Get Played - The Get Played 2023 Games of This Year Awards

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

It’s gaming’s biggest night and Nick, Heather, Matt, the Resident Evil Merchant, Joel Miller, the Starfield guy and more are all here to celebrate the year of 2023 in gaming! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod.Check out our Anime watchalong podcast Get Anime'd 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] 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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the Get Played 2023 Games of This Year Award, the Goatsies. And all our stars in gaming are out on the red carpet. Wow. That's right. All the stars are here tonight. All the biggest gaming stars. Coming out of his limo is from the 2023 August 18th release. It's Leatherface.

Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre game. You know, one of the biggest hits, one of the biggest titles of the year. Everybody's talking about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre game. And there's Leatherface. He's waving. He's having a good year. Everybody's talking about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre game. And there's Leatherface. He's waving. He's having a good time. He's got a leather face. Hey, well, Leatherface might want to look out because in Hot Pursuit is America's favorite survival horror himbo,

Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil 4 Remake. And look at that. He's with his date, Ashley Biden. Can't get enough president's daughters. Look out, Leatherface. Wow. It's a big night here in video games. Of course, there's Pac-Man.

There's Alan Wake walking hand in hand. Maybe we're going to hear a romance announcement from the two of them, Pac-Man and Alan Wake. It's been hinted at. It's been questioned. But is Alan Wake fucking Pac-Man? Is that what's happening here? Is he fucking Pac-Man? We know that Josh Gad already fucked Q-Bert, so there is a

precedent for this sort of relationship. That's right. Tough news for Ms. Pac-Man though. Oh, gosh. I cannot believe what I'm seeing right now. Gollum has just fallen down the stairs. Gollum has taken a tumble down some stairs. Oh, boy. From the video game Gollum. Tough year for Gollum.

Yeah. He also just looks like shit. Yeah, he looks fucking nasty. And Gollum, if you can hear me, get it to fucking gather, dude. Everybody else here is hot as shit. Get it together. You look dead, dude.

You look like dead, and you look like you're from two console generations ago. Yeah. Oh, oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Kirby just sucked up Gollum. Oh God.

And now Kirby looks like shit. Oh no. Kirby looks like shit. Kirby's one of our most beloved characters. Why did he do that? Gray Kirby. Oh my God. Oh no.

He's, oh, poor Kirby. Oof, rough. Oh, this is a cute, look at this little guy. Even though it was closed this year, right there on the red carpet is the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS and Wii U. Aww. What a cute little shopping bag, waving, saying hi. We miss you. eShop for the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U.

Oh, wait. It looks like Alan Wake has abandoned Pac-Man and is going over and trying to romance the eShop for the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U. Oh, wait, it looks like Alan Wake has abandoned Pac-Man and is going over and trying to romance the eShop. Oh, my God. This is really awkward. Super awkward. Yeah. Apparently he has some romantic affections

for the sentient manifestation of an online shopping platform. Oh, look at him. Here we go. Here's a big breakout star holding up the line because he's holding up a sign. From Tears of the Kingdom, it's President Hudson Simp Addison. There is Addison supporting the president as he always does. Wow. Hey, good job, Addison.

We love Addison. And finally, on the red carpet, the biggest star of all, you, the player. You, the player. We wrap up 2023 with our annual Games of This Year awards, this week on 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, Heather Ann Campbell, along with fellow host, Nick Weiger. That's me, Nick Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Matt Apodaca. Hello, everyone.

It's gaming's big night. That's right. Can we say that? It's gaming's big night. We can say that. It's gaming's big night, the biggest night of the year, when all the stars come out, all the hosts are here, and the most incredible

outfits are walking down that red pixelated carpet. It's the game of the year. What is what do we call this? It's the 2023 Get Played Games of This Year Awards, aka The Goatsies. It. The Goatsies.

It's The Goatsies! Ba-do-do-do-do-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- So like we're sending that to a composer and like a composer is going to compose that. So like this won't be in the show. No, what you hear will be like that composer is going to do. We've actually got it like a Count Basie AI that's going to do like a big band scoring of that. Yeah. So that's what you'll hear. It's going to be good and it's definitely, that wasn't the final version. That wasn't the final, what you heard, what you heard was the final

version, but what we did in studio live, that was just us like, you know, riffing it out. I'm really impressed with the sort of budget of this year's production and just the overall like visual architecture

and I know that you guys are at home and you're listening to this as a podcast but this is a real event so i want you to close your eyes and imagine that matt apodaca is in a really fresh looking tuxedo uh i'm in this like tuxedo jacket with a with a skirt uh bottom like a half dress, half tuxedo. And Nick is in tighty whities with a hundred bow ties around his neck. It is the night to remember. And there are lights. I mean, over there is, there's Kevin Costner.

He's on the carpet. Hi, Kevin. Nice to see you. And we also have, oh, there's Neil Druckmann. Costner thought he was at the Emmys, actually. That's the issue. He thought he was there to get like, you know, an the issue. He thought he was there to get an award for Yellowstone. He showed up to the wrong ceremony.

He's pissed off. He's furious. He's fucking throwing glasses. I overheard him saying, I could kick all of your asses to everybody. Is he a big guy? He's a big guy. He said that to Duke Nukem. Yeah.

I was like, man, take it easy. And Duke got shy. That was the kind of thing. He was like, oh, take it easy. And Duke got shy. That was the kind of thing. He was like, oh, he's all bark, no bite. Yeah. He's all bluster. This dude is all bite. He's all bite.

Kevin Costner is all bite. 100% all bite. 100%. He's 6'1". He's a big dude. He's 6'1"? He's a big guy. He's big enough to be a pitcher in the major leagues, which is why he makes so many movies about baseball.

6'1 is really tall for an actor. Yeah, it's true. Isn't De Niro 5'1? He's a foot taller than De Niro, I think. There are a lot of short kings who have succeeded in the film world. De Niro's 5'10, but he looks small. Wait, what? He's 5'10. The looks small. Wait, what? The little guy is

Pacino? What's his name? No, it's not Pacino. It's not Al anymore. It's Dunk! Yeah! That was the longest setup. No, that was great.

Guys, I'm really happy to be here. I know I've missed a couple episodes, but we're recording these things out of order. So right now I feel great. I'm, you know, in the middle of my treatment and I feel fucking great. It's been a great December. And no, I'm really, this is wonderful. I love these award events. It's been a great December.

This is wonderful. I love these award events. It's a big night for everyone. What do you call gaming's Hollywood? Hollywood's a good pitch. Voxelwood? Yeah, because there isn't like a... Nintendo Land. It's not geographically clustered in the way that Hollywood or the Silicon Valley is.

Studios are kind of worldwide. It's Meta's gaming... The biggest night of the Metaverse. I don't know. Pixelville? Pixelville! Yeah. It's Pixelville's biggest night.

