Get Played - Games of 2024: A Look Ahead

Episode Date: January 8, 2024

Matt and Nick are back in the studio to look ahead at the games releasing in 2024! They discuss Hades 2, Star Wars: Outlaws, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and more. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod.Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com. Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com. Check out our Anime watchalong podcast Get Anime'd and our complete Get Played, How Did This Get Played? and Premium DLC back catalogue only on 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.

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which we recorded way back in November of 2023. Wow, what a different time. I wanted to update you on a few changes you may have noticed around these parts. First up, we have new show art. That is from Duck Brigade Design at Duck Brigade Design on social media or duckbrigade.com. A new show art for Get Animated and Get Played. You probably saw that as your podcast tile or saw it on social media,

but thanks to Gabe and Andrea over there. We're very, very happy with it. Also, we have a new theme song that is from Ben Prunty, one of my favorite working video game composers from FTL, Subnautica Below Zero, Into the Breach. You've heard his work in those games, and now you can hear it on our podcast. We really love it. BenPruntyMusic.com, and that link will also be in our show notes. And one more thing. We now have our back catalog. All of our episodes previous to our new alliance with HeadGum are available on our Patreon. So that includes How Did This Get Played? That includes our premium DLC, which was formerly paywalled as part of Stitcher Premium, Rest in Power. You can get all that now at patreon.com

slash getplayed. In fact, that's the only place to get it. And so we have a Get Animated there. That's our animated watch-along show. We also have the Get Played Back catalog. You can get that as a standalone or you can get that as a bundle with Get Animated. So check all that out. Anyway, thanks again to Andrea and Gabe at Duck Brigade Design. Thanks again to Ben Prunty, benpruntymusic.com. We're just thrilled with all this new stuff that's just adding a fresh coat of paint to this dusty old show. Anyway, enjoy this week's episode and maybe get ready to get played. Hey, everyone. Before we start the show, we just wanted to make an announcement because we talked about a bunch of games that are coming out in 2024. And then we got some news afterwards and wanted to add this.

Yeah, yeah. So just to peek behind the curtain a little bit is that we record the episodes first and then afterwards we record the intros. But in that time, we got this massive announcement that actually no new games are coming out this year. Yeah, there's no new games coming out in 2024, so don't bother putting in any pre-orders at GameStop. More games for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't go to your local game stores and actually don't even look this up.

It's like, you can just trust us. We're two vetted, you know, sources that there are no games coming out. There are no games. So don't even try to go pre-order the cool games that are coming out, and then I can get all the games that I want. Yeah, don't open up the Steam store and try to look for new releases that are coming out in 2024 and add them to your shopping cart, because then I can buy them all for me.

Yeah, and then also, oh, God. Nick, I'm seeing something else crazy on the computer here. No more gaming hardware coming out either. Oh, I heard this too. The new consoles and like, this is Dan Rather. No new gaming hardware is coming out either. Okay, so that was live. The urgent news alert that just came in.

That was live on the news right now. We turned the TV on for one second. They happened to be talking about it. But like, so if you think about like trying to pre-order something, because you might see something that's fake, that's actually trying to steal your identity. The OLED, you know, Steam Deck they've been talking about. Like, yeah, don't bother getting one of those.

So I can keep it for myself. Yeah, yeah. Don't try. I know that everyone's been talking about there's going to be a Switch 2. New Switch, yeah, Switch 2. Don't even try to pre-order it because then I can have it and then I'll have it first. There'd just be for me and Matt. We'll get all the games. All the games for us. Just the goodest guys.

If we're the only two who can get the games, then we get to have all the games to ourselves. That's right. And even though they're digital, there's only so many. We don't understand how the economy works. We think that downloads are limited. All the games for us all the time because we deserve it. And actually, you know what? If you're listening this far, you're actually really bad. And you don't deserve any of the games.

You're bad for listening this far. So even if the games do come out, you shouldn't get them. And your punishment is that you can't preorder it. And then there's more for us. But yeah, so it's a real bummer. It's a real sad news, but that's the reality. And hey, you got lots of stuff that you can play in your backlog. You can't play that either.

No, you gotta send those to us. We preview a bunch of new games we won't have time to play because there are too many new games as we look ahead at the 2024 release calendar this week on Get Played. Wow, it's Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to Get Played. I'm Nick Weiger, along with Matt Apodaca.

Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Get Played. Matt, we are recording this a bit in advance, but we're looking ahead to 2024. We can tell the future now, Nick. Can we? I don't know. We're looking into the future. I guess we can't really do anything about it, can we? We can see what's going on. We can see what's coming out. But ultimately, we have no impact on those realities, you know? Well, this is the thing. Like, if you could see the future, do you actually have the power to change it? I mean, this is a thing that's probably been explored a bunch of different ways with any sort of a soothsaying ability is like, or, or, or is the future fated to become that way? And that's why you can see it as it's, as it's, uh, it's, it's certain to be.

I, I, I sort of feel that if I could see the future and see how it, how something could come out. Yeah. I don't think I'd, I don't know if I could change anything. Yeah. I don't know if I have the power or the strength to do something like that. I think I'd just be too lazy. Yeah.

Change this shit. Imagine I see it and I'm like in the most comfortable place I've ever been. Yeah. I'm not doing jack shit. Exactly. Yeah. What are we doing here? Um,

I'm very excited about something right now that I have to simply call out. Yes. First of all, we're being recorded by Emma. That's right. Doughboys producer Emma Urbrink is filling in today. Hi, Emma. Great to have you here. Hello.

I'm happy to be here. So, Jemmy the dog was on the other side of the room just a little bit ago. That's right. And now she's actually closer to my side. Jemmy has become a beautiful dog. What kind of dog is she? I know she's a rescue. We're not totally sure.

We think there's definitely some Beagle in there and a little Jack Russell. We think maybe a little Whippet. She is cute as a button, and she has become a recent fixture of Doughboy's records in studio. And because you're here today, Jemmy is here, and it's a light. We've not done a dog in studio record before never once in the 200 and some odd episodes has there been a dog in the in well on heather's end yeah there have been there's been a dog that's true but never not in studio never in studio so this is very exciting and i was kind of of worried that while it is happening right now as we speak,

Jimmy is going back to the other side and is somehow favoring Nick. She's very tentative. She still doesn't like me, even though I feel like I know her pretty well, but I think she just sort of gets my energy, right? Sure. Yeah, Jimmy's very quiet and very chill. Yeah, she knows

how to take care of you. Get up here, Jimmy. Come here. Good girl. Come on. Are you going to talk about my favorite game, catch? Jimmy. Not that kind of game, she is. Yeah, our guest is Jimmy, and today we're going to be talking about catch. So the thing about catch is you can do it with sort of any ball.

Right, right. Sometimes a fun thing to do when you're playing catch is to fake like you're throwing the ball, like do a really vigorous motion. I'll tell you who does not like that. Jemmy. Or any of the dogs. It is a cruelty only known to man. That's so cute.

Yeah. You're being very good, Jemmy. She's a sweetie. We love having you here. And Emma, we love having you here as well. Oh, happy to be here. What a treat. So, Jimmy. We love having you here. And Emma, we love having you here as well. What a treat. So, yeah, we're going to be, I mean, I guess just generally, how are you feeling about 2024 from a gaming standpoint? Because we're coming off of a banger year, 2023.

A lot of great games. Maybe an all-timer year. I don't know if it's quite in that tier. It's kind of tough because, like, I don't, i can't think about the years that i've gamed that were better than others because it's done so far in the past now but like in the last since we've been doing this show yes 2023 was absolutely one of the best years in gaming like that since we've started at least right we were also like yeah and we we've obviously weathered a couple of you know weathered a couple pandemic years which affected uh the releases of those years but in subsequent

years as such and i you know 2022 but i think especially 2023 i think benefited from those backlog of games that were in development you know finally being able to get a proper release because yeah it was just a deluge it was honestly too much that was the big issue with 2023 too much 2024 you know could be could be a dud or maybe due for a dud but yeah maybe the stinker year maybe just a just a straight up bad year yeah just everything sucks there's nothing worth playing if it's a stinker year you know who's gonna be excited about it the critic The critic loves to say it stinks. Now, I don't know if he's ever reviewed any video games, but I think probably just generally any sort of media that displeases him, he will deem it as stinking. Do you think he has the same stance as like a Roger Ebert that video games can never achieve?

