Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Game of the Year 2014 and 2015 Predictions - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 01

Episode Date: January 10, 2015

In the first ever episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast we discuss our favorite games of 2014, we talk about the games that we are most excited to play in 2015, we predict the next year of video games, and we address our biggest worries and concerns about the video game industry. (Released 01.05.15) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up guys? This is the kind of funny games cast. I am Tim Gettys. I'm here with Colin Moyarty. Hello. Greg Miller. Hi, I'm getting the dog to drink water so Colin doesn't kill him. That's why I have two waters. One's for me and one's for Pretillo. He won't drink water. Partillo has no survival instincts. It's like, he is the living embodiment of Darwinism of survival of the fittest. He doesn't know to drink water. He'll come to bed all night long. It's like you're thirsty. And then if he doesn't drink or eat, because you got to praise him to eat. eat. If he does neither, he has a seizure. He's like, gah! So different than us. Yeah, thank God he's here with us. Team fat for life.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is the first episode of this show. Now, if you're familiar with us, for any reasons, as video game dudes, or as us from the Game Over Grady show, this is combining those two worlds. Right. Which is pretty exciting. So you get in the same thing you know from the Game Over Grady show, topic by topic, Monday

through Thursday, full episode on Friday. You can get it on iTunes, SoundCloud, all those places for free. A week later, if you want it early, you can go to patreon.com slash kind of funny games. That whole rigamarole. You should know it well by now. I introduced the word rigamor roll to your life, right? And I loved it.

Okay, just making it. It is a great word. It's a great word. It's just funny how it's now a thing, every podcast, every video. It's a really, really good thing. If you just want to buy the newest episode, you can go to Bancamp. Kind of Funny Game. No, kind of funny.

com. We're still working on this a little bit. It's a lot. I mean, we should point out, Tim, you're hosting. Oh, I'm hosting. It's finally happening. Hashtag what Tim Host is happening here. Thank you for your support.

You made this happen. And I'm pretty excited about it. There's going to be a weekly thing, just like the Game of a Great Show. But every week we talk about all the video game stuff, all the big news that's happening, whatever we want to talk about, it's liberating. This is the big topic picture. This is the big picture podcast. Colin and I, of course, are over on Twitch.tv slash Kind of Funny Games, doing a daily

talk show about comics, games, movies, everything, the biggest stories. where we can come in and get nitty-gritty with, like, giant topics and wrestle around with her. Super nerd out with them. Take our shirts up. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, I don't think there's a better group of gentlemen that I would like to do the show with.

Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. This is going to be good. And the plan for the show is that it's going to be us. Yeah. Every once in a while we'll have Nick come on. Yeah. Oh, every once in a while, they'll be a rotate, an ever rotating fourth chair.

No. Whoever we want can bring him to come on. We've got some cool guest plan. Of course. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. Here's what I want to call out already, and I'm sure the comments on YouTube and, of course, over on Patreon exploding. I love your NPR voice. You're very, it's very, you're very, I think maybe probably because you hear it, you're very, you're more subdued, you're sound very intelligent.

This is weird, I'll tell you that. Just the headphones. I'm not used to this. Yeah, yeah, this is usually a NIC's job. Now I understand why he's so weird. Yeah. Well, I don't think we can chalk it all up to the audience. 10% of it comes from that.

All right, yeah. Well, gentlemen, today, I want to talk to you about 2014. It's now 2015 We don't have jobs anymore Right This is now our job That's an eye-opening thing for me But 2014 brought us a lot of good games

Oh yeah What's our game of the year for 2014 Greg? South Park South Park is game of the year And I've gone I've gone around I've had a rigameral

About what game I would pick Is game the game I don't think you're using that word Right there No You can't just put it out Wherever you want It was rolling into the rigs

Yesterday I went to my sandwich shop And rigamole rigam roll Rigamor roll Here I am You know what I mean No No, South Park is the one that stands out for me. It's the one that, it was the first game I played that year where I was like,

oh, this is awesome. I'm enjoying every moment. Brian Altono, I always tell a story of us texting back and forth all weekend. Like, did you get to this part? What did you do here? How did it? I hadn't had that experience with other games that year. And granted, it was an early game, and then the rest of the year still.

Like, there's great games that I want to give shoutouts to. A lot of shoutouts coming my way. Oh, yeah. But my pick for game in the year of Soft Park. Okay. Call? My pick would be shovel night and wear my shovel night and wear my shovel night shirt right now. It's funny because,

all the great... I wouldn't say all of them. Because I play... Oh, you hit the light? Yeah, it's all right. We're working all the king's out. Three of my favorite games of the year all came out really towards the first half of the year.

And that would be South Bark's one of those games, Child of Light and Shullin. But in terms of pure gameplay, gameplay is king, as I always say. I made up that term. You hear that term anywhere else because I made up. You coined it.

Yeah. I coined Bro Shooter. And I coined... Bro Shooter. You're going to take credit for Broo Shooter. Yeah, I'm definitely taking credit for Broo Shooter. shooter, and I'm taking credit, certainly. Real credit, not fake credit.

Like, I'm taking credit for Brochewater. I'm going to take real credit for whatever the hell that is, I just said. But Shuggle Knight is gameplay. Gameplay is king, and it harkens back to these NES days, these pure gameplay days where there was limited tools for the developers to use, limited art assets, hex graphics, parallax scrolling,

all of this weird stuff that, like, you really need to have a great... To get called. Yeah, 8-bit side-scroller. Or it could be a 16-bit side-scroll, or it could be a 16-bit side-scroll, or whatever. But... Side scroll is all you need.

Exactly. This game just plays like a dream. It's part Capcom's Duck Tales. It's part Zelda 2. It's part Mario 3. It's part Mega Man 2. It's part Ninja Guidon. It's part Castlevania.

There's a lot of great... And the weird thing about that is that those aren't just throwaway games. Those are all fantastic games. If you were to make a list of the top 20 NES games, every one of those games would be on that list. You know, all three Ninja Guidance, all three Mega Man's, all three Castlevania.

Sure. You know, Zelda 2, Duck, tails. So they didn't just be like, we're going to borrow a little bit from Metal Storm, we're going to borrow a little bit from, well, they did borrow from Faxana do a little bit, but, but not just these regular games. So it was a really special game, and I think people were really surprised by it. And it's not, my only complaint is it's not very hard, it's not very hard game. And, and I want the games to be harder, but, but I do agree with you, South Park, fantastic. Right, you went into a lot of depth on why you liked it, right? I think

for South Park, it was, sorry, I agree. No, it's great. We're, we're, we're during it out. This is how the game over... Oh, yeah. What shows this? Kind of funny games. Cast works. This table. We all talk about whatever we want. No, that's the thing for, I mean, for South Parking, and why it stood out to me is that, super funny. I mean, it's so hard to make a funny video game, right?

Because, like, comedy's all about... Timing. Exactly. I like that. And a pregnant pause. Yeah, people stop. They look at their P3 player. They're YouTubers. All about timing. So to put that into a game world is difficult, to say the least. But, like,

South Park did it by first off like having the game looks like the show and that's what's crazy I remember a long time ago playing Simpsons wrestling on the PS1

and being like this looks just like the show it's like was like stupid it was horrible but looking at South Park like I showed my brother and he actually thought

it was South Park like until you see the like you know the commands come up once the HUD pops up yeah but like when you're actually playing it and then jumping into it

and the fact that it's it was like I think Ryan McCaffrey always says that it's like the next season it's like this entire season's long story and it is

And I love that. And I always think it gets a bad rap from people of like, oh, sure, but I don't like South Park. And it's like, or I'm not up to date on South Park. I'm like, I hadn't watched South Park in years and jumped into this game and had so much fun. And it wasn't about like callbacks as much as it was about right now and them having a commentary on video games, on role playing, all these different things.

And then for me, the turnoff for me with RPGs a lot of time is how complicated they get and how much stuff is happening. People knock the combat system of South Park. I like that. No, I like it too. Sure, it was simple, but it wasn't simple where I'm like just, button mashing or not paying attention. Ooh, it's custom quest simple.

Where there's a sense of timing and what I'm doing and that matter. Yeah, it's similar to the Mario RPG games. Right. And that's awesome. Like, they're fun. It's a little more action-y than the whole, like, just grindy stuff.

Yeah. Really, really good. Going back to Shuggle Night real quick, how do you think that compares to the NES games? Like, would you put that in the same caliper as then? No, I mean, yeah, I would, and I wouldn't. I mean, I think that those games are products of their time. So, like, when I judge a game like Mario 3 or something,

it's so impressive. So today, I still think Mario 3 is 10, actually. You know, that was made in 1987 and 88, or released in 88, obviously in Japan, 90 here, and that game is a product of the limitations of that time. In other words, my assumption is that if Shovel Night was put on an NAS cartridge or wouldn't work, because there's certainly things it's doing that shouldn't be doing. But, you know, nonetheless, like, I think that it's more apt to compare it to Mega Man 9 and

Mega Man 10 or Blood Rain Betrayal or, like, one of these, like, really old school side scrollers that are made today. And I think that it's just a fantastic game. It understands what it is. And I think that that's really cool. It's new and unique. And you can see a lot of different games in, especially for people that grow up with NES like we did,

like it is one of those special games. But I know for a fact on Twitter and on IGM people have mentioned to us, you know, I'm 16, I'm 18, I play this game. They have no frame of reference, really. And it's still a great game to them too. And that's how I know when I hear things like that, that this game's really special. in terms of South Park

if it wasn't for Child of Light I think South Park would certainly be my game of the year because I agree with I agree with you I haven't watched South Park regularly since 2000 maybe 2001 so

and I've seen maybe a handful of episodes at all since then and I was amazing always and it is a great show and I never had a problem with it it's like I authentically don't like the Simpsons for instance like I actually don't like that show

and like sorry I'm definitely Kevin's gonna be upset but like South Park was just one of those things where I'm like I'm not into it anymore it's fine it's funny they're very funny characters and it's fine it's fine

The soft bark. It's not to see. It made me laugh out loud. It made me laugh from my stomach. I don't think a game's ever made me laugh more than a couple of times ever. And the fact that this game was funny and engaged my girlfriend in the sense when she was watching and she was doing her Cartman impression and stuff like that that I didn't even know she could do, which is hilarious.

And it was just a well-told story. And I think the combat's actually really good too. I think the one problem with the game was the way it ran. And that, you know, it's easy to over, it's like what we talk about with Bethesda games. It's easy to overlook some of the technical flaws of a game when they're so. good. And I think that that was the thing with South Park was like, hiccups for a few people. Some people had like save corruption, I think, and like free,

frozen game and stuff. I never had any problems with that. For mine, it would be like there'd be a, like a frame stop and then it would speed up and catch up to where I was. It was always like entering a new area and walking. It wasn't like I blew the game. But I loved it. And I'll tell you guys this, two things about this game. One is that, I hope that they do another one. And I think obsidian's capable of doing

another one. I think that money was made on this game. I think it surprised a lot of people. It's certainly charted an MPD. Extra costs involved with developing for such a long time. Obviously, it was in a series of, in limbo, yeah, in development hell literally for a while when THQ went down. But even on top of that, I mean, my, I love them to make another one. I would love them to port the current one to Vita and just do it all over again. The problem with, I think, I don't think they could run it. I know. Doing a sequel, though, the problem with, right, is the

fact that it was Matt and Trey that, like, I mean, they, the reason it's so funny is that they were so hands-on with it. I remember doing the Comic-Con panel with them where they're making jokes about never wanting to do it again, but there is a lot of, it was ringing true, too, because, you know, they're used to writing their script and getting it out and everybody knows how crazy their processes to make an episode of SoftBark. A game was even worse, right, and then doing this, all these voices, this, that, and that and neither. I don't think you'll ever get them to do it again.

Yeah, maybe, maybe not. I mean, I think that their involvement was essential, obviously, just like it is for the show's longevity. I think the other interesting thing that we have to consider is that this game was supposed to come out at a certain time. Obviously, T.HQ went down, but even when it was reacquired by another publisher, it was supposed to come out earlier. This is a great example of a game needing more time and getting more time and working out. We often talk about that when we did Podcast Beyond on.

with The Last of Us is a great example. They swear, No-I-Dog swears up and down, left and right, that that game was the six weeks that they got to polish that game was the difference between it being good and being great. And they got even more time over an obsidian. And obsidian's doing a lot of other stuff right now. So I'm sure that they were stressed out with that. But they did a really nice job.

