Get Played - Backlog Thunderdome

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

Heather, Nick and Matt send some of the games in their backlogs to the thunderdome, where 2 games enter and 1 shall leave. Plus they talk about the end game of Metaphor RE Fantazio, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black and Pokemon TCG Pocket. Check out our brand new merch at kinshipgoods.com/getplayed. Follow us on social media @getplayedpod. Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com. Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com. For ad-free main feed episodes, our complete back catalogue including How Did This Get Played? and our Premium DLC episodes and our exclusive show Get Anime'd where we're currently watching Dandadan go to patreon.com/getplayed. Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Advertise on Get Played via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. Oh man, I accidentally ordered two sandwiches from this deli. I don't know what I'm going to do. I've got to make a choice here between a chicken sandwich and a turkey sandwich. What would you guys do? What would you pick? Well, you're asking kind of the wrong guys because we would say eat both sandwiches. Yeah, I'd probably go with both sandwiches, but I have a feeling that's not the answer

you're looking for. Yeah, no, I don't think I can, I don't think I can house both of these sandwiches. Got it. These are huge subs. So I would personally, I just would probably just go for the turkey sandwich. Yeah, yeah, because it's like a sliced chicken. It's not like a chicken patty. Yeah, sliced chicken.

Yeah, I would go with the turkey is old reliable. It's classic. Okay, so turkey sandwich it is. A chicken sandwich. I know we had not a lot of time together. And I can't believe I have to make this decision. But you got to go. You got to go chicken sandwich.

You got to go to garbage. Don't look at me like that, please don't look at me. I didn't... You heard what they said, you heard what they said. They chose turkey and I can't... I can't even see you and why do you do your chicken sandwich. How could you do this to me? How could you do this Owen? Why would you you make me do this to this chicken sandwich? Answer me! You said you couldn't eat both.

Fuck you! Fuck you! I was trying to help you decide what to eat for lunch. I just got put in the trash. You could give us the sandwich. Yeah, I would have eaten the sandwich as the other... I thought the subtext here was that we were going to get the sandwich. You were my friend.

Heather, you don't have to do it. Just give us the fucking sandwich. You're pointedly taking it out of the wrapper and then dumping it into the garbage. Now you're scooping loose coffee grounds on top of it to render it inedible. It feels spiteful. It kind of feels like you ordered two sandwiches with the intention of only eating one and then punishing us by ruining the other sandwich.

You know, 15 minutes ago when I met that sandwich, it saw a butterfly and it said, butterfly, to me. And I thought, oh my God, it's the first words of that sandwich Are you okay? Yeah, I can answer every half no no she's not doing well Okay, the sandwich can fucking talk I Made this turkey sandwich now But I'm gonna do it in full view of you guys.

So you can think about what you did! But hold on, you're- You- in this reality you think sandwiches are like living breathing beings and now you're eating it, thus ending its life. All I'm thinking about is what you did, which is throw a sandwich away when you could have shared it with your friends. Vodkas, co-hosts. That's a good sandwich. You guys made the right choice it looks good it's good as hell uh anyway I gotta go yeah I think I'm gonna go to actually trying to decide if I should take an uber home or take the train I think you should take I

think you should take the train think you should take the train. You love the train. Yeah, you love the train. Alright. I'm sorry, Uber! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee as we enter the backlog Thunderdome this week on Get Played. [♪THEME MUSIC PLAYING [♪THEME MUSIC PLAYING [♪THEME MUSIC PLAYING

[♪THEME MUSIC PLAYING [♪THEME MUSIC PLAYING [♪THEME MUSIC PLAYING [♪THEME MUSIC PLAYING Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, HAC, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger. That's me. NTW, the T stands for tiger, Nick Weiger, along with Matt Apodaca.

That's giving a face I normally give. Like, like, brutal astonishment. Because what has happened is, in the addition, in addition to acquiring this thigh tattoo. Yeah. Weigars also got Riz now? I'm Tiger now. This is MK, hey man, I'm a doctor. Hello everyone.

Hello everyone and welcome back to the premier video game podcast where this week it is a death match. It is a brutal takedown of some of our most beloved games. We are going to go out in the backyard and execute them like dogs. Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. I like this as a new year. And I know we're in February, but we're still in the first part of the year. We're still waiting for the big new 2025 releases.

Those are still mostly on the horizon. We're in Q1, we're firmly in Q1. This is kind of like a new year. Let's clear out our backlogs, all the games we promised ourselves that we're gonna get to someday. We're just gonna make some calls. We're gonna make some tough decisions. We're gonna choose what we're playing

and what we're not playing. Daddy, does Fido have, does he have rabies? No! Bam! When do you think? Does he have rabies? No! Bam! I'm done. When do you think? So your Kristi Gnome impression? When do you think the last dog was named Fido?

Probably not in the last 20 years, right? Yeah, Fido was a big dog name for a while. I feel like the Fidos and the Rovers, or like that was- The Rex, probably. Rex, those were pretty dominant for a while, and the meta shifted, and now I feel like the names

are like Mike and like Taco, you know, it's like it's either a thing or it's a person name. Arnold Cactus Breath. Yeah, yeah, and I feel like the. Sir Reginald. It will be interesting if the dog naming meta ever shifts back towards like the classic, the OG, like this is like, you remember the Henny Youngman joke

from like the, from way back in the day of, of not take my wife please, which is another one, which is- Stay the hell away from my wife, please. It's a, that's the new wife guy version. It's the, it's a, my wife made a meal fit for a king. Here king, the dog was named King. You know what?

But now, but now he's like, what dog would be named King? king you know what but now but now you're just like what? Dog would be named king you know I mean yeah guess what I mean I didn't go to work eight hours a day for this fucking dog to stay home looking its goddamn ass and get called king Oh my God, oh no, what did you do? Oh my God. We love, I would say we all range from animal neutral to animal lover on the show. I'm an animal lover, wait, who's the neutral? I feel like Nick.

Cause I don't have a dog or a cat, cause I don't have a pet, I still like them. Well, it's unnerving to imagine you with one. What are you talking about? You would be like a snake guy, I think. One of those guys with a boa constrictor hanging out at the promenade? Or like a too big a bird.

You think you're a bird shoulder guy? How dare you? No, there is something suspect about a bird person. Yeah, I don't want to be a bird guy. But if you have a bird. Love the bird people. If you're a bird listener, bird bird person listener. God bless you Don't stick them on me by the way

But if you're if you're walking around with a big parakeet on your shoulder at an outdoor mall You know what you're doing. You're you're asking for people to ask you about the bird I know that on your other show. I know that I'm a cat guy. Yeah, I know that you have a show with another cat person That's right. I fancy myself a dog dude, but I love cats. I was gonna say so dog or cat You're more of the dog. I'd pay I'd lean dog ranch where you stand on the dog versus cat feud I know we've had this discussion dog person your dog person. Do you have a do you have a dog yourself? I did you did yeah, but not in your current place. No. Yeah, he died like two years ago I'm sorry to hear that. It's okay.

Good job, Nick. Yeah. We also lost a dog a couple of years ago. Yeah. And we kept the dog's ashes. And when the fires were coming towards our house, Mary got the ashes to put in the car for us to leave with. And I was like, well, if all the things

that are gonna be okay. Yeah, yeah I had a cat that passed away two years ago as well or about a year and a half ago at this point now I have two cats at home, but I also love dogs. I'm crazy about a Pet pets are pets are great. I have crazy about a pet. Pets are great. I have a really good video of my dog and an interaction with my dog from this week if you would like to see it. Yeah, sure.

So my dog loves my wife a lot more than she loves me. Like really, really, when Mary comes home, the dog is happy, alive, bright-eyed, excited, et cetera. This is a video I took to, because Mary was like, well, what is it like when you're home with her? And I went, okay, here, I'll show you. Oh!

Facing the wall. Facing the wall. I'd rather stare or you'd head for it. That's really, really funny. I came in, was giving the dog scratches, and she kind of pulled away from me and then jammed her face hard into the wall. Oh man, it's that one. Yeah, it's that one.

We might have something to do with you making jokes about executing dogs with shotguns. She doesn't listen to the show. She hates me too much. She does it. She loves Mary's podcast. She fast forwarded all the Mary's parts in former episodes. All right, we're gonna get into the backlog Thunderdome in just a moment here, but first, we have to ask the question about video games we've currently been playing, not video games

we plan to play or plan to not play. The question is, what are you playing? What are you playing? Hi, it's me, the Resident Evil Merchant, and I'm here to ask my favorite question on my favorite show. What are you playing? Nick Weigand, what are you playing? Resident Evil Merchant, I'm here to ask my favorite question on my favorite show. What are you playing? Nick Weigert, what are you playing? There is an Evil Merchant. It's really nice of you to say, because you know, you work for the show,

but for you to say it's your favorite show, that's actually really nice. That is really nice. Because you know, there's lots of great, there's lots of podcasts out there. There are, there are, but you guys tolerate me more than say Joe Rogan who gave me a lot of attitude. Yeah, I feel like you're going to be thrown out of there in short order. And obviously a place like NPR Marketplace, you know, that's not going to be a fit for you either.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those guys talking money, money moves. I don't agree with it. Kind of interestingly, he had a problem with you of all people. Who? The big man. Rogan? Yeah.

You came in soaked. Yeah, I mean. The video is pretty hard to watch. You're like slick. You found a copy? Well. They scrubbed it. Yeah, I got in there before.

