Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Can Anyone Stop Greg Miller?! (Fantasy Critic Check-In) - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

Who is winning? Who is losing? FIND OUT! Rub of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - Fantasy Critic 2024 Check-In - Early 2025 Projections Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Wednesday, July 3rd, 2024. Of course, I am your host, Tim Getty. I'm joined today by the Big Daddy himself, Greg Miller. Hello, Tim. The Locke, Roger Percorny. What up? And the Master of Hyatt Snowbike, Mike. Who's in last place now, Roger?

You are, remember that? Stop foiling the episode, Mike. Stop following the episode. It might have changed. It might have changed between the start of this episode and to now. Tim, as many people know, they just clicked on a time. title that says us talking about our fantasy critic for

2024. And if we rewind the tape Greg Miller, maybe I wasn't paying attention. Maybe. Maybe I wanted Shadow of the Earth Tree as my first pick. And a lot of people joked and clowned on poor Snowbike Mike. And they said, uh-oh, here comes

last place. These and gentlemen, I'm happy to report that you boy Snowbike Mike is projected to be first placed at the end of the year. Projected. Who will be last place, Roger. Okay. Is that on projections as well? No, he's just currently last place.

Yeah, and also all projections. You know what I mean? On both sides. Every single side. He is set to be seventh place now and seventh place. See, now I've been seventh place and projected to be seventh place since the beginning of this. And I thought maybe there was going to be one point where I would be sixth, maybe fifth, maybe third. No, just been seventh the entire time. Legitimately, are you surprised? Like, were there any moments during this

adventure where you're like, oh man, I, I I was more sure of myself. We'll get a to it. Let's get into it. Let's get into it. Once we go around, we'll break it down. We'll break it down.

That is what we're talking about today, everybody. Earlier in the year, we started our fantasy game critic for 2024. We're going to do a little check-in. See who's the winning so far, who's losing. We're going to make our own projections on where we think it might be in and up. And it's going to be a good time overall. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. Because remember, this is the kind of funny games cast where each and every weekday,

we get together to talk about video games or reviews, previews, and topics in games live on YouTube, Twitch, and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please consider getting the kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube. It gets you the show ad-free. You can watch live as we record it,

and you get a daily exclusive show that we like to call Greg Way. For a chance to be part of the show, you can submit your YouTube super chats as we go. So if you think that we say anything that's absolutely wild, if we're talking about games, you're like, why would you choose that? That's a horrible call.

Let us know with the YouTube super chats. A little housekeeping for you. We are a 11-person small business That's all about live talk shows And we love that you hang out with us Each and every day right here You've already gotten the first descendant Impressions on Kind of Funny Games Daily

from Snowbike Mike After this, you're getting even more of that Where the boys are going to try to play the first descendant We hear the servers might be down If they're down, we'll pivot to something else And we know we're going to have fun here onto it Who said that? Who said that?

If you're a kind of funny member, you can also get today's Gregway which is a Paris Lily takeover to talk about balancing his day job with games media work. And you can get the kind of funny podcast this afternoon that's breaking down my wedding. We're going to have everybody in the building

that's available to come sit in here and talk about their experience. A little important programming note, today is the last day of content here. For the week, we are going to be celebrating. Last day of content here. We are celebrating the 4th of July here in America and we're giving everyone Friday off as well

to have some fun in the sun. So thank you all for understanding. Go watch some backlog stuff. There's a lot of great things going on. We've got some killer in reviews recently that you might not have been catching up on. But you might be catching up on. I want to give a shout out real quick.

Loving seeing the amount of views and audio downloads for in review on the new channel. Now that we need the shift from kind of funny to kind of funny games, we're seeing kind of a little bit of fresh blood going on there. And that's exciting as we are about to start our drive into Deadpool and Wolverine. Next week we got Deadpool 1 after that, Deadpool 2,

some rewatches that we haven't done for a very long time. So really excited about that. Of course, leading into Deadpool and Wolverine, which is probably going to be the biggest movie of the year, like in terms of like conversation in the nerddom. So that's very exciting. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, and Delaney Twining. Today we're brought to you by Nvidia, GForce and BetterHelp.

But we'll tell you all about that later. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the topic of the show. Tats, Tats, Tats, Tats, Tats. Shadow Trickster in chat says that Beverly Hills Cop AXLEF came out today. That can't be correct. And I haven't seen the first cover. Can I watch it?

Wow. I'm going to watch it. Yeah, okay. Holy shit. I'm going to watch. IGN reviews. Like, we can trust those. It's a four out of ten.

They give Maxine a five out of ten. That's crazy. Did you watch Maxine? No. But, you know, I just, you know, I feel the vibes. You know what I mean? It can't be less than a nine. You know what I mean?

Come on. Well, the vibes on the streets from what I'm seeing, Maxine, not that good. Axel F, supposedly amazing. That's insane. Supposedly the last one

was not. But they're like, they brought, they brought the heat I'm excited. But I've never watched any of them. I love the theme song.

I don't know what's going on. The crazy frog version of Xxel. I can only hope, Rod. I can only hope. Fuck. I hope so. We're talking about the games cast fantasy critic.

This is our July 2024 check in here. If you wanted to follow along, you can go to kind of funny. com slash KF League 2024 to see where all of us are at. But for

people that don't want to click around. They wanted to click on this and listen or watch us talk about it. I'll let you know some stats. Currently in the lead, we have Greg Miller with 110.403 points. Just crushing. Just crushing out there. However, Greg only has three games left to come out. Wow. So not much more room to wiggle any higher. Mike is in second place with 81.49 points and six possible games to come out. Okay. We'll see how many of those actually come out. Monday.

Is Hollow Night Silk Song going to come out? Is the plucky squire going to come out? Is replace going to come out? Hey, we'll talk about that. But like, who's in the money right now, ladies and gentlemen? Also, really, does the 80s two really count, even though it's only early access? Hey, hey, we'll have that conversation. Last year when y'all fucked me out of Balders Gate 3?

Retribution. Yeah. I don't feel like that. I don't feel like that rule was discussed at the beginning of the year. It was. It definitely was. If the game is on this thing, it counts. That's true.

That's what we said. If it's DLC or early access and if it does have a thing, then it's efficient. I have some clarifying questions about that later, but we'll get back. We'll get into it. Barrett is no slouch. 71 points right now, six games to come. So, okay, that's, I feel like right now we should probably. Let's do a breakdown.

You want to go through some of our lists here and kind of see if we have any regrets so far. Roger, I want to start with you because we did bring up the word of regret. Go to the cellar. Go to the basement. You're fine. I got to break up in a fucking white clock. Oh, shit. That's like an 1118 white club, baby. Jesus fucking Christ.

You know, I tried my hardest. You know, I didn't know the buttons. I'm learning the buttons. Oh, yeah. You know, my first year here. I'm just a baby. I don't know what's going on here. And I made some good calls here.

I think, you know, who would have thought that help late too wouldn't have been, you know, a 90, right? Who would have thought that one. First pick, too, Rod. First pick, I thought that was a heater, right? It was like the one for Xbox. right. Dawn Trail, we're still waiting on that. I hear somewhat mixed things about that. I know that people like, like

the reviewers like it, but I also know some of the fans are like, ah, it's not, it changed a lot of things. The fans aren't giving you points, Roger. I know, so we'll see. We'll see. Meena the hollower. Sure. I mean, like, where is that? They mentioned it. They said it's coming soon, quote unquote. Are we, have you used the drops? Because you get one free drop

wasn't it? And then the two drops you can drop if they don't release this. Oh, I use my drop already. I use my drop already. I use my drop already. So, and then go around on the, I I think this is, no, we, how many do we draft originally? Five? Something like that. Yeah, so then Metroid Prime 4 beyond fucking 2025.

Locked into that one by someone counterfeit. You got counterpicked by blessing on that one. That's that's zero points. That's a great one. Hyperlight breaker. That also is not coming out this year. That is locked. Who counterpicked that one?

You, Mike. I saw it. So again, real quick, if you're new to fantasy critic, fantasy draft, you haven't seen the other one. The idea is it's like fantasy sports. where your team goes or your player would go out and play. But here you're picking games. We drafted five.