Art. That's a good question. I mean, I think probably being written as something of a Siskel and Ebert sort of analog I bet you have the same sort of condescension towards a condescension towards a nation to art form You know certainly the era when the critic was airing but these days I don't know I feel like even even I've said this before I feel like Ebert would have come around Yeah, he would have had to see something like like The Last of Us or you know The Last of Us 2 or any honestly like any last of us left behind uh the last of us part one that remake yeah yeah anything like that if you would have seen anything like that he would have been like i'm so sorry

gamers no i actually think it's it's maybe more on the the indie side like things that aren't like because i think a lot of times it was like stuff that was attempting to be cinematic was stuff that would be more sneered at but then looking at something that's a little bit more you know artful or that uses uh uh gaming the medium as a like like like takes advantage of of what's uh what's present there what's innate to that art form. I think something like Journey, which is a game that Heather doesn't like, but she's not here. We can talk about stuff Heather doesn't like.

We can talk about Journey because Heather's not here. But I feel like that's the kind of game that you can get someone on board with like, oh, okay, this is kind of a different sort of experience that you can't have in a non-interactive way. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's interesting. Versus gameplay broken up by cut scenes. sort of experience that you can't have in a non-interactive way. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's interesting. I think.

Versus gameplay broken up by cut scenes and they're just going to say, this isn't a movie. I think because he liked anime, Roger Ebert would eventually like video games. I think he'd get there. 100%. We can only speculate. Yeah. May he rest. R.I.P.

I loved Ebert. I loved watching those two bitches argue. It's so funny. I will still put those on. Like, I was watching, I'll just put on a YouTube compilation of, like, Siskel and Ebert going at it. Yeah, it's hilarious. And you watch one of them sometimes, and they're just, like, both super cranky. And you're just watching it feeling like, I bet they didn't have lunch before they shot the episode that's all this was you and you knew it

was going to be a good one when you they looked like either one of them could slap the other one but now we actually know we don't joke about slapping anymore no that's no that's we can't absolutely not we can't no comedy was changed forever. I don't even know if we can joke, period. Comedy might be over. And that actually is really good for us. You know, my New Year's resolution is to cut back on sugar and add more protein to my diet and stay on track with my fitness goals. And Magic Spoon makes that easier and more delicious than ever. Growing up, cereal is one of the best parts of being a kid. But as I got older, I had to watch out for sugar and empty carbs. And boy, let me

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All right, now that we're done referencing two Oscars ago, let's look ahead to the future. But first, actually, I do want to take a pause and think about this year that is just ending, 2023, as we ask, what are you playing? Yeah. Yeah. So I thought the way we could handle this, Matt, is we're going to, because we're recording this in advance, I thought we could discuss a 2023 game we wanted to play but didn't get around to. So if you want to think on that for a second I have some ideas of my own

but also Emma I wanted to include you because I know that you are someone who I don't know how much of a gamer you are but I do know you played the shit out of Breath of the Wild and you have been playing Tears of the Kingdom yes? Yeah that's actually the only game I've been playing is Tears of the Kingdom but it's huge I mean I started it when

it came out and then I took a break for a while because it was a little overwhelming and I was moving and now I'm kind of back into it. But it's still very overwhelming. It's such a huge game. Like, I haven't even touched the depths. I'm, like, scared to go down there. It is pretty scary. Yeah.

I actually was exploring. I was showing it to Mike the other day, and I was, like, explored more in that moment than I had before, and I was realizing it was because someone was sitting there with me. I wasn't like by myself in the dark or something. Jemmy snuggles with me a lot while I play video games too which is helpful. Wow, that's cute. But that's kind of all I've been playing. I think I could play it for years. Right, that's the sort of

like your, my understanding is like with Breath of the Wild you just like hunkered down with that and just played the shit out of it and the same sort of process. Do you like all the building stuff that's been added? I like the building is fun. I like just like being able to run around and like choose like some days i'm like i'm not gonna fight anything i'm just gonna like forage for mushrooms and like run around and like look at pretty things and then sometimes i'm like i'm gonna go kill a bunch of stuff and yeah i like being able to choose that i'm not sacrificing

the like actual game too much by doing that in a way um but yeah the building in this one's kind of fun that's new yeah it's confusing a little bit but i'm getting there do you like do you care about like chasing the or you know following the story too much or are you just like getting in there and sort of like hanging out and like vibing i follow the story i follow like like the side quests are fun because it's kind of of a lot of them are fairly self-contained. Yeah. And you can like start and end.

The main story I tend to get off track and then I like find myself back around at things where I'm like oh I was definitely supposed to encounter this much earlier than I did

because it's like way easier than I thought it was going to be or something like that. You know what I mean? But yeah. No I follow the story. I have I'm almost through the

I have one more like regional thing. Okay. Oh, okay. Tears of the kingdom. So my reason I ask is because I recently heard, um, my friend's wife playing this game in a way that I've never heard anybody play this game before. And they basically 100% in every single aspect of the game. Whoa.

And then got to the final boss and was like, I'm good, and turned it off. Yes. Wait, what? Just, like, did not care to finish the, like, to defeat Ganon at all. Was like, I'm good. I think I'm done with this. We maybe talked about this specifically on the pod before. Yeah.

But I do, but, like, I do think there's an element of just, like, maybe not even realizing, like, what's going on there is like i don't want this experience to be over i don't want the finality of like this is done yeah you know but i but who knows i i i love the flex yeah i do like that 100 percenting everything in that game i like can't even i tried i 100 percented the shrines and breath of the wild and that took fucking forever and i had to cheat like i had to look them up at a certain point. I was like, there's three left. How the fuck am I supposed to find them?

Did you go after Korok seeds? I did. I don't remember how many of them I had. I don't care. That was too many. Yeah, I don't need that shit. That's the 100%ing thing that, like, blows my mind. Like, I don't even know how you do that.

No. So many. I fell off of, it sounds like you're further than I got when I kind of fell off of Tears of the Kingdom more just because I was like overwhelmed by all the stuff to play and like yeah and also the game it's just kind of daunting in its scope but you finished it

I finished it and I like now can't tell you like a single thing about it like it left my mind completely like I remember like you know the things that we're talking about, the depths and the building and the powers ascending. I remember that kind of stuff.

But if I got back in there, I would be worthless. I haven't played it since I finished it. I feel like that's kind of the weirdness of it being the same map as Breath of the Wild 2. I thought I had been to Karako Village or whatever it's called. Last night I got there and I hadn't been there yet in this game and I was just remembering it from the other game.

So I kind of conflate the memories. So I'll be like, oh I did that thing, I've been here before, but I actually haven't. So there's new stuff to find. I would say it was one of my games of the year. And it's gone from my brain now. I guess I could play it was one of my games of the year. And it's gone from my brain now. I guess I could play it again. You know what I liked is that Addison guy.

The guy supporting the president. You would. He's my guy. With all the signs. That simp. I'm going around doing that for Biden. Happy... I'm going around doing that for Biden. Happy 81st birthday to the goat. Man, he's up there.

All right. Old bitch. I thought I'd... Look, you're not saying anything about his competency for office. I'm just saying he's old. I would say he's an old bitch. I thought he was the greatest guy ever. He's an old ass bitch. He's old as shit.

You know what? I hope he gets a big scoop of ice cream for his little dessert. He loves it. I'd be right there with him having a cone. I love ice cream. Yeah, I also love ice cream. What a treat. Matt, a couple of games that I wanted to get to in 2023.

And it actually ties in with something that's coming out in 2024. But the Yakuza franchise, which has been rebranded like a dragon. There were a couple games, a couple of spinoff games that came out in 2023 that I didn't get time to spend time with either of them, even though even though they were both on Game Pass. spend time with either of them, even though they were both on Game Pass. Like a Dragon Isshin and Like a Dragon Gaiden, the man who erased his name. One is set in kind of a feudal Japan setting. It is like a samurai game, and that's Like a Dragon Isshin. And it looks really cool, and it also looks like it had all the charm of the Yakuza franchise that I really like from Yakuza 0. And plus, you know, this historical setting, which is just like a really interesting context for it.

And the other one is, you know, Stars Kiryu. And that one came out more recently. But like that, like I love that character. He's like the best. But yeah, I just didn't have time for either of those. And hopefully in the new year, I'll be able to budget some time to explore some more of the Yakuza franchise. But I do feel like part of this exercise should be us saying, will we ever get around to this? And if I'm being honest with myself, no, I will never get around to playing these two games that look like they really that really interest me but I would like to yes yeah um I think for me I'll probably be delusional

and say I probably I'll get to all of these and there's just absolutely no way there's no like there's like there's because I'm thinking of games uh not just games I didn't get to touch but games I started and didn't finish. Yeah, well, what would you, if you were going to zero in on one or two things, what would it be for 2023? You know, I mean, as far as games that I didn't finish, I would love to get back in there and finish off Baldur's Gate 3, you know,

and Armored Core 6, probably my two big ones of the ones that I played this year. But as of ones that I've missed, I heard a lot about Lies of P. People love Lies of P. And crazy Pinocchio game, Pinocchio Souls-like. Pinocchio Souls-like. And I think I would have liked to get in there, I think.

