0:06

D.L.B. Yeah!

0:08

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0:11

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0:13

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0:17

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0:19

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0:25

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0:34

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0:36

you're curled up with family, all

0:39

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0:41

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0:48

favorite game of the year. Because

0:51

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0:53

gentlemen! We've reached it! The end of

0:55

2023! D.L.C., of course,

0:58

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2:00

pod, but this show, the main show

2:03

DLC, it's the show all about

2:05

games and their many forms, games played on

2:07

desktops, laptops, and consoles, also games that involve

2:09

ice and luck and cardboard. I'm your host

2:11

Jeff Kanata, a spell with two N's and

2:13

one T, and I am joined as always

2:15

by my friend slash co-host slash

2:18

nemesis, the

2:20

guy who hates the

2:23

word best. He can't

2:25

stand it. He doesn't have besties,

2:27

he has favorities. Mr.

2:29

Christian Spicer. Hello Christian. Hello

2:32

Jeff, hello everyone. Speaking of

2:34

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2:37

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3:01

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save some money, join the party,

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join the Wednesday wackiness. Yeah,

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way, we appreciate our Patreon support.

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It's the only way the show gets

3:50

made. And this is not your usual

3:52

show, ladies and gentlemen. None

3:54

of our usual seconds. We're talking

3:57

about our favorites of

3:59

the year. and that means we

4:02

also have our usual

4:05

favorites of the year guest. I'm

4:40

not Danish. I said that's

4:43

right. Danish is here everybody. I

4:55

am no longer embodying the ghost

4:57

of Christian. I'm just myself. You

5:00

are yourself for the

5:02

end of the year. Yes. The ghost

5:04

of Christian past. It's awesome

5:06

to have you on every year with us helping us

5:09

go through our favorites of

5:11

the year. And yes, it is favorites of the

5:14

year. If you notice the title of this podcast

5:17

is favorites of the year. And

5:19

there is a reason for that one

5:23

that I think is best summed up in

5:26

the form of song. That's

5:50

right. Ladies and gentlemen, based on an incomplete sampling, we

5:52

have not played every single video game that came out

5:55

in 2023. How could we? We

5:57

are simply three men.

6:00

With limited time and a baby

6:04

The baby's list though is gonna be shocking

6:07

shocking to all this

6:09

is our end

6:13

of the year wrap-up show we're

6:15

gonna talk about our The

6:18

top news stories that happen in the world we're gonna in

6:20

the world of games we're gonna look back on on the

6:22

year that was 2023 and we're

6:25

going to try the nearly impossible task this

6:28

year of coming

6:30

up with our Five

6:32

favorites. Yes, you may see a lot of

6:35

other websites that do top 10. That's too

6:37

easy too many lame Lame.

6:39

Hey, that's right Take

6:42

that other websites and podcasts That's

6:46

too many slots Where's

6:48

we're narrowing it down to our top

6:51

five? We're

6:53

gonna have some other categories We always have our

6:55

other top five which is not six through ten

6:58

because that would be cheating our other top five

7:00

of diamonds in the rough Games

7:02

that deserve another look that might not have been

7:04

our six through ten, but are certainly Worthy

7:07

of being mentioned again at the end of the year

7:09

So we got a lot of content to get through

7:11

so glad to have you with us Anthony It's

7:14

always fun and then I don't be here at

7:16

the end We'll uh, we'll attempt to come

7:18

up with a consensus of what the DLC Favorite

7:22

game of the year is yeah, there's gonna

7:24

be I feel like there's gonna be a tough one Well,

7:27

I don't know an incredibly tough year

7:30

I I think there will probably be less

7:32

overlap on Christian in my lists than ever

7:34

before I have no idea What's on Anthony's

7:36

list? I mean, I have a couple of

7:38

ideas But yeah, I think your list is

7:40

more wide open than I can remember in

7:42

recent days There's just this of

7:45

all years is the poster child

7:47

for There's

7:50

just been so much amazing

7:52

content put out this year

7:57

I can't even yeah, it's just The

8:01

the best of the best has been

8:03

better than I can

8:05

remember. And speaking of those

8:08

websites that do top 10s as

8:10

somebody who wrote a reference

8:13

for a website, you

8:17

put together the top 10 and then somebody goes,

8:19

Hey, we forgot about this game.

8:21

And you're like, Oh man. So typically a

8:23

top 10 is easy to kind of, uh,

8:26

head your bets, you know, and get, and get

8:28

all the arguments out of the way this year,

8:30

you still had to cut

8:33

off some really significant releases. Yes.

8:35

And then you go to, if you go down to five, I mean,

8:38

I had, I made an initial list just off the top

8:40

of my head of my contenders for my top five, and

8:42

there were 20 of them, 20. Yeah.

8:45

There were 20 contenders for five spots. And

8:48

I would, I would bet that most

8:50

of our, like between us three, if

8:52

you would take our 20th game this year,

8:54

there's a good chance it would be

8:56

number one. Any other

8:58

year, like that's how deep the

9:00

reserves go. It's, it's an incredible year

9:03

of video games. I think it will go down as one of the

9:05

best. Uh, already people are making

9:07

that claim and I think it's justified.

9:10

Um, so we're going to get into it, but

9:13

first let's look back on the

9:15

year that was from a story of

9:17

the week perspective, because not

9:19

only was this year a great for

9:21

releases, there was a ton of

9:24

huge impactful news

9:26

stories. And, um,

9:29

I would love each of us to pick, uh,

9:32

a new story that they think is, is maybe

9:34

not a favorite, but the most resonant to

9:37

them. Uh, but I won't

9:39

make either of you pick this one. I will,

9:41

we'll, we'll start with the fact that there

9:44

were a lot of layoffs this year. That's

9:46

my favorite. It's,

9:49

it's an incredibly sad year, an incredibly

9:51

positive year for the quality of the

9:53

games that have come out and the

9:56

quality of the experiences that we've all had

9:58

in this interactive medium. It's just. Nearly.

10:01

Unparalleled, the level of. Skill

10:04

End artistry, the spin on

10:06

display. But. The. Artists.

10:10

And. The skilled workers. Ah

10:12

had a much more turbulent year.

10:15

On. Brutal. Just so many laughs every

10:17

single week. It seemed you're getting

10:19

news of more layoffs and not

10:21

just few it hundreds, hundreds of

10:23

entire studio closures. you know? Amongst

10:25

those last, it was whole teams

10:27

whole. Just

10:30

terrible. Absolutely terrible. Gamer.

10:33

Dot Com does a great right

10:35

up about this Anthony and evidently

10:37

the of the website called Video

10:39

Game Lay off.com. Yeah.

10:42

Which. Is sad that a given as

10:44

to exist. Yeah,

10:46

I mean it, it was trying

10:49

to, I think he knew prefer

10:51

the scope of how significant though

10:53

losses were this year In terms

10:55

of just studios closing, you know,

10:58

publications, developers, all kinds of companies.

11:00

I mean, even that sort of

11:02

tangentially related to video games like

11:05

Hasbro. laid off a ton of

11:07

people are many of whom helped

11:09

the Mothers Gate three dabs. Com

11:12

a get their D Indeed resources

11:14

going. So yeah it. I mean.

11:17

I. Think brutal. Brutal. Across

11:19

the Board, but it feels very

11:21

focused on video games for some

11:24

reason. According to Video

11:26

Game last.com. approximately.

11:28

Nine thousand developers lost their

11:30

jobs in Twenty twenty three.

11:33

Which. Is a staggering number. Ah,

11:35

Unity by Dance Embrace A group.

11:38

Epic games Amazon. Those. Are

11:40

the top. Top

11:42

companies that laid people off or the top number

11:44

of laughs at at companies. And.

11:49

You. Know: Bungie Bioware Cd Project

11:51

Read. Scuse

11:53

me. Sign. A

11:57

yeah there it was. harder to find a. top

12:00

tier developer that didn't have layoffs this year. It's

12:05

just, you know, one of those stories that you have to acknowledge

12:07

as being a big part of the story of 2023. And

12:10

certainly our

12:13

heart goes out to all those folks that lost their

12:15

jobs over the year. And it's

12:17

and also the press, you

12:19

know, the fellow content

12:22

creators and journalists and enthusiast press,

12:24

however you want to label it,

12:26

it's been a terrible year there.

12:28

I'm hoping that we're starting to

12:30

see the Phoenix from that with

12:32

things like aftermath launching. And

12:34

you know, the folks at next land are

12:36

still doing great stuff. And you're, you know,

12:38

you're seeing in Gertsman out

12:41

there doing great stuff as well still. And

12:44

so I'm hoping there's more of that.

12:46

Yeah, that kind of right. Oh, just Steven

12:48

to tell Oh, just released and just went, independent

12:51

ethic is crushing it.

12:53

And so I think it's unfortunate that

12:56

more folks are kind of forced into

12:58

that situation as we were a couple

13:01

of years ago with this show and pivoting

13:03

to Patreon. And we're so thankful

13:06

for the folks listening and supporting us to

13:08

make that possible. But it's tough. And it's

13:10

been tough across the board. And I

13:14

hope I truly, truly hope that we see,

13:16

you know, the Phoenix rise from

13:18

this. And we see some great studios come up that

13:20

are maybe leaner or more

13:22

independent and able to do things

13:24

their way. And it's not the

13:26

end, which I know is really

13:29

hard to view it that way when you're

13:31

in it. But I truly hope it's a beautiful new beginning.

13:33

That's coming soon. Yes,

13:36

certainly. Well said. But

13:39

it's a it's a it's a big part of what happened

13:41

this year. And when we want I wanted

13:43

to acknowledge right off the top, it's not fun to talk about. But

13:46

it was a major it felt like every single week

13:48

we were talking about new layoffs. So hopefully

13:50

2024 will be a different

13:52

story. I worry that

13:54

that won't be the case, but I hope that it will. Okay,

13:57

Anthony Charmina, if you had to pick

13:59

one. Story from Twenty Twenty Three

14:02

In the World, A games that.

14:04

Defined. The year for you or or

14:06

was particularly resonant for you. What was yours

14:08

Be. Well. I.

14:11

Been we've been. Do you know I am

14:13

part of the end of the year stuff?

14:15

I am. I am lucky enough to be

14:17

on some regular podcasts so I do not

14:19

wanna talk about activists hits. Such.

14:21

As as any more I are you guys,

14:23

you guys do it more than I do

14:26

and I'm sure you guys are tired of

14:28

talking about yeah, But. So

14:30

I'm gonna do say the Grand Theft Auto

14:32

Trailer prevent some joy in my life. And

14:34

some a yeah. I. Mean unexpected I

14:37

think I don't know like that at

14:39

at and someone thought it was happening

14:41

I think I think so my does

14:43

this isn't that show but I think

14:45

someone might have been pretty certain know

14:47

year ago that I was gonna happen

14:49

genomes gonna be rather have someone was

14:51

predicting bullied to Florida and I'd say

14:53

again next will not this out not

14:56

is set up for second week busted

14:58

I I I think com whatever the

15:00

case as Anthony. Indicated

15:03

a pretty impactful.

15:05

Moment. For the video game industry, I

15:08

think there's a trailer. That you can

15:10

point to that would be more. Anticipated.

15:12

Than a new mainline Grand Theft

15:14

Auto game. Certainly The viewing numbers

15:17

indicate that as well. You know,

15:19

tens of millions and a I

15:21

things twenty two million overnight. It's

15:24

at what did you think of the Trailer Anthony

15:27

and and what you think it means for the

15:29

industry going for a. While.

15:31

I mean I'm very excited for the

15:33

game. I. Really? Really enjoyed

15:36

Grand Theft Auto Five. I really

15:38

enjoyed Red Dead Redemption to was

15:40

my number one the year it

15:42

came out so I'm I'm looking

15:44

forward to see how how the

15:46

combine. What? They've learned on

15:48

those last two games in two involving the

15:50

franchise and than. What? They do

15:52

with storytelling, what they do with the scope

15:54

of the open world, what they do with

15:56

gameplay, i was sort of

15:58

surprised by the trailer Usually they don't

16:01

give you an indication of who your protagonist

16:03

might be in the first trailer Usually

16:05

it's it's narration and then you figure out

16:07

later. Okay, that was Michael talking or whatever

16:09

but this seems like it's a Bonnie and

16:12

Clyde type of story and we're gonna

16:14

presumably be playing as the the male and

16:16

the female Character as like

16:18

a doodle wildest misdirect if

16:20

they're both killed act one Because

16:25

it it would be unexpected But

16:28

I felt like we got the most detail

16:31

the game looks very very pretty Yeah,

16:34

I'm super excited for it Obviously

16:36

grand theft auto 5 one

16:39

of the biggest games of all time.