Then we had a budget where we could go bid to get other games from drafts as they get announced to whatever, right? You get that on your team. Then if you can throw a Rogers back up, right? He's locked into Metroid Prime and Hyperlight because he was counterpicked. The idea was when we drafted our five games, we then had to look at the other teams counterpick from someone's team, a game that you thought either wouldn't release or would be bad or the worst.

possible choice. The idea being that if it gets negative points below 70, you get positive points to your team. If it gets positive points for the other person's team above 70 on the review thing, you would lose points. If it gets zero, no harm, no file. Everybody just locks it in

goes. So these are great counterpicks for Mike and for blessing because they're no, they won't have a chance to lose points. However, since they're locked in, Roger can't drop them. So if they had him been counterpicked because nobody thought Metroid was coming. If they hadn't been counterpicked, he would have been able to drop these games,

get other games in there for a chance at points. But the one wrinkle to this. Let's give him the wrinkle. Hyperlight breaker is coming to early access this year, which does mean, like Hades do, I probably will get some points for that. Like score. And potentially it's going to do better than the next pick over there. No rest for the wicked, which is not, probably not coming out this year. We haven't gotten confirmation. That's early access. I think it has like five reviews on the open I think we really like, Andy really liked that. I've played it and liked it too. But that's the thing is that there's like five reviews.

I think a bunch of them are unscored and then like a few of them are like, it's fine right now. It could be better. So like that's the one where I'm just like, fuck, that sucks because like if we just had a little bit more reviews or just whatever, just gave me the zero. I could drop it potentially by the end of the year. But I don't know how that works right now, right? I'm just stuck with it. I'm just stuck because I have points. There's reviews on Metacritic for it.

That's fair. It's reviewed. But it doesn't come out this year, though. That's the issue. Like in 1.0? Like, no, that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. If it's reviewed on Metacritic, they're reviewing the product that is out at that point.

If Mike gets Hades 2, you get no rest for the WIC. Yeah. And so, here's the problem. You know, this reminds me of a Rainbow 6 extraction where I thought that deserves more points. This no rest for the Wicked game is way better than 73. So, Roger, I apologize you. That should be at least 77 to 82. You know what I mean?

I'm surprised that that can get any love. Shouldn't have an open critic page. but rounding out my list really quick. So then I picked up Homeworld 3. I like Homeworld. Seven points. I thought the nerds were going to get. What are the scoring games on your list?

Yeah, one of them. I thought the nerds were going to get this one. I thought that they're going to really, I don't know anything about Homeworld, don't even know what kind of genre it is. I picked it up well before Mike started playing it, and then he looked at me, he was like, this Mike got the stuff.

This might be a 90 for you. And of course, it's not a 90. You should never listen to Mike. Should absolutely never listen to Mike. Roger, look to me and goes, the nerds will give this the love that it deserves. I said, all right, Roger, you got it. And then I played it. I was like, Roger, this is a pretty good game, actually.

You might score big. Looks like the nerds gave you seven. No, and this is the weird one because, like, I picked this game up, and it started, I think, at, like, an 82. And then, like, I would check in, like, months later and it would drop, like, three points every time. So, yeah, I guess this one wasn't that great. Our history untold, I think the nerds are going to get me on this one. See, you know what I think the nerds, bro. I think, I think that I think this is the one.

Is it coming this year? That's what they said. You know what I mean? They said, end of the year. It will come this year. And we haven't seen it at the Xbox conference. And maybe we see it at a game scound. We have no date on it. But I'm hopeful for it.

That is a game's a locomotive. Yeah, what's Locomotive? Yeah, so this is when I get into my bag of trying to find some secret games, some games no one's ever heard of. So then I start going indie games, 24, going down the list. And this locomotive game, it's, yeah. It's like a point-and-click adventure game, kind of going back to like the Lucas art games. Yeah, yeah, Ron Gilbert, T. Schaefer. Yeah, totally.

Oh, yeah, okay. It looks really great. It has a full-on voice cast. It's apparently coming out this year. Oh, is it a murder mystery? Yeah, I mean, you're on a train. I like that a lot. I like that a lot.

So I'm hopeful for, oh, September 24th, I forgot about that. So that's coming out this year. Hopefully this game comes out this year as well. I'm hopeful that I get maybe above an 80 on that one. But hey, I'm locked in. I'm not winning this one. I'm going to be completely honest.

Well, I mean, go down your final three because you do have a winner here. Let's talk about that. I had one winner. I had children of the sun. I'm fine with that. Hey, if you get anything above an 80, you should look at yourself and say that's a win. Huge win.

Anything above an 80 is a win for sure. But then this was my Bellotro moment. This was my Barracourtney gamer moment of the century where I was looking at games coming out this year. I was like, oh, great anniversary edition. Is that just like a remaster? What's going on here?

They like remade the game fully. So like it counts as like a partial remake or whatever. So I picked it up right before it came out. That's 19 points right there. Hey, that's a gamer moment right there. everybody. That's, that deserves something. That deserves not last place. You know, I mean, what if I trade with you? Let me, let me hand you something else that you

got. Just go to the end of the board. What did you get? Let me hand you this. That's an L. Oh, that's an L for L. So you bet against me. Roger counterpicked Dragons Dogma 2 at Draft Day, where you had to pick from somebody's list, what's a game you think that will underperform or get you zero points, right?

He picked Dragons and Doggantua 2, which got an 87, which means he loses 17 points. Just a quick little 17. You know, it was towards the end of the, the way that we did, I think I was like one, maybe the second to last person counterpicking, and I was looking around. You were the second person to counterpick. There's no way.

No, I remember I was the last person to counterpick. All right, well, maybe I don't know. Maybe I don't know what's on drugs. I don't know what the fuck was happening there. I don't know what was going on. I think I looked around and I was trying to, I was going from the big swings and I just really wanted a hurt blessing. You know what I mean? I was like, what if, what if this game sucks? What if I can take him down to pay? And I just kind of, just reverse you, no car, just shot myself right in the foots. Hey, I didn't, I don't know what I think about this game. I

was kind of like old, it is not as modern. I know they're going for the old school approach to it. Maybe it wasn't going to review well. Maybe it was going to be too hard for these game journalists, Greg. You know, these games journalists. They don't want to play games. So whatever, 17 points. I'm at then.

I'm at the end. There's nothing I can do. There's nothing I can do here. There's nothing I can do. I drop my only game. Every other game that apparently is coming out next year has not said that's coming out next year. No rest of the wicked I can't drop.

Yeah, I'm just fucked. So this is me in the basement. I hope that you guys do well, and I hope you, you know, prosper. Enjoy the last place. I want to jump next to me because I feel like I am the most similar to Raj in the sense that, like, I understand this fantasy stuff at the least. But I wanted to try it this year. I wanted to really, really try my best, pay attention to this. When new games come out, I try to make some bets and get some things.

And I've gotten some pretty sweet buys out of this whole thing. I'm feeling good about it. Did I make every perfect choice? The answer is no. There's a couple things I regret. And we're going to go through that right now. Right at the top, my first choice. Shadow the Urtree.

Crushed it. It's big boy. No, come on. Stole it from Andy Cortez. 100%. I could have sworn he picked it, but you know. 28 points there for me, which definitely was needed and feels good. Unannounced mainline 3D Mario platform.

Here's where I start getting a little fucked. My problem was I was convinced that the switch was going to be this year. And if that were to happen, it would come with a mainline 3D Mario platformer. My problem now that the switch is a switch is a fucking. officially not this year. This game's not this year. But they're not going to say that so I don't get to just drop this. Do you, have you already used your drop? I have

not. I need to be strategic about this. Because I'm a little worried at this point that I might have made some bad calls that are going to cost me points. So I might want to leave that there, just take the zero and move on. That was a big second round pick. That is your second pick overall and you just

shot for the stars on that one. I appreciate it. And I don't know if like... Tim is a get hype man. And I like that, but I don't think other people are thinking of round two, I think they're trying to still secure like known quantity games and I appreciate that like, you're like, fuck that I'm just going right off the rip for this. Timmy and I were on the same page because I

had drafted Mario Kart as well. I dropped Mario Kart the second that we heard that that the switch like reportedly not coming this year. Yeah. So then we got a Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater. This is, it's a weird one. And like, you know what, guys, I still have faith. Is that confirmed this year? No, it's definitely

that. Well, it was. but then they just haven't talked about it. So there's the rumors that it's going to be 2025 that, you know, are likely to be true. But I'm going to keep it here for now because until there's something that I need to drop this to get something, why do I need to drop? I feel like Gamescom might be the good.

