Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Official Game Awards 2023 Winner Predictions - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: November 29, 2023

Tim, Andy, and Blessing predict the winners and losers of The Game Awards 2021 from Deathloop, It Takes Two, Metroid Dread, Returnal, Final Fantasy XIV, Pokemon Unite, and everything in between. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast. Of course I am Tim Geddes. I'm joined by the new face of video games blessing at Ae Oe8 Jr. Good afternoon Tim. The Big Daddy himself, Greg Miller. Brat, Brat, Brat, Brat, Brat, Brat, Brat, Brat. I'm right at the end of Channar. And this game, this game just keeps on hidden, man.

Let me tell you. Hey, you're in a dope Scott Pilgrim on a Gucci show. Thank you. I got about two goods shirts. Yeah, brand new. Brand new. Very, very, very expensive too. They were like $38.

Like, all right, but I haven't had a gooch shirt in a while. so I'll buy a good shit. Yeah. For the holidays. Greg, you have the PlayStation portal in your head. I do.

Now you're playing with power. I'm here, man. There was nothing on his display, though. Just kidding. It was a picture of John Cena doing this. Oh, shit. Wow.

Just as we were going live, I liked to Instagram and they got a code here for getting a pink diamond version of Ria Ripley, so I'm going to redeem that code here. Got it. Got it.

You see Daddy's home? I did. Braddy's the, oh. Oh. Oh. He was just beat the little. Everland of the fuck out of Dominic Mysterio last night.

wrestling is a whole thing everybody but we're not talking about the day we're talking about video games specifically the game awards and our predictions we have the game awards coming up next week very excited for that Greg and Bless will be there in the flesh, which is very exciting. They're doing a whole bunch of cool stuff. They'll be at the show itself, being able to see a whole bunch of games. And Bless, you're making a special appearance somewhere. I am. I'm going to the Giant Bomb Live show. They're doing that Saturday.

Yeah, their Game of the Year live show. Very, very cool. If you are in the Los Angeles area, you should go check that out. Hold on, I believe. Oh, well, you know what? Is it? Check it out. It sold out originally at the small venue.

and it sold out so fast that they were like... Now there's a Hollywood Bowl. They were joking about like what if we could get it to the top here? So I think this was the last time that they tweeted about it. They're going to get the orchestra.

I'm clicking the link to see its tickets are available. Yeah, it's happening at the TerraGram Ballroom. The Terragram Ballroom. It looks like I could buy tickets so I want to right now. You really need to go just ride or die

for one game, one game only. Sonic fucking Frontier. or whatever it was called. First of all, that came out last year. The game came up this year. We're Sonic Superstars, yeah. Oh, that's all. Oh, man.

I'm gonna fucking ride or die for Sonic Superstars. I appreciate. Sonic the Hodge Hall. Anyways, you can find them in LA if you're there. If you're not there, you can hang out with us at home. We will of course be live reacting to the Game Awards. It'll be me. It'll be Andy.

It'll be Snowbike, Mike, right here at this table. Hanging out, having a great time with all of you reacting to all the major announcements and winners. We're about to go through and do a whole game. and do a whole game with it's chow yes but one of the things we don't have on there in the meaning i just had snow bike mike and he doesn't have inside information to be clear he doesn't have inside information he guarantees me someone's going to rush the stage this year no way right that's not happening again i sure as fuck hope not he's like somebody will try he's like one of these i think somebody's going to try one of these millennials or jenzies i forget who

i think they might get stopped this time though yeah like i think somebody's gonna fucking like let's to spear them yeah oh there's going to be air air marshal's like kind of undercover They're like you're gonna see a dude wearing a fucking game shirt. You're like you're not a fan of that. It's gotta be a game that sticks out. We're like, oh no. Yeah. You're here for security.

You're not actually here for- I don't think Jeff Keeley could survive a third time in the last 12 months of somebody rushing the stage. So you do with a Viva Pignata shirt like nah. He's not real. It's fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice.

Damn, we got beef up security. Yeah. Fool me three times. Now it's Jeff Keeley's all. I'm over. Shut it down. Yeah. So hopefully we're not gonna have that happen.

And then don't do that, everybody. Just don't. I'll tell you right now, if you try and I catch wind of it, I'll stop you. I thought that Greg was going to hit us. But I have to be pretty close to stop him. Yeah, yeah. And I don't want to accidentally tackle some Indie Dewe. I didn't know.

I thought you were going to give us some big scoop. I thought you're going to be like, Stoneback Mike, this is not like a leak or whatever, but he has on a good authority that halo or so whatever. Someone will rush the stage. I'm at the point. I'm at the point where I'm afraid to like be in the theater and make a wrong move. Like, look.

a little suspicious. Like I'm definitely gonna be in the audience just like sitting like as straight and, you know, do my among us like I'm playing it. Now, but you're gonna be dressed so good. They're gonna be like that guy's not here to get kicked out. Wasn't that kid like that did the last time. He was dressed fine. No, he wasn't dressed. He had a peat coat, you know. Yeah. I mean, he didn't look like everybody else wearing a graphic team. Yeah, you're right. That was wearing clothes that he was drowning in, you know. But like people aren't like 95% of the audience of the game wards isn't dressing up to dress up, you know, like they're all wearing graphic teas with a little little jacket over it.

Any of them can rush the stage. I guess maybe I only see photos of you. And I think everybody's like Met Gala out here. You can check out all those pictures next week on kind of funny and blessing socials for sure. Will Black put his phone in his jacket

pocket? That's the major test. We got to figure out. I'm afraid. Yeah, because you looked so good in the pink last year with that phone. Yeah. I caught wind of it like in the second half of the night,

but by that time I was already too late. Yeah. You've already posted. Yeah. I believe in you this year. And we're going to have a great time, like I was saying. A lot of video game stuff to talk about. Today we're doing our predictions of the winners.

Next week, we will be doing our predictions episode of the announcements. So pretty fun stuff. We're going to go through all of the categories of nominees, and each of us will write down who we think is going to win. In the live chat there, Infinite Corp says, what was the second one? Then Barrett says, Gamescom opening night live. A couple of dudes rushed the stage.

Seems like Barrett knows a suspicious amount about that attack, huh? Yeah. It's kind of weird. A suspicious amount of, we all witnessed it. Where were you January 6, Barry? What's going on here?

So today is the Gamescast. You can get on YouTube. com slash Kind of Funny Games. You can get on Roosterty.com. You can also get it as a podcast by search of your favorite podcast service for Kind of Funny Gamescast and we'll be right there for you. You'd also go to patreon.com slash Kind of Funny where you can get the shows ad free. You get a whole bunch of bonus content and you get to be a Patreon producer like Jackson.

in Hampton and Delaney Twining. We appreciate both of you. So very, very much. Today we're brought to you by Shady Ray's, but I'll get to all of that later. Before we even get into this, Greg, I know we've talked little bits here and there, but now that you are a couple weeks removed from getting the PlayStation portal in your hands for the very first time. Are you higher on it, lower on it, or exactly where you were? Well, I was high on it when I gave it a four out of five, right? And I would still say I'm right there. Like I have nothing but glowing things to say. A friend hit me up yesterday. She's like, hey, I'm looking for a gift for my husband. Like, I'm like, I remote play all

the time. So like, for me, it's, I, I, I've, since the launch of the PlayStation portal, I've played more PS5 via the portal than via the PS5. And that's just, you know, being tired and being a dad and also where we're at with games right now, where it's not like I need to get down to play the latest greatest. I'm playing through other things or touching on things, trying to get back for game of the year conversations or tinkering. But like, Blueie, when I reviewed Blueie, I played in platinum, blueie only on the portal. I never saw it on the big screen kind of thing. Wow. And it's just like,

fuck yeah, I'm so happy with it. Tears of the kingdom looking at fucking blue, like, you son of this. Hey, the switch is in my bag?

I'll have you know and I have turned it on. So we are getting close to do. Did you touch tears of the kingdom at all while you're in Chicago? Absolutely not, but that's not, I didn't play any video games.

You know, the flight's like, let's just keep Ben occupied until he goes to bed, then he goes to bed, you go to bed. Remember, we're sending them all on vacation.

Yep. Coming out of your budget. Right. That's cool with that. My budget? Andy, you have the steam deck OLED. Oh yeah.

I didn't know you got that for a little sec. Tim is just getting so like every time I'm holding it around I see Tim looking at it and I just see him zeroing in. It's been in my part multiple times in the last 24 hours. And he was like Andy can I get this like in all black not the collector's edition like the special colors? Like yeah, Tim absolutely. He's like oh man. And I can feel the temptation.

Yeah. Getting like hotter and sweatier. I've watched many reviews. in the last couple days of this thing for many people I trust. And isn't it just a lot of people you trust being like, this is the best device thing ever.

I'm just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Some dude I really trust that is like obsessed with OLED like I am is like is the best OLED screen I've ever seen.

I don't fucking believe you. I don't believe you. Okay. I disagree that. Okay. I just like because I think the choice that they went with this anti-glair display, it feels like it,

like playing Mario Wonder over the weekend on my Switch. I prefer the Switch OLED to... Sorry, I thought you're looking at me like, wait, what the for you? Mario Wonder. No, yeah, compare the

OLED of the Nintendo Switch. I prefer the visuals of that more because I prefer the... I think when you go with that anti-glare, kind of diffuses a lot of colors a little bit and kind of makes like you know that that color black can be a bit deeper because you've seen it go deeper on your

OLED before, but it's still amazing. It's still amazing in every way. I think it's like one of the best pieces of hardware ever. And I've been playing the shit out of Chance of C-N-R and Blasphemous 2. And I'm right at the end of Chantus, C-H-A-N-T-S of C-N-R. I'm right at the end of it. It is like going to be a contender. Whoa! This is like a puzzler that is so damn good. And I can't believe I became, I took the puzzle poppy mantle for Bless this year. Yeah. You know, like I, I'm, I'm, I'm feeling he kind of like, he gave it to me over a big ritual ceremony we had.

And it is a, it's a game about just discovering a, discovering language and trying to, it's based on a Toulingo. It's based on a Tower of Babel. It's based on a Tower of Babel. So it's, you know, you're, you're trying to go up this tower to figure out what's happening. And suddenly like, you're in the lower class and suddenly as you get hired, the Warriors are like, no, we don't let those poor people in. And you get above them and they're like, oh, fuck the Warriors. it is, I'm at the end of it and it is kind of mind-blowing and

amazing. It's cool looking. It is really, really damn good. And I was telling Bless, like, because I know Bless is having trouble with it, but you see a person with three symbols over their head, and you're like, man, I don't know what those three symbols mean, but you're like, you're next to a dude with a guitar, he's playing guitar, what the fuck does that mean? And as you keep discovering, you're like,

oh, I figured out a couple words. Let me go see what was up with that music guy, and it suddenly it says like, the word eye pops up, and then it says like, blank, blank, and you're like, I love music, I love guitars, maybe one of those works, and suddenly you start using that clue for other places where other people are filling in gaps.

It is so damn good, man. This video game is awesome. Can I talk about two video games? I go for it. I played Venba over the break. I'm so fucking mad at this tweet when you put it up. That game was good. Why didn't anybody tell you about Venba?

I fucking hate them. I fucking hate them. Why didn't anybody tell me about this game of Venba? I get the audience is like deathly allergic to me talking about an indie that makes me feel. You didn't have a fucking co-host. Because I think I remember you being like, oh yeah, it's like, it's pretty good.