16:41

So from like biggest anythings of all

16:43

time Yeah, so one as a as

16:46

a person that works for a website

16:48

I'm excited to just dig into that

16:50

that's exciting on a different level. But

16:53

Yeah, I I can't see

16:55

a world where this

16:58

game doesn't Blow

17:01

me away Just because

17:03

they haven't stopped blowing

17:06

me away with the games that they've delivered

17:08

in the last, you know Decade

17:10

plus. Yeah, and I think

17:13

you know, there was a lot of leaking

17:15

that happened around this But that's not the

17:17

story that permeates right when we look back

17:20

on this moment We're not gonna think

17:22

we're not gonna think about that I mean we it hasn't even come

17:24

up in this conversation as you talk about it This

17:27

was the trailer was released a day early

17:29

because of leaks. It did

17:31

have massive Problems trying

17:33

to but nobody's gonna remember that that's not what is

17:35

going to endure what the one doer is Tens

17:39

of millions of views people's excitement what it means

17:41

for 2025

17:43

because this is not a 2024 game and Christian

17:46

I love the fact that

17:48

rockstar doesn't mess around They're

17:51

not showing you a live-action. This is

17:53

what the game is gonna feel like Debut

17:56

trailer they're not showing you a

17:58

CG moment of cinematic,

18:02

no, here's what the engine

18:04

looks like. Here's how crazy the world's

18:06

gonna be. Here's the flavor of the

18:08

game, right out the gate. I

18:11

love that. Yeah,

18:13

I mean, they came to bat with, you

18:16

know, you're not seeing, it's not a demo, but

18:19

they're coming to the table showing you what

18:21

gameplay will be or what

18:23

they envision gameplay, those parts of

18:25

it will be. But

18:28

also did a really good job of leaving

18:30

questions. You know, the vertical film where it

18:32

looks like people are filming things for TikTok

18:34

or whatever the GTA version of it is.

18:36

There's a lot of questions about, oh, am

18:38

I gonna be doing that as the player?

18:41

What role do I play in this? Am I gonna be able

18:43

to pilot a fighter jet right

18:45

off the bat and stuff like that?

18:47

They show a lot of stuff that

18:49

is exciting, but

18:53

unanswered. And I think there are very

18:55

few companies that do a trailer the

18:57

way Rockstar can. They are able to

19:00

just kind of continue to

19:02

deliver incredible

19:05

content leading up to

19:07

the release. And then as Anthony mentioned, time

19:09

and time and time again, the release delivers.

19:11

It's not as if it comes out, it's

19:13

like, oh, well, that Dead

19:15

Island trailer sure was the best part of that

19:18

game. You know, the game comes out and people

19:20

are done talking about the trailers because the game

19:22

is the best part of that game.

19:26

It's pretty incredible their track record.

19:28

And I'm very curious for

19:30

GTA six as well, because this is, they've

19:33

had turnover as well, not massive

19:35

layoff style turnover, but some of

19:37

the higher leadership roles have left

19:39

and started new studios and a

19:42

little bit of a transition. And

19:44

I know some of those folks that have left clearly

19:46

put in work and time on GTA six. It's

19:48

been in development for a while, but

19:51

I think this will be a first release

19:53

by them of what you might call quote

19:55

unquote the new rock star. And

19:57

I'm curious if we feel that at all.

22:00

make their You

22:02

know make their case known

22:04

I think grant theft auto

22:06

6 just like grand theft auto 5

22:09

just like any rockstar game doesn't need

22:11

promotion doesn't need E3

22:13

doesn't need a press conference doesn't need you know

22:15

the game awards It doesn't

22:17

need to release in a traditional time so I

22:19

think they could just plop it down in the

22:21

summer when nobody's planning to release games anyway and

22:24

It would it'll sell like hotcakes and it won't

22:26

really have an impact on other people's Bottom

22:29

line. I'm sure it will Because

22:31

we get so crowded, but I think I Think

22:35

it will end up being fine Yeah,

22:37

but I I do feel

22:40

bad for you know like let's say Horizon

22:42

Zero Dawn releases its third game They

22:47

are cursed they're cursed somebody but he's gonna

22:50

come up with a better plan than that

22:53

Yeah, there's gonna be I'm gonna spend some

22:55

time in this game. So whatever releases is

22:58

gonna go on the catalog GTA

23:01

5 in 2013

23:05

came out right

23:07

before a Wind Waker HD Link

23:12

to the past Remake

23:17

I See

23:20

anything in October that is in

23:22

September October was It's

23:27

gonna be some stuff here Rogue

23:30

legacy That's

23:34

funny Last of

23:36

us was 2013 Arkham

23:39

origins. Yeah, it was the last of us

23:41

was yeah. Yeah, I remember having a lot

23:43

in collaboration About

23:46

you know, what is what is the game of the

23:48

year last of us for like, you know, it's All

23:51

of its cinematic narrative. Impact Or yeah, it's

23:53

auto for the scope. So I Mean, yeah,

23:55

we still. we still talk about last of

23:57

us It's not. It's not as if the

23:59

game. From that year got

24:01

completely washed away from. The

24:04

I do think that there is. When.

24:07

They officially announced a date. somebody else

24:09

will be around then and will go.

24:11

You know, like Alan Wake to situation

24:13

was Spiderman, it will. We won a

24:16

little more time in the oven. Okay,

24:18

not gonna say that it's because again

24:20

about oh but. It. Was late

24:22

winner exports one the end. Of.

24:25

Ps. For we're releasing.

24:29

Are. Now yeah yeah and ask. As

24:31

as a last of us as the

24:33

end of the P S three years

24:36

and I'm curious what Fortnight Does is

24:38

anything in response and and I don't

24:40

know they haven't announced the online part

24:42

of Gtx Six or what it will

24:44

be Did he on line is such

24:46

a juggernaut? I'm curious if we see

24:48

these other if Call of Duty does

24:50

something big org doesn't you know they

24:53

move their big event away from when

24:55

tears coming out. It does Fortnight launch

24:57

a new mode to. Kind of

24:59

like a heist mode, you know, to kind of

25:01

yeah, maybe get some of that. or if they

25:03

they move that. That's what I'm really curious about

25:06

because what's. Really?

25:08

Dumping the money via cargo plane and

25:11

whole full of money every time is

25:13

that online mode scans? I'm curious to

25:15

see how sticky that isn't. what other

25:17

folks do. Christian.

25:20

What is your favorite story from

25:22

Forty Twenty Three? Ah,

25:26

favorite story seems ill at it seems a

25:28

little. We're on to college and impactful Favorite

25:30

sir. Yeah, yeah I'm I'm torn and I'm

25:32

not trying to avoid it. Ah, I think

25:34

we will talk about it with we devlin

25:37

need to talk about it but I think.

25:40

The. Most impactful story. For.

25:42

Twenty Twenty three. I think it's

25:45

perhaps more impactful than Activision. Blizzard

25:47

is what happened with Unity. Yeah,

25:49

I think. A lot of

25:51

that stuff has been walked back. But.

25:53

john ripped hello was walked out

25:55

ah master those changes were if

25:58

folks don't remember they really changed

26:00

how expensive Unity

26:02

would be for developers. They'd have a

26:04

runtime fee based on downloads. They made

26:06

this big policy change without really answering

26:08

a bunch of questions as to the

26:11

practicality of how it would work. If

26:13

a player deleted a game and then re-download

26:15

it, would they have to pay again? That

26:17

wasn't answered. Whether or not it

26:19

was part of a subscription service, they

26:22

later said Unity later said, well, those

26:24

don't count. Microsoft will pay for that.

26:26

Someone downloads your game via Game Pass,

26:28

but Microsoft never said that.

26:31

They made it retroactive to games that were

26:33

already out. They made it retroactive for games

26:36

that had already signed an agreement

26:38

to develop within Unity. It was

26:40

a real cluster. They

26:42

walked a lot of it back,

26:45

but not everything. The

26:47

reason I think that's an important story for

26:49

gaming this year and going

26:52

forward is I'm

26:54

curious how much it sticks

26:56

in developers' minds in terms

26:58

of creating their next project,

27:01

be it Unity or Unreal, which

27:03

right now Unreal, they're the

27:05

good guys. They do everything right.

27:08

You get extra money if you

27:10

publish on their store, make it

27:12

exclusive for six months. They're taking

27:14

it against Apple. They're taking it

27:16

against Google. They won against Google.

27:18

Also, a potentially huge, huge story

27:20

this year. I'm really curious

27:22

how long they

27:24

maintain that role. If you're a developer,

27:26

what you look to do when you're

27:29

building your game. We've seen that games,

27:31

even quote-unquote small games, don't

27:33

come out in three months. A lot of the games

27:35

that are coming out in 2024 that I'm excited about,

27:37

I think I would need to pull

27:39

up a list, but a lot of them have early access

27:41

tags on them. Those

27:44

are from smaller teams. I think

27:46

this is going to be a big story,

27:48

maybe not something that we continue to hear

27:50

about, but I think it'll

27:52

be front and center for developers for

27:55

years to come and how comfortable

27:57

you can feel talking to investors.

28:00

a developer creating a new studio and you're going

28:02

out and you're pitching your deck. Can

28:04

you put building in unity on it? Do

28:06

you have to get more money to build

28:09

your own engine? How does all

28:11

of that work? I think it's going to have shockwaves

28:14

are going to continue to be felt through the

28:16

community for years to come. Yeah,

28:18

it's certainly changed the balance of power in

28:21

the engine

28:24

space, right? The game engine

28:27

world, it just shifted the balance

28:29

of power. And it was an unforced

28:31

error. It really was wild

28:33

to watch it because it just didn't

28:35

need to happen. Unity was trucking right

28:37

along. Everybody was perfectly happy using

28:40

the engine, making games on the

28:42

engine. Then all of a sudden, they just stuck their foot in it

28:44

and decided, no, we

28:48

want to vilify ourselves and make

28:51

everything uncertain, scary, incentivize

28:55

people to use other engines. It's

28:57

just one of

28:59

the biggest unforced errors I've ever seen.

29:03

Certainly one that, like you said, will have

29:05

big ripple effects going forward. Anthony,

29:09

any added commentary?

29:12

No, I think you guys covered it

29:14

pretty well. It was a bad situation

29:16

all around. Your heart goes out to

29:18

all the developers that were saying, I

29:20

don't know what I'm going to do.

29:23

I'm about to put out a game next year. And now

29:25

I'm concerned I'm not going to make any

29:27

money off of it. So yeah,

29:30

like Christian said,

29:32

I can see a situation where they go, hey,

29:36

we're just going to slowly sneak in

29:38

this whole thing we had before and

29:40

just slowly, slowly drip feed it back

29:42

in. Somebody

29:45

goes, hey, wait a second. They just did the thing

29:47

that they said they walked back. That's

29:50

the scary part. Yeah, agreed. Well,

29:54

I have a story, but first we want

29:57

to take a quick break for a sponsor.

30:01

Yes, that's right guys, everybody mentioned it, but

30:04

didn't mention it. And it's the story that kept

30:06

on giving for this podcast, that's for sure. We

30:08

did 50 plus episodes this year. How

30:11

many of you did we talk about

30:13

Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard King or maybe

30:16

not or this time? Yes. Or

30:18

what are the huge leaks? And oh my

30:20

gosh, what are the somebody forgot to redact

30:22

the pages of the court case. And oh

30:24

my gosh, we found out who likes who

30:26

and who doesn't like who and circle this

30:28

box. Like you're thinking about me. All

30:33

of the juicy, juicy, juicy

30:35

details about

30:37

this wild, unprecedented

30:41

kind of acquisition, the biggest in the

30:43

history of gaming. And

30:45

Bobby's gone, not yet, but

30:47

when you're listening to this, like it's

30:50

still going. We haven't even talked about

30:52

it. The final punctuation for 2023 on

30:55

this story is Christian's

30:57

wish came true. And Bobby Kotick

30:59

is evidently out before

31:02

the first of the year. I

31:04

can't talk about it on this show, but Diablo four

31:06

is now my favorite game of the year. I have

31:08

two days to play it, you know, once he leaves,

31:10

I'm downloading it and loving it. So,

31:14

so hard for him to have to get

31:16

through the holidays knowing he'll only have his

31:18

tens of millions of dollars of golden parachutes.

31:21

I think more than that. I think you're

31:23

going to be more than that. The

31:28

thrust of this story, it was so fun following it.

31:31

I know it may be overstated

31:33

welcome in the sense that it was

31:35

such a roller coaster ride. Right. I

31:38

think we always here on DLC sort

31:41

of figured it was going to go through and

31:43

it has. It felt

31:45

like the momentum was

31:47

unstoppable and, you know, capitalism

31:49

going to capitalism. And if you got that

31:51

many billions pushing for something, it's hard to

31:54

say no. And it turned out that all

31:56

the regulators in all the various countries found

31:58

reasons to say yes. Which is

32:00

interesting, sorry, but it's happening now

32:03

as a recording. But,

32:05

you know, we talked about NVIDIA and

32:07

ARM, that one not happening. That was

32:09

another big merger where competition, people kind

32:11

of scrutinizing it and they backed out.