Like if it doesn't show up in a big way there, I feel like that's going to be kind of your big test. Yeah. If it's actually coming. And that's the thing. If it's at Gamescom and they actually put a date on it there, then I get to drop it as one of my two drops, right? if it gets officially a 20-25 date.

Yeah. Then it accounts are my other drop. So I don't want to waste my drop on it quite yet. My first swing and a miss here was Penny's big breakaway. Could have been worse, but only got seven points here. From the team that brought you Sonic Mania, I kind of expected this was going to do a bit better. Not a 10, not a 9, but I was hoping for like an 85 or so.

So that was kind of a bit of a bummer for me. Indiana Jones in the Great Circle, it's a rough one. How are we feeling about that one? I mean, I'm very, very confident in it, but I also feel like the vibe from the games journalist circles, it's not great. It's not a great circle. Not electric. And I feel like there's kind of something going in of not wanting to love this game. Everyone wants a Wolfenstein.

They're not getting a Wolfenstein. So I feel like that might not be my best pick, but you know what? I'm still feeling good about it. I still feel like in terms of reviews, I don't expect it to get horrible scores. You're going to get 10 points. I think you're going to get an 80 on that. I'm thinking 85, 82 to 85 window, but I think we're all similar on this. I would say 15.

Remember you towards that one game was going to be amazing? Home roll 3, never forget. Never forget. Never forgive you. I would say 15 points on this, Timmy, but my big question is like, do you actually get those points this year? No. That is a big question.

I do think so, though. I think so, too. I have faith that it's this year. I just really hope it's not December for its own good. Then next up Animal Well, this is one, this is one of the ones that I was like, playing the fucking meta game of all the shit where I'm like. Because this wasn't the draft. This was after draft.

I got Animal Well during draft. Yeah. This is a game that I've seen multiple times. We drafted six games. We're having this argument earlier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We drafted six. I saw this game at GDC years ago.

We've seen it at Summer Game Fest multiple times. I was like, all right, this one, when this game comes out, it is going to hit. I did not expect it to hit as high as it did, but very happy about that. Tim gave me $100 to give it a 10 out of 10. That's what happened. That's what they call that. Then next up, one that really bums me out. Less because I lost points or didn't get too many points on it, but more because this one had the potential.

It could have been the winner. Princess Peach Showtime. Peach getting her own game, really exciting moments. And the Switch has had such a great track record of whether it's new IP or fresh takes on spin-off titles or whatever, remakes of games, sequels to games. Switch has been the best place for Nintendo IP ever with rare exception. The Mario sports titles being one of it And unfortunately, I think Princess Beach Showtime

is another example of They just put this one out. This didn't get the love and care that it needed. It's still very fun game. A lot of cute things about it. But I definitely feel like this one should have Should have got that Nintendo polish that it just simply did not get

as evidenced by the loading. If this wasn't a Nintendo game, if this was anything else, this would have been, you would have lost points on this. I do so. Yeah, you, I mean, at least you got. Awesome points. Then after that, we have Silent Hill 2 remake.

This one, considering a drop on. Yeah, you should be on. You should drop this. You're going to lose 10 points, guaranteed. Yeah, yeah. It's, uh, yeah, to talk about this real bad.

When is this coming out? Can somebody help me there? Because, um, I, I want to know. October. Okay. I got a little time. I got a little time.

Um, so we'll have to see what happens there. Uh, and then Tales of Cazeros out, six points. Uh, this is another one that like I, I was very high on.

Uh, by thinking it was going to be, be great. I don't think 76 necessarily that bad, but I feel maybe not my strongest call, but we're also getting laid into the picks there. So I don't regret that

one at all. And then here we get some of my new buys. Good for you. That I'm extremely happy about. The moment Astrobot came out, I was like, this is where Tim's got to play the game. Because I know Barrett knows how to do that. And tell the fucking story, Tim, you piece of shit. $51 bet. $51 bet. Because he knew I only

I had $50 left. And I bid literally everything. That's smart. That's how you play the game. That's how you play the game. Astrobot's about to be the greatest game ever fucking made. All other video games are going to be like, why do we exist? We should just stop.

This game is awesome. Now that I've played it, I know that even more. This game is fucking incredible. And I think it is going to get. I hate you, too. I think it's going to get like a 90. Agreed. So I've been out of this league pretty much for the last three months.

And like, I have no movability. And Mike looked at me. He's like, Roger, I know you can't do anything. so let me get some advice. Should I try to bid on Astroba's spot for $5? You're a fucking idiot, Mike? No, like, absolutely not. We'll get to mine in a moment because you'll see I spent a lot of money similar to Tim

to box out, Barrett, on a selection that I'm going to do. So your boy, Mike, I only had a little bit of money to play with, and I was hoping I beat him. But it's just, he looks so sad. He was just like, $5 by me, Astridon. I'm like, no, it won't. Fixed Salated Solace's greatest game ever made, but badly designed, ha. Tim? I mean, yeah, that's true.

just how good this game is that like despite that. So it's going to be perfect. This is an interesting point, right? So you started this whole thing off. You wanted to have fun. This is your first time. You don't fully understand it. I appreciate that.

You know what I mean? You've had a lot of fun here. That's great. You and I go back a long way. You know what I mean? I got to ask, why not trade me Astrobot? Cool.

You're not going to win. You're out of the running for the trophy. I don't know. So now you get to do the thing that's just the greatest fuck you to the rest of the league of all time. Now I can't. There is an agreement I can't barter without. There's more restrictions on our fantasy critic than the Supreme Court justices. I can't do anything.

I understand. So we're just talking strictly about me trading you college football for astrobot. College football is going to do great. It's not going to do astrobi. It's got to do great. You're not going to do astrobi. So it's just that idea of Tim, here's your consolation prize. Yeah.

it's a participation ribbon. Yeah. Everyone's proud of you for coming through and doing this at the end. But think you get to make Barrett doubly angry, which is great.

You'll definitely piss off Mike. Blessing who also is out of the running and doesn't fucking matter. It'll be furious. I would love this. This is just great content. This is some good professional wrestling. I would see how high I can get, though.

I might not be able to get one. Last place, big punishment for last place. Okay, okay, we'll have a conversation about that last place. You don't want to be that person. And here's the thing is like,

if Greg's going to win this year, he should fucking earn it, you know? And I am right now by playing the beginning. No, you're not. Tim, when we get to December, I'll fix you an eggnog and we can kick up our feet and see where you're right. No, that's bribery. I like this.

I can't fucking pour him an egg. No, that's a primary. What the fucking you're talking about? That's crazy. That's like five bucks. That's like five bucks. That's like five bucks. That's like five bucks.

And that's why his, uh, I love a good eggnog. Hey, Tim, have you ever heard of locomotive? Would you like locomotive? Yeah. Then, after that note, I made another great call. The legend of Zelda.

echoes of wisdom. As soon as they announced this shit, I had to make a choice. I only had one open spot and I had a couple dollars to play it with. I still do. It's a great one. I have 10 left.

And I was like, I want Mario and Luigi Brothership. I want Zelda echoes of wisdom, but I need to make the choice. Which one do I know was going to review better? And the answer is Zelda. So I'm going for it.

And I did it and I have that as my last one. Now, here's what I'm most upset about. And I don't know why the fuck I would have done this at any point in time. I still don't fully understand counterpics. And that is clear. I chose Star Wars Outlaws. I egg you into it.

What did you think Counterpicks were? I just don't know. Now I understand it. And now I'm like, why the hell would I do that? That's a very, very bad call. No, you understood because like,

we had a whole conversation about outlaws and... Yeah, you thought it was going to be delayed, right? You and I were the last people to counterpick, and so we have like very few, like, good picks left to counterpick. And I egged you into Star Wars Outlaws, for sure. I mean, that's, you know, unsportsman-like, and, you know, you should have regrets in your life.

Like I do, choosing Star Wars Outlaws as my counterpick. I think that it is going to do at least an 80. So I don't want to lose points. What the fuck? I think you're going to lose 5 to 10 points. Yeah, that's unfortunate. You might lose 15, bro. Yeah.