This game is fucking awesome. Like, I'm playing it especially after Thanksgiving. So it's a game where you're doing it. It's a, just shining a light on it. Yeah, no, that's what I do. Like, I got to talk about the indie games, especially the narrative ones. Yeah. But it's a game where you are playing as this mother who is moving from India to Canada with her

husband and they're raising a family. And a lot of the gameplay is you going through these recipes and cooking these dishes. that you know from back home, right? And like, it has this very well-written, very well-realized narrative about raising a family as an immigrant family and what that takes in order to, and in the case of, like, having a son that was born in Canada and, you know, like him maybe being a bit distant

or not being able to connect on the same level because you guys are from different cultures and kind of him turning into an adult and what that means for him and, like, how he comes around on it. And it's a very short video game. It has a very, incredible art style, like really, really gorgeous art style. The food stuff is really cool. But the fact that it was able to tell this story that is so well realized and grounded and

also relatable, I think anybody who is an immigrant child would totally relate to what's going on in the story. Because like, there are moments in the story or I'm looking at it. I'm like, yeah, this is me. Like, this is, this feels like a story that's being written about me. And for me, as somebody who, you know, I grew up in Illinois and like Champaign, Illinois, which is fairly diverse, right? But even in Champaign. I always felt like I had this singular experience of like growing up in the U.S. with the parents that moved here from Nigeria. Obviously, there's plenty of people that had that right.

But I felt at the time as a kid like it was singular. As an adult, meeting other people that had these experiences and not playing a game that it is, oh, y'all get it. Like, these are types of experiences that are shared by everybody. Yeah, like I was not expected to be as blown away by this game as it was. And so shout to Venba. If I can jump in real quick. You know, obviously I don't.

I understand that we have talked about a million games here. Yeah, it hits a different way. And your tweet did very much frame it as like, hey, if you're a child of an immigrant, like this hits a different way. I would throw out there that I think, even without that,

it hits because it is very much, like, especially the ending and stuff like that, like just being a, being a child, not even being a parent, right, to a child. Like,

there's a little bit of a, you know, full circle thing for me there. But even just being a kid who didn't necessarily grow up like his parents. I think there's a lot in there. that I took away from it on top of, obviously the cultural touchdowns. But of course, of course,

this is why I love playing games like that, is to get a window into a world that I wouldn't think of. I would have never, you know, the conversations they're having very early in the game, right? Like the kid wants his reward pizza and then was like,

oh, but what have we made some Indian food? You know what I mean? She's trying to make sure that the culture survives, even though he's being surrounded by this Western culture. And even something as simple as like... And enough for the lunchebles,

Andy. Some taquitos. Like, something as simple as, you know, the kid not even wanting to bring Indian food to school because he's afraid about like it's spelling different from the food that the kids are eating and him being singled out or made fun of or whatever right like I finished this game and especially it's funny because I played this the day after Thanksgiving and so or friend the Thanksgiving I went to and so I'm coming off of you know going to a Friendsgiving that is made up of people from a bunch of different cultures and so will you bring the food that like we know how to make or food that we have from our cultures and like we share it and eat it and I have a family friend that's in town and my mom knows that she hits up sometimes be like hey I want to get this family friend runs a Nigerian restaurant nearby.

And so my mom will hit her up and be like, hey, like, you know, can you send down blessing some rice or something? And so I hit her up to be like, hey, like, I got this friend's giving. Are you able to make some jelof rice, which is rice they have in Nigeria? And she's like, yeah, and she sends it down year to year. And after having that friend's giving coming home the next day, playing Venba, finishing the game, I was like, I think I'm going to learn how make jelof rice. Yeah.

I think I got to learn how to make chelof rice. And I have to learn how to make more Nigerian food. And so, yeah, like, it's definitely a game that I did that affected me in a way that I did not expect. Like it kind of came out of left field for me. And so shout out to Venba. But then also last night, I played a bit of Zenless Zone Zero. Fuck yeah. Because I finally. Yeah, got into the closed beta. I only played maybe about an hour and a half of it. And oh my God, like this game, so Zenless Zone Zero is from the people behind Genshin Impact and also the folks behind Honkai Starwale, right? It's hollyoverse. And it is a super flashy game. It is, you know, anime style like the games that

they've done in the past, but this time around, it has more of this almost like persona-like modern, um, cyberpunk might be putting it too much. I mean, it's like a futurism type vibe. Like, when people have like kind of mech helmets and stuff, but it just got, it's got the coolest aesthetic. Yeah. So it has a really cool aesthetic that's more modern. That's more in line with what my interests are because, you know, like I think the fantasy of a Gensian impact and like the sci-fi of a honk eye, I'm like, okay, this isn't my vibe that I, would gravitate too naturally, but this is like Zenless Zone Zero has an aesthetic where every single frame of this game, I think, looks hella cool. Getting into the combat, combat is so fluid

and so fun. They have a few systems that I really like. You know, they, you are, you have like multiple characters that you can switch between as you're playing. And so, um, you press the LB or RB or R1 or R1. You can switch back and forth between characters and they have these cool assist moves that happen whenever you staggered enemy. to me, it's where you can get a combo hit. And they work so smoothly. They're so quick, and they're animated so well. They have, like, these parries that happen when you switch characters, too.

So if an enemy's about to hit you when you click the switch character button, it does, like, a cool parry where you switch out the character and they come and block it for you. A lot of cool stuff to kind of keep you in the flow. The animation of it is so fluid and so nice. This game is incredible to look at. The colors are so vibrant. And, yeah, they absolutely nailed animation in this game. Like if there's one thing that I would say, hey, like, you should check out this game for.

I think it would be to look at how smooth the combat is and how good the game looks. Get that logo on a shirt, you know what I mean? Yeah, all that damn logo. The UI design is incredible, too. Like, I want every frame of this game on a shirt or some kind of huge of merch. It reminds me of their version of kind of like realizing a more humanoid version of Splatoon. In terms of like style in-world shirt, you know, clothing brands and shit like that. It just oozes style.

Yeah. It's so damn good. I will say the one thing, the big thing I will say, that, like, has me a bit like, oh, that's interesting about this game is when you get into the flow of it, the game, it's not what you'd expect. Because you look at the gameplay and you see the combat and you see, like, the characters doing all this stuff. And you're like, oh, this looks cool.

This looks fun. It's a third-person action game. When you get into the flow of it, large portions of what I played had me in, like, this hacking minigame almost. where I am on this screen where like I have this, there's like a bunch of TVs placed next to each other and I am playing as a character that's navigating through like this maze of TVs and it almost feels a bit rogue-likeish where it is,

all right, choose your path. Once you get to a certain tile, that's then going to activate the combat and that's going to throw you back into the gameplay. But I was surprised by how much time you spent like navigating through like the tile-based TV thing. And it seems like that's a lot. large part of the game and I was very surprised just because I was like oh this is I am not in like that third person action scenario as much as I thought like I'm spending maybe a good

40% of the time navigating through like these tile mazes in a way that like I want to see how I want to see how that builds on itself now that progresses because I could see a a scenario where the like that ends up fun in like a roguelike way where it is oh you're going you had to choose between this direction or this direction so you can get this upgrade versus this upgrade or like try to choose between currency or like another thing. You know, I could see it painting out that way, but the way they present it is very different from what you would expect out of what you've seen

in the trailers and stuff. So that's the only thing where I'm like, okay, this is weird, but aside from that, like I'm having a pretty fun time with it. I think my other thing is I want to see what long-term combat looks like. One of my upgrading,

one of my unlocking over time. I can see maybe the combat getting old after a little bit, but it's hard to judge right now. But yeah, it plays smooth. It looks really cool. And yeah, I was pretty blown away by it

when I was playing it last night. Yeah, give me into that beta. What's up? I already said the email. Yeah, thank you. Dang.

He's getting things done. I'm sorry, Tim. I know we're going to get to the game of the year thing. I just have one sentence I just want to say about another game I've been playing. And then we'll move on immediately. I don't even need a reaction from you all. One sentence. Don't look at it.

I don't think. When I was naming the title for my YouTube Vod for Blasphemus 2, I almost named it no silk song, no problem. Damn. That's how I'm going to say. Damn. Like, that's how good this fucking game is. Oh, damn.

We can move on. God, it's so good. That is exciting. Well, we are going to move on because we have a lot to talk about. Many categories. We're going to go category by category boys and predict who we think is going to win. Just starting off, everybody. You can go to the Game Awards website right now.

You can see all the nominees. You can play along with us if you would like and do all of this. We're going to start at the bottom and work our way up through all of the different categories. There are a handful of categories. we're not going to predict because we're just woefully ill-equipped to even get into them. Those include e-sports event, e-sports coach,

e-sports team, e-sports athlete, e-sports game, and then content creator of the year. The only e-sports I care about that can't. I'll watch the league rest in peace. I hope Evo wins best e-sports event. I don't know what any of those are. But, yeah, Barry, if you could actually bring them up now, just starting off here, yeah, best e-sports event.

We have League of Legends World Championship, the blast.com TV, Paris Major. You can't convince me that's. It's the real thing that happened. Yeah, I've never heard of the last TV. You can't miss me. That's crazy. The International, as always, and then Valorant champions, 2023. Give it to Evo.

So we'll see. I don't know if Evo's actually ever won one of these, but I hope it does. Yeah. It's always league. Yeah. But I feel like every year for the past four years, I'm saying, like, I think Valorne might finally do it. And it's always league.

It's always league. But then moving on, there's e-sports coach. You can check them out here. We got. Who was the one? It wasn't one of the guys in this. He just tweeted, like, remove me. I didn't coach at all this year.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was that dude, the fourth dude, maybe. I thought it was Remy, they, yeah. Remi zero. Keep your eyes on Remy, everybody. And then we got an e-sports team as well. Anyone, y'all care about. Fanatic, very awesome at Valorant, and Evil Geniuses does a lot of different stuff in the fighting world

and a lot of other games in, like, Rocket League. Greg, you had to guess, JD Gaming. What game do they play since we're blocking the thing? Dota, who? Parrot, is that right? I mean, it's probably a league, though. Okay. And be Valerant.

Can we get confirmation? I don't know if we can. Cool. Then we got best e-sports athletes here. Andy, you a fan of any of these people? Oh, they played league, by the way. Bleakia, yeah, I mean, Faker the Goat, right? We're talking about like the Tom Brady.

He won another ring in League of Legends. So he's probably going to get it because it's one of those, like, this dude won three championships in, like, the first five years of his career, and it was like, wow, this guy's going to be the best all time, and then took a long time to win another. I think it was like a 10-year gap until he won just recently at World's event. So it's probably going to be Faker, mainly because he's probably the most popular on here. And he's, I think, like, the only e-sports dude I've ever seen in a commercial, like Samsung has him in their mobile gaming ads and stuff. And they're

like, that guy's Faker. That guy's a legend. You've seen that commercial? I hate that commercial. Three years from now it'll be canceled. Those have done something horrible. I'm just saying this is how it goes. My guy Paco, I-K-Hydra. We go back to high school. Oh, word. Yeah. Oh, I got a fun one for you.

I never met this guy in my life. We don't know anything about any of this world, this, any of this shit, right? So, like, this week, it was Thanksgiving, right? I don't know if you were aware of this, Tim. Oh, yeah. I had to go to Chicago, of course, go see the family. What a waste of fucking time and money, am I right? Windy City.

But I get there, right? And, you know, access to every video game in the planet. I know everything. Every kid I meet you just wants to play Fortnite. I'm like, fine. I'll play fucking Fortnite with you. You know what I mean? So I'm playing Fortnite with,

and my dad's girlfriend's grandkids. I'm playing Fortnite with Jack Poe's kid. You know what I mean? And at one point I'm playing with Jack. And he, he's like, I was using his PS5. I'm using a switch. He's like,

all right, let me take yours because you want to look at my skins. He's like, how many your friends are online? I'm like, I'm probably nobody. I don't, I don't,

you know what I mean? He clicks it open and it's Alex Van Aiken and then typical gamer. And he goes, you know typical gamer? And I'm like, I don't think so. I don't know who's typical gamer. He's like, he's this big, he's this big streamer.