32:13

And now Adobe and Figma. Adobe

32:16

was going to buy Figma, which is another

32:19

design, a collaborative design software for

32:21

I think 20 billion. And it started to

32:23

get scrutiny and now Adobe is

32:25

walking away. And so it

32:27

did feel inevitable, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft,

32:29

but at the same time, it wasn't,

32:31

it's not unprecedented for these billion dollar

32:34

deals to not happen. And so I

32:36

think in context, it's like, yeah,

32:38

we all expected it to happen, but it's kind of surprising.

32:40

I think that it did. I

32:43

think that there was a time I

32:45

was at a, the

32:47

Ubisoft forward, I think, and

32:49

the CMA situation happened. And

32:51

I remember seeing Phil Spencer

32:54

and all the suits zooming

32:56

out of that and thinking, Oh no,

32:59

but yeah, I mean, a lot of people

33:01

said it's happening, no problem. It's happening. And

33:03

then the CMA thing happened. And I

33:06

think for a little bit, it could have not

33:09

happened. They had to divest

33:11

a whole, you know, they had to basically

33:13

sell to Ubisoft a whole portion of their

33:15

company, or they're, you

33:17

know, like a subsidiary and in order to

33:20

make it happen. And, and them

33:22

being able to do that is, I think the

33:24

only reason if it went through. Yeah,

33:26

concessions all around. Yeah, certainly it was

33:28

not no problem, right? They ran into

33:30

problems. They were roadblocks, big ones. And,

33:34

but you know, it did, it did come

33:36

to pass. I think for me, the, the

33:38

most fun part of the story, if fun

33:40

is even the right word, was getting that

33:43

look behind the curtain. I mean,

33:45

we got a lot just through discovery,

33:48

both intentional and unintentional. We

33:51

got a lot of insight into how

33:53

this worked, you know, getting to

33:56

see those internal emails with

33:59

Phil Spencer. making his case

34:01

for certain things. It felt a

34:03

little scandalous. It was a little scandalous. Felt

34:06

a little voyeuristic, but it was also

34:08

really educational in terms of

34:10

how that role at

34:12

the top of these kinds of

34:15

acquisitions works and who he has

34:17

to convince and what kind of case has to be made

34:19

and all the different things that go into

34:21

it. And we got

34:23

a lot of real hard numbers as far

34:25

as what stuff is made and what stuff,

34:27

the value of things. It

34:31

was fascinating and really provided fodder

34:33

throughout the year on a number

34:35

of different fronts. And

34:37

how no one wants Battlefield. No

34:39

one cares about that. That feels like

34:41

so long ago, but everybody was just

34:44

like, all we have is Battlefield, come

34:46

on. No one likes

34:48

it. When I was on, we had

34:50

talked about, the last time I was

34:52

on, we had talked about Pete Hines

34:54

leaving. And one of those emails was

34:56

like, was

34:58

that like the start

35:01

of Pete Hines going, I think I'm out

35:03

of here. Because he was very critical of

35:05

saying, hey, you forced all this stuff on

35:08

us. This game pass and

35:10

how you wanted Starfield to go, why

35:13

are these other companies getting more

35:15

leeway than us? What's that

35:17

about? Yeah.

35:20

I mean, it was the story that kept

35:22

on giving and there's no writing the tale

35:24

of 2023 without this. It

35:28

was a big part of it. So for me,

35:30

the clear biggest story of the

35:32

year, although it

35:35

was a year with lots of crazy

35:37

stories. So there you have it folks. Just our little

35:39

look back at 2023 in

35:42

terms of stories of the week, as we moved through. But

35:46

let's get to the meat of it and

35:48

talk about our favorites

35:50

of the year. Yeah,

36:01

Just to recap, we're

36:03

doing our top five

36:05

games of the year. We'll

36:19

count down from five to one, each of

36:21

the three of us. And then we have

36:23

five additional games that are not six through

36:25

10, but that are beloved to

36:28

us and deserve to be mentioned again

36:30

at the end of the year, our

36:32

diamonds in the rough, our dark horses.

36:35

We also have some extra bonus categories

36:37

for you. And I should note that

36:39

before we started recording, Christian

36:41

and I each emailed each other our

36:44

guesses for what the other person's list is

36:46

going to be to see

36:48

if we could correctly suss out

36:53

the other person's top five.

36:56

We'll see how close we are to that stuff. I had,

36:58

I think all of us can say this, but

37:00

I had an extremely difficult time this year getting

37:04

to five. It just was a nearly

37:06

impossible task. And it'll be interesting

37:08

to see if it was guessable because I, on

37:10

one hand, I do think it's guessable, but also I

37:12

feel like I could have swapped in and out a

37:15

dozen other games that would have all been just as

37:17

legitimate to make my top five. Last

37:19

year, you bamboozled us because we

37:22

expect Marvel snap to be number one. You were

37:24

talking about it so much and you're like, no,

37:26

vampire survivors, Marvel snaps, not even in my top

37:28

five. And we're like, come on, what are we

37:31

doing here? You're trying to trick us now. And

37:33

I was actually, I made a prediction last year that

37:36

Marvel snap would be one of my most played games

37:38

of 2023 and I haven't really gone back to it.

37:40

I haven't. I've actually,

37:43

there's part of me that very much misses

37:45

it and I have friends that still play it and talk

37:47

how much they enjoyed it. But there's also a part of

37:49

me that's like, I kind of like that I don't have

37:51

that constant addiction, you

37:54

know, going anyway. There's so much, there

37:56

was so much to play that I don't even know how I would have fit

37:58

it in so much. to play

38:00

this year. And one of the bonus

38:02

categories that Christian suggested is games we wish

38:10

we had time to play, games we wished we would

38:12

have played in 2023. So we'll get to that as

38:14

well. All right, so let's

38:16

start without further ado, Anthony Taormina, your

38:19

number five favorite game

38:23

of the year. My number

38:25

five is Sea of Stars.

38:29

Great, great, great game.

38:31

One that is definitely on my honorable

38:34

mentions list, one that could have made

38:36

my list in a number of ways.

38:39

Really love this game. Have

38:42

not finished it, but man, what an

38:44

awesome, awesome game. Yeah, it's it's

38:47

incredible. I, you know,

38:51

there are those games

38:53

where you

38:55

start them and then you go, why didn't I

38:57

start this earlier and see if stars was like

38:59

that, where I started playing it. And

39:02

it's it sets up this idea of there's this

39:04

guy and this girl and they're they're

39:06

chosen heroes and they're supposed to go

39:08

off and do battle against this final

39:12

evil. But then it expands from there.

39:14

It's very chrono trigger. It goes to

39:16

some places that you don't anticipate at

39:18

all. It really kind

39:21

of expands the idea

39:23

of a traditional JRPG. One of the

39:25

cool things it does is it

39:27

has a world map like a traditional JRPG, but

39:29

you get to traverse it

39:32

faster and get around quicker

39:34

as you expand it kind of like in Final

39:37

Final C7, for example, when you get the airship.

39:40

So it's really I mean, it has so

39:42

many really fun story

39:45

moments, really great characters. The

39:48

boss battles are really clever. It's not

39:50

just hey, you against this

39:52

monster or a couple of monsters, they do

39:55

some creative things where you have to deal

39:58

with like a healing Spider-Man

42:00

2 by Insomniac

42:03

Games. It is the

42:06

closest I've ever come to

42:10

happening to Platinum a game, if

42:12

that makes sense. I think I've Platinumed a

42:14

game before one or two maybe. But I

42:17

usually set out to Platinum it instead. It's like

42:19

I'm like continuing to play. Yeah.

42:21

It's like, oh, I'm going to do this

42:24

thing. I was into trophy hunting at the

42:26

time or whatever. Marvel

42:28

Spider-Man 2, I just was having so

42:30

much fun playing it. And I did

42:32

not Platinum it. I should be clear.

42:34

But I played so

42:36

much of it. And I found myself having

42:38

fun just doing things that the game allows

42:40

you to do, whether it's traversing

42:43

the entire city without touching the ground

42:45

or linking these combat things together. And

42:47

then after I had done

42:49

everything there is to do in the game,

42:51

not trophy related, but actual content in the

42:53

game, unlocking all the suits, all the abilities,

42:55

all the side missions down to the very

42:57

end. I looked and

42:59

I was like, oh, yeah, there's probably

43:02

only 20 more minutes of game left

43:04

for me before I would get that

43:06

Platinum. Just a triumph

43:08

and so confident. And this

43:11

year as well of

43:14

some troubled ports and some troubled releases,

43:16

I think that was maybe more so

43:18

in 2022. But it certainly was the case this

43:20

year as well. It played so

43:22

flawlessly from Go. Great

43:25

accessibility features. We

43:28

did a spoiler cast for patrons they can listen to.

43:31

I think zooming out,

43:33

I have some problems with the story. But

43:35

in the moment, it's a very effective,

43:37

very heartfelt story. It

43:39

connects and it hits those big

43:41

story beats in really emotional ways.

43:43

The actors performances are incredible. I

43:45

think they really bring it to

43:48

those characters. And

43:50

I just love the combat. I love

43:52

the wingsuit. I love the way they

43:54

added abilities with gadgets. Every

43:56

addition and change felt

43:58

smart and additive to the

44:01

experience, 60 frames per

44:03

second and ray tracing, you know,

44:05

Insomniac building on their Ratchet and

44:07

Clank technology with the load times,

44:10

every single thing that I look to as

44:12

a video game, it is a video game

44:14

ass video game, you know, like, there are

44:17

moments where you have to punch people to

44:19

help them like that. It's a video game.

44:21

And I absolutely loved it absolutely

44:23

loved it. I think it's a triumph. And

44:26

it's my number five. Yeah,

44:28

I have a feeling we'll be talking

44:30

about it again. I don't know. Spiderman

44:32

two is Christians number five. My

44:35

number five video

44:37

game of 2023 is

44:42

Marvel Spiderman two. So

44:47

we have some, we have some

44:49

real synergy, same, same game, same

44:51

slot, Christian. And honestly,

44:54

it speaks to how incredible a

44:56

year of gaming it has been

44:58

that this game is that low

45:01

on our lists, because it is

45:03

top notch on

45:06

every level, I think it might be the

45:08

lowest we've ever slotted a Insomniac

45:10

Spiderman release. But

45:13

that doesn't I don't think that means the game itself is

45:16

is less than stellar. It

45:18

means the year is is that much more

45:20

stellar. And I just

45:22

echo everything you said, it's it's just

45:24

fun. It's a blast. As a Marvel

45:26

zombie from way back comic book fan,

45:30

the being inside this

45:32

comic book world is

45:34

so much fun. And it just gets

45:37

Spiderman. And you know, it's no surprise

45:39

if you played the earlier entries into this franchise.

45:42

But you know,

45:44

I love that they continue to find new ways

45:46

to make it exciting.

45:48

Tell great stories, expand

45:51

the universe of this particular take

45:53

on Spiderman. It's

45:55

just a blast. It's a great, great

45:57

game. Spiderman two very, Well,

50:00

my dog is excited about these lists. I've been trying

50:02

to hit that mute a little bit I don't know

50:05

if it's gonna come through or not But she's wolfing

50:07

at something as I'm somewhere in her sweater for folks

50:09

that aren't watching the video I got my my dog

50:11

Christmas sweater on my number old. Why are you wearing

50:13

my sweater? Why do you take my sweater? That's not

50:16

better My number

50:18

four is cyberpunk 2077 Phantom

50:22

Liberty now, this is you

50:24

know, Christian being Christian a little bit like that's

50:26

not a game It's a DLC and I would

50:28

say yeah, probably technically you're right, but can you?

50:31

Start it from go you can buy the

50:33

game and you can go right to fan

50:35

right to Phantom Liberty You can

50:37

jump right into the new stuff just like they

50:39

did with I think it was blood and wine

50:42

or you know The witcher stuff and

50:44

it's a full games length. It's not

50:46

two hours. It's not three hours. It

50:49

is an entire full meaty

50:53

Role-playing game Experience

50:57

that took me by surprise I

51:01

got a code for spider-man 2 we talked about that. I got

51:03

a code for this as well and You

51:05

know This is where I need to get out of my

51:07

comfort zone a little bit more and try some other games

51:09

that maybe I don't think I'd love as

51:12

much because I don't know if I

51:14

would have played it but for Getting

51:16

the code and all the awesome Nvidia tech that is

51:19

in it that gets me excited That will probably get

51:21

me to try it because cyberpunk 2077 at

51:24

launch left me very meh and The

51:27

2.0 update and phantom Liberty is

51:29

such an the 2.0 updates incredible

51:32

and the story told in phantom Liberty

51:34

And the gameplay changes they made are

51:36

just exquisite Absolutely, absolutely

51:38

incredible. I can't recommend it

51:40

enough Best

51:43

ongoing game, you know me

51:45

to say And

51:49

just stunning on PC just stunning

51:52

I I am Shagrins to say

51:54

I still haven't made time for this and I

51:57

Want to I Do Everybody has talked about how great

51:59

it is and. It's just, you know

52:01

there's just so much out there and says

52:03

everything's long, everything as big as great. but

52:05

I also have this way for me on

52:07

my hard drive so I planned to play

52:09

at some point. Hopefully they'll be a law

52:12

at some point, right? Yes old for that.