It might be rough for you. Yeah. It might be wrong. You're losing 15. This might be a Dragon Zogba 2 situation for you. It might be rough. And the worst thing is I can't drop it. Yeah.

Because the counter pick thing, right? I left SGF talking so much about how much I loved Outlaws and whatever it is. I could see out. Laws Achilles' heel being it's too short, it's buggy as shit at launch. Like there's a bunch of things that could not save you, but bring you down. It's like in the 70s for something. I don't see it happening. That's the thing is I feel like even with the bugs and performance issues.

You say you do, Barrett? Yeah. Okay. You think 70 something? Yeah. And that's why I talked to you into it where I was like I, what we've seen of the game so far, like I'm interested, like most recently from the SDF stuff, but like beforehand, And I don't know.

There's just a feeling I have about this game that I don't think it's going to like, it's not going to review bad, but I don't think it's going to get into the 80s. I mean, Survivor launch at like 15 FPS and it's an 84. So like, you're a Jedi. That's some people actually want to do. That's true. That's true. I don't want to be a Jedi.

I don't want to be a Jedi. They're going to pick up that lightsaber. They're going to pick up that lightsaber. And it's going to get a 73 because of it. Can't we? Don't try. Mike. Take us through a journey.

Talk about your boy. You know what I mean? This boy. A lot of people were saying I was the laughing stock of the league off the rip. What have I done? Because you tried to draft a game that someone already drafted. I've crafted an incredible team, Tim. Let's look at my big squad right now.

Starting number one. Starting at number one. For my best friend, Andy Cortez, I picked Hollow Night Silk Song. Still, no word. We have no idea if this is real or not. Will this ever come out? No idea. I don't think it's coming this year.

I don't think so. I don't think so. I have a couple here. where you go, where are we, what are we doing, right? So you look at Hollow Night Silk Song, what are we doing?

The Plucky Squire. How do we get so much promotional stuff for this and then go a whole summer of not talking about it? I mean, we're at SGF with a devolver digital booth, the most beautiful booth

in the whole place, and all they got is an 8 by 10 poster of it and no word about this game once. So you wonder what happened to the Plucky Squire, Mike? No, no. Then you look at replaced.

Again, at SGF. No word of replaced at Ed, again. But it was playable. I'm hoping games come. I'm hoping games come. We say, hey, we are ready for this game. I would like that to come out. I need that one.

Well, let's not skip over your wins as well. I mean, let's, yeah, exactly. Those are my questions right now of like, uh-oh, I have three big games that I need to score here or one of them to at least announce so I can drop them. But let's go into my wins. You know, a lot of people doubted me on Hades 2, but I knew it was going to be a great game. Oh, yeah. What a question mark that was.

Super secret indie game. 90, giving me 20 points. What a win that was. Jesus Christ. There was conversation from Blessing before this was even released. It kind of looks like a PS2, PS3 game. Took a chance on it, 17 points. That was a big win for me right there.

You go down. Now we play the game of, I have three games still left that aren't my question mark games, which is World Warcraft, the War Within. That's definitely scoring 80s for sure. I was going to say, what's the vibe on that? That's hot. That's a hot vibe right now for us.

Then I have Assassin's Creed Shadows and Lego Horizon Adventures. So to go over that, Assassin's Creed Shadows, you think of the Assassin's Creed person, that's Barrett Courtney. Once we saw this announced and, you know, kind of shown off during the Summer Game Fest vibes, I said, I got to get on this. And what did I do, Tim? I did the you. I put $75 on that thing.

You put 80. And you want to know how much I bid making you waste all that money? 20. And so, who has the game and who doesn't? Who doesn't? You spent all that money to get 15 points, right? And so that will round out my squad with that.

And then I got Lego Horizon Adventures, hoping that will score a solid 80s. 80s. Yeah, I think that will be high. I think that will be a good, fun, family-friendly game that I think will score well with there. After playing it, I would be surprised if it doesn't hit the 80 mark. Like I feel like that's, you look at it. When you first hear about it, you're like, oh, that's like a 70-something.

Like playing through it, I'm like, all right, there's more here that I think is going to, it's a hit for the reviewers. So again, just to call it out. Yeah. When Mike started this and he's like, I'm projected to be number one when I'm actually number one. Remember, it doesn't, the AI here isn't perfect. That's right. It's just saying he's going to get all these points for games that aren't going to come out.

It's not sitting there going like, where the fuck's hauling on it. It's just saying it'll be 13 points. Where the fuck's plucking the squire? Oh, this can be 12 points. But we should celebrate some of my other wins as well. Destiny 2, the final shape. That's going to 91, 21, 22 points. Because if we remember last year when we did PSI Love You versus X-Cast,

I chose Destiny 2 the Lightfall. And that one absolutely bombed. And it deserved a bomb because that game, that sucked. For quite some, well, not quite some time. For a couple of weeks there, you were the number one game. This was the highest scoring game before Erd Tree showed out. Boom. It was a big deal right there.

And so Destiny really delivered if you're a fan of Destiny 2. It did deliver it to a lot of fun. Final Fantasy 16, the Rising Tide. This is one of those where you're in the midseason. You're getting a little eager of like, man, should I be picking something up? But there's only, there's still nine months left. Why are you getting excited, Mike? and I was caught up in the hype of like, I need points, I need this.

And so I thought, you know what, Ben Starr, you know, accept the truth, you know, stuff like that. I was into it. It didn't score well. It only got me eight points. So I needed that one to do better. And then I had little guardsmen, which I thought was really fun. That's a cute Papers Please type vibe with a little girl working the castle guard booth.

And she's letting people come into the castle. That got me 14 points, so 84. So that's a big win. And then my counter pick is, Hyperlight breaker, which I'm hoping won't get scores. But, you know, after Hades, it might get scores. Maybe it doesn't fully release. Who knows? You know, early access, maybe they push it back a month or two.

We'll see. We'll see. But, yeah, if you look at my squad, I am projected to finish first. But as Greg said, that's the AI bot putting points together. I have more games available than Greg to hopefully score me points. But I do have a big hole right now of Hollow Night Silk Song, the Plucky Squire, and replace. Three games that we have no idea.

really about. So this could be a big problem for me. And you have to, again, like we've talked about before, until it's officially announced by Hollow Night and Plucky Squire that we are not coming this year, you can't get the free drops on them. I think the only wrinkle to this that Blessing told me was that I think at the end of December,

if a game just hasn't had an announced date or whatever, you can just drop it. So you have a little bit of maneuverability at the December. Correct. But for people watching at home, the idea there you drop them and you'd have to get games that aren't out yet that are still coming out in December.

Three games that are probably going to be very whatever. That's what you'd really go into of like what can to get me two points, three points. Yeah, I did use your free drop. Yeah, I did use my one official free drop on Marvel Rivals. I picked up Marvel Rivals feeling really confident after that alpha. The downfall of Marvel Rivals was as they did do the

hey, we're not releasing until 2025. We're going to give you some betas. Which then put me at the spot of, well, this has got to go. And now I got to go with Lego Horizon Adventures. Now, what I could have done instead of using my one free drop, I probably should have reached out to this fantasy critic

because that's what you're supposed to do and just write, hey, they announced this isn't releasing, put it up there because then they would have put the board on there, allowed me to make the move. But you like to do the most cumbersome hard work against you think possible. Well, I like to get things done in a timely manner instead of waiting for a week for an email response, which would have gotten me the same results fast,

but I was on it. Real quick, Zanfair says one thing to note is that DeVolver said, good news the Plucky Squires coming out this year before their summer showcase. It was text during the stream countdown. Oh, well, take it to the bank. That's definitely... Yeah. Take it too. Don't worry about the J-Pen poster. This is all they had for the game at the place where we played.

And I'm not showing it off again during the devolver. Mike, I think you're going to get Hollow Night. You think so? You think Hollow Night? I think you're going to get a lot. Gamescom they announced it. I don't know. I think you get it. I just, next year's just so fucking stacked. I feel like this is the year to make it. The thing about Hollow Night is it's, it could be any time. It could be literally

tomorrow they can just be like hey it's out and we'd be like wow it's out you know I don't think like they released the first one in 2017 one of the craziest years of games uh in the last decade right so I sure I don't think they're thinking about in that way yeah I think they're thinking about finishing the game to their standards yeah it's amazing that that game has garnered so much love and like respect like you said like that that game could come out tomorrow we're all going to go crazy it's like man I'm blown away that this little

cute insect thing has like taken over the world by storm like that that's wild to me A little guy. And so yeah, I feel good about my squad. I have some holes that I think will prevent me from taking that first place spot. Unless if everything goes right here, I think I have what could be a take down Greg Miller situation for my lineup right now. Not a chance. Speaking of Greg Miller, let's go through your list. Before then, do you want to talk about these two losers that didn't even show up today?