And I watch him all the time. I'm like, he's like, is that him? I have no idea. I don't know this person or why they're on my friend's list, but they are on my friends list. And he opens up his phone. He's like, he's live right now. And he opens up and it's Fortnite. He's playing Fortnite.

And I'm like, I look at him like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know this guy. I don't know this guy. And he's like, so is it him? I'm like, I don't know, send him a request to play with us. And he's like, okay. And he did it. And we watch this stream when it just pops up of Game Over Gregi requested to play with you.

And I'm like, you know what? I've done a couple weird Fortnite streams where they put me in with a football player and somebody else. And lovely people. In typical game. You got Carmen Elektra or whatever. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, that must have been to what this was. This kid's eyes were as big as soft.

It was blown away that I knew typical games. That's awesome. So funny. Moving on to the content creator of the year. Oh, you're sorry. Actually, yeah, you're right. Best e-sports game. here. Counterstrike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, PubG Mobile, and Valorant, Andy.

And it's going to be Liger Valerant, I think. Pubstitch Mobile. That's interesting. Counterstrike 2, kind of having its big re-release, but being marred by a lot of technical issues where, like, hit registration just wasn't happening. And player collision when they looked into it, they're like, why is this not a headshot? It's like, oh, because the character's collision, the head is like looking back and like, I'm not shooting that.

It was plagued by a lot of those issues right at the launch. I think they fixed a lot of those issues, though. And I think Counterstrike maybe has a decent chance because of its big glow-up, but I'd say League or Valerant, most likely. So, yeah, the final one we will not be predicting here is the content creator of the year. We have Iron Mouse, people make games, quackety, spreen. That's a great name, quackety. And, sorry for PK.

Quackety is one of Carl's boys. Yeah, I only know quackety because of Carls. Yeah, and then people make games awesome to see them here. Like this, I feel like that's kind of like the, the standout here. And one of these things is not like the other. But people make games incredible YouTube channel that like really focuses on like shit that matters in the games industry. So cool to see. I don't think they'll win, but it'd be fun to see.

Remember what Ival got in last year? No, yeah. Niobel from last year. Oh, right. That's wild. Quaggy also does his cool shit where he does, like he has a Minecraft kind of public realm or like private. rum, whatever the hell, but has live translation from English to Spanish

in case anybody doesn't speak English or in case people, like he's very I think Spanish is his first language. It's just really impressive because I just thought he was another Fortnite or a Minecraft kid that I'd never seen and suddenly he's on all these Spanish publications just extremely fluent in Spanish and

also speaks English incredibly well and he's just like kind of this well-traveled kid and he seems really cool. So I'm going to be rooting for him. Went to People Make Games YouTube channel. First thing that pops up is an image of Tumor Hussein. Yeah. Yeah.

He just did a video with that, which was really great. All right, let's get into it. The ones we're actually going to predict here. So this is prediction. Not what we think we want how we would vote. Because I don't want this shit some of these kids give me sometimes, Andy. These fucking punk-ass bitches watching. How much closer can I guess?

It wasn't very close. If I got to see Madeline Stanley hit me. up on Twitter one more time about one of my fucking predictions. I'll tell you they won't like what's going to happen. Okay. Most anticipated game. You get on here, you kiss me. God damn. I miss you.

What's the fucking Joe name of that bad? I want to kiss you. All right, Joe. What do you think of the game? Got a 5-707 rebirth. Hades 2. Like a Dragon Infinite Wellth. Star Wars Outlaws or Tekken 8. I think rebirth wins

it because of the rabid fan base. I also agree. I concur. Cool. Well, I agree. It is unanimous. Are we really going to get outlaws next year? I hope so. I think so. We're getting Avatar this year. Are we?

We are, right? December? It's next week. Somehow the blue people have returned. But yeah, do you think we get outlaws? I hope so I don't really have a reason not to It's not like you know I'm expecting massive to screw it up or anything It's just like

That was we saw that one great demo That one great presentation of it And then as you'd expect It's been quiet So it's just one of those like oh okay I will say it's probably the only Property that Ubisoft has right now That I have the most confidence in

And I feel like they do as well I just feel like That's the one that Even they think that like No this is different. We know what our reputation has been as of late with a lot of the stuff we've been putting out, but this is unlike other shit we've done. Like I, I just, it, it oozes confidence in what they're trying to get across to the gamer. Yeah. And it just, yeah, it looks awesome.

I think it'll hit at the, at the real least at the next fiscal year. Like, if, if it misses out on next fall, I have to imagine by spring 2025. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think it comes out. Just because I think the other That was 2025 there. The other big thing, we talked about this earlier that Ubisoft has a pretty consistent slate for the next few months between Avatar, Prince of Persia, and then Skoll and Bones. And like, you know, weird varying qualities in terms of like our excitement for those games, but they are rounding out this fiscal year, right? Like this feels like the, all right, these games have to come out.

And we don't really know much about what's happening in fiscal 24 to 25. And so, yeah, I imagine that Star Wars is probably a big part of that. And also the next Assassin's Creed game, I think, would be a big part of that. But I'd be surprised they put both those out in the fall. That's the one thing that I'm curious about is how do you frame those things? So the Assassin's Creed is a fall game. That's the Japan one, right? Yeah, Assassin's Creed red.

So if that comes out in November, then you put out Star Wars in December or do you wait until the spring to put it out? Excellent questions. Moving on to the next one, Best Adaptation. We got Castlevania Nocturn Grand Turismo, the Last of Us, Super Mario Brothers, movie and Twisted Metal. I love a good nocturnal omission, but let me tell you, Andy, it's going to be Joel and Ellie.

It's going to be Last of Us, I think, for sure. But I'm so stoked that this is a category and that the category is this good overall. Castlevania freaking kicks ass. Grand Turismo was way better than it had any right to be. Good for them. PlayStation have been through on the board. It's pretty good.

Would there, if there were six nominees, What would the 6 be? Was there another adaptation? I mean, off the top of my head, I can't think of any that, like, would fit the timing of... Right.

Was there... I feel like every year there's a Resident Evil. Was there Resident Evil TV show this year? There's a Resident Evil CG movie that came out. Oh, what about the Silent Hill thing? Not a game. Ascension? The Interactive series.

It's an interactive series. Interactive series. Yeah? Yeah. Streaming series. Or that, or, like, the Walking Dead Facebook thing. I'm just naming things. Right.

But, like, I feel like, if you were, if you're stretching, then, you'd start to get into some of those. Yeah. Sonic Prime. Oh, yeah. Sonic Prime. It was great.

Yeah. But that's, and the Cuphead show was not this year. Well, maybe it would count for this year, though, because it was like December. I think it was another season this year.

There was. Yeah. So yeah, Cuphead show would be actually great for those. Either way, like I think these are all like great nominees and, like, Castlevania freaking kicks ass and the new devilma

cry they put out a teaser for it. Like last week, oh my God, it looks incredible. so good for them. And also let it be known that Twisted Metal is Game Award nominated baby.

We're fucking out here. Season 2 win. I will say it on my face. To Andy's question, right? Like I think this also encompasses things like board games and like adaptations in that way out think. We get plenty of those in a year of like video games turned into board game type shit and so.

Remember if indie can be anything, then you could have put a goodbye volcano high here and it would attract, you know, whatever. That's also very true. Yeah. But it's going to be last. So we all agree, Last of Us? Yes.

So far we're being fucking boring. I'm going to need some spice, Andy. I mean, it's pretty, I mean, yeah, I know. For sure. Best multiplayer game. We got Balders Gate 3, Diablo 4, party animals, Street Fighter 6, or Super Mario Brothers Wonder. There's an obvious one here.

And it's not the one that should win. Because I don't, I think Balders Gate is probably going to win. I don't think it should. even though it meets all the criteria perfectly. And it should be here because of how people experience the game. But I think it's going to hit and destroy in all the other categories. So I'd rather give this to somebody else that is more of a multiplayer game. And I would give it to the surprise of the year, party animals.

Really? Had a blast of it. Yeah. Your vote. Your prediction? Oh, that's my vote. I don't know about that's my prediction. my vote in prediction is going to be street fighter six

I'm gonna I'm gonna predict that it's gonna be street fighter six as well I'm going with bus gotta be ballers gate three that's what I'm saying that's my thing is if you want to be right I mean that's my thing is I'm going balder's gate three like I just feel

yeah there's not gonna be enough people it's gonna clean up dude top mile street fighter six that way thinking about it as multiplayer even though it is yeah so street fighter six will not win because fighting games are too niche

for it to, I think, make the impact here. Party animals will not win, even though it was a game. I just think it broke through it. It wasn't Fall Guys. Balders Gate will not win because it's going to clean up across the board. Yes, I just don't think as many people played that multiplayer as you could have. I think my personal vote would be Doblo 4. Shocking, no one's thing is how Jen and I play it all the time.

I do think it has a shot here, but I'm going to say my prediction is Super Mario Brothers, which I know does fly in the face of a lot of the criticisms that game has received in terms of how the crown works and I'm playing my kid and then suddenly the kids in control and they don't know what they're doing and blah blah. Like kids are stupid, you know?

I still think people are going to look at that and go, oh, it's a four player drop in, drop out, whatever, Mario game, like more people played that and played it multiplayer than maybe did a specific way of Diablo where I think Diablo is impressive both in terms of joining people online, the open area world nature of it of seeing other people in the wild, playing split screen co-op

or playing co-op like Jen and I do. I also do think that even though Street Fighter 6 is so niche. It's like the one time that this I guess there's a fighting game. Can I change my vote? Yeah. I need to not be cute.

I think I'm being cute. It's Baldur's Gay 3. Because Ballard's Gay 3 is going to clean up everything. I think that's how it's going to go. I'm going to stick with Street Fire 3. I will say for Ballard's Great 3, like I would say know more people, at least personally, who played most player than single player for Baldur's Gay 3.

Like when I think of my circle of friends, usually as people playing with their partners or playing with their group of friends and doing it like a D&D campaign. talks to yami thinks he knows everything yeah this one is one that i don't have any like firm stance on like i think this year doesn't have a standout multiplayer game for that purpose um but yeah i'm going ballers k3 on that yeah in the way that overwatch one game of the year in 2016 there wasn't like that big title that there wasn't like the war zone of 2020 sort of thing fortnight moving on to best sports slash racing game ea sports fc 24 F-123,

Forza Motorsport, Hot Wheels Unleashed to the crew motor fest. I don't know. Remember when we were really hyped for the crew, bless? I don't know one person that played the crew motor fest. Yeah, we didn't play it, but we were hyped for it. Yeah, we're like, oh, let's go to Hawaii. Yeah, we're like, Hawaii is like, it's gonna be like Forza Horizon.

And then it came out around Liza P in a bunch of other games. My prediction is forts of motorsport. Um, that's probably the best, the smartest call. Um, I do think that EA Sports FC has a decent chance only because it doesn't feel like that game got hit by any massive, like, all these things are broken about it or what's other, like, there was never like a whole lot of negative press over one of the biggest games on the planet. and that's why I think it's EA Sports FC. But do you think internally at the voting organizations, there's enough people carrying water for it, you know? I always use that as my reasoning for a lot of stuff,

and I'm usually wrong about it. We're overthinking and trying to get in it. Yeah, I'm going for it. Even though for some reason, I feel it in my tum-tum, Hot Wheels on Leash 2. It's going to have people rocking for it. But I'm going for it. I mean, I think that just the Xbox-ness of it all is going to,

overtake anything else. I know two people that played Hot Wheels, Barrett and Courtney. Wait, no, that's one person. That's crazy. I enjoyed my time with it. Put me down for FC24, Tim. Damn, if you're taking notes,

I think you are. I am. If I'm wrong, don't blame me. All right. You made your better. What are you saying, Andy? FC. Yeah, EA Sports FC.

