Get Played - The 2025 Get Played Games of The Spectacular Year Awards

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

It's Gaming's biggest night! It's the 2025 Games of The Spectacular Year Awards! We take a look back at some of the great releases this year and give out some awards! 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 Ghost in the Shell (2017) 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.fm All of our links can be found at linktree.com/getplayedpodSee 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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Donkey Kong and Pauline. They're making their red carpet debut in matching little outfits, and it's really cute. It's Cretos. Kratos coming right down the red carpet. Where's he been in gaming for the last couple of the years? Could he have something being cooked up under the covers? Under the... Where's Grado's been, but he's here tonight?

Aw, they grow up so fast. Totting down the red carpet from Death Stranding 2 on the beach. It's Lou. Oh, adorable. It's Lou. And toddling down the red carpet, it's the baby walking man from baby steps. Aw. That's so sweet.

He can't do it. He fell over. Oh, fuck, he fell over. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, he fell over. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. Speaking of fuck, Gertzman is here.

I think he's one of those celebrities from gaming. And he's covered in pickman from head to toe. The pickman. The pickmen are all over him. He might be nude under that full pickman suit. The red pickmen are making shirt and the blue pickmen are making pants. That's right. The red shirt pickman, blue pants pickman.

What a way to honor legendary video games journalist and pioneering games podcaster, Jeff Gersman here on Get Play to acknowledge him on the red carpet. He's on the carpet. He's here for the award. He sure is. He's one of a video game's big stars. Wait, what happened? What went wrong there? He's just covered in Pikmin. And nude. Hey, we're all nude under our clothes. You're right. We're all nude under our clothes. He's wearing Pikmin as clothes. He's not nude. He's fully, I can't see any of his skin. We can't admit that we're not, that we're all nude under our clothes. I don't know what we got anymore. We are all nude under our clothes, and so is this next red carpet guest.

Oh, he looks fantastic in 4K. From the remaster of the Legend of Zelda Tears the Kingdom Nintendo Switch 2 edition, it is Link. Oh. Huba, hubba, hubba. Thanks, Link. Oh, God. Oh, great. Jesus Christ, I was hoping I wasn't going to see this person.

What's wrong? What do you see? an ex of mine. Oh, no. It's a chair from date everything. Oh, boy. Wow. Oh, man, that is embarrassing. Oh, my God. Oh, I think they see you. I think they see you, Matt. Oh, yeah, hi. Yeah, hi. Hi. Hi. Good to see you. Oh, hey, speaking of awkwardness, we have a very muscular caped hero with slumped shoulders and head aimed squarely at the carpet from dispatch, its major depression sufferer Phenama Man. Oh, boy. Wow. He is going through it. I'm not trying to make light of that, but that is, that is fun. It is funny.

Here's the thing. It is funny. In real life as it is in the game, a depressed superhero is funny. It is funny. But you know what's not funny? Our next guest on the red carpet is the lobby from Blueprints. It's just the entryway room making its way down the red carpet. God, reminded me how much I fucking hate that place.

I was worried about what these, who these next people were. because they seem to be, to put it lightly, disfigured in some way, but it is actually just the cast of mind's eye. Their face just happened to be populated on the sides of their head in kind of where it would normally be, which is the front. Nightmarish IRL. And, oh, you know, the celebs turn out to promote their new projects. And with a Super Mario Galaxy movie on the horizon, there he is Chris Pratt Mario.

Got any words for us, Pratt Mario? Mommy Mia, I'm Mario from the... a Mario movie. Love Mario. That's so good and I can't wait to hear just hear more of that voice in the movie. That's good stuff. It's one of a kind. Oh my God. Oh no. What is that?

It's a dog. It's just a dog dragging a dead duck. Oh my God. Oh. Oh. It's the dog from Duck Hunt. How cute is that? Wow. It's actually we can't be grossed down. It's not just adorable. Not just the contemporary stars. It's legends too.

Legends of gaming. And, of course, the most important guest of all on the red carpet, you, the player. Now get the fuck inside. Get the fuck inside. Get in your fucking assigned seat and sit the fuck down. And by the way, shut the fuck up. Except when the applause sign goes up, then you better clap your fucking hands off. Yeah, and you know what?

Clap them cheeks too while you're at it. Oh, fuck, I've got some pigment on me. Oh, God. We look back on the year in gaming in 2025 and hand out a different kind of hardware as we host our annual Games of the Spectacular Year Awards this week on Get Played. 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, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Tiger Weiger. That's me, Nick Tiger Weiger, along with our third host, Matt Upadaka.

Hello, everyone, and folks, it's gaming's biggest night. It's gaming's biggest night. This is our final new mainline episode of 2025, our annual Games of the Spectacular Year Awards, the Goatsies. And I would say, 2025, a good year for gaming. Excellent year for gaming. I'd say, on the whole, pretty pretty freaking good if I do say so myself. I can't wait to see who wins awards at this biggest gaming's night podcast. No, yeah, no, that's right.

Biggest gaming's nights podcast. Biggest gaming nights podcast. No, biggest gaming's night. Biggest gaming's nights into dreams podcast. Yeah, no, no, no, no. That's it. Yeah, no, no, biggest gaming's nights into dreams podcast. Yeah.

No, no, no, no, yeah. Yeah. It's been, it's been really quite a year. There's been a lot of, a lot of hits, a lot of misses. Some new hardware came out this year, too. That's right. Yeah. A lot of, it's been some crazy stuff.

Yeah. Somehow Concord keeps coming out every year and also keeps being deleted from our memories. You know what? I had forgotten about Concord. Me too. And it's crazy because it's that, that's not the only one of those this year. There's like so many of them. I assure you, I'm going to forget about it again.

Yeah, oh yeah, I can't wait to forget about it. Concord, what the hell? I think Concord came out last year or didn't come out. I can't remember. It's been... I think it was 2024. I think it was the... But then this year's was mine's eye.

Mine's eye was like the one... But I think you could still buy minds, I think. I don't know. I know who could say. Nick, I just noticed your hat. Hog Island Oyster Co. That's right. I was just over there, but I didn't get to go in.

Yeah. It was really disappointed. Some great oysters. Great meal there. Man. Up in the, up in the Bay area. Up in the bay. You were up in the bay.

You were up in SF. I was up in SF. I got to see the level from Tony Hock's Pro Skater 4. That's right. It was cool that they decided to build it after the game came out. But guys, you know, these award shows, award shows in general. The hosts come out. That's kind of what we're doing.

They do a little talk and they sort of address the crowd. They sort of say what's going on. Yeah. What we got to look forward to. Sometimes they do a little joke. Billy Crystal, Seth MacFarlane, Jimmy Kimmel. My favorite Ricky Jervais. They're going to come out and they're going to say some pre-written jest at a Hollywood royalty.

It's the opening show monologue. Are you teeing yourself up for something, Matt? I maybe wrote a little joke. Okay, let's hear it, man. Let's hear it. I see the kid from Blue Prince is here. But it appears he hasn't made it to his seat yet because he keeps going into the wrong rooms. I thought it was really good

Yeah There's more actually Okay, okay, great So the joke is coming Maybe he'll get there tomorrow So a little tag there on the end Why are you in so much physical pain, man? It hurts, it's fucking hurt

I used all my brain power Should we maybe drop a little bit of pertinent to the show news? Oh, yeah, sure. It's worth sharing in the main feed that, you know, we've been doing Get Animate over on our Patreon for some time. Yes.