Yeah, probably. Because I'd like to, I know it's early. Before we do any of that, how about we take a word from our sponsors? This episode is brought to you by our very good friends over at Nvidia G-Gforce. Kind of funny, and Invidia G4s have been working together for almost four years now, and they were one of our first sponsors at the spare bedroom. So when we reached out to them to be a part of Gettys live on stage, Gia and I's Wedding Spectacular, they couldn't say no.

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Craig. Hi, how are you, Tim? Who do you want to take down first? Well, first off, I, you know, I screwed up. I'm sorry. I wanted to give Andy an award, which then reminded me that we're playing for an actual award, of course. the fantasy critic trophy, the 2024 edition, of course. Janet Garcia walked away with the inaugural 2021.

I just so happy to win the 2023 one. And obviously I'm on track right now to win the 2024 one. No big deal. But I'd like to give the Gary Whittah Memorial Award to Andy Cortez. If you're unfamiliar, ladies and gentlemen, the Gary Whita Memorial Award goes out to the player who was at the draft and then just never gave a shit about this ever again. Yeah, Tim, you want to talk about, like, you understanding the least out of all of us?

No, that goes to one Andy Cortez. Andy Cortez is playing with the Ron Popil method of set it and forget it, where he drafts his six games, then the next week picks up another additional, what, three, yeah, to get to nine, and then just has this empty space. No, he filled it. He filled his team like a week later. How do we, and then he dropped somebody? Yeah, he did drop a couple.

Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, he dropped the Space Marine. And then walked away and he has, like, what, $77 in the budget? it right now. So he could make a move on something if he gave a shit, but he doesn't. Andy, the first pick was Tech and 8, which was great. He got 90, got him 20 points. He has Star Wars outlaws.

He's, of course, locked by a counterpick. Frost Punk 2 is his third pick. No points yet. When is that coming? They got pushed a little bit, but it's still this year. I don't get the cool thing when I hover. And like, I think it's going to review well. I think he's going to get points off of Frost. He took Brothers, A Tale of Two Sun's

remake that got 81 points, giving him 11 points. Under Night Inbre. to Siss Solis got 82, got him 12 points. He's got Stalker 2 on there yet to come out, Heart of Chernobyl. MLB, the show 24 and 80 with 10 points. Then he has Skate Story, Anger, Foot, and Wild Bastards. His counterpick is Tales of the Shire. That's a solid one.

So there's a lot of action still happening. And again, so far, all he's posted is double-digit points, which is pretty good. Yeah, but again, he said it, forget it walked away. We'll see how this pans out for him as a strategy. Then you have the completely opposite. much more sad story of blessing Adioia Jr. Andy said it, forget it, walked away. Since then, been on a million dates driving his Ferrari around San Francisco.

Blessing fretting over fantasy critic non-stop. Blessing out there trying to make something happen with fantasy critic. And right now, just in fifth place, projected, fourth place, zero dollars left in the budget. As we look at what Samurai Hypothesis, that's his publishing name has. His first pick, Microsoft Flight Simulator, 2024. We'll see what that gets. We're still waiting to see on that. To be solid.

What's the deal with that? Is there a date on that or is that just like a, he'll get to it? That's this year. November 19th is what the website says. Then he's got Black Myth Wukon. I've heard, we've heard things about that.

See how that one shakes out when we get there. Then we get into, you know, just some pitiful picks here. Rise of the Ronan got him seven points. Grand Blue Fantasy Relink got him 11 points. Pepper Grindr got him nine. It should have gotten him 13.

And this is always the problem. them with the indies. I love the indies and you can have something like Barrett with Balatro, you know what I mean? Where you, that, oh man, this is fucking awesome. But then you can see something and it's that thing of like, this looks so impressive, this looks so cool, where is it going to go? And it just goes to nine points. You know what I mean?

Stellar Blade got him 12 points. That's great. Euton Chronicle. 100 heroes got him five. And that's just playing the fucking nerds are like this nerd game. Yeah, that's literally what he told me. And I don't hate it because I got a nerd game of mine. I'll talk about a second. Loreline, the Laser Eyes got him 17 points. That was great. In 87, great pickup there.

Then he's got Steamworld Heist 2. Which I think he added based on my preview. My preview of it, yeah. What do you think if you were going to guess? Yeah, I mean, like I was saying this a couple weeks ago after playing it, very out of my normal genres of what I care about. But the polish is so there that I'm like, oh, wow, this, I know people love SteamWorld as a franchise and all the different kind of types of games that it has. It seems to just keep doing them well. It being a sequel to Heist, which is one of the more popular ones, I think that this is going to pay off.

I think that that's going to get him at least 15 points. Wow. And then he's got never. Never ever. Well, a very beautiful game we're all excited about it. No way that's this year, though. Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, he's got to take an educated guess.

He's got to take a shot out there and do it. Yeah. I don't think so. I agree with you. I don't think it's this year, but I appreciate the hustle. And then he's rounding out with Dragon Quest 3 HD 2D remake. That's a good one. Yeah, that's a great one.

I expect that one to score pretty well when it comes out in November. And that right now leaves him with 61 points. And he kind of picked Metro and Prime 4. And, you know, that, maybe they lied. Maybe it's this year, actually. Maybe. Maybe. Now, of course, we could jump to me.

We could. But let's talk about another loser behind me, eating my dust to Barrett Courtney. What do you got on your team, loser? Um, all right. The fucking hostile way to start me out. I'm just saying I'm unstoppable. He's unstoppable.

I feel like you're being more hostile to me because I do have a chance. I'm actually quite scared of you. Barrett takes this the most serious because he has the eyes for these kind of a game. Well, he listens to a podcast, but I still think he's cheating. Yeah, he knows. How? How's it cheating?

When Lucy James and Skillop and all the, and the besties, it's cheating. It's cheating. Oh, I thought you were like saying it cheating on us because we're the only podcast. You know what I mean? Oh, no. I don't mind if you listen to stuff, but I just feel like when you talk to more informed people and they give better opinions, I don't like that. All right.

Anyways, right now I'm currently at 71 points. My first round pick was a metaphor refantasia, which I'm feeling fucking great about about it. That was going to crush. think that's going to be a 20 point at least. And then my second round pick was persona three reload, which was in the high 80s, which honestly, I'm really happy about. I was, uh, for a little bit there.

I was starting to think it was going to be like low 80s. Uh, then next we got Rise of the Golden Idol, which is, um, the follow up to, I think the case. Curse. Curse of the Golden Idol. Which people are loved. Yeah. Like not a lot of people talked about the, but the people that did review it fucking

adored it. And that first came, uh, got like an. 88 or something like that. There's still no date on Rise of the Golden Idol, which I'm a little bit nervous about. But they said during SGF, like they're still hitting this year. It had a demo during SGF that people are really fucking high on.

So that's a big question. Isn't the original coming to game pass? Yes, it is. Okay. Yeah, I'm very excited for that and you play that. Yeah. And that's why, Roger, I am kind of worried for you and your locomotive pick

because if Rise of the Golden Idol comes out, like I think that's going to eat that game's lunch. Yeah. In terms of just mindsharing people maybe like comparing it. All I need is four reviewers to give it an 88. You know what I mean? That's all I need. I don't care about multiple of them. Yeah. And the next up I had Unicorn Overlord. I bet big on Atlas during our draft this year. That also got me into the high 80s, which is why I'm super confident with metaphor, not just because the SDF previews, but because that's going to be their big game.

And if they're two other, like, not small games, but smaller releases compared to that this year are in the high 80s. Like, no way metaphor can, I will eat the, I won't eat these words. metaphor can't fail this year. Can't fail. My last pick before the counter pick was Tales of the Shire Oh Lord of the Rings game. Rough.

This is a solid counterpick from Andy. I think this loses me five points. I think at most it gets me five points. Were SGF previews really negative? I would, guessing even worse. It was a lot of shrugs.