I'm a subscriber. They scrubbed it. I was like, anyway. Yeah, no, this is my favorite show a subscriber. They scrubbed it. I was anyway. Yeah, no, this is my favorite show. That's great. Thank you. That's really nice for you to say. Yeah, yeah.

What's your favorite show? Not this one. Yeah, okay. I really like Doughboyz. What about? Oh, thanks man. I love it. Now nobody's under my podcast.

I didn't know you had your own podcast. Yeah, I do. What's the way? What do I tell me more? Merchant Moves. Oh, that's a great title. Did I get you, man? You got me.

I like it. Merchant Moves, where do you go to get your insider stock tips and the latest trades on goods and services? Wow. How about that? I actually actually led brought up in my RSS feed here. It says your most recent guest was just a lizard. Yeah. I just don't know how quite how that conversation would go.

But I'm intrigued. I want to listen to it. It was a tough. Okay. Fair, fair question. It didn't go well. I'm self booking currently. And I couldn't get it to say anything. Yeah, I will just say that if you need help booking guests, you know us first of all, we do have to go on your show as you come on our show. And then, you know, Ranch has connections too.

Ranch knows people in the podcast world. So you just feel free to ask your friends. Okay, I'll go to Ranch's house. No, don't do that. You're welcome. Thank you, Ranch. I've been to Ranch's house. You'd be a welcome presence there. I've seen some of the freaks that walk through that door. Hey buddy, let's be real.

2025 has been all about change. Whether it's work, personal stuff, or just the daily grind, it can be hard to keep up. I know I struggle. But here's the deal. When things get hectic, we don't have to go through it alone. Embrace the power of nature and elevate your everyday with VIA. Trusted by over half a million happy customers, VIA is the Swiss Army Knife of Wellness, dedicated to harnessing the natural benefits of cannabis to create high-quality wellness products. Whether you're looking to improve your sleep, focus recovery, add a little pep to your step, or just get high, VIA has something for you.

With products ranging from 0 to 100 mg of THC, VIA gives you the power to blaze your own trail, buddy. VIA is well renowned for their award-winning THC and THC-free gummies and vapes, THCA flour, soothing topicals, and calming drops. All crafted with the highest quality hemp sourced from trusted, independently owned American farms. And the best part? Viya legally ships to nearly all states in the US in discrete packaging directly to your

door with a worry-free guarantee. No medical card required. Wow. So if you're 21 plus, treat yourself to 15% off and if you're new to via get a free gift of your choice with our exclusive code. Get played at via hemp.com. That's v I a h E m p.com. And you know who loves via our own Matt Apodaca. Take it away, Matt. Look, I love this stuff. I absolutely love it. Because you know sometimes I have a hard time I have a hard time relaxing if you can believe it. So at night I like to have a 5 milligram gummy that gets me

right in a nice cozy little sleepy time zone a nice little way to wind down my day and it gets me feeling extra nice. Wow if you're 21 plus head to viahemp.com and use the code getplayed to receive 15% off. And if you're new to Viya, get a free gift of your choice. That's viiahemp.com. Use code getplayed at checkout. After you purchase, they ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you.

Please tell them. Enhance your everyday with Viya. Hey buddy, here's something I'd love us Americans to get better at this year. Really the only thing we need to work on, something that our European friends beat us at in spades, it's speaking more than one language and you can do so sooner than you think with Babbel. Play the sound effect. This year speak like a whole new you with Babbel, the language learning app that gets you talking. Learning new language is the pathway

to discovering new cultures, so why not embark on learning something new? Babbel's quick 10-minute lessons, handcrafted by over 200 language experts, get you to begin speaking your new language in three weeks or whatever pace you choose. And because conversing is the key to really understanding each other in new languages, Babbel is designed using

practical real-world conversations. Spending months with private teachers is the old way of learning languages and nothing screams tourist like holding a phone translation app up to your face all day. Babbel's tips and tools are inspired by the real-life stuff you actually need when communicating. With a focus on conversation, you'll be ready to talk wherever you go. Let's get more of you talking in a new language. Babbel is gifting our listeners 60% off subscriptions at babbel.com slash played. Get up to 60% off at babbel.com slash played.

Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash played. Babbel dot com slash played. Rules and restrictions may apply. ["The Daily Show Theme"] Next one, get ready to play it. Thank you so much, Resident Evil Merchant. I am finally gonna put a bow on this thing. I'm finally gonna wrap up my discussion

on a game that's been occupying my time these past couple months. Ever since our WePlay, YouPlay. Wow. Ladies and gentlemen, people of all genders, credits have been rolled on metaphor refantasy. Wow! Let's fucking go. Now I'm realizing the same thing happened with me

in January 2025 that happened in January, 2024, which is I spent all of my gaming time playing a big honking RPG from the previous year. Last year, it was Baldur's Gate 3. This year is Metaphor Rifantazio. It came out, you know, kind of maybe, I think this metaphor came out more in the fall, as did Baldur's Gate, but I got to it a little bit later.

We did our WePlay YouPlayer episode about it a little bit later. So it wasn't until the new year that I actually got through this sumbitch. It rocks. But it does overstay its welcome. Now me, I of course take my time with games. I'm not looking at guides, especially the game I'm really enjoying. I'm just trying to, you know, I'm going through it.

I like to clean up all the side quests in a game I really enjoy. So I did pretty much everything. I did almost all the optional content. But also the game is pushing you towards it, like things like the Coliseum, which are fully optional or like things that the game is incentivizing you to do and encouraging you to do. But maybe it's the nature of this kind of experience, maybe it's just how these games are. But by the end, I was just kind of like, just kind of wanted to be done with it and kind

of just like finishing it for the sake of finishing it. Glad I did it, glad I got through it, but it is just, it's a lot. I will say that I love the combat. I love the combat system of this. I generally like Atlas combat. I think it's really fun. I like that it's all based on these vulnerabilities

and resistances and targeting those and getting additional turns as a result or getting punished for using the wrong affinity. Great. problem is as you get into the endgame these the battles start to feel very samey They kind of turn into wars of attrition because high level enemies to like heighten the difficulty They just have resistances to everything or they reflect things and so you're either just like I can kind of do chip damage Or I could do or what I can do is there is there is the mass dancer Job class which can create new vulnerabilities in a and in an enemy But then that becomes just again a very kind of samey sort of way of playing or there's also the almighty type which kind

Of is like I don't know if there's an equivalent to a Pokemon and Pokemon I know Pokemon as well where there's like there's a special affinity that kind of doesn't play by the rules and kind of overrides all of the existing resistances. Almighty is basically that in this game. And so then it's just like, oh, I'm just using Almighty attacks. Again, it just starts to feel samey. And instead of being difficult, it kind of just feels tedious.

Which is not like, you know, this is minor criticism of a game I really enjoy, but these are just kind of my feelings as I'm getting towards the finish line. And if I didn't like it so much, they're the kind of things where I wasn't so pot committed towards you know, I already had 80 plus hours into this game. Over 90 by the finish line. I maybe don't see it through to the end. The inventory system again, just

maybe just the nature of an RPG of this size. It just is gets a little bit bloated and hard to navigate. It's inconsistent between the pause menu and in combat, which for me is like I understand how they got there, but it just makes it a little bit confusing to, you know, get to what you need to get to get to like for instance, like your healing items, your magic, your MPHP healing items, your MP healing items, your MP healing items, your status healing items, all those things are in subcategories in the combat screens. In the pause menu when you're in the overworld, it's not. It's just one huge list.

Again, hey, it's like a Baldur's Gate 3 thing where you just have this backpack with just a huge number, all these items just kind of dumped out in front of you, and it's just kind of a pain in the ass to find what you need sometimes in this gigantic stash. I also don't love the map system, considering the dungeons have a lot of vertical mazes, a lot of vertical up top down navigation. It's very, very 2D,

and it feels a little bit dated and old school. There's also just minor balance things that are just like maybe this is meant towards steering you towards a new game plus or whatever, but I did feel like some of the resources I'm just like, maybe I'm playing in efficiency, but also I feel like I just don't have quite enough mag to use some of these late game abilities that I've also unlocked. You know what I mean? So it's kind of like, it's not like a great feeling to be like, well, I could potentially use this high level class, but I just don't have a way to pay for it.

All that said, these are not super big issues for me. And I can't say enough about how satisfying I found the story overall. It ends in a much more engaging way than Persona 5 Royal, which I think just kind of like ends. And I also think it has a lot more to say than Persona 5 Royal, which I think just kind of like ends. And I also think it has a lot more to say than Persona 5 does. I continue to love this Atlas approach of making you decide how you want to spend your time, which I know sometimes drives either of you, particularly Heather, nuts. But for me, it's just like that's life, right?

Deciding to do something, deciding not to do something. Maybe relevant for today's main topic. And I do really like just having to make those decisions even though you end up with more than enough time in the end game, which is kind of a reassurance that you have if you played these kind of games in the past. So many polished details I enjoy. Some of these y'all definitely experiences. Like the VO narration is your gauntlet runner moves from one map location to another.

And it's just like as they entered the wilderness, more and more of the horizon laid before them. You know, it's just like, it's just this sort of like very tranquil sort of narration of the beat for beat of your journey. It just makes it feel a lot more alive. And then it's also just got one of those things where very, very late in the game, the overworld theme changes to this, which is so rad. And I think most people who play the game who don't get this far will never actually

hear it, but it just speaks to the level of detail that is present in this. This track is called Wings of Freedom by Shoji Meguro. Fuck yeah. Man I love a late game. Oh wait. I love a late game, overworld theme change. Yeah, it's so good. And this one, like the battle theme and like some other themes in the game, just kind of have some vocal track that comes in unexpectedly. It's kind of knocks you on your ass.