That sounds good that does sound good all right we'll roll with that hey can we speaking of pixels and speaking of last time you were here heather i i there so here's the here's the thing i was very anxious about our super mario brothers 3 episode which i think we overall did a pretty good job we did but it's it's it's a daunting task to try to be comprehensive about a game of that import there were a couple things i was looking back i game of that import there were a couple things i was looking back i was like i think there are a couple things that we just didn't mention that i just wanted to get out there just as like i think they're just like important notes the first

is is kuribo's shoe aka goomba's shoe uh which we didn't talk about at all on that episode but it's one of the best video game levels of all time it's the one where you there's a goomba in a shoe and you can if you hit him from below uh you can pop them out of the shoe and then Mario himself can, or Luigi can hop into the shoe and use the shoe as this one level only power up. And it's just like the central mechanic and it's never returned to, we don't, you don't see the shoe again anywhere else in Super Mario Brothers 3, but it's just such an awesome, um, awesome design. And also for a level that I think you can skip as well. So just like every aspect of it, just they were like, let's go, let's fully commit, let's make an all new mechanic that's for one level and then it's completely disposable.

The other thing is- I like- Yeah, go on. I like that for the listener, it's been weeks. Yes, it's been a full month. It's as if Nick is like, I got to talk about the shoe. I got to, as soon as we like, I got to talk about the shoe. I got as soon as we can. I got to talk about the shoe.

So I'm glad you brought it up because I, you know, I'm frustrated that you didn't talk about the shoe. Although you did talk about the shoe on a different episode. On a different episode, which is maybe why I felt like it was accounted for. But I was like, I feel like we should have given it, highlighted it a little bit in the context of talking about the game itself. I was like, I feel like we should have highlighted it a little bit in the context of talking about the game itself. The other thing is, I don't think we talked about this, that the whole game is presented as a stage play, which is a big part of what's fun about it. Is that you got the curtains rising, you kind of go off stage at the end of each level. And that also just like a lot of like the architecture appears to be stuff that's like, you know, bolted to the back wall or that are flats. You know, it's that the whole game itself

is like a work of fiction within a work of fiction. And it's not directly referenced. It's just like sort of like presented for you. If I recall, that was like slightly mentioned, but not like we didn't really expand on that. Yeah. Why is Mario so afraid of showing us his true self? Because like Super Mario USA is a dream super mario 3

is a play it's not actually happening right uh super mario like paper mario constantly breaks the fourth wall like they they know they're in a video game so what is the core actual mario is it mario world is that like the core world is actually happening? I think maybe that's like the closest that we've seen to his reality, like a Super Mario World or a Super Mario Brothers 1. Yeah. You know? But yeah, a lot of it. I mean, I guess Mario RPG breaks the fourth wall a lot too.

But I think I brought this up on the show too, speaking of Mario not showing his true self. Which is the real Mario? Is Mario, when self, which is the real Mario? Is Mario, when he's little, the real Mario? Chris Pratt. Well, Chris Pratt's the real Mario. We know that. He's the real Mario.

Because if you're little, if you're base Mario without a mushroom power-up, and you get hit by a Goomba, you die. Yeah. But if you get the mushroom, you become bigger. Yeah, if you get embiggened. And then you go back down to small right so it's small mario but the mario but small mario is disproportionate to the

other humanoid creatures within the mario universe i think that big mario is default mario and what my evidence for that is 3d mario the way he's presented is more of a big Mario. And that he's kind of like in a, you know, like a reduced state when he's a small guy. I think that, okay, that's fair. But what's confusing about that, though, is that that's how he starts off when you're playing any of the 2D Marios. He starts off little. So yeah, it's confusing. I would like them to do a whole game where he's little. That'd be fun. A mario game yeah my favorite part of award shows is when the hosts just pontificate

about whether or not one of the characters is real like that's my favorite well here's the thing you know i've written for a number of a number of award shows and uh this was actually what i had i prepped as the monologue for the MTV Movie Awards a couple years ago. Aubrey Plaza was going to go up and just talk about Super Mario Brothers 3 for 10 minutes, but it got vetoed. This is our version of in a real award show when some liberal actor gets on their soapbox. Yes, exactly. And doesn't stick to the movies. Yes. That's what we were doing right now. Oh, pollution is a serious issue. Shut up, Leo.

God, I'm so sick of hearing about pollution from actors. Me too. I'm pissed. Me too. It's too fucking much. Just admit that the world's going to end. Yeah. And like, that's it.

We're done. We're past the point of no return. Shut up. Like, let me throw a Pepsi can directly into a river. That's what I want to do. That's my ideal life is to drink Pepsis and throw the cans into the river. Yeah. I'd go Coke probably in that case.

But yeah, Pepsi's fun too. Yeah. Pepsi's. I mean, if it's the option, I'll drink it. But I'd rather Coke probably in that case, but yeah. Pepsi's fun too. Yeah, Pepsi's. I mean, if it's the option, I'll drink it, but I'd rather it be Coke. Does burning a Pepsi can make it more toxic? Because if so, I'm going to throw it through a fire into the river. We're here at gaming's biggest night. That's right.

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with a delicious bowl of high-protein cereal at magicspoon.com slash getplayed and use code getplayed to save $5 off. Thank you, Magic Spoon, for sponsoring this episode. So we're not here to get into any sort of activism. We've just fully embraced nihilism and as we all, you know, hurtle towards oblivion, So we're not here to get into any sort of activism. We've just fully embraced nihilism. And as we all, you know, hurtle towards oblivion,

let's distract ourselves with some entertainment. Let's talk about some video games we've been playing. It's time for What Are You Playing? What are you playing? It's gaming's biggest night. And I'm here because I want to tell you guys, I'm really proud of you. Wow, Resident Evil merchant, that's high praise coming from you. Oh, it is.

It is. I don't dole out compliments willy-nilly. You really don't? I really don't. You know, I'm more of a merchant. Like, I deal in compliments, but you got to pay me for them. And I just want to say it's been a tough year at Get Played, and I am so proud of you guys. Wow.

We're proud of you. I want my job back. Okay. Here it is. There it is. I knew it was all lip service. It's always something with the merchant. And it's actually not the time to be doing this right now.

We're in the middle of a very important broadcast. I stole my tuxedo from Shaquille O'Neal, and I'm here. You're swimming in it. You look ridiculous. Yeah, you look ridiculous. Actually, I look sharp. You look sharp. That looks great.

You look great. I want my job back. And I don't know. I feel you today. You know, all the merriment of the holidays is behind us. There's peace in the Middle East. And I just want my job back. Wait, what are you talking about?

When do you think this is coming out? Do you read the news? Do you pay attention to what's going on? I guess you live in a different reality. So maybe things are happening different in the Resident Evil universe. I guess everything else seems trivial when La Plaga is running rampant right yeah in the world i know i know that i i know that this podcast is recorded out of sequence oh so you're you're you're going you're extrapolating into the future you're assuming everything is going to be all wrapped up i think then what holidays are behind us because

this is certainly coming out before christmas in the new year 28 oh so you think this is we're holding on to this for a long time i haven't had a job in a lot yeah no i'm assuming this is years in the future uh look i'm gonna i'm just gonna gonna make an offer here resident merchant i think you've been a huge part of the show over the years that here are you offering? Here's what I'm offering. What are you offering? I think in the new year, the doors open if you want to make a comeback.

If you want your job back, you know, that possibility is going to exist for you in 2024. If the doors open, so is my coat. What are you playing? Wow. He's back. Had nothing on under that coat.

Yeah, yeah. I found a needle on the beach, and I injected myself with it without looking what was inside. I feel great. You look great. Thank you. Sometimes I don't necessarily condone that, but it could pay off sometimes. I mean, if you look closely, you're bleeding from your eyeballs. Yeah.