At the end of this year, Get Animated is going away, but our Patreon is remaining. Yes. Our Patreon will change to a video game, et cetera, format. So we're going to have more gaming behind the paywall, but also some other assorted content. We're going to figure out what that is. But one thing we are going to have very early on is a Patreon episode in our old format. How did this get played coming in 2026? How did this get played is?

coming back. And we've chosen it. And I guarantee 30 seconds into that record, I'm going to be talking about what a mistake it was. For people who came on in the Get Played era, this podcast began and we used to play the worst in weirdest video games. And we largely centered entire episodes on notable failures like Superman 64 or Nighttrap. But then overtime, or Nighttrap, more of a notorious game than an outright failure. But that sort of stuff. These games that were that were renowned for their oddness or for their low quality. We eventually just were enjoying just talking about

video games in general more, so that's where the format progressed. And here the Get Animated format is progressing into, or I guess regressing in part. Yeah. It is played, rather. It's devolving. But also we've noticed a lot of our audiences

just like, you know, less interest in anime, and that's okay. We will still have some Get Animated episodes on they're on occasion for maybe for maybe special notable releases something like the chainsaw man movie might warrant a get animated episode um and also if you're a get animated listener thank you for your support if we want to discontinue the patreon completely understand um but for anyone who remains uh well all the archived animated episodes will remain and the ad free mainline played episodes will still be available that's right that's right that's right that's right it's been a year.

It's been a year. It really has. Shall we get into it? Let's get into it. Let's begin, the goatsees. Bar-do-do-da-du-da-da-da-da-da. The Goat-Sies. Sponsored in part by Chase.

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that's what makes you healthy all the little guys. We're also sponsored by white collar crime. It's legal. Guys, I'm so excited. So excited. We're here at the Goatsies, and I think some of these categories are about to hit the stage. Yeah, let me introduce the first one.

Our first category is Best Subtitle. The original Italian, the Stickball Special, Turkey and Provolone. Those may be the kind of things you. you think of when you hear the word subtitle. You goddamn fool. But in video games, subtitle refers to an additional word or phrase following a colon that's typically unnecessary and if anything makes the whole thing more confusing. The nominees for Best Video Game Subtitle are...

Hey, Ranch, can you edit in the sound of me killing myself with a gun after that intro? The nominees for Best Video Game Subtitle are Ragebound from Ninja Guidean, Ragebound. Throws of the Watchmaker From Sea of Stars Throws of the Watchmaker Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii from Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

Retold Immortal Pillars From Age of Mythology Retold Immortal Pillars The Ghost of Glamping From Duck Detective The Ghost of Glamping And the Goatsy Goes to Wow a Shocker

F from Silent Hill F accepting the award on behalf of Silent Hill F is Mary from Silent Hill 2 In my restless dreams I see that town Silent Hill You promised you'd take me there again someday But you never did While I'm alone there now In our special place

Waiting for you Thank you Mary very cryptic Yeah who knows what that means but I guess I'll have to go visit the town and see what's up. We're going to have to visit Silent Hill and investigate. Honestly, this is actually

just a goodest spot as Annie to do this. We have to announce our very first live show coming in the year 2026. We're playing Silent Hill, check us out in Silent Hill. We're going to be doing it right there in the foggy streets

of Silent Hill. And let's just say our special guest's head may be a little bit triangular. Yeah. I would say if you're thinking that our first guest for the show has many people would describe as a normal shaped head, think again, bitch. I've also heard he has a pyramid-shaped penis. And he's going to show it live on our show.

Is it hairy? We'll find out. Is it hairy? Oh, that's one hairy penis. what you want to hear you know we talk about a lot of games on the show a lot of games that we're playing

sometimes we'll talk about a game that maybe we're interested in playing maybe a game we haven't played yet but sometimes the amount of games that we're playing or the amount of games that we talk about on the show not to the satisfaction of the listener that's true

this category is games that People wanted us to talk about slash play more of. Okay. And the nominees are. Claire Obscure, Expedition 33. Nobody was mad or anything that we, quote, unquote, bounced off of it. Ranch did finish it. Ranch did finish it.

Even though one of the four of us finished it. That's right. Ark Raiders, a game we all learned about last week. And blueprints, even after we all rolled credits, we did it. We did do it Did a full episode Apparently still more game in there And the winner

A games that people wanted us to talk about Slash play more of It's Claire Obscure Expedition 33 I think a big thing about this year It's kind of Claire Obscure Expedition 33's year It is, it is And what a triumph the game was At least as far as I played it

Before I bounced off of it Yeah you have to give it up for those French It is a really cool game It hit me at a weird time of the year And then it didn't return to it It's just one of those life circumstance things Yeah But I mean like you know whatever

Like it took me till winter break When we stopped down last year To finish metaphor refontasio I ended up loving it So maybe I'll do the same thing with Claire Obscure We'll see Yeah well we'll see It's the year's not over yet

It could happen But hey probably not the only award That's the only award that Claire Obscure will win This award season It's aiming to be a big night for Claire Obscure Expedition 33. You know, you don't have to let big wireless and your overpriced phone bill suck the joy out of holidays this year because right now all of MintMobil's unlimited plans are 50% off.

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Our next category is one dedicated to a single game. It's Blue Prince. And these are the nominees for the top rooms not drafted in Blueprints. And the nominees are Single hole bathroom Single hole hallway with a doctor pepper puddle The kitchen slash hospital waiting room

18 door garage And the winner is Fuck Library Accepting the award for Fuck Library for blueprints rooms not drafted, it's the blueprints himself. Oh, God.

The blueprints is like a little creature man. I mean, imagine he's been driven insane by the labyrinth he lives within. Can you imagine? You lose something in one of the rooms and then you run out of steps and you have to go to sleep and then you have to get the thing you lose.

You got to go back in the, you got to get that, hopefully you get that room. Fucking nightmare. I would just hope. that my house would just be normal at some point. Yeah. God. Yeah, it really makes you value a normal house.

But congratulations to Blueprints. Yeah. Congratulations, Blueprints. This award was for you. Our next category is horniest game. Oh. Let's face it, people love to fucking suck. But why bother with building social connections

and organically turning romance into physical affection when you have a gamified version that turns navigating dialogue trees and gift-giving into virtual sex with an animated character. The nominees for Horniest game are... He didn't read this, by the way. Date everything. Dispatch.

Hades 2. Balder's Gate 3, Patch 8 update. Steam Early Access Game, Adventures of Willie Dickard. Oh, my God. And the Goatsy goes to... What a dark horse! Power Wash Simulator 2? What?

accepting the award on behalf of Power Wash Simulator 2 is The Hose Wow, congratulations, the hose. Wow. You know, I don't want to get choked up or anything like that, but I've just, I've known the hose for a long time. Yeah. And he's worked so hard.

He really has. And it's nice to see It's just nice to see old friends Finally getting their due Yeah You know they say that this industry isn't a meritocracy But awards like that make me realize it is Yeah that's right

It is Everybody loves fucking that hose There's a lot to be said about You know Gaming outside You know you're playing games Everybody's playing them Everyone's playing games, but sometimes significant gaming moments happen when you're not sitting in front of your TV with a controller in your hand.

Sometimes you experience gaming moments outside of gaming. And so this next category, best non-gaming gaming moment of 2025, parentheses, for me personally. Okay. So this only applies to just me. Very specific award. Nominees are, the time that I went to the Nintendo. store in San Francisco pretty recently. The time I won a bid on a new Nintendo 3DSXL on eBay, and then modded it.

Hmm. The winner. The winner for best non-gaming gaming moment of 2025, parentheses, for me personally. It's, of course, when I got to meet the great Hideo Kojima. Hideo Kojima. Accepting this award is me. that was a really cool moment we got to go to the

Death Stranding 2 on the beach premiere in Los Angeles and got to see footage of the game that Heather and I were confused by and thought was real and then told that to Hideo Kajima after we saw the stuff and he laughed at us in such a way that he thought we were dumb

it was very very surreal moment to meet somebody who has obviously a mythic presence on this show, but it's such a, uh, it was like meeting a beetle kind of. Yeah. Yeah. It was kind of crazy. Yeah. Wow. Just unbelievable experience. I hear that. I hear that. Speaking of Death Stranding 2. Oh. Our next category is the best delivery mission in Death Stranding 2. Wow. And the nominees are eight rubber bands for a guy on top of a mountain. A stack of pizzas delivered to an active war zone.