It's great. I still overall like Persona 5 Royal more as a game just because of the vibes and the aesthetic. I just love being in that coffee shop eating curry, you know. I love Tokyo in the rain. As much as I like the score, same composer I believe, I do like the score of Persona 5 Royal a little bit more. And I kind of just like the things like the character design of the NPCs and such a little

bit more. But this is an awesome game that I'm really glad I played all the way through. And I will also say, as a side note, I think this is the best piece of media for furries since Zootopia. The Parapis are hot in this game. Katharina, bow wow. And if you want like a fuzzy himbo, Bastilio who's a late game NPC.

Hoo, man. Big piece of meat. Anyway, really love Persona 5 Royal. I also love Metaphor Re-Fantasia, which is the game I meant to say. Love both those games. Love these Atlas JRPGs and now onto Alan Wake 2 and then onto something for the backlog. Hell yeah, dog. I love to hear it

I love to hear it Gosh, I mean we'll find out what happens with it later for I think both of us. Yeah But it's a game that I you know I wish I kind of I wish I had gone to a place where it clicked with me to where I would feel compelled To finish it. Yeah, I think as we all kind of have our games, our kind of games that appeal to us. I like a game with a lot of dialogue, a lot of story, like a dense turn-based system of combat, like any sort of combat, whether that's a more tactical thing or whether that's, you know, like a more straightforward thing like this.

Like I love that sort of shit and this kind of appeals to all those things. And you know, aesthetically just so marvelous. That's what I've been playing. Matt, what about you? All right, look, I have a lot of nicknames on this show. The Finisher. That's right. Yeah.

The Completionist. It's kind of the same thing. The Man Who Did. Man Who Did, One of them, one of those nicknames has kind of fallen by the wayside a little bit. Xbox kid? The Xbox kid. Wow. And let me just

tell you something. Yeah? Yeah. I'm thinking I'm back. Wow. Oh god. Okay. A couple weeks ago, two weeks ago at this point, I'm thinking I'm back Wow Okay, a couple weeks ago two weeks ago at this point there was an Xbox developers direct where the Some of the Xbox developers showcased four upcoming games that are on their slate and one of those one of those development teams was team ninja and

They announced a ninja Gaiden 4, and then also simultaneously released or released and announced a Ninja Gaiden 2 remake or remaster called Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. Kind of out of nowhere. You mentioned Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, and I had not yet heard the announcement, and I thought you misspoke,

because I was like, there's Ninja Gaiden Black, there's Ninja Gaiden 2, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, what are you talking about? I was like there's Ninja Gaiden black, there's Ninja Gaiden 2, Ninja Gaiden 2 black What are you talking about? But yeah, this was this just kind of came out And it's like a fully remastered version of the game. Fully remastered, I have not ever played one of these Ninja Gaiden games The only Ninja Gaiden game I have played was for the Nintendo DS. Wow. Ninja Gaiden Dragon Souls I did not play that. Which was it was a Nick It was a baffling game where you had to hold the DS like a fucking book the whole time

I remember those kind of games It was crazy, and it came with a sword stylist and honestly that rocked actually that was pretty cool So I'm I'm playing Ninja Gaiden 2 black And it fucking rules. I had no idea that these games were like this they play very similarly to the original God of War games where it's a sort of you know action-adventure hack-and-slash Game and it rules. It's they it's it's fucking great. It's nasty. It's it's super violent. They're like

great looking It's fucking great. It's nasty. It's it's super violent. They're like great-looking Boss like like creatures like I mean it's hard to call it a creature that I fought like a Scorpion man Like he had arms like human arms and of kabaddi inside you look nasty. It was like a spider or something and It was it's just awesome. It's really really cool You're just constantly getting new weapons and all of them are awesome you start with the aforementioned dragon sword actually and then you get

so like Basically like I don't know what they're called But they're like nunchucks with blades on them, and you can just kinda fuck people up with those. You get like a longer sort of like axe type thing, or something like, it's great. I'm really, really loving it, and I can't wait to finish it.

I guess it's not particularly long of a game, so I probably will see this through the end, cause it's scratching that early, you know, that mid 2000s sort of like action adventure hack and slash box for me. 100%. I remember those games being very fun. But you know, it's been a long time. I mean, when did that game come out? It was like for Xbox 360. Yeah, that one came out for 360. But it's also like 20 years ago. Yeah, no close to it 15 Somewhere in that yeah in that area because it's it's it's just so cool

I because I just had no idea and I I guess I could download On game pass the oh yeah, they so they released it for game pass but you could also get it on PlayStation or steam I believe for a fee, but I Resubscribed to game pass and was checking it out there and The other ninja guiding remasters are on there But I guess some of them are more beloved than others when they they don't like some of the changes that have been done to some of those remasters, but

people seem to be enjoying this one overall as a correction of the previous remaster. Ninja Gaiden 2's release. A man named Barack Obama became the President of the United States. The world was introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe via the film Iron Man. 2008. And everyone was crazy, wearing the Snuggie. The year was 2008. 2008 is the first.

What the hell was that? Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Ah! Your eyes rolled back. Ah! Ah! Ah! And your mouth just hung open and words came out. 2008 is the first year of the iPhone. It's like 2007 to 2008.

It's my penultimate year of high school. Seismic year, the financial crisis also completely reshaped American politics for a decade. Yeah, forever. Yeah, I remember hearing, yeah. Yeah. Well, forever. Yeah, I guess forever. No, it's over. That ship righted its sail.

But that's what I'm playing and I'm loving it. Because also, I mean, gosh, I haven't played a video game in a long time where the violence was so crazy that it was kind of funny. Yeah, right. Yeah, for sure. There was a, cause you can slice people's limbs off. Like I was fighting just like an enemy ninja, also ninja, the fact that they should be called something else cause you're not hiding, ever.

You're not being sneaky, everyone knows where you are at all times, but you can cut people's arms off and they'll still try to get you and it's like so it's they're like doing flips trying To like land on you It's so it's awesome. I love it That was a franchise that and I'd memory hold the DS version. Yeah, but the that was a franchise that like The other one was bionic Commando. There were games I played back on the NES and then I was like, I played those Ninja Gaiden games.

I think there was just one and two on the NES and then Bionic Commando. And then when they had like new versions that were coming out for, fuck, they might've both been Xbox. And Bionic Commando just did not work, but Ninja Gaiden was sick as hell. There's a new pixel art Ninja Gaiden coming out

that is a Metroidvania that I'm very, very, very excited about that I don't remember the subtitle of, but I'm Ninja-pilled right now. Yeah. Love to hear it. Heather, what are you playing? Well, I continue to play Pokemon Pocket. Hell yeah.

After the most recent tournament ended, I threw myself into more upsetting meta decks. I mentioned a Weeping Bell meta deck that I'd been running, but now I'm running a deck that is two Mew, two of the bonus card Jigglypuffs that put your opponent to sleep, and then two either Meowth or Grimers. And if it's Grimer, then of course the Evolve form is Muk,

and if it's Meowth, the Evolve form is Persian. With the Jigglypuffs, your evolve form is Wigglytuff. So here is a deck which, no matter what I'm doing, I'm upsetting the other person's ability to play the game. If your Jigglypuff is in your primary spot, you're putting the other character to sleep. You can't do damage to them, but they have to flip a coin

to even do anything with their main character. If Meowth and Persian are in that primary spot, then they have to discard cards that they're holding in their hands while I'm attacking them. And of course, if it's a Muk or a Grimer, it's a poison build, and they are just constantly losing health and having to shuffle out their main Pokemon or evolve them.

And then Mew's job is to just copy whatever, I just keep them on the bench, and I'm waiting for them to pull out their fanciest move, whether that's like Mewtwo or Gyarados or whatever. Then I stack that deck with red cards, which are the things that make the opponent discard their entire hand. Oh my God.

Sabrina's, which make them swap their main Pokemon out of their primary spot. And what is the other? A Pokemon flute, which shoves other shitty Pokemon that they've already lost into their hand again. So. You're gonna get in trouble. I've had more round two, like I can win with the deck

and I do win, I would say it's my lowest percentage winning deck, I'll probably only win 20% of the time. But the number of frustrated concessions I've gotten around the second point where people just don't wanna play against the deck anymore. Very high, extremely high. By the time this episode releases, there's going to be an entirely new expansion

in Pokemon Pocket, so I probably won't be able to play this deck to any effectiveness anymore, but it was sure a nice sort of coda to what I'll call this season of Pokemon Pocket. And I'm excited to see what the new meta is in the brand new double expansion decks or packs. How is the expansion, is this a, like are you paying for new packs?

How does this work? You do not pay for new packs. Okay. So, I mean, you can, you can pay to open packs, but otherwise you get two packs to open per day. And from those packs, you build your decks, or you can get bonus cards on bonus events. So like the Jigglypuff that I'm running

was only available in the early months of the game as a special bonus pick. And that card is just no longer available in the game. The Jigglypuff that's currently in the game only does damage and does not put the other character to sleep. So on the 30th of January, they, as of record, will release, as of release of this episode,

have released two additional expansion packs and you can open one or the other of them twice a day. Wow, okay. So, and they are gonna rebalance some existing cards as part of the expansion, is that what you're saying? No, I'm saying that it's just that, what, no, I don't, I- I think what Heather's saying is that there's gonna be

new cards that maybe that's not gonna be as effective. Oh, okay, okay, maybe like a counter for the jigglypuff. I was just mis-emitting. There's gonna be new cards that maybe that's not gonna be as effective. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Maybe like a counter for the Jigglypuff. Yeah, but there are cards that are just no longer available. So there are like special events where like Chansey shows up and Chansey has fancy cards and you get to like once a day or three times a day, select from one of five of Chansey's cards.