No, it's not even that. It's just, I think the argument that we didn't hear like the usual blowback shit on it. And I'd actually seem like, oh, they lost the FIFA license, but didn't fuck this up. I think it goes a long way.

Next up we have best sim slash strategy. Advanced Wars 1-2 reboot camp, City Skylines 2, Company of Heroes 3, Fire Emblem Engage, or Pickman 4. Which one's Fire Emblem Engage? What platform is that on? Switch.

Oh, okay. That came out on like January. Yeah, I'm going Pickman 4. I'm also going Pickman 4. Honestly, yeah, Pickman 4. I think this is the chance for this one to shine. This is the game that, you know, in a year of 10 out of 10s,

didn't get the love it deserved. I think because it had such stiff competition, but everyone I know who's played it in touch there loves it. And I've seen enough for my, oh, I would have enjoyed that, but I don't have time for it. Yeah, I also think that just it's a bit ahead above any of the rest of these games in comparison to their, their franchises or what I hear about them. City Skylines kind of seems like even the people I know that like City Skylines, which I think is just great. City's Island is never clear for you. I'm just in City Kid.

Okay, okay. Okay, maybe that's always, I've tried to get into cities every time and I just can't. Yeah. And Fire Enblem, it engages really, really, really good. I just think it didn't capture the magic of the more recent, like high quality. Fire Emblem games, like Awakening or Three Houses. Three houses. So I feel like it's a little lesser than whereas Pickman 4 seems to have nailed it. So yeah. There are enough people that are mad

about Pickman 4 not getting nominated for Game of the Year where I'm like this is, I think this is this chance to get something. Yeah, I'm with you all. I think this is it's, this is its chance to win something and it will, I think it's going to just clean everybody's clock. Yeah. I don't know why you said clock like. Clock. I really wanted to pronounce the elves in there. The Ant, Scott. Best family game.

I thought it's the best family. Well, it is just the best family. Which like, that's a different question. What if it was all these games and then me, Jen and Ben? They're Kardashian. We have Disney Illusion Island, party animals, Pickman 4, Sonic Superstars, or Super Mario Brothers Wonder. Super Mario Brothers Wonder.

I think it's easily, my prediction, is Super Mario Brothers Wonder. But I want to give the biggest shout at Disney Illusion Island because I think it's the actual answer for the best family game. is this year. The multiplayer in it is amazing. It's the most accessible Metroidvania. Like this game is going to turn young kids into Metroidvania enjoyers in the future. And I feel like that's all wrapped in amazing Disney qualities. It's a very special game. And I think that it is very, very, very family focused. But yeah, it's Mario Wonder. Is there any argument for party animals? Because I feel like I live under a rock.

Because I don't think I've even seen gameplay of party animals. And it's the second time we've seen a pop up in the nomination. here at the studio. Party Animals is so, so great, and I think it would have hit so much harder had it not gone through a long waiting time, a long gestation time, because party animals, open alpha or whatever the fucking pre-beta, whatever they want to call them, came out like two years ago, maybe three years ago, was available for a week or so, and we all loved it. This is during the pandemic, and then it just went away, and it was gone. forever and they were like obviously developing and working hard on it but it was just a long time

to when it finally came out i think it just didn't quite have the buzz there it's legitimately a way more fun version of gang beasts it is i enjoy it more than fall guys i think it's like so well made and it looks so damn good and all the animals are adorable as hell to look at and to collect little things for little costumes it's a really damn fun game i just wish that uh I just don't know if the momentum was there, especially in the pack 2023. Yeah. I'm going to go with Mario Wonder for my prediction.

Wow, doing Sonic like that. Andy? I am also going to go with Mario Wonder. I love Sonic. I love Sonic superstars, specifically a lot. No way. Yeah, no way. Did you ever finish it?

I didn't finish it. I'm so, so close. I'm slow playing it, but I'm like maybe like four-fits through it. Yeah. Wait, so that co-ups up didn't work too great? Surprise. surprise. Who the fuck would have thought?

Best fighting game. God of Rock. I don't even know what that is. Cool. I mean, I saw an email press release, Reddit, and I was like, that's a cool idea. I think it's like a rhythm fighting game. Ooh.

Yeah. God of Rock. Mortal Kombat 1. Nickelodeon All-Star. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2. Pocket bravery or Street Fighter 6. And somehow, once again, seafood. C-Boh.

We should all vote before blessing those. It's Street Fighter 6. Yeah, it's Street Fighter 6, yeah. I think it's Street Fighter 6 as well. You don't want to go Mortal Kombat 1? That's all the gears turning. Moro Kombat Run 1 was great, right? I was close.

I know a lot of people love Mortal Kombat 1. I just, like, I think Mortal Kombat 1 may have surpassed Street Fighter 6 if the stories were flipped. If the prior Mortal Kombat game was a bit more troubled in its development, just like Street Fighter 5 had a lot, time to finally get right, where it took like, what, three, four years for Street Fighter Five to

finally get to a place where everybody was unanimously happy with it. And Street Fighter Six felt like this is their redemption, and they nailed it. The God of Rock has gathered the universe's greatest musicians to class for musical supremacy, battled to the beat by hitting notes in rhythm and unleash harmonic attacks against opponents in this competitive rhythm-finding game hybrid. That sounds like that really. Why did you go to harmonica? Harmonicus X. Harmonics. Yeah, harmonic. He said harmonic attack.

And so then I did a harmonics. Harmonic. Like, this looks fucking sick as hell. Holy shit. Yeah. I'm surprised you can keep up with that one. Flash and shit. This is dope.

But yeah, this is what I'll say. Nickelodeon All-Star brawl, surprising, right? 9 out of 10 from IGN. When I got my hands on it, I think, for me, it elevated is one of the most, not street fighters. Loki. Loki gave, they,

gave loki a five out of ten bro so that's the thing is i feel like mortal combat one was awesome but i do feel like street fighter six is like the critically the thing and like they brought it and i think the the people voting are going to push for that yeah even if more people i think enjoyed mortal combat one just a sheer numbers yeah i don't think it's a zero percent chance that mortal combat wins like i would i would say maybe 70 30 on the side of street fighter like mortal combat one is a very strong moral combat game. But I think for me it's the thing where it's continuing the trend of the last, what, three Mortal Kombat games, right? It's another one of those where Street Fighter 6 feels like return to form. I think the fighting game audience and like the critics out there have more of a

respect for Street Fighter. And like, you know, I'm somebody who I'm typically more of a Mortal Kombat person, but even playing this street fighter, I'm like, no, this is the one. Like this thing is, it is such a great playing game. And like I think I see on the critical side, a few more complaints on the Mortal Kombat side as opposed to the Street Fighter side. Like the critiques I see for Street Fighter is like, all right, the single player mode wasn't as fantastic as I thought. But on the Mortal Kombat, I feel like a lot of people

have a lot to say about like how it feels to play and the animation of it and it feeling stiff and all these things. Like I think there are a bit more things you can ding on the Mortal Kombat side as opposed to Tree Fighter 6, which feels like on every level it's bringing it. Like, you know, new systems, the drive impact stuff's great. The...

What's got an new man, though? Mortal Kombat does have Alman and they look great But yeah I mean Street High House Camie though You know what I mean And then like

You have like the casual controls And all these things So yeah Street Fighter 6 is It's just the one this year Oh let me just say For our like game Awards graphics

I've been like you know Gathering up a bunch of stuff For the wall Not game awards Game of the Year There may or may not just be that Photo Cammy

And you know what photo I'm talking about Just take it up the wall Next up We have a word from our sponsors. Bam. We do that. We're back to talk about best RPG. Boom.

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Yeah, I know. I was going to go for it. And then Andy was like almost going a direction that went too far. That's why I went to the jib initially. I was like, oh, he was about to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was a family photo of them all. It was very, very whole.

Very great. Go home to be a family man. Best RPG. We have Balders Gate 3. Final Fantasy 16. Liza P. C of Stars and Starfield. It's Balders Gate 3. Yeah, it's Baldur's Gate 3.

Slam dunk. That sucks, bro. Like half of these aren't even RPGs. That's actually a joke. Final Fantasy 16 is I think the only one that's arguable. Yeah. So across the board, Ball's Gate 3? Yeah.

And so far me and bless have the, exact same prediction. Wait, do we really? Exactly. You get spicy, Tim. I'm trying to spice it. I want to spice it up, all right. Jesus.

Next up, we got action adventure. Poor Liza P. bro. Poor Starfield. I mean, yeah, poor Starfield. You know what? I mean, poor C of stars as well. You have Starfield.

Wow. Whoa. Alan Wake 2, Marvel Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. I'm going to predict Tears of the Kingdom because this might be the only award that it might win.

Blessing. It hurts my heart. Zelda. It's insane, dude. Look, I'm going to speak up on behalf of the Tears of the Kingdom. If Tears of the Kingdom came out last month, it be a runaway with all of these goddamn awards. Trust me on that, dude. Believe it, Internet.

Madeline Stanley. No other game other than Eldon Rade. in the last couple years has taken social media in such a way with everybody's creations, all the memeable moments, the amazement that this game can function on this hardware. And how, oh, they're just remaking Hyrule. Oh, they kind of remix it, but they added an underground and an overground. How gigantic is this goddamn world? And they're hitting with all these amazing story moments that are bringing you to tears and the kingdoms.

In multiple moments, it's like, again, Again, dude, a lot of it is recency, man. Like, now we look back at tears and go, yeah, but it's just like more breath of the wild. Like, that's kind of the general sentiment around it. And that bums me out because it is not more breath of the wild. And that's not what you all thought when that shit came out. That shit blew your goddamn brains apart. Yeah, I usually don't even believe in the recency bias thing.

I think this might be the one scenario where I'm like, oh, yeah, the recency bias is taking the thing. Because, like, yeah, I've flashed back to what month was it, like May, like May going into June and how Zelda Tears the Kingdom dominated everything. Like all the conversation. It was people sharing there, all the stuff that they put together. It was people being amazed by the fact that, oh, I can make a flying contraption. Oh, I can make a hover bike and people sharing all people making speed racers, people making, or no, pod racers, people making like tanks and that, people making functioning helicopters, like using the physics in the game to actually create helicopters that spin their propellers and actually work in that way. That is an insane video game. And I think, yeah, like I'm, I'm to the place

where, you know, this is not a difficult conversation for me because Breathful Wild is my favorite game all time. I think Here's the Kingdom one of the best games of all time. Like I'll probably put there in the top five. But yeah, like I think the fact that you had a Balders Gate three come through and then also like plenty of fantastic games come through this fall come through and have like so many conversations that have kind of like bumped the tiers of the kingdom conversation back in the order has kind of put in this weird place where yeah, we've kind of forgotten about it a bit. And we act like it's just another sequel. And that's what we really must be on. Because we, we, we, we, we were having our brains blown apart every other 20 minutes playing this game. The amount of times I would check the clock on it's fucking two 30 in the

morning. How, bro? How? It happened again. It was nonstop, dude. And that's what it really wants me out. That it's probably still my personal game of the year. Um, yeah. So action adventure. We have blessed down for Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. Where are the rest of us going to vote? I'm going to say Spider-Man 2. Me too. I'm with Spider-Man 2 on this one. Gregi. It's between Spidey and Tears.

I'm going to say Tears of the Kingdom. We're getting spicy, y'all. This is good. It's going to be Resigno 4. Like, for sure. Next time we have best action game. What do you boy? Armored Corps 6 fires of Rubicon.