Ten copies of Bicentennial Man on DVD to a woman giving birth to an oil dog. A nuclear weapon for a guy named John Hates, Ohio. And the winner is 30 Fabregie eggs to a family inside of an earthquake. accepting for the family who lives inside of the earthquake is the family who lives inside of the earthquake thank you so much for giving us these fabric and eggs but we are having a lot of trouble keeping them on the shelves here are the active earthquake thank you sam porter bridges wow the emotion in that acceptance speech had me shaking I'm shook. I'm shooting myself. Our producer, Rochelle Chen, ranch, you had an award you would like to give out, correct? I do.

I'm very excited to announce a category, the most Alpha Guest podcast host of the year. The Anthemorphic Bobcat Bubsy from Bubsy. The guy who won't stop talking about those comic books that Ellie likes from The Last of Us. The guy who has beef with the dragon from Eldonring. Ash Ketcham from the world of Pokemon. And the Resident Evil Four merchant from Resident Evil Four. And the winner of the most Alpha podcast guest host goes to Ash Ketchum from the world of Pokemon. Wow.

Well, I'm so happy to be here and accept this award on behalf of me. No, it was recently told to me. that the Get Animate Podcast is ending. And that means I'm gonna fucking kill you guys because... Jesus.

What? Fucking hell. I don't want to get killed. Yeah, please don't kill me. Certainly not by the likes of you. Really? Yeah. Well, then don't be a bitch and bring back

to Get Animate podcast. It'll appear periodically. We'll do it sometimes. So you tell me I'm still at my job? Yes. I want my weekly retainer. I want my per diem. And I want my monthly salary.

Up front, every beginning of every month. Look, you somehow have one of the best lawyers in entertainment because despite all the turmoil and layoffs at headgum, your contract is ironclad. It will be honored. That's Johnny Cochran for you. Wow. His lawyer's Johnny Cochran.

He still got those little gloves out, too, just in case. He's a good man. He's an excellent lawyer. Congratulations, Ash Ketchum. Thank you. And nice work, Ranch. I think that's bullshit. I worked so hard,

Quine and all them comic books, Ellie likes. I have a little song I've prepared for the award, actually. I'm singing it to the award. Okay. If I were to lose you, I probably lose myself. Oh, boy. I miss you award. I love you.

Not Nip anymore. You lost it. I'm going to go to a putting range and see if anybody just wants to fucking just take my ass out. I'm sick of this shit. It's time for a special award here at the Goatsies, the Lifetime Achievement Award. Oh, wow. Now we honor a figure who made video game history, whose entry into the medium of 2D and later self-reinvolve. in 3D push the boundaries of what could be a video game, and perhaps what should be a video game.

Wearing sunglasses, chomping cigars, giving money to strippers and saying, shake it, baby, mowing down pig cops with a miniaturization gun, reciting lines plagiarized from John Carpenter movies. Today's honoree is the first true anti-hero in video game dumb, whose rampant sexism and general annoyingness has truly stood the test of time. One could say he has deserved this award forever. This year's Lifetime Achievement Goatsy goes to Duke Nukem. Wow.

Congratulations, Duke Nukem. Accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award is Duke himself. I'm here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of gum. Now let me take a piss in this toilet. Whoops, that's the lectern. and there's a whole bunch of people here and they accidentally whipped my dick out and then got a boner and then shit my pants.

Hail to the king, baby. Wow, congratulations Duke. Congratulations Duke. Congratulations Duke. Guys, every award show deserves a little snack. And that's why I had a full large pizza

delivered to the record. That's right. I don't know if this will be clip, or you'll just have to infer that there is an actual giant pizza here while we're recording. Very thematically on point with a Death Stranding 2 acknowledgement earlier. Pizza has been delivered to someone in need.

Now, I want everybody here to have a slice of pizza. I'm down to have a slice of eyes. Oh, why don't you enjoy yourself a slice of pizza? Wow. While I get onto this next category. Wow, okay. Don't have to talk me into it. Ranch put the pizza on like a TV tray and slid it towards me like I was a horse.

Our next category is the top Fortnite collaborations in the year 2025. This is a bit of a long list because there are a lot of collaborations in Fortnite every year. Whoa. And the nominees are the Mariah Carey Godkiller Gun. The skin of tribal tattooed John Lovitz. The skin of John Wayne Gasey. The skin of mini-mouse. The car from Father of the Bride.

Justin Bieber as a sexy cat. The car from Malcolm in the middle. Lego George Bush Sr. Wendy's All-Beaf Toilet Man. The car from David Cronin. Berg's crash that James Spader fucks Holly Hunter in. And the winner of the top Fortnite collaboration of 2025 is the entirety of Ghost of Yote playable on a television inside Homer Simpson's living room.

Wow. Accepting the award for the entirety of Ghost of Yote playable on a television in Homer Simpson's living room is Peely from Fortnite. oh fuck that's right all of these guys are mute i think he's i think he's trying to tell us about something terrible yeah yeah he's like pointing at where his mouth would be yeah he's like no words are coming he's a desperate looking banana yeah what what a miserable looking banana all right they're playing him off i guess we'll never know what it is that he's saying i hope whatever it was wasn't bad yeah i hope it wasn't bad he looked desperate and i hope it wasn't political i hope it

wasn't the pantomime equivalent of that famous memo that said bin Laden determined to strike U.S. that was ignored by the national security apparatus. I hope it wasn't anything like that. Yeah, that would be pretty bad. Because you know what? I'll say it. They picked the wrong guy to deliver the message. We need somebody that could say it. Someone who could vocalize, but maybe there's some sort of reason that it's trapped inside Peeley's brain. I guess what that's ever know. It could be. You know, we do, I feel like on this show, we play a lot of games.

Yeah. We play a lot of games. We play a lot of games. And sometimes we do, you know, a little bit of coverage on, like, something like a Nintendo Switch 2 welcome to or we'll dip into Marvel Rivals for like an episode just to see what's going on. But sometimes we play a full-ass game for this show and then we report on it. Yep. So this category. is best game we played for the show this year.

Nice. And the nominees are Blueprints. Spoiler alert. It's not that. Donkey Kong Bonanza. Mother 3. That was this year? That was this year.

Jesus Christ. Death Stranding 2 on the beach. And the winner. For best game we played for the show this year. with a fucking bullet mother three baby let's fucking go that's just me screaming yeah Heather's screaming what a game

what a game we got to experience and just I think back about you know the games that I've played this year and that is still chief among the best of the best yeah what a fucking video game I mean I just like I was really glad I finally was cajoled into experiencing yeah Heather winning winning the bet Yeah, I'm really happy I won the bet for the Switch 2 release date,

which came at a time that seemed insane. Yes. Just the middle of the fucking summer. Yeah, it really should have been the weekend of July 4th, like I said. But I'm really happy that you guys got to share in a game that meant so much to me, too. Yeah. What game, I mean, not to derail the awards, I for sure would have made us do Kingdom Hearts too. Yeah.

Right. What game would you have picked, Nick? I thought, I'm trying to remember what it, what I had, what I had pitched. I can't remember if it had, we had picked those. It was either going to do Plainscape, Torment, or Half-Life 2. Oh, yes. I think it was Half-Life 2. Yeah, that would be wrong.

That would have been really cool. It would have been. But maybe we can do those things anyway, because it would be such a pleasure to play your game. Yeah, it'd be really fun. Yeah. But yeah, that's, that was it for my categories. Hey, buddy, ever had that my last pair of contacts panic?

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Trillions of aliens in Deep Rock Galactic Survivor massacred in a genocide by greedy space dwarves. Countless Oni Raiders in Ghost of Yote Decapitated, amputated, cut in half. Hornet, lots of times in my play-through of Polonite Silk Song. Toxic, the dick-out supervillain from Dispatch, punched in the dick. The Xbox Series X, Series S, Game Pass, and basically anything that is in Xbox. Gun down in its prime.

