Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Predicting Game of the Year Nominees - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

We predict what the 6 GOTY nominees will be at The Game Awards 2023. Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - RoboCop - What Will Be Nominated for Game of the Year? 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 and I'm joined by the new face of video games blessing at Eioje Jr. And PlayStation tweeted out millions of Roblox experiences are now on PlayStation. Greg. Yeah. Me and you some Roblox? No, I'm too busy.

You were just talking before we went live about games that have gone live that you didn't realize went live. You were a Wayfinder. It came into early access. That was a game like around a games daily months ago. Somebody had told me that's a great game. And then I read it. And then they was like, oh, actually it got delayed. And I totally forgot all about it.

And then I saw Taylor, we got a content update. I'm like, oh, wait a second. Let's get on this. Are you going to get into Roblox Plus? Maybe. Yeah? No. This could be the moment.

No. You got way more into dreams than I ever thought you would have. I mean, dreams was the dream. Like dreams deliver on what it was supposed to be. Roblox is already successful in other platforms. So that's on PlayStation. Also long gone dazes out. You remember this?

This is that indie game that it was a JRP inspired. I think it was in the first kind of one of the kind of funny game showcases. Baird, if you want to bring up long gone days video game. Bring up Roblox also. Honestly, honestly. Andy, that'd be a fun game. Bring up three things that look like Roblox.

I'll tell you if it's actually Roblox. Yeah, I know what Roblox is because I have two nieces and a nephew. And anytime I go back home, they are on all the laptops that my parents have because you could just play it in the browser and it looks like garbage. No, no. This is what I talked about long gone days where we did this JRP that's like anti-war or whatever. And they show that. Remember that people were like,

adding on a little, yeah, there it is, that thing. We showed this during a showcase and we all were like, whoa, this looks awesome, but blah. And then I totally forgot about it and didn't hear anything. And then it's out now. Wow. It's all happening, guys. A very unenthusiatic wow from Tim.

I'm coming in late today. I was playing games at home all day. Getting back in the studio, or getting to the studio for the first time today, I don't feel warmed up. Yeah. You know what I mean? I'm not there yet. Wow.

I will say, I did see, I think long gone days was on the out today today, wasn't it? Yeah. Because I saw it and I looked at it. because I was like, oh, long gone days. That sounds really familiar. And I watched the trailer. I was like, I must be mistaken.

You already heard it. But of course, that is the big daddy Greg Miller. Hi. And the one and only nitro rifle, Andy Cortez. Hey, everybody.

I have no idea what Roblox looks like. Like, not the slightest clue. Like, do you? Shocked. Yes. Greg.

One of the most popular things ever. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Everybody's got massive shoulders. Like everybody. Bring up Roblox. I mean,

I've seen the Kanye video. That's, this is Paragon. This is Paragon. Paragon. Damn. I wanted to fool Tim. You guys didn't have to say anything.

I have a concept of what it looks like. I just, I have no, I've never actually seen it. It looks like, it looks like when MegaBlocks is trying to rip off Lego with their figurines. Don't start us.

Don't start. Oh, I know. I've heard about this. I do also think of Mega blocks as kids toys as a baby gigantic ones. Yeah. But I'm going to help you all out with this sort of comparison. Can I see Roeblocks?

When you bring up rope, When you bring up Roblox, the characters look like, oh, those are the rip-off. Yeah. Legos, you know. Duplo's, or no, Duplo is Lego, but. Isn't it, the, Duplo's a DJ? Isn't it the thing where? Diplos.

Start the show. Of course, this is the kind of funny game. Show me to Roblox. What the fuck? But, like, Roblox is one of those ones where I get the impression that it can be anything. I could easily guess wrong. I could easily guess wrong. Because it's like dreams where you can, like sure, there's like a base art style that I think

does look like, um, Beglow slash megablocks type thing. Not a chance. I could have told you this was Roblox. But like you can turn Roblox into whatever you want. And that's how kids are playing it where they're like, oh yeah, let's play this game. And the game that they're talking about is within Roblox. I mean, didn't you watch the video of a H-bomber guy talking about the sound effect? Yeah, it was from Roblox.