That was my biggest surprise of the year was that game. I just didn't expect to like it like that. And up and down, left and right, I wanted that game to be three times longer. I wanted to be, you know, bulkier. bigger, but it was perfect kind of the way it was. Yeah, exactly. It left me wanting more, right? I didn't burn out. I don't look back at it,

and I think, like, you know, how so many games end with such a bullshit boss fat battle. I don't look back. That's not my memory. My memory is playing through and my dad's balls swinging above me as he was having sex over. I'm like, right, and fighting the underwear gnomes and doing all these things and Mr. Hanky. It's like, there were so many things to that game where in the beginning you start, you like, I can't wait to see Mr. Hanky, and I'd forgotten

all about him until you run into him. Oh, right. God. Much out. Yeah, exactly. That's awesome. There's so many. There's so many chances for that game to have failed so miserably. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, come on. Commercially and critically, and it didn't either way.

That was the really surprising thing. I guess I underestimated South Park's pole still. Much like I underestimated Simpsons pole still. Sure. It's like, why is this show still on? Well, people are watching them. It's still watching. Same with South Park. So it's like, I agree. I mean, critically, certainly it was a big surprise

for me. Because it reminded me a lot of the way people felt about Wolfenstein, which was, I think people were unimpressed in preview coverage or just didn't really know what the game was. And that happened to Wolfenstein too and then they ended up actually being way better than people thought so it's actually kind of pleasant that usually doesn't happen like that usually get a pretty good idea of the game's going to be worth your time or not pretty early based on playing well the thing about stock park

remember is that they hit it for so long nobody saw that game for so long and finally we all got not all this but you know I went with a bunch of other games journals and got to play it at Ubisoft and I was like wait this seems awesome yeah let's play it from the start and it's like I remember when you guys came back from that yeah that event you were like no guys it's good yeah nobody believed it right yeah no way and that was the same thing with Wolfenstein. Damon and I kept going to Paxton and stuff.

And you'd play it again and again. You're like, this seems like it's fun. Is that right? Is that okay? Am I allowed to be excited for this? I remember asking people, yeah. Yeah, that game was really surprising.

Yeah, well, you guys are wrong because the game of the year is obviously Super Smash Brothers. That's a great choice. Like we all knew that I was going to say that. But my God, it's so good. Whether it's on the 3DOS or Wii, now granted, the Wii is way better.

Yeah, way better. But I love... 3DS is gentrified. Because if you're an original 3DS owner, myself, you can't play it. Yeah, it's too small. You can't see what's happening. But when I went and played it on the 3DXL, I was like, all right, this is awesome.

This is better. It's still not perfect, but just the fact that I get to play Smash wherever I want. And like, originally when they first announced that the 3DS one was coming out before the Wii U, I was like, oh, okay, Nintendo, you're just throwing it in, like, you're giving up on the Wii and this is a sign of that, whatever. And now I'm like, nah, they just wanted to give the demo for people to, like, tell them you need the better version of this, right? And like, I feel like, did that work to sell Wii use?

we use I don't know I mean I think it was the reverse right I think if you would have put out the Wii u version nobody would have cared as much about 3DS version well exactly yeah but what I'm saying is like they they don't I mean they need people to care about it because they need people to buy sure sure sure sure sure sure the 3dS is a success right the Wii you is not so they'd want to like you know try to get people to get the Wii you one first but the the 3DS one I'm happy at the end of the day that it came out first because that gave me a month and a half of like practice no just like a different experience really like there's so much different stuff with that game like the single player mode specifically that I loved and then did you like the whole stupid

stupid run through the area and beat it smash right yeah yeah yeah yeah that's it total garbage but like there was a lot of other other stuff in it that I did like and but the Wii you one brings back the event mode and um like all the stuff that I loved about the other games and man just the multiplayer like we have so much fun playing that yeah yeah yeah you can watch it right here on youtube.com slash kind of funny game yeah it is an unrivaled party game and that series really always has been I mean even on n64 just by the nature of N64 is four ports. And so it was the same reason why Golden I worked

and stuff like that. Like you could involve more people and get people involved in, in, you know, two player matches, whatever you wanted to do. But it just was an engaging kind of game even when that came out. And it always was that on GameCube and then on Wii and then on Wii U.

I think with this particular Smash Brothers release, it's fun, I love it. It's impeccable. Nintendo's production values are impeccable. The fact that their game works. It's impeccable, they don't need to patch their stuff. Like it's typically, you know, they go above and beyond

what they need to do or what, no, that's not true. They go up, yeah, no, they go way above and beyond what other publishers do in terms of quality. And that shows in their games in their first party years. Yeah, that's why they say that. It's why you always cite them is their games are released and work.

Yeah, and it's a giant failure of any. They have QA and they, well, everyone is QA, but their QA works. And it's, but I will say that the game, no jump will ever be as significant to me in that series as the jump from N64 to GameCube. Oh, shit. And I don't think that, I don't think the game has legs for me. Like, I think that, I think that it'll be fun to always play with other people.

Yeah. But as a gamer myself, as a single player gamer, I'm never going to sit there and play it. That's why I kind of like Subspace Emissary on melee, or on, on Brawl, because at least it gave me something to kind of do. Uh-huh. And, you know, you're always collecting trophies, and there's always, like, kind of a single-player component, but I felt like that was cohesive and it was fun, and you wanted to see kind of the next stupid cutscene about how these are.

The cutscenes made it worth it. that mode was really bad, really, when you think about it. But, like, it was still fun, and it was worth it just to get the cutscenes. And, but melee had the adventure mode, which was that minus the cutscenes. Right. But the gameplay was better than the adventure mode. Yeah. They just gave up in this one.

There just isn't a single player. Yeah, and I think that's a problem because I think that, you know, there's a few things that are clear with this game. It's going to be a huge hit for Nintendo and stuff like that. But it's not going to push it an astronomical amount of Wii. So this is going to be a game that is out there for a little bit. limited a number of people, and they're going to therefore have either their friends over, or they can play online, and it does work online. We've played it online.

What a Frank? But essentially and ultimately, I think that they've hurt themselves by not implementing more of a single player mode into this series. And I wonder if they're going to. I feel like they could do so much more. The Wii is so much more, I mean, it's funny because it's not nearly a plausible of PS4 and Xbox One, but so much more capable of receiving DLC and receiving patches and being able to be built upon that, this becomes more of more. a platform as opposed to brawl which was released as and i really love brawl as as you know a kind of a standalone product that it was what it was and it was always going to be yeah i think that it's the

same way when we talk about grand trismo those kinds of things like where in the future these are going to become platforms and smash smash brothers ultimately maybe on their next console or the next handheld or you know hopefully a fusion of the two is just super smash brothers and it's just a thing that they build for years right two things number one rotate your headphones to get your cord off your microphone you're still you're doing a great job of hosting yeah number two i think that see i see i it's It's crazy for you to, not crazy, I shouldn't say. I didn't expect you to say it doesn't have legs. Because for me, Super Smash Bros.

is the first Wii U game I bought where I'm like, I want to turn this on regularly to play with other people. Now, I don't think they'll have a single-player mode to it. And I do think that this is Nintendo playing to what their console is. Their console is a machine that gets turned on at irregular intervals to be played for whatever the big thing is, right? So the fact that you already have a machine that is, it's just a toy. Like, this is what you do.

you don't play it every day, you play it when you want to play the new Mario or the Zelda or whatever, blah. This is the same thing. You only turn it on to play this game when you want to play it with other people, whether it be online, whether it be for everybody. And that was a weird thing when it was coming out and people were like, this is going to sell units and stuff? And I was like, is it? Like, I feel like it's, this is a game that I love and I love Smash. And when I finally got a Wii U, it was definitely for Mario Kart and it was for Smash. But I feel like that's how most gamers were. I didn't know many gamers who were still holding on being like, I'm going to buy it when Smash comes out. You already bought it saying,

I'm gonna get it with Smash. See, the thing there is I have, there's five friends I have that are friends that aren't, like hardcore gamers, bought Wii U's for Smash. Yeah. Like, that is something that happened

in the last month. And granted a lot of it was Christmas presents and stuff like that, but that's what they wanted. They were like, girlfriends were buying it for their boyfriends and all this stuff, and it's just like,

they wanted a Wii U to be able to play Smash with their friends and online and all that stuff. Yeah. I foresee that happening for years. You know what I mean? Like, just,

we were playing brawl up until two months ago. Yeah. You know, we're going to play this one. You guys are crazy. Yeah, exactly. That's not like normal people. Brawl's a different piece. I still think that like brawl.

I think I like Brawl more than a lot of people like it. But it's, it was on a proliferated machine later in its life cycle that, you know, was just out there more, I think. I think people were surprised. I was more surprised that Mario Kart didn't sell more units. And when it didn't, not software, but hardware. Like it wasn't pushing, it bumped hardware, but it wasn't like this. Plateau and then skyrocket from there. there. So that was the harbinger for Smash Brothers because that was the last game that was really

able to do that. Not even Zelda's going to do it. Everyone forgets that. We often cited the numbers with Zelda, which is really the last big game that's coming out, unless they do with 3D Mario, which I'm sure they're going to obviously release in the day now, so ever. But like Zelda Skyward Sword sold fewer units than Uncharted 3. That's unbelievable. Yeah. And that was on a system that was, there was almost 100 million of them at the time. Yeah, there was a great install base. So like, Wii U is what it is, and Smash Brothers is its, is its it's paramount game right now. I think Zelda's probably going to be that

for a lot of people. It looks awesome. But I think it's a good choice for game of the year. I was just surprised by how it resonated with me and how I'll always play it, just like I'll always play brawl or melee

with people. I haven't played the M64 one in the years probably since high school, but I don't know how it would stand up. But nothing's going to ever be that jump from N64 to GameCube and therefore I'm never going to be that impressed with it

because I think the major problem with it too is the roster of characters because it's just I wanted more. There's a lot of the same characters, a lot of Fire Emblem characters, lot of like it's just like awesome yeah but it's just like they're not like getting you excited maybe you me me you like shirt like sharp it's all you like he's not fire oh i'm sorry some other fucking franchise no one's heard of all right well firemolm boom's a big i have no problem

with fireman characters being in it but it's like these guys i don't even know the difference between these guys like aesthetically or by skill set there was a couple choices on the roster that just make no sense like lucina and marth being literally the same and um dr mario coming back. It's like what, why would you even waste that stuff? Therefore, no, and no ice climbers, which is a big problem. For me, I really do love the ice climbers. But even like, it's just so funny, there are characters that they can

work into this, the series, like, you know, third party characters even. Simon Belmont. Yeah, Simon Belmont's a great choice. Mega Man getting in there was awesome, but I've always said that Dr. Wiley as a Pokemon trainer-like character would have been awesome. And I was hoping someone would steal that idea. They were much smarter people than me at Nintendo

that maybe have come up with that independently. And I'm like, it's so brilliant, he stands in the background, he uses robots, A lot of different characters they can draw up from from their history to make it a more interesting roster. That said, this was a good example and a good reminder to us because we liked PlayStation All-Stars about why this game works and All-Stars didn't because I think All-Stars was very mechanically sound game made by fighting game.

And I think that in some ways that the game was a more true and a deeper fighting game. Than Smash? Yeah, in its own way. We've talked about this many times. We've talked about this many times. What's one way? Well, I think that the meter building is really interesting because it's really all about,

it's not about chip damage, it's really about meter building in which you can unenlish these things that might not hit. And so you have to build it to level three where you can use it to scatter. But we talked about this many times before. I want more people with it. They've probably heard it before. But Smash Brothers is a, is a unique game that All Stars probably should have just totally aped. That's the thing.

That's the biggest problem with All Stars is it didn't copy Smash. It copied to 90%. It got that final 10, and that's why it doesn't feel great. Yeah. Yeah, but it definitely had, I mean, that game definitely had shot. that I think were that people didn't expect and then I think surprised some people

and that some people just don't see or refuse to acknowledge that they're there. That said, I haven't played that game in a long time either. I don't care about that game anymore. But again, the roster of All-Stars and the roster of Smash is a good example why Smash just works because, man, these characters are timeless.

I mean, it doesn't, there's nothing like that. No one else can do a game like this. And that's what makes it uniquely Nintendo. That's what makes me excited about it. But at the same time, I wonder in a year if I'm going to care anymore. Yeah, I mean, that's a long tale. You brought up in passing you guys, Mario Kart.