52:14

Know. The christian shaking his head know

52:16

I was thinking that steam should do should

52:18

have a sale. This

52:20

is a so dumb but I love

52:23

it's. like steam selves games for like

52:25

pennies rights like a dollar Five dollars.

52:27

but you literally can't play it. As

52:30

just as it to your backlog, you

52:32

couldn't resist five dollars to add it

52:35

to your backlog and that supply. Unless

52:37

the hundred list actually play, you have

52:39

to pay full price. It more than

52:42

wish listing. You know you're like you're

52:44

adding up a little bit. Assess, Assess.

52:46

Assess. Er I mine number for

52:48

dame. And.

52:51

I think I'm the last person that still

52:53

love this game. I. Don't know why everybody

52:55

turned on this game. Many.

52:58

To for a star feals. I.

53:01

Know that the ad for some

53:03

reason these the. Popular. Sentiment

53:05

now is that the scheme was a disappointment. I.

53:08

Don't think. The. People felt that when it was

53:10

released. But. Somehow in the shade

53:12

of other things like the first week it

53:14

seem out of about was playing at a

53:16

real was talking positively about it my be

53:19

my experience but maybe I'm. Not

53:21

some. Big outlet. Middling.

53:23

Review the think I'd yeah and gave out

53:25

may be gave it sevens or something like

53:27

that. Like is in. I think a lot

53:29

of folks liked it, but usually I can

53:32

understand people looking at something like cyber punk.

53:34

Or. Ah you know Spiderman

53:36

are a lot of other. a lot of your

53:39

games are on weight and. Looking.

53:41

At and going. This game doesn't

53:43

hold up, doesn't feel like state of

53:45

the are cutting edge visually at what

53:48

we expect is suited as if you

53:50

like the next step forward for this.

53:53

Engine. Of Bethesda Games. And

53:55

while that may be true, it didn't bother me.

53:57

I mean, I've really much. It's very much appreciated.

53:59

The. that the latest patch has

54:02

some new bells and whistles, includes

54:04

the DLSS editions, you can have

54:06

a higher frame rate, things look much smoother

54:09

and silkier. It's not gonna,

54:11

I don't think it's an ugly game by any stretch of

54:14

the imagination. And I

54:17

happen to just love this

54:19

Bethesda style of interacting with

54:21

the world. Now that

54:23

I can eat things without putting them in

54:25

my inventory, oh, it's wonderful.

54:29

And all

54:31

of the little stories, all of the little things

54:35

to find, all the quests are so

54:37

beautifully designed and there's so many things

54:39

I want to do. The big thrust

54:41

of the story is pretty cool and

54:43

exciting. The kinds of people I'm interacting

54:45

with are always interesting to me. I

54:49

love a Bethesda role-playing game. I

54:51

love getting lost in a big

54:53

sprawling world. I found

54:56

just wandering around mostly empty

54:58

planets that I

55:01

wasn't sent to go to by any

55:03

quest. I wanted to just wander and

55:05

find a abandoned space station and kill

55:07

some things that are there and loot

55:09

some stuff. This is my kind of

55:15

game and it really is a Bethesda

55:17

game. I think what disappoints a lot

55:19

of people is that it isn't different

55:21

enough, that it is just Skyrim in

55:23

space. But for me, that's

55:25

catnip. I am all over it. So

55:29

Starfield remains in my top five.

55:32

Lower than I would have guessed a

55:34

couple of years ago, knowing it was coming. But

55:37

number four is still one of

55:39

my most cherished experiences of 2023.

55:44

All right, number three. We're on top three, ladies

55:46

and gentlemen. Anthony Towermino, you're number

55:49

three. My number

55:51

three. Another game that's probably not on

55:53

either of your lists. Lies of

55:55

P. Wow, yeah. That was the I

55:57

didn't type. I didn't predict, but that

55:59

was... I was trying to think what your

56:01

top five would be and this is the only one

56:03

I thought of of like this is an Anthony like

56:06

yeah, I mean, yes is an Anthony game

56:08

This is your field, you know, the Jeff

56:10

is to start with Anthony is to lies

56:12

of P 100% Yes Spoilers

56:18

armored core is not on my list, but

56:21

you know in a year that from saw

56:23

bringing up other games It's

56:30

a video game. It just exists But

56:33

you know in a year that from software put out

56:35

a game I think lies a pee the

56:37

developers at neowiz put

56:40

out The

56:42

best imitator of a from

56:45

software game Thus

56:47

far it leans more

56:49

towards blood-borne than you know, the soul But

56:52

it is it is incredible. I

56:54

think the combat

56:56

mechanics that they introduced That

56:59

kind of borrowed from blood-borne and the idea

57:01

of you know You can attack to get

57:04

your health back but this idea

57:06

of guarding and kind of perfect parrying

57:09

and learning the attacks and you're actually

57:12

blocking the attacks and timing a button

57:14

press and kind of learning this kind

57:16

of Choreography almost of

57:18

like tap tap tap tap tap tap

57:22

Tap, you know one more hit Like

57:25

learning learning those attacks where in another

57:27

game maybe it's dodge dodge dodge dodge

57:29

you're doing something a little different The

57:33

boss designs are crazy this

57:35

very kind of steampunk You

57:38

know year-based mechanical

57:43

world where these puppets and these

57:45

robots and then there's infected

57:48

people and it's all based on

57:50

Pinocchio and The

57:52

story goes some places. There's actually kind

57:54

of a meaningful story to follow which

57:56

is very different from a from

57:59

software game The

58:02

world is beautiful. Yeah,

58:04

it just it has

58:06

that addictive quality that from software

58:08

games do where you know

58:10

you Go through these little

58:13

loops to get Souls

58:15

and in this in

58:17

this it's a different version But you know you're

58:19

leveling up your character you're boosting your stats you're

58:21

finding weapons doing things like that Has

58:24

all those things but it's it's

58:27

done so well that It's

58:30

really hard to look at lies of

58:32

P and not just say I don't

58:35

I don't think Anybody has

58:38

even come close to doing as good of

58:40

a job of emulating from software as they

58:42

have It's great.

58:44

That's great to hear lies of P. I think

58:47

that's available on game path as well if I be

58:51

I'm not 100% Karamino is

58:53

doing his top five games

58:55

that are available on game

58:57

All right Christian Spicer you're

59:00

number three This

59:02

is the only game on my list.

59:04

I did not roll credits on there's

59:07

a cup There's been a couple of

59:09

these over the years where I don't

59:11

roll credits on a top five favorite

59:13

I tend to include only games that

59:15

I've completed in my top five be

59:17

it for That

59:19

clearly interested me so therefore I stuck with it I

59:21

think I had Elden ring on it's here, and I

59:23

did not roll credits in it But

59:25

this is also the game that I think I've spent

59:27

the most hours with or I should say That

59:30

my system has spent the most hours with

59:32

whether they were by my hand or another

59:36

And that's Legend of Zelda tears

59:38

of the kingdom the only

59:40

reason I Say that

59:42

I haven't rolled credits on it

59:45

is on this show I talked

59:47

about how my brother-in-law and

59:49

his kids were playing through breath of the

59:51

wild as kind of this communal Experience where

59:53

he would do a lot of the adventuring

59:56

and the combat and one of his kids

59:58

loved cooking and the other kids loved

1:00:00

exploring. And so they really had

1:00:02

this like, they created this Voltron

1:00:04

of the components of Breath of

1:00:06

the Wild. And my kids were

1:00:08

here when he and his kids

1:00:11

were around. And they heard that and

1:00:13

got really excited about that. And so

1:00:15

they saw me playing Tears of the

1:00:17

Kingdom and they really loved the building.

1:00:19

And so they wanted to play this

1:00:21

communal style of gameplay, which I was

1:00:23

not going to say no to, right?

1:00:25

It's been so fun. But it also

1:00:27

means that there are times that I'm

1:00:29

not playing the game, or

1:00:32

they don't want me to engage in

1:00:34

certain things because they're still working on

1:00:36

resources to build their what they call

1:00:38

a mech, which I

1:00:40

call OSHA hazard

1:00:43

waiting to happen. But

1:00:46

it's just a triumph

1:00:48

of a game. And

1:00:51

it's number three on my list. Originally,

1:00:53

I was wondering if it would

1:00:55

be lower, because I didn't roll credits on

1:00:57

it. But it landed on number three for

1:00:59

me, because it is a game that after

1:01:01

x number of years of playing games, it

1:01:04

challenged me to rethink how

1:01:07

I engage with a video game.

1:01:09

And I talked about this on the main show

1:01:12

when I was first playing it, where I was

1:01:14

finally able to kind of embrace this idea of

1:01:16

just meeting the game where

1:01:18

it is, and experiencing it, and

1:01:20

not finishing it, not making

1:01:23

what I would call meaningful progress toward the

1:01:26

credits. I could just be in that world

1:01:28

kind of like the way you were describing

1:01:30

Starfield, Jeff, and I was happy to just

1:01:32

climb a mountain and see if there was

1:01:35

a shrine there. And does that

1:01:37

shrine make me better? Yeah, I guess marginally,

1:01:39

but I don't need to do that shrine

1:01:41

to finish the game, you know, that kind

1:01:43

of thing. It wasn't a required step. And

1:01:46

I was really able to find my Zen

1:01:48

place with it. And I also think

1:01:50

it's a triumph for what I

1:01:52

think a lot of folks might say, Oh, it's just Breath of

1:01:54

the Wild, too. It truly did

1:01:56

not feel that way to me, I think the innovation they

1:01:59

did with the building. mechanic is

1:02:02

iterative in a big way, not

1:02:04

iterative, sorry, evolutionary in a big

1:02:07

way. It really changed that formula.

1:02:09

And the story is hitting harder for me as well.

1:02:12

I think the story is beautiful. I think

1:02:14

it's told really well. And

1:02:16

to see this thing chugging away still on a 1984

1:02:20

Nintendo Switch, you know, it's stunning.

1:02:22

I love it. Legend of Zelda

1:02:24

Tears of the Kingdom. Number

1:02:27

three. Can't argue

1:02:29

with that. Can't argue with that. It's one of

1:02:31

those games that I wish I loved, you know,

1:02:34

just like the original Breath of the Wild. I

1:02:36

hear people talking about it and I want to

1:02:38

have had that experience. Maybe if a Switch 2

1:02:41

happens and I'm able to play it, you know,

1:02:43

a little higher frame it or something like they, you

1:02:45

know, put it out on that or whatever. I don't know. My

1:02:49

number three is my most

1:02:51

controversial because

1:02:53

DLC for

1:02:57

vampire survivors.

1:03:00

It's a very late edition. It knocked something

1:03:02

off the list that I was chagrined to

1:03:04

see go. And it was

1:03:06

very late edition and I don't have enough

1:03:09

hours in it to really

1:03:11

know that it should be this high.

1:03:13

But I sense it. I

1:03:15

sense it, you guys. Did Anthony send

1:03:17

you a text about it? Yeah, yeah.

1:03:20

It's Asgard's

1:03:22

Wrath 2.

1:03:26

This game is like my dream

1:03:28

of what video games could

1:03:30

be come true. It is

1:03:33

the VR immersive

1:03:36

adventure that feels sprawling and

1:03:39

interesting and varied. It feels

1:03:42

like, you know, you just did a Zelda

1:03:45

game. This feels like VR

1:03:47

Zelda in a lot of ways. It

1:03:50

feels like you are inside a classic,

1:03:56

iconic video

1:03:58

game experience. You want to feel

1:04:00

like you can swing a sword

1:04:02

and fight stuff, find items, get

1:04:05

more powerful, solve puzzles, explore interesting

1:04:07

locations, find secrets around

1:04:09

the corner, climb things,

1:04:11

swing on things, wall run.

1:04:14

But you're inside it, you're

1:04:16

looking around, it's scaled to

1:04:18

you. Asgard's Wrath 2

1:04:20

delivers that experience

1:04:23

and yes it has

1:04:25

only come out a

1:04:27

few days before we're recording this. I

1:04:29

mean that's a week or so but

1:04:32

I have put a lot of hours into it already. I plan to

1:04:35

put a lot more into it. Did

1:04:37

you play with the update that just came out?

1:04:40

When did that update come out? It's

1:04:42

uh two days ago, two

1:04:45

or three days ago. So it's because I played yesterday.

1:04:47

Yeah, has the 90 hertz toggle

1:04:50

and the better

1:04:52

visuals? Yes, yes.