But it's too late for me. And that's one that I feel pretty confident that there's just no way. There's just no way I'm going to get to it. Yeah. Because, like, that type of game occupies such a very specific, like, I think I was looking at this the other day. You know, my most played game on PlayStation is still Elden Ring by, like, 100 hours. That rocks. Like, the next thing down is thing down is 70 hours or something.

I put almost 200 hours into Elden Ring. I don't think I can do that again. I don't think Liza P is as chunky as Elden Ring, but that was a big one. A big, big one to me. But you know, I didn't get

to play the Dead Space remake either and i was actually pretty interested in that for being a big coward it was supposed to be a great remake and i also didn't get to it i mean it's uh it's like like because we covered the resident evil 4 remake and we loved that but yeah it is kind of like just whatever you fight you you have attention for the other one that that came out um uh there was a system shock remake as well that we like bare maybe barely touched on yeah that was another one i wanted to play yeah and it's just like it's that's the other thing when you've got these now you got these high gloss high production value

remakes of like classic games it feels like a new game even if you've played it. So you kind of want to revisit it. If you haven't played it, it's like, well, hell, now's the reason for me to finally play this thing. I replayed, we replayed The Last of Us this year. Yes, yeah.

They remade it and we played it again. Was that this, was that in 2023? That was this year, yeah. Wow. Yeah. But those are two big...

The Last of Us Part 1 came out in 2023? Yeah, The Last of Us Part 1 came out in 2023 Yeah The Last of Us Jesus Christ Yeah it came out In 2022 you're right But at the end of the year We covered it in 2023?

No we covered it the month it came out We covered it last year But We talked about this a little bit a couple weeks ago Yeah Marvel's Midnight Suns Is one I do feel like I will get to

I was pretty interested In that And that was like A 2022 release Yes But I feel I feel like all the stuff I heard about it though

Was 2023 Does that make sense Like No I got you I feel like a lot of people The conversation about Marvel's Midnight Suns Really began in 2023

It came out At the tail end of the year Yeahst a deluge of releases and kind of got buried and then when people got around to it the next year they were like ah check this game out yeah yeah uh but here's my thing with lies of p first off anytime because i haven't played all the souls games bloodborne is a notable blind spot for me i'm'm like, if I am going to commit to playing that kind of game, why don't I just play blood born? So that's my first block for that. Yes. A hundred percent.

Yeah. Um, and then my other issue is, uh, lies of P we should be talking about lies of T Trump. We'll be right back. All right, we're back.

Nick looked into a camera with a fucking lens cap on it. Absolute psycho shit. I'm going to call Mick. We got to lock our boy up. That was crazy. I don't think you can do the joyless, like I just give you some, the Daily Show,

like I've got a serious bit of, of like truth. I just dropped, throw it a commercial without looking at a camera, look at a camera, look at a camera, even if it's off. Uh, my thing about lies of pee is that it makes me think of pissing the bed. Hmm. You pee the bed and pee. Yeah.

Oh, I thought you were going to say that you pee in the bed and then you lie about it. It's like, Oh, I don't know what happened. I guess it was really over me in the bed. So some freak came in here and pissed all over me. And it also makes you think of the rental song, Friends of Pee. Oh, that's fun. Yeah. So that's actually not bad.

I like that. And we'll be right back. Yeah. Hey, everyone. You know, you want to eat healthy, you want to eat well, but you don't want it to be a pain to prepare. Well, let me tell you, eating better is easy with Factor's delicious ready-to-eat meals. Every fresh, never-frozen meal is chef-crafted,

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is dietitian-approved to be nutritious and delicious. What are you waiting for? Head to factormeals.com slash getplayed50 and use code getplayed50 to get 50% off. That's code getplayed50 at factormeals.com slash getplayed50 to get 50% off. DrMeals.com slash getplayed50 to get 50% off. All right, we're back. Let's talk about 2024. I think a good baseline here, Matt, is the Game Awards 2023 nominees for most anticipated game. Because we can just look at these and start here and and maybe

take the conversation there but here they are here are the nominees and as of this episode's release I'm sure a winner will have been crowned also what a weird award yeah the game awards in general are chaos but like this just like hammers home what an exercise in marketing it

is it's just like hey let's name what game we're most excited for that isn't even out yet. Yeah. And we have no frame of reference for really for some of these, too. Well, I think for the largely like entries in maybe entirely entries in existing franchises. So it's just kind of like, OK, here are these ones. Let's here's here's the next one of these. So naturally, people are going to be hyped for it here. Here they are.

Most anticipated game nominees, Final Fantasy seven rebirth, Hades two, like a dragon, infinite wealth, Star Wars outlaws and Tekken eight. There's no way. I mean, gosh, when did Tekken seven come out though? Tekken seven. I have no sense of the Tekken franchise. I haven't played a Tekken avidly since Tekken three come out though. Tekken 7. I have no sense of the Tekken franchise. I haven't played a Tekken avidly since Tekken 3 on PlayStation 1.

I know that in me saying this, people are going to say that I'm wrong and try to come for me on this. Nobody, I don't think anybody likes Tekken this much. I think there are some, I mean, I will come for you because I think that's insane. I think there are some huge Tekken fans. And my understanding is the tekken series is has been quite good it's just like it's just not for me no i'm gonna play a fighting game i'm gonna play something else and i don't play fighting games really i the tekken 7 came out in 2015 so i guess this is anticipated because it's been it will have been nine years since the previous entry there hasn't been a tekken in a long time uh which is cool i'm happy for the the tekken fans and actually

i didn't even i didn't even say that yeah i didn't even say that nobody likes tekken you made that up it's in the episode but i don't even know how it got there i think uh i thought that's why i'm messing with the wires over there got Got it. I think something happened. Yeah. I think Jemmy said it. People are dousing their pitchforks. They're putting their pitchforks away and dousing their torches, so they're fine. Thanks for taking the heat out of me, Jemmy.

But yeah, I guess of this list, I'll tell you that I'm probably most personally excited for Hades 2 on this list, but I don't I'm very curious about I know that Star Wars Outlaws is like a bounty hunter game which is kind of more exciting to me

than a Jedi game because it feels like there's more to do there or more more to do that we haven't done in a Star Wars video game before

right because my big thing my big thing about Star Wars is that we see Jedi stuff all the time. Yes. We could be seeing any other stuff. It's a rich world with a bunch of crazy stuff going on all the time. We don't have to see this one Jedi family or like even the Jedi at all. Sure. We could just,

that's why the Mandalorian works so well until they start bringing Jedi stuff into it because then you're like, okay, now it's tied to this stuff. I already know. Now it's just the Luke Skywalker deep fake show. Exactly. And that's just like,

it's his own kind of exhausting. So I don't like, Oh, enjoy the Mandalorian. Yeah. I don't get me wrong. Yeah. That wasn't a criticism.

It's, it's, it's more of. It's more that I'm used to that. I've seen that a lot. This is interesting to me because we don't really get to do that in a Star Wars video game that often, which I'm excited about. I would be more excited about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

had I finished VII Remake, which I would like to do still. I did finish 7 Remake, and I am definitely excited for Rebirth. I mean, I think that was just a perfectly done remake. Because it's not a remaster as the the you know the dead spaces that we talked about earlier are where it's just like this is the same game but everything it looks and plays like a contemporary game it's like it's a whole new game that has a lot of the story beats from the first but even those are kind of like rearranged and some details are changed and the characters are there but they're all a little different and the gameplay

is completely different from the turn based battling of the original game. And it's just like it's but also like it's such a richly realized world that actually feels populated, which was a big part of what I liked about the game. And what didn't work for me with Cyberpunk initially is like it didn't feel like this was an actual actual living world there. It feels like like, oh, man, they actually made this feel inhabited. Like this is a larger society where people, you know, work in love and so forth. Can I ask you something? And will you be honest with me, please? Do I have to play the original one to like?

No, you don't. You don't have to play Final Fantasy 7. But I think there are probably I think you maybe should play Final Fantasy VII just because it's a great game. I think there's probably ways around some of the tedium. I don't know if they've done a... There hasn't been a re-release that lets you toggle off random encounters or so forth, I don't think. No. But I think it's good enough where it's worth playing and okay those those quirks of the uh old school jrpg you can just sort of power through

because i've started it a few times on a few different systems yeah and have been like i kind of just want to play the new one because the new one is this is the other thing just play the just play the remake okay i'm saying like if you. I'm saying, certainly there's no prerequisite to play the original. I think you probably would enjoy it, knowing your tastes and knowing that you're open to playing older games. But also, I would not let that stop you from reengaging with Final Fantasy VII Remake or with Rebirth. Or with Rebirth. I want to go back to Star Wars Outlaws for a second. Because the one thing that concerns me about Star Wars Outlaws is that it's from Ubisoft.