But other than that, yeah. Not great. That's typical. Got it. Nick. sometimes. I mean, if you look closely, you're bleeding from your eyeballs. But other than that, yeah. Not great. That's typical. Nick. Yes. Nick Weiger. What are you playing? I'll be brief.

I'm back and playing Baldur's Gate 3, but here's what I did. I rolled a new character. Because enough time had passed since I had my paladin stranded in Act 1, and I was like, you know what? I've forgotten a lot of the decisions I've made, and though I could kind of piece together what I've done through these, you know, whatever, 15, 20 hours of play time, I just would rather relive it, re-experience it. So I went through and I rolled a bard. And I'm playing a bard now.

I'm back in Act 1. Wow. And the game's, it's just fucking terrific. And it's an absolute delight. So that's my very, very brief what do you play in. After the holidays in the new year we'll hopefully have some more extensive experience with Baldur's Gate 3 and I'll talk about

that playthrough because I want to finish this bad boy. Nick, I've been thinking about doing the exact same thing but I've played for 106 hours. Holy shit! I don't think that I can. Yeah, are you in Act 3 or are you in Act 2 still? I'm at the end of Act 2. I'm getting my ass handed to me at the end of Act 2.

I think power through to the end with that character, but I definitely have that feeling all the time playing RPGs, especially when you create a character. All the time I'm like, I should just abandon this and do a whole new game. Yeah, I think I got to just get back into the rhythm of it, but I would like to pick that back up so maybe i'll have an update about that as well wow i just noticed your shoes nick they look really comfortable oh thanks yeah are we still doing a awards apparel or are we back in

reality uh we can do awards apparel for just a second here they got that so this is a converse all-star but it looks like it's one of the ones that has a nice padded base, it looks like. It looks good. Okay, so we are in our reality. Oh, no, this is, oh, yeah. So, right, I'm not wearing a- Where the fuck are we? What is happening?

I'm just saying we've established that I'm wearing tighty-whities and 100 bow ties. But, yeah, we didn't talk about your shoes. That's right. We didn't talk about your shoes, which are, in both realities, Converse All-Stars, but they have a, yeah,'t talk about your shoes. That's right. We didn't talk about your shoes, which are in both realities, Converse All-Stars, but they have a, yeah, they're like platform shoes. They're super comfortable because they're the Converse All-Star form factor, but then they've got this tread on the bottom and a lot more padding than typical All-Stars. So I fucking love them for walking around.

I don't know if you needed the extra height, but they look pretty good. Say something for the rest of us. I'm truly hulking now with extra height, but they look pretty good. Say something for the rest of us. I'm truly hulking now. With this extra inch and a half of height. You got Costner level height over here. The tallest guy we can think of, Costner. I'll say briefly too, what I'm playing.

I rolled credits on the first Alan Wake. It's been a couple weeks since I've talked about it. But I rolled credits on Alan Wake and I've come around. It's good. My experience playing that game, I was sort of not sure if I was enjoying it. By the time I got to the end of it,

I can confidently say I did enjoy it quite a bit. You've been wake-pilled. I've been wake-pilled, as it were. It was weird. It was a weird experience, but I did enjoy it and I liked having my flashlight and gun combo i loved dropping flash grenades at big scary ghost things and uh i liked i liked where the story ended up and i will be continuing my alan wake journey into alan wake too but i also i might make a pit stop in control i might give

control a spin as well but but that's it for me. Hey, that's a, hey, blaze through Alan Wake in a Fortnite. That's pretty good. Pretty nice. Heather, what are you playing? Well, I, so as I've mentioned previously, I'm swinging my baseball bat again at Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. And I've put in a ton of hours in it.

But I guess the most remarkable thing is I finally set up the Analog Pocket dock for my, I've been waiting because I bought the dock and the DAC because they promised at Analog, they promised dock to DAC compatibility. And they still say it's coming in a future update. My ideal world was that I would be playing on the Pocket and then I could snap it into the dock,

turn on my CRT, my old Sony PVM, and play it on like a glowing television screen. I finally got so frustrated with my inability to do that that i set up the dock on my flat screen this game does not look good very big it is ugly when you even when you're using like the um sort of game boy filters or whatever it's ugly on a flat screen. And so I'm pretty disappointed because I look, I have the what is it? The GameCube with the Game Boy Advance adapter. And I can technically play it on the TV. But it is it's a frustrating experience to take out the save, take out the cartridge, put it into the thing. I have some kind of special fucking disc for the GameCube that allows you to bypass the Game Boy players default resolution and actually screen it at the right.

So you have to go through a menu and you have to like toggle stuff and then you finally get to the game and then you're playing it and it looks beautiful on a CRT. I just want the simplicity of pocket dock television. I'm done playing on the television. Pick it up. Take it out of the dock. Go into another room. Right. It's not happening. And it looks like shit on a big screen. It looks ridiculous. You know what it looks like? It reminds me of when a child puts on adults clothing. It's all wrong. Yeah. Like when they're they're flopping around in an adult suit and it's like, you don't belong in that suit. You look ridiculous. That's, I mean, you're cute.

Stupid little kid. But you look ridiculous. That's what it feels like to me. So I've been playing Tactics Advance, but I'm frustrated with Analog's inability to update the dock to be compatible with the DAC, which is still a visible option on their website as a coming soon. It's 2023. Come on. It's 2023. It's the end of it. Soon it'll be 2024. But it is 2023. Yeah. I mean, it just takes forever. I think I've said this on the show before and maybe this was a Kickstarter at some point, but I feel like there's enough niche demand, enthusiast demand for someone to make a new CRT. In the same way that they started just making new turntables, whatever the turntable, the vinyl fad started up again.

It feels like, okay, maybe the manufacturing costs are just too much. Maybe you can't get it to the right scale, but I don't know. So you don't have to fucking scour eBay for an old reference monitor that was used in a TV station 20 years ago or just a new modern CRT with modern inputs that's gamer friendly. I don't know.

People would want that shit. I'll buy it. There are plenty of people. If you go to Google and you just search crt for sale there's tons of crts for sale you know you can even get off of like etsy a 1300 sony pvm like there there's plenty of them even the base models are still available it's like 60 bucks with you know a little bit of burn-in but you can play these old systems i just it's shocking to me that like on alibaba or something that there isn't just like a crt secondary market you're totally right nick i don't have anything to add other than yes

do you have a dream crt do you have a dream crt is that something you ever think about or is that boy i used to have a sony trinitron back in the day and like basically ever and it was like a 27 inch so it was like big but not like too big was like just big enough but like once you started crt started to get like more like 30 inches plus they were so fucking heavy you just couldn't move them this one was like just on the cusp of that it was still pretty heavy and and pretty front-loaded but uh it was manageable for moving from apartment to apartment and yeah games just look look great on it you know playstation 1 playstation 2 games uh that era of gaming i played i played uh most of my gamecube games on that tv so yeah i don't know i think like a like you want to have component ends you want to have s video ends i don't know. I think like a, like you want to have component ends. You want to have

S video ends. I don't know if there's any utility to having like an HDMI in on a CRT, which is a thing that never existed. I don't even know if it could, if it could output a, put a source that, uh, uh, you know, a CRT could interpret. I like, I don't, the technical side of that is, is above my pay grade, but like, just, okay, like the analog pocket dock like you were talking about, something that would accept all of the inputs from a modern piece of hardware like that, but that also had like the tube quality of like,

you know, one of those old Sony Wegas or whatever. I just shared a link. You know, I already have my dream CRT in that Sony PVM. And boy, oh boy, if you tuned into this episode excited about these game awards, we sure are in the trenches of some technical talk. But the Sony Trinitron 9-inch KV9P T50 is my second dream CRT.