1:04:57

Just for quest three that is, it's just better visuals

1:04:59

for quest three. Yeah,

1:05:02

I mean this is the dream. It's

1:05:04

big and meaty, it's not a tech

1:05:06

demo, it's not mini games, it's sprawling,

1:05:09

there's tons of upgrades to

1:05:11

do, it's got cinematic storytelling,

1:05:14

it's, it looks great, it's

1:05:16

completely standalone. I can be in my basement,

1:05:18

not anywhere near my PC and playing it.

1:05:20

I can take it on the road with

1:05:22

me and play it. Asgard's

1:05:25

Wrath 2 is my dream of

1:05:27

VR realized

1:05:29

or at least as close as we've gotten to

1:05:32

it. So I, like

1:05:34

I said, I feel confident that

1:05:37

as I continue to play it, it

1:05:39

will continue to earn its place as number

1:05:41

three on my list and

1:05:44

you know,

1:05:48

I really want to give you guys my top

1:05:50

five VR games of 2023 because

1:05:52

I think there was enough great VR games that you

1:05:55

could, I could do a top five list just of

1:05:57

those and certainly this would be on the top of

1:05:59

that list but it's so good that it transcends

1:06:01

its VR list and belongs

1:06:03

on my games of the year.

1:06:06

And, you texted me because you got an early

1:06:09

copy of this and you were like, Jeff, you're

1:06:11

going to love it. Yes.

1:06:14

It was, I don't think

1:06:16

it's a spoiler to say this, but like when you

1:06:18

get the mount, I was

1:06:20

like, oh, this is like, this is a

1:06:22

game game. This is not a, like,

1:06:25

I'm going to now have to travel between

1:06:27

points and do things.

1:06:29

And yeah, it's, it

1:06:32

has done a lot of firsts for me.

1:06:35

It's the first VR game where my battery

1:06:37

ran out. Typically, I'm like,

1:06:39

okay, I'm done. And then I charge it. But this

1:06:41

was the first time where it was like, I'm

1:06:43

going to die. I'm going to die here. So

1:06:46

you need to charge me. And

1:06:49

then I, so I wear glasses for any

1:06:51

of the video viewers. So

1:06:53

I got a pair of the lenses for

1:06:55

the Quest 3 because I had

1:06:58

been playing for so long. And though

1:07:00

it's comfortable, it made

1:07:02

me like more into VR than

1:07:04

I had been ever. And

1:07:08

so that is true for me. I

1:07:10

was like, Jeff is going to lose

1:07:12

it. I

1:07:14

did. I have. I've

1:07:16

lost it. Yeah. Top three game

1:07:18

of the year in this insane

1:07:20

year for games. This is

1:07:23

just a bonkers year for games.

1:07:25

And there you go. It's in my top three.

1:07:27

Also, it comes, you know, to build off

1:07:29

the game pass. It comes free with Quest 3 if

1:07:31

you buy Quest 3. It's the

1:07:33

pack in game. Yeah. It's the pack in

1:07:36

game for Quest 3. But only for a

1:07:38

limited time. And it doesn't have all the

1:07:40

Quest 3 improvements because they were developing it

1:07:42

for Quest you know, like here's the small print.

1:07:44

Well, I'm hoping, I'm hoping that they continue to

1:07:46

upgrade it like they have where they add that

1:07:48

nine words mode and all that stuff. Yeah. I

1:07:51

just want to rush that out because a lot of

1:07:53

the feedback on the reviews. I wrote

1:07:56

a review and that was like my main feedback

1:07:58

is yeah, it doesn't look like. anything

1:08:00

you can see somewhere else but I

1:08:03

don't think it's a good one at all it's it's yeah

1:08:05

it's still pretty I mean it's very the

1:08:07

graphics are sort of cartoonish but in like

1:08:09

a Zelda way it's it's yeah yeah it's

1:08:11

great yeah yeah I hope wise

1:08:14

it's unlike anything you yeah I

1:08:16

mean it's amazing all

1:08:18

right number two Anthony

1:08:20

Taurmina your number two game of the year my

1:08:23

number two game of the year Final

1:08:26

Fantasy 16 Wow

1:08:31

Wow did not see that coming really we

1:08:33

did a whole podcast about how much I

1:08:35

like this game I just felt like it

1:08:37

was I think Christian could see it coming

1:08:39

more than you because I would text him

1:08:41

and be like Jeff Jeff is hurting my

1:08:43

soul he's he's he's saying all

1:08:46

these mean things about my game I'm true

1:08:50

I can confirm receipt of text

1:08:53

all right tell me why you put it as

1:08:55

number two of the year Wow so

1:08:58

you know echoing a lot of the things

1:09:00

I said in the the kind of

1:09:02

paid DLC episode that we did

1:09:04

but the story is

1:09:07

big and bold and has just

1:09:09

some really really cool elements it

1:09:14

still feels like Final Fantasy but the

1:09:16

combat has evolved to be more modern

1:09:18

with a dodge and then you know

1:09:20

a parry and it's

1:09:23

not it's not turn-based at all it's not

1:09:25

Final Fantasy 7 remake which

1:09:27

is more of a hybrid than this it's it's

1:09:29

very direct action and I just had such a

1:09:31

fun time kind of

1:09:33

learning how to combine the

1:09:36

kind of basic

1:09:38

attacks with the icon abilities finding

1:09:40

different ways that those synergize and

1:09:43

stagger enemies it just it

1:09:45

became like this crazy you know dance of

1:09:47

destruction that I loved this

1:09:49

game is is got some outstanding

1:09:53

sequences that are like Platinum

1:09:55

games level this is bonkers

1:09:58

what I am seeing happen

1:10:00

on my TV screen. I don't

1:10:02

think either. I know, I know,

1:10:04

Jeff, you, you tapped out earlier, but I don't think Christian got

1:10:07

there either because I kept trying to get them to get there.

1:10:09

I, every

1:10:11

person I say there, there was like, I don't

1:10:13

really like it. I say, where are you? Get to

1:10:15

this part. And if you still don't like it,

1:10:17

okay. Yeah, there are some

1:10:19

incredible cinematic sequences. I think

1:10:22

the story is really interesting. I think

1:10:24

that it has just, it feels

1:10:26

like a final fantasy game to me. It reminds

1:10:28

me so much of just jumping

1:10:30

into those older games and, and

1:10:33

just getting swept up in this epic story

1:10:35

that starts really small and that just expands

1:10:37

and expands and you don't really have a

1:10:39

good understanding of how it's gonna

1:10:41

expand, but you can only imagine you're

1:10:44

so early on that and

1:10:46

the conflict seems resolved that something else has

1:10:48

got to happen. I just,

1:10:50

yeah, I just, I really, really, really had a

1:10:55

lasting, you know, had a lasting impression

1:10:57

on me with the combat,

1:11:00

the story, the characters. I

1:11:03

would not be upset if they, I know that they

1:11:05

said they sort of disbanded the team or

1:11:07

the team is working on other stuff, but I would not

1:11:09

be upset if they continued this story

1:11:11

with these characters beyond the

1:11:14

DLC that they have planned. It's interesting.

1:11:16

It'll be interesting to see what direction final

1:11:18

fantasy goes next because, yeah, I

1:11:20

know that this one was like, you

1:11:22

know, very divisive and I'm

1:11:24

sure final fantasy seven rebirth will sell better,

1:11:26

but that's, you know, you got cloud and

1:11:28

Sephiroth in there. So yeah, I

1:11:31

imagine it will influence them and,

1:11:33

and the more direct combat will be for kingdom hearts

1:11:35

or what have you, but I really

1:11:38

liked it. From the moment I previewed

1:11:40

it, well, I don't know, a year and a half

1:11:42

ago, I was like, I think I'm going

1:11:44

to love this game and it, every time I played

1:11:46

it again, I really did love it. That's

1:11:48

great, man. I love it. That's amazing. Final

1:11:51

fantasy 16 at number

1:11:53

two, Christian Spicer, your

1:11:56

number two. Wowie

1:11:58

zowie! Super Mario

1:12:00

Wonder just in- Wait, does

1:12:02

he say Wowie Zowie? He

1:12:06

does say Wowie Zowie. A lot, like a lot.

1:12:09

A lot. Like a lot. I guess I

1:12:11

don't pay attention to it. It's his new

1:12:14

catch. Yeah, it's his new catch. Well, I

1:12:16

can delete the email I sent to Jeff.

1:12:18

Confirmed. Yeah,

1:12:24

Wowie Zowie. I love it. I

1:12:27

love Mario. I was kind

1:12:29

of burnt out on the new Super

1:12:31

Mario approach to

1:12:34

2D Mario and what

1:12:36

those geniuses over at Nintendo managed to

1:12:38

pull off after releasing

1:12:40

two games of Build

1:12:43

Your Own Mario. We gave you the toolbox,

1:12:45

we're done. We're tapped out. Here you go

1:12:47

community. You make the next Mario games. And

1:12:49

the community was like, we will. And

1:12:51

they were excellent. In Super Mario Maker 2, you

1:12:53

had the ability to create full

1:12:56

on games, you know, linking levels together.

1:12:58

And the community did. And

1:13:00

they were awesome. And then

1:13:02

the geniuses at Nintendo found a way

1:13:04

to reinvent and redefine what

1:13:06

the 2D side scrolling Mario game can

1:13:09

be. Getting rid of the

1:13:11

timer is transformative in terms of

1:13:13

opening up exploration in those levels.

1:13:16

The Wonder Flower is

1:13:18

brilliant every single time it's used.

1:13:21

And it's almost always used

1:13:24

in a completely different way. There are a few

1:13:26

that feel like brothers or sisters or cousins

1:13:28

of like other uses. But more

1:13:31

often than not, it is just totally new,

1:13:34

totally inventive. It

1:13:36

literally turns the game upside down. And

1:13:39

just the level of creativity on display in

1:13:41

each and every level is phenomenal.

1:13:43

And I love that it's pickup and playable. You know,

1:13:45

it was my switch was on my coffee table. It

1:13:47

was next to my bed. It was in my office.

1:13:50

Like I'd have it near me. And it was the

1:13:52

type of game where I'd be like, oh, I got

1:13:54

time. And I'd run through a level and end up

1:13:56

running through five or six. The multiplayer

1:13:58

I think isn't the. the best I

1:14:00

prefer playing it. I think the levels are

1:14:02

best explored solo, but the

1:14:05

fact that it has the best

1:14:07

version of 2D Mario multiplayer compared

1:14:10

to the other versions where it's less chaotic, less competitive

1:14:12

means that my kids and I got to play a

1:14:15

lot of it together. We've started several

1:14:17

new saves together as they clamor for each wanting

1:14:19

their own. Like, oh, I want to start on

1:14:21

my save from the first level. Who planned my

1:14:23

save? Yes, we can play from your save. It's

1:14:26

awesome. Wowie zowie times infinity,

1:14:28

Super Mario Wonder. Nintendo,

1:14:30

not, I could, you said you could

1:14:32

do VR. I could do top five

1:14:34

Nintendo made games this year. Nintendo had

1:14:37

a phenomenal, phenomenal year as the Switch

1:14:39

apparently is being put out to pasture,

1:14:41

but holy crap, what a year and what a game. Excellent

1:14:45

choice. That's Mario Wonder at number

1:14:47

two. My number two

1:14:50

for 2023 is Wowie

1:14:52

zowie, Wowie

1:14:55

zowie, Super Mario Wonder. Oh, Mr.

1:14:57

X, what a Mr. X. Everything

1:15:03

you said, of course, is true. It

1:15:07

is a revelation as far as

1:15:09

what's possible in Mario. One

1:15:15

of the things you didn't mention is just how they

1:15:17

reimagined every single bit

1:15:20

of visual flair in the

1:15:23

game, every animation, every sprite,

1:15:25

the look of the world, the

1:15:28

look of the characters, the way they

1:15:30

move, the way they emote. It

1:15:33

is beautiful in a

1:15:35

way that I don't speak about

1:15:37

Switch games very often. I

1:15:40

love looking at the game. I love the

1:15:42

way the characters move. It

1:15:44

feels like a Disney cartoon. It

1:15:47

is delightful. It is whimsical. It makes you

1:15:49

feel good every time you play it. And

1:15:51

my son and I have gotten to

1:15:54

the point now where we're tackling those five-star

1:15:57

difficulty, insanely hard

1:15:59

levels. The Offender So much fun

1:16:01

to be your head against the wall

1:16:03

and try it again and tried again and

1:16:05

tried again. And the feeling of of getting

1:16:08

there and over going. getting over the hump

1:16:10

on the most super secret of levels that

1:16:12

are just. There. Is

1:16:14

one level where you have to

1:16:16

ride a rolling. Ah, Hippo,

1:16:19

Across spice things and easy for us

1:16:21

and it is so difficult and has

1:16:24

been such a challenge And get the

1:16:26

study was strike it's the furthest. Oculus

1:16:28

uses different. Boost his different

1:16:30

a bad to to to yeah

1:16:33

a bad system add system is

1:16:35

of revelation. Every

1:16:37

single I mean literally. The only criticism I

1:16:39

have the game is is screen deaths like

1:16:41

the screen doesn't Multiplayer They have to come

1:16:44

up with the solution for that because that's

1:16:46

the that's the only not fun thing about.