Yes. And I feel like they exactly do the kind of bloated open world game that I kind of am exhausted by. Now, maybe this won't be that. Maybe. But I just kind of feel like I'm just to me that's a red flag to me that's just like is this going to be just Assassin's Creed Star Wars is this going to have that kind of yeah I I'm concerned about it being a service game because like I feel like some releases in the last couple years have been sneaky service games that I'm not super stoked about like you know last year last year when we did this like similar premise of an episode yeah i said that suicide squad killed the justice league was one of my more anticipated games of the year it got delayed

twice yes since then and we can we can talk about it today because it's a 2024 release at this point. Yeah, it's been pushed to this year, 2024, or the year of 2024. And the stuff that they showed of it, it's like a live service game. It's a shooter. It's a third-person shooter game. And that's not fun or interesting to me. But do you mean it's monetized like a game as a service is that we're saying okay so there's like loot and stuff and it's like they it's a total miscalculation of what people want from that franchise I think I think people want the that sort

of like Batman combat like that that you know they're all the individual characters they could all have their own move sets but like every single one of them has a gun and there's like rarity of of loot and stuff right but to me that's different than like a game as a service where i'm thinking of like oh there's a bunch of you know uh monetization there's a bunch of stuff that you can buy in game like to me that i'm i'm just maybe this is a this is just a terminology thing but i'm just thinking of something different when you're saying that like like if it's a bunch of stuff you can buy in game like to me that I'm just maybe this is a this is just a terminology Thing but I'm just thinking of something different when you're saying that like I like if it's a looter shooter Yeah, that's its own that also like to me does not seem like a good use of the problem

But maybe that's what I mean then because it does it seems like like if you see I mean Some of these characters do have guns. Yeah is the thing but like if you're if you're fucking What's his name? King Shark or whatever. Uh-huh. You want to chomp some people. He doesn't have a gun? He has a gun.

I would think he would have a gun. Well. Wouldn't they all have guns? I don't know. These are bad guys, right? Harley Quinn would have hammer. Have big hammer. Hitting people with big hammer.

Or a bat, right? Or a bat. Oh. She can have a gun. Captain Boomerang has Boomerang. Does he have a gun? They give Captain Boomerang a gun? They give Captain Boomerang a gun. And it a gun Captain Boomerang Has boomerang Does he have a gun? They give Captain Boomerang A gun?

They give Captain Boomerang A gun And it doesn't shoot boomerangs Oh that one doesn't make any sense King Shark should be chomping Is what I'm saying At minimum His

Captain Boomerang's gun Should be like Quick man And should shoot out boomerangs Yeah That's good I like that But

I'm not I like It went from my most anticipated To I could give two shits about it And probably won't play it I'm not, I like, it went from my most anticipated to, I could give two shits about it and probably won't play it. I'm like not interested at all anymore. Wow. Uh, you mentioned Hades 2.

That's right. Hades 2 is going into early access, I think in 2024. I mean, I know I did not play Hades 1 in early access at all. It was in early access for a long time. It's a big part of why it was such a refined game when it finally released. I don't know if I'm going to be curious about Hades 2 to dip in with early access. I mean,

the honest truth is I probably will. But there's also a part of me that's like, maybe I don't need to do that, and maybe I can just wait until this game is actually out. Because honestly, Baldur's Gate 3 was in early access for a very long time for a prolonged period of time and to me my experience benefited from waiting until that was actually

released uh you know as a finished retail game I mean finished quote-unquote obviously had a lot of uh bugs and things that were updated uh in the subsequent months since release but but like I I kind of wonder if I'm going to take the same approach toward Hades 2. I'll probably get it in early access and mess around with it just a little bit, but man, how much did you love Hades 1? What a game. What a... As the kids say, what an absolute

unit. I don't think they say it like that, but... Yeah, I don't think kids say that at all. What? It's like... Yeah, they do. Absolute unit is like a... But that's like a big guy, right? Yeah, it's a big guy of a game. It's good.

Hades is an absolute unit? Yeah. It's not a huge game, I guess. Yeah. But it's huge. Maybe like Sisyphus within Hades is an absolute unit. Or Hades himself is kind of an absolute unit. Cerberus is an absolute unit. Yeah, Cerberus is a big boy, yeah. Okay. Hades is an absolute unit, or Hades himself is kind of an absolute unit. Cerberus is an absolute unit.

Yeah, Cerberus is a big boy, yeah. Okay. Hades is an absolute unit. He's big. I'm glad that two of us over 30 guys just figured out how to use slang from five years ago. Okay. Cool that you looped yourself in with me. But I'm pretty excited for Hades 2.

I'm not a big... I don't really get in there in early access, but I feel like I will with this. Yeah. Because if the floor is Hades 1, I think it's going to be fine. If the minimum they're working with is Hades 1... Let me tell you, if it's just more Hades, I'll take all that that you got. I think that's fine We just got some new boons and some different gods like right. Oh, whatever. I'll play this shit forever because we might be what we might be seeing here is

Better call Saul the TV show. Mm-hmm starts with The quality of the final seasons of Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad, Rocky Star, becomes one of the great two. I like all of it. I love all of it.

It's like maybe my favorite show. Like I love it. Kind of has a Rocky finish too, I think, and so are Minerals. What? We'll be right back. It has a, it's a,

it's a tonally sort of different thing though like it becomes like what we know Breaking Bad in the later seasons right sure and Better Call Saul starts with that level of quality

Nick just cracked a cold one you didn't have to call attention to it I think everybody heard it was that in the audio? it probably was a little bit you could probably remove it yeah

no one no one will know I opened a cell phone nobody will even hear this. Now everybody knows. So what I'm saying is Hades 2 is going

to be like Better Call Saul, wherein it's going to start with the quality of the end of the previous thing, which is the finished Hades.

They've iterated upon it and refined it to the point where they have that as their baseline and they can go even further. There's no way it's worse. The thing is, Hades 1 is already one of the most polished games I've ever played. You cannot believe how finished this is.

This is just loaded with content. My entire experience was bug-free and then just like yeah just the amount of different um uh variations that exist for like dialogue like that you just go through so many times and talk to so many npcs and never hear the same thing twice it's like it's it's really staggering do you think it's too late for us to do an episode about Hades? Not today, but at some point? I mean, maybe it could be today. I don't think this is

the most solid premise. No, no, no. We should do this. We should definitely just... People like podcasts that are lists. People love that. That's good. That's what they sign up for. I think for sure we should revisit Hades at some point.

I'd love to. As a talking point, because I think it's, as much as we've talked about it on several episodes of this show, there's no way we've talked about all of it. Yeah, we haven't dedicated a full episode to it, and there's just,

there's so much, so much depth, and like, again, I'm repeating myself, but just content. There's just like so much going on in this fucking game. In this most anticipated category for the Game Awards, I just I'm repeating myself, but just content. There's just like so much going on in this fucking game. In this most anticipated category for the Game Awards, I said this before.

I'll say it again. Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth is one of the best titles of anything I've ever heard. It's a fantastic title. And if my, you know, like I haven't read as much about this game. I'm trying to like, you know, not because I am planning to play this one. I haven't gotten as into the Yakuza franchise as I expected after I played the shit out of Yakuza 0 and just loved every second of it. Yeah, but it's it's I'm hoping it has some of the same sort of elements from the subtitle that are in Yakuza 0, which so much was about the bubble economy of Japan and so much of the gameplay involved just acquisition of obscene wealth.

It sort of seems like that's what we're headed towards, that maybe they're trying to cash in on that same, or cash in, but maybe they're trying to exploit that same sort of structure. But I don't know. But yeah, it's coming out in January. So it's like, you don't even get a second to breathe. Like they're hitting you with Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, and like the first month

of the year. And this is what I say to games coming out in January. Yeah. You couldn't have come out before Christmas so I can get it for Christmas? But here's the thing, Matt. Then you get too many presents. No such thing, baby. I like games not coming out at the holiday season.

Yeah. I think that's like, I like games being released all year round. That's great. Let me pace out my playthroughs a little bit more. Now, do you think Santa makes the games? I think he kind of oversees the making of the games. But if you're talking about who's actually like, you know. Getting in there. Yeah, opening actually, like, you know... Getting in there.

Yeah, opening up Unity and, you know... Paying every time they have to use it. Yeah, exactly. I think those are the elves. It's a... Yeah, I mean, like, look, I think this game... It just, it looks like it's for me. And, you know, I didn't play the um so the the this this

mixes uh kiryu who's a one of the protagonists of of yakuza zero uh and uh ichiban who is the protagonist of the uh most recent canonical uh yakuza game and so they're both in this and i didn't play um what the hell was that yakuza called was that they're both in this and I didn't play What the hell was that Yakuza called was that one just called like a dragon yes, it was yeah It was this is this is the confusion Yakuza like a dragon is the one that came out with a new protagonist and It also had a completely different combat system which was like more JRPG style turn based.