The developer of Postal Bullet Paradise. Suicide by AI-generated assets. The BTs I pissed on in Death Stranding 2 on the beach. Drowned in my piss. Me, playing blueprints, killed myself after being fucked by RNG for the last time. The hype for Grand Theft Auto 6. A second delay this year. Just put it out.

God damn. Wow, rest in power. Gone but not forgotten. We love you. We love you. We love you. And you know who else we love? Someone who's a fixture of Get Played.

Please welcome to the stage, the Resident Evil Merchant. Hey, it's me of the Resident Evil Merchant. And I'm happy to be a special guest star of the Goosey Awards in 2020. I heard a lot about things that we lost this year in gaming, and I thought I would provide a list of things I personally lost in 2025. Number one, an onion ring that I had padlocked. Number two, three, I have. Identical, loose wets.

Loose wets. I can picture it somehow. Three, a mint condition map to Ronald Reagan's grave. Four, my belt that I use for measuring things. I mean, I guess we know how long the belt is. Yeah. Five, a yellow Dracula. Number six, Mr. My Little Legs.

Mr. My Little Legs? Number seven, a Dutch oven that was not mine to begin with. Wow. That's actually probably the worst of all. Yeah. Number eight, kid-sized draino bottle, half drank. Number nine, sprayable yogurt. Number 10, the 9 o'clock dog.

Number 11, my punch card for Mr. Dick's big dick drinks that lets you suck out of the big dick at the bar. And number 12, my most saddest lost item. The key to the tunnels under jiggly looom. jiggly loo Wow This was The list of things

I lost in 2025 Wow Also gone but not forgotten Thank you Resident Evil merchant If you see my onion ring It's the one with the padlock Yeah I figured it'd be kind of hard to Mistake

How could you steal it? Well here's what I would suspect I think someone could probably eat the onion ring Around the padlock Like if you But it was locked Well if you bit a chunk of the onion ring circle, then you could easily detach it

fully from the padlock in the net. No, no, no. The padlock is guaranteed. Yeah, I mean, I think this is just maybe... If you lock anything up, it's guaranteed not to be stolen. Again, just from an obsec standpoint, I think the point of failure is that the onion ring

itself is very easy to break. You know, like Nick is saying, one bite, and that thing is just free. I don't, I, I, I understand what you're staying here But it makes no sense

You understand but it makes no sense What's your favorite thing to dip an onion ring in? You know, I went to a restaurant once That put out free onion rings for the table Okay, that's wild I could probably rip-billanish my stock there And the dipping that they provided was salsa And I was kind of like

Are we sure about this? And I did it and it kind of fucked It's good. That's good stuff. Wow. That sounds like an AI restaurant. Yeah. It's so fucking weird.

It was very strange. Well, Gunna Salsa, is it not like a Pico de Gaio? No, like a paste picante type of thing. It was fine. It was like, it was good enough. The Roja. A little roadside restaurant in like near Pismo Beach. I would say Pizmo Beach, California.

I would say that the camp there in Boy Scouts. I would say the. Some state he's still there. I would say. Say the, I like a little ranch dressing. That's usually the go-to for some rings. I got an out-of-the-box answer also, man. You, wait, hold on.

What? You have an out-of-the-box answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, tell me. Well, you ever get onion rings in a fish and chip situation? Like, oh, I'm going to get french fries, but I'm going to get onion ring instead. I've actually never done that with fish and chip. Well, you can sometimes you find a restaurant that you get that option.

Wow. Anyway, you would never think to dip an onion ring and tartar sauce, but it's actually a delicious combo. That does sound really fucking good. Out of their butts like my boy, Matt. Wow. My best friend. What the hell?

And I was his best man. That is true. Yeah. Resonium before Merchant did do some remarks at my wedding. Beautiful ceremony. Yeah, yeah. I watched them consummate the marriage. Yeah, yeah.

It was very helpful for you to cheer me hard like that. I actually remember him at the, as he was giving his remarks, holding an onion ring with a padlock on it. So, yeah. So, we know that and that it was still with me at that time. It was still with you when Matt got married last year. Over a year ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 14 months ago, you still had the onion ring.

That narrows down the window of when I lost it. That's true. That's true. It sure does. Yeah. All right. Shall we do some real awards? I kind of want some onion rings.

I do want some uny ring. I do want some unyring, even though we just dead on it said. Which way do I walk? You could just walk down the stairs there. No, not straight forward. No, no, there's a lip of the stage that you're going to fall for. Oh, that's a ditch. Stop kissing the lip of the stage.

You're going to fall off like Kelsey Grammer and say, oh, dear God. Is this curtain? No, this is it a dead end. Which way? No, yeah, go to the wings. You see it like the sides of the stage. It's called the wings. So go to either wing and there's some stairs and get you out of there.

All right, bye, everybody. Okay, bye Resident Evil Merchant. When Kelsey Grammer fell Maybe the funniest he's ever been And he's been funny Yeah Pretty good Pretty good fall

But kind of scary Because he's such a big guy He's a big guy Saitjo Bob himself Man He's super MAGA now isn't he Yeah He's also in money plane

He's also in money plane You can't forget that First category I don't know if everyone has a pick here But I have one for me Disappointment of the year And I'm I'm making

I hope you got time brother I'm making a, uh, I'm taking a big swing here. Come at me, but Nintendo Switch 2. I mean, I mean, it's like, like, why do you need to switch two right now? Bonanza's a good game. Uh, but beyond that, a Metroid Prime 4, I mean, the reception seems pretty muted, do I haven't played it yet, so I can't speak to that myself.

And then in terms of other, I guess, I guess if you really want to play some of these switch, uh, switch exclusive games in 4K, you have that option. But like, I don't know. I just, like, the mouse, which is, One of the big new things feels like really awkward to use. I'm surprised by how little use I'm getting out of a new piece of Nintendo hardware and its first year of release. This is an interesting, I probably wouldn't have said this myself, but I can agree with

the sentiment. Yeah. Because while I do, I love my Switch 2. It's a sleep piece of hardware. It's slick, it's nice. I was playing it just last night. I have all my Switch 1 games on there. Yeah.

But where are the Switch 2 games? right I even tried to boot up Mario Kart World last night just was like yeah you know what let's play this didn't even really care to play it yeah Marker World's kind of whatever I think the pretty you know I'm not saying anything new here but Mario Kart 8 is like the Mario Kart 2 that game is so fucking good and so great

I did get Metroid Prime 4 and started playing with it and it's like I do think that there is something that has happened in all of sort of any type of discourse that has become poisoned by everybody having childish brains now where somebody gives something like a 7 out of 10 and 8 out of 10

and everyone's like we're cooked it's not good and it's like that's like a perfectly good score for something and I've played it and I'm like yeah this is fine this is exactly what you want from a Metroid Prime for a game it's not reinventing the wheel or anything but it's still like extremely fun and I think well made

but I saw I saw somebody positive the theory that it's also a switch you can play it on switch one also right and because it was originally announced for switch one there's speculation that they had to put it out for switch one still um because otherwise there could have been like a class action lawsuit or something interesting like false advertising or or something like that it could be that but also i think just as easily it's like how a lot of the early ps5 exclusives were also on PS4 yeah it's just like you know, it's a much bigger install base. So I don't think it requires

necessarily like they were worried about some contractual obligation. They probably just said we could sell more units. Hopefully this virtual boy accessory breathes some new life into the Switch 2. Guys, it would be an honor to have another

virtual boy episode based on the virtual boy re-release for the Switch 2. I think it's inevitable. I think it's only matter of time. I'm going to have to figure out how to write off that accessory somehow so yes we should do it

and we should do five maybe the craziest thing to me is going to be having two of those in my office yeah yeah a virtual boy and a virtual boy emulator yeah yeah really crazy yeah um gosh because I don't even know what's on the horizon

really for switch two like what to be excited about I was gonna just I was gonna say the switch two mouse but I was like that feels like kind of a easy one to do I'd rather I just like all right so let's let's You know, I think just in terms of the, my personal reaction to it, and I also think just like a larger sentiment of the Switch 2 is that it was much anticipated, but then kind of landed with a shrug.