1:16:48

Mario. Wonder. But other than that it

1:16:51

is near perfect in in just how

1:16:53

much joy it brings. How each level

1:16:55

is feels like a a new gift,

1:16:57

your unwrapping a new treats of like

1:17:00

a what are they gonna what. Wilde

1:17:03

new idea? Are they gonna reveal

1:17:05

this time? And. Even

1:17:07

within the context of that new idea,

1:17:09

What new wonderful our idea are they

1:17:11

gonna show on tier? I.

1:17:15

Did not expect to love the game

1:17:18

this much. Ah, It is.

1:17:21

Extraordinary achievement I think

1:17:23

for just approaching a.

1:17:26

Decades old franchise with fresh

1:17:28

eyes and. You

1:17:30

know, Taking something that we

1:17:33

all know and making it feel

1:17:35

new and exciting again. Mario Wonder

1:17:37

is a wonder truly. That.

1:17:41

Resist the number one. Number.

1:17:43

Was. The.

1:17:46

Most fit and by the way I think we've

1:17:48

seen. although it's wildly christian, I have had to.

1:17:52

Monitor just stick. Not just the same I mean

1:17:54

will You basically has decided your game of the

1:17:56

year. I think I've a might be Morrow under

1:17:58

it might Be Will Have. We'll see. But,

1:18:04

well, I mean, we all have one left

1:18:06

and I think we all know what

1:18:09

each other's one is. I think

1:18:11

we do. I've been playing a game in secret all

1:18:13

year. No. No.

1:18:16

Christian's finally putting Diablo 4 on

1:18:18

number one. All

1:18:22

right. We're at number one. But

1:18:24

what I was going to say was I think this

1:18:26

year, as much as any other, maybe

1:18:29

more than any other, really underlines the

1:18:31

fact that we call them favorite games of the

1:18:33

year because there is

1:18:35

no way to quantify an objective

1:18:37

best game. It really is. These

1:18:40

lists are such our favorites, what

1:18:42

resonated with us as individuals. So

1:18:44

in that sense, Anthony

1:18:46

Taurimina, your number one game

1:18:49

of the year is

1:18:51

The Legend of Zelda, The Heroes

1:18:53

of the Kingdom. I mean, it was

1:18:57

going to be that before 2023 happened

1:18:59

and it's still that now that 2023

1:19:02

has happened. Yes. I

1:19:05

mean, what can I say? I

1:19:08

loved Breath of the Wild. It was my number

1:19:10

one the year it came out. But

1:19:13

there were some things I didn't,

1:19:16

particularly like the direction they

1:19:18

went with, the beasts kind

1:19:22

of being your replacement for temples or

1:19:24

dungeons. Boom. Here's the kingdom,

1:19:26

temples. They're here. There's

1:19:29

not enough of them, in my opinion. I always want

1:19:31

more. But they're great.

1:19:35

The story, I think, is one of

1:19:37

the best Zelda stories I have experienced.

1:19:40

It has some incredible moments.

1:19:43

Anybody that has acquired the Master Sword

1:19:45

and Tears of the Kingdom knows how

1:19:47

incredible that is. But also,

1:19:50

how I get the Master Sword or

1:19:52

how I decide to get the Master

1:19:54

Sword versus how Person

1:19:57

B and Person C gets the Master Sword can

1:19:59

be wildly different. You have your own

1:20:01

little kind of narrative that is created by

1:20:03

how you happen upon it. The,

1:20:08

I think, kind

1:20:10

of final set of sequences is amazing,

1:20:12

which makes me sad that Christian hasn't

1:20:14

finished it. It has some

1:20:17

truly, really, really cool moments.

1:20:21

And that's all not saying

1:20:23

any of the Ultra Hand stuff,

1:20:25

which is just

1:20:29

the goofiest fun you can have in a video game.

1:20:31

It's its own mechanic, it's its own game if you

1:20:33

want it to be creating

1:20:37

ships and cars and

1:20:40

solving puzzles in the most obtuse

1:20:42

way possible, but making it work

1:20:44

is so much fun. It

1:20:48

blows me away how many different

1:20:50

ways you can tackle a shrine or

1:20:52

a puzzle or helping the

1:20:54

guy hold up the sign. It's

1:20:57

just, it is,

1:20:59

I think it's my favorite Zelda

1:21:01

game. I think it is

1:21:03

my favorite Zelda game. Because,

1:21:06

I mean, the

1:21:09

lack of tons of temples is

1:21:11

sort of holding it back, besides

1:21:14

that, it just has

1:21:16

such a great story. It

1:21:19

really feels like a, you know, kind of

1:21:21

a significant wrapper

1:21:23

on the two games.

1:21:26

It puts a good punctuation point

1:21:29

at the end, saying like, this

1:21:31

is the story we wanted to tell. And

1:21:33

it still

1:21:36

captures, like, Zelda

1:21:38

has to have specific things that happen. You

1:21:40

know, you have to get the Master Sword

1:21:43

and so on and so forth. But it

1:21:45

does all that stuff in some really fresh

1:21:47

and new ways that I really appreciate it.

1:21:50

It's an incredible game. There

1:21:53

was no game that was even going to

1:21:55

revival this, to be honest. Like, it was

1:21:58

Zelda number one and nothing came close. And

1:22:01

in a year of just incredible games, so

1:22:03

that's indeed speaks to how much you loved

1:22:05

it Wow, there

1:22:08

you go. Here's the kingdom at number one. All

1:22:11

right Christian Spicer your number one

1:22:13

game of the year Before

1:22:16

I can answer and I'm feeling a little tired. I got to get hold

1:22:18

on I Needed

1:22:20

to fill up my coffee and my from

1:22:22

my Odeer diner thermos. I needed to get

1:22:25

a little bit of a Little

1:22:27

bit of a vote if if his number

1:22:29

one isn't paid for it has now

1:22:31

been paid for her They

1:22:34

could I'd love to have them pay me to

1:22:36

have this be my number one can be bought

1:22:38

what hey my number one is teeny

1:22:41

tiny bubbles on Android if you play let

1:22:43

me write a postcard Let me send

1:22:45

you a greetings from cauldron Lake before I

1:22:47

tell you what my number one favorite

1:22:49

game of the year is Call

1:22:52

it a hootie modern warfare 3 What

1:22:54

I didn't think they could bring me

1:22:57

back On

1:23:01

the parka I wore it on my walk this morning

1:23:03

when it was raining No boy

1:23:06

when Alex Philippe and I

1:23:09

did a whole spoiler cast about it I've

1:23:12

rerun the final draft to get

1:23:14

the new ending which

1:23:16

we haven't talked about anywhere yet, and it's Alan Wake

1:23:18

to is just a A

1:23:21

triumph a triumph of a video

1:23:23

game top to bottom I don't

1:23:25

know if anyone else does what

1:23:27

remedy is doing right now They

1:23:30

got me to go back and revisit quantum

1:23:32

break a game I didn't much enjoy when

1:23:34

I first played it and I came into

1:23:36

it with fresh eyes and the new gameplay

1:23:38

Perspective and started playing it more like control

1:23:40

more like a superhero or God game than

1:23:42

a third-person Cover-based shooter, and

1:23:45

I've loved that re-experiencing

1:23:47

it now Alan

1:23:49

Wake to I mean it is stunning. I am

1:23:52

a sucker for a pretty for a pretty game

1:23:55

Graphically again on PC with the

1:23:57

beefy GP and all the Nvidia

1:24:00

tech running the

1:24:02

path tracing and DLSS 3.0, 3.1,

1:24:04

whatever, like that most high-end

1:24:10

cutting edge version of it. We

1:24:13

had a whole conversation with Jacob Freeman talking

1:24:15

about the tech in the game. I

1:24:18

love that stuff, man. I am a sucker for

1:24:20

it and I think the implementation in Alan

1:24:22

Wake 2 is top-notch. All

1:24:26

of that graphic shininess is done

1:24:28

in delivering the story. It

1:24:30

makes those woods and

1:24:33

rundown police stations and

1:24:35

coffee-based amusement parks that

1:24:38

much more taut,

1:24:44

tense, spooky.

1:24:47

I don't want to say scary. It has some jump

1:24:49

scares. It has, I think, one of the best scare

1:24:52

moments of any video game I've ever played late

1:24:54

in the game, but it also

1:24:57

has so much fun and there's so

1:24:59

much confidence in the game. It wears

1:25:01

its pulp, its

1:25:04

hard-boiledness, its cheesiness

1:25:07

on its sleeve as a badge of honor

1:25:10

the way it frames the core

1:25:12

gameplay narrative of whether or not

1:25:14

it's real, the way every narrator

1:25:16

is slightly unreliable, but you as

1:25:19

the player are kind of forced to choose

1:25:21

one to believe because our dumb, dumb lizard

1:25:23

brains need to accept that someone is telling

1:25:25

us the truth as we spend 30 hours

1:25:27

with them or whatever it ends up being.

1:25:30

The performances, the motion capture,

1:25:32

the mixture of live action

1:25:34

and in-game cinematics, it

1:25:36

is such a confident game and

1:25:39

what the folks at Remedy and

1:25:41

Sam Lake have delivered upon I

1:25:44

think is up there as

1:25:46

one of my all-time favorites. My

1:25:48

favorite interactive media experiences,

1:25:51

top to bottom, just absolutely incredible. I

1:25:54

was riveted and it has

1:25:56

one of my favorite gameplay moments of any game

1:25:58

right up there with the ashtray made. which is

1:26:00

another remedy game.

1:26:03

That one, not Crossfire

1:26:05

X, that was a real stinker.

1:26:07

I think they did the campaign

1:26:09

for that or they partnered with them for that.

1:26:11

That was a stinker. But otherwise,

1:26:15

hoo doggy. I

1:26:18

love it. It'd be my favorite game next year

1:26:20

too, I think, when the DLC comes out. So

1:26:22

Get Ready, nerds, just like the Control DLC was

1:26:24

one of my favorites whenever they released the Lake

1:26:27

House and whatever the other one is. Christian

1:26:30

will be talking more about Alan

1:26:32

Wake. Sorry, sorry. Last of us

1:26:34

on PS5 and then Alan

1:26:37

Wake DLC, one and two.

1:26:39

Yes. I love how much

1:26:41

you love it. It bums

1:26:44

me out that both of your guys' favorite

1:26:46

games are games that I bounced off of

1:26:48

hard and quickly. It

1:26:50

makes me feel sad but

1:26:52

happy for both of you. But

1:26:55

also, what a year. Sad

1:26:57

again, because my number one

1:27:00

game, I don't think you guys really put

1:27:02

time in either. Surprising

1:27:04

no one. I did, I did. Okay, it's not

1:27:06

my type of game. Not your type of game.

1:27:08

Get it. That's kind of how it

1:27:11

is for me with you guys' number

1:27:13

one games. Surprising no

1:27:15

one, my top game of the year is Baldur's

1:27:17

Gate 3. It's

1:27:21

rare to come across a game that feels like

1:27:23

it was made for you and

1:27:25

is also everyone's,

1:27:27

you know, everyone loves it. But

1:27:30

it feels like, oh, they made this

1:27:32

specifically for me. Philippe's in it. You

1:27:35

can hear him. Yeah. You

1:27:37

know, as somebody that loves Dungeons and Dragons, as somebody

1:27:39

that loves Larian games, I think, you know, Divinity and

1:27:41

Original Sin was my number one game the year it

1:27:43

came out. Maybe two might have been my number one

1:27:45

or certainly in the top five. It

1:27:49

retains that great DNA, which I think goes

1:27:51

all the way back to my favorite game

1:27:53

of all time, which is Ultima 7. Like

1:27:55

these are the games that closest resemble

1:27:58

the game. game that for

1:28:01

me is my favorite experience of

1:28:03

all time. It's formative for my

1:28:05

childhood. These are the games

1:28:07

that are the spiritual successors of that

1:28:09

style of gameplay. So I was

1:28:11

certainly inclined to already love what

1:28:13

Larian is doing. And yet

1:28:16

they still managed to surpass themselves

1:28:18

and surpass my expectations,

1:28:20

which were very high. I mean, it's

1:28:23

weird to say my favorite video game of 2023

1:28:25

has been on my hard drive for three

1:28:28

years. It was a stadium release.