Dead Island 2. Finally getting the Jetheads. Y'all been playing that. House DLC? I'm going to point at House DLC. Ghost Runner 2, High-Fi Rush and Remnant 2. Armored Core all fucking day.

That is the vote for me or the prediction for me as well. I was going to say, do you think, hi-fi. I like these when you do this because it's like, guess who? And so I immediately knocked down Dead Island, Ghost Runner and Remnant 2.

It's just High-Fi Rush and Armored Corps. Man, you know what? I kind of even forgot a high-fire rushes on here until you just said it. I know Tim said it three minutes prior. You listen to me. But I do listen to Greg. but it could that I mean this is the one category for high-fi rush right there's another one I think there's a few others or a sound design that okay right and uh art style or something like that got you

got yeah I'm going armored core on this one yeah personally like arm record as well personally it is a bit more of a battle between high fire rush and hour core for me like I both those games are such different games but they do what they're going for so well I armored core six is the easy vote because I think from software just has this built up band base in the audience but then also on the critic side, right? Like, yeah. In Armored Corps 6 is also just such a great game.

How do they bring back this dormant franchise has been gone forever and it is amazing. But yeah, high-fi rush is also like incredible, you know, like I think the fact that they were able to make a third person action game that is so stylized,

right, almost invokes like a Spider-Verse type like, oh yeah, we're doing really cool things with how the art style looks and how the animations look and the frame rate of everything and how everything moves to the beat that takes a lot of effort

and they're able to nail all that stuff also making the combat fun and approachable for people even if you aren't somebody with a lot of rhythm right you can still pick up the game and kind of feel the music and still get away with it

and so think about how good the sequel's gonna be it's gonna be incredible that's where I'm like I feel like it's going to be like Ory and the Will Lewis but what was the first one

the Ori and the Blind Forest yeah the jump from that to that to that it's like I feel like we're going to get that for High Fire Rush and it's going to be awesome Remnant to another incredible game though more people

need to play that. That is such a damn good third-person shooter mixed with really, really tough boss fights and Dark Souls mechanics and dodging through attacks and you have your invincibility frames. Ghostrunner 2, kind of let down by. I think it started off insanely strong and I think

it was a victim of a larger scope where they went for something completely different and tried to be a bit more open-worldy when it's like I just kind of wanted to go around to next level to next level to next level.

It's one reason why neon wide. I'm like, okay, let me fast forward. I just want to get back to the speed running stuff. That's how I felt about Ghost Runner 2. And even then, there's still moments there near the end game stuff that I'm not 100% digging, but it throws a mechanic at you. You're like, oh, this is so smart.

Like, what a stack to you, dude. Even like some of the weakest games are still, and I say weakest in like extremely hard quotes. Yeah. Ghostrunner 2 is still a fantastic game. Just did not have the same fun experience. is A with part one. Next time we have best VR slash AR game.

Grand Turismo 7, Horizon Call the Mountain, humanity, Reson Evil Village 4 mode, and synapse. Humanity, I feel like that's what gets me my Puzzle Poppy title back. I forgot about that game. That game is great. And in VR, that game is pretty cool. I would you like to counter Andy?

Puzzle Poppy. Yeah, what else do you play this puzzle game? I also played the little You'll Finder game too. Cuckoon? I played Coon as well. Did you play Trend in Dreams? Because I played that, too. Fuck, no, no.

This is hard because I feel like predicting this. On one side you have Grand Tourism 07 that everybody that played it is like, oh my God, this is great. It's great. And then on the other hand, you have the tall woman from Resident Evil 7. How can anybody drive in VR to unbelievable? Then there's Horizon Collin Mountain. You tried it? That is like a AAA.

It's incredible. Yeah, but that, no, it was a AAA. I would say miss, but I don't mean like a five out of 10. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just wasn't. It didn't go. Holy shit, this justifies PlayStation VR too. if anything people

that's the, I think that's the most that's the forgettable one on here, right? Yeah. I honestly think this category is just which one got talked about the most. Yeah. And with that, I mean, like, despite what you just said, Greg, I still kind of feel like Horizon might be it. I think it's going to be grand tourism. Put me down for Grand Tourismo.

Not enough people play humanity. Did you look in everybody's houses? Did you find it? How many people have the R? Yeah, I'm going Horizon on this one. Yeah, it's not if it's horizon, that means we gotta like have a meeting like, yo, all right. Are we like, are we trying with these votes? I think for me it is between grain tourism and Resident Evil. Resident Evil because like Resident Evil has the popularity, right? I think you go back and Resident Evil, the seven, did seven have VR? Yeah, because that was the whole thing. Yeah. So like, I think because you have a legacy already there with the Resident Evil VR games, people are already like kind of behind it. that sense. And yeah, like, I think I remember I am you're right. I'm closer to our E's there. There's a level of hype that people have when you talk about

Resident Evil and VR, you know, like even when us when we're doing critiques of PlayStation VR 2 on our shows, I get so many replies that are like, oh, but what about Resident Evil? What about Resident Evil for? What about it? Like, people are excited when it comes to the Resident Evil VR stuff. For me, the best experience I had in VR is Grand Turismo. And I think Grand Turismo is the strongest, like, especially when you have it all in the right setting, when you have the racing wheel, when you have the setup, when you have the VR in,

one of the coolest experiences you can have in a video game. So like my vote and my prediction is probably going to go to Grand Tourismo, but I think Resident Evil is a big contend. I think Grand Tourismo is, I'm still sticking with my prediction, right? And I think it's also,

it's the shortest experience. Put it on, do a race, a lap, whatever in the car, look around the car and you understand that it's great. Whereas I think Resident Evil, people, yeah, there was the VR community that was hype for it or whatever,

but I didn't, even once it came out, I did not hear people, like, oh man, this is the way to go. This way I played. Resident Evil 7 VR was great because it was there at launch. So I played the first half of the game that way. And like it was a big part of it.

You were into it that way, I think. You know, synapse, if we're going to back up there. Synapse I played and it just didn't like kick for me. It wasn't, I didn't think like this amazing experience. Humanity, again, I don't think enough people played Horizon. I think it was a miss. So I think it's between Grants, Risman, and I think it'll be Grant Turismo.

Over here, a little boy named Barrett says, but I hear Medium is a better game. Where's the Medium VR? The Medium. did what it needed to out the gate. Resident Evil stumbled,

shit its pants threw up on itself and then they had to put VR out and try to make people feel happy. What a twist. What a narrative spin right there. This guy's a fucking expert.

When did Rex is God he's so right? When did Resident Evil VR come out? Village VR come out. It was one of those weird ones where it came out like after launch. Quietly. Because like I want to go, I want to go for Grand Trivenple

because it was at PSVR 2 at launch. And so a lot of people who are critics probably played it because of that. I'm going to stick with Grand Tourism. But VR, but Village was available in a lot more places than Joe. True. Yeah. But I think I don't know. When I think of VR this year, I think VR PSVR 2

was the device to use. And so the date that I'm seeing is February 22nd, 2023. Oh, that's really close to the launch of it. You know what? I'm going to be different. I'm going to be spicy. Put me down for Reson Evil. VR. Resonue Village. Yeah, that's that's getting my vote because of

the amount of hard like because even if you have a quest you could still plug that shit into a PC and play more you know graphically strenuous games like Resident Evil VR

it isn't just like relegated to whatever games play on the quest so I think there's just a lot more hardware out there to play RE than there was you are saying that Village VR is actually just on PSVR. Oh shit in my face hmm damn

we're lost in a top This is a really tough one actually. Golf plus. We have Andy and Bless is Resident Evil Village. Greg Grand Tourism 7, me is Horizon. Locking it in. Yes. And I agree if there is if it's Horizon we're having a meeting.

Yeah. We're calling the heads of all these people. If you voted for Dead Island too for action and you voted for fucking Horizon call them out. Dead heads. I would love to see you like if Jeff would share just the numbers and see how many votes Dead Island too. Yeah. Oh my God. Next up we have Best Mobile game.

Final Fantasy 7 evervices Hello Kitty Island Adventure Honkai Star Rail, Monster Hunter Now, and Tara Mill. Honkai Star Rail, lock it in for me. Me too. Whatever blessings is. Yeah, this is a weird one where I only

played Monster Hunter now. So I don't know enough. So, but I mean, I'll predict I'll say Honkai, sure. Yeah, I don't think that the others really... But it also did incredibly well outside of just... It's a great console game. stuff. Like everybody, everybody, I heard about a lot of people talking about Hong Kai Starroll, not just

from the cell phone. Yeah. Like, oh, it's a good mobile game. It's like, no, it's just a really damn good turn-based game. I heard enough people be like, yo, best RPG, like put it in that category. Yeah. Then we got best debut indie. Best debut indie game. This is a spicy one. Cocoon. You're going to get spicy because you got some great fucking games here. You got cocoon. You got Dredge. You got Pizza Tower. You got Venba. And you got Vue. finder. It's so tough because in our circle

nobody talks about a pizza tower. Yes. In a bunch of other circles everybody only talks about pizza tower, man. And... In those other circles do they talk about national strategies, law? Oh. You're saying maybe we bring something special at the table. Oh, got you. Okay.

So I can't give my brain pizza tower space. I see. I see. When I'm worried about what the fucking Bush administration was doing. Right. Exactly. We needed a reason to go there to look for the How much did they know? Cacoon is going to be my vote here

but I would not be surprised at Biza Tower ends up winning it. And I think Dredge suffers the happened way too early in the year. I want Venba with all my heart. I am going to vote Cacoon.

I'm also going to predict Cacoon. I am as well and I just want to say view fighter to me is one of my biggest disappointments of the year but I don't think it was bad I just went like seeing demos The demos were so amazing So mind blowing to me that like the final product

Like seeing it all the way through I was like man this was It was so great And it wasn't amazing And I think that that was the thing to me That takes it back But I want to give a shout to it Because like some of this stuff there

Like I would recommend everybody give this 1,000% It is wild This is one of the view find is one of those that I put in like a best mechanic of 2023, sort of like best game development innovation, something I've never seen before happening in game development happened in that game,

and that shit blew my brain apart. Next up, we have. Best independent game, everybody. Cacoon. Dave the diver. Dredge. Sea of Stars. Viewfinder.

Oh. I think it goes to Cacoon. I can currently I concurred to be Kikoon again I'm going to see of stars man yeah I'm torn between those two

there are a lot of Barrett's out there like the people that played C of Stars they fuck with that game heavy yeah because it's a fucking great game great story

so hashtag Garl is the boy I do like Garal a lot his face gets great he lost an eye I didn't want to spoil dude thinks he's man you're so right about

viewfinder it really bums me out it just didn't go as far as it should have. It was still good. Yeah. But like, I guess it was fine. It was I can I like, like, viewfinder had such a cool. I think you're right in terms like the gameplay innovation like the mechanic is really cool. But put that as a category in the, in the, I should actually, but in like the list of that type of puzzle games. There are like eight puzzle games I can put before viewfinder for me. Like I'm I guess at Talas principle. I wonder if that came out on time. But like Talas principle too,

I feel like is a better one of these than viewfinder. Viewfinder to me is like if portal one ended and like instead of Glados like trying to kill you and like you do the last third of that game it's like oh you did all the the puzzles good job end game you know like I just needed that like yeah totally all right so correct me if I'm right or wrong here we have Andy and Greg down for cocoon me and blessed out for Sea of Stars correct I think the reasoning here um I think Cochookoons an easier sell for more people to play to then get behind. Or Cia Stars, I think this is a longer experience. And obviously, a different kind of pace game.

Yeah, it's tough. I do think it's going to be one of those two. But something about Cia Stars, I see a lot of fervor around it. And Cacoon, I did as well. Coon's the type of game where everyone that plays it ends up fucking loving it that I see, like, it wasn't like one weekend of people playing. It was like, since it's come out every couple days, I see someone new talking about it.