Mario Kart came up this year. And what's still mind-boggling to me is that if you would have talked to me a year ago, 365, I would have told you I cannot wait for Mario Kart, and I'm sure I'll play Smash. And Mario Kart came, and I had one great weekend with it, and then I was like, you know what I mean? Like, there's something about this Mario Kart, and I kept saying, this makes me feel like I've finally gotten old, but I'm finally an old man and older a kid. But there's something about, the one genre of games I'm good at, and I feel like I can always hold my own as a cart racer.

And the problem with Mario Kart is I feel like I get fucked over left and right. And like where you're going, everything's fine, you're neck and neck with somebody. Then I'm hit. And then once you fall back to fifth or sixth, it's over. You aren't getting hit a million times. You're not getting items to get you in front of anybody, and you're getting hit all the time by red shells and crap. And so it's like, where a smash, and this goes back to what you're talking about,

I think, about how PlayStation All-Stars might have been a more pure fighter and maybe one of the reasons that more people backed off. Smash is still anybody's game. Even when we play, all we play, right, final destination, no items. It's still anybody's matchup. You get a chance to do stuff, right? Especially when playing eight-player smash. Exactly.

But, like, Mario Kart, I felt like there was, there gets to be those points where, like, you do not have a chance. There's no way this is turning around. Maybe that's just me, maybe that's my own shortcomings of skills or whatever. But that's what happened, and that's what I couldn't believe. I was so ready for Mario Kart. I'm so ready to just, you know, DLC, yeah, give me everything. The DLC is awesome, by that.

Yeah, but, like, I can't even motivate myself to get it. You know what I mean? Like, I can't even get motivated to download it and do it. Maybe we'll do let's plays here if people want on kind of funny games, but like, it's just like outside, like, you know, like we get finished right now and then blow off work and go play smash and that's fine. But like I'm never going to be like, let's play

Mario Kart now. Let's get into Mario Kart right now. What's interesting to me is with Smash and Mario Kart, I feel like the Wii U, you know, not too many people have it, but people that do have it I feel like a lot of them love it a lot. If you're into it, like me specifically I love my Wii U. And I feel like Mario Kart and Smash are just

the HD versions, like the perfect versions of these games we always wanted but for some reason that might feel like it's not enough. I feel like Mario Kart's an example of that where it's like this is this is Mario Kart. Yeah, yeah. Perfect. But why do I care?

Yeah. See, what's interesting is, I mean, Smash is on, my short list of things I've jotted down for what I want in game of the year-wise, right, and where it would be from definitely the most fun I had multiplayer for sure. But like I feel, when you bring it off, and people scoff, it's just more Smash Bros. It's like, well, yeah, but Smash is awesome.

And like, we're talking about the best game this year. I know that, yeah, sure, it looks like the last three iterations in this way and that way, but there's something to that, right? That's why it works. And also all the new characters, like, I'm finding myself playing with majority new characters. That's awesome, and I love it. Link, blue tunic, that's all I play. That's so funny.

Yeah. Be like, Bowser Jr., love. Shulk, love. Charzard, who's old, but he has something. It's like, love. It's great. I think it's really cool. And the most important thing to me is the fact that this has people that have never even played

a smash game. Loving it. Kevin doesn't play Smash. Loves this game. Any chance he gets to play it with us. He's like, let's do it, let's do it, let's go. Alexis, in love with it. She never played before.

Yeah. I mean, isn't that them just falling in love with Smash Brothers, period, as a franchise? I mean, like, I remember when, I remember when N-64 came out and we got that and we were like, what the-thaw? Yeah. I mean, we went crazy for Smash. It's just, that just shows how good the game is, though. Sure, sure. These people that don't necessarily play every game are like, I want to play this, and we'll love it just as much as I do when we're playing.

Yeah. I think it's really cool. But there was a lot of other games that came out this year. Shout out, we haven't given. Mario Golf, come on. Mario, I put 85 hours into Mario Golf,

had a standing tea time at work, for spending the online tournaments, did everything, I mean, like, it didn't do it for me. That game was awesome. Yeah, I didn't play it. It's not indie,

you don't care. No, it's, it's the hardware that it's on. Yeah. 3DS just, I don't know. I just don't want to play games on it. Like, it's just, like, the game has to be, like, really, really special

for you don't want to play on the 3DS. It's just not a good piece of hardware to me. I think it was the, I mean, just first off, that I love Mario Golf. I know you love Mario Golf too. I do. I'm a huge fan of you.

Just the fact that all of a sudden we had a crew that was ready to play Mario Golf too and the fact that it's what Nintendo does best, right? Local multiplayer, right? Every morning coming into work and me and Mitch sitting down and playing and then Jose would join, somebody else would pick it up and, you know what I mean? all these different things. Or like doing the tournaments, putting them online as private and just playing with best friends out there who want to go ahead and use the friend code

to be part of that. That was awesome, let alone how solid the mechanics are. The mechanics are still Mario Golf, right? Yeah, they are. Back to another Mario game, that's just what you expect. It just seems like a waste to me that not put it on. You know, I was frustrated enough that there was nothing on Wii. I mean, you know, I loved, love to love the Mario Golf on N64 in GameCube,

especially GameCube, I love the GameCube on a lot. And, yeah, and I think those are great games. I think that's a game made for a TV. And the WiiU needs that game, you know, like, I think that, like, especially when we see the way Mario Card and Smash Look, to me, I download it and I was really disappointed with it because I was just like, I just don't, and it's not the games, I'm sure the game's fine. It's just like, I just don't, I just don't, and maybe it's just because I have the original 3DS, which is like, I just don't play on this.

I just don't, especially, especially, you need an Excel. Yeah, but we all see $150 we have in our pocket. You know what I mean? Like, that was my whole thing is like, I'm, I'm, like, this is an iPad too, right? Like, I'm very much like, it isn't broken, right? Like, I upgraded my phone when the five stopped with doing things it's supposed to do. It's like, all right, fine. But like, the 3DS does everything it should do.

So the game should look good. You know what I mean? Like, you're crazy. Yeah, see, I guess I'm just so different. I need, I want the newest iPad. I want the newest phone. I definitely want the newest 3DS. See, the 3DS, though, this is my thing.

and this is my thing with Nintendo, right, or Nintendo products, is that I buy those knowing these are only going to get select use. Like right now, if they launched a new Wii U with a thinner tablet with better battery and a multi-touch screen

like it should have had room in the get-go, I'd still have to be like, no. I only play this three times a year, really, and now the exception of smash every so often. But I mean, like, my PlayStation 4, right, is on every day, whether it's playing games or me watching something on Netflix or buying something off Amazon or doing whatever, right?

There's something there motivating me to use it. Same thing with the Xbox 1. If they're like, hey, new Xbox 1, slimmer design, but I'm like, well, no, I don't use mine that much. When I do, it works fine, so why would I care? You know what I mean? That's my thing. I can't wrap my head around by putting on another 150.

Is that even right? 180, I think maybe. For an XL? XL, I think it's, yeah, 180. Yeah, I just don't even want it because it's just like what am I going to want it? I want it. I want it. Send it to me.

I mean, I don't just because it's like, I don't want things that I'm going to use just a few times. Like, you know, I have my 3DS when a few years, a few times a year comes out that I want to play like Gunbolt or, um, you know, Zelda or whatever, then I'm going to play it, but it's just one of those things where I'm fine with this little device. It hinders me from playing Smash. It hinders me from playing maybe Mario Golf, whatever.

But at the same time, we've made the comparison many times before that. I can't, like, I can't, like, I just, you put the thing next to the Vita, and it's like, give me an impression. You know what I mean? Like, I'm sorry. Like, I've said it so many times. I know it irritates some people, and I'm sorry about that, but it's just like one device is like a real electronic device.

And one is just a toy. And I don't, and people, when I say that, People think I'm taking a shot at Nintendo. The Wii U and the 3DS are toys, and that's not a bad thing. I love playing with toys. I love playing with those systems, but I don't look at them as basically a computer that's plugged into my TV doing amazing things. Like I do with my PS4 or Xbox one season, how they're pretty much is manageable.

See, the Wii U changed that for me, though, like seeing Mario Kart and just how beautiful it looks in Mario 3D World, I think was the first game that made me go, oh shit. Like, this looks so good. Right. And I'm not taking away from their technical prowess. I'm saying the experiences on them are akin to taking toys out of a toy box and putting them on the, I'm putting my arc seat bars down and racing them against my friends and then putting them away and being done with it.

Yeah. Whereas the PlayStation slash Xbox, depending on your sway, right, is it's movies, it's TV, it's music, it's this narrative game, it's this toy box game. You know what I mean? Like it's hand over fist different experiences, whereas Nintendo devices are Nintendo games, which I feel are, oh, cool, I get, what's the story of Mario? You're not playing that. because it's fun to do this, that, and now Mario, of course,

is probably the one where it's like, that's a game, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to take away from it and what it does, but like, the other ones are toy box games. I'm playing with toys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it sounds like an insult, but I'm meaning to toy in the best way. I played with toys throughout high school. Yeah, you sure did.

Yeah, I mean, before we move on, I just want to give us, you know, a couple shots. We're giving a lot of shoutouts, yeah. Both Angin-Rampa games, I think are excellent. I think that that series surprised a lot of people. I think that those games, the sales of those games certainly surprised a lot of people. the third one is coming out this year

although it's not a core danganropa game I think they will make a third real dangarrapa game so I want to give a shout to those give a shout to Freedom Wars I think that was a really really fun game that occupied another great multiplayer game yeah it was and that was mainly local that was the one that the best thing about Freedom Wars was playing

it with Christine at the same time we went to Missouri and so what we would do because we're on vacation is wake up go to a nice breakfast or lunch or whatever then go to a coffee shop and spend three hours at the coffee shop playing Freedom War on ad hoc. But just nerds. Total nerds.

We did it on the plane. When I went to a PlayStation experience, I had that little meetup, right? Like, it's, I love those kind of games. Freedom War's definitely scratched the itch I have had on the Vita for the longest time of. I want a world to get invested in, not have a story I have to really keep up with and level.

Just go level things up and get more powerful and take on bigger enemies. And, you know, it's the Monster Hunter vibe, right, but in a contemporary setting, if not a little bit far-flung future, right? The fact that you're fighting giant monsters that are made in the city and all this stuff where it's like Monster Hunter again,

getting too high fantasy for me with your goddamn dragons. I don't want to do with that. Yeah, and I think that the final game that I would want to mention, I mean, there's a lot of good games that I played this year that I really enjoyed, but Valiant Hearts, I think, is...

Yes, you're stealing my list, but yes. Valiant Hearts is a special game, and I'm surprised people didn't like it more, but World War I's an interesting thing to cover from a narrative standpoint point because it's such a brutal and bloody war and really a pointless war. And it was a war that was really the transition between, not antiquity, but kind of more of a Victorian kind of feel to war to a more industrial type war.

And so it really took a lot of lives in very violent ways, such as gassing and stuff like that. So it was just, it explored all those interesting things. And as a history guy, as a historian, I guess technically, according to my diploma, you know, technically. Technically. No big deal. You just went to college. Yeah, I was just like, I don't know. I'm not a practicing a story,

but it's just like, I like, you know, World War II is overwrought, Vietnam's overwrought. Korea, we could use more games about Korea, but no one touches World War I because it's, how do you do it? And these guys figured out a way to do it. Because it's just trench warfare. The line never moves.

There's a lot of conflict in the beginning, and then just a bunch of stagnation for years, and then they basically end. Well, that was what was so great about Valian Hearts, is getting out, introducing all these characters, separating them on different sides of the, you know, the conflict or whatever, and making you care about it.

all of them and having that great narration. You know what I mean? Like, it was funny. Like, I remember when the E3 trailer dropped, right, getting teared up watching it and then not even the first time putting it all together that it was the dog talking. You know what I mean? And at the end when I did really getting choked up. And then to play that game and have that moment, like, that stretched out the entire game where I cared.

I was on the edge of my seat about what's going to happen to these people. And you're doing like cutesy, goofy puzzles, but you're doing it through like, all right, there's this gas that's release that's killing everybody. How do you get through it? And neither are there's, you know, there's all these bombs in the way. you gotta get through and all along the way picking things up and like right immediately wanting to jump out and see what the little history lesson was on it like i love that kind of stuff let alone how good the story was let alone how touching the italics yeah beautiful games beautiful too yeah another one i want them to bring to beat it just so i have an excuse to replay it guys what do you guys think let us know in the comments or wherever the hell you are watching or listening to this content just screaming yeah if you're listening to it on band camp then just scream out where you're

just screaming us. Now, I know you want to end it. What? I know you're trying to end it. You're trying to segue out of this argument? Oh, the topic. Oh, yeah, oh. Yeah, not the show.