See, here's the thing. I feel less crazy now because having seen what we just saw. none of that looks consistent with second to second it looks different I guess that's getting a screenshot you wouldn't know I think that's getting more into the dreams aspect Yeah But when I think Roblox it's like a Minecraft

Look and Blocking character That's what I thought I would have expected But that's not what I just looked at anytime I would Throw the special menu at you Any show me a McDonald's food item He's showing you a salad shaker You're like I don't Yeah

This is what McDonald's is I think of Carl Jacob's playing first person Shooters with the blocky characters You know like this is what you think is him Yeah. Yeah. Blessing the show. Thank you.

Bears, it's looking for a special B-roll. Who knows what he's doing over there? Yeah, that's what he can do. Behind me a McDonald's robot. That was good. The happy meals in the cage go in.

Anyway, I don't know about all this, y'all. Was it worth that on fun, though, out there playing these roll blocks. It does, it surprises me and also doesn't that your niece's nephew play this game.

Are they all like, but it's, it's odd because it's not like they are really talking about it outside of when they're playing it. It's one of those weird games that just kind of exists. It's like it's got its fall guys rip-off clone stuff where you're running through obstacles.

It has its like squid game type of rip-off things where it's like red light, green light, all those little mini-games. And I just always see them and like they're on. Roblox just feels like the new mobile game for kids. But the thing is it's not new, right? Oh, it's been up. No, yeah, yeah. But new and just like in the zeitgeist of like,

like just all the kids play. We're so late to this, I guess. Like, Roblox was hot in like 2015. But I also know that- Roblox is known for just like ripping off kids for making games. Yeah, but I feel like they're coming off Roblox to like get into Fortnite.

No. Like I think Roblox is the old Fortnite at this point. And like some kids are still playing. Currently, I think. But I think kids are playing it the way that kids are still playing Minecraft. Like I compare Roblox more to Minecraft. I feel like that's the East Coast, West Coast

beef of kids games. Duplo, the RIP, DJ. Where I feel like you, in like the early 20, 10s you came up playing either Minecraft or Roeblocks and then Fortnite came through and then was like the new, the new hotness. Speaking of a new hotness, this is the kind of funny games cast.

Each day every week, we get together to talk about video games and all the things that we love about them. And video games have been popping off. We've had reviews left and right and we're going to continue that rolling on the next couple weeks with some of the biggest reviews this side of the salad shaker at McDonald's. We can talk

about Spider-Man review going up next week. Spider-Man 2. excited about that. Got a whole bunch of other fun content surrounding that as well. Also, other big games going to be reviewed. So stay tuned, everybody. You can stay tuned to YouTube.com slash kind of funny games or roosterteeth.com for the video versions.

But if you want the audio version, check your favorite podcast service for Kind of Funny Gamescast and will be right there for you. If you want to go above and beyond, though, patreon.com slash kind of funny. Gets you the show ad free. It lets you watch the show live as we record it. And it lets you be a super dope Patreon producer like Jedi. Master Deadpool and Delaney Twining. It also gets you access to a whole bunch of bonus content like Kind of Feudy.

And we're about to record an episode right after this that I can't wait for because I'm going to win. I'm going to win. We'll see about that. Today we're brought to you by better help, but I'll tell you all about that later. The topic of the show today is predicting the six game awards nominees. We've been seeing a lot of people post this. Jeff tweeted out the image of the game awards coming December 7.

So people have been listing their predictions on what will be in the big six. New font. In 2020. You're right. I didn't even notice. It's no longer the wide font. Yeah. This is a game changer.

It's a massive. Andy's over. I'm going to have to haul. Get up to it. Here's the thing. I mean, here's the thing. Jeff has always been very graceful and replying to my tweets and letting me know what the font is.