Where Sea of Star seems to be like people banging the drum. Yeah, my, my vote, like, if I was voting personally, my vote would be cocoon for sure. Because that is like, that does tipping back to playing an inside or playing like a limbo, right? Like, I think the puzzle, like, expertise, like the puzzle design of the game is that good. It kind of misses out for me on like the, like, the message of an inside. Like inside I put down and I was like, damn, dude, that's fucking crazy. Whereas cocoon, I finished. I was like, oh, damn, it's crazy.

But, like, it doesn't need that, right? Like, that's not what it's trying to be. and I think what it sets out to do, it does perfectly. See you stars, though, I think people just have more of a connection when there is a narrative, when there is characters, when there is like a soundtrack that sticks with you. Like, there are more of those elements. And I'm almost on the flip side of Greg in that way, where I think like JRP's speak more to people than a puzzle game, right?

And like, I'm in the puzzle category. I love a puzzle more than even a... You used to be puzzle poppy. But knowing how people take video games and like knowing what people write or die for. I feel like Cio Stars is more of a ride or die type of game than a Cacoon. Here's what I think where it gets interesting and I'd love to hear your take on this. I think Cacoon has had more of a messenger level of hype than Cia Stars did. Csars, I think came out and hit with its audience for sure.

But I think Cacoon was the one that got the 10 out of 10 for my GN and was like, since SGF, I feel like people won't shut up about this thing. And it came out and delivered on it. It's interesting you say that because I feel like Sea of Stars is on a different level of marketing than Messenger. Like I think it's them glowing up a bit. I'm just like the way that the game was talked about and presented and like how much I'm hearing about it like without actively seeking it out.

I agree with that. Was like a cocoon. You sit across the street. Yeah. Yeah. And that's not even. Yeah. That is a joke to a degree.

But it isn't also that bear is like very much a cheerleader for this game as you should be. He loves it. And it's great. And I just don't see that. I feel like when I look up. I see more people mad that like fucking octopaths in all over this thing. And as somebody who played a lot of octopath. I see that a lot of,

I love octop. Barrett's gonna, or Greg's gonna look in his like muted words. He's like, like, see of, ah, fuck.

For three different reasons. I muted the word C of and size. Next up, we have best community supports. This goes, Balders Gate 3, cyberpunk 2077, Destiny 2,

Final Fantasy 14, no man's sky. Biggest snub, which people were totally right about, 343, fix in Hala. I think it happened a little too late, but the season five stuff,

the Halo 3 community, uh, sort of gigantic patch where they brought in forge mode. Like it legitimately fixed a lot of the issues people had. And I was like, damn, that kind of should have been here.

Y'all are right. No, y'all are right to kind of like shit on a lot of these nominations. Um, because a lot of them don't deserve to be here. Uh, I think, you know,

a lot of friends that we know that may have gotten laid off from Bungy, kind of like, oh, community support? Oh, really. Like, yeah, I used to I used to be in the community. But does that detract from the work that they did do this year before? Yeah, because they weren't even killing it with Destiny 2.

Like, they weren't killing it with the, I'm blanking on the name of that expansion, the strand. Lightfall. Huh? Lightfall. Yeah, like, they, they were already kind of, that's why when I came out in glowing support of Lightfall and just getting back into Destiny as a concept and having this shared world shooter and being back in there world. A lot of people were like,

oof, man, like, the hardcores are not really super into this right now. And a lot of it is just like ebbs and flows and sometimes a game comes out early in the year and then has time enough to then piss enough of a fan base off that that's what gets remembered or whatever. But

I think my vote would go for cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk 2077, yes, 100%. I think they've had such a redemption and people want to honor them for that. I think they put that here. Or is that ongoing game and this is Balders Gate 3? Ballard's Gate been very good about being transparent online and being very good about

patches are coming and yeah, we're working on an Xbox thing, tweeting about like, hey, I just spoke to fill up this fucking event. We're getting some shit going. It's like, whoa, that's like kind of unheard of, you know. I'm going Baldur's Gate 3. But that's what these small indie upstarts can do, you know. Yeah, this one's tough because I look at it and I'm like, I think it's either Baldur's Gate 3, cyberpunk or Final Fantasy 14, all three for very, very different reasons.

but yeah, I think Ballersgate takes it. I'm going cyberpunk for my vote. Next time we have Best Ongoing. We got Apex Legends, Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy 14, Fortnite, or Genshin Impact. Cyberpunk is also my vote. Me too. Me too.

We'd be spicy. Oh, I beat that, by the way, over the break. I beat the expansion. Fuck, yeah, dude. God. Incredible. Oh, my. Put it in the game of the year.

Like, let's switch. it up. But it's one p. is 1 a.m. and I was there, like, my mouse and keyboard was like, I can't believe it was happening. Like, I don't know what to do. I was like, I was really sitting there at the choice like, fuck, dude.

I don't know what to do in my life. I don't know. Next up, we have games for impact. A space for the unbound chance of Cinar. What Andy's been talking about. Yeah. Goodbye Volcano High.

Chia. Chia. Chia. Terranil and Venba. Ooh. Ooh. I'm back and forth between a space for the Unbound and Venba. Just because like a space for the Unbound is one of those ones where I've heard plenty of people talk about with such passion. But I live with Michael Hyam.

Because I live with Michael Hyam, yeah. But I'm not seen it anywhere else in these awards, right? So this could be a chance to actually get something. And I know a lot of people are going to see it in the one place and go, oh, we got to honor it. But I think Venba also. But Venba hits for me. I don't know how it's going to hit for how it's for like everybody else is the thing. I'm going Bamba.

I'm going to go for Chance of Sinai. Only because I'm playing it. What's the, what's like the impactful message of Chance of Sanar? Once you get towards the end of it, it's all about like, we've become disconnected and just talking to people and like...

You got to build bridges. Yeah, it's... Oh, you know what we should have made in here is season? I feel like this is the one thing I would have been like, yo, season actually has a pretty good... Yo, was that this year?

Yeah. Oh, shut out. No way. Did they have a good message, though? Like, we like, I hated talking to everybody. I like talking to everybody. I wanted to take photos and capture all the world. I'm going to Venba.

I'm going with the heart. But also, once you beat Chance, that's when, like, the message is real. Oh, man, it's so good, bro. Like, should I go, should I, could I predict Chance? Oh, Andy. I mean, the only reason I started playing it was because I saw Lucy James and to be able from Giant Bomb talk about it. Jeff Grubb is all about it as well.

And then, Krustick and Chris Plant on the Besties podcast were also just singing its praise. And then Justin McElroy was like, I'm going to try it out. And Justin McHour came back. I was like, God damn. What a video game?

So I'm like... What game was this? Chance of Cinar. Oh, okay. I feel like it's kind of gaining momentum. I just don't know if it's too late or not. Greg, what's yours? It's a tough one because I feel like

it's a toss-up, where it's enough people who've played enough ones And so how do you, I mean, like, my heart is with Venba. I worry about a space for the unbound. I don't know much about a chance of Sonar. Worrying a good, right away. Well, I want, I want Venma to win. For me, it's back and forth right now between Venba to space.

I thought you'd be like, I don't know if they'll be able to make it. But then you start doing the thing where we all overanalyze where, again, goodbye volcano high didn't turn many heads, I don't think, but that one's message has been out there for so long, right, in terms of what it is. I think if you were to toss this up, most people would know something about goodbye volcano high. I know of their animals I don't know dinosaurs are they dinosaurs

oh yeah I don't know shit about this game you didn't know about you didn't know about shout to Jan Ochoa for putting me on to Venba

I know these dinosaurs like try not to get extinct man like the meaning of like you know I'm gonna say a space for the unbound

the dust got kicked up locked out the sun you know and choked them out I hope I'm wrong. Next up we have innovation and accessibility. Diablo four.

Forza Motorsport. High-Fi Rush. Marvel Spider-Man 2. Mortal Kombat 1 or Street Fighter 6. I got no clue. I'm going to force a motor sport. Huh. I'm going to keep my evidence to myself.

And I think the worst part about this category for me when it comes to who I think should win is I usually base it on whoever I see on Twitter being like yeah a random tweet from so-and-so person on my 4 U-page it says like holy shit the accessibility

and this is awesome and I just don't feel like I've been on Twitter as much this year so it's hard for me to kind of tell in similar ways in the past where we've seen last of us get applauded we've seen Horizon get applauded I just haven't really seen a whole lot either way I do want to shout out Street Fighter 6

because Evo had like blind players. That's why I'm voting Street Fighter's sakes. I think, and I mean, even to go that far, right, of like literally blind people playing the game, I think you can also dial it back just to, hey, I'm garbage at fighting. Oh, well, we have this control scheme. Like the fact that you went up against Stella.

And it was a fun thing to watch. God damn, embarrassing for us. You're a gamer, dude. Yeah, I feel like in terms of conversation, to me, it falls between Forza and Spider-Man 2. And I'm, I'm a leaning Spider-Man. I'm going to go Spider-Man too. Just because, like, I feel there's a, they nailed it.

There's so much great stuff in there. And I also feel like some of the story bits even kind of like deal with that stuff in a great way. So, yeah, Spider-Man 2 for me. Best performance. Boy. We got Ben Star, Fun Fantasy 16. Cameron Monagin in Star Wars, Survivor. Brother Jesuit.

Idriselva, Cybert, 277, Phantom Liberty. Melanie Libbard in Ellen Wake, too. Neil Newborn, Neil Bond in Balders Gnubin in Ballard's Gate 3 and Yuri Lowenthal in Marvel Spider-Man 2. My thing is, I would go all in on Ben Star, but people love Astyrian from Balders Gate 3. And that's got the recancy bias as well. Yeah. I'm going Ben Star without a goddamn question. He not only is a good friend to us and fucking awesome and loves video games and all and stuff.

He was incredible. I'm right or die for Bedstarr right now. And the only reason I say that is because you could be like me, bless, and have talked to Asterian twice. That's true. Like, not everybody has, this is an NPC that may or may not join your squad.

You may or may have killed him in the first 30 minutes. Like, it's, I don't feel like it's, I feel like it's very, your mileage may vary, but the people who do are die hard for him. And the amount of like horny photos and drawings I've seen

of Asterian. That's my thing is I think out of all those party members and all the main characters of Alders Gate 3, I think Asterian is the breakout one. And part of that is because

like he's evil, right? And like he is like... There you say that shot of heart, bro. His vampire, right? And he like, he sticks out because

of his tendency to be evil. But he's also really well performed. Like, I really love that performance as Ashtarian. I just thought he was kind of dickish and I was like,

I don't want, I don't vibe with you, man. You're kind of bringing a weird vibe. I'm gonna go Ben Star also. Because I think Ben Starr has been doing a great job with just being out there as a personality. Right?

Like, not only is her character fantastic, but like he has a presence on Twitter and stuff. He's been keeping the mind chair, you know? Yeah. Like, people love Ben Starr. I also love that everybody here is, has like mostly normal headshots. And then Cameron Monaghan has a contractual obligation

to be every photo with a lightsaber. Love it. There's going to be a photo. He's like, I don't got one next to me, but I got a fucking flashlight. I do want to give a shout to Yuri, though, because it's not something nobody here.

doesn't fucking know. I love Spider-Man so much. And to nail what it means to be Spider-Man and Peter Parker and everything in between, Yuri just does it effortlessly. And we've got it so many times. We're lucky that we've gotten it this much. And I think Spider-Man too, like, he really, really brought it. I know some of the emo shit can get a little weird and grading and stuff. But like, despite that, his performance is incredible. And I feel like he's just so good where I hope he plays Spider-Man forever. Because you think of Mark Hamill and the Joker. It's like, I think of Yuri and Spider-Man. Like, he's very, very, very damn good.