1:28:30

Your favorite game came out on

1:28:32

Stadia. Yeah, I mean, I was

1:28:34

an early access purchaser of

1:28:37

this game three years ago and played the

1:28:39

first act like twice. And then was

1:28:41

like, I gotta stop doing this because they keep, you

1:28:43

know, deleting save games. But the

1:28:46

full scope of what the final release

1:28:48

is is staggering. I am

1:28:51

I have not finished it. I it

1:28:54

is, you know, I want to

1:28:56

do literally every little thing in this

1:28:58

world. I love

1:29:00

how dynamic and interesting it is. And

1:29:02

the fact that they managed to bring

1:29:05

the fifth edition

1:29:07

D&D rule set into this

1:29:09

game and make it feel so

1:29:12

much like playing a tabletop experience, which

1:29:14

is hard

1:29:16

to express how hard that is to do. This

1:29:19

is a rule set that is made for certain

1:29:22

things that video games tend not to be good

1:29:24

at. I could certainly

1:29:26

have seen them take things from

1:29:28

fifth edition that are

1:29:30

applicable like combat stuff and

1:29:33

and just abandon all the

1:29:35

stuff that's in the rule set. That's

1:29:38

there to facilitate great improvisational

1:29:41

storytelling at a table. But

1:29:43

they didn't. They took all of it.

1:29:45

And they somehow made all that other

1:29:47

stuff not only work, but be valuable.

1:29:50

One of the great revelations I had in playing Baldur's

1:29:52

Gate 3 was don't ignore

1:29:54

the stuff that doesn't seem to be

1:29:58

the kind of thing you would usually take. a video game,

1:30:00

right? There's things that usually take it a

1:30:03

video game like, Oh, I could do this

1:30:05

AOE attack. Oh, that sounds rad. Am I

1:30:07

going to need to, you know, be able

1:30:10

to sense what someone's thinking? Probably not in

1:30:12

the video game. And yet in

1:30:15

Baldur's Gate 3, very useful things, you know,

1:30:17

it's they have found a way to make

1:30:19

all of that stuff feel like

1:30:21

D&D. The storytelling is

1:30:23

amazing. The game looks incredible. It's

1:30:27

big, it's expansive. Turn

1:30:29

based, it's, it's made for me. You

1:30:32

know, it's delight,

1:30:35

delights me no end that this game has been

1:30:38

so successful for them that so many people have

1:30:40

fallen in love with it, that

1:30:42

it won the, you know, the game awards game of the

1:30:44

year as well. Like it is not, it

1:30:46

is not a out of left field pick

1:30:48

for me to bring this up. But

1:30:51

it also feels like this intensely personal

1:30:53

game. It's, it's weird to me to

1:30:55

have those things. It felt like that

1:30:57

the year that it takes to was

1:30:59

my number one game of the year.

1:31:02

Because it felt like, Oh my gosh, it's winning all these awards and

1:31:04

people recognize it. But it felt like this really

1:31:07

personal thing. And it's

1:31:09

wonderful when those things come together.

1:31:11

And I just adore

1:31:13

Baldur's Gate 3. And the same way that you guys

1:31:15

have spoken about your number one games. This is really

1:31:17

one of those years where, man,

1:31:22

what a joy it is to be able to play video

1:31:24

games and talk about them. So

1:31:27

in that respect, we have a lot

1:31:29

more to cover. We've gotten to our

1:31:31

number ones of the year. I think Christian, as

1:31:35

Anthony pointed out, it feels like our

1:31:37

consensus, because it's both of our number

1:31:39

twos is Mario wonder. A Jedi

1:31:41

survivor for sure. Sad

1:31:44

that Jedi survivor didn't make either of our top fives. It's certainly

1:31:46

one of my honorable

1:31:48

now that I'm done with my top five and fulfilled

1:31:50

my mission of not adding any other games that inspired

1:31:53

a man with a constant debate. I replay

1:31:55

really to two thirds of Jedi survivor, because

1:31:57

I played it so early. And I love

1:32:00

I loved it. We did the spoiler cast. I loved

1:32:02

it. I loved the traversal stuff when you get the

1:32:04

witch powers. And I love how it starts you powerful

1:32:06

and makes you more powerful. Ultimately,

1:32:09

what it came down to is Marvel's

1:32:12

Spider-Man 2 giving me

1:32:15

that open world, that seamless open world.

1:32:17

I could just fall into it. And

1:32:19

Jedi Survivor, it's these bespoke hubs that would

1:32:22

require me to go to a thing and

1:32:24

load a thing, to then do the thing,

1:32:26

to then get to the thing that I

1:32:28

wanted to do. And Spider-Man was just instant fun.

1:32:31

But I mean it was by a hair. I was like,

1:32:34

I should replace some Jedi Survivor cut to 10

1:32:36

hours later and I'm still replaying Jedi Survivor. It's

1:32:38

like, oh yeah, this is good. It was by

1:32:40

a hair, but you could purchase different

1:32:43

hairs and which hair did you even want? It's

1:32:45

very thick. It's a thick hair. Big

1:32:48

boy hair. We'll

1:32:50

get to some honorable mentions in a second,

1:32:52

but let's get to what I often consider

1:32:54

to be an even more interesting letter. Oh,

1:32:56

but sorry. Yes, Mario. Just to say something.

1:32:59

Mario is our consensus DLC game of

1:33:01

the year. I think it's a deserved

1:33:03

candidate, worthy candidate, a

1:33:06

huge achievement for Nintendo,

1:33:08

a delight. And I love that it's our

1:33:10

game of the year because it is such

1:33:13

a positive experience. It

1:33:16

is so family friendly. It is so joyous.

1:33:23

Anthony, where would Mario Wonder have rated for you in

1:33:26

a larger list? Is it out of the top 10?

1:33:29

It's out of the top 10. So when you guys were

1:33:31

talking about it, I think I

1:33:33

was curious how much

1:33:35

playing with your children influenced

1:33:37

where it ranks for you.

1:33:41

Very little. I like it without them.

1:33:44

Yeah, because that's the thing. It's light of them.

1:33:46

My son loves my kids. Yeah,

1:33:50

my son loves Mario, but he's

1:33:52

just not there yet. So

1:33:55

it was kind of like, I don't

1:33:57

know if I want to play this that much. play

1:34:00

it by myself, I would think, oh, this is a

1:34:02

good level we should have played together. Okay, this one's

1:34:04

way too hard. I do. Yeah,

1:34:06

I do think it's a great game, but

1:34:08

I've never really been the platformer

1:34:11

guy, like not bowled over by

1:34:13

them, but I can

1:34:15

appreciate it. Yeah, I

1:34:18

100%. But it wouldn't have made-

1:34:20

Christian, let's open our emails to each

1:34:22

other. I just opened it. I just

1:34:25

opened your email. Oh, you got all

1:34:27

of my games, just not the exact order. And

1:34:29

I think I just missed one of your games.

1:34:31

I had Starfield at number two for you. Yeah.

1:34:33

And you had it a little lower, but I

1:34:35

had Asgard's Wrath in there at number four. Yeah,

1:34:37

I had them. The order was, and I had

1:34:39

your number one, right? Which was not hard. Yeah.

1:34:41

And I was surprised. I took a swing at

1:34:43

Spidey at being your number five. I was surprised

1:34:45

by that. You included, is this an order

1:34:47

or is this just a group? I did it in order,

1:34:49

but I wasn't certain of the order. So top to, like

1:34:52

Alan, number one, I would assume so.

1:34:54

So you threw in Metroid Prime remaster,

1:34:56

which yes, you know,

1:34:59

like, yes. I thought you

1:35:01

were going to really make a point to include that

1:35:03

game because nobody's talking about it right now. And I

1:35:05

thought you were going to really make a point to

1:35:07

include that because you had loved it so much. It

1:35:10

is fantastic. Yeah. It's otherwise on the

1:35:13

money, you know, orders a little here and there, but

1:35:16

too bad we know each other. I guess we

1:35:19

do. All right. So let's get

1:35:21

to what, like I was saying,

1:35:23

what I considered often to be

1:35:25

an even more interesting list of

1:35:27

games is our diamonds in

1:35:29

the rough, our dark horses, five games that

1:35:31

again, not our six through 10, but games

1:35:33

that we just want to mention again at

1:35:36

the end of the year. Anthony, why don't

1:35:38

you step through all five of yours and

1:35:40

we'll each do that. But, you

1:35:42

know, give them a few sentences of why they

1:35:44

made your, your dark horse

1:35:46

list. Gotcha. Okay.

1:35:48

So chance of Cinar is

1:35:51

almost made mine so close. Yes. Okay.

1:35:56

So the, the pitch I will

1:35:58

make for this game is is don't

1:36:01

watch anything, don't look up

1:36:03

anything. It will seem very

1:36:06

confusing because you need to start from the

1:36:08

beginning, just give it a try. It

1:36:11

is a very, very clever

1:36:13

puzzle game that

1:36:16

in some ways can be difficult, but

1:36:19

everything is in front of you. You just have to

1:36:21

like kind of step back a little bit and surface

1:36:24

level, look at it and go, okay, well, what do

1:36:26

I have in front of me? It's

1:36:29

not over-din, right? Over-din

1:36:31

is way harder than this

1:36:33

game. Yes. But

1:36:35

it is also if you just say, well,

1:36:37

what is this game? And you watch a

1:36:39

trailer and somebody's like, a few hours in

1:36:42

you'll go, I don't know, but it builds

1:36:44

so cleverly, you're

1:36:46

essentially learning a set of languages. But

1:36:49

the way it does it and gamifies

1:36:51

it is so smart and

1:36:54

it has a really

1:36:56

good message. There's kind

1:36:58

of an overarching message to it. Yeah,

1:37:00

I think it is

1:37:02

a really, really good game that

1:37:06

I wish more people would just give a try because

1:37:08

I think you'll like it. It's fantastic. I was a

1:37:10

little reluctant to give it a try. And when I

1:37:12

did, I was glad I did. I

1:37:15

was late to enjoying Chance of Sinar.

1:37:17

And again, it's

1:37:19

doing itself no favors because I think people think it's

1:37:21

C-H-A-N-C-E, like

1:37:25

Chance, but it's C-H-A-N-P-S,

1:37:27

Chance of Sinar. Just

1:37:30

a great game, almost made this list for

1:37:33

me. It is really a special game. Yeah,

1:37:36

keep going. So

1:37:39

I wanna give a DLC shout out

1:37:41

to DLC, like downloadable content, to

1:37:44

the High on Knife DLC for High

1:37:46

on Life. For

1:37:48

no other reason than there is a gag

1:37:50

in the middle of this game that

1:37:54

is the funniest thing. I

1:37:57

lost it. And I think if anybody...

1:38:00

If you enjoyed high on life, if that humor

1:38:02

clicked with you and you didn't know about this

1:38:04

high on knife dlc, it has no No

1:38:07

association with he who shall not be named.

1:38:09

They have read new gun

1:38:11

different voices But it

1:38:14

is it is a incredible gag Um

1:38:17

that it is I mean, so the

1:38:19

dlc is only like three hours, but

1:38:21

the gag is worth playing Wow,

1:38:23

great. I just want yeah, I wanted to give that a

1:38:25

shot. I had a lot of fun with high on life

1:38:27

I thought that game me too really good fun. Yeah. Yeah

1:38:31

Well, so it it is the

1:38:33

reference is kind of older. I think

1:38:35

you'll really appreciate it. I have not played the dlc I might

1:38:38

have to check. Okay All right Keep

1:38:41

going. Are you doing these in any order? Are you

1:38:43

doing? No. No, just just random picks. Uh, it

1:38:46

did so, uh You guys

1:38:48

just talked about it christian liked it. Jeff you

1:38:50

did not but I really liked el paso elsewhere.