Which to me says 70. You'll get a 70-71 off of that. Yeah, I don't know. It's a really weird, who's going to be reviewing this? Is it going to be... Cozy game people who love Lord of the Rings. But also Lord of the Rings people who

maybe aren't in the cozy games. Like that's the... It's a big question mark there and that's definitely like... It's the most chaotic game, I think, on this list that hasn't come out this year that I'm a little bit worried about. I don't think that game looks good. I know it's not for me, but like I...

There's something about it. This looks pretty bad. Next up we have Thrasher, which is the follow up, like spiritual success. from the team of Thumper. That comes out next month. That's wild, dude. Which is crazy. I'm super excited for that.

It's a VR exclusive, I think. Never mind. At first as well. I totally didn't know about that part of it. I think it's coming to other things later. I think it's just starting out in VR. And honestly, that makes me even more confident in the release because, Greg, these VR sickos, they have nothing to fucking play.

So when something even slightly interesting comes to the fight, platform they're going to be like, oh my God, it's an 85 at least. So I'm feeling, I'm feeling okay about thrashire. And then we got football manager 2025. Dude, I'm so mad at you about this one. So, yeah, we both bid on it and you outbid me. Yeah, this is one that I picked up from the first year that I, uh, did fantasy critic with, uh, Jonathan Dornbush.

Football manager is a great guaranteed 10 to 15 points at the end of the year because they always come out in December. And they're always like great releases. Um, and so that was one where I was like, hmm, if I want like a boost in the arm at the end of the year, this is one to pick up. And they keep on hyping this one up specifically. You know, like, hey, we're changing a bunch of stuff. We're making this better.

Something I bid $5 for, feeling great about. It was good old Balatro. Shout out to Giant Bomb who were talking about the, what was it, the demo that was out on Steam for like a month. And then eventually, I was like, all right, I just got to pick this up. The way they were talking about it was like, I feel like, what was the other card game that popped off a couple years ago? In description.

Yep. The way, like, not in the same vein, obviously, but there's just something about Bellatro and how people were talking about it. I was like, this is going to be the indie hit card game. I'm glad that I picked that up. A more passion pickup that definitely bit me in the butt with Sandland. I was feeling really good. Like, that game looked really interesting. Obviously, the PS5 demo was like really bad, which had come out.

I played the game. Like, we got review codes and I really enjoyed it. But I definitely understand, like, it only got four. points and that definitely bit me in the butt there. And then I picked up... But I mean, so far, your only game that hasn't gotten double digits, which is crazy. Yeah. And then I picked up Nine Souls, which was a good get there.

I've been really excited for Nine Souls. That's the 2D kind of, like, hand-drawn Tao Punk game that's like very 2D. Securo, great style, great soundtrack, all that stuff. That got me in the 80s, even though in my heart, that is a 90-plus game. and then my most recent pickup because I was outbid for Assassin's Creed Shadows I was outbid for Astrobat forced me into the pickup of Dragon Age the Vail Guard

which I'm going to be honest I think it's going to be a 15 plus and then my counterpick Penny's big breakaway lost me seven points but honestly I think that was best case scenario for being the last person to counterpick so I honestly think I've got if Rise of the Golden Idol comes out this year I'm in the bag for at least another 50 points, I think.

Barrett is the one I'm the most scared about. I think he's got a really great lineup. I think metaphor is going to play really well. I think you look at football manager like he's talking about it and then Dragon Age. I think you put those out there. You have a lot going on. So if you can get just the five,

the whatever off thrash or like, he's a scary competitor out there with a lot of year. I think he's going to get more than for thrashor, for sure. Yeah. And currently I only have $5 left. And even Mike, even if you dropped anything,

you have $1. $1. $1 and a dream. $7. $7 production, remember? Don't worry about it. Hey,

that's what the Rock didn't. Look at him now. Yep. He's a winner. Yeah. I got to watch the Young Rock now. I'm excited. Anyways, back to me.

Last year's champion, you're reigning fantasy critic champion. Ecto 1 games goes like this. My first pick, of course, was Final Fantasy 7 rebirth. He got a 93, getting me 25 points.

Just fucking crushing out there. I've been thinking about that game a lot recently. Yeah. Oh, killer. I thought about starting it the other day. Yeah, played more Diablo. Paper Mario, the thousand year door, the remake there, got me 18 points with an 88. Allen Wake 2 Night Springs got me 13.

Wow. Yeah. I could expect more. I was hoping for more when I put it on there. And then when we all played, I was like, I was actually backfire on me. 13, I'm happy. I'm happy to get away with 13. My reaction when you got that one, I was like, oh, I was surprised you didn't do the second DLC.

I mean, I know that can always go to 2025. That was my thought. Yeah, the whole thing with me was, yeah, we were coming in hot. obviously the start of the year off of Alan Wake. I wanted something that was dropping this year. So I went with the first one for it. Up next is visions of manna, which I believe it was next month.

Is that right? It's upcoming. Two months from now. Two months, August. No, no, at the end of next month.

Yeah, exactly. I am expecting good points off of that one. That one looks good. I want to actually play it, which is, you know, not usual for me.

Then I had like a dragon, infinite wealth. 20 points. A little bit, little bit of question marks there. Just if we rewind the tape, Roger, you know,

this was the last. I didn't want to bring this up. I didn't want to bring it up, you know what I mean? But like, this was Greg's last selection. A lot of people in the chat were like, why haven't they selected like a dragon? Maybe Mike and Roger were currently reviewing the game, and we didn't, we weren't allowed to pick it. No, that's not what happened. That is completely incorrect.

No, no. We had a 10-meeting. That we were reviewing it. He had weeks of knowing that that was good, and he picked it the last pick. That is how reality states that. That's not what I want everyone, oh, that's correct. What I will say is that I remember we had a conversation. about this. We were playing persona. We were playing Tekin and we were playing

like a dragon. And the question was, should we not be able to draft these or not? My heart, I was like, we shouldn't be able to draft these, but then we had the conversation of like, these are known quantities. We were going to draft these no matter what, right? I didn't feel comfortable doing yakuza, so then I let that one slide. I remember, and I misremember this, so maybe I just, I misheard something or whatever. I thought that we weren't going to draft games that we were reviewing. Correct. That was the rule. So when Barrett drafted persona, I was like, oh, shit. maybe that conversation was.

The latest conversation I had before the draft was, does your personal feeling on the game, is that giving you really an insight on how the rest of the industry is going to review it? Because even when I drafted persona, that was more of a personal pick and less of like, that this is going to give me hell of points. Because even at the time of drafting it,

I was in the throes of like, is there enough here that people are really going to clamor onto this like they do a persona 5? So yes, the conversation we had, as a team that Mike was a part of. He was now I feel like he wasn't here. No, no. The rule was if you are reviewing the game,

you are not allowed to draft. What do you want to talk? You know what you want to talk? Filibustering. Greg chose that because he wasn't reviewing it. But you know, I'm just letting the world know. No, I mean, it was good. He knew it was good.

So what had happened, remember, is we had to do this late because of how the games cast all shook out coming back from game of the year. So the conversation about the three games you just mentioned were those are up for grabs. You can pick those because we would have picked those anyway. And also none of them were shocking And none of them were like these are going to be

100s, 10 out of tens Like oh my, you know what I mean? It was like we knew we would have picked these And you also know that there's going to be better games Them this year. Then the rule was yes, that from here on out You cannot pick a game base that we have in the office That we're playing and reviewing and doing the whole thing for.

After. So it couldn't be like I'm playing Whatever tiny titty's big adventure too And I'm like yo, this game no one's hurt off it's 10 out of that. The rule is as soon as we get codes it's off the date. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But Mike's trying to, of course, get out here. I'm getting ahead of it.

He makes his tag. I know. I know. I'm getting ahead of it, chat. I'm just letting you know what happened. I mean, you're already causing divisiveness in the chat. Everyone's like, Mike is my champion. Thank you.

Fucking, fucking Mike. But it was a great selection, Greg. I will give you that. Great selection. Tim, bury the needle. Uh, bury the needle. Send it to him.

Trade me astrobat. No, not a chance. Come on. Not a chance. Be evil. Why can't you be evil once in a while? No, no. You're like,

Give it to me. Give it to me. I'll give you something. Hey, Greg, have you heard of locomotive? We're going to be in a year or this year. 97. Anyways, back to my team.