And those cards are like, it's a fucking Snorlax with a different ability or something. And that Jigglypuff was a bonus card that came out in the first month. Oh, got it, I get it. I get what you're saying. Yeah.

I've been, because I hear, just hearing you talk about it and reading your texts about it, I like, I did try to mess around with it. It didn't quite get its hooks in me. What it did do is made me want to play Marvel Snap when that finally gets online. It's been taken offline because it's bite dance, which also is part of you know owns tick tock. Yeah Hopefully that gets resolved. We'll see maybe how come that one wasn't reinstated eight hours later Well, I think what it is is that you can't like if you act is for all your hard work

You can't read down like cuz you can't redownload the app, right? So if you don't actually have the it's the same reason like you can buy like a like a phone that has tick-tock Pre-installed like goes for like $3,000 on the gray market. You know, I fucked up so I was so certain that I'd be able to figure out a workaround that I didn't delete it But Mary did she delete she was like, well fuck tick to gone, and she deleted the app, and now she's like, can I see your phone? I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Does anyone, my wife likes to do the same thing. She'll be like done looking at her phone and be like, let me see your phone, and then look at all the stuff on my phone. Wait, really? That's not something that Mary does. She likes to see what pictures I've taken. Oh, okay.

She's like, oh, what's going on there? And then she'll like, because she doesn't have social media the way I do. So she wants to see what's going on in my algorithm. That's sweet. Yeah, it's very fun. She's cause her algorithm is crazy. We used to play TikTok trade where it would be like,

she'd show me like three videos and then I'd show her three videos that I'd saved that day. Or we'd be like, let's watch your algorithm for a while. Let's watch my algorithm for a while. Yeah, that's pretty fun. I think my wife wants to go anywhere near my phone. Mary asked me. Would you like magnetize it every day, right? Mary asked me if your wife had been murdered by you.

No. I just wanted to. Let me just say, as somebody who's met Natalie, it would not be in that order. Score! Game-changing innovations with limited time DEALS on select next-gen Alienware gaming tech. New dimensions await with advanced gaming systems like the Alienware M18R2 Laptop, powered by an Intel Core i9 processor, featuring awe-inspiring visuals,

liquid cooling, three-dimensional audio with Dolby Atmos, and impressive overclocking potential. Plus, build your dream setup with great DEALS on select gaming monitors, mice, and more must-have electronics and accessories when you shop online at Alienware.com slash DEALS. You'll have access to leading-edge gaming technology to conquer the competition and free shipping on everything! Amazing prices await you for a limited time only at Alienware.com slash DEALS! That's Alienware.com slash DEALS! Reels! Buffalo!

Everybody's favorite slot game is live on DraftKings Casino! Hit the reels wherever and whenever to play for wild Western wins. New players can play five bucks to get a spin on the mystery wheel for a shot at up to 2,000 in casino credits. Download the app and sign up with code GETPLAYED. Join the stampede with Buffalo on DraftKings Casino now.

The crown is yours! Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. 21 plus, physically present in Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia only. Void in Ontario.

Eligibility restrictions apply one per month. Plus, physically present in Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia only. Void in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply one per new customer. Play $5 and spin wheel to receive between $10 and $2,000 in non-withdrawable casino credits for select games that expire in 168 hours. Terms at casino.draftkings.com slash promos. Ends February 16th, 2025 at 1159 p.m. Eastern Time. All right, here we go. Two games enter, one game leaves, backlog Thunderdome. So we've all created a list of 10 games from our personal backlog.

So we each have a list of 10 games, 30 games total. There is potentially some overlap here. We haven't really, I haven't studied each, everyone else's games. We, these are games we either fell off of, but meant to finish. So games we maybe played some of, maybe games we played a bit of, or games we never got around to playing in the first place. I've got a little from column A, a little from column B. They're going to be put into one on one matchups where one will survive and one will not. So we're choosing which games we will actually play and which games we're going to finally put into one-on-one matchups where one will survive and one will not. So we're choosing which games we will actually play and which games we're going to finally admit to ourselves we will never play. So we know the games and we're

gonna read the list of games in one moment but we don't know the matchups. The matchups will be determined by RNG which of course stands for the ranch number generator. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna first announce our lists of ten. I think that's I think that's a way to do it right gonna do. We're gonna first announce our lists of ten. I think that's I think that's a way to do it, right? Let's just say which games we chose to enter into this particular Phalanx. Matt, why don't you go first? All right. Well number one. Well, I guess they're not necessarily in a particular order But Kingdom Hearts 3 is on this list. Sonic Shadow Generations

Metaphor Rief on Tazio, The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Stellar Blade, Star Wars Outlaws, Diablo IV, Horizon Forbidden West, and Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. Wow. This is great because I'm being reminded of games that I didn't list, and then I'm just like, well now my backlog is gonna like probably grow

By the amount that I cut because I'm just gonna pull games from your list Yeah, cuz like I mean this is the thing about my list is that it's indicative of like these are all games that I've started and have played to Like at least a double digit percentage. Yes. You know, lowest being 10, of course. Got it. But it's, so it's not very far in a lot of these and I just like, I'm looking at these and it's like, I can't, there's no way I can get to all of them.

But we'll see which survives. I think it's a great 10. Heather, let's hear yours. All right, mine are Star Wars Outlaws, Red Dead Redemption 2, Persona 5, which I was so worried was gonna lose that I was playing it while I was waiting for you guys to show up. Metaphor Re-Fantazio, Bloodborne,

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Baldur's Gate 3, which I will continue from my save where everybody in the game hates me. God of War Ragnarok, Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, and Nier Automata. Wow. Okay, so I don't know what my matchups are going to be, but I actually did this.

I went through and I kind of created my own twosomes, and that's how I'm gonna read off my list. It's an alphabetical order on the one that Ranch has up there, but I'll just read off of my tablet here. So first up, Big Honkin JRPG Division, Persona 4 Golden and Yakuza Like a Dragon. Next up, Big Honkin Western RPG Division, Divinity Original Sin 2 and Dragon Age The Veil Guard.

Then next category, games that could be my favorite game of all time if I actually played them, Bloodborne and Hollow Knight. Wow. Then big totemic entries that are number seven in a big series, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Resident Evil VII Biohazard. And finally, games that Heather has been trying to get me to play for years, Cave Story and Mother 3.

I'm gonna blow my brains out if Cave Story or Mother 3 get deleted, unless, oh, I would like to ask about a saving throw. Yes, I think we get one saving throw. I think we get one Emperor's Thumbs Up where we get to rescue a fallen game. Well, so I was gonna propose that we do have an ongoing bet

about the release date of the Switch 2. If one of these games is eliminated, could we rescue the game as the Switch 2 prize game? Because the prize of the Switch 2 bet is that that person then gets to assign that game as one that we cover. I think that's completely independent from this exercise. So yes, I think that's true. But I also think in each of these, if for instance, I get a matchup that's two games

that I really want to keep, then I can pick one winner, but the other one gets spared. All right. One saving throw. I think that's okay. You get one emperor's thumbs up, however you wanna put it. So you get one for your own list. For your own list. If the Cave Story matchup is versus Mother 3,

Heather can't use her thumbs up to spare them. I don't, no, I don't think so. I mean, maybe, but then maybe you can't use it on your own list if you do that. I mean, then I'll burn my own list. I think it's for, I think we're all just worrying about our own list. I think we don't, let's not cross-polite here. I'm not worried about it at all.

All right, well, why don't you go first, Matt? I'm fucking scared, man. No, I'm scared. Let's activate the ranch number generator. Holy shit! Ranch has a wonderful little spinning wheel here. Ranch! Ranch made like a full game show out of this. There's like a spinning wheel with graphics on it

and each of the graphics is a game. It's like the cover art for each of the games on a spinning wheel. I love this. Wheel of Fortune. This is great. I think we can all agree, this was way more work than necessarily.

Yeah. This is amazing. I love it. Above is great. I think we can all agree, this was way more work than necessarily. Yeah. We did not, this is amazing. I love it, above and beyond. It's incredible. Thank you. It's like going in the showcase showdown on Price is Right. All right, Matt, you're up. So I misunderstood how this was gonna work.

I thought we were putting games against other people's games. No, it's your own list. I'ma put a gun in my mouth. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. What the fuck? Here we go. Okay, let's spin it.

Let's see what's the first game here. Buzzing. Wow, that's really fun. I love this. The spin animation is delightful. It's pretty good. Okay, first up, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Wow. Okay.

Versus. Buzzing. I like the sound of it too. Me too. It little clicks. Maybe we'll put the little, the sound of it too, the little clicks. All right, maybe we'll put the sound in the mix. Holy shit. Okay, versus Kingdom Hearts 3. Wow, Matt.

Now, here's the thing, you put Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on yours and I was like, maybe that could have been a bit on mine because that was a game that kind of just, you know, came out towards the end of the year. It came out, well, certainly while it was buried in Persona. Yeah. I keep saying Persona because it's another Atlas game, while it was buried in Metaphor. And, but I was just like, maybe I'll get to that someday.