And can I get a line read of the part where he says, No wonder your family left you to the lizard? He doesn't say it directly to the lizard, but he was like, I think he was like going to his house or whatever. But let me just do it out. I'll do it as Clive. No wonder your family left you. I'm looking for my brother Joshua.

That's great. I'm going to vote Ager's Elba. Damn. I think he's surprised enough people in terms of. And he shows up. I'll get character. Oh, yeah, he'll be there. You kidding me?

Yeah. Mr. Elwood doesn't miss a party. After party. I will say, I feel like Blessing was very different from, like, me and Barrett when it comes to accent slippage. Blessing heard a lot of accents. Sliber was a lot of it with Elisha Helba. I did not. I heard a lot of it with many Leibird and Allen Wake, too.

Big deal. Who cares? But, like, Blessing was like, yeah, there are times where I'm like, EGES Helleba, where are you, are you, are you an American? Are you British? I still know of his character. And I never ever had that vibe from him. So I just, like, maybe it's just. It might be my years, though.

But yeah, there's a lot of times where Melanie Liberd, it's like, it's me, Saga Anderson. It's like, you're supposed to be American. She was great. She was awesome. I also have watched a lot of Luther. And he's using his British, like his, you know, normal British accent in that show. And so it might just be hard for me to hear him use an American accent. Because like, yeah, that's just so used to his.

He's less Luther to me. Also, the actor who played Atty in Allen Way 2 should have deserved to be here. Just saying. Put Sam Lake in here. Greg, who do you got down? Hey, Chaube. Oh, sorry, Andy. Who do you have down?

Yeah, I got to go, Ben, sorry. Wait, yeah, I'm going to stick with it. Let's go, then. Next, we got best audio design. Alan Wake 2, Dead Space. High-Fi Rush. Marvel Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4. Really strong.

High-fi rush. Amazing year. Amazing year for audio design. Dolby Atmos being introduced on, on PlayStation. so much great stuff going on and like all of these games are freaking incredible. Alan Wake's the only one that I haven't had

personal experience here in the audio design but all these other ones I cannot believe how good they are. I do think I'd give it to High-Fi Rush but I do want to say I think Spider-Man 2 deserves it. Wow. My prediction here is High-Fi Rush. My prediction is Allen Way too.

I think it both does the like the horror game thing right of like having to rely a lot on its audio design for like creatures and knowing where enemies are and all that stuff, but then... Wood creaking, freaking you out. You hear like a door knocker. Or my personal least favorite, I'll call it,

not favorite. My personal least favorite, when I'm terrified, I'm about to shit my pants to him. And I'm walking by a goddamn water cooler. The bubbles go out. Like, oh, you fucking bitch, I'm about to shoot you. But here's the thing, Greg. I shot the water ball thing. Water didn't come out. Terrible. Turn it off. Terrible.

You have all that stuff you're talking about, but then also I think you have the We Sing chapter. And I think that is the cherry on top for the audio design where it's like, oh, man, and you guys got this game direction. That's true. I feel that. But, I mean, it involves audio, though. It does.

Just like, it's so interesting, right? Because on one hand, high-fired rush. The reason I'm predicting is I think that so much of that game is built around the audio design and the audio design is really great and fun and, like, it enhances the gameplay so much. So I'm there. But Spider-Man, too. Like, I don't know if I've ever heard anything like it in terms of its use of 3D sound design.

Like when you were swinging through Central Park and you're going through the trees, you hear like the ruffling above you. And it sounds like it's above you. It doesn't sound like you're in it. Like every single like the imaging of it all is just so next level. And I don't know how they did it. But on top of that, Spider-Man 1 did this. Miles Morales did this. Spider-Man 2 just opted a bit. The sense of like gaining momentum as the music rises as you start swinging more and more. It's like so dynamic. And they just, it just doesn't miss. Like it feels so real and like the Spider-Man 2 adding so many more just pedestrians and cars and like things happening in the world that just adds so much more sound design that you realize like how immersive it all is. I think it would be an easy shoe in if this was the first time it was doing it. Yep. But it's like definitely better than the first one, right? But like when that first game came out and you go, holy shit, they have two different audio tracks for when a character is swinging through the sky and when they're just. just talking and they switch totally effortlessly. I feel like it'd be a shoe in this year if it was its first time.

But because it's not, I'm going to go with high-fi rush. But I think Spider-Man 2 probably deserves it. So then Greg? Seekle, Seagull. I said as soon as I started, high-fi rush. High-fi-rush. Next up, best score and music. I don't wait to.

Follows Gate 3, Final Fantasy 16, High-Fi Rush, and The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. I just want to start this one off real quick. Oh, okay. The Legend Zelda Tives the Kingdom score is... It's fucking pure magic. There's so much love. I will listen to songs from that game for the rest of my life

and tear up every damn time. I cannot believe what they did with the themes in that. It's so good. Having said that is Final Fantasy 16. Not a goddamn chance that it doesn't win this. Interesting. Yeah, I think this is a, like, probably the most sure shot of a winner would be Final Fantasy here. Not only because of the gigantic hardcore fan base, but when we talk about somebody like me,

who is not super familiar with, a lot of the diehard Final Fantasy, I guess just aspects of the franchise. But I know the name Soken, and everybody knows the name Soken. and they're like that man they pop the fuck off for this and they totally did and it's it totally supplements the gameplay in a way that makes everything so much more hype than already what you're seeing and feeling through the gameplay every song that hits i mean just accept the truth in the truth so damn good and yeah i i feel like the biggest biggest snub of this entire game game awards is that we're not going to hear Final Fantasy 16 music in the medley because it's not up for game of the air.

We all fucked up as a people. Yeah. That's why I want to tell you like, let's just let him one more game. Even though it's not going to win, we just want to hear it up there. It's the one that deserves it the most. So right now I got me and Andy, Final Fantasy 16. Greg and Bless. Final Fantasy 16.

Do I want to be spicy? Because yeah, like I agree with you in terms of Zelda Tears the Kingdom soundtrack. I don't know if it's going to win because it is a lot of Bruffman. the wild in there as well and I wonder if like in the mind of the judges they're like oh well it's just more of this plus like a but like I do think that it's deserving and it would probably be my personal pick um the one thing I see here that is like making me pause a little bit is ballersgate three has such a really such a good main theme it's such a memorable main theme as well um I'm also gonna go final fan 16 and Alan week's gonna get a lot of love for we sing and all the original music made

or anytime we finish a chapter, there's a new song being played. And while that's like an awesome thing and a very like super creative thing to do where you're just making your own music for everything, I think that we sing will largely dominate the conversation when it comes to does Alan Wake deserve to win this one. But I'm still, I still think Final Fantasy dominates.

Next time, we are best art direction. Diffu. Alan Wake 2. See if we went again, baby. Alan Wake 2, high-fi rush, Lies of P, Super Mario Brothers Wonder,

and The Legend of Zellateers The Kingdom. This is a tricky. This one is tricky. Yeah. This one is Alan Wake 2 for me. Me too, I think. Me too, I think.

Me too, I think. Everything Remedy does creatively with that big, bold, compactive, bold, plain font, hidden the screen and going, the old gods or whatever the hell, along with lighting choices where you're walking to a level

and these art directors are like, all right, check this shit out, man. Like we decorated this shit so you could look at this and just stare in awe while you're chasing away shadow people. I think everything it does with environments, all of the sort of next-gen stuff going with like NVIDIA's path tracing, that stuff just absolutely knocks my socks off, Tim.

Yeah. There's a moment in All the Way 2 where you get to room 666 and like, oh, that visual is sick as fuck, dude. Yeah. I'm gonna say Mari Brothers Wonder. Yeah.

That game is a visual delight on the artistic side. God, it looks so good on OLED. I played more over the football weekend. That's a great game. Also, shout to Liza P just for like, I like what they do with the Pinocchio aesthetic. It's not, it's the tough thing with Liza P

is that whenever we talk about it, I feel like it has to go up against like from software stuff because it's so, it so wants to be blood-borne and, like, it is a Souls-like style game. And then, like, I have to think about how good an Eldon Ring looks

or a Blood-Born looks, and Liza P doesn't necessarily hit those levels. But I think it does do a great job of establishing its own style and, like, its city. I think it did awesome stuff with character designs when it comes to how can we make these automaton's evil.

Yeah. But it still felt kind of generic in that weird little subsect of, like, what are some ugly creatures we can think of? Like there wasn't anything that I was kind of really surprised by, I don't think.

I agree. It just all kind of felt like ugly stuff that from software left on the cutting room floor. That being said, it's like easily in my top 10, top five. Alan Wake 2. It is, I think, a tough one to a degree. Mario Wonder, that's one of the big things. Oh, it's so, you know, wonderful.

Oh, there's so much wonder in every screen and stuff like that. I could see it beating it, but Control did win in 2019. And I do think that again, when you step back and think about it, Barry, can you toss it back up? Good for them. Good for them. We all voted for control tournament. God. Control was high.

Because it's for outstanding creative and or technical achievement in artistic design and animation. I think at best art direction, surface level, you go, oh, Mario is gorgeous and does all this weird stuff. But I think what, reading that, that sounds more like Allen Wake 2 to me. It's not Mario. Mario doesn't deserve this. I'm saying. Damn. It's good.

If anything, other than Ellen Wake 2, if anything, deserves this. It's a tie-fire rush. I agree. And there aren't, there haven't been a whole lot of moments in gaming that I've experienced. And stick with me, because it's kind of a weird comparison, but you'll get it once I get there. The way you felt when you first saw Elin noir characters talking at you, and you're like, holy shit, this is, I look like a real person. What is going on here?

Like, the first time you experienced that, how is this technical? technology possible. I've felt the same way when I'm looking at Ati staring at me, just, and he's just sweeping or he's sitting down on the bed and he's looking at me and talking to me. It's like, dude, this doesn't feel or look like a video game. This looks so damn realistic. Yeah, I'm right there with you. Not saying that it's the same tech. I had some people thinking that I was like comparing the technology. No, I just mean like the first time you're like, wow, I'm just used to NPC standing there and mouth flapping and wide open. And this dude is like fully mo-capped in a way that you would see in a

cutscene, not just in a way that a dude's standing there, you know? You're convinced me. I think the hangup that I had with Alan Waite, too, is that I don't love how the dark place looks. Like, whenever I'm in there, I don't like the blurriness of it. I don't like the shadow enemies. Like, whatever I'm there, I'm like, I'd rather just be anywhere else. Yeah. That's my main hang up with it. But like, even as you're talking about the character animations, when it is, like, yeah, you're talking to you're talking to any of the NPCs and how good they look. That was one of the first things that popped off for me where I was like, damn, like, this is insane. Y'all look real out here. And then also when you, when you do like

the writer's room stuff and it is I'm looking at an environment and then in a split second you change the environment and now it's this different thing change my answer to I'm like to and also like I know this is more like maybe a little bit more

just overall direction but the way they integrate I would say like a live action stuff and how that they blend that into the artistic direction and style for the game I think is honestly like they made a goddamn movie yeah it's crazy they did like what they wanted to do with quantum

break but they didn't overdo it you know So the next time we have Best Narrative We have three more categories left Best narrative Allen Wake 2 Balders Gate 3

Cybertpunk 2077 Final Fantasy 16 or Spider-Man 2 Oh it's a rough one I don't know I think Alan Way 2 is One of the strongest contenders here I want to push for Phantom Liberty But like

I know I know how I feel about it I know how Andy feels about it I know how Michael Hyen feels about it back home I don't know how the world feels about Phantom Liberty in comparison to an Albury I feel like I'm seeing more people go crazy around Alan Wake 2 story than a Phantom Liberty. So I'm going to say Allen Way 2 for this one, even though personally I'd go to Family Liberty.