It is a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny little TV. It's only nine inches. And it is so cute. It's white and has a little stand. And I love this CRT so much. That's my secondary dream CRT. Yeah, it's a cute little guy. It's a cute little guy. It's a cute little guy.

That is a perfect way to describe it. It is actually a very cute little TV. Yeah. But it is the kind of thing, like you think about playing like a 60-hour JRPG on a screen that size, you know? Not that it would,

I don't know, it's just a, like I think that's like an awesome, like super specific thing,, I don't know. It's just a, like, I think that's, that's like an awesome, like super specific thing. But I feel like if we're talking dream CRT for me, I'd want one that's got a little bit more heft to it. Well, we're different people, Nick. Yeah, I know. I'm just saying, we were saying.

Yeah, Nick, your dreams aren't exactly like Heather's, okay? Heather's are different than yours. There was some CRT that i was reading about the other day again the stars are here we're about to get to them we're really excited but there was a crt that i was reading about the other day that was forty thousand dollars upon release and was like 750 pounds and like that's a pretty good machine right there that's that's a that's a nice crt yeah what a day a day. The stars are out. The stars are out.

And I think it's time. We should probably go to the stage. There's a few, you know, surprises right around the corner. And we will begin this year's Goatsies right after these messages. Hey, everyone. You know, you want to eat healthy. You want to eat well. after these messages. to go in just two minutes. You'll have over 35 different options to choose from every week, including Calorie Smart, Protein Plus, and Keto. Also, there are more than 60 add-ons to help you stay fueled up and feeling good all day long. Fuel up fast with Factor's restaurant-quality meals that are ready to heat and eat wherever you are. No prep, no mess meals, so there's no prepping, cooking, or cleanup needed. Get as much or as little as you need by choosing your meals every week.

Plus, you can pause or reschedule your deliveries anytime. We've done the math. Factor is less expensive than takeout, and every meal 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. All right, we're back. Was somebody going to do a commercial? Wait, what?

Was that like an actual break? I thought that was an actual toss. Was that to do a bit? Me? Yeah. Yeah, television shows have commercials. Got it. So that's probably where we'll just put in our podcast ads,

but we'll also keep in this confused resumption here. Yeah. I was just confused because we've never done that. We don't throw to breaks of the show, but that made sense to do. All right, let's get into the GOATCs. Hey, I got one. First category, biggestgest Game We Completely Ignored.

Biggest Game We Completely Ignored. And the nominees are Dead Space Remake, Lies of P, Mortal Kombat 1, Octopath Traveler 2, and Pikmin 4. Starfield. That's right, Bethesda Starfield. We've just not talked about for one second on this podcast. Yeah, no. Accepting the award on behalf of starfield is starfield guy very thrilled on behalf of starfield as you know i have been fighting for my planet starfield against the evil starfield emperor we must uphold the starfield prophecy as the ancient aliens have foretold

i'm sure that's cut let's the you you know, it's something like that, right? Yeah, that sounds right. Anyway, everyone play Starfield on Game Pass. Wow. That's a big win for Starfield. Congrats to Starfield. That's huge. Absolutely.

Games that we absolutely ignored. I feel like that might be a bit of a running theme of tonight's show because this has been an incredible year in games. One of the best ever, it could be argued. When you can't look at Game of the Year and not make an argument for three out of five of those titles, that's a big year. That's a big fucking year. It's a big honking year, and I think there were, in addition to the AAA excellence,

there were some indie gems, which we'll get to. But go on, Heather. Similarly to this first category, I'm here to present Best Game I Will Never Finish. Best Game I Will Never Finish. And the nominees are, best game i'll never finish tears of the kingdom starfield balder's gate 3 octopath traveler 2 street fighter 6 star wars game from the spring.

Super Mario Wonder, Armored Core. And the winner is Hogwarts Legacy. This is Hogwarts Legacy's first win in this category. Accepting the award for Hogwarts Legacy is is a a very ashamed harry potter uh hello uh so i i understand why there is a segment of the population who is never ever going to start or finish hogwarts legacy and i just want to say it's your fault that voldemort won because you didn't defeat him in hogwarts legacy i also want to give a shout out to every gender every expression of sexuality you're all valid i know it's not enough because i was created by somebody who denies reality science and existence itself but you know it's it's an accurate game you can that you can go to the bathroom in hogwarts legacy and it looks just like the movies thank you very much

wow wow and passion for harry potter yeah it's good that it's good that harry potter got out there and said said all that. It's good. It's a real shame about that game because, hey, it looks fancy. It looks fancy and a game truly a few years ago would have been very interested in playing. Oh, man. Yeah. I have no interest in it now. I know some people have played it with conflicted feelings, but as an experience, I think

it gives what you're looking for. Yeah. I am more likely to play and finish Starfield than I am to start Hogwarts Legacy. Wow. You know, if I'm already paying for PlayStation Plus and they drop it in one of the free month games, maybe I'll give it a spin.

It's time for the next category, and the next category is games that aren't Baldur's Gate 3. Wow. And the nominees are Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Star Wars Jedi Survivor. Also known as Star Wars from the spring. The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom and the Resident Evil 4 remake.

And the winner is Baldur's Gate 3. Wow. A big upset. This is shocking. This is a shocking upset because the category as stated previously was these are games that are not Baldur's Gate 3, but in fact the winner of this are not Baldur's Gate 3, but in fact, the winner of this category

is Baldur's Gate 3, and accepting the award on Baldur's Gate 3's behalf, it's Joel Miller from The Last of Us series. Oh, wow! Hey, I think this is one of them video games that Ellie likes to play. Thanks so much for believing in me and remember

if I were to lose you, I'd probably lose myself. Anyway, I gotta go. I'm gonna go play a round of golf with the with some of my buddies with uh

with tommy and uh and the rest and so i'll see i'll see y'all later and uh y'all remember to endure and survive all right i gotta go wow joel miller joel miller big year for him coming up because um they're going to be filming the second season of The Last of Us for HBO. And they're also releasing The Last of Us Part Two remastered in 2024 as a $10 upgrade. And it's going to have a new combat like roguelike horde mode. And there's nothing that is more likely to get me back into The Last of Us ecosystem than endless enemies and combat. Do you think Kevin Costner was like like it could have been joel probably i think if the last of us had come out in the 90s yeah there is a 100 chance it would have been costner yeah there's just no way why do you like mel gibson

does joel have a baseball glove now i want to say uh motherfucker loves baseball there's there's a there just uh because costner is here i think they added another category which is uh most surprising music in a super nes game and they gave it to water world and then uh gave him an award and asked him to leave yeah okay here's your award you can go now uh he was very happy to get out of here. Oh, yeah. Hey, well, that was truly what perhaps the most baffling category so far tonight. What do you mean? In terms of the parameters, the winner, and who accepted the award. But you know what? That's what the Goatsies are all about.

The Goatsies are full of surprises. You'll always be surprised at the Goatsies. You'll always be back on your heels. And hey, that might be the case with this next category. The next one is Thing Wiger Won't Shut Up About. Thing Wiger Won't Shut Up About. The nominees are, guys, you got to play Dave the Diver. It's so good.