I like Indiana Jones and it's supposed to be well, it was well received. I like Indiana Jones too, and I was enjoying my time with it. I heard something about the late game from a friend of the show and friend of ours, Paul F. Tompkins, that made me think that I would be comfortable

with not finishing it. Oh, wow. About William's motorcycle level? He whips his own dick off? Whoosh! Ouch! No, it just didn't sound like it was like that sad. I mean, because it's very grounded.

It's like, you know, kind of hard to make something so realistic, an interesting video game. Right. You know, Indiana Jones can only do so much as a man. So I'll just leave it at that. Yeah, like you can't really, you can't do a boss fight against a giant creature. That would be a bit of a tonal break from what we've established in the franchise,

even though in the franchise, spoiler alert for the most recent one, he goes back in time and meets Archimedes. And gets so fatally wounded that he's like, leave me here. He wants to die in the past. Fucking. The more I think about it, I think that is easily the worst movie I've ever seen.

It's an utterly insane movie. I've never seen it. Absolutely bad shit. It's so fucking bad, but also some of it kind of, it's, he rules. The thing is he's, you know, it's Harrison Ford. He's a movie star. I did not care for the movie, but I love Harrison Ford and I love Indiana Jones.

That thing is insane. Yeah, it's insane. You know what? Cause like the thing about Kingdom Hearts 3 is, the reason it's on this list is that it's the only Kingdom Hearts game I haven't finished. So I will chime in here. I think you should keep Kingdom Hearts 3.

I think that you are the Kingdom Hearts guy, you're on the Kingdom Hearts beat, you have a Keyblade tattoo. I think you've been holding out on Kingdom Hearts 3 because it's, I don't know how much of it you've played. I do believe you played some of it. I believe you've been holding out on it because you know it's like not a highlight of the series.

That it's not like as good as the previous games based off of the fan reception. And I think there's also an element of, you want Kingdom Hearts to persist. There's a little bit of a fear of finishing the trilogy. But I think you owe it to yourself. I think you owe it to yourself and I think you owe it to your own fandom

to play Kingdom Hearts 3. There is a fourth game coming though. So you could skip the what could be the weakest entry in the entire series and leave it behind and only have good memories with Kingdom Hearts and I'll make a deal with you. I will finish Kingdom Hearts 3 if you choose to delete it and I will tell you two truths and a lie

of the entire game of what happens. Heather, why would I do that? Hahahaha! Hahahaha! Hahahaha! Hahahaha! Hahahaha! Hahahaha! Hahahaha! Here's the thing, it's on the list because it could've been

paired up with anything. It could've been paired up with, you know, metaphor refantasio, it could've been paired up with any of these games, and it would be maybe a harder selection. I don't think I'm gonna exile Kingdom Hearts 3 to save Indiana Jones. You know what I mean?

Yeah, probably not. So it's an easy mashup for me. Indiana Jones, the next great circle you're going to, fucking hell, bitch. Ha ha ha ha! Wow. Uh, the next great circle you're going to? Fucking hell, bitch. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Okay, oh boy. This is the most fun I've ever had. This is the most miserable I've ever been How many do we get to save? One save. You get one save. No, no, no, I mean of We're eliminating everything except one game. No, no, no, no, you're eliminating. No each there

They're one-on-one matchups. You're you're saving one and killing the other So we're just cutting our list in half. Cutting our list in half. Okay. Plus one if there's one that we ultimately want to say which is optional. That's fine. That's fine. Yeah, let's go Okay my first pick on the wheel of True fortune. Oh is Final Fantasy rebirth Wow Also on my list. Oh, I'm interested to see what this gets matched up with. Oh, no, please don be, please don't be Persona 5, please don't be Persona 5. The ranch number generator is spinning. Please don't be Persona 5.

Look, it's maybe tough and it's maybe fair. Baldur's Gate 3. Baldur's Gate 3. Baldur's Gate 3. I'll make this decision for you, Baldur's Gate 3, my favorite game of all time. I think you should play Baldur's Gate 3. Here's what I think is, look, we did the episode of Baldur's uh-huh Heather was having a tough time with it Reasons we don't need to get into I would say Baldur's Gate 3 my advice would be fresh save

fresh save but There's not gonna be a Baldur's Gate 3 2 coming out. You've already played Final Fantasy 7 coming out. You've already played Final Fantasy VII Remake. There's gonna be Final Fantasy VII Part III Remake coming out. This is an easy decision for me because I haven't played Rebirth because it is so important to me

to be able to dedicate good time to it. That is the reason it is on my backlog. It is not because I bounced off it. It was that I started playing it and I was like, okay, I need time for this game. I can't just drop in for 20 minutes and then exit Final Fantasy Rebirth. I need to put in time.

But Baldur's Gate 3, I was having so much fun. It is, I know that we joke about my play through, but I was having kind of a blast that everybody I ever met would be like, you on site. And I was just sort of blundering through what, I mean, it's a game that for me had almost no story because I never got to meet anybody after a certain point. They would all just rush me in anger.

So I'm going to have to say goodbye to Baldur's Gate. Because Rebirth is so, I have Cloud's wig on my table. He's an important boy for me. Ah. Ah! Boy, that's tough. It's a tough way to go for Baldur's Gate 3. But you know, you have a Cloud wig on your table,

and I have, courtesy of Matt, a Lae'zel plushie on my couch. So we each have our own fandoms there. Oh man, that breaks my heart though. What an awful, awful cutthroat pairing. Has Mary played Ballersgate 3? Yes, she has. Has she finished it?

No. Okay, I assumed that she would love it. We played multiplayer. Oh, I love that. A bunch. Okay, well you can never do that again. Why? Because it's been in the exile. Yeah, I love that. A bunch. Okay, well you can never do that again. Why? Cause it's been in exile.

Yeah, it's off the tables. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's done. All right, I'm up. Here we go, RNG, let's start the madness. Okay. Nick's first game is... You son of a bitch Wow story story the indie classic These solo dev I swear to God if this goes up against that I've always been meaning to play and hey, I love don't you dare

No, you fucking believe a little match up fucking feel RNG against Mother 3. This is the saddest I have ever been on this show. This is the most sad, most miserable I have ever been on the show. I'll tell you what, as much as I love Metroidvanias, I think Cave Story I will really respond to. There is another Metroidvani on this list that if I'm going to budget my time for that kind of game, I think I would choose that one.

So if it was matched up differently, I don't know if Cave Story wins the matchup against a lot of these games is what I'm saying. I included it because it is a game I've always meant to play. It is a game I know I will love, and I know it's a game that Heather has a lot of affection for, and I admire her passion for it. But I got to pick Mother 3 here.

I mean, Heather, I feel like your advocacy for Mother 3 is on another level. I mean, you went to the trouble of getting Matt and I copies of the game, fansubbed copies of Mother 3, and physical carts that neither of us have ever played. I'll say I've played like maybe like an hour of it, but I know that it's probably not the first hour

that grabs you. I stand by the choice you've made, Nick. That would be my pick also. Mother 3 is much larger in my memory than Cave Story, though Cave Story is more often played on my phone on soundtracks. Wow. All right, Cave Story, sorry, you're getting flushed.

Mother 3, sticking around. No! No! No! No! Snake, are you okay? Snake? Snake!

All right, back to Matt. Okay, wow. This is thrilling. This is miserable. It's wonderful. I love that it's interactive. We just don we just don't even know what's gonna happen. Yeah. We don't know what's gonna happen.

Other than that we'll be upset by it. Yes. We should note that as this goes, the Star Wars outlaws is up first in the RNG. Ranch is narrowing the wheel so that the, we're only choosing for the remaining games. That's right. We're not gonna get a duplicate. It's a very professional thing that Ranch has done. No, this is easily the most work anyone's ever done for the remaining games. That's right duplicate. Yeah, it's a very professional thing that ranch has done

This is you know, this is easily the most work anyone's ever done for the show. Yeah Oh interesting Star Wars outlaws. Horizon Forbidden West. Hey two similar games. Yeah kind of a good matchup there Pretty open world character driven games there Gosh What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Because here's the thing. I was really gung ho on Outlaws.

And I, as much as I loved that, I also was loving my time with Forbidden West for the one week that it was available before another big game came out. And I loved the first one. I thought the first one was fantastic. But gosh, I don't know what I would do here. This is a really, really tough one.

Well, you've got, on one hand, you've got an IP that is slowly degrading through mismanagement. And the other one is an IP forcibly being elevated by a huge corporation. Like Star Wars is, I would say, on a mild decline, there's canceled shows now, there are shows like Skeleton Crew that nobody is talking about.

Yeah, and I hear Skeleton Crew is actually kind of fun. It's like more of a kid's adventure show, but yet just zero cultural impact. Zero cultural impact. There was more cultural impact by Acolyte just in terms of rage than Skeleton Crew. I saw Jude Law at Disneyland promoting the Skeleton Crew. Let me tell you something.

Handsome. That's a handsome dude. That's a handsome guy. It was insane. I loved seeing a celebrity in person just be like, you're fucking so good looking. Jesus Christ, it was insane. Holy shit, you're on another level.

Rocking that Widow's Peak in rules. Then you've got Horizon, which honestly, I don't know, like Sony always puts them the, what's her name, Aloy? Aloy, yeah. Well this is the problem, is that the, I feel like the characters in this game aren't that exciting, but I feel like the gameplay is good.