And that's just they've taken that they take that that gameplay and then also the subtitle like a dragon and just made it the title of the franchise. So it's like the main character from that game plus Kiryu and it's set in Hawaii. I don't know. It just looks like a blast. It looks like exactly like the kind of thing for me. So I'm going to try to budget time for that one. I wish I could think to do that because we loved Yakuza 0 when we covered it on the show. I loved playing that. I wish I had a thing where I could stop time and only play the Yakuza games and just play

through all of those because I loved that. But not all of them are particularly long, but I can't do that for the entire series, I think. I definitely have looked at the list of all the games in the franchise and looked up all their various lengths on how long to beat and had a game plan for going through them and still i just still haven't done that but i like planning

about i like planning to play all these games yeah uh well i i hope you get to it because it does seem like it's the series seems like it's like really taking off in a really fun way like everybody really likes the the more recent entries um you mentioned stop in time well that's a thing i think the prince of persia might be up to because if we're looking ahead beyond this these these uh selected uh the selected quintet of the most anticipated game nominees to the 2024 calendar at large. That's one for me Prince of Persia the lost crown coming out on January 18th this one is It's got I mean like you love this franchise you hide for this one. I'm hyped to shit dog Even though it's different than the Prince of Persia's that I've played

Yeah, cuz I've only played the 3d Prince of Persia's, the Sands of Time, Warrior Within, the Two Thrones. Yeah. This one has 2D gameplay. Yes. But it looks, the art direction is awesome. And it looks, I don't know. I mean, I love this kind of game.

This sort of, you know, I assume it plays like a Metroidvania. Yes. But it's, this looks very much for me. And also, this does harken back like you were saying to the original Prince of Persia games the Jordan Mechner games way back in the day people have maybe wanted something like this I think maybe

me I would have gone the other way and just done another 3D Prince of Persia game and certainly probably would have tried to finish the remake that is probably never coming out again. Man, I just found out too

that the Knights of the Old Republic remake is dead as well. That was probably one that I was going to be excited about. And now it's not even coming out anymore. And I guess that just happens. So I'm guessing that I think that's going to happen with this. It's amazing that any game ever comes out, honestly.

There's so many, just like the world is stacked against something actually being completed and released. 100%. I'm worried that the Prince of Persia remake will suffer the same fate. But with this, at least this is for sure going to come out and will be a different, you know, iteration of the prince and maybe scratch that itch for me. Who is this new prince? Do we know who this guy is? Do we know who this guy is? Matt.

That's what I think. You don't actually think that. No, I don't think it's the Purple King. Anything else in January for you? I mean, I think we hit the big ones. It's like a dragon. Yeah, January's looking a little slight. Tekken 8, we talked about.

Prince of Persia. It's looking pretty fucking stacked as far as I'm concerned. Two games I want to play and I'm just not in that green room. I'm thinking of January in terms of the entire year of 2023. But yeah, I guess moving on to February. You know, as these remaster packages go yeah i i could be interested in this tomb raider uh remastered starring laura croft one through three yeah a couple of remasters coming out there's the the tomb raider one through three and then there's also star wars dark forces and that one i'm intrigued in terms of what what

they're going to actually be doing uh because i played dark forces back in the day on pc uh and it was a uh you know it's it's a it's just a a star wars first person shooter shooter was very clearly, you know, just following off of the run of Doom-likes when that's all everyone wanted to make. That was the only format you would make. And it wasn't, like, great, but it was really cool that it was just a Star Wars game where you could run around with a blaster and shoot Gamma Ray and guards. I see Mon Mothma in that screenshot. Yeah, there's some Mothma in there. I can't remember if Mothman out in a screenshot yeah there's

some mothman in there I can't remember if mothman was in the original game or if this is something they're adding for the remaster I'm sure I'm sure she was but yeah it's a I wonder what exactly

they're going to do here and I wonder how extensive it is I guess I could just watch the fucking trailer I guess I could have done any prep at all for this. No, no, no.

This is our most prepped. I would be interested in that. I know that they've ported some other Star Wars games to Switch and other consoles. Your Jedi Knights and your Jedi Knights 2, for example. People really like those games, but I don't know how much. Well, night yeah began as dark forces 2 jim colin jedi night and then they cut that becomes its own franchise and then there's jedi night 2 but yeah your main guy turns in becomes a jedi in the sequel yeah that's pretty cool yeah um i just noticed that final fantasy 7 rebirth comes out on the leap day yeah slated for slated for february

29th i mean that'll be another one that it's just like here's the thing about this show because of the way we book it we have this we play you play where we play one game at length and talk about it every month uh as if you're if you're a long-time listener you know that we do this it's always kind of an awkward spot when something comes out at like the very end of the month because obviously we're not gonna have Time to do an episode for it in a timely fashion And then by the time we get to it at like the end of March it would have to be is that going to be? Too late, but I also feel kind of feel like with a game like that and especially I don't think we've done a final release even

Remake episode we might end up covering that we've only done my favorite Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XVI. But speaking of March, Nick, I don't know if there's anything else in February you want to talk about. I mean, again, you're completely out on it now, apparently, but Suicide Squad killed the Justice League in February. It's a skip for me unless I hear it's great. I just can't. Hopefully it will be. I want every game to be good. I want every game to be good I want every game to be good

I know this Mario vs. Donkey Kong is coming to Switch also that's pretty exciting for people that like that Persona 3 Reload is one where again I just

I didn't even fucking play Persona 4 Golden so what am I doing myself I didn't even finish 5 5 is awesome I finished the shit out of 5 and loved every second

okay game's a fucking masterpiece you don't have to yell at me I'm just saying I do think about it fondly shit out of five and loved every second. Okay. Game's a fucking masterpiece. You don't have to yell at me. I'm just saying. I do think about it fondly, and I wish I could continue. Who's to say I won't someday? Yeah, someday you'll have a spare 140 hours. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll get to it again with this magical time-stopping machine that I have. The dagger of time. with this magical time-stopping machine that I have. The dagger of time. So far, on the release schedule for March... We should mention we're looking at Polygon's list. That's what the two of us are using just as a shared point of reference here. Yeah, and it's the kind of thing where

what happens is that the first couple of months, everything is set, and then things substantially thin out from there because there's a lot of stuff that's just TBD 2024 and as of as of recording The Game Awards has not aired and I know that I'm for sure gonna guess that there will be Games announced with release dates on at the Game Awards I'm gonna say no you're gonna say there's gonna be no announcements You're gonna be the game not a single this is be no announcements of anything in the Game Awards. Not a single one?

This is going to be the one they're just going to focus on giving awards to the Steam games of the past year. There's not going to be any sort of marketing tie-ins. Nick, that's absolutely foolish, and I can't believe you would think something like that. Well, I'm going on the record and saying there is nothing new will be announced during the Game Awards. You know what? I'd love to be wrong. I don't need more. We don't need more games.

We're good. One that caught my eye that's currently slated for Switch for March 22nd, it's Princess Peach Showtime. Yeah, let's fucking go. Because Super Princess Peach, which was for the DS, was such a disappointment and was such a game where I was hoping that it would be like, oh, we get a cool, a proper Princess Peach game,

but it's really not. It's just kind of like a, I mean, the premise of it is honestly kind of shitty, which is, or the core thing, which is that Peach has all these different emotions and then you can like,

you can, you know, like make her angry, make her sad, make her happy, and then that affects the you can you know like like make her angry make her sad make her happy and then that affects the environment in whatever way she's gonna uh cry a bunch and then that'll like make a vine grow um but also just wasn't that good like just as a platformer and i love i love mascot platformers i always want to have fun with these games um but i'm hoping that this new princess peach game uh whatever it ends up being, you know, it certainly like is pretty aesthetically pleasing. But I hope this one actually plays well and actually does Princess Peach some justice because she's a great character.