Guys, Drill Suit Mario is so cool. Guys, it's serious. Metroid Prime Remastered holds up so well. It feels like a modern AAA game. You really should be able to romance those French twins in Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty. That's insane. That's not an option. And the GOATSE goes to Beating Sekiro.

Wow. That's right. I beat Sekiro. And accepting the award for Wyger not shutting up about Wyger beating Sekiro is me. I beat Sekiro. Just wanted to remind everyone that I beat Sekiro. Wow. A year late after he said he'd do it,

he did do it. But I did it. And I'm not shutting up about it. How is it possible that he's saying Sekiro the right way but also it sounds like he's saying it the wrong way when he says Sekiro? Yeah. It's just the

Weiger experience, baby. Exactly. That's all it is. And you know what? I'm very proud of you, Nick. Thanks, Matt. I'm glad that you beat Sekiro. It did encourage me to purchase it when it was on sale, and I've yet to start it. Great game.

I'd love to give it a swing sometime. Similarly to Weiger's category, our next category is a game I finished and don't remember from 2023. The nominee and winner is Final Fantasy 16. Wow. Final Fantasy 16. Accepting the award, Heather Ann Campbell. Hi.

Hi. So, yeah, I finished final fantasy 16 uh i came really close to platinuming it to be honest um i do not remember the name of almost any of the characters uh i don't really remember who the bad guy was. I think it was Ultima or Ultimos or Ultros. I don't know. I know there was a dog. I know that I pre-ordered the dog as a stuffed animal before the game came out because I was so excited about the game. that dog has not yet arrived at my house. And when it does, I will be confused about its existence. I'll be like, what is this dog? You've forgotten all about Torgl?

Torgl. Torgl's his name. Torgl. I don't remember the name of the locations. I don't. And I know that, you know, I've been in a treatment that is aggressive about changing your memory, giving you a little brain fog. But the truth is, I don't remember. There was a dude who turned into Bahamut.

Do you remember his name, either of you? Matt's the one who finished the game. I bounced off of it. Do you remember the name of the dude who turned into Bahamut? We didn't come here to quiz me, okay? We came here to present the awards on gaming's biggest night. Expect one of us to retain information from a game we spent dozens of hours in? Come on.

Off the top of my head, we've got Squall, Quistis. We've got Cypher. We've got squall quistis uh we've got safe cypher we've got uh ultimacia we've got like i can name all those final fantasy 8 characters oh you're thinking of the main character you're thinking of clive rosenfeld no not clive i'm talking about the guy who turned into bottom a major fucking character can't remember his name i can remember remember what Zidane or Zidane, Vivi. I can remember, of course, Cloud and Barret and Tifa and Aerith and like all those characters. I can remember Sid Highwind. What was the name of the dude who turned into Bahamut? Don't know. A game I finished and don't remember. Thank you very much. I'm accepting this award wow congratulations huge win for heather and for final fantasy 16 the only thing i remember for

final fantasy 16 is uh fuck yeah you're thinking of uh perhaps you're thinking of dion lesage it's me dion les. You probably had to Google that and then also scroll a bunch. Yeah. Okay, so you saw me do this. Well, you guys, it wouldn't be gaming's biggest night if we didn't take a second to stop down

and just peel back the curtain a little bit. You know, we came up, these categories are obviously, they're all locked in and they're all things that we feel honored to be presenting tonight. But as the proceedings have gone on, I've noticed that some of mine are pretty similar to some of the other ones that have come up before

and I've had to come up with some new categories so this next category this is how a lot of award shows work sometimes they're going through the Grammys like oh fuck they already handed out a best jazz fusion album exactly

that was my category I gotta come up with something else I don't know. R&B. They'll do Best Actor and they'll be like, oh shit, we didn't even do Girls. Yeah. Let's put Girls in it too.

Do Best Actress. Yeah. Right. So this next category is games Matt liked but Nick and Heather did not. Wow. Wow.

And the winner is Final Fantasy XVI. This is the second win for Final Fantasy XVI tonight. So far, the most awarded game of the ceremony. Wow. Perhaps cementing it as game of the year. We shall see. And accepting this award is me, Matt Apodaca,

and I will gladly accept this award. This game that I remember almost nothing about that I, while playing it for 50 hours, loved every second of. And came here on this show and said, guys, this is a game of the year contender. Don't remember a single thing about it. All right, we're getting to the big ones here.

We're getting our way towards the finish line here, some of the major categories. This one is a staple of the goatsies. It's time for Best Hog. The nominees for Best Hog in a Video Game are Penis 1 from Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty. Penis B from Baldur's Gate 3. Boar from Fortnite. Penis 2 from Baldur's Gate 3, Boar from Fortnite,

Penis 2 from Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty, and finally, Hogwarts Legacy. And the Goatsy goes to Penis D from Baldur's Gate 3. Wow, a surprise win. Wow. Accepting the award on behalf of Penis D is Starfield Guy. It's me, Starfield Guy.

My people have suffered under the Starfield Empire for too long. We must liberate my planet of Starfield so we can finally get on the fabled Starfield Arc or fucking whatever. Like, it's that kind of thing, right? Yeah. You get it.

It's a treasure, a prophecy, some shit like that. You get it. Anyway, thank you. Play Starfield and get past. Wow, huge win. Huge win for penis deej. Huge win. Our next category is a controversial one,

is a controversial one, but it must be covered on a goatsies as big as this one. And this is best Fortnite skin released in the year 2023. Wow. This could be a lot of things. Nominees include Michael Myers, Jack Skellington, Alan Wake, Invincible, Omni-Man.

And the award for best skin released in 2023 in the game Fortnite is M&M with spaghetti backpack. Wow. Wow. In the year... Yeah, that's the thing about it, isn't it? That's huge. In this year of 2023, we're still doing mom's spaghetti. Children everywhere.

Children everywhere have been clamoring for Eminem and the backpack bling of mom's spaghetti. And Eminem beat out Jack Skellington, Alan Wake, Michael Myers, the Invincible Crew. Adam Eve wasn't even nominated. And Eminem, unfortunately, could not make it to the show tonight. to the show tonight. So accepting the award on his behalf is one of the other nominees, Jack Skellington.

There are few who deny and what I do, I am the best when I'm wearing an outfit from LeBron James. LeBron James. My gun is Naruto and my hat is me. But nothing compares to my backpack bling of mom's spaghetti. Jack Skellington, Christmas out. Wow, that was beautiful. Doing his catchllington. Christmas out. Wow, that was beautiful.

Doing his catchphrase, Christmas out. Always love to hear that around the holidays. Yeah. You guys, I'm really excited to present this next category. This category is names that are the same kind of. Names that are the same kind of. Names that are the same kind of. Names that are the same kind of. And instead of reading the list of nominees, I'm going to just jump straight to the winner.

And it is a tie between the names Torgl, the dog from Final Fantasy 16, and Turgl, the frog guy from Star Wars Jedi Survivor. Torgl and Turgle, the frog guy from Star Wars Jedi Survivor. Turgle and Turgle. Wow. Turgle and Turgle. This is a huge award for both of them. What a big win.

And accepting, they're actually both here. Oh, they're both here? They're both here together. Oh, so we're going to hear from both of them. We're going to hear from both of them. This is very exciting. I'm going to go ahead and hand the microphone to Turgle. Thanks, everybody.