The show is a one topic. I want to say, you got more. Again, these are just, now we're just giving shout-outs here. I'm not saying, name of it here. The game that came out in 2014. Destiny. Yes, that's what I wanted to throw out is destiny. That, again, for all of its problems and I think so much fun to play.

Another game that I've had so much fun playing, it's a perfect game for streaming when I get to stream that and have somebody in the group and do all these different things. And it's basically my, why I, why I, of Freedom Wars on the PS4, right? I don't have to think about this story. I'm leveling up. I'm making progress. It's like DC Universe Online in the same way, right?

I'm doing all, except I love everything about TC Universe on the list. But you know, you're going through doing all these different things, building something. I also want to say, Child of Light is overrated. You're crazy. Damn. We'll leave that for another day. You're out of your monster. I'm rolling that one out there.

Do you guys come out this year? Yeah. Yeah. I liked that. Definitely not game of the year. But your shout-out's material. Favorite two hours of the year? Yeah, maybe.

Your favorite two hours? favorite two hours to be you. I mean, I enjoyed it so much. Like, I knew I was going to enjoy it, but I didn't think I was going to enjoy that much. Here's my problem with Ground Zero's is that, and it's something I, when we talk about quitting IGN and when we're going to have all this free time, we're to stream all the time. I've kicked around the idea of trying to become the world's best Metal Gear Solid player again. Because I feel like in college with Metal Gear Solid 2, I was. I had everything, and I walked both through it on the phone and stuff.

The problem I had with Ground Zero's was, and this is after, you know, Peace Walker, me my favorite game of last generation is that I felt so I wasn't empowered I wasn't snake I was a bumbling idiot I felt like in so many things

because there was so much going on that I was getting like somebody across the thing is seeing me and I'm like mother what was I supposed to do you know what I mean and when I get to the story

which is one of those things where I felt like I got shot a million times and I'm just like trying to get to the exit like I'm all bloody when I get out and I go back into the mission some of those missions yeah I just get dropped down

and it's like I don't want to go games have gotten so good and maybe it's hand-holding at making you feel powerful in the get-go, you're totally on point and it's not easy, but like not to the point where some of those missions, I

don't want to fail 50 times to on the 51st time be like, oh, this is how I do the first part without getting found out. You know what I mean? I want to get through the mission perfectly after a few not a few tries, maybe a dozen, but feel like I'm making that progress. Whereas with Metal Gear, it would just be like,

the AI is so good, there's so many things happening, there's so many different people in sight, that I'd start it and like spend like five minutes like all right I'm tag everybody now where to god damn with this guy yeah see for me there was so many moments that I was like oh man it'd be really cool if I could do this and I'm like oh wait I can and that was crazy it's like I'm gonna climb on there and then jump off this and GTA had a very similar thing last year where it's just like holy crap literally anything you want to do this game you can see you can do it and uh in in ground zero's it was

fun for me like I just can't wait for founding pain because I'm like wow like a whole game of that is going to be awesome and see that's what I'm saying you Like, I think that if I put in the work and I sit down and I go through ground zeros and stream it probably and do all these different things, by the time Phantom Pain comes, I won't be dropped in and feel like, well, what am I doing? Like, I'll know, you know, AI a bit more and know where to go with this. You're not wearing a chicken hat. I'm not wearing a chicken hat. Yeah, you know what I'm going to wear a chicken hat? Yeah, I know about chicken hat.

I don't know. I'm going to wear a chicken hat. You got a chicken hat. No, I don't know. Anyways, we've talked about 24. 2014. Yeah. 2015. Yeah.

What games are you guys looking forward to the most? My most anticipated game is Mighty Number 9, I think. And, you know, Inafune is a master. K.J. Inafune is a master game designer. Mega Man obviously was his brainchild. And that's my obsession, of course, in games. But the classic Mega Man stuff, of course. But he is responsible for other games, too,

that I don't think he'd be able to give him credit for, Anamusha, debt rising. And he has just incredible chops. So it's like, Mighty Number 9, and I played it, is a continuation of Mega Man that's different. I think people are going to be surprised by how different it is. You were surprised. And I was surprised by it, too, because it's got a different rhythm to it. It's got a different, it's got a different rhythm to it.

Like, Mega Man is about, people like watching me play Mega Man, the old ones because I'm really good at them. But I like playing Mega Man 9 and 10, and again, I can kind of recollect those more because, at least right now, because I, since the first time since I was a kid, you have to brute force your way through those games and then figure it out and then go about it your business so that it becomes muscle memory just like Mega Man 3 is for me today. And I remember people watch me play Mega Man and they're like, well, why aren't you being a little more finesse with Mega Man 9 and 10?

I'm like, that's not how you play the game. Like, I'm going to figure out how to do this and I'm going to get better and better and better until I can do with my eyes closed. And then I beat Mega Man 10 in like 24 minutes. You know, so it was like, you know, that's the way you get there. With Mega Man or with Mighty Number 9, the game's about points and about

kind of like skill and finesse. And that was what was surprised me about it. It's about how quickly you can kill enemies and how much you can chain them together and stuff. So it's Mega Man in the sense that the numbers, the mighty numbers, are Robot Masters, and they all have different stages and their weaknesses can be used on, you know,

okay, that's great, but they're not Mega Man games. And that's why I'm most excited about it. I actually got more excited about when I played for because I was like, leave the classic stuff to any creates in Capcom. They're going to make another Mega Man game. I'm sure they're going to make another one at some point, Mega Man 11 or X-9 or whatever.

And they'll do great. And he creates did a great job with 9-10. And I'm really hoping that that happens soon. This is an evolution with Inifune having enough time to think about something else to do with Mega Man and use that cachet that he built with Mega Man to make a new game. And so I think my number nine is going to be fucking awesome. And I'm like, I'm really, really excited about it, especially on Vita. I think it's going to be right.

Yeah. What systems is it coming up? It's on everything. Oh, really? Yeah. Kickstarter, yo. Oh, man. It's going to be on everything.

Yeah. I don't know. I don't think it'll be on 3DS and Wii U. Maybe. Those are the other ones that I think it won't be on. It's on PC, I think Xbox 360 N1, PS3, and PS4 Vita. So you'll be able to play it almost anywhere. But I'm, oh, man, I'm so excited about that game.

And I think we're going to see if he still has it. And I think he does Soul Sacrifice. This is another example. Like he has these different ideas that meld different things he's done. Soul Sacrifice in a way with its bloody kind of, you know, aesthetic and kind of narrative is kind of a tie-in-a, not literally, but you can kind of see where he got there from Animusha. you know so it's like it's it's i like looking at things like that and i think that you know he's brilliant and he's totally counterculture in japan which is funny as hell to me too so

um so that would be my my most anticipated game i thought long and hard on this and i go back and forth between one game and two games one game two game is it a or b one or two if i was going backwards is it z or the letter that comes before z nobody knows i'm going to say batman arkham i think why is the letter who comes before z yeah yeah i just sing the I got to sing the song to get there. It's unproven. Batman Arkham Knight. Obviously, I'm a huge DC comic book nerd.

I loved all the other Batman games. And the fact that it's rock steady. It's a next-gen-owned... Like, this is the thing we kept talking about this year specifically, right, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox 1. When we're waiting for that pendulum to swing, right? Of, like, when is it really going to be... What are we giving up on last-gen?

Exactly. And, like, a lot of people looked at Shadow of Mordor as being the first, like, true, this is a next-gen game. But there was a last-gen version. of it. But even that, like that, it's one of those things, all the games that come out right away, even like now I think, at least I'd like to believe, when we're playing them as adults, like we can still see that this is still early. Your first swing, this is your first, you know, at bat kind of thing, right?

Infamous Second Sun. Great game. Really dug it, right? But are there parts of it that I was, looking back especially where it's like, that didn't really feel like this huge step forward, like it looked beautiful. The other two infamous games are better than Infamous Second Sun. Exactly, right? And so, Arkham Knight being that first thing of this is what it is, we've been doing this forever, we're rock steady, right? We know what we're doing with this franchise and gameplay mechanics.

That has me excited. Like, the Batmobile stuff actually turns me off a little bit to it, right? Because he's using guns a lot and breaking fit and things in the city. It's like, whatever, I can wrap my head around it. You've got to do what he's got to do. But in general, just Kevin Conroy being back, they keep talking about it being the finale of all this, which means it's got to have some tie into what happened with the Joker and everything in Batman Arkham City, right? let alone Arkham Origins and all these different things.

I just love that world and I love that universe. My prediction still stands that it's going to have Superman and one room in it to set up the Justice League game from them later on or whoever else does it. That would be awesome. Yeah, but that's the game that stands out right now that I want so much more of because each one of those games is like a giant extended animated series, right? Like an episode of the animated series. And so to get back in there to have more of it, everything we've seen looks great,

you know, the fidelity of it, the quality of it and how much I trust those guys. That's what gets me excited about it. It's interesting to me that you, you know, just, you mentioned origins, which I didn't play. Yeah. But they implicitly don't acknowledge that game at Rock City. So, like, I'm just saying, like,

I thought, I just throwing it out of that, I found that interesting. At PSX, they were like, this is the conclusion of the Batman trilogy. Right. And I was like, wow. Like, you guys are going to straight up just ignore that game. I mean, you figure it's very much the relationship I imagine.

Well, I don't want to, you know, it's a development studio that, feels like they created this, but they're owned or whatever, right? Or they're working with somebody else's property. So, yeah, WV, Montreal did get to make origins. And I'm sure I've never talked to them about it. I don't know anything about, I'm not close enough to anybody over there to get, like, off the record scoops.

I'd imagine there's a bit of a chip on the shoulder about that, right? Like, anytime anybody's property goes to somewhere else, the original creators look at it, I'm sure, like, well, this was an interesting choice. We've talked to plenty of people who have had their games like this, right? And like, we went over there and we're like, why does this happen? You know what I mean? like especially all that. And Origins, I stand by, got a really bad rap.

It got a really bad rap. It had some PC problems. People fall into the world, yada, yada, yada. Amazing story. Like, one of the best Joker stories I think I've ever been told, period. Like, it doesn't matter what medium. Medium, yeah. Like, there was so much amazing stuff to it.

But it was very much the problem anybody ever has with those games is like, this doesn't feel right. Well, clearly it's because the original didn't do it. Right? That's, I remember telling them when I met them, you know, the Origins people, you are going up a hill you're never going to get to the top of right you forever no matter what people are going to say this is good but it would have been better like megaman right when it's not an ananufune megaman it's like well this is good but it would have been better if this is that you know what's

nickel and dime when you know the creator isn't there right and that sucks but it was good but yeah i totally get why i'm sure rock steady's pushing the fact this is i just thought it's funny that that seemed to be like a pahr like yeah what's your second one my second one's on chart Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? And it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you fucking seeing this? Entire PlayStation experience. It's calling out of me and talking to me and watch this amazing demo. But yeah, I mean, like, that game looks, and it's one of those things like, it's like such a, oh, of course.

Yeah, I mean, it's like we always talk about, right? When we like the podcast or champion games, we're usually championing something on the Vita or something else that, like, you don't know about. You know, and like, granted Batman, you never heard. You have no idea that was going to. be good. But like Uncharted 4 is like, well no shit, that's going to be amazing, I'm sure.

But that's the thing. It's going to be next level amazing. Yeah, yeah. I hope so. You can already tell, man. I'm feeling really special. That whole set piece and the way they, that's why I kept elbowing Greg and stuff because I was like, this is different. This is a different uncharted game. There was something very unique about that sequence. And I don't know if that sequence is going to be indicative of the entire, hopefully 12 to 15 hour experience that we get out of that game. and we know the characters are there and we know that the story is going to be there depending on how authority you are.