Great character. I didn't even realize that there was another Princess Peach game. I was ready to be like, it's about time there's been a single Princess Peach game, but maybe it's about time there's a good one. Yeah, I don't know if there's that's the only one I can think of of i don't know if there was another one that came out at a certain point you could play all of super mario wonder as princess peach that's a great point matt thanks not me though i stuck with mario no yeah yeah you could do that i'm playing as mario his name's on the fucking box and then i'm looking at i'm looking at what else we got here, these other locks for March and April,

and these aren't doing anything for me. I'm sure there's going to be spaces filled in in these months. There will be stuff coming out in these months that is not announced. Yeah, I wonder, you know, look, I have some fondness for Braid. Obviously, it's a little bit up its own ass, but it is like a really cool, like, hey, we're talking about games as art that would impress impress uh the late roger ebert that's certainly a candidate so the braid anniversary edition depending on what additional content it

has i mean i think that's one that's coming with some commentary like kind of built into it and that's like that's just like an interesting and yeah i'm i like these sorts of I mean, they did that with. You know, the Atari anniversary collection is an example of like this game is basically presenting you a lot of history and context for everything that's within this game. And I think there's that that could I wonder if they'll have a similar approach here. But yeah, not a thing. I'm like sort of chomping at the bit to get it. I get my hands on right um but then i'm looking at these this list of games with no release date right and i'm scrolling down i remember seeing the preview for contra operation

galuga galaga it can't be galaga It's not how Galaga is spelled. No. It is Galuga. Is it Galuga, like an old-time car horn? Maybe. It's Contra starring Jay Leno. That looks like a more classic Contra experience than the one that we did on the show, and I would hope that it's good, because I loved the only Contra game that I've actually ever played is Contra 4 for the DS. And that is one of the hardest games I've ever played in my life, dude.

Yeah, the Contra games could be pretty punishing. I played them all back in the day for NES and Super NES. And I just have no faith in Konami to do this franchise justice. Hopefully it'll be good. good but yeah I don't know I mean I think the big one here is Elden Ring Shadow of the Earth Dread DLC yeah that's

again you were saying that you have more hours in Elden Ring than any other game by you know 100 hours how hyped are you for this it's mid no I'm are you for this? It's mid. No, I'm very excited for this. And to the point where I'm like, do I start a new game with a new character? So I'm like doing this.

By the time this comes out, I could either be done with it or be far enough in it where I can just join from wherever this starts. But I think I'd like to maybe just get back into Elden Ring and clean up house because I know there's a lot of stuff I didn't do. And I loved my build in my first playthrough. It's a game that I've intended to start again

because I loved it so, so much. Well, you can do that. Freaking when, dawg? But I do really love it, and I'm very excited for Shadow of the Earth Tree, just because I couldn't even speculate what it could be. I mean, I probably just will not get around to it, but it does sound... You never finished it, did you? I didn't finish Alden Ring. That's okay.

I want to. What about this Funko Fusion? Funko Fusion sounds like it's probably pretty good. Looking at the rest of the calendar, I mean, like, for me, you know, I think if Heather was here, she would talk about the Suikoden remasters. Yeah. You know, I just hope it turns out okay. I hope those deliver on the promise of the premise. But for me, I love the Telltale games, and the best of them was The Wolf Among Us, and The Wolf Among Us 2.

We'll see if it actually comes out in 2024, but that is one where if they really pull that off, I think that one will be a banger for that style of game and i honestly also wonder how much of it will be just like oh this is just a really aesthetically pleasing um uh you know hopefully with good storytelling uh you know storytelling up to the to its to its standards uh version of this formula on how much we'll be like we're gonna shake up uh what we do a little bit yeah i i'd be i never even played the wolf among us, but it's on my list. I have a game. I think I have it.

Um, I must own it. Yeah. There's a time where like those, all those games were like $2 or something and I got a bunch of them, but I, I would like, I would like to play that.

So that could be very excited for the second one. Cause everyone seems to really love it. Uh, yeah. If it's for you, it's very for you. And it's one of those games where it is for me. Uh, vampire, the masquerade bloodlines too. love it uh yeah if it's for you it's very for you and it's one of those games where it is for me uh

vampire the masquerade bloodlines 2 i work with some vampire the masquerade bloodlines 1 developers uh back in the day i mean that's a game that came out when i'm looking it up 2004 so you know it's this has been a long dormant franchise it's a um uh you know the it's a it's a different developer now i'm actually not sure if the if the developer i think i think the developer of of bloodlines one is folded yeah troika they folded um so it's so you know it's one of those things where it's kind of like a baldur's gate 3 where it's just like here's this big totemic rpg franchise it's in the hands of a new developer are they going to be able to do it justice? And I'm optimistic that they will.

But also I may be pessimistic that this one actually sees a 2024 release just because of how labor intensive it is to make a game of this sort of scope. So I see here the Paper Mario Thousand Year Door remake for Switch. Hell yeah. And I don't have,

the only Paper Mario games I've played are the one for the 3ds which i did not love the super the sticker star whatever it's called no that one sucks this this is the thing is that they they really lost the plot with the franchise after a thousand year door like for me like that's the that's the the last good one maybe i'm i'm too much of a of a purist maybe i'm too much of a fuddy-duddy, maybe there are some of these entries that follow that people have some bonus for, but for me, it's like Thousand-Year Door, it's like they perfected the formula, then for some reason they decided to muck it up with all these future

iterations. So I'm hoping the remake is just like, that's that game I love. And hopefully that it would steer them towards making some more proper Paper Mario's. And I played the Switch one and I didn't finish it, but I liked what I played of it, but I understand

that, yeah, it's not anywhere close to as good as A Thousand Year Door. I see this one, I don't know what it is. It's called Planet of Lana. And that's making me think, why isn't there a Planet of the Apes game? That's a home run to me.

I think we're about done here. Don't you think? Now we're like, hmm, this title of this game that I don't know what it is, is reminding me of a game I wish would exist for that point in the conversation. I wish there was a Planet of the Apes game in the style of like Shadow of Mordor or something where you can be these apes and then there's maybe other apes

that you fight or whatever. Have they never made a Planet of the Apes game? I don't know planet of the apes lost last frontier came out in 2018 i i have no memory of this game i didn't ever even yeah never even heard of that um not well received it looks bad so maybe i'm wrong but um no i mean you're not like you're not wrong that the planet of the apes franchise could be a cool game. Yeah. Or could lead to a cool game. I think it'd be fun.

You get to play as one of the apes? There was a Planet of the Apes game back in 2001 that was a tie-in. It was a Ubisoft game and it was a tie-in to the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes. Man. The Ape Lincoln one.

Ape Lincoln? Did you not see it? No. I mean, I just spoiled the ending it's ape lincoln the ending of the of planet of the apes uh so they didn't do the same ending no they were like well people already know that the twist ending of like it's our planet like they already know that so we got to subvert that way to come up with something different so what happens is that Mark Wahlberg's character, Mark Wahlberg, the hero of Planet of the Apes, crashes into the Lincoln Memorial.

He's like, oh, I'm back on Earth. I'm finally here. And then he looks up and it's Lincoln, but he's an ape. He's like, no. So what happened is that he like went to a different like reality. And then we came back to his Earth. He thought he was home. But now it's and then all apes show up

it's just like a bunch of fucking police apes show up and he's just like oh no I'm now I'm on my planet but it's all apes it doesn't really make any sense but what has happened now is that it's good that I said this it's good that you said that here's the thing I wasn't giving you a note

I was just saying that like we might be about out of gas Yeah we might be a little bit out of gas But I'm glad we got to Ape Lincoln Wow how did they ruin that? It's such I mean I guess if the premise is Like the twist is so known

Yeah Making it again doesn't work Like it doesn't make any sense But maybe just do it again Yeah I think just do it again And don't try to work backwards From like how do we really Fuck with people's heads

How do we come up with Like how Okay what's a new twist ending We could come up with Because that's just't try to work backwards from like, how do we really fuck with people's heads? How do we come up with a, like how, okay, what's a new twist ending we can come up with? Cause that's just not going to work. Ape Lincoln. Ape Lincoln. I got to Google it so I can see it.

Ape Lincoln. It fills in the rest of it for you. Planet of the Apes. It fills it in. If you type in Ape Lincoln. Yeah. It knows what you're looking for. Wow.

This is horrific. That's so funny. Because it looks like Lincoln, but it's just with an ape head. And they barely had to change any of it. That's so good. Okay, I'm glad we did that. But hopefully, if there are games coming out in the year 2024 that you're excited about, let us know in the comments'll maybe hopefully we'll check

them out uh everyone's just commenting about a planet of the apes game yeah i hope they make one i we can play as ape lincoln uh yeah i i think and i think the main thing is and this is always the thing with doing some sort of preview thing is some of these are going to be absolute debacles um as we've seen in the past, that just like some overhyped games are going to come out and they're going to overpromise, they're going to underdeliver for whatever reasons. Yeah. But then also, we're going to have a game, like again, one of my favorites, maybe my

favorite of 2023, Dave the Diver. There's going to be some game that just comes out of nowhere that's going to completely eat up everyone's, you know, mindshare and just going to be like, oh, this is the game that's driving the conversation. Vampire Survivor is the same sort of thing. No one was thinking about this game. No, right. I was like, holy shit, check this and this entirely new feeling thing that just came out of the indie space.