It's me, Turgle. I'm just a weird little frog man, and this is my best friend, Turgle. We're holding hands. Do you think that when Star Wars came out that the Final Fantasy devs were like, fuck, oh no, oh shit. Yeah, we locked in Torgl four years ago. Jesus Christ. It's just kind of crazy to think about

because the names are so similar. This happened last year as well, actually, with God of War Ragnarok and Elden Ring, there was a quest that was basically the same thing. It was a jellyfish quest, right? It was a two jellyfish quest, yeah. You had to reunite a jellyfish with another jellyfish in both games. Fuck! Ah, fuck, no!

Oh, God! Yeah. Kind of crazy that, you know, it's two very different development teams coming to very similar conclusions. But that was the category names that are the same kind of. Wow. Wow. Well, hey, we've handed out a lot of statuettes so far here at this year's Goatsies, but award shows aren't just about rewarding the past. They're also about acknowledging the past.

the past. They're also about acknowledging the past. And it's time to take a few moments to recognize those we've lost this year in video games in our In Memoriam. In the arms of the angel

far away El Gigante in Resident Evil 4 Remake. Distracted by a dog, then blasted by a shotgun a bunch. Karlak, Gale, Shadowheart, and my Tav from Baldur's Gate 3 before I save scummed. Oh my god. Bowser Jr. in Super Mario Wonder. Stomped to death by Elephant Mario.

My Xbox Game Pass subscription. There was a layer of dust on my Xbox and I realized I'm still paying for that. Wife in Dredge. Killed by dead wife video game premise. Final Fantasy, The First Soldier. That doesn't seem like it was this year, but it was. Wow.

An entire town of tieflings in Baldur's Gate 3. Killed by Heather's character in a remorseless genocidal rampage. E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. It just didn't happen this year year and everybody was kind of like, I guess it's dead. Kind of unceremonial. Yeah. Divorced Ken in Street Fighter VI.

Self-inflicted Shoryuken. Wow. Really, really, really sad there, but, really sad there. But, you know. Yeah. I think it's important that those were acknowledged. Wow.

You know, we're almost at the end of our show. And I think this next category is a really exciting one. Because it's the most look forward to games of the future the nominees include star wars outlaws final fantasy rebirth grand theft auto 6 but the winner from get played is like a dragon infinite wealth wow probably the game we are all going to play more than any of those other three wow yeah heather will probably play final fantasy rebirth but let's be honest like a dragon the yakuza games got their fucking hooks into us we had a great time playing them and there's a new one coming out. So I'm pretty sure

we're all looking forward to a little bit more time with Kiryu. Here's the thing about Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth is it's coming out in January. So we don't have a lot of time to get to it. I really do want to play it.

But then also there were two, you know, Like a Dragon side story spinoff games that came out this year that I still haven't gotten to. So it's kind of a daunting franchise to reengage in. But I do think there's yeah, I do think I maybe I'll just hop in with both feet and play some like a dragon infinite. Well, why? Why wouldn't you? Because there's too much fucking shit to play because Because the conveyor belt of content never stops.

But I think that's a good winner there. I actually think that is a game that we're all going to dig in on. Yeah, I do. I think it. I think it's real. I mean, I like the idea of infinite wealth. You had me at infinite wealth. I'm listening. I could

use some of that. Wow. That's a huge win in that category. Do we have any other categories before we get to our game of the year? I was not going to read this one, but I'll read it. Okay. Favorite stupid thing I bought this year. The nominees are a PlayStation Vita to hack.

A 2DS to hack. And finally, the PlayStation Portal. And the winner, guys, the winner's the 2DS, the flat 2DS. Yeah, that's a pretty... Yeah, it's crazy that you bought one of those. It's so funny.

I love looking at it, and I love holding it. And it's got some great games on it. And I highly recommend getting a 2DS. Do you find yourself here in the end of 2023 using the portal that much? Yeah, I've been using the portal every single night since I got it, actually. Holy shit. I played Alan Wake almost exclusively on it. And I started a new game on it pretty recently as well

that I haven't mentioned yet. I sometimes think about gaming as a hobby and just how expensive it is, and I'm just like, I kind of wish I was into something else because there's just so much money that you can fucking spend on shit, and sometimes it's like a game you don't get around to playing or a peripheral or a system that you actually don't end up getting your money's worth out of

but then you look at a different hobby like you know like watches like people who are really into watches and it's like oh you can spend thousands of dollars on an individual watch like there are watches that cost people six figures and if you're like a watch person you're just like that's that's a hobby that could bankrupt you. So I'm so glad I'm into gaming over something like that. Even books is an expensive hobby. Sure, yeah. Like if you're an avid reader, right? So like if you're an avid gamer, you get a game for $69, $59, somewhere like that. And if it's a game that is a robust game, it's probably a 60 hour game, right? 60 hours is going to take you two or three weeks if you have like a career or anything going on in your life. By comparison, you buy a book and a book's like 20 bucks.

And if you're an avid reader you're probably reading that every night just like you're playing a video game every night you're through that book in a week so your average price point is almost identical if not a little bit more expensive if you're into books as a hobby like gaming per hourage like especially if you think of a game like fortnight that is free to play sure which is fucking crazy you're like making money playing that it's crazy that fortnite is free to play um then like i don't know it there's no that you can go to the library and essentially fortnite your way through books because the library is free like there are ways to to game and there

are ways to to read without spending money. But generally speaking, skateboard decks are expensive. If you're a car person, cars are certainly expensive. Like there's so many- Guns are pretty cheap, unfortunately. I agree with you, Nick. I am grateful to be in a privileged place where I can play video games.

That is an awesome, lucky spawn point for me in this simulation we call reality. Any other categories? I have one. Best boyfriend or girlfriend in a Video Game. The nominees are Asterion from Baldur's Gate 3, Chun-Li from Street Fighter VI, Zelda from Tears of the Kingdom,

P from Lies of P. And the winner for best boyfriend or girlfriend in a video game is C4-621 from Armored Core. Accepting the award is C4-621 from Armored Core. Wow. Can you really romance a mech or a mech pilot in that game? Now Nick's interested. Hey, I love romance options. I don't know if that category was actually romanceable options

or if they were just characters or machines that one could fall in love with. Oh, I got it. I got it. Now I understand. Alright, shall we get to Game of the Year? Alright, it's time to give out our Game of the Year award. I think everyone should get to throw in some

nominees here. I'm going to toss out my five favorites, but I want anyone else to fill in anything that they played that they feel like should be acknowledged in this category. And I also want to acknowledge two big games that came out that I have not yet got around to playing, but from hearing people with similar tastes and their fondness for these games, I bet they are games that I would have loved. Chance of Cenar is one of them, and the other one is Cocoon. Those are both very, very Weiger-appealing puzzle games that I think I probably will really like when I get around to playing them over the break.

But my nominees are Baldur's Gate 3, Dave the Diver, Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, Sea of Stars, and Super Mario Wonder. Those are excellent, excellent nominees. My nominees include, of course, Fortnite, Baldur's Gate 3, Super Mario Wonder, which has already been nominated. Those are my nominees. And my nominees, because I'm going off of games that I finished, which I finished as of this recording, 14 games this year, low numbers for me. But games that released this year that I finished, Resident Evil 4, The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom,

Jedi Survivor, Spider-Man 2, and Cyberpunk 2077, The Phantom Liberty. I thought about throwing Cyberpunk in there. I did really like that, but if I was going to get it down to five, I think that's Cyberpunk in there. I did really like that, but if I was going to get it down to five, I think that's my last cut. My honorable mention there is Metroid Prime Remastered. So another remaster. Yeah, good year for remasters. Yeah.