I like to walk in every corner of him are treasures. But that particular what I was telling people on Twitter was yeah, the game's beautiful. Yeah, Nolan North's great. All the voice acting is awesome. The gunplay looks great. What people were ignoring about that demo

was the design of that demo and how awesome the design was. And I'm not even talking about the art. I'm talking about the way the sequence was designed. I think people look at game design is something that doesn't happen. the way that everything is and positioned in that whole sequence in the woods is awesome and if they have that put that much thought into that sequence and obviously we saw

we think about the lasso's when the last was revealed we saw that part in the building where they're walking through like the abandoned apartment building and they're killing everyone and it was like a beautiful and that ended up being one of the really the best parts of the last us in my opinion in terms of gameplay so maybe this is the same thing where there's going to be some lows and some highs obviously but i was like wow like this is this is good this is what you get when you give them a little more time. And this is what I walked away and talked about, you know, at ad nauseum, right, is the fact that it's them upping what you already know about Uncharted.

And, like, so what you're talking about is, like, maybe it's not like that all the time. I think enough mechanics are there to show you that that's going to be the way it's going to be. Because I kept talking about the fact that it's, there's no moments of rest. It's all action. It used to be you pulled the guy off the cliff and the Washington fall, and now you pulled the guy off the cliff and maybe he grabs onto you. You suddenly have to tap. You know what I mean?

You go to choke out a guy and used to be just wrestling to the ground. Now maybe he pulls his gun on and you have to try to like shoot it away from you. And I'm imagining you're going to be able to go out and shoot other people with that and stuff like that. Let alone the fact of, okay, now stealth makes more sense. Before it was always like stick to the wall and kind of got around. Now there's bushes to get lost and blah. Enemies will go once, it used to be, we talk about this all time, right? They're totally, they don't know you're there.

They're on alert and they are on alert until you kill them. They are not letting down their guard. Whereas now it was like, I already got away. And they went back to being normal and patrolling so you could get back in a rhythm of taking. taking them out and doing whatever you need to do. That was awesome. Yeah. See, to me, the biggest moment of that demo was the rope.

When you, like, jumped on. Sure, sure, shit. It's a new little hook. Yeah, and it's like, I wonder how many moments we're going to get like that. Because that's the thing where it's like, it was so perfect. Where he hit that guy. And it's like, is that like a quick time event type thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Or like, was he actually controlling that a bit, you know? Yeah. And I'm going to be very interested to see what they add like that throughout the entire game. Sure. We've been tricked enough in the past about what games were supposed to be based on demo impressions, not playable demos necessarily, but you think about Killzone 2 with Guerrilla, you think about, which was funny in hindsight that we thought that the game was going to look like that.

We think about even God of War ended up being a little more quick timing than people wanted it. I think that I'll go, I'm not going on a limb at all. I mean, I've said it many times, Nauri Dogg's the best developer in the entire world. And so like the minds and the brains at that studio, even without Amy Henning being there to monitor it, you assume she planted enough seeds for the story to be okay and the characters be okay. And with Neil and Bruey, who were responsible largely for Uncharted 2, which is a lot of people's favorite,

not ours, but a lot of people's favorite. And then the Last of Us, like, if it's 90% as good as The Last of Us, you have yourself arguably another 10. So, like, I'm not so worried about Uncharter 4, you know? Like, and that's the thing you were saying. Like, it's my most anticipated AAA game, bar none. But we know that.

It was the same way we felt by The Last of Us when it was like, we wrote about it and we cared about it. It was like, yeah, we get it. Like, we're going to be excited. about let's talk about something else so that's why i'm not like you know freaking banging the gong for this game what what game are you banging the park three now here's my problem is it going to be 2015 no there's no way in god's true no way in freaking hell and that's that's the upsetting there's no way man um but yeah man i want the game so bad and like i feel like 2015 would be a good

time for it i think i think you're stretching it even anything you're getting in 2016 really yeah the lot of the as far as i understand the all right so let's put all the pieces together right yeah let's unpack the final fan final fantasy 15 when i was in japan and i saw it closed doors before they revealed that trailer. We saw it for the first time. I was like, oh, these guys driving a car. That's interesting. And they were like, we're 55% done to the game.

The leadership team that's doing Final Fantasy 15 is also doing Kingdom Hearts 3. They're not presumably going to be able to give all their attention to one until they're done with the other, even though some of those guys, I think are segueing now to the Kingdom Hearts team as this year progresses. If Final Fans 15 is 55% done, I don't even think that game's coming out this year. And so it, like, it just kicks every can down the road. And so I really do think that you're going to see 15 spring 2016,

and I think you're going to see Kingdom Hearts, like literally as late maybe as like holiday 2017. Like I think that that game is like, I think that game's far away. I don't, I don't, like, I hope I'm wrong because I know how much people want it. And I know that they try to set the rhythm with the Kingdom Hearts re-releases and stuff like that, but that we've not seen anything to indicate that that game's anywhere. Yeah. You know, like so like that's, you know. I feel you on that.

I think, unfortunately, I do think that you're correct about a lot of that. And it sucks because, I've said this before in many places, that Final Fantasy versus 13 is the reason I bought a PS3. Well, that didn't work down to a lot at all. And now Final Fantasy, now that it's 15, like, I'm still, I'm really excited for that,

but, like, the hype is kind of gone for me just because, like... It's gone for a lot of people. It's been way too long. They have to prove... The thing about Final Fantasy, the thing about Square, is that they have a lot to prove.

Like, I'm not a company that's going to take them at their word with their AAA releases in the Final Fantasy series anymore. Not after 13. No way. you know like and not even i didn't like 12 12 is basically two games mashed together you know i mean and it's like so you have something to prove to me now i'm excited i'm excited in the sense that

final fantasy 6 and final fantasy 4 like pharma tactics these are some of my favorite games yeah and square used to be just untouchable in quality but they're not anymore and so i'm i'm more interested in 15 to see how it is than even playing it like i'd rather like if i can only obviously i can do both but if someone's like you can either play the game or someone can tell you immediately, like, if it's good or bad, and you can just get this suspense over with, I'd be like, I just want to know. Because I just want to know, like, what trajectory

they're going on. You know, as opposed to, like, so, especially after 13, I was like, oh, this game, man. Like, yeah. I just remember when the trailers first came out for, they launched the trailer for both of them, 13 and versus 13.

And I remember being like, oh, 13 looks cool, but versus 13, that's what I want. Yeah. I want that game. And it's somewhere in there. I mean, it's somewhere when they rebuilt it. It's the same thing with The Last Guardian. Like, the last guardian, like,

the last Guardian, exists and it's clearly a PS4 game. And somewhere within the DNA of that game on PS4 is the original game. The original bird, dog, cat dog. Yeah. So I think, you know, I'm... But yeah, Kingdom Hearts, when people say that,

I'm like, I hope you're right, but there's no... I think that game is far away. Exactly. But the thing is, though, we've seen some gameplay of it. And granted, it's probably... It's not real gameplay, probably, and it's just like, you know, just specific moments. Yeah, could be an engine mock-up over.

Yeah, exactly. I think that's what it is. But it's like, it just looks so good. And it's been so long since we've gotten an actual... an entry in the series was numbered. Not in this freaking like, oh, I'm dreaming about stuff, no, this is like real. And, like, that's so excited to me.

And, like, just the idea of all the different worlds we can go to now, in addition to all the classic Disney stuff, which obviously I love. Like Frozen. Now we get to go to Frozen. Come on, guys. Are you really going to go to Frozen? Is that announced? It's not announced, but, like, you presume it's got to be in there. Just check and everything out. But, yeah, Marvel and Star Wars

are the real of the bigger things. And, like, that's, well, I don't know what the bigger. Nothing's bigger than, but, but I mean, in terms of, Like, it might be the reason why the game was kind of like just, oh, it's in development. Here's a trailer, and we don't really have much to stay about it. They might be working this shit out, too, which is why maybe it's really going to be a late release too. Yeah. Because it would be awesome if you could really explore those worlds.

And it'd be shocking if you couldn't, you know. And I hope that there is a Star Wars world and a Marvel world. I don't need to see specific Marvel universes when just one Marvel universe would be super awesome. Yeah, you go to the Marvel universe. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be so good. But yeah, I'm worried that it's not going to come out.

But, yeah, Uncharted. But Metal Gear is the other one for me. Yeah, that's a big one. Phantom Pain will come out this year. Yeah. And, yeah, I'm interested to see how that is, too. Because I've not been smitten with that series in a long time. And so, Metal Gear, the second one's my favorite one.

And I really like, Metal Gear Solid, the original as well. But three, I never beat. I was just like, I'm not really into this. And four, I played it for, like, you know, longer than I should have. And I was like, I just can't do it. I love it. I love for it. To me, they just didn't scratch that it.

So, again, with Phantom Pain, I always get excited when Kujima does something. I was excited when three was announced like, excited when four was announced. But I'm just like, again, it's a wait and see kind of thing where I'm like, I want to see what this game is.

And I think that he's had enough time to marinate on it. It's been a long time. You know, Peace Walker was obviously released in between four and five, but it's been a long time since he's really had a chance to figure things out again.

I think that you like four, and I think a lot of people do like four, but I also think that a lot of people look at four is not really what they want at a metal gear. Exactly. And I totally get that. It's just, it is just,

here's a bunch more story to kind of tie everything together for the people that want that, which I did, even if it doesn't make any sense. Exactly. But I liked the gameplay. It was action focus, and that was fun for me. I liked that a lot, whereas three is an amazing game. It doesn't click with me. It's just not my thing. The story is so good.

But there was a little too much focus on the actual stealth and all the cameo stuff. Yeah, that was the thing that immediately I always tell the story about it. When I started playing three, I was like really excited. and because I really did love two and I especially love Big Shell and too I know it's like you know so like I just there was something special about that game and so when I started playing three and I was like I was going through my

like my inventory and I'm like there's like my rations are like getting meorems and yeah like depleted and then I have all this camo and I'm like I don't want to micromanage Metal Gear Solid games are about micromanagement but not to this extent I was immediately turned off for it you know and as I went through the game I just didn't the villains are okay but I was the special thing about, especially the first one, and I think the second one does

it well, too, because I really have Fat Man, as we always joke about, is, like, the cartoon villains. Like, I need more cartoon villains. Like, guys that are just, like, so over the top that they're, like, they look like they're out of an 80s action movie. Like, that was what we really need. So I want to see... Looks like it's bringing that back. Yeah, I hope so, yeah, it does. The trailers are so ridiculous. Got a old psycho whale

there. You got a mind whale coming in to get you. So awesome. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm going to play it. Yeah, absolutely. I want to give another shout out to to, uh, and I think it's on your list, you'll see. Yeah, well, we'll talk about. Hotline Miami, too. Hotline Miami 2.

I'm supposed to come out the sheet, or I was supposed to go out in 2014. It didn't, I guess they had to fix some things wherever. First of all, the creator, one of the creators of Hotline Miami 2 I've met many times, has a Mega Man 3 tattoo, which is awesome, because that's his favorite game all time. What does that mean? What does the Mega Man 3? It's the password grid for how to get to Wiley's Castle,

which is brilliant. And Highland Miami was a really weird game, and one of the weirdest games I ever played in my life. bloody yet poignant, like story-driven yet basic. Like it was a lot of contradictions in that game. And obviously the aesthetic of being in the 80s is really awesome, too. The music and the sounds and the color palette. And Highline Miami, too, is just more of that.

Plus the level building. Yeah, exactly. And the level builder is what I've actually spent the most time with. And it's really cool. Like, I think that Hotline Miami is most at home with analog sticks. I understand people want to play it on PC. That's why I was a little late to it because I couldn't play it on PC. I was like, I can't plan this game.

huge, huge hurdle. Once it came to the beat in PS3, I was like, well, I'll maybe know on this. And even though there's, it's, it's hard for me to explain why I'm, like, super excited about it in the sense of, like, why would I have this, like, kind of visceral fucking feeling about Highland Miami, too, when I was, like, all these other games coming out. It's just the fact that matters, I just want more Highland Miami.

Like, I just want to spend another week with that game, man. That's the thing people get lost in when they see it. Like, oh, it's too violent. It's too this. And it's not even, it is violent, right, in a very cartoony way. But it's more of, like, what works for me and why I love it so much. why, I mean, I was a Vita player. That's where I, you know, I played it for game of the year on PC.

Great. But being able to do it, it's so built for handhelds and being on the go. And the fact that, like, all right, you have two minutes. Here's this one, try to solve this puzzle. And the puzzle of how to kill everybody and get through and get out. And you know what I mean? Like, the story, I have no idea what the hell happened. I beat Hotline Miami.