All right. After that, I picked up a bunch of stuff. No, no, we're still in the draft. One, two. Diablo four. No, no. It was my final draft pick. I picked that vessel of hatred,

which of course, back then was just Diablo four. I'm expecting big numbers off of that. Based on the fact that, as I'm sure, you've seen or at least heard the scuttle butt, that this season, season four has been so great. Everyone's like, oh, this is how the game should have launched,

yada yada, yada, we love this thing. I would assume that by the time we get to Vessel of Hatred, you're going to have so many reviewers and people coming back for the first time and really investing hours in that all the things they've done throughout the, by the time they get there a year in a couple months, that'll be a big, holy shit, this game's even better or whatever, as long as they don't fuck this up. But the new character seems neat and they have pets now.

And obviously, I think there'll be a lot of shit in there for people really to like, and I'm looking for good numbers off that. Then another crab's treasure. I picked this one up. I only got me eight points. And it's back to what I'm talking about. You see these indies, you're like, man, that seems a cool thing. We've played it.

And like, we liked another cap treasure. You know, the reviews up. Like, it's a positive review, but it is that thing of, like, I had expected that to get higher. I thought that was going to do a lot better with its humor, especially because I like going under so much. I thought, you know, learning on that. I'm surprised it didn't resonate more with critics, especially with how much people like Souls likes. Then, shockingly, which is outrageous to me, banisher's Ghosts of New Eden, got me 10 points. I would definitely think at least flip it where another craft.

grabs get me 10 and this gets me. I played managers. I didn't give it a glowing review. I liked my time enough with it, but I didn't like it this way, but whatever. Then WW2K24 got me 10 points. Again, that's a known quantity to a degree where I was like, the 2K games

keep getting better than this one coming in. I was like, well, this one should, everything I'm seeing, whatever. I hoped it was going to go more than this, but I'll take it, whatever, for 10 points off it. Another shocker for me, Cripmaster, 76, giving me just six points. I thought, you know, this is getting

IDGA awards. This is a game I played and loved so much. That was really, really cool and unique and different. I would have said 80, no problem, 10 points on this. So 6 is pretty shocking to me for that to be there. Only 10 critics. Reviews. That's the problem. Yeah. And then my final pick,

and this runs out my entire 10 group here, is EA College, or E. Sports College Football 25. What do you think? Five points. Huh? Five points is my guess. No way. No way.

More than that. No way. I appreciate that and respect that. No way. Like this is like everything they have done and talked about for this game, which is imminent, right? Two weeks away. Me and Mike can't wait is answering what a college football fan has wanted for 11 years.

Like I think you're, like if it was another Madden, it was annualized. And again, when this does become annualized every year after this, I think you'll see numbers get, go to the 2K 80s, high 70s, whatever. I think for first one out of here, I'm hoping for 85 on this one.

And I think it's like, because again, like the minutia of nerdy shit they're doing in here for fans like us. And again, think about it this way too of like first college football game in this era, let alone even the last generation, right? Where it's like the things they're talking are things you'd expect, but like they are so fucking cool to see of like in your dynasty. If you move your team out of the conference, the conference patches on the uniforms are going to change. Like that level of minutia is what they're calling out and creating your coach and doing your thing. at the other and like it's you know I've seen I do respect all of that but how much does that hit with the audience of reviewers who might not be in the nitty gritty like you and mike like this is I mean I don't think I'll stop you right there like I think if you're reviewing this at IGN or

game spot or whatever they're going and finding the NCAA football fan I don't think it's just going to be I think the days of when I reviewed fucking UFC whatever the hell I review I'm like I don't know what I'm doing I think that's long gone I think it's got to be you go in here and I also think EA is doing a great job right now of drowning just here's all the information they're putting up these things every day blog posts that are just like fucking here's a laundry list of things we've done

for this game and so I just think that like you're going to come out and it's going to be you should throw up madden but I think this is night and day in terms of like what they're trying to do here what they're trying to capture I'm right there with Greg I think this will I think this will get in the 80s here I think this is a solid pick I think the

only issue for Greg's team that I see is just like yeah you have only a couple left. When you look at me and Barrett, we have these openings that will hopefully give us those boots to get us closer to you. But you've established a solid base. I think... My counterpicks were replaced, by the way. Which we don't expect to see this year.

Exactly. And you could get lucky on that one is right. But like your small mistakes, like another Crabbs treasure and Cryptmaster might be the ones to come back and buy you if Barrett all of a sudden starts dropping 20s and 15s, then you have a big problem here. But, you know, relying on EA Sports College football,

Diablo 4 and Vision the Manna. If you're saying that out loud, you're like, oh, that's probably not where you want to be at first place and, like, hoping for those. But Visions of Manna and Diablo should score very well. And then you hope for college football. You have set yourself up to probably look down upon all of us at the first spot still.

We'll see. We'll see. I think it's going to bear it. We've got some super chats that I want to get to here. Sotian writes in, says, very surprised Fall Fancy 7 Reberts scored that high because I expected it to be very divisive, especially regarding the story, to be honest.

I love the game personally. Yeah, it was with fans, but I think critics, yeah, it was pretty unanimous. So it's interesting, yeah. Yeah. Jake just super chats in with nothing to say, but we appreciate you. I appreciate you, homie. Mara writes in saying, Skilup just had a lengthy, pretty glowing preview of the Plucky Squire go up. So don't be too pessimistic, Mike?

Yes. I love that. But here's, why wouldn't they show it off in like a more expansive space in SGF? That's so weird. It really is. They're cooking. And then this is completely unrelated. but you'll call me Rob says, hey guys,

you got any picks for Mr. and Mrs. Money in the Bank? McIntyre. Tiffie Tom, baby. Oh, Tiffie Tom! Tiffie Time, baby! Let's go! Here's my thing. Center of the universe. McIntyre, you sold me on a pitch for McIntyre.

I believe you, Roger. I love that. The women's money in the bank. It's Chelsea, baby. Oh, I wish. I think it's Chelsea. I think they go for the meme pick. And I love the meme of her

cashing in on the diva. It's so funny. It's so funny. It's so funny. It's so funny. fucking funny. But if you can call it, are they actually

going to run it down that way? I think it's between the two of them, Tiffie and Chelsea, but I feel like, I feel like this is Chelsea. Giving her that gets another character, another storyline. I don't think Tiff needs it.

Yeah. But we'll see. I digress. Let's get back to some fantasy critic stuff here. What do you want to go here, Greg? I feel like we don't necessarily need to get into all of this stuff.

Do whatever you want, man. You're hosting. Let's see. I say, um... Back to Path of the fucking. I forgot that I even gave you bullet points at the start of the show. Just figure it out.

I'm so fucking, I'm ready to rum it down. Bear it, bear it pizza bet that I think, what do you, what do you think college football is going to do? You say, you say, well,

you said four points, right? So you're saying, I said a 75. Okay. I say above 75. I say, well, let's do pizza bet of,

above below 77. Okay, I'll go above. Is that fair? Is that fair? Yeah, I like that. I like those odds. So I'm saying,

so I'm what, above below? So I'm saying, who gets 77? Is that just we split the pizza? Yeah, we just Perfect. We make Tim buy it.

We make Tim by it. Yeah, that's good. I saw a super chat. C. J. Splits on ass about no avowed. Yeah. He was trying to trade it for so long.

I wanted to give him locomotive. I'll take a vow. Just for the, I loved outer world so much. I was like, I'll take it. I don't care if it gets me five points. I don't get shit.

I just wanted on my team. I just want it. Yeah, I get that. Is there any high-scoring games left to release this year that were scared? of other people have. I mean, yeah, again, Barrett's entire run pretty much, right? Metaphor is the big one, I think, in terms of, like, what I'm worried about on other people's teams.

I think everybody's still got winners out there. Obviously, if they were to drop a Metal Gear Delta for you, that'd be big. Obviously, I'm trying to get Astrobot off of your shoulders. It's just too much for you to bear. It is. He's so heavy. When is Astrobot coming out? September, I think.

Yeah, I know you're right. September, September, September. Astrobot release dates. And that's the thing. It's one of those where, you know, obviously Roger is out of the running. But lots of other people aren't where it is, even Andy, where you run through it and it's like, well, how much is outlaws going to get them? How much a stock are going to get them? Like you start looking at like two as well. Yeah. I think people are going to be. These aren't bad picks. Here's my thing. I'm playing for third here. Okay.

