to come out despite all the evidence pointing to the fact that, including anyway, I'm sick of the evidence. I guess if hollow night silk song comes out and it's a banger quote unquote, we get a new donkey con game. We get a new ghost of Tsushima game. We get a new Metroid prime. We get a new Pokemon. We got KCD two. Yeah. I mean, it's quite a, it's quite a few games. You can't really complain about that.

[00:54:54] Yeah. I would say we're doing okay. Um, I'm kind of with you though. I want something else to like really grab my attention, but honestly, ghost of Yote is, is that for me in terms of triple A's? I am transitioning a little bit here. I picked a handful of indies folks. I could have picked like a list of 20 indies. Yeah. Tell me, Jake, let's, let's, let's end on that. But I want to hear what's the big indies that everyone needs to be looking forward to. If I'm going to add them to my wishlist right now. If you believe in indies,

[00:55:25] if you are a self-proclaimed indie lover and you do not have these games on your list, then we already mentioned which Brooke, which I guess that doesn't really count. It's not really indie. I guess. I think it's more indie than Dave. The diver was. I would say it's, that's, that's a good call. I would count it. But, um, the chained echoes DLC that is coming October 7th, excuse me, August 7th. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. You,

[00:55:55] you must honestly change echoes right now is on the steam summer sale. So if you're looking for 16 bucks, you're looking for a JRPG. Let me tell you, that is a really fantastic one, dude. I'm going to pick this up, but I, we, we talked about this last episode. I have to pick it up on Xbox because it's play anywhere. Cause it's play anywhere. Yeah. Cameron, what I would recommend for you because I know you and your gaming habits, Oh boy.

[00:56:25] Yep. Call me out. I know. Chained echoes is divided or divides really well into like three different acts. If I remember correctly, it's three. I highly recommend that you'd at least get to the end of act one. I'm giving you permission. Jake knows that I don't finish games. I know that Cameron does. He's calling me out. This is an intervention and I accept it. Cameron, I'm giving you permission. You can still tell people that you like indie games. If you get through the first act of change. Okay.

[00:56:56] You know what? I'm going to do you one better. I'm going to finish the outer wilds. So I can prove to everyone. Cameron, let's not, let's not go this far. You know, I like to bite off more than I can chew. Cameron's great at this. Um, let's see another one. Folks, jot this one down. Constance. Constance is a 2d platformer. I believe it is coming out. Yeah. This is on my,

[00:57:26] this is already on my wishlist. Cameron's head of the game. Uh, let's see Indian former who I highly recommend you check out. If you're looking for indie releases, listeners, Indian former is incredible. Uh, Constance comes out on November 24th. This one is going to be incredible. Uh, when I was at PAX East, everybody was talking about this demo. It's going to be a massive hit. Um, another one. I know Cameron, you're not super excited for this one, which I think is fair.

[00:57:55] You have your reasons. You've explained them to me. You don't need to justify yourself to the public. I got your back on this one. Okay. Thank you. October 31st, Mina, the hollower from yacht club games comes out. Oh yeah. Yeah. That one's been in the works for really long. Really long time. And it's shaping up to be like, Oh no, I'm a big fan of the old school top down Zeldas. And it's looking to be along those lines. So that is one that I am, uh, super, super excited for in August.

[00:58:24] I'm kind of going in a weird order. Just deal with it. I'm sorry. Sort of the sea comes out. Uh, sort of the seat from giant squid. This game is going to hit, uh, PlayStation and PC. Does this game not launch on switch? That blows my mind. Actually, this is like the journey spiritual sequel, right? Yeah. It looks very much like that. Um, what else did giant squid do?

[00:58:53] They did ab zoo, which Cameron and I were actually pretty mixed on, but the pathless was a really good game. Um, so sort of the sea, I think is going to be another one that you definitely need to keep on the docket. Let's see. Um, like I said, I have a bunch that we could go through. Ones that have release dates that I believe are quite firm are those ones. So very cool. Bye sweet Carol. Could be good.

[00:59:22] Could be good. Good. Could be good. That's the horror Disney animated video game style. It could probably get sued by Disney. And never come out. Let's hope not. but yeah, millions of other games. Like I said, if you want to see what's coming out and you want to keep track of dates, definitely check out, um, Indian former. That's the release schedule that I use. Now that marathon is delayed until next year,

[00:59:50] I can say that I'm kind of excited for our creators. So now I could say that anyways, you can be excited for more than one extraction. You can, ladies and gentlemen, sorry, this is the game of the halfway through the year pot episode. Uh, and talking about the games that we're most looking forward to.

[01:00:17] I think we've made it abundantly clear that it's donkey Kong ghost of Yotei from the triple A perspective. And then the indie game, but you know what, you know, what's fun about video games is there will 100% be something that absolutely blows us away and surprises us that we're not talking about at all. Yeah. Right now, which is very fun to think about. Um, so yeah, let us know, let us know the discord, what we missed, what you guys are excited about. I'm looking forward to for the back half of the year.

[01:00:46] I know many of you are smart and wise gamers and only play games in your backlog and never buy anything new, which is unlike me. I buy everything new and never play, never finish anything. My backlog continues to grow and never get smaller, but think about all the developers. You know what? It's called gaming ADHD. Uh, it's a disease. It's nation worldwide. Um, infects at least 75% of gamers everywhere.

[01:01:17] These statistics are from the national center for gaming, uh, health and wellness center for children. That's a really long name. Yeah. It's NS NS, uh, NC NC H H A C C maybe H A C C. Yeah.

[01:01:47] The N, the N C H A C C recommend. The N check actually for people who are putting at least five hours into any video game, you know, before you decide to stop playing it, uh, which I don't really follow that recommendation. Ladies and gentlemen, if you like the podcast, leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can also support us directly on page. You're not com slash period or gas. You can sign up and you can get a special topics episode,

[01:02:11] which is going to be almost sort of an extended edition ish of this episode, but we're making a special topics because we need to do one for this month and we need to have a good one. So we're going to continue our conversation and decide, do we think 2025 will be a banner year for video games?

[01:02:34] And so we're going to talk about that in our special topics episode that is only available to our collectors edition members on picture.com. So go check that out. Join us in the discord link to that's in the, in the description, follow us on social media, mainly on blue sky might be other stuff later. Instagram, possibly maybe we'll figure that out one day in the next five years. Who knows? Who knows? Thank you so much for listening and have a great night.