1:38:53

Mm-hmm Um kind of

1:38:55

max pain riffs um,

1:38:57

I like the hard-boiled kind of narration I

1:38:59

like the the music is great when it

1:39:01

kind of kicks in and then Um,

1:39:03

usually there's like a moment where okay You've saved

1:39:06

all the hostages in the level and now you

1:39:08

need to exit and then like the music kind

1:39:10

of changes over and it gets really clever Yeah,

1:39:13

I really enjoyed the game. Uh It's

1:39:16

probably next to seastars the game. I played the most

1:39:18

on my steam deck. It's a very kind of White

1:39:20

size you can just do a level at a time Uh,

1:39:24

the art style art styles very crude. It

1:39:26

just has this this

1:39:28

uh, this vibe that uh is hard

1:39:30

to uh Hard to

1:39:32

understand until you play it and then you either

1:39:35

it either clicks with you or it doesn't yeah

1:39:39

Um, uh, well another

1:39:41

choice is planet of lana. Oh,

1:39:43

yeah Love love that game. And

1:39:45

el paso were just nicked off my by

1:39:47

others. So i'm glad you're talking about them

1:39:49

Yeah, yeah planet of lana. I really really

1:39:51

enjoyed. Um We'll

1:39:54

give you kind of like inside or limbo vibes,

1:39:56

you know, you're you're kind of walking left to

1:39:58

right or right to left you're doing some

1:40:00

puzzle things, but very kind

1:40:02

of scary, oppressive, like robotic monsters

1:40:04

that you're trying to avoid that

1:40:06

will horrifically kill you. Yeah,

1:40:11

just a really great art style,

1:40:13

really smartly done

1:40:15

puzzle mechanics that are

1:40:17

not too complicated, but build on each

1:40:19

other, and then this world

1:40:22

that kind of expands, that isn't

1:40:24

just one note, it goes places

1:40:26

that I really appreciate it. And

1:40:30

then my final, is that

1:40:32

five? Uh, is the Last Faith,

1:40:34

which I talked about on the, on the podcast

1:40:36

when I was last on. I

1:40:39

love me some side scrolling souls like

1:40:41

Metroidvanias and the Last Faith. There's a really

1:40:43

good one of those, um, good

1:40:46

boss fights, good combat, satisfying

1:40:49

dodge mechanic, um,

1:40:51

boss fights that make you kind of learn

1:40:53

patterns and learn when to dodge, when

1:40:55

to get your attacks in, how to kind of like make

1:40:58

sense of the noise that's on the

1:41:00

screen to survive. Um, yeah,

1:41:02

really like Last Faith. And,

1:41:05

uh, it's, I always have to

1:41:07

put one of those, one of those side scrolling

1:41:09

souls like Metroidvanias on there, and this is, uh,

1:41:11

this is my entry for this year. Fantastic. Great

1:41:13

list of diamonds in

1:41:15

the rough. Christian

1:41:18

Spicer, your five bonus

1:41:21

picks. Dark horses.

1:41:25

It's not quest three. I do not have

1:41:27

a quest three, but I will still trumpet

1:41:29

this year, perhaps as the year of VR,

1:41:31

where this is, I know Half-Life Alex didn't

1:41:33

come out this year and didn't get a

1:41:36

port re-release this year, but I think this is probably

1:41:38

the best year that VR has ever had. And

1:41:41

I will throw out a few

1:41:43

that are on PSVR too. Again, I think

1:41:45

Jeff, you're right that quest three is probably

1:41:47

the headset to get if folks are looking

1:41:49

to get one VR headset. PSVR

1:41:51

two has an incredible library of

1:41:54

games, updated versions of old games.

1:41:56

I think they look incredible on

1:41:58

the OLED screens provided. Uh on

1:42:00

the psv r2 But I will run

1:42:02

through games that came out this year that I think are

1:42:04

incredible that weren't talked about enough Came out

1:42:06

this year for psv r2 walk about

1:42:09

mini golf. Just a good time.

1:42:11

It's a great time solo It's a

1:42:13

great time multiplayer. I believe it's cross play

1:42:15

as yes It is cross play as well

1:42:17

So you can play with folks who have

1:42:19

it on another headset really recreates the physics

1:42:21

of mini golf And the

1:42:23

dlc's are awesome the mist one

1:42:27

It's just I mean there's very regular mini

1:42:29

golf style courses you can play and then

1:42:31

there are truly outstanding, you know Does

1:42:34

things that only video games can do

1:42:36

as well walk about mini golf awesome?

1:42:40

humanity Absolutely incredible great

1:42:42

on a flat screen if you don't have a

1:42:44

vr headset, please still go play humanity I think

1:42:46

it was nominated for best vr game at the

1:42:48

game awards I got some nomination at the game

1:42:51

awards I don't remember which one but not enough

1:42:53

folks talked about it their community is also great

1:42:56

You see them online talking about the community

1:42:58

made levels and the extra life

1:43:00

that that gives the game in vr. It

1:43:02

is transcendent You know,

1:43:04

you can tell it has the res and tetris

1:43:06

effect Vibe to it.

1:43:08

Um, you know that uh connection to

1:43:11

those games It's awesome. Not

1:43:13

enough people talked about it. I think it might

1:43:15

be like res when res first came out People

1:43:18

kind of slept on it. That was this weird quirky game

1:43:20

and here, you know 20 years later It's

1:43:22

one of the greatest games ever made. I

1:43:24

think humanity very Uh has

1:43:26

that chance to be that as well really

1:43:28

respected later as more people fall into

1:43:31

it fall into it. It's fantastic Grand

1:43:34

teres mo 7 vr mode. Here's christian

1:43:36

bringing a mode to a best list,

1:43:38

but it's great. I bought a Racing

1:43:41

wheel and a stand for it. It's

1:43:43

the full full experience. It's the

1:43:46

best racing game in my opinion

1:43:48

out there right now The vr

1:43:50

mode is incredible. They didn't half-ass

1:43:52

anything about it the actual racing

1:43:54

experience It's

1:43:56

the best way to play that game and that game is incredible

1:43:58

grand trees mo 7 vr mode But it was free

1:44:01

too, a free update, much like

1:44:03

Resident Evil 4 VR. It was a

1:44:05

free update, absolutely incredible. Then

1:44:07

Jeff, you thought it would make my favorite game of

1:44:09

the year, but I'm certainly going to scream about it

1:44:12

here. Metroid Prime

1:44:14

Remastered. I love Metroid Prime.

1:44:16

I love Metroid. Metroid

1:44:18

Prime Remastered is the definitive way to

1:44:20

play Metroid Prime. It used to be

1:44:22

the Prime hack on PC that would

1:44:24

kind of give you that dual analog

1:44:26

controls that the community came up with.

1:44:29

It's beautiful. The update to

1:44:32

the graphics are

1:44:34

subtle but sublime. The

1:44:36

original GameCube graphics still hold up and

1:44:39

the updates they brought to it, that

1:44:41

retro brought to it, are the best it's

1:44:43

ever been. Not enough people,

1:44:46

in my opinion, play Metroid. Metroid

1:44:48

Prime is slow. It's

1:44:50

like making a cup of tea. You got to

1:44:52

just let it sit for a little while and it just kind

1:44:54

of gets better as you leave the

1:44:56

tea in there. Then take the tea out. You don't

1:44:58

leave it in for too long. But it's incredible. Metroid

1:45:00

Prime Remastered, more folks should play it. Then

1:45:03

I'm bringing another mode into my favorites,

1:45:06

Diamonds in the Rough. I talked about

1:45:08

it all in this show, but I need to shout it out again. You

1:45:10

probably hear me shout about it other places as

1:45:12

well. That's

1:45:14

MLB The Show 23, The

1:45:16

Negro League's Storylines. It's

1:45:20

an incredible version

1:45:22

of the Michael

1:45:25

Jordan-esque, go-do-the-things, historic

1:45:27

moments that other games have done. The

1:45:29

care and respect that

1:45:31

San Diego Studios put into this mode

1:45:35

and the history behind it. I

1:45:38

love baseball. Almost every year, baseball playoffs is

1:45:40

my parting gift. I've been spoiled by having

1:45:43

two, count them two, very good

1:45:45

teams in different leagues. I

1:45:47

love baseball. I think it's a beautiful sport. Our

1:45:51

country has an ugly history for

1:45:54

everything, and that includes baseball. Something

1:45:57

that celebrates the incredible players that...

1:46:01

We're playing in the Negro Leagues because our country did

1:46:03

not give them a chance to do anything else. Some

1:46:06

of the best players of all time. People

1:46:08

don't know their names. And I

1:46:10

think the Negro Leagues storylines in MLB,

1:46:13

the show 23 does a really great

1:46:15

job to highlight some of those players

1:46:17

and hopefully make more people curious about

1:46:20

the people who brought so much to the sport that I

1:46:22

love. Great

1:46:24

list, great list of diamonds in the

1:46:26

rough. I love putting

1:46:29

together this list because so many of

1:46:31

my favorite experiences this year weren't triple

1:46:33

A per se. But

1:46:37

man, they still constituted some of the best

1:46:39

times I had and interactive

1:46:42

experiences. So here's my

1:46:44

list. I'll do it in order from five to one. Cocoon

1:46:49

is an extremely cool

1:46:52

mind bending experience. The

1:46:54

puzzles are so rad. You feel like

1:46:56

a genius when you solve them. Worlds

1:46:59

inside other worlds, carrying a world in

1:47:01

one world, then leaping inside that world

1:47:03

because it's in a new place in

1:47:05

the upper

1:47:07

level world. Hard to explain, but

1:47:10

not hard to understand when you're

1:47:13

in it. The game communicates its vocabulary just

1:47:15

expertly and it's beautiful. Man,

1:47:18

cocoon was an awesome, awesome experience. I

1:47:21

also put humanity on. I

1:47:23

think VR is the way to play it, but

1:47:26

certainly still a very cool

1:47:28

experience outside of VR. Another

1:47:30

awesome puzzle experience. Just so different, such a

1:47:32

different idea. Kind of takes a little bit

1:47:34

of lemmings, kind of takes a little bit

1:47:36

of other kind

1:47:38

of puzzle-y games, but creating

1:47:41

something that I've just never experienced

1:47:43

before and wild to be in

1:47:45

VR and having these people leaping

1:47:47

all around you and creating these

1:47:49

cascading waterfalls of people. Just

1:47:52

a neat, neat game and so unique.

1:47:56

Number three for me on this list is

1:47:58

Shadow Gambit. The

1:48:01

full title, Shadow Gambit, The Cursed Crew,

1:48:04

breaks my heart that this is the final

1:48:06

game from Mimi Mii Studios. They

1:48:08

shuttered after this game released and it's just

1:48:11

a shame because Mimi Mii Studios has created

1:48:13

some just wonderful

1:48:15

games. Shadow Gambit does feel

1:48:17

like they're crowning achievement where everything they've ever

1:48:19

done kind of comes together. It

1:48:24

is a tactical game

1:48:26

with a really cool theme, ghost

1:48:28

pirate ships. The

1:48:32

abilities that you get, the puzzle

1:48:34

solving element of it is

1:48:36

so much fun. It

1:48:39

just breaks my heart that Mimi Mii

1:48:41

Studios' swan song is this game but

1:48:43

more people need to play Shadow Gambit,

1:48:45

The Cursed Crew. Number

1:48:48

two is a game I'm pretty

1:48:50

sure I'm the only one that talks about. Aces

1:48:53

and Adventures. I

1:48:56

absolutely love this game.

1:48:59

It is make poker hands

1:49:02

out of a deck of normal 52 playing

1:49:04

cards but

1:49:07

do that in the context of

1:49:09

a fantasy adventure role-playing game. Those

1:49:13

two weird disparate elements both working

1:49:16

together somehow is already

1:49:18

neat but the different

1:49:20

classes that you get, the way

1:49:22

the cards play, the choices moment

1:49:24

to moment, the storytelling, it's

1:49:27

awesome. Aces and Adventures, if

1:49:31

you like card games,

1:49:33

if you like turn-based games, check

1:49:35

out Aces and Adventures. It's

1:49:38

just special. Not

1:49:40

quite as special as my number one card game of the year.

1:49:45

My number one card game of maybe several

1:49:47

years. This is one

1:49:50

of the best designed turn-based

1:49:54

card games

1:49:57

that I have ever experienced. I

1:49:59

wouldn't not a play it were not for

1:50:01

Lana Bischinski urging me to do

1:50:03

so and I'm so grateful she did wild

1:50:06

frost. This

1:50:08

is amazing.

1:50:12

It is hard to explain

1:50:14

what makes it so special but basically

1:50:16

you're getting a countdown timer every

1:50:19

turn of the bad guys

1:50:21

gonna proc and attack

1:50:23

you and it's all about staving that

1:50:26

off and coming up with

1:50:28

strategies to prioritize certain

1:50:30

things and the way you

1:50:33

are deciding how you're going to

1:50:35

manage the threat that is always

1:50:37

you have all the knowledge

1:50:39

you have all the knowledge in front

1:50:42

of you and you're just strategizing

1:50:45

it's it's so good it

1:50:47

has a wonderful art style it

1:50:50

it's a delight wild frost. Get

1:50:54

this game play it on your steam deck play

1:50:57

it however you can play it I adore

1:50:59

wild frost I played it with my son he was

1:51:02

coming up with strategies it's

1:51:04

just it's great. There

1:51:07

you have it my top five

1:51:10

diamonds in the rough I love doing

1:51:12

that that list so much but there's a lot of games

1:51:14

that didn't make our list I do want to get to

1:51:16

some honorable mentions but first let's get

1:51:18

to some some other categories like you

1:51:21

know the one that's not super fun

1:51:23

to talk about but what is your

1:51:25

most disappointing game of 2023 Anthony

1:51:27

Taramina? It's

1:51:30

Redfall I thought so I

1:51:33

knew I mean we

1:51:36

had a short text conversation when

1:51:38

they announced Blade yeah and Jeff

1:51:40

here like what what is it what is the

1:51:42

appeal of this game and I was like well

1:51:45

it is arcane and

1:51:47

it is vampires and yes Redfall

1:51:50

was that but it was not the I

1:51:52

don't want to say it's not the right arcane it

1:51:55

was a different arcane team but