Sure, the gameplay is great, but they keep trying to make Horizon happen, and it's one of those, the only reason it's not a Concord situation is because it isn't a live service. Yeah, not yet. They know that they, I think they just canceled a... Horizon live service? Yeah. Yeah, and I know that they I think they just canceled a

Horizon live service. Yeah Yeah, and I know that they're working on an MMO of some kind with wow with it as well This is they're both kind of games that I feel like the the this sort of triple-a approach of the you know This kind of open world this hey one of them is a Ubisoft game the sort of Ubisoft right? It's not was Ubisoft. Yeah, that's right. The the the you know this this Ubisoft game, the sort of Ubisoft, right? I thought it was the Ubisoft game. Yeah, that's right. This Ubisoft approach, even though Horizon is Sony's first party, they're like, it's kind of a type of game, a sub-genre that's kind of getting long in the tooth, I feel like. And it's sort of, people are kind of exhausted by them and exhausted by their size and scope. I will say, I really like the character designs

in Horizon Forbidden West. Aloy, the voice actor, Ashley Burch, I think is just like fantastic. I think it's a really good performance. And I think the world is really cool. Even though I bounced off of the first Horizon, I never even fucked with Horizon Forbidden West. I personally, I feel like you've played a lot of Outlaws and I don't know how much passion you have towards seeing the story to its conclusion.

Yeah. Whereas I feel like Horizon Forbidden West, I don't know, that feels like a more satisfying overall experience. I- But I don't know, but also like you do you, man. I fucking love Star Wars. I love Star Wars also. However, the Star Wars games that I think are superior

in nearly every single way are the Jedi, Star Wars Jedi, Fallen Order, Jedi Survivor. I almost put a Star Wars Jedi on my list. Jedi Survivor, I mean, I said this last year, not this past Game of the Year episode, year before. Could have been Game of the Year in any other year. I loved Survivor. Man, there are so many games that I have to play

that I forgot that I haven't played Survivor. It's unbelievable. Fuck! I think it's so fucking good. Star Wars Outlaws, you're getting frozen in carbonite. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Having a sound effect is good. Yeah, sound effects are good. Yeah, sound effects are good. It's really good.

I think, yeah, maybe, you know what? Maybe this is the motivation I need to pick up for Bitten West, like tonight. Maybe I start it tonight. Who knows Wow Wow all right Heather your turn All right, let's see what games. I love are going to be killed in our Picker wheel the ranch number generator is spinning here. We go. It is landing on persona five Royal. Okay persona five. Don't just don't just don't just don't be god of war. Just don't be god of war. I think I think I could I could see if she can will the wheel towards not landing

on god. It is just barely landing on another Atlas game, Metaphor Riffontasio. Man, that is a tough one. I love both those games. Oh, that's a tough one, Heather. I know what the choice is, Heather. I know what the choice is too, and it's Persona 5 for me.

Yeah, for me, having played both games, it is Persona 5, but man, you're missing out on metaphor. That's a bummer. And here's why. Maybe there will be a metaphor refantasio royale released for the Switch 2 as an updated portable version, but I can play Persona 5, I can bring it with me to a place and play it while waiting for something else.

And that has been what has been propelling me back into Persona 5 currently, right now. That and an insane love of Curry. So as much as I've heard that metaphor is extraordinarily like now from so many reviewers, it has to be Persona 5 for me. What a brutal fucking-

Oh, fuck. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Metaphor is very now, but Persona 5 Royal is timeless. I think it's a great choice. It's a wonderful game.

It would have been shocking if you didn't pick the game set in your favorite place on Earth. Yeah. A game that I've been playing again for like three weeks and it's changed the way I dress again. Yeah. All right, next up is me. Let the RNG commence.

The wheel is spinning it is landing No Final Fantasy 7 rebirth, okay, okay I guess I'm happy that it was cave story versus mother 3 because mother 3 is safe now. Yes That is true spoiler alert mother 3 was always gonna be safe whoa land versus Dragon Age the Veilguard. Wow. Wow. Ah, fuck.

I really wanted to play The Veilguard, but I guess it's not happening. So, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Yeah, that was easy. That was one right between the eyes. That's a pretty straightforward. Well, just because I know Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, it's universally acclaimed.

Dragon Age Veilguard, people are like, it's good, it's maybe kind kind of like a B game but it's Well done if you like you know that world But I just I don't think I can skip rebirth if the alternative is You know the latest that Dragon Age entry that some people will say is like the worst of the series Wow, so yeah rebirth it is and hey, it's on PC. So I've all the more reason to play it now Four seconds too long Okay back to me here we go the options are getting smaller and smaller

Let's see what we got here. Looks like we're going with Metaphor Riff on Tazio. We also got Metaphor. Versus, versus. What's your favorite versus? I'm partial towards the Smash Brothers versus. X and Sever probably for me. All right, wise guy. Versus Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. Sever probably for me All right wise guy Alright, we've got Zelda echoes of wisdom Zelda echoes of wisdom. Ah you know

one of these games Feels more attainable because it's whoa Because it's probably in my estimation 60 hours shorter However I was about to get very mad I think 60 hours shorter. However. I was about to get very mad. I think, and I don't know if I said this on the show. Yeah.

And I don't know, for me, the Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, sucks I think. I really did not care for it. It's not good, I don't like it. And not for any insane reason, I just think it's a bad game Hate that I can't be link No, I just you got you you can be link you're forced to be link in a very weird way Yeah, and I don't like that's part of what's what's annoying actually that's why I don't like that. I don't like that at all

And I don't like the menu system Or you know in the menus in metaphor are I think they were their own issues? But the but the yeah, it's one long yeah like crossbar your nap It's just it's either that or you're pausing the game constantly. That's a little annoying. I I'm gonna save metaphory Fantasio and destroy the legend of Zelda echoes of wisdom Sorry and destroy the Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. Sorry, Zelda. I think that this is a pretty straightforward choice.

Yeah, yeah. Pretty good, pretty good. Echoes of Wisdom, I think I may have named it my most disappointing game of life. You did, you did actually, yeah. That was a real bummer, I was looking forward to it. Woof. All right, Heather.

We're basically, we've got one more RPG in here, Wow. That was a real bummer. I was looking forward to it. Okay. All right, Heather. We're basically, we've got one more RPG in here, but otherwise it's Action Central here in the remainder of my wheel. That's right. Up first is- Oh my God. Red Dead Redemption 2. Cole Moedrisko.

Which I've heard is one of the launch titles on the Switch 2, so. That would make sense. Could you? Versus Bloodborne, holy shit. Could you? Two of the best reviewed games of all time. Now Heather, where are you on Red Dead Redem- Ooh, Jesus Christ.

Where are you in Red Dead Redemption 2? Have you put any time into it? I have put the equivalent amount of time into both of these games. Okay, got it. Which is probably about I Don't know five hours got it. Maybe maybe maybe five maybe four six somewhere in there So my issue always with rockstar games is the sound of everybody talking I

cannot fucking stand. Every time I back out of a Rock Star Game, it's because everybody you ever encounter is the worst person you've ever met. Like, well, I'd be sure to put that pistol back in my pants. Oh my god, he's got a gun. Like it's like all that shit everywhere you go. If it was like a legit.

I like it. I like to eat my horse's turds. Yeah, it's like. It's like, it's like if, if, if Red Dead Redemption looked the way it looked. Yeah. And then also had had just regular human language coming out of it, it might've been my favorite game

of all time. But not even being able to hang out at your own camp without somebody being like, you better put that poker game back in your pants, boy. Like, I'm like, stop fucking talking to me. Put that butthole back in your pants! And that's honestly one of the joys of Bloodborne, is there's no fucking talking.

Whew. But I've been really looking forward to playing Red Dead on the Switch 2. I will say you do have one saving throw, one emperor's thumbs up. If you want to preserve something, you do have that in your back pocket. But also think about this for a second. And also think about the games that you have pending after this in case that then you won't have that to play anymore current this is the backlog yeah this is in regards to a current like a

save that you've started already yeah it's not necessarily yeah I think you became even played you haven't started the switch to coffee I don't think that counts I think that I think you're given a loophole here and I don't think that I don't think you start I don't know accounts no I think I don't think a port is I think if they if there's a remaster that's one thing but a port I don't think you're given a loophole here and I don't think that counts. I don't think it starts. I don't think it counts. No, I think, I don't think a port is, I think if they, if there's a remaster, that's one thing, but a port, I don't think counts. All right, then I'm saving Red Dead.

This is the port authority over here. I'm saving Red Dead Redemption 2 and I am not using my saving throw on Bloodborne. Wow. That is why. I bet. I'm shocked. I bet there's gonna be a Bloodborne remaster. It could happen. Yeah. It probably should happen. Yeah, it probably should. But I am still shocked. I bet there's going to be a Bloodborne remaster. It could happen.

Yeah. It probably should happen. Yeah, it probably should. But I am still shocked. My jaw's on the floor. It's probably coming out the same day as Hollow Knight 2. I can't believe that Heather would not save a FromSoft game. I think-

I'm shocked. I'm shocked too, but Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the best- It's an all-timer. I love cowboy food so much. Yeah, there's no cowboy food in Bloodborne. If it does, it makes you sick. Maybe we should just, we've never done a Red Dead Redemption episode.