I think, look, we're all at different stages of this game. We've all played it very differently. And as much as I personally would would want to be a little shit and say dave the diver is the game of the year um i do think that it is in the same way that last year was eldon rings year i think it's balder's gate three this year yeah i think it's just like this is that's the game that represents like hey this is this is an extremely ambitious game that made an impact on the industry that everyone is going to be taking inspiration from. And that also just like, you know, does things has a triple A level of presentation and polish.

It's a little buggy, but still like just in terms of how much content it has and how well it's presented. And then and also like you just just is doing things different. Like it doesn't feel like it like a it doesn't feel like a fucking Starfield. It feels like something that is a new a new a new approach to this formula. I I have to agree. And I also have to agree because Baldur's Gate 3 inspired more than one person I know to get a PlayStation 5. Wow. more than one person I know to get a PlayStation 5.

Wow. Like it's been a long time since there is a game that you could argue was a full-blown system seller. And this was a system seller. This was a game that, this game got married by a PlayStation 5. Wow. She played Baldur's Gate 3 like multiple times she created multiple characters and this isn't a game that like I would say is in Mary's wheelhouse you know like she's not like on the

edge of her seat waiting for a huge robust RPG in order to uh in order to play uh a video game. So yeah, I can't imagine a more honest game to choose for Game of the Year. Yeah, I mean, I haven't finished it. I know that, yeah, we're all in different spots in it. It is, by and large, the Game of the Year. That's what I kind of think. And it's like it's like there's a and i'm sorry i'm sorry finish your thoughts no it's like it's like it's the game that like if you ask people like you you could pull so many people and be like what's a game you've heard of this year and people would probably

be like top of mind balder's gate three like it's just like a game that like everybody knows about and like it just it took over the conversation in it took over the conversation away from tears of the kingdom which in any other year would have been the game of the year maybe game of the decade and then baldur's gate 3 comes out fucking swinging well and i think a big part of that and obviously you know larians made other games and they they have their formula but but but but this is like presented in in a very different way than like you know david the original sin 2 it's it's like has again that that that level of of polish all of the different that every line is voiced that every um cinematic is presented like you know we're not seeing things from isometric just with dialogue we have a you know

it's it's it's blocked out and shot like cut scenes. And just that level of detail that goes into this game and also just like the, look, like what people, a big part of what people loved about Tears of the Kingdom is that all the ways you can fuck around. But man, you can really fuck around in Baldur's Gate 3. You can fuck around and you can find out as well. You can get into some really big trouble into Baldur's Gate 3. Oh, man. I'm probably going to start all over again because I really did not want to kill as many people. I don't even know.

I don't know if the game is finishable in a form that makes sense anymore. Yeah. Because like I've killed so many. I've killed people that were supposed to be in your party. Right. I think. Yeah. No, me too.

Because they saw me and on site were like, what have you done? And then executed. Like people have left my party. They're like, I can't be part. I can't do this. And it's all because I just wanted to look inside of boxes and doors. That shouldn't be. I mean, I guess that's how Dungeons and Dragons works is that it's just like this domino effect

from like a simple decision. And then suddenly you're like, oh, my God, I'm killing children. And I just wanted to see what was inside of a treasure chest. But it's, yeah, it's an incredible game. On that note, I think that's a big part of it is just like all the consequences of various actions that you can't possibly anticipate.

But then also just like, that's also a way in which the game can be very funny in a way that, you know, in a very distinct way. I was watching this, I watched this YouTube video. It was just like a, it was a critical stealth failure. It was someone rolling a one on a stealth check.

And the animation that played was the player characters like sneaking up behind somebody to kill them. And then they just fell over. It's like tripped, like their armor just like fucking rattled on like the floor. And everyone just was like, what the fuck? It's like, it was just such a funny moment um that i think you know this this sort of uh the way this game is constructed in the systems that all inner work allows for things like that so yeah all right bg3 the get played game of the year how about that i'm sure one of many accolades it will be receiving and they're gonna put it on receiving. And they're going to put it on the

box. They'll put it on the box. Yeah. For the collector's edition. When they're like over 100 Game of the Year awards, that will be one of them. Yeah, it's going to be on it. Accepting the award on behalf of Baldur's Gate 3 is Kevin Costner.

Resident Evil Merchant. Oh my god, it's Resident Evil Merchant. Get him off the stage. I'm talking to you, Costner The Resident Evil merchant Oh my god it's the Resident Evil merchant I went to get him off the stage I'm talking to you Fucking tackled Kevin Costner Jesus Christ They hired me back I'm gonna

Oh my god stop You're killing him He's so big too Get off me I'll escort you out You're killing him. He's so big, too. I'm going to fight you. Get the fuck away from me. Get off me. I'll escort you out. Wow, that was rough. We're going to have to add one more video game star to the montage.

Kevin Costner. In the eyes of the angel. Rest in power, the mariner from Waterworld for Super Nintendo. Do you think he hates... Do you think that... I feel like... Because Waterworld is not far away from when he's mentioned. Obviously, probably it's Yellowstone now, the thing he gets the most.

But for a time, people were like... Because he was good. He was in a lot of great things, a lot of great movies, but then Waterworld really stunk up his reputation. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how he feels about it. I haven't read an interview from him about it.

We all agree it's a good idea, is the thing. I'm a Waterworld apologist. I have the director's cut extended edition on Blu-ray. I, of course, have the Virtual Boy game and the Super NES game. I think Waterworld is a great IP. It was not incredibly well executed, but I think that the movie's score is the biggest

problem with the film. And there's a lot of problems with the film, but I think that if the music had been better, that it would not seem as goofy as it did um because like if you get like a pirates of the caribbean style score underneath water world then it's a fucking it's a it's a blast yeah i think the i think the the like i really like the the world i really like the open the open ocean and the idea of like a flooded earth and what that would be like. Like all that, those details are great. I think a lot of, like some of the stuff

in the world building does come across a little goofy, like bad guys being called smokers. Yeah. Or like the deacon. Some of that stuff is just a little bit silly. But I think Waterworld's ultimate legacy is the stunt show. And the stunt show rips.

Which everyone loves the fucking stunt show. And it's like the bum bum bum bum shrimp company of just like there are people now who go see the water world stunt show tourist or younger people who have no idea that it's connected to a movie right i wonder because he's you know i i know that he just passed away on our on our stage yeah uh beaten to death by the resident evil merchant who wanted to accept an award um it's like a heightened slap what just happened and this is because the slap happened we allowed that we let the slide it was a slippery slope until the resident evil merchant is going to murder uh kevin costner the goatsies yeah i um i am i love westerns and i can't believe that Kevin Costner has a two-part Western coming out in 2024.

That's fucking crazy. It's nuts. I love it. It's going to be like six hours worth of Western. Why not, I say. Yeah, why not? Hey, great year in gaming. A great year in gaming, a great edition of the Goatsies.