I want that. I know I'm not going to beat you or bear here, but I want to beat all you other mothers. You want to be top three. And I think I can get there. I think I just need to claw a little harder. And if Salon Hills, Hills, Hills, too, is not just a. you got to drop. I think I'm going to drop it. I think I'm going to drop it. I got a couple of months. I don't want to make any hasty moves.

Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. You know? But yeah, I'm feeling good about that. The issue is, it's funny. We say we have a couple of months and you truly do.

Right? Like, you have time. But the issue is we've started to secure the larger selections here where now you go, well, yeah, I got a couple months. Maybe I'll find someone. It's like, but do you really, are you really going to find something here? Because I don't know if you will find out. You got to be going into the weeds.

I'm more at a point. You're right. I do. But I'm more at the point that I'm not thinking about trying to gain more points. I'm just trying to not lose points. I wouldn't worry about you losing points on your picks right here. I go down yours. You're not going negative here past 66.

You're only going up. But yeah, your goal is to- No, Silent Hill 2 is going to lose 10 points. You think Silent Hill 2 is scoring less than 70 points? Have you seen a fucking trailer for that game? I've seen a trailer, but like,

it does not look good. The way you guys are making this sound is like, this is coming out at 40s. It's like, no, it's not coming out at 40s, y'all. No, I'm saying it's going to be why you. It was an old build. It was an old build. I'm saying it's going to get him a 60 on open critic,

which is going to lose him 10 points. I'm with the chat. I think they'll score you above 70. I think you will score into the early 73s. If you want to be competitive, you probably should drop Mario. And then just try to just hope that that's a 70 and then just try to build up. Or help your friend, Greg.

You know what I mean? Because college football is going to get you points. Again, everything I just pitched, right? we're just talking about a difference of 10 points. You know? Uh-huh. Because I think I'm saying in college football in the 80s,

I'm saying Astrobaugh in the 90s, right? Yeah, but the 90s, then you get that multiplier effect. I know, but again, it just doesn't matter for you. Like, you can't win. It wouldn't be a fun story for you to be like, well, if I would have had Astroa,

I could have been in fourth place. Here's the thing, Tim. Greg's picks, the games he has left to trade you are kind of question marks. Don't listen to bear. Listen to me, Mike. If you're trying to guarantee a third place spot,

I can give you Dragon Age the veil guard They can solidify that third place Oh, that hasn't pissed off the fans at all I'm sure that won't bite you in the ass In the reviews come Shadow Trickster in the chat brought up Life Estrange double exposure If I had any moverability

I would have chose that one I'm very very very excited for that game I don't know what true colors did But I think that game would do very much I remember I had that Oh really? Maybe I didn't I love that game so I'm just I'm like my emotions

Cloud my judgment It's always trouble That's the issue here I just love video games I love video games Pride before the fall Before we end this podcast podcast. I want to ask about next year. You know what I mean? Because this is

a fantasy draft, right? This is based off of sports, right? And one thing I know about sports is that the team that's at the bottom, they get the first pick. And you know, I just want to put that out. I just want to put that out there, you know what I mean? Like, there's a lot of picks out there and like, I'm bottom, I can't do anything, but like, why not just give me first pick

next year? Come on. That's interesting. Give me GTA. I usually, I like to live in the world where if you win, you get first pick. Now, that's not how we have the conversation. You looked at me and said, I would, back you on this and then just immediately backstaffed me. I thought, you know, if you win, you get first place. Now, I didn't take.

I didn't take. If you get last place, maybe you get second. It's randomized. Yeah, that's the winner. Last year it is. Maybe I should get a helping hand from an asteroid over there. Winner should get first pick, but I will agree with you, Roger. I think last place should get a helping hand.

Maybe give them second pick. I'll give you that. Oh, I like that. You don't earn first pick. You don't earn it. I understand that. You didn't earn it. I didn't tank.

This was just a general... Unless we have a punishment for you. We give you a badass punishment from going last place. Then I'll give you first of... I'm open to something. I'm open to a punishment if I get second place. You're selling it to the wrong people

because blessing is the commissioner of the league here. Well, he also... Didn't he also go like second last year? And he's randomized fucking picks. It's like, okay, bullshit. Yeah, randomized pick. Let's just fucking put me on there. What are you talking about?

The commissioner. If we're talking about 2025, over on the kind of funny subreddit, Callie Greens wrote in and said, I saw the schedule for this week and it looks like they're finally going to check in on Fantasy Critic, which is something I've been looking forward to.

I just want to suggest that they'll some time in the episode do an early look at 2025 and talk about which games they already expect to be top picks for next year. You nailed it, GTA, right? Unless...

Do you worry about it coming out? That's always the question. I mean, that is a concern, but I also think that it is likely to come out next year. You'd be foolish not to grab it, yeah. Yeah, I agree 100%. Yeah, I mean...

GTA, Mario. Anything? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anything Nintendo. Yeah. I would say Siv 7. Siv 7 is going to be up there for sure. That got 89 on Open Critic for Siv 6, so you think you got to grab a hold of that one for sure.

We need to see more a Metroid. Oh. But little Nintendo sickos, they're going to be excited for it. Here's the question. Again, this is probably more for blessing. If Hades 2 doesn't go into 1.0 this year, but does next year, can we pick up Hades 2 again? Yeah. Yeah, because we don't... It's reviewed again.

We'll re-review, yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Our list just, you know, resets or whatever. Interesting. Also, do we think Colo Knight's coming out next year? Exactly. I'm just saying, just give me second place. Just get, let me choose.

Let me get second. Let me get second. It'll be random. Just think about it. Think about everybody. Think about it. Think about it. Yeah, I mean, the Switch 2 lineup, whatever that looks like,

I feel like is going to have high-hitting reviews. Monster Hunter Wilds. Oh, that's a big pick. Doom. Great one. That'll be hot. That'll be a good pick right there. I like that.

Babel. Babel's a must have. Danny over here, a big question mark for me in 2025 is Judas. I could see going either way. Yeah, I would never. Yeah,

I don't know when you're going to see that game. And especially in that weird, like, what was it, the Friends Per Second podcast got to do, like, that weird preview, but it was so early. They didn't even want to call it a preview. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, that game just seems so early. Jumping off the game and forward list, you got things to call out, like Death Stranding 2, Fable. Yeah. Donkey Kong Country returns HD. 10 points. 10 points.

Can you really not wait for that game? Honestly, yeah, man. Wow, okay. It's awesome. It's not the best Donkey Kong game. It's really good. Yeah. How about this Marvel 1943 rise of Hydra?

No. No. Too early, I think. I don't believe that's a video game. No, I don't either. I just don't. It just looks like... What's the Captain America Black Panther one titled?

Yeah. Yes. That's what this is? Yeah, yeah. And you don't believe that's a video game? I don't. It looks like, was it going deep or deep down? What was the fucking Capcom game from the PS4 launch or whatever?

It just looks like a fake game. And I know that's kind of the point, right? That's the whole point of it. But like it looks like such a fake game that I just, I literally don't believe it. Yeah, totally. And I felt that way about other games like Death Stranding and they ended up coming out. Death Stranding too? Yeah.

Yeah. I might pick that one. There's a lot of games here for next year that I'm feeling pretty good about that. Little devil inside. How about that one? There's just so much unknown for next year That it's like it's hard to like really get a grasp on like early projections early predictions Or are going to be the hot pickups you know

Yeah I mean it's GTA right first T guaranteed Whoever's on the board will pick that No matter what yeah 2XCO Oh that's a great one That's a really great one You know Bless is going to choose that one when he goes first

That's big selection right there Yeah Well everyone let us know in the comments below What 2025 game you think are going to be the big winners. Are there any fun surprises that you can drop in the chat so the bear can read it so we can fucking cheat? How did I cheat? I listened to podcasts. Sorry.

Anyways, I love you all. Thank you for hanging out with us. I'm going to secure that number three, and I'm going to do it for you. I'm going to do it for you. Thanks, Tim. Do it for me. What if you did it from the comedy, though? Yeah. For the big.

For the comedy, everybody. Until next time, I love you all. Go watch them, stream some games. Goodbye. Goodbye.