Maybe we should just do that at some point. My three picks, my three picks are based on food, I think, maybe. There's good food in these three games. Yeah, that's not so bad. All right. Yeah, I honestly can't really, I can't really defend the food in Baldur's Gate 3. There's some food, but it's not like a highlight in

the way some of these other games. Nick, you're up. I'm up. All right. RNG. Let's get nuts. Here we go. I get nuts. Let's get nuts. All right. Yakuza like a Dragon versus... Versus! Oh no! Versus Persona 4 Golden, which I always wanted to get around to playing, and I'm pretty frustrated. This was the actual initial matchup I had. Yeah, that's right. Which was, you know, two big JRPGs and honestly, I'm if I'm being real with myself

I'm not gonna have the bandwidth to commit to both of these as much as they love persona for Persona 5 Royal as much as I love metaphor refent ozzy unless they love these these atlas games I don't know if I can will myself to go back in time and play persona for golden over Yakuza like a dragon which Yakuza Like a Dragon reinvents the franchise. I like the Yakuza games, Like Yakuza Zero quite a bit. Reinvents it in turn-based combat and then also paves the way for Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth. The series actually is renamed as a result, Infinite Wealth, which is a game that's on

Heather's list. And then Yeah, Like a Dragon, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, which is coming out this year. And I wanna play that franchise. So I think that's where I'm going. Persona 4 Golden, I apologize, but you are being flushed. Ah! Ah! Ah!

Ah! Ah! Ah! Snake sounds so hurt. I know. Ah! He was kicked in the back. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! He was kicked in the back. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Wow, what a matchup. I mean, it makes sense, because also, I understand it, the Persona 4 Golden isn't a full on remake, so it probably feels a little clunkier than even Persona 5. Yeah, I don't, look, I haven't played one minute of it, so I don't know exactly how much quality of life, you know, stuff it has for a modern playthrough.

My understanding is it's pretty well done, but, you know, I'll never know now. All right, Matt, back to you. All right, here we go. We got, looks like, four options left. We got Avatar, Stellar Blade, Diablo IV, and Sonic and Shadow. Let's see what happens. The chips fall where they may.

Wow. Sonic Shadow Generations. A game that I picked up after my enthusiasm of, after my viewing of Sonic 3. Understandably. And I've been enjoying. It's been really fun. What a well. Well received game. Yeah and Now stellar blade Wow there are no games that make people horny

This is this is an interesting matchup because those these are two very different games I I like look a character action Game more than I like a sonic game in general sure I think This is tough It's honestly probably more likely that I would be playing Sonic shadow because I have it on switch versus stellar blade which would require me to have my PlayStation portal and a Wi-Fi connection if I were to be playing it mobile yeah

Because otherwise I have to play it either late at night or when my wife's gone right I meant you get a special order or one-handed control Special order I handcrafted it myself my dear boy Where there's life finds a way? I meant you get a special order or one-handed control. Yeah, special order. I handcrafted it myself, my dear boy, where life finds a way. Gosh, but I was really, really enjoying. This is hard. This is the hardest one so far, I think. Wow, you do have a saving throw.

And you know what your next games are. Yeah, you know what your final matchup is. That's actually pretty interesting. You know what? You can't hear what I'm doing. I've given the thumbs up. Wow. Wow. I'm saving both.

Wow. You're saving throw for Stellar Blade. Which one, if you had to choose, which one would you choose? I guess probably Stellar Blade. So you're choosing Stellar Blade and then you're sparing Sonic Shadow Generation. That's right, yeah.

Got it. Yes. Wow. There we go. I think we could still hear the sound though. Sure. That's my save has disappeared. My save has been killed.

Got it. Okay. My head canon is that it died and then was brought back to life by a kiss from a human woman. Perhaps Eve from Stellar Blade. That rule 34 exists, I'm sure. All right. Here we go.

Final four. What's it going to be from Ranch's Picker Wheel? First up is Nier Automata. Wow. A game that everybody on Twitter was telling me to play for years after its release. And it is going up against Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth. Wow.

That's a tough one. Fuck. Is there a reason you picked infinite wealth over Yakuza Like a Dragon over the OG? Cause it was more recent. Oh, okay, fair enough. I gotta say goodbye to Nier. Wow.

Nier far wherever you are, you're going straight to hell. Wow. And I gotta say goodbye to Nier Wow. Near, far, wherever you are, going straight to hell. Wow. And I gotta say goodbye to Near because I have to save my saving throw for my final games. Wow. That sucks. I'm shocked.

Wow. Okay, so like a dragon, infinite wealth, you're coming home. Goodbye, Near. That was hard. This is tough. This is what makes it, the exercise, tough. There's nothing you can do. All right, here we go.

It's all ranch's fault. Time to spin. Okay. Divinity Original Sin 2, the Larian game that predates Baldur's Gate 3, that they've played some of, and that has, again, a game that's been met with universal acclaim. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's matched up against Resident Evil 7 Biohazard.

I think- Wow. Fuck, I really always wanted to play Resident Evil 7 Biohazard 2. To say something about divinity Original sin to yeah The game I've started over the weekend. Yeah, just to see what was going on to see if I would like it And I think that for me

It's it's very good It's no Baldur's Gate 3 in my estimation so far Well, yeah, that level of polish doesn't have a full speech for absolutely everything, doesn't have animated cutscenes for every single line of dialogue. But it's a pretty rock solid Wiger game, if I've ever seen one. I enjoyed it when I was playing some of it.

If I was gonna have a, like anything was gonna give me pause. It's that would I rather play through Divinity Original Sin 2 or just replay Baldur's Gate 3. But if we start getting into that territory, I think we're in trouble. So I think what I gotta say is, I think I should play Resident Evil 7 Biohazard.

I feel like that's kind of like a game that I should know just as someone who ostensibly talks about video games for a living, but, I guess I gotta go with Larry and I gotta go with Divinity Original Sin too, because that is a game I just plan on getting all the way through at some point. Wow. Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, I apologize. Wow.

Became a Jill Sandwich. Yeah, it did become a Jill Sandwich. Snake, are you okay? Snake! Snake! Wow. All right, Divinity Original Sin survives. Matt, your final two. I'm going to be-

Down to my final two. Avatar Frontiers of Pandora versus Diablo IV. Ranch, you don't even got to spin the fucking thing. Avatar Sia on Pandora with the fire and ash. Wow. I think that's the right choice. I really enjoyed Diablo IV, at least the single player campaign. I enjoyed the DLC.

I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game.

I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game. I think it's a very fun game. I think that's the right choice. I really enjoyed Diablo 4, at least the single player campaign. I enjoyed the DLC. I think it's a very fun game. Even though I never really got into the online part of it that much, the seasonal play,

I did really just enjoy it as a single player game and I think it has a good story. And Avatar suffers from the same stuff that Outlaw suffers from being formulaic, Ubisoft sort of stuff. I feel like there's gonna be a better Avatar game in a few years. I hope so. Although people really enjoy that and they haven't played it

so I can't speak to it really. My final two games are Star Wars Outlaws and God of War Ragnarok. I'm giving my Emperor's thumbs up to both of them to save them both. I love Star Wars and I love Vikings. Oh man. Oh boy.

But God, I'm going to miss Bloodborne and Metaphor. What if you were going to kill, if you had to pick, you had God of War Ragnarok, Star Wars, you would kill Star Wars. So Star Wars has been killed and resurrected. Yeah. I really, really, really want to play God of War Ragnarok. Wow. Somehow Star Wars Outlaws has returned.

All right. My final two, Bloodborne, Hollow Knight, if I had to pick here, I would pick Bloodborne to stay just because I have played enough of Hollow Knight to have bounced off of it initially. I'm sure if I went back to it and really dedicated myself to a full playthrough, as my alpha brother Nate did 100% of that game, I think I would really enjoy enjoy it but I would pick Bloodborne just because I've never actually played it and I could see that game loving loving Sekiro and Elden Ring as much as I do I could see that game really getting its hooks in me and I plan on playing it but I am going to go ahead and use my Emperor's Thumbs Up my saving throw on

Hollow Knight to preserve it so that one remains after its death. Let's recap what's staying and what's going. Matt, you first. All right. Staying, we have Kingdom Hearts 3, Sonic Shadow Generations via the saving throw, Metaphor Refon Tazio, Stellar Blade, Diablo 4, and Horizon Forbidden West, leaving this mortal plane and freeing me from the guilt of them being in my backlog, The Legend of Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. Wow. All three of the four that are being killed

are existing IP games. Isn't that really interesting? Interesting, yeah. Yeah. Huh. All right. My games that are staying are With the Emperor's Thumb, Star Wars Outlaws,

then Red Dead Redemption 2, Persona 5, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, God of War, The games that are staying are With the Emperor's Thumb, Star Wars Outlaws, then Red Dead Redemption 2, Persona 5, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, God of War Ragnarok, and Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth. The games I cannot believe I am saying goodbye to are Metaphor Re-Fantazio, Bloodborne, Baldur's Gate 3, and Nier Automata. That could be somebody's top four games of all time.

Yeah. That fucking sucks. Yeah. One of them's on my top four. All right, hey, speaking of me, I am retaining Bloodborne, Divinity Original Sin 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Mother 3, and Yakuza Like a Dragon dragon as well as Hollow Knight via saving throw being purged from my backlog cave story dragon age the veil guard persona 4 golden and resident evil 7 biohazard gone but not forgotten wow i tried to say forgotten i said forgotten can we just hey everyone's gonna take

it again gone but not forgotten okay we use the retake. No one will say I said verbatim Well, you guys didn't see Nick put both of it. He put his head in both of his hands. He was utterly humiliated What was he trying to say? I think you were German saying forgotten and you went for Bolton But verboten bad time to be doing that, I gotta say. Hey, that was Backlog Thunderdome. It's time for a segment. It's our video game chart segment, Pixel Chart. And this week's theme is

Games that are unlikely to be in anyone's backlog. That's right We're quizzing on the PlayStation 4 games with the highest completion rate Wow for trophies based on trophies That mark a games completion. This is pulled from a 2020 Forbes piece by Paul Tassi Fuck so I picked PlayStation 4 because that generation is done and also there is a ready list of of what games Were most finished. Yeah, good call. That's great. This would be this would be exciting. I don't even remember what came out PlayStation 4 Well, I think they, let's start here.