Of course, it will ultimately become ubiquitous, but still, I don't think it's been a, outside of Bonanza, particularly notable first year for the Switch 2. Was it rushed to get an installed base before the inevitable PlayStation handheld or Xbox handheld? I don't know. It seems like a strange thing for... Nintendo, a company that is, honestly, synonymous with big launches. Like, your systems generally come with huge system selling games, even if that's just

Wii sports. Yeah. You know, like, it is like the signature title of the Wii is the game that came with the Wii. The signature title of the NES was the game that came with the NES, the signature title of the N64, etc. The game, the systems that flop, the Wii U, to some degree, the game keeps. Yeah, sure.

Are systems that don't come with that initial huge explosive title. And I don't think Bonanza was that title. Yeah, NES, Super Mario Brothers, I'm sure if that was available at launch, but that was the most strongly associated with its most common pack-in game or Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt and later the, you know, the ROB accessory. Then there was... Super Mario World. There's Super Mario World for Super Nintendo.

Super Mario 64 for Nintendo 64. Yeah. GameCube, you're right. You kind of get like, what, Luigi's Mansion. wave race What else was on there It was kind of like I don't think

Smash Brothers was quite at launch Smash melee But it was like it was not like A there was not like a huge Like this is the game Right And then the but then the Wii obviously With Wii sports

What were the WiiU Was new Super Mario Bros. Wii U? New Super Mario Bros. You truly don't know I can't remember And then You know

Of course the Switch Had Breath of the Wild Yeah You know it's It's there will eventually be something for it. Of course. Right.

There will be something that it'll be like worth having one. But I do think we are sort of at this point in gaming where there's, I don't think we're ever going to be like there's not much more further we can go. Right. In terms of like there will always be maybe like more power. Right. But they like, I don't think so, Tim. But there probably won't be huge leaps forward graphically anymore because like, what?

it's going to look like a fucking human. I think, and I still think we should do an episode on this also. I do think that the Vision Pro, if there were games for it, would represent a huge leap forward. You think so? Like, as much as I like the Oculus or the,

the, what was it, the Vive? What the fuck was that thing called? I don't remember. A PlayStation 2 VR, all excellent systems, all excellent experiences. The Vision Pro is so laughably advanced and strange an experience that you're like, how, why, why isn't there a game that is representative of the power that's being put out by this machine? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Um, because it would be unsettling.

Yeah. I have a disappointment of the year. Oh. And I think you guys already know what it is. Uh-oh. Pokemon Legends Z-A. Oh, boy. Sorry, buddy. I think they should go fucking back to school and relearn your goddamn alphabet Well you're mad You're mad because they put the Z before the A?

No I'm mad that it sucks It's not that even that it sucks Is that it could be good You know what I mean? Like there's some of it is like Fine enough and fun And some of it even like looks okay

But then the stuff that looks bad looks bad The stuff that is not fun to play Is not fun it is just such a bummer and I wish I had liked it more I wish they had stuck to more of what was good about Legends Archaeus

and I think they just need to sort of just really sit down and think they won't do this but sit down and think about what they need to do to fix this franchise because it is like I think kids will always be playing it but like the hardcore fans

that have been I've been playing Pokemon games for your whole life. Like whole life. Yes, yeah. God, like 28 years, probably. And it's just like they could be good. Yeah. If they actually tried and made one good, it'd be fantastic, but they just don't seem

to care about that aspect of it anymore. I mentioned this in a previous episode, but I was at the barber earlier this year and, you know, it was like the barber and his client and both dudes their 30s. We spent the whole haircut complaining about the Pokemon franchise. It's made me very interested in this new Digimon game that just came out that I think I probably will check out at some point to see what's going on there. Because everyone's like, this game is actually good and like is eating ZA's lunch. Yeah. I'm, I'm disappointed as well, even though I would never play it that ZA is, you know, underdelivers because we could

have called you if you loved it, Matt Zapadaka. that would have been really cool and it's such a shame that the game is not good so we can't call me that because if it was good I would be like yeah let's do it all day but because of the game is bad we just can't you don't want that association yeah that's fucking great

that's great call me that even though the game sucks it is really such a bummer but I still look I can't make I can't definitively declare that it'll be my last Pokemon game that I buy of course until I know that they're going to make a good one because what they announced one next week I'll be like oh baby you can't wait to get that pre-order in because I'm fucking sick no it's it's like look unfortunately your relationship with Pokemon is a lot like Trump's tweet about a Coca-Cola whatever I'll keep drinking that garbage look a broken clock is right twice a day um my biggest disappointment um might come as a shock because I'm not like a vocal

fan of the franchise or anything. And that was the delay of Grand Theft Auto 6. My disappointment is twofold. One is, I do think that it compromised the release schedule for all other games in the year because

it was going to be a meteor crater of a release that was then postponed. The other reason is, I've been watching a lot of Red Dead Redemption videos on TikTok about details in the game. And one of the details, for example,

is that every NPC in the entire game is programmed to accurately eat the food that is on their plate in any, like, restaurant or whatever. So if you go up to a random NPC who's, like, eating a steak, you can see him cutting the steak, picking up that steak, putting that piece in his mouth. Whereas, like, in other games, like, you know, cyberpunk 2077, you just see the miming of like a spoon going into an non-diminishing bowl of soup.

Right. Or you'll see somebody like eating a sandwich and they're just kind of like moving their head around the sandwich but nothing is happening. But in Red Dead Redemption, every piece of food is actually eaten by the NPCs and that is an insane amount of detail. That game was released so long ago now that all I want is to see what they've done. in Grand Theft Auto I am looking forward to the serotonin of details

and to see why like to look at stuff and be like what were they, why were they doing this? You know, like to see possibly an NPC putting on roller skates and actually tying the laces. I'm waiting for that sort of like

absurdist next generation experience that I'm hoping is coming with the next Rockstar game. And every month that it is postponed, the less impressive it's going to be because other games are going to get there. You see an NPC at a urinal and they don't shake enough. So they got a little piss on their shorts. Yeah, exactly. Like, how do they do that? And you hear him say like, oh, yeah, I splash myself washing my hands. Like, yeah, dude, exactly where your piss comes out. Well, also the NPC routines in Red Dead Redemption are

like you can watch somebody like go to work and then like finish their job put the clothes sign on and like walk to their house and it's like I want to follow people around in is it Miami the next one I think it's or by city yeah yeah yeah I want to walk around and and see people like doing shit sure like that's fun you might like the movie free guy I've seen free guy and you know what I did like it oh wow I have to watch it I haven't seen it it's fine uh all right We pulled the listeners in our Discord for your game of the year, and the results are in. Matt, who did the Discord give this commendation? Look, there were hundreds of submissions, and only some of them were spelled incorrectly,

even though I asked to do your best. Because the way it works is that, like, you know, it's a Google form. Yeah. So you type something in, and the more things that are typed in the same get added to the thing. So, you know, you, when something is a little wrong, it creates a second entry for it. And so all that to say. Yep. So if you followed my instructions really well. And the winner of the listener game of the year is, if you can believe it, Claire, Obscure, Expedition 33. That's the people's choice. It's honestly, pretty much what I expected. I mean, I remember,

we did this last year for the first time, correct? Yeah. Or was it, what was it? Was it? two years ago. Here's the thing. I don't remember. I don't remember. I remember whatever year it was. I think it was last year where not on my list, but the listeners gave the award to Balatro.