It was all a dream. I don't know what that was happening. But, like, the challenge of doing it. And now the fact of, like, you better bet your bottom dollar I'll be making the game over a drugney set in, like, our whole house. And, like, there'll be a level where, Nick's patrolling or who you just assumes Nick or whatever. Oh, definitely.

He's a little. Totally does. And Pretella's a little dog running around trying to stop you and stuff. Like, yeah. Like, that's what it's all about is those little challenges and those little gameplay. I'm excited to tell about it. And just want to give one more shout out. There's a lot of shout that I have to give, so you can just...

Well, I mean, I mean, I'm excited about hell davers. I'm excited with the new Stardust, Cosmic Star Heroin. But the game I really want to talk about just for a minute is... And I'm excited about the order, too, to be honest. Is everybody's gone to the rapture. Oh, right. I think that game looks extraordinary. I think a game looks extraordinary.

And they're a bit of a ways off. I'm not sure that it's coming out this year. If it's, like, I think that they are about halfway done with it. So I don't know if it's going to come out this year. My assumption is that they're going to try. Santa Monica is helping them build it. It's a PS4 exclusive. And it's just such a cool idea for a game.

And for people out there who don't know what it's about. Everybody's gone to the Rapture. It's very literal. It's about the Rapture happening and people disappearing. And you're in this. British town by yourself going through people's houses and through their belongings and going like in and out of buildings and all this and just exploring your own leisure trying to figure out what happened. And it's just awesome. And this is, we've talked about this before. This is the kind

game that Sony gives Indies the ability to make. This isn't a game that's going to sell a million copies. This isn't a game that's going to get a game informer cover or, you know, limited commercial accolades. It's just a game that is, you know, I saw it at E3 last year behind closed doors and knowing some of the people from Santa Monica that are working on it like Deb Mars that are helping you know helping with this game it's like there's every reason to be confident in it and so as far as like adventure games are kind of more cerebral gone home type games I think that that is that is the one that keep on this is exactly how I feel about fire watch yeah firewatch from capo Santo right of just like you know you're out there in the woods and you can choose

what you're interacting with and exploring with and you're heading towards this like fire to see what the hell's going on you don't you have one other person to communicate with a walkie-talkie. And from what they've shown, there's something going on. You're a guy and she's a girl and there's something that's been going on there. But like, how is that going to play out? What the hell's happening in the forest and all these different things? Like, that's exciting. I love those. Yeah, that's the type of game that, like, when you look at that, it interests me. Right. I just like, I don't know what genre this is. I want to play it though. Like, I don't care. I don't care that this isn't my type of game. This looks fun. Like, Journey is another example

of that for me, where I was just like, I don't know what the hell this is. I hate scarred people. I'm going to like this, though. And I did. I liked it a lot. Yeah, I feel the same way about Firewatch. I'm excited. I mean, coming off of being such a gone home fan. Like, that's why I'm excited about it, let alone all the other stuff that's coming out in that vein, right? Like, I mean, Fulbright's already shown their next game as far, like, the space thing. Is that 2015? Who knows?

But excited about that. Similar thing of exploring, right, No Man Sky. We haven't talked about that. However the hell that game is going to come together. Another game that I don't hold my breath for in 2015. But, you know what I mean? Like, it's an upcoming one. Put it on the map there.

What else I have here on my list here? Wisher 3? Oh, yeah. If we didn't say something about Witcher 3 would be stupid. The thing about Witcher 3 is I'm not, I don't like the high fantasy, except for the Skyrim got me, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, no.

30th Studios is a game. Oh, Amelor. Amelor. That was another one that got me. Everything I see from The Witcher gets me. And I don't like Dragon Age. Like, Dragon Age just doesn't work for me. But the action, the combat and the visuals of Witcher 3 make me think.

Whichel looks deep. Yeah, exactly. That's the word I think about when I see that game. That game's deep. Yeah. You know, like, and again, they got a lot more time to work on it, too. Only good things can come up for that. And then persona 5, another shout-out.

Yeah, still wonder if that's really going to come out this year. Sure. I hold that hope. They, I mean, they have carp. The persona team can just do whatever they want. So it's just like, you know, they have carp lunch. Remember, they have not made a game since Catherine. So, like, you know, they have had a while to make this game.

I think they know that they have to deliver with Persona 5, you know. I think it's just the way, like, the general, PlayStation audience has woken up to persona right like I remember persona 3 hitting out PlayStation 2 it was right around the time I just started IGN or whatever 22, 2007 or whatever Jeff was reviewing it and playing it like this is awesome and then persona 4 and then so it's persona 3 coming to PSP and all these different things yeah all these things that weren't making giant waves and then now with Vita it seems like everyone who's a PlayStation fan and listens to us you know it was about persona

and now is into it yeah yeah yeah that's awesome I'm really excited for Orii in the blind forest right beautiful game. I'm a big fan of beautiful games. So that one is definitely... That's the same way I feel for below. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you know, coming off the shore, going in and trying to get further than the last person to go down there and do this different thing.

Same thing with massive chalice as well. Like, that's the one I was telling you about that's like Final Fantasy tactics, right? Like, go out, do this, time is passing, you have to marry off your people so they breed the next generation of warrior you can go use. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're picking up their attributes as they go, so like, you know, people can

have, like, not deforming. but deficiencies if you weren't paying attention to how you're breeding people, which is weird to talk about breeding people, but it's an awesome game play mechanic of trying to keep you keep alive for 500 years. What was that game that was shown at PSX? I'm not sure if it's already out on PC and stuff,

but there was a forced and like... Oh, the force, isn't it? It was called both for us? That game looks awesome, yeah. It's already out on PC. On PC it is, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got reprimanded by the PC crowd when I was like, this game looks great, it's orange.

The game really does look awesome. I mean, I don't know, I don't know, I've never looked into it beyond that, that particular trailer, It seems to me that it's basically hoard mode And I mean, this is my interpretation of why I got excited about That it's hoard mode in a forest And you have like X amount of time to build reinforcements

And then it gets nighttime or whatever And then everyone attacks you. I mean that's that seemed And it's cool It's like using actual forest stuff Yeah, that's fun Using actual forest stuff Yeah, you know video games get all crazy

And it's just like, oh, hoard mode And you got like a robot tree Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like, no, it's like, no, just trees I like that, that's really fun Gotta go Nintendo here, Zelda Of course Will it come in 2015? No

Yeah, I don't think so either. Star Fox, I doubt it. I really, really, really hope so. We're definitely getting Yoshi's Woolly World. Yeah. And I don't think many people are that excited. Oh, Yoshi. But, man, Yoshi, the Yoshi games, I love them so much.

Because they're different than the Mario Platformers. And Super Mario World, too, Yosh's Island is one of my favorite games of all time. I think level design of that is just impeccable. And Yoshi's Island on the DS, not so good. Yoshi's Island on the 3DS, really not so good. But this one, I'm holding out my thoughts on it. I want it to be good. I want it to be amazing.

And Nintendo's been really good lately. Captain Toad, awesome. Captain Toad is fantastic. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm looking after that. Okay. What else do we got? There was one more battlefront.

Star Wars Battlefront. Do we know that that's just year? Do we think it's this year? I don't think so. We haven't seen it at all, except for the ad ad. Yeah, that teaser trailer. But yeah, that's enough to get us excited, right? Yeah.

That's the one that Amy's working on now with Todd? Is that right? No, I mean, she's working on a different Star Wars? I can't keep up for the way. Presumably, yeah. I don't think she's announced to what Star Wars she was working on. But Battlefront was a lot

when she was working on Uncharted 4, so you assume she wants the right her own game. Yeah. This perfectly leads us. What are our predictions for 2015 for video games? One of my predictions was, then I wrote it down here,

Zelda is delayed. I don't think that game comes out this year. I think, and it's not a commentary on Nintendo. I think that they've shown the propensity many times with many games to say, like, she's not ready, and we're not releasing it. If you look at the timing of how they've rolled that game out

and what we've seen in that game over time, we really saw a nice big chunk of it in December. It just doesn't seem like the games, it seems like the game's ready if that's like what you're looking at or whatever. But I just feel like there's something within the timing and how they've rolled it out to say that like 2015, Holiday 2015 is kind of cutting it close.

I mean, the fact that we saw gameplay on a TV in the background. I mean, classic Nintendo, but that says a lot. Yeah, I agree. So I think that that game's delayed. There's something wrong with that. It's just, I think that game's probably Q1 or Q2 2016. So that was one of my predictions. My prediction is similar.

I don't think on Charlotte at 4 hits. And this is something that I've been predicting since all the hubba began, right? Of like people were leaving the project, this is happening. Bala, obviously then Amy leaving, yada, yada, yada. Throughout those podcast beyonds, I was saying, this won't hit next year, this won't hit next year, this won't hit next year. Then at E3 that, like, it hits next year. And Shuhay was on Beyond. And I was like, well, I guess, you know how I feel it was a prediction?

He just laughed about it, right? And I don't, and I still stand by, I don't think it's that they're doing like the Batman Arkham Night bullshit where it's like, it's coming out this year. And then they're like, actually still late in entire, like not even like a few months. It's June now. You know, you're like, okay, you knew you were never going to make it. I think they think they can hit it, but I think it's going to be a last of a situation where they're going to get up to the wire and be like, we had to redo so much stuff from when Amy left, when this happened, when this guy left. You know, obviously you bring in new people, the project changes a bit. otherwise it's just a patchwork and that's not what naughty dog's about.

Yeah. I think they're going to get close to the finish line and be like, it needs more time and it's going to get bumped out. That's my prediction. Just as tumultuous as that was last year. Yeah. It's weird to think now that 2014's last year. But as weird as that was, that first part of the year for them,

losing so many people, all these different things. Now, granted, every uncharted prediction I've done has been wrong, right? Every time you're like, it's going to be shown at E3 or whatever, whenever the first trailer was. It's like, I don't think so. It's too early. They had to redo all this stuff. Here's the trailer.

You know what I mean? Like, we go to PSX. Like, are they going to be, what are they going to show? Probably just a sizzle reel. Here's a freaking huge junk, or junk? Huge demo, huge dump of information. Yes, that's so. A raw dump, is some would say.

The raw dough. Yeah, yeah, the all raw dough. All that data. Oh, I love broad domes. I think there's going to be a lot of delays. And that worries, man. I feel like we saw a lot of delays this year. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. That's called the spring now. Yeah. Damn. And it's, I'm worried that a lot of the games that, even don't have, have released days, so I guess they're not delays, but let me rephrase this. The games that I want to come out in 2015, that I want to

soon, like, in the next couple months, be announced that, yes, they're coming in fall. Like, Kingdom Hearts and like, uh, Battlefront, stuff like that. That's just not going to happen at all. Yeah. That's upsetting. I don't like that. Like, I want something to look forward to that's, like, that big, meaty experience that I want.

There's been plenty other games. Yeah. Like Yoshi's Woey World. Yosch's Woy World. Second prediction here, Year of the Yos. Year of the Yos! I made this prediction last year. it didn't happen yeah now's his time he's gonna luigi had his time to shine and that went really well for him they gave him a little bit more that that went really well for the luigi yeah he's the biggest deal in the world nobody gave a flying fuck about the year luigi but now he's not it's because he's not the yos i'm telling you you're the yosch are you prepared for yoshi's epic yarn to be as disappointing as kirby's epic yon

where it comes out and it's super short and super easy and everything oh god damn it never Nintendo would never do that Yeah, never. They'd never do that to you again. Second prediction. Insomniac stays in bed with Microsoft, and they announce Sunset Overdive 2 at some point this year. Wow. Now, here's a few interesting wrinkles about this.

Number one, Insomniax told... If you've ever done a prediction episode with Colin, he's not going to give you 15 things so that he can at least get four of 15 points in other... No, no, I'm just going to say how I got to this point. Insomniac is an independent developer. They don't earn owned by anyone, except for Ted Price and his crew,

whatever. They are making a PlayStation exclusive right now. The Ratchet and Clank reboot for PS4. Yeah, that doesn't mean. And the movie obviously is coming out, I think she's here too. They have like their little smaller games initiative. What was that game? Outer Knots

or something like that? Yeah, that was, yeah, like came and went without a game war. They started trying different things or whatever. So I'm not saying that they're not going to make third-party games like fuse anymore, and I'm not going to say that they're not going to make PlayStation exclusive anymore because they are. And the other important thing is that they made Sunset Overdrive with Microsoft because Microsoft

will let them keep the IP so they could conceivably go to someone else and make Sunset Overdrive 2 put it on everything. But I think that the game did well enough critically and probably commercially it did pretty respectfully especially because it was the bundle. Yeah, the bundle definitely how. And I think Microsoft understands that they're sticking it directly to Sony by continuing to make

Insomnia games that they go like, watch, you know, they're probably maybe the deal's already done maybe they're going to do it early in the air be like, all right, second one, come out 2017, same engine Marcus and Drew can do the game again or whatever. Understand this is their best team.