And, you know, we thought we'd want to hear some of your thoughts on this past year in video gaming. It's your review crew, Games of This Year edition, the Ryu Crew. Hello, Ken! Ryu Crew. Ryu Crew. All right. So would you be surprised to learn so many people wrote Baldur's Gate 3? I love it. Lots of people wrote Baldur's Gate 3. Snoofman wrote Baldur's Gate 3.

Chad Money Printer wrote Baldur's Gate 3. Arctur wrote Baldur's Gate 3. Lots of Baldur's Gate 3 in the chat. We love to see it. Jet writes, game of the year, as it is every year, is Disco Elysium.

I love that. I bought that coat, that Disco Elysium coat. And because of the way my fall has turned out, I have not yet been able to wear it out of the house. Oh, sure. Oh, man. But fucking I love that coat and I love that game.

And God damn, I can't wait to like walk around in that disco Elysium coat. That's going to be so sick. I don't. There are, you know, because I and look, people love the Larian style combat. I do like tactical combat. You really do get super in the weeds, I feel like, with each turn in this game and the difficulty level,

even on Explorer, whatever the easiest one that I'm playing on, as you've experienced, Matt, does scale up. Baldur's Gate 3 has some things that it's taken, I think, from Disco Elysium, like certainly the dice rolls being visible, which I love. I think that's fucking awesome.

And I love those skill checks just being like presented in front of the player. There are times when I'm like, I kind of wish that I could play this game just without combat. I kind of wish I could play this Disco Elysium style where I'm just kind of going through and role playing it and just, you know, have to spend a little bit less time bashing my head against a wall trying to figure out how to get through this goblin camp or whatever. Yeah. This next one's from Hired Goons, and Hired Goons writes, a lot of big ones I haven't played, but it's between the Resident Evil 4 remake and the remake of Super Mario RPG. I might just be a nostalgic basic

bitch. But I do like these new glossy remakes that really honor the original game. Yeah. Like playing Resident Evil 4 remake plays, feels like what playing Resident Evil 4 felt like in 2005 or whenever it originally released. And I haven't played the Super Mario RPG remake, but my understanding is that it is, it very much honors the gameplay of the original and just has like a, you know, a glossy coat of paint on it. I like, I like that. DVA with a handgun writes,

Alan Wake 2 all day every day. That game blew my mind in every way. Or Tears of the Kingdom because I've never felt more free in a game than when I played that. Also, it's amazing on a technical level and the story is beautiful. That's the thing that's so,

and I think because it's a direct sequel, Tears of the Kingdom kind of getting buried in the conversation, but it's a staggering achievement. Yeah. You're playing this game

and it's like, holy shit, this is fucking amazing what they've done. It's pretty crazy to think about because like, yeah, I said this earlier,

but like in any other year, it would have been an absolute landslide. Yeah. That's a fun that's an that's an interesting exercise to go back through previous years what years would it have been the clear game of the year yeah eldon ring last year right like that would have been tough it's like the uh it's like the 2017 i think clevelandaliers who like had, you know, one of the best offenses in NBA history. And like, but they were just up against the Golden State Warriors with Kevin Durant and Steph Curry.

And they just didn't have a chance. But in a lot of other years, they would have just won the championship. I love this mental exercise. I love the idea of looking at the game, the best games of a year. I love the idea of looking at the game, the best games of a year, and then looking at the game like you could do it as like almost an infinite, an infinite tier, you know, put all the games against each other and like find out what the best game of all time actually is. And then like kind of work backwards. So like if you figured out who the best game was of all time, then you would also have your final four

so that you could actually, I think, I mean this is nothing I want to do with my life or my time, but somebody could do it. Oh, hey, we just hit an episode format.

No. No, fucking wet will die. No, no, no, no, we'll do it. This next one's from Doomspeck. Doomspeck writes, Phantom Liberty and Cyberpunk 2.0 really is like a new game compared to release Cyberpunk.

I also say it's game of the year material. I, you know. Love Phantom Liberty. We're huge Phantom Liberty fans here. And the changes that they made to the base game are really fantastic as well. It is still pretty buggy. Yes.

And there is some stuff in the base game that still feels a little bit clunky, but I think it is a really impressive overhaul, and I think Phantom Liberty as a self-contained experience is really awesome. One of my favorite experiences of the year. This next one is from Lieb, and this one straight to my heart right here.

While it was definitely flawed, I'm sticking with Final Fantasy XVI. Wow. The boss fights were spectacles on a level I've never seen before and made lasting impression on me. Cid was also the British father I've always wanted. Cid was good in the game.

I don't know where Sid would rank among the Final Fantasy Sids for me, but I don't think he'd... I guess... Whatever. I didn't finish the game. I'm not going to go down this road too much. I just feel like there are other Sids I like more. I'm going to be honest. I'm confused. In thinking back about Final Fantasy

16, I thought Sid was the engineer girl who works in the basement and then I was like, no, no, no, you're confusing her with the mechanic from Final Fantasy 15, that's Sid. Totally forgot that you are Sid for a portion of the game. Then you are Sid, yeah, for a little

bit. So fucking, I don't know, man. Woof. It's starting to sound like Torgl over there. John B in space, right? Spider-Man two for sure. Great gameplay. Amazing story.

Not too bloated. Open world. Give me more. Yeah. That's the thing. You're playing in three of the five boroughs of New York, of course. And it's,

it doesn't feel like there's too much going on. There's just enough. It's a, it's a great, a great game. Well, that's a big part, though, of what also makes Phantom Liberty work,

just to go back to that, is that it's one neighborhood of Night City, and so they were able to make that feel really dense and lived in. I didn't, because of when my diagnosis came, I didn't get to play Phantom Liberty, and I'm looking forward to dropping in at some point in the future

I think you'd like it just don't expect you to be able to romance those sexy French twins unfortunately I just did not include that in the game for some reason stop no I don't want to hear it you should also check out Dave the Diver it's a great game and finally from

It's Patrick, shouts to Hi-Fi Rush. It was gorgeous, fun to play, a rhythm game with action? Come on. I love pointing that one out. That one came out on the front end of the year. Matt, I think you're the one who spent some time with Hi-Fi Rush,

but that was a game that everyone was super hype on in February or March or whatever, and then, yeah, it just kind of falls off of the radar. A surprise drop, yeah. Just too many fucking games. Too many fucking games. Too many fucking games. Too many games. Too many games,

but guys, thanks so much for writing in with your reviews and your input for Game of the Year, and that's gonna conclude this week's Get Played, and the Goatsies are now a thing in the past,

as they are every year, of course. Until next year. That's right. When we'll talk about the games that are coming out all throughout 2024. So that'll wrap up Get Played for the year. We are going to be taking a couple of weeks off for the holidays. You'll still get episodes in the feed on Monday. One will be an unlocked episode from our archives.

One will be an unlocked episode from our archives. One will be an unlocked Get Animated episode. We'll still be releasing new Get Animated over at patreon.com slash getplayed. So check that out if you're looking for content. But yeah, we're going to be dark for the next couple weeks, and then we'll be back in early 2024. Oh, and also shout out to Rochelle Chen, our producer who's joined us over at HeadGum. Yard underscore underscore SARD on social. You want to follow Rochelle? Yeah.

And guys, what a year it's been. I'm looking forward to getting back in the studio in 2024 and talking about games with you guys. And I think it's safe to say that the year 2023 got played. That's fucking right.