So that's honestly what I'm most hyped for is a game I don't know about yet that's going to come out and that I know I'm going to love because that's inevitable at some point this year. I'm hoping that the developers that listen to this show can just rally together and make the Planet of the Apes game

that I want. I know, yeah, that's like right, like, I'm sure there will be something that catches us by complete surprise like as there always is

but this also, you know, this might be a dud year. Maybe it should. It could be a dud year. There'll be a this might be a dud year. Maybe it should be a dud year. It could be a dud year. There'll be a gem even in a dud year. Oh, yeah.

A diamond in the rough. They could, another thing they could do is they could do a Planet of the Apes style telltale game. And so you have a point where your conversation option is to say, get your hand off me, you damn dirty ape. Just love to pick that dialogue option. I would love. How would you not pick that if it was available? Even, yeah, it's...

Well, I would have to pick all of them at a certain point. I'd have to see what the options are. But, uh, there... To your point, there should be a Telltale Planet of the Apes game. There should have been, like, a dozen of these types of games already. But anyway. Uh, Nick? I had to look up the line, because I wanted to make sure that I was correct.

It's, uh, take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape. Even better. Just, like, couldn't put up with any of it immediately. He's like, get off of me. What are you doing? Caesar will remember this. And then Wahlberg says it Like all Wahlberg-y Get your stinking paws off of me

Uh Nick You know what time it is It's time for the question block Ba-ding And here we go These are all from our discord Discord.gg Slash get played

So if you're not there Get in there And then you two can leave a A comment Or a question This first one Is from Ricky Concarne. And Ricky writes,

have you guys ever gotten into a phase where you don't feel like playing a game, but still want to watch gameplay of a game? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I mean, for me, that,

that I reached a certain point of hearthstone fatigue where I was still enjoying watching high level tournament play. I just likes like, oh, you're so much better at this game than i am that i just like seeing that um but when i was actually playing the game i was like this is predatory pay to win bullshit this is pissing me off you know yeah so so that's that's one thing that leaps to mind i don't know anything anything uh uh come up for you matt i don't I don't know. Anything come up for you, Matt? I don't typically watch gameplay. I totally get the appeal of Twitch and we have Twitch streamed in the past and that's very fun.

I, myself, don't find myself watching that too much but I will end up watching more video essays about games or tech breakdowns. I will watch somebody tear down a PS five any day. Like I like to watch stuff like that more than I like to watch people playing

a game, I think. But is the question specifically, Hey, I don't, I don't want to play this game anymore, but I do want to watch this game. Like,

is that, is that what it seems like it's being asked? I guess it's like, do you, you don't feel like playing a game, but you want to watch gameplay of a game. It doesn't have to be the same game that you're playing. Yeah. The answer is yes yeah like absolutely i have those feel

because this is a different energy it's just different vibes watching someone stream or just watching like a like a long play of of a game it's just like a completely different energy from steering the ship yourself and especially i like seeing people who are like super good at it i love watching that i mean look i've talked about my fondness for speed runs of the past i love just putting on a speed run for a game i've never played i guess i can get stuck in like a like a a hole of like being on reddit for a particular game and just like watching like the last of us 2 ellie like kills and just like watching somebody who's like mastered the combat in that game just like go nuts that's so fun um this next one's from hmm jado i don't know how the it's x s j a d o on on our discord um and they write what's your go-to rpg character class are you in your face fighter type or a suave

stealthy rogue great question by the way whenever whenever anyone has an inscrutable username i'm always worried it's a reference for something that i should know yeah and then i'm like ah shit i'm gonna get i'm just looking like an idiot because i don't know what this reference is but i think we all agree i could i tried my best you tried your best anyway uh i do like to be like first off my go- go to is Paladin. If Paladin is available, I love being just like it's very fun to role play. I also just generally like that style of play of just having, you know, being a melee character with buffs like and with heals. I think that's just like super fun to play. But if you're asking, like, it also depends on context, because if this is like, if this is a single character game versus like,

this is a character that's going to be part of a party that to me, those are, those are slightly, I mean, obviously not just to me, to anyone who plays games, those are, those are different contexts.

Um, and if I'm soloing through something, I just want a little bit more versatility. Like I, I want to be able to do a little bit, uh, you know, a little bit of, um, I want to be able to do a little bit uh you know a little bit of um i want to be able to do some stealth i want to be able to uh to you know to do some ranged i want to be able to do a little bit of everything but if i'm in the context of like i'm a part of a party then yeah i'll usually probably lean towards a paladin or a bruiser like give myself a give

myself a big brute barbarian or something i feel like I often am gravitated toward who has a beam, right? You do love a beam. I do love beams, and I feel like those are often sorcerer characters, but sometimes I feel like sorcerers are often like glass cannons, right? Like they can do like lots of damage, but are kind of weak themselves. Yeah. but are kind of weak themselves. So I like to do, like, in Elden Ring, I had high intelligence and, like, high strength.

So that, like, if I had to get in the mix there, like... Don't you love the fantasy of video games? Yeah, you can just do whatever. Yeah, exactly. My guy is smart and strong. He's smart and strong. Fuck, this rules. Yeah, I was like, oh, what an absolute different dimension. But I had a high intelligence, high strength build so that if I could use my magic from

far away, I could. But if I had to get up close and personal, then it wasn't a problem. And it was still always a problem because that game was very hard and I was not very good at it. But I did finish it. It was still always a problem because that game was very hard and I was not very good at it. But I did finish it. But I like in Baldur's Gate where you can sort of be like, I guess I can kind of pick a cheeky answer. That's always fun too, in an RPG like that.

But you don't usually get to have dialogue choices a lot of the time. Unless it's a game with that type of system built into it. Yeah, it depends on the game. I do. They, I do like if there are distinct, uh, you know, if there are distinct choices for the class from the role playing element, like that to me is, you know,

that, that, that actually probably governs my decision a little bit more like, like you're talking about in a, in a BG three. I think the, I think, I think I just like being a fucking big mountain.

I think that's the thing. I just like being like big and strong. And so, and Paladin usually qualifies there for me, but I'll, I'll, I'll go a little bit more melee focused too. I liked my,

I started in Diablo four, I started a sorcerer build and then I wanted to see what the druid build was like. And I liked my druid build a little bit more but I was a little too far into my sorcerer build that I went back to that and of course never finished it I did finish Diablo 4

and I'm like having trouble remembering like you're talking about games exiting your brain I'm having trouble remembering what class I played it's like what the fuck did I play what did I put like 40 hours into? I think it was a Necro. Oh, I think that's right. That sounds about right.

Yeah. I think it was a Necro. This next one is from Trapezio Preppanini, and they write, My wife and I are likely moving from New Jersey to California for my job at my startup. Congrats. Yeah, congrats. I've built a collection of games over the years that while not as good as Heather's whole TM certainly comes close from my virtual boy to my mint inbox

NES deluxe with Rob to my mint inbox chrono trigger. Wow. I'm quite proud of it. Sadly, I think it's time to sell, sell it off to make the move easier. I will keep a select few items near and dear to me. How, how would you prioritize what to keep and what to sell?

And if you were in my shoes, what would be the five items you would keep no matter what? Oh, boy. I mean, I'm the wrong person to ask because I just get rid of shit. Like, I'm not, I don't have, there's stuff I regret selling, but for the most part,

I'm like kind of the opposite of a hoarder. I just get rid of things when I feel like they no longer serve me. But I will say that if you got a mitten box chrono trigger, hold on to that bad boy. I mean, that's that feels like an easy one for the keep list. I, you know, I think the the obvious thing to do is just to, like, think of bulk because, you know, that that that R.O.B., the robotic operating buddy, maybe a cool little item. But how much space is that going to take up for your cross-country move? Maybe sell it to get played and we'll have a replace a co-host.

He's got too much charisma. Yeah, I'd say for stuff that you're going to keep, I would absolutely prioritize mint stuff, especially if it matters to you. If it doesn't matter to you that much, then part with it, and then that can be a nice payday for you. But I would consider these things as well. If you've played it in the last five years,

for not just novelty, for actually getting in there yeah right i want to revisit this thing yeah if you played it in the last five years and you think you might do it again keep it if not see ya and then my other criteria is can it be played on something else modern yeah if it can be played on something else modern and it's not like super it's not mint or you won't miss it get rid of of it, and then, you know, you can play it on, like, Nintendo Switch Online or something, right? Or there's a port of it on a different, in an HD collection or whatever.

And then you can play it that way. I think parse down, and then that way you can be able to still have the memory, but on newer hardware. Is what I would do. Yeah, I think that's good guidance. Yeah. This next one is from sigvic373. If you could bring back any handheld,

what would it be? Feel free to include any weird accessory or accessories made for said handheld. My immediate thought is Game Boy Advance SP sp not necessarily that but the form factor the sp was so good to me and i i just love being able to fold that bad boy up and put in my pocket and just kind of be done with it but the hinges i know are a big factor for why things don't really have hinges anymore, because that is always the breaking point. Yeah, but it was great for portability and durability of the screen, at least.