And when I came back to Balatro and put dozens of hours into it, I was like, you know what? If I was going to do my own list again, that would definitely be on there, maybe even at the top. So I think this is one of those things where the listeners have correctly identified the consensus choice for the lasting game of the year for 2025. Lots of votes for blueprints. A lot of people still evangelizing that game. But, you know, some of these people can't even

fucking spell stuff right. What do they know? Let's talk about our own personal games of the year, unless anyone else has any other awards they'd like to shout out. You know, I don't have like a full breakdown of this, but I've been really enjoying, you know, I think a lot of games this year, you mentioned before we started,

a lot of games this year, had some just, like, really, really great music. Yeah. I've consistently blown away by the music and Ghost of Yote. Yep. Even just, like, at the menu screen, like at that, not even in the game menu,

the menu on PlayStation, and like the PlayStation Hub menu. That music is just gorgeous, and the music throughout the game is just really stunning. and incredible. So I think if I had to, if I had to pick a game

with the best music this year, I think it's Ghost of Yote. Wow. Maybe second to, or maybe second place would be Death Stranding 2 on the beach, which has an incredible score and soundtrack too. Yep, yep.

I would agree with those, but in reverse order. I thought Stranding's soundtrack was just stunning. But Ghost of Yotet's did make me buy a Shamasan. That's right. man, Heather's cool Heather is cool What are you talking about?

You're cool This is the weirdest shit Remember she posted that video For her just like Mirkin all those dudes And Ghost de Yotei? I actually didn't post it And people got really upset

So I meant I meant posted In terms of like you showed it to us Yeah I didn't sound like an old man I don't even know where they posted it to us Yeah And guess what? You'll never see it

Well, I don't know if I still have it. Yeah. Like, I brought it in for the, for the show, but I don't think I'm still. You brought it in on a piece of, like, cellular. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We ran it through a projector. Yeah. But, you know, you talk the talk and you walk the walk, I would say.

I like to walk. Yeah. I don't like to talk. Okay, personal games of the year. Okay. I have one pick, but I'm going to give a few honorary mentions, honorable mentions, which are games that were lower profile. and, you know, as me as the guy who kind of fills the story-driven game, the narrative-driven game slash puzzle game sort of beat over here.

I just wanted to acknowledge some games that maybe some people who are into these genres. If you didn't already get to it, maybe you've heard of it, maybe it's been on your radar, but these are games I definitely thoroughly enjoyed this year. The Drifter, the Australian graphic adventure game where you play an unhouse person in a really a disturbing sort of Lovecraftian world. Is this seat taken, a game that Rancho also played, which is a puzzle game about just social manners, and it's really soothing, it's a nice short journey, and Strange Jigsaws, which is from a solo dev that's just like a really unique and a pretty dazzling design in terms of all the different ways it takes existing puzzles and remixes them, almost warriorware style, absent the timer. But my pick for game of the year came late, you know, recency bias a hoi, although I think this game is going to stick with me. And I really, really am anticipating what developer ad hoc is going to come up with in the future. Telltale veterans have reinvented the telltale style game with dispatch, a superhero management sim story game that is an absolute triumph of narrative design. And also just like has great writing, great acting, fantastic art.

Like I've mentioned it when I talked about this game. It's my favorite looking game of the year just from a purely visual standpoint. Favorite looking game from a visual standpoint. Fucking Jesus Christ. Come on, man. I got to do better. Keep it together. But when we were talking about audio earlier, I held my tongue because I didn't want to spoil my game of the year.

But Dispatch has my favorite soundtrack. Oh, wow. Excellent. I'm going to play that soon. As soon as I'm done with Yote, I'm going to get straight into dispatch, I think. It's really funny, too. I'm ready to laugh. So am I.

I'm ready to laugh. I love it. Yeah, as you guys... 70 minutes in to get played, I'm ready to laugh. Hey, look, I'm ready to laugh. Look, I keep a list. You guys know I do this every year. I keep a list of the games I finish.

Yeah. And this year... Mr. Games. The numbers were low. Oh! The numbers were quite low. year, actually. It was a busy year.

Lots going on. Yeah. These are the games that I finished this year. Kingdom Hearts 0.2, birth by sleep, a fragmentary passage. Real snub for subtitle of the year for that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And here's the thing, it was short, but it was really good. Yeah.

I loved it. Blueprints. Yuck. Celeste. A great, an incredible video. Incredible game. I love it. The thing I will say, I finished, I finished 10 games total this year. Some of the games I finished are just like, just all-timers. Celeste being one of them. Mother 3.

An incredible experience, as we mentioned earlier. Donkey Kong Bonanza. Really good, but overstayed, it's welcome. Death Stranding 2 on the beach. I'll have more to say about that in a second. Wow. Metal Gear Solid 5 Ground Zero's, the opening chapter, not even the full game. Also really fucking good. I got to get back in there and play The Phantom Pain, so our pal, Sean Diston,

will stop bothering me about it. Okay. Just kidding, I love you, Sean. Hollow Night. And then after Hollow Night, Silk Song comes out, a bunch of stuff comes out. I'm not finishing any games because I'm only playing Holo Night and then, like, Silk Song and Ghost of Yote. But I finish, I play through inside, and then I finish Pokemon Legends ZA, and that's it.

Okay. That's a lot. That's pretty good. It's pretty good. It's 10, but it's, you know, some of them are chunky, right? You're approaching a game a month, which is a damn good finishing rate. It's not bad. You are the finisher, after all.

In previous years, there was like 17, 24, like, some of these certainly pandemic years. Yes, yeah. When I started making the list. But last time this year to finish. some games. But now when it comes to game of the year, I have two options. One, a game I have not finished. Holonite Silk Song, which I need to get back to because it's calling to me. Like a siren out on the rocks in the ocean there. I need to get back. And that's honestly what my wife thinks the game sounds like. I have to turn the volume down sometimes without playing it because

I'm dying too much and my wife hates the sound. And Death Stranding 2 on the beach Those are my two contenders. Wow. Okay. And I think solely because I haven't finished Silk Song. Wow.

I think I have to give the edge to Death Stranding 2 on the beach because it's just such a, it's such a, it's such a triumph. It's such a, it really takes what's great about the first one and makes it more accessible.

accessible. It is a great story, a sequel. You know, I feel like he's done, Hideo's done sequels, two games, but never necessarily like direct sequels. Right? So this is kind of like the first one of these he's ever done really. And it actually just works and it's really, really great. I think the gameplay is really just well refined and a lot of fun and the story goes into interesting places and I just think it's a game that everybody should play. I think it's fantastic. So I think that's my overall pick for game of the year. I did not finish Death Stranding too on the beach, but I really enjoyed my time with it as a definite step up from Death Stranding, which is itself a game that I love. But just like in terms of iterating on the formula, making it more

accessible, more playable, and just a little bit more user-friendly, but also continuing to have the world building and story that's such a signature of Kojima productions. I love it. I love it. Um, guys, I played a few games this year and I beat more games this year than I normally beat. Oh, wow. I beat Blueprints. I beat Ghost of Yote. I beat Death Stranding 2. Um, and for me, that's an enormous amount of time dedicated to playing video games in a year where I was extremely busy. Um, I also want a shout out

Pokemon the card game pocket. Oh. Which as of record, I've just hit Masterball for the second time this year. There is no there's no beating the game unless I guess you're ranked first

in the whole fucking world, which I don't have the time to do. But I do feel like as the game has gone on, I have become a better Pokemon the card game player because there is a surprising amount of strategy

in the game. and mind games that you start to learn how to play against your invisible online opponent. So I want to shout that game out. But I would be lying if I said that either of those games matched the tonnage of a game that I played every single day this year at least once. And that is Fortnite.

Wow. Since Fortnite came into my life here on this podcast. It has affected my joy. It has affected my social circle. It has become something that I truly look forward to every single day. So even though I know that Death Stranding 2 tells a better story, even though I know the combat in Ghost of Yote was more enjoyable for me. The fact is that as of a few days ago when Fortnite Rapped was launched, I played 298 hours of Fortnite this year. Wow.