I'm going to go against like my own kind of feelings because I do think Alan Wake 2 will win this, but I want to give it to panel liberty. So I'm going to vote for Family Liberty and say and predict that wins. I like to how spiteful you were blessing. Which part? When you're like, it'll probably go out and wake two, but I personally want it for family. Yeah. Oh, thank you.

Yeah. I do. I just think about the quality in side quest narrative stuff, too. It's so easy to kind of forget about all these really rich side quests that you have in, in Family Liberty that. Can you get up this car? Can you get played or don't? We'll pick up that car. Oh, this fucking guy.

Can you pick this car up for me? Jesus. You don't like driving? As deep as a fucking well out there. Really cool cars. You don't talk to anybody. You get in the car and you go anywhere. they Spider-Man.

See, I'm on the exact same wavelength as blessing, but I feel like my work gets me to a different answer where I feel like I'm the odd man out for everybody I know for Phantom Liberty. Everybody loved Phantom Liberty except me, right, especially the narrative of it. Whereas I feel like Alan Wake 2, a lot of people roll the credits in the only way too

and we're like, oh, okay. But you didn't necessarily, you didn't fuck up the ending, but you didn't stick it. You didn't like nail it. That's all I thought about it. Yeah. I am I interesting?

Because I feel like everybody I hear that listen like I've been obsessively listening to different like reviews and spoiler cast people are like the fucking game for this

story lands and it fucking hits. The Alan Wake cast People wrong. I feel like the ending comes together really quickly. Yeah. Um,

I'm still gonna say Alan Wake too though, I think. I love Spider-Man too. I don't think it's gonna win. I love the story in Fallen Fantasy 16. It has a lot of issues

but I think that what it does well, it does extremely well. And personally, I think it's great, but I know a lot of people don't agree and we're going to fight against it tooth and nail. I'm going to baller's gate three. I think the choices alone and the narrative design of it all, I think that's going to be like good story. Good answer. Yeah, baller's gate three.

I wonder if Allenwick, too, has more trouble because I feel like very central to his themes of it not being a lake, it's an ocean. There's a lot more to discover after you beat it. and then you, it kind of is very similar to like a Souls game in that sense, where once you start watching videos and the people that like make their career out of deciphering lore and that one little Easter egg that could be massive for the future of whatever the story is, that's where you get a lot more out of it when in the moment you're kind of just like, it's, it can be, I mean, I was just listening to an Alan Wake podcast from these people that like, I think it was like, the gamers union.

University or something. So shout out to them. If that's even the right name, I hope it is. But they were doing a podcast and they were like, wow, Remedy, they, we thought we were going to get the answers that we wanted after the control DLCs and they made stuff more confusing. And I was like, well, could have fooled me because I just feel like it was kind of tough to understand what was even happening in moments and you had to really, really be the hardcore remedy fan of all the Alan Wakes and control DLCs to fully be engaged. and understand and kind of really get the reward of being a hardcore, you know. How many times do I have Baldur's Gate 3 on there?

Not enough. Not enough. I think that's the thing where I'm like, fuck, do I change the Ballard's Gate 3? Because Ballard's Gate 3 is the pick to run away with a lot of awards. You only have one. And I'm acting like it's not going to run away with multiple awards. But maybe you're right. Maybe you're wrong.

Maybe you thought that. Now they're actually doing the work. You're like, hey, wait a second. Yeah. Maybe it's just going to run away with the game of the year. Maybe Aller's Day 2 is the one that's going to run away with the awards. And yeah, Ballard's Gate 3 just gets the game of the year. Because I think Alainway 2 also just has the benefit of being fresh in our minds.

Ballard's Gate 3 came out in August, right? And, like, we're all of the people voting right now just got done with Allenway 2, and they're hot off of it. And I feel like all the people who were playing Ballard's Gate 2 a bunch of months ago are still working their way through Act 2 of Baltimore. Most of us haven't finished Ballard's Gate 3. That's also a very good point. Yeah, Act 3 could just end up with somebody just taking a shit and being like games over.

And we don't know that. Did you tell anyone about this? I've heard enough people be like, yeah. Yeah, by the time you get to act three also, like a game starts chugging and yeah, like, staring starts saying bad words. I was like, what the fuck? These things of shit. I'm going to stick with Al-Wa-2.

Final two here. Best game direction. Alan Wake-Wa-2, Falders Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, Submarrier Brothers Wonder, the legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. All right-W-A-2, lock it in for me. I agree, Alan Wake-2. Now, here's the big thing. Doing it, Andy.

Well, I want to, but I don't know if I'm allowed because of NDA stuff. I just don't like, you know, we can't talk about certain things about the voting process. So that's one thing that I'm like, I just don't know if enough people have beaten Alan Wake 2 by the time the voting stuff was opened up for the committee. You know, like... I think they had. Really? Yeah. Because I know, like, the reviewers would have beaten it, but other people, you know, like, I just did.

There was still, yeah, I don't think that's... I don't think that's... Bear just beat it, you know. Yeah, but Bear's got a million other. He's playing C-E-Stars. No, I beat that like a month and a half ago. Oh, I'm sorry, Bear was replaying persona four for one. Nailed it.

Nailed it. Got it. Yeah, I guess that's my only thing is, like, I... Would that have taken people a bit longer to get through? But you're probably right about... But I still think then you'd have reviewers coming hot into these meeting rooms to be like, yo, I know you haven't gotten there, but this is amazing. I was going to say, you're also right about Baudusgate 3,

that that game came out forever ago. Jizzled dupes, which is a... disgusting name says we sing as early in the game at least right and I did a demo of that for all of you I was like are you not playing the game you need to see this like that section alone Ash Trey maze is better than I'll be honest Can we be honest? I agree with that

Anybody who plays is way better anybody who's like I'm glad we're finally having this conversation on the fucking ass of Alan Wake 2 what if I told you there's a game that came out a couple years ago with way better combat like and 1,000% like let's be real and Astray Maze was awesome and we sing was an amazing achievement don't get me wrong

but we'll talk about that stuff later. See, I think to Andy's point about like enough people playing that, I think that's the word I have about Super Mario Brothers Wonder in this category and in other categories is like, you know, when Nintendo when it comes to giving out review codes, usually they'll give like one per outlet or maybe a couple per outlet depending on what outlet it is. And that makes me wonder like how many people,

if outlets are having it where it is, people are voting, right? Or like, you know, it is 10 people in a room and like you're coming to a consensus. if only one or two people per outlet are talking about these things, right? Like, Zelda tears the kingdom because it came out in the spring, and because the Zelda is the kingdom. People are going to buy it and play it, no matter where you are, right? Like, a Mario Brothers wonder is one where it is, all right? Like, you know, it's a 2D Mario.

Maybe I'll get to it next year. Like, maybe, I don't know way to, I believe, like, they're probably more liberal with codes as remedy to, like, want to get in more people's hands. So I think enough people probably have played it. This is an absolutely wild category with so many great answers. Like, Spider-Man 2, when you think about how. how much that pushed the SSD and like the fast travel and everything like game design game

direction with all that like they pushed that shit for there was innovation to choose the kingdom though like that's when you look at the words here creative vision and innovation and game direction and design it's like dude it's so hard for me to not go tears the kingdom actually it won't be wondered that language makes me want to go balder's gate three and then balder's gate three like same thing But I think the majority of voters go, oh, we sing was in Allen Lake 2, that's going to get it. Yeah, but Astaireans in Baldersgate 3.

You know what I mean? And like the level of creativity in the respective genres of Baldersgate 3 and Tears of the Kingdom, you know? And how much they pushed that for the respective genres of a D&D type of R&G

and like an action-adventure game in the creativity of puzzle-solving and tiers of the kingdom with its physics. If I told Barrett, hey, would you want to play this game and go through this mystical world. He'd be like, nah, but I, but you could fuck a bear. You want to do that, Barrett, and so do

why. I feel you on the ball as a game board. Why are you putting me as a bear? You love fucking bears, and that's what I'm saying. Like, so, you know, I'm with you right there, man. Be you, Barrett! The reason why I jump to Allen Way, too, so is, I think one, it's the artsy farcy. Somebody in chat,

I think said artsy farcy, or maybe it was Barry that said it. But, like, somebody called it that. I'm like, yeah, It has that level of, oh yeah, critics love Alan Wake 2 because of the way it's telling his story because it's doing something and it has the remaining on all that stuff. And also, Island Like 2 is the game here where you can name the director, right?

Like, Sam Lake is in the game. And I think when you're talking about best game direction and you can link that vision of the game to a singular creator and like him seeing through that vision and you like, if you play that game, you can feel the vision of Sam Lake. For me, I think that's what people read more in the game direction.

I don't know how many people are even reading like the line under it that's talking about it because if they are, that I'm like, Borders Gate 3 is the answer here. I'm going to have faith that there's a lot because you scrolled on that outlets list. There's like way more people that you could have ever imagined. I'm going to have faith that people are going to lean with you, Tim,

and say tears, and my vote's going to go for tears. I hope so. And then they go, maybe we'll give a game of the year or something else. Here we go. Game of the year. Game of the year. Game of the year. Game of the year. We're going to harmonize.

Game of the year. Game of the year. Game of the year. Game of the year. Game of the year. Game of the year. Game of the year we got Alan Wake 2 will it be Resident Evil Spider Man 2

Resident Evil 4 Mario Brothers Wonder and Legend of Zelda Tears in the kingdom Balders Gate 3 Lock it in for GregiG 3 Lock it in last time I said Zelda last time I think he last time you said Zelda When did we say this one I could have sworn we had some kind of predictions of so I forgot it was

We talked about like what our game what we thought game of the year was going to be. Yeah. Or maybe it was like the sixth I was going to get nominated. That sounds right. That's that happened. Lock it in for me, Tim. BG3.

Yeah. Lock it in for me, BG3. Could you imagine like we finish Zelda, you know, that review and where we're all like, best game that's not Zelda. Remember that was the joke we were doing for our game wars or whatever.

And like imagine if you go back in time and tell yourself that it's not going to be that. It's going to be Bolesgate 3. A fucking, the nerds are going to rise. Main, like a game that God blessing a. played on keyboard and mouse. A game that is a turn-based strategy,

like it is the niche of all the niches. This is not an action-adventure fucking third-person game. Like, this is the most unlikely of all the game of the year stuff in recent memory that I can think of. And it ruled. What do you think, buddy? It's so hard. Because I'm so with you guys that Ballard's Gate 3 is the answer.

I think that I personally think that in terms of the conversation, in terms of the industry, Ballard Gate 3, the game of the year. But Spider-Man 2 has a lot of popularity. If Zelda wins, you're going to hear me in the audience. Like, I'm going to stand up. I'm like, raise my hands by like, let's fucking...

Because I want it to be Zelda, but I think it's going to be Baldersgate 3. I like how you act like it's going to be dead quiet. Yeah. You're going to hear me over all the voices, though. I fucking told you all. I'm going to love you, Mimono. I'm voting the legend of Zelda.

Tears of the kingdom. I like it. Not just to bring spice, because I try. truly believe that it's going to win. There's something about it. Looking at the last couple of game of the year winners, like,

there's surprises. Sekiro winning was a surprise, right? Presbyn before. No, I think that Zelda and Baldur's Gate are like leveled up enough that the rest of them kind of fall out around it. They can all like fight for the, the crumbs of votes.

Yeah, I'm going Zelda. Go on Zelda. So there we go, everybody. let us know in the comments below what your predictions are for these and who of us you think will get the most predictions correct. Yeah, Madeline.

We'll return next week with our predictions of announcements episode of the Kind of Funny Games cast which will be extremely exciting for everybody. But until next time, I love you all. Goodbye.