The first one, we're all helping with the completion rate, number one. The Last of Us 2. That's right, The Last of Us Part 2, 58% of players finished Last of Us Part 2. Pretty impressive for a game that is as meaty as it is. Yes. I mean, you know, it's like 20 to 30 hours,

but hey, that's a substantial amount to get to it. Kind of lower than I would have guessed for some reason, because like, I don't know, it's like it's like 20 to 30 hours, but hey that's a substantial amount kind of lower than I would have guessed For some reason because like I don't know it's like a it's it's shocking. I guess I bounced off a bunch of games around my List but like that those games are so story forward. It'd be shocking to me to like Abandon the story yeah once the thing that always that would blow my mind if if you look at the steam completion rates for Elden Ring like how many people got so deep into that game yeah like the percentages were so much higher than I expected really wild for a game that is

so is is famously so difficult that a lot of people bounce off of it but still it's like it's so good that people are propelled through it as was I all right number one off the board last of Us part two remake. Here's another hint. I think some of this list seems to not entirely but it seems to lean towards exclusives. People that they would buy a PlayStation for these games. Then I'll put God of War Ragnarok on that list. God of War Ragnarok is not on the list. 2018? God of War Ragnarok is not on the list. 2018?

God of War 2018? Yes, God of War 2018, 51.8%, number three on the board. Just to clear it, just in case, God of War 3 Remastered? Not on it. Not on it, okay. Ragnarok came out on PS4, didn't it? It did, yes.

What about the first Spider-Man? Marvel's Spider-Man, number four, 50.7%. Wow. Wow, wow. Oh gosh. This wouldn't be on there. Metal Gear Solid 5. Metal Gear Solid 5 is not on here.

Yeah. And neither would death stranding Although death stranding is number 11 29.3 percent of players Yeah, really really good tomorrow's in your hands Ranch you should play death stranding to understand us Isn't there a Resident Evil game on the PlayStation 4 There are but the Resident Evil game is not on this list. Okay, I'll help you out two of these are

Games that came up in our own personal backlog Okay, so blood-borne is on blood-borne is number 10, 31.9% of users. World credits. Kingdom Hearts 3? Not Kingdom Hearts 3. Think of big franchises. Red Dead Redemption 2. Red Dead Redemption 2 is just outside the top 10.

Whoa! Number 12, 28.6%. Gosh. What generation did Grand Theft Auto come out on? The last one, five. Yeah, Grand Theft Auto came out in every generation. Yeah, it came out on PS3. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. But it's not on this list. No, Red Dead Redemption 2 is the only Rockstar game on this list. The physical copy of it that I have is for PlayStation 3 because I hadn't gotten PlayStation 4 yet. Another game that we, that was, I'm sorry, not a game that was on the list, our backlog list,

but a game that we discussed, a game related to a game that's on our backlog list. And it's also a game that we finished. I think that's enough hints. A game we finished that we talked about on this episode. That's related to we finished that we talked about on this episode. That's related to a game that we talked about on this episode. Not Persona 5.

Not Persona 5. Persona 4? No. Three? It's not the Persona series. Okay. Two. Not the original Persona.

One? What? What Atlus game? Big, big JRPG, huge franchise. Final Fantasy VII Remake? Remake, Final Fantasy VII Remake number two, 53.3% of players. Wow!

Yeah, very high completion rate for that game, very big selling game. It's kind of remarkable how many people, how the second game, Rebirth did not have as much of a player base, but I guess I'm part of the problem, as is Heather. Rebirth is so much better than Remake, it's insane.

Well look, I'll play that some bitch. Yeah, me too. All right, keep going here. Another game, this is a game that Matt has played, this is a franchise that I have played. This is a big first party game, not The Last of Us, but related. Oh, Uncharted 4, I'm gonna guess. It's Uncharted The Lost Legacy, I'll give it to you. Wow.

53 point, 50.3%. The like, the spinoff game. Yes. Wow. I think it has a higher completion rate because it's a little bit of a cozier experience How many games are left we have we have six of the top ten so six through nine are are still not are not identified This is the hardest game we've ever played on this. I don't think that's true. I think you're doing pretty good I've guessed more Matt's little game songs than I have on this I think you're doing pretty good Guessed more Matt's little game songs than I have on this number eight another game that is related to a game We discussed in the backlog

Sony first party I'm like pretty big franchise concerned about my brain because I like Like almost like don't even remember and it's a game you kept Horizon zero don't zero don number eight thirty four point five percent. Yeah, what about it? Was there like a Dark Souls that came out on ps4? I? Think Dark Souls 3 maybe yeah, but I think I don't but then but the only the only from soft game in this list is blood-borne

We have one more we have three more one one of these is a game Matt that you and I both played This is a big first-party game Sarah ratchet and clank. It's not a ratchet and clank. It's it's not on this list There is a this is a the developer is sucker punch a ghost of sushi. Oh, yes number seven thirty eight point two percent Didn't play that either. I did I love I forgot Heather played it. I've been wanting to play it again I I ran around and made clips of me like just murking people and shared them with you So we all played that game. We all play the game. I finished a game. I a hundred percent of that game. That was one of those those Quarantine Platinum's I got Wow number nine is is a game I don't think any of us have played. So I'll give some hints here.

This is a zombie game, open world game. There is a motorcycle involved. Oh, Days Gone. It is Days Gone. Did anyone play Days Gone? No, but I heard it's good. I heard it's good. Wow.

The number six, this one I'm surprised to see here. This game is a bit of a punchline. This is a game that takes itself very, very seriously. It's like Arkham Legends or something. It's more, it's a little bit goofier and highfalutin. It's like a game, it's not like a, you know, it's a science fiction game. Oh, No Man's Sky? No, it's not No Man's Sky.

I wouldn't even know how to end that game. Science fiction. Science fiction, story-based game. There is a bit of a celebrity developer involved in this. There's a bunch of other games that are kind of akin to this that are very like, you know, they're adventure II It's not Mass Effect. It's less gameplay than a Mass Effect Last gameplay than yes, not destiny. It's not destiny

Do you know for some reason I think it's because like one of the games I got for free. Yeah One of my top played games on plate my PlayStation library is the first destiny and I like don't remember ever doing that So why like I've never heard you talk about that. I like I have no Recollection I've ever doing this but I think it's cuz it's like I bought the ps4 And like had no money for games and just like played destiny for hours and hours and hours But don't remember a second of it Do you have like you have like 300 hours in Destiny that just does not exist in your memory?

Could you not, it's like that high. That's wild. It's like I don't even remember doing it. I'll give you some more hints. The developer is David Cage, the previous games. His name just came up on the Discord today. What's the name of that fucking game? You may know, Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls. Oh. That's why it came up. I discord today. No Fahrenheit heavy rain beyond two souls

That's why it came up the game I think you know you can picture the game if you can't pull the title Detroit becomes Detroit became human with a surprising 49% completion rate and Hey, I was pixel chart and that's this week's get played our producers Rochelle chan ranch yard underscore underscore Sardre our music is by Ben Prunty Ben Prunty music.com our art is by Duck Brigade Design Duck Brigade.com and hey check out our patreon patreon.com slash get played where you can find our entire pre headgum back catalog plus ad free main feed episodes and also over there is our patreon

exclusive show get animated Matt where we're watching Dandidan. Dandidan Dandidan Dandidan Dandidan Dandidan Dandidan Dandidan Dandidan Dandidan Dandadan. Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan I've got a merch by the way too at kinship goods.com slash get play get get yourself a damn shirt or hat or something You know what that's a tie plug. We should start tossing in there. Yeah, you to do it Yeah, that the man that that hoodie is cozy as shit. It's so cozy I know my wife is always trying to steal it from me. She's like give me that Like no you got a freeze And hey, you know what didn't get played? All those games from our backlog, they're being purged. We love you games.

Gone but not forgotten. Fuck. That was a head gum podcast. Hi, I'm Caleb Herron, host of the So True Podcast now on HeadGum. Every week me and my guests get into it and we get down to what's really going on. I ask them what's so true to them, how they got to where they are in life, a bunch of other questions. And we also may or may not test their general trivia knowledge, whether it's one of my sworn

enemies like Brittany Broski or Drew Fol swallow or my actual biological mother Kelly My guests and I are just after the truth and if we find it great and if not, no worries So subscribe to so true on Spotify Apple podcasts pocket casts or wherever you get your podcasts and watch video episodes on the so true with Caleb Heron YouTube channel new episodes drop every Thursday. Love you episodes drop every Thursday. Love ya. Hey, it's Nicole Byer here. Let me ask you something. Are you tired of endless swiping on dating apps?

Fed up with awkward first dates and disappointing hookups? Girl, same. Welcome to Why Won't You Date Me? The podcast where I figure out love and how to suck less at dating. Each week I get real with comedians, friends, and celebrities about their love lives. We swap dating horror stories, awkward hookups, and dive into the messy and wonderful world of relationships. I've chatted with amazing guests like Conan O'Brien, Whitney Cummings, Sarah Silverman,

Trixie Mattel, Tiffany Haddish, and so many more. So whether you're single, mingling, or boot up, there's something in it for everyone. Tune into Why Won't You Date Me With Me, Nicole Byer and discover insights that might just save you from your next dating disaster. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And catch full video episodes on YouTube. New episodes drop every Friday.