That is about an hour a day. I mean, given days away, time where I, like, didn't have access to my console, et cetera, et cetera. That's 1,216 matches with 327 wins and 3,211 kills. And how many kills in Fortnite? Zero. The Fortnite median on the island is 55 hours spent playing per year. So 298 hours represents an enormous amount of time. I have friendships that have developed inside of this game with people who I would not have met in any other capacity and are now like, you know, fundamental parts of my, of my social life.

Jonesy, Peely, Ariana Grande, LeBron James. Yep, yep. The T1,000. Yep. Great. They're great. And in fact, it gave me an appreciation for the Simpsons that the show itself never gave me.

And it was like, oh, wow, I'm existing in this world for a month. And I get the appeal, even on an aesthetic level. Like, I was like, I get the aesthetic of the Simpsons for the first time. Yeah, I feel like a lot of, the younger gamers who maybe their knowledge of the Simpsons is like my knowledge of like Betty Boop or Felix the cat not that it's that old but it's like I know this iconography I know what this vaguely is I know what Popeye is but I'm not like a big Popeye fan but so like being kind of immersed in it in Fortnite I think yeah maybe bring some new fans to Springfield

yeah so the the truth is that as much as there were other games that were more complete and singular experiences. Fortnite is my game of the year. Wow. And I really liked playing the season ending event where I got to watch Hatsune and Miko on the head of Godzilla firing a beam together to kill a giant Kathulu in the distance. It's fucking sick as hell.

It fucking ruled. The time that I spent with it this year only in the Simpsons. season sort of did make me appreciate it the game a lot more and I kind of want to just get in there more regularly

it is a lot it is so much fun even just playing solo it's the hardest I've laughed this year yeah yeah like harder than you know anything else like jokes on television shows fun like shit I wrote earlier certainly

yeah things me and Matt have said yeah the things you and Matt have said I can read the joke again if you are yeah absolutely it just it's it's weird because it's it's therapeutic to laugh that much oh yeah and the game is naturally funny because of the juxtapositions of lebron james fighting homer simpson at a gas station until it explodes so uh yeah that's my game of the year wow it is kind of funny i didn't really thought about this because like lebron james ariana grande show hey otani like there's a bunch of like real people in the game.

But then like Homer Simpson and is like in the game. So like then you're sort of like, are these real people fake or is Homer real? They're there. So Homer is real. Great question. Homer is real. And the way we know that Homer is real is because Saitama from one punch man can't be in the game. That's right.

Yes. Yes. So the fact that Saitama has to be a digital projection. because canonically Fortnite is happening. There have been discussions on Reddit about a rumored collaboration with Sora and what it means

canonically for Sora and his access to our world. That's brainbreaking. That would actually probably scare me too much to play. Because they have to, like, the way that I guess Sora works and his access to worlds

means that he has access than to Shohei Otani which means he has access to our reality Damn Sora in a fucking in Dodger Blue

he'd look sick as hell Yeah he would Anyway They need more players They need more players Ranch do you have a favorite thing you played this year Um

I think the little nightmares Wow Okay So I finished those games in, like, three days. What was so appealing about them, do you? I just, like, love the environment and the vibe and, like, I love a spooky puzzle situation. And, yeah, I just thought the game was so beautiful.

And you played a lot of heavy hitters this year. I know you played Silk Song, and you played Expedition 33. Yeah. And then I think Resident Evil 8, 7. Yes. was this year was resident four this year as well uh the remake the remake i think came out last year or the well the remake came out but i think ranch got to it this year oh you got to this year i'm sorry oh allan wake two fuck i forgot i played allen wake two at the start of this year allan wake two fucking rocks

i was just telling somebody about it and it was like you have to just play it it'll change your life i finished metaphor refontazia and then rolled right into allan wake two i was like this video games were back He's a fucking bat. Shall we try to come up to a consensus game of the year? I mean, I think there's kind of, I guess there's one or two candidates here because of the games you have mentioned, I have played not finished Death Stranding 2

and Ghost of Yote. And with the two of you having a lot more hours in both, I will defer to your consensus in terms of what you think might win. but I certainly I don't think any of my picks were on your radar. I still think Game of the Year is Blueprints. You think it's Blueprints. You know, it's kind of funny for us to not like blueprints and give it to give it our Game of the Year award.

The thing is I just, I fucking hated it, right? I don't, it represents everything I fucking hate in games. Yeah. Puzzles, like the priority on puzzles, traversal speed was disgustingly slow. and the RNG element of trying to solve a puzzle was like putting my hand in a fucking microwave. It sucked. But as a representative of things that we haven't even thought of yet

that games can do and will do in the future, Blueprints does something entirely new. Yeah. That, I mean, games have been around this whole fucking time, this whole time. And nobody has been like, what if you made a game where you built the rooms as you went? It is a staggering design. It is really, really impressive and it is incredibly thoughtful and innovative.

It's the kind of thing where if there was like a, you know, sometimes with the Oscars, there'll be a split between best director and best picture. It's the kind of thing of like, you know, like Tonaras, who the solo dev largely behind blueprints. I feel like that's the most impressive game director. direction, the most impressive game design of the year, even though that game was not my favorite of the year. And I will say, contrary, you, Heather, this is exactly the sort of game I should like. Like, this harkens back to, you know, games we've, we've covered in the podcast, like a seventh guest, you know, but also just like, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a puzzle game, which I love. it has all this emergent um environmental storytelling which is all shit that that is like like like

like give me a yum give me some for me it was just the RNG of it and that there were not more quality of life elements in there where you had to like keep repeating tasks and kind of like like hope things would line up for you to have the perfect run even if you knew exactly what to do and those are the kind of times that those are the kind of things that just like made me reach a point where it's just banging my head against the wall sometimes literally because it was in a dead end. Sure. I completely agree with that. I agree with it. But when I look at these other games, Death Stranding 2 is, now the year the Death Stranding came out, I was like, this is the fucking game of the year. Because it was a kind of game that had never existed. Where you're like delivering

packages and that's the full dopamine motivator of your experience of the game, right? But Death Stranding 2 is just revision and sort of replenishment of that idea. Claire Obscure, as gorgeous and beautiful and inviting as that game was, it is ultimately a game design we've seen before. Ghost of Yote, similarly, you know, I fucking loved it. I ripped through all of those guys and had a blast. And the amount of control it gave me as a player over the difficulty level on the game and the specificity of that difficulty was very welcome.

But none of those games were doing something where I'm, I'm like, yeah, the next time a game comes out like blueprints, you're going to call it a blueprints like, the same way you call it a strand-like. Sure. Which means to me it is, it has to be the game that represents 2025 because it's the invention of a new genre, and I fucking hate it. I'll just say, I think Claire, obscure,

and I know you're just talking in generally, and it is, you know, largely just like an incredibly well-crafted RPG. again, did not finish the game, but really enjoyed my time with it. But I feel like the combat mechanics feel like something pretty fresh in terms of like adding something of that genre. Yeah, action turn base. Yeah. But I will say that, which again, which something's been attempted before, but in particular

how active it is, how engaging it is. A lot of players who I know who are not at all turn, like turn base combat is usually like I will not play this game. A deal breaker ended up playing through, finishing, loving this game. but I think it's a it's a great argument and honestly I'm all for it yeah I because I was so obsessed with it in the same way that I was obsessed with animal well yeah I put 30 hours into it like like right away oh I'm like fucking suck me in it's uh well yeah you're saying that to a lot of things but like okay

all right on my PlayStation rap you know all these things all these things are wrapped now by the way, get your own fucking thing. Yeah. I got a fucking Waymo wrapped. It's like, I don't need this. You did? Yeah, I did. I got in a Waymo the other day for the first time ever

and unfortunately ruled. It was so fucking good. This is the thing. The Waymo experience is like, you're like, I'll never get in a Waymo and then you get a Waymo and they're just like, I will only ride in Waymo's. They've created an issue that they needed to, they created a solution for.