These guys did Resistance 3 and the Resistance Series. I mean, this is their top pedigree team. This is their AAA team. That's not an insult to the ratchet guys wherever. It's just like, these are the guys that make AAA games.

So I think I wouldn't be surprised of Insomniac and Microsoft made another game together. That game's going to be exclusive to Xbox 1. It's going to be Sunset Overdrive 2 and it will be announced this year and it will come out in 2017.

That's my privilege. You're right. There's a lot of... Yeah. A lot of... That's how I get to the... at the end. And then I'll win. Just since this is,

since this is the prediction episode, we're putting predictions of the title, I'm reiterating my one from last time around. Batman Arkham Night will have a scene in it just like Batman Arkham City did, where Robin drops in is like, yeah, you need help? And he's like, no, go away. It'll be the same thing.

Things are going to be getting you out of control in Gotham City, and he'll be on a rooftop, like trying to figure something out, talking to Oracle, and then he'll hear it from up above, and like, hey Bruce, and he'll turn around and look up, and it'll be Superman hovering there. And I keep saying maybe one,

ruleman. I'm not confirmed. My vision of the future isn't that clear. But for sure, Superman pops up in this game and gets shot down, of course, and he's mean to him and he leaves him alone. Batman, because that's what Batman does. And that sets up a Justice League, whatever game you want to call it, that even though Rock Stardy, Rock Steady is ending the Batman trilogy that they've done.

They're moving, they're staying in bed with D.C. And they're moving over to make a Justice League far-flung, you know, a universe expanding game. Because that's the whole thing of like Arkham Asylum was so amazing for a million reasons obviously But as a comic book DC fan Of like all the Batman Lord characters

They packed in there with references And all these different things And when Arkham City came out You're like wow You already blew so much of a load You know what I mean With Arkham Asylum now to go to Arkham City And they found way more East Drags to put in

Don't get me wrong But still it was like It seems like you should have kept something in the tank A little bit more right Now they're already doing a third one Now they get to get out of Gotham them and have Smallville and have Metropolis and you know what I mean doing these different things have Themiscarat do all these different things to connect to it build off what you'd assume to be

the popularity at this point of the Justice League movies right what DC is doing with their cinematic universe and the fact that you can have now a game that has Superman Batman wonder Roman Cyborg Greenlander Flash all you know I have these people that aren't all of a sudden being introduced for the first time in the game you know what I mean like it's a different world now where you can have an awesome Justice League narrative and have them all play off each other that way so what when would you see that game coming out? That's the problem. It's like it's not going to be,

I don't think it's overt. I've kicked around the idea, again, in the vision, that WB's making them do this, and that that's what WB Montreal has been working on, that they took what they learned with Batman and now making the Justice League game or the Flash game or whatever the hell it is, something like that.

But I don't think that's what this is. So that said, it's three years before you get that, which again, sounds far-flung, but that'd be 2018, and the DC movie slate goes out to 2020 right now. you know what I mean? Like, they are playing the long game here and the movies coming out

and them already being committed. Like, it's like, you know, the tracks are laid. This isn't like, well, we'll see how Green Lantern does and maybe there's a Green Lantern too. Like, no, no, no, no, this is happening. These movies are happening regardless. So you can have that, I'm going to do the comic book video game over here

and they're not connected, but they are drawing the fact that when you're walking through the story and you see this Justice League game and you see all these different characters, you now know them because of the movies. You have that mainstream chance to get out and do different things.

Yeah. Yeah, that'd be awesome. And I think something similar happened with Dark Knight, like when the movie trilogy was coming out in Arkham Asylum was just like, they had nothing to do with each other. Yeah, but, you know, it was time. And that was a calculated move, right? That's been talked about before that Warner Brothers was like,

we can't have another bad Batman game. So don't try to tie. Like Batman Begins had a game and it was terrible. And they were like, let's not do that anymore. You know what I mean? Like, give it time, give Rock Steady this chance to go out and do this. And he used Batman as a property, but not Dark Knight as a property. You know what I mean?

Like here's this Batman game that isn't tied in. Go have fun. Do you guys think that there's any chance that Marvel's going to have good games? I mean, there's always a chance. You know what I mean? Like, that's the thing. You don't want to sit here and... I remember how absurd it was this...

Well, Batman ever have a good game. You kidding me? I mean, tangentially, they must understand because of the family that Marvel's now in, that games can be made on properties that are in the same family. So they have to look at how Star Wars movies or Star Wars games are being made. They have to look at how Disney games are being made, like Disney Infinity. And even Disney, when was that one game, Disney Universe, it was like a... kind of a three.

Oh, right, it was like, Little Big Planet. Yeah, it was kind of, I was like, that's kind of good. I was like, this is a step in the right direction. The big thing about that right is how it all comes down and shakes down contract-wise. Because you figure Marvel Forever was in bed with Activition, making games through Activision, right? And if you remember, God, I'm dating.

And they were blessed enough to have Raven made one of their games. Right, yeah, the Wolverine one, which was awesome. Yeah, well, yeah. That was a great game. It was a great game, shitty story, all these different. There was probably, stick with me. I'm dating myself now because I don't remember what I remember. remember it was Dan Amric, one of swords at Activision, putting up a blog post of basically being like,

if you're looking for these Marvel games from Activision, you got to buy them now because they're off the stores forever. And the people are like, why? And he's like, that's how contracts work. It's clear that Disney was like, all right, start pulling those cards and get them out of there, which only benefits everybody. Because I don't know how the contracts were laid out, what it was, but Marvel always had these games that had a kernel of just like, this is so great, make your game about this.

Wolverine, your Wolverine engine is amazing. He's getting blown off. He's animatium. he's killing things, there's blood, but then they tried to pack it into the movie. So there's this story that doesn't work, and it's like, uh, Spider-Man, right? Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions comes out, and it's like, this game is awesome. That was actually a neat game. Please, there's so many great parts of this, yeah, you know, the noir could be a little different.

Yeah, they got to do it again, and they're like, all right, here's edge of time, and it was totally rushed, and it was garbage. Yeah. And then it was like, all right, now here's Spider-Man 3, and it's like, this is even, you're going the wrong way, because you're no longer, they're doing the opposite of what W&B was doing and saying, All right, take Batman and make a game and just make it be good. A good, good, you know what I mean? A good Spider-Man, I would fill for that. I remember on PS1, Spider-Man.

Yeah, I have it right up there. I have it up there on the shelf. Yeah, I got my own Spider-Man copy. I love that. And, like, you know, definitely going back to it, it does not hold up. Right. And I mean, this is still the same thing about Spider-Man too we always talk about, right? Of, like, how much fun it was to swing around the overall and save things.

And it was like, it's so, my balloon! And you save these balloons like 30 times. Like, oh. But when we talk about a platform game, right, we were talking about smashes its own platform, that's the real hook for me is the first person who figures it out. Here's the superhero game and you're Superman, Batman, Invincible, whoever. And you put down this game and you say it will be updated every three months

with a slew of missions to do. And they recycle, but rather than give me five missions, I have to do 30 times. Give me 30 missions I do one time. You know what I take time and money and I understand, but I'll pay that as DLC. I just want the one mission of the cranes. Spider-Man. Hey, Spider-Man! Swing your queens over. Hey, Jimmy! Good thing we're all working in the middle of the night, hey! Get him over to Osco! Don't put him in a car. My final prediction, the third prediction, final prediction. And this is a big one, so I want you guys pay attention.

It's a mega-son? It's a big, it's literally a megaton. Full Out 4 will be revealed this year, and it will come out this year. Oh, my God, yes. Oh, come. I think Bethes is sitting on that one. And I really believe that. I think that Bethesda is sitting on this game. I don't think that it's done. I just think that, like, Todd Howard and those dudes

been working on this game for a long time. How long has it been since Skyrim? Let's see, Skyrim was... Because that was Todd Howard's last, like, big involvement. Yeah, that was 2011 or 2012. Okay, okay. Oh, it was 11, right? Because it wasn't...

It was Uncharted. It was 11, 11, 11. Right. And then they were 11... Something 11? Yeah, no, you're right. Yeah, it was 12, 13, 14, 15. So it'll be three years, or four years by the time it comes out.

New student the game was in pre-production. It's a big studio. And I'm not talking about Bethesda overall. It's a publisher. I'm talking about, but that's the game studio. It's a big studio. Right. And I really do believe that that game's going to be revealed in, say, the spring,

and it'll be ready to go by holiday season. Wow. And I think that that's the smart way you should reveal games. And I think that that's the way that gets people hyped. You have a little... The way I would do it was, like, reveal it in March. Game takes place in Massachusetts or whatever,

in the Commonwealth it sounds like from all of the rumors. At E3, you have it playable to press. You show it at one of the conferences, Sony or Microsofts. That summer or early fall, you have your press event where you invite press to come play an elongated portion of the game, and then you release it. You know, like, there's no reason to string this out. Your schedule is great, but at what point are they doing the...

multiplayer beta. Oh, man. Because you know it's coming. No, I don't. I don't know that it's coming. I bet you. I hope. I don't think it will either.

I think it's more likely that that game will not have multiplayer than it will. And I don't mean that in any way. I mean, even that in co-op. That's not the way people want to play that stuff. Like, I really hope they understand that that people do not want to play that game with other people. You know, it's not the way we played fault.

Because it's against everything that, it's against the grain with what that game is all about, which is do whatever you want, whenever you want to do it at your own pace. Yeah. How can you possibly do that with all these freaking idiots chattering in your hands? So that's my own final prediction. My final prediction is not a prediction as much as it's just a request. Crash Bandicoot come back into my life.

I think it's really possible. Is it? Tell me it is, Colin. Tell me more. I think it is. So, I mean, it's complicated, right? You know, these games were made by Nottie Dog, owned by Universal, that was eventually still in Activision,

that, you know, they made some bad games, and then the series just went away. Sony's been really clear, and SuperBot Entertainment was really cool. clear when they were making All-Stars that they tried. They tried. Anything they requested, they tried to get. So you would assume that that's crash and that's cloud and that's whatever. I think that you will find that Activision doesn't want to do anything with it, but that someone's going to have enough money to get it from Activision and do something

with it. Whether or not it's a good idea or not, I don't know. I don't think Crash Bandicoot's relevant anymore. I actually think that like, I think that it would have... You want to Wampa fruits. I think that if Activision makes money. That's one thing they do. They make lots of money. And if... If they thought that that franchise can make any money, they would have made it. Not only would they have made that game a long time ago, probably, but they would have made it with one of their good studios. So I think that they're reading the Tileys being like, well, Crash Bandicoot is literally now 15 plus years away from any relevance. Yeah.

So like, like, and the studio that made those games, the games that people cared about, will never touch those games again. So why? You know, like, I think that there's more behind the scenes stuff going on there that I think meets the eye. but I think it's possible. I think it's very possible. That makes me happy, Colin. All right, final topic for this week. Yeah.

What are our biggest concerns for 2015? In the gaming space. In the gaming space. My life space is you don't support us on Patreon. I quit my job for nothing. We all go to hell. You don't go to hell if you go to hell. Isn't that, that's what my mom always said.

If you don't make money, you go to hell. Oh, man. That's not right. Concerns for it. For me, for 2015, the concern would be that we don't learn from, the mistakes of 2014. We all talk about how horrible the... I don't mean we.

I mean, everyone who watches these videos who's on the internet, da-da-da, part of our video game community talks about how horrible the internet was in 2014, right? Like how... That's our HTML? Twitter.

Yay! Let's play! Forty! You're not... 40. Notice how we're that scared. Notice how we have nothing to worry about. He's got bad eyes, Colin.

He doesn't know what's happening. It's okay. That we don't... We don't learn from our mistakes. We keep being bad people. The problem was, here's the thing. I'm tiptoeing around the landmime of GatorGate, because that's a podcast all to itself.