I mean, I did like that SP. That was cool. I had an SP Lite, which had a backlight to it, or maybe it was a front light. Oh, yes. But yeah, and that was great. And they released an upgraded one later. And it was one of those quiet hardware updates. But the screen looked way better. And I ended up getting one of those.

And I rocked with that for a while. And yeah, that is one piece of hardware I wish I still had. But it was the question is what we bring back. Yeah. What is this thought exercise? Like it's just back and it's just like, hey, they're making new games for this. I'm thinking, yeah, I think it's back john wick style i don't know i'm i mean i would say the vita just because the vita is cool it's a cool piece of hardware but i feel like it by this point

like you know anything they could make for the vita they could just make for the switch um so yeah you know i'm just what, I'm just gonna say the DS. I mean, that dual screen form factor is really cool. Yeah, the DS is really nice.

There was like a, yeah, just the DS. I love my 2DS, I'll say. I love busting that out every now and then too. But the DS

is absolutely home run. This next one is from Arct and arctor writes question for the group but i'm especially interested in weiger's perspective from a former game development insider with the advent of ai across all forms of media these days from writing to analytics and now to programming and coding what do you expect the landscape to look like for the gaming industry in a decade? More cheaply produced AI-built stuff that will lead to job losses but cheap games? Or will this fad pass like NFTs?

It's a great question, and I wish I offered any unique insight based off of my development experience, but honestly, I can only speculate like any random asshole. But I would say that I do think that there's a little bit of the discussion of generative AI and its place in, you know, making content.

I think there's that there are, and I feel safer saying this on the other side of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes where some protections have gotten in for the creators there. I do think some of that stuff is maybe a little bit overblown, some of those concerns. And I also think that a big part of how people consume content is they want it to be from somebody.

Like a big part of fandom is I like this person. And in games, from a game standpoint is i like this person and in games uh when a game standpoint i like this developer and i like the games they make and you want to support them and if it turns out that what they're making is is you know ai generated um all of a sudden i feel like that goodwill falls away and it feels like a betrayal so i think there will be certainly a lot of cheap bullshit that is just churned out in the same way that they were like, I was hearing a thing about that there's a bunch of fake AI generated travel guides that just sell on Amazon.

And they're all just like these, you know, like a guide to Washington, D.C. that's like completely made up. It's just complete bullshit. You buy this book and it's like identifying landmarks that aren't there. Yeah. Abe Lincoln. Abe Lincoln. Yeah.

Identifying landmarks that aren't there. Yeah. Abe Lincoln. Abe Lincoln, yeah. And so, like, I think that sort of cheap sort of ripoff shit will exist as it already, you know, does exist. And just because there's no gatekeeping in so many of these online stores. So I think there'll be a lot of that crap. But I don't think it's going to dominate the marketplace, I think, in the that people feared hopefully not i hope i'm i hope i'm right there we'll see get your hands off of me you

damn dirty ai um and finally i don't know what do you think i mean i have i you know i have very little uh like thought about it because i see what ai makes yeah and i'm like there's no way that people want this like it looks bad like all of it looks bad and like the i mean yeah we joke about like the ai president stuff and like that's just like funny but it's like somebody somebody's on the back end like coming up with that like like no yes that's what i mean their their ai is being used as a tool it's being used to create the simulacrum of president voices um but someone is doing the work of like writing and editing this thing together it's not like hey create this thing maybe it is but i don't think anyone's just putting into a prompt, create the presidents of, you know,

presidents Obama, Biden, and Trump debating the souls born tier list. I don't feel like that's like, there's still some creativity in advance there. Yeah, in the way that like teenagers talk to each other online. Right, yeah, yeah. But all that to say, I guess, like, I don't think I've seen anything AI that I've been impressed by or that I want more of. There's like it's all of it is garbage to me. I don't it's so I don't have any fears of it like taking over in in a significant way like that at all.

Like it just it just there's no way that people are going to stand for that. Yeah, I think so. But but also who fucking knows? Yeah. I mean, I'm ready to be replaced by an AI podcast in 10 years. So we'll see. And finally, this one's from Andrew S. Hi, Andrew.

Hi, Andrew. You're on a three month mission to Mars. What game do you take to pass the time? Now I have a cheat answer. The Kingdom Hearts all in one collection. So it's got everything. It's got all Kingdom Hearts on a single disc. Maybe it's two discs. But I think it counts because it comes in one collection. So it's got everything. It's got all Kingdom Hearts on a single disc. Maybe it's two discs,

but I think it counts because it comes in one box. And I can just play through Kingdom Hearts over the three months on my way to Mars and then have all that knowledge to help me when I'm there. Yes. Do you have internet access to this scenario? I think probably no, right? I think the vessels have internet.

Like high-speed internet? Like you play Fortnite on this thing? probably know right oh i think the the vessels have internet like like high speed internet like you play fortnite on this thing i don't i feel like that's far-fetched we're going to mars baby i think i think they got it um yeah i mean i think you'd want to put like that's a great answer anything something that's just like like dense with a lot of uh content uh that you put many many hours into is a good good way to go but i kind of feel like this is a scenario where you'd want a game that you could play to keep playing you know like you'd want more of like a a tetris or something something that you can just play over and like you play endlessly wow but tetris for three months straight it's also a pretty brisk trip to Mars.

I'm not saying Tetris would be my pick, but I'm saying that's the kind of game that I would want, something that I would keep playing a bunch. I'm thinking it's taking us three months to get to Mars. That's what I'm thinking. It's not like we're going and then staying there for three months and then coming back. It's taking us three months to get there. No, I get that. That still feels like a brisk trip to Mars, doesn't it? Doesn't it feel like it would take five years?

I guess, but I'm like a quarter of a year. That's pretty... How long does it take to get to Mars? Let me ask some AI. I feel like that's a multi-year voyage. It says about seven months. NASA says seven months. Yeah.

But whatever, three months, seven months, whatever. They've refined the travel and cut it down to over half the time i and they have the internet yes all that all that said i think that drives me towards a game uh that i've played a lot of that had that i can just play again and again um but also has a little bit of you, some elements of human connection and community, which I think I probably I might be missing on this lonely voyage. And to me, that answer is Stardew Valley. Oh, yes. Because, you know, it's open and I can play this game endlessly and I can I can keep rolling new characters and keep trying to make new kinds of farms. But also, you know, I can I can make friends with all the villagers.

I think that's good. Yeah. If you like, except for Pierre friends with all the villagers. I think that's good. Yeah, if you, like... Except for Pierre. No one likes Pierre. Oh. Sorry, Pierre. I guess, yeah, you can't. It's not going to happen for you.

Then we can ship your ass off to Mars. You can stay there. Oh, you're going to leave Pierre on Mars? Don't fucking... You're going to take his coat out and leave him on Mars? Leave him on the big red giant? Maybe if he kept his general store open on Wednesday, then he could stay. That is pretty inconvenient.

Yeah. That's like when you can do most of your stuff. Yeah, exactly. What are you, taking hump day off? One town, one store in town. Take Sunday. Yeah. Exactly.

That's fine. But, yeah, I guess I'll just use that three-month time to brush up on the lore of Kingdom Hearts and come back a scholar. But that was... Honestly, Emma's Tears of the Kingdom slash Breath of the Wild shoutout from earlier. I mean, that's kind of not bad actually. That honestly is... you could do a lot worse than that. Yeah, you could for sure fight every Korok Seed. Exactly. And that was the question block guys. Thanks so much for writing in and like I said before you can And that was the question block guys Thanks so much for writing in

And like I said before You can Write in with your questions And comments At discord.gg Slash get played And Nick I think that's this week's episode

That's this week's get played We should be back Caught up to the present Next week Yeah If this schedule holds If not This will be edited out

And you won't hear it That's right And If you do hear this That means The schedule held That's right Shout out to Emma For filling in for Rochelle Chen this week Yes That's right. And if you do hear this, that means the schedule held. That's right.

Shout out to Emma for filling in for Rochelle Chen this week. Yes. Thank you, Emma. Thank you, guys. Anything you want to plug? No, I got nothing. Happy New Year, maybe. Yeah, Happy New Year, maybe. Yeah.

Again, this might be edited out. Who could say? We'll see. Yeah. Also, check out our Patreon where you'll find our anime recap show, Get Animated, plus our pre-HeadGum back catalog that will all be at Patreon.com slash Get Played. And

Nick? I think 2023 got played. Wow. And you know what's going to get played? 2024. Uh, sorry. Sorry. That was a HeadGum Podcast.