The whole thing fucking sucks. Like, all of it is bad. All of it's bad. What if you could just call a taxi? and it was just an unvetted guy because these taxi guys these taxi drivers and private drivers had special licenses and certifications

what if we just got rid of all that a normal man could just come pick you up great oh great now these normal men that are doing this are all fucking creeps sickos what if there was just no driver now and then so now great okay cool cool cool now we just do that great

what if now the car runs people over or drives people through crime scenes or whatever the fuck. We live in hell. But I got in it and we were in San Francisco. And I don't know if you guys know about this about the geography of San Francisco, the topography rather. Yeah. A lot of big

hills there. Pretty hilly, yeah. Well, let me tell you, we got to the top of the hill and started to go down the hill. Me and my entire family screamed in the way, Mo. We were all so fucking scared. Even though we were talking to the way.

Waymo. Like, what are you going to do, Waymo? Oh, God, Waymo. This car's not turning, Waymo. You've got to pick another lane. Having a lot of fun in there. But I was obsessed with this game to a point. Can I say an aside? They published, Waymo published the accident data for the Waymo's. And it is by a huge margin safer than human. So much safe. I'm sure. And it's like every argument you could throw at the thing for like how it shouldn't exist. and how bad it is and how it's eliminating jobs, all of it, all of it, goes out the window when it's just like there have been three fatalities in Waymo's and every time it's been somebody else teaboning the Waymo. Yes, yeah.

If there was like a, you know, like whatever, if we had a functioning government and public sector under any party, if there was like a, this is the kind of thing you should be like, hey, we should, there's so much money that is spent on people who are injured and killed in, you know, so much loss is endured because of people

who die in traffic fatalities and, and people who are injured in traffic accidents, car crashes. And with automated vehicles being so much safer, if there was some sort of Apollo project or a Manhattan project to get as many self-driving cars on the road as fast as possible, financially incentivize people to use self-driving cars over driving themselves, it would save so many lives. Oh, yeah.

And also probably save so many hours. It would be much more efficient because these automated cars would not create the kind of obstructions and traffic that humans. do by driver error. I kind of want to buy my own. That's the thing. You're in a Waymo is like, I never want to drive myself. Like, this is fucking the best.

It'd be cool if I had my own Waymo and I could get in it, pick you guys up, do whatever. Kind of, it'd be sick as hell. Imagine how many more work hours you'd get in Los Angeles if you could just get in a car and work the whole time. Boy, I didn't even think about that. The expectation will be then you'll be working on your way to work. Yeah. Fuck that. Never mind.

Toss them all into the sea for all I care. Let me record my fan duel ad from the back seat. Honestly, I'll do something like that. Yeah, sure. I'll do a lot of things in there. Oh, boy. Great. Now people are going to pound off in the back of a Waymo.

It was on my Waymo wrapped. We have... Hours pounded on. We've received a complaint from the company that Nick Weiger, customer, Nick Weiger, customer, 184, 644, that you took a sponge bath in the back of a fucking Waymo. got one of those fucking sponges on a stick scrum in his back

the thing about blueprints is that to me it was fun until it wasn't right like it was like interesting enough but like I'm somebody who like you know comes as a shock to nobody hated homework, hated school the fact that they're mixing homework into my video games

like what the fuck are we doing you're making me write stuff down Right. I'm just trying to vibe. See, I'm loving that. I'm loving that I got my, my notepad and my pen there. Fine, call me a doorcast. That's fine.

I'm like, that's the stuff I'm loving. It's just, of course. Once you start to get towards the end game and then you're trying to pursue all the post game content and, you know, you do get those, the, those improvements that you happen, like, you know, Rogue Light style that like make it so, you know, it just makes everything a little bit easier. I'm trying to remember specifically what they all are now. But like, things like, and I know this got patched in.

update but like having to put in the safe combinations each time or like having to hope that you're going to get this specific room this you know so you can uh you know do this valve puzzle and like oh wait the other room didn't spawn in this run so i can't like you know whatever i just have to open again like like like like like really just trying to when you know what you wanted to do and the game would not let you do it that was the sort of things where i just feel like i just feel like this isn't respecting my time but i did love it and it is an incredibly impressive design it is a unique game there's I know a thriving speed run community around Blueprints, which is really fascinating to watch the Blueprint speed runs.

And so I'm glad it exists. I'm grateful for the time I spent with it, even if overall I came away with a pretty, you know, overall for me was not the most fun experience in the end. But our game of the year, sure, why not? It's for sure. It's the game of the year. Congratulations.

The Get Played Game of the Year is Blueprints. I will say one more thing. game we didn't like. I think games, this is happening in TV shows and in movies now too where they're sort of like, oh, you know what,

it doesn't have an ending. Yeah. It kind of just ends. Yeah. I think, or it continues after the ending. Right. I think it's okay to have an ending.

Yeah. It's fine to have an ending. I think it's good. People are complaining about, one of the complaints about Metroid Prime for Beyond is that it's only 14 hours long. And I'm like, that's music to my fucking ear.

Yeah. You kidding me? Incredible. Yep. I'm glad I don't need an 80-hour Metroid Prime game I know I don't need it but games need endings

and blueprints congratulations we love you congratulations we now love you hey that's the goatsies that's this week's get played our producer's Rochelle Chen Ranch yard underscore underscore Sard ranch you streaming anything lately

yeah awesome check that out on Twitch our music is by Ben Prunty Benpruddy music.com our art is by Duck Brigade Design Duck Brigade.com. 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 get animated, which we are continuing through the year of the end of the year. That's right. And this week we're watching

the live action ghost in the shell. That's right, starring Scarlett Johansson. So check that out over at patreon.com slash get played. And then in the new year, we're going to be doing something a little bit different for our Patreon. So keep that on your radar. Yeah, some new stuff, some Slick stuff. Some slick stuff. And hey, what a fun year doing the podcast with y'all. What a time. I love doing this.

I love chopping it up with the TriForce of Friendship and of course, Ranch. Which sounds like I'm excluding Ranch from being friends. But Ranch is part of it. Ranch is a huge part of the show. I do think that like doing this show, I know I'll speak for myself, but I think for all of us that it's a fun thing that we always look forward to doing, even though when it can become like difficult to do sometimes. I've just enjoyed doing this show with all four of us all year.

And it's just one of my favorite things to do. It is a staggering amount of work for something that sounds completely thoughtless. An enormous amount of prep every week, even on episodes where we're just talking about our three favorite Luigi's. And yet... Oh, we should bring that back. Yeah. Yeah, I don't say it's time for the... It's very good, very appropriate to bring back the Triforce of Luigi's.

And yet it is a highlight of my week every week, and I am so grateful to the three of you and also to the people who continue to listen to the show with patience and kindness and support. And hopefully the reward for that is the return of the format that brought so many of you on board to begin with. Yeah, and let me just reiterate that what Heather just said. But yes, we really appreciate your fandom and particularly, appreciate your kindness. A lot of you have been incredibly kind and supportive when, you know, I've been in and out of the podcast. So thank you so much for all your sentiments. I just met some, I met three fans over the weekend. Wow. At one place, Enrique, Christoph, and

Matt. Shout out to all three of you guys. Shout out to everybody. Wow. Everybody's here. Everybody is here. And games of 2025, you got played. Hi, I'm Nicole Byer. Hi, I'm Sashir Zameda. And this is the podcast, Best Friends. And we're here at HeadGum. So this is just a podcast where we just talk. Yeah.

We're best friends. Yeah. We talk. And then we have a segment where we answer questions and queries. So audience members can ask questions about friendships and we can answer them to the best of our abilities. Yes. We are professional friends. We are professional friends.

Subscribe to Best Friends on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, PocketCast, or wherever you get your podcast and watch videos on YouTube. New episodes drop every Wednesday. That's the middle of a work week. I was deeply unhelpful to you during that whole thing. You are. I'm really sorry. I felt the support. I was so, okay.

I was trying to be supportive. Yeah. But I was like, I don't know. Reading seems pretty hard right now. It's a lot. I think you did good. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

Thank you.