But the fact of even if you agreed or didn't agree with the portrayal of women in games and the way they are treated in our industry and our fandom and everything else, that doesn't matter. It's taking the lesson of how other people feel and taking that into account as you move forward and how you comment or how you do anything.

Or if you're making a game, how you want to think about what your narrative, is and how you're using people. That's all it is, right? Like, nobody's 100% right on either side of this argument. It's just about asking the tough questions and dealing with it. And that would be the big thing outside of even GamerGate or any of that stuff. Just asking yourself questions you don't want to ask. I always talk about Colin, right? You could look at Colin on the internet and say, this guy is a jackass. You know, he's a Republican, he believes this and da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Colin has opinions on everything.

Colin is one of the few people I've ever met who has strong opinions about. about something and will change his mind about them and tell you why he did it. And if you present evidence or a point to what you're talking about, he will take that in and wait. He doesn't just shut down. If I came out of him, I said, well, this is, you know, the islanders are terrible people because of X, Y, and Z.

He would take it in, not just immediately shut them, like, I don't want to talk about that. You know what I mean? No, it's what I feel, it's what I know, it's what I believe in. Everyone needs to, you know, echo out, especially in this industry and what we do, and I mean industry in terms of community,

about other people. You know what I mean? Being more inclusive. about making the fact that video games if you aren't going to stay in this little box that you may think you want them to you or whatever right they're going to be on mobile platforms they're going to be telling stories that are gone home and then that are modern warfare and that there's there's a spectrum of things happening here and that it's going to touch everyone eventually everyone will be a gamer at some point in the same way i don't call myself a movie watcher or a

tv watcher you know what i mean yeah it's just something you're just something you do and you're normal if you do that it's a bigger story if somebody's like i don't have a tv you're like what That's how it is. That's where gaming's going. So we need to get on the same track and same page about it's cool. Let's have a conversation that doesn't involve death threats and horrible people. Yeah. That's good.

I'm going to get less existential than you're doing right now. Your concern is that the Vita will not be properly supported. No, I mean, it's also about learning lessons from 2014, but it's learning about very literal technical lessons from 2014. I'm thinking about games that are coming out next year that need to work properly on day one. And the division is the game that I'm thinking about the most. Yeah. And that's a Ubisoft game.

Yeah, that's why. Yeah, okay. The fact is that games have been released, many games have been released in inexcusable state. Yeah. Exactly. Games that, you know, don't, that shouldn't have problems, like Tetris Ultimate. Yeah. That you can't work.

You know, if you have 2,000 friends, you can't play the game. Right. Because it's constantly picking. servers and then they're like disconnect the internet and it'll work better and they're like well I that's not I want to I want to log my score so I see how I do against other people fix your game you know what I mean uh little big planet three wasn't working for a lot of people little big planet three yeah which was in development forever by the way yeah you know like master chief collection yeah like master chief collection how does that not work you know far cry four had problems

when it came out call of duty advanced warfare problems when it came out it's just a constant thing. Dead Nation was this year, right? PS4. Yeah, Dead Nation on PS4, which had the exact same problem as the PS3. This was the worst thing. Dead Nation came out on PS3 in 2010. It had a problem where if you had 100 friends on PSN, it would freeze. Greg and I were the first ones to discover this. Before the game came out, we told Housemark, and they fixed the problem. Then Dead Nation came to PS4, and it had the same problem. You know, like, I don't understand how no one communicated to the porting studio. I think it was climax that brought it over. I could be wrong. That brought it over and was like,

like, hey guys, by the way, when we made the game, we had maxed out friends list problems. You need to populate your friends lists with bots or whatever to make sure that the game works fine. Publishers need to take a step back, because it's really not the devs, it's the publishers. They need to take a step back and say, like, is the game ready? Do we QA it properly?

Or all the bugs are ironed out. Should we give it more time? It's not excusable to release a game in the state that some of these games have been. Drive Club was an embarrassment for, you know, for Sony. And it's not that we're racing fans, we don't care. I'm never going to play that game anyway.

But watching people go through the rigameral of having to play that game and update it and waiting impatiently. They paid six hours for game inexcusable. The only way that publishers are going to gain the trust back of people that have been burned this year and there are many or millions of people that have been burned, literally. Literally burn. No, millions of people, literally millions of people.

They haven't been to literally millions of people. Why? You'll be soft. Stone chin just the fire. It's that they need to make games that work. And I'm telling you right now, people need to stop giving publishers game. money that really schemes that don't work. You need to, you need to follow.

It's the same thing we're talking about with MassSpec 3, right? Back in the day where it was like, you know, could have much more eloquently said it, but my point was, I like Mass. I like Mass. I like Mass Effect 3 and you already bought it. There's not much you can do about it now. What you have to remember is that next time BioA releases a game, you don't buy it, you know, and then you send them that message.

But you have to be consistent about these things. That the developers have to be consistent, the publishes has to be consistent, and the users have to be consistent. That if you send them mixed messages or a wrong message, or just keep giving them money, that they're never going to fix the problem at hand. So, you know, reward the publishers and developers that make these great games and release these great products, but make sure that the publishers are held accountable when they release a game that's broken because there's no excuse.

I'm sick of hearing excuses of why it's impossible to test a game in this environment. Really? I don't think so. There have been hundreds of shooters released that have worked fine online. There's nothing different about the infrastructure of these consoles. And games like Destiny came out that were slammed by people that worked way better than a game like Drive Club, which was purchased by maybe a few hundred. 100,000 people.

You know what I mean? So, no more excuses. That's my major concern. I want to hear, I want publishers to learn the lessons from this last year and fix the games, you know? Don't release, this is why Nintendo's,

you know, so special. It's because they're the only ones that won't do that anymore, you know? And I didn't expect it from Sony until we saw it would drive club. And we saw it again with a little big plans. Like, these games aren't ready, and you should have known better.

And so that's my, that's my major concerns that they don't learn those lessons. Tim. very concerned about is no man's sky that game looks awesome and I'm very excited for it and every time we see it everyone's like whoa yeah that's so crazy I remember at E3 people like just

lost their shit yeah because they're like this that that is what Sony ended their conference with right at PSX yeah well no they ended it was the second oh at E3 yes at PSX it was the David Jaffe game right yeah yeah and I remember being like man like that that looks crazy like that looks like such a crazy experience but then it's like where's the game

and that's my conclusion concerned is that that question's never going to be answered, or at least it's not going to be satisfying. Like, I look at this and, you know, it's like, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out, it's like, wait, cool, I can do that on Google Earth. But like, I'm really waiting for that game, and I hope that I'm wrong about this because I, and that's where I'm concerned, is that I want to be given something that's like gives all of that space something to do. Something really fun and really engaging to do. And I hope that I'm wrong, but. We'll see what the game is. Yeah, the game so far is landing on a planet

You get out It says you found it You get back in you fly away Yeah, it's like What am I doing? Well see I mean it's a very I don't think I've ever seen a studio That small making games so ambitious

Yeah So we're gonna see I mean Hello Games is tiny Tiny tiny tiny studio And these are the guys that made Joe Danger So this is a big jump from An Excite bike clone basically A very good ExciteBic clone

To an open Maybe the most massive Game ever made And they have I mean it's all gonna be in But a passion game Presumably it's going to be all in the algorithms they write, and it's all based on just scope.

So how it renders these planets and how you discover things and all those kinds of things. But I hope it's not like Endless Ocean or something like that, where it's like a game that's literally about exploration, which was, and I like that Endless Ocean on me. But like that game was just about seeing, not doing. And so there's a room in space for any kind of game. There's a room and space for a game like that,

but I hope that that's not what that is. Because PlayStation is behind this game, they're going to look very silly if they got, behind this game and supported this game and threw everything behind this game gave them marquee treatment at their conference and stuff and it ends up not being this great thing that's why I'm confident that it is because they must know yeah exactly they want to get behind it yeah yeah I happen to have this problem where I am complaining about something and I don't really have an answer of like what it is I even want from it like I don't even know what I want for the

thing is that you know so I mean it's it's they have and I'm sure as the year whirls on and this year we're gonna see more about the game we saw a little bit about it yeah PSX about the zooming out and yeah yeah that was first time I ever really did it's shooting too when they were flying one of the... Yeah. It seemed accelerated, like, you know, like kind of like a time lapse to look at the game,

but I'm interested in that game, too. It was the same way I felt about the witness before I saw the witness, which was like, what is this? And then you kind of understood it when you sat down with it. So hopefully we get, and that's another game,

that's just like, I don't know what the hell's going on again. That was supposed to be like a launch game for PS4 or like, or that's how they positioned it and they were slowly to do it. So I think we'll get answers on that soon because I'm super intrigued about the game.

Yeah. You know? Yeah. Because I'm not excited about, Like, people are stoked about that game. I don't really don't care. I'm, like, really more curious about, like, even if it is just going to planets and finding them and they pop up on Tim's or I get to a planet and Tim already discovered it.

It's like, that could be chill, like, just flying around. Yeah, chill, but chill in the same way that flow is chill or something. That's not a game you, that's certainly not a game that's going to require marquee treatment at PSX. You know, you got to, like, there's got to be, my heart tells me that there's, that's 10% of the game. That, like, there's all this crap in the game. Yeah. That, I don't mean, crap in the bad. I don't know.

There's things to be. Lots of stuff to do. Yeah. So we'll see. Now, another thing we were talking about earlier with delays. Like, that's my biggest concern with stuff. But with Nintendo specifically, it's, there's nothing to delay besides Zelda. I want them to announce some stuff.

And that's my biggest worry with them in general is that there's Zelda. And then there's Yoshi. What else? Theos. I don't know. Yeah, they have to figure out. They need some new announcements. And I'm worried that we're not going to get them.

Like, I'm worried that Mario, the 3D Mario is not going to be announced this year. And that's going to be very upsetting. Yeah, we presumably, they have, like, Mario Maker and, like, some other stuff. Like, but these are not, these are, again, not AAA, like, Temple games. I'm interested in that, too, but that's always been their ammo. You know, like, I think people that, like you, that know Nintendo and understand Nintendo, that's just the way it is, you know? And I'm, you know, the important thing with delays, no matter what they come,

who does them is, is it worth it? And can you see the results? I think the order is a great example of that. I think the order was a mess when that game was released or revealed. I was there. I tried to tell people, you know, and then no one believed me until they saw the footage I saw him, you're absolutely right. This game is in bad shape.

And that game was supposed to go out in the fall, and Sony didn't have anything this fall, except for Drive Club, which was a disaster, and a little big planet, which is also on PS3. So they actually punted their really important AAA game into the next year in order to make it better. And every time we played it and seen it, it's been better. and we played it at PSX. That game was really good. Yeah, I'm on. And, like, Ready at Thorn is very capable.

And they took that time and they took that, you know, because they've been working on that game for a long time. It'll be almost five years the time the game comes out. The engine's perfect. It's beautiful. It's very cinematic. But the gameplay was awesome. And I enjoyed it.

I like third-person cover shooters. Yeah. It reminds me of, like, vanquished or, like, back in the day, Killswitch. Like, you know, so is the delay getting you a better product? And can you see that demonstrably from either, you know, Not everyone gets to play games like we do earlier or whatever, but are you seeing it in the coverage?

Are you seeing any impressions of people you trust? Then you gauge it based on that. And so I think that if Nintendo means more, Nintendo's the company where if they need more time, I trust that. Oh, yeah, sure. There are other companies where I'm like, well, how are you using your time? You know, Nottie Dogg did great things in six weeks.

Not everyone's going to be able to do that. Some teams like the Arkham guys at Rocks say you need six months. So I think the delays will slow down. I think the fruit of the delay issue this year is the spring. and that's why it's so exciting. Hopefully that doesn't happen. Again, all these games are crunched into February, March, April.

So, yeah, hopefully that doesn't happen again, and they kind of stagger out from there. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for watching the kind of funny games cast. This is the first episode of many, many, many more to come.

And I want to know all at least 10. Of your thoughts on this episode and what you want going forward, how we can improve, what we can do better. And I also want to thank you guys. Yeah, no problem.

Thank you. It was a lot of fun. It was fun to talk about games, final. Yeah. This is our new job. Support us on Patreon.com slash kind of funny games. Yeah,

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Topic by topic. Yep, topic by topic, Monday through Thursday, full episode Friday, new episode and last episode Friday. Same rig and roll that you guys are used to. Get it early on Patreon. Yeah, getting early there, get early everywhere. It's awesome. Until next week, thank you for watching.