So I need to ask him once again, what is the font? What is the font? Please let me know. Fantastic. Last time I did it, though, one of their design people hit me up and was like, here's what you, I got a, did you ask it?

Huh? Did you ask yet? No, not yet. Okay. But he's going to ignore you if you asked for me. Well, if I ask him his Instagram DMs and include something about the flash, I'll be ignored. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But before we get into that, though, I want to talk about something a little bit more topical to the now. You and Nick to a little Steam Next Fest situation, right? Yeah. We streamed. We thought today was going to be a Next Fest stream playing all the coolest demos on Steve. Little did we know that. that we would be sucked into the world of Robocop Rogue City.

Yeah! And it's legitimately probably like a four or five-hour demo. We got about most of the way through it, I feel. It just never ended. This demo never ended. Hyperbole aside, is it four hours? I mean, well, we got to, we didn't finish it. We started at 11.30.

We got to around 2 p.m. And there was still many different missions to take on. Greg was right. Greg's a tastemaker. Thank you. This game is like not awesome, but amazingly awesome. Like it's doing a lot of weird kind of goofy things with dialogue. A lot of the voice acting is very B-tier 80s type stuff.

But it's a lot of fun and it's straight up just an RPG. Like I kind of forgot that you had mentioned and dove into what the game actually is. Because at first, at first glance, I thought this was going to be a Wolfenstein style game where it's just super linear, just go through a story. and just blast dudes heads off and throw people through windows. But it's straight up like a first person RPG where you have a big skill tree, you are doing different dialogue options

based on, and based on how you treat certain citizens, the streets will treat you good or badly. Like it is, it is why we do the thing where you work the complaint desk at the police station? No. You can go to like have it like that, you know,

just where the front desk where people come in. You can just go stand there. and people talk to you. And you don't really do you just make choices. That's awesome. Yeah, there was a moment where there was a dude doing graffiti and we were like, do we want to arrest this guy or do we want to like be cool with him? We decided to like find him a hundred bucks or whatever.

And people in our chat were like, if you let him go off of the warning instead of finding him, he would then tag over other graffiti with like pro-robocop propaganda tags. like tagging. It's just so hilarious. Like the amount of things that can happen in this game, this is not a gigantic open world game, mind you. Like, we are doing,

we're doing so many missions in the, you know, the gross area of Detroit. And it is straight up like no bigger than the studio that we're in right now. Like, it is very much like you go answer a phone. They're like, yeah, go to this apartment. It's in the red apartment. This block, 49th Street or whatever.

And it's like 80 feet away. And you just walk down there. But you don't walk like a normal person You walk like Robocop And you can go a little bit faster But not too much faster It's hilarious and it's awesome And it's super

You know bloody and gory Throwing people through the windows of high rises Oh my god The funniest part And we need to get it clipped out Because Nick was like Oh my God this is the Nick is freaking out

At all of this Like his dreams are coming true And we get into the Parking lot structure underground And he's like Holy shit They just straight up modeled The whole underground parking lot

where all the cop cars are. And he goes, oh, there's the ramp. And the coolest shit in the movies is like, any time a car would go up the ramp, they'd hit the front of the ramp and the sparks would go out because they were too low. And we get into the car and we say leave parking station, sparks go out and we're like, oh my God,

they did the spark. Like, it feels so authentic. As somebody who, you know, vaguely kind of knows robocop. I've seen just a lot of clips of it. it's hysterical in how accurate all these things were and they were just making nick fanboy yeah he's telling me about the sparks right here in the video clip for for audio listeners and then the sparks actually happened and we had like a fan boy moment it's hysterical this game's awesome uh he was like i i'd want to fully he was like i thought it's going to be a stupid ass game this is kind of blowing my mind with how

well thought out it is but it's still like really cheesy and doesn't in a lot of moments, but I was still, I still came away very, very impressed in this two-hour experience. That is awesome. Do we know when's it coming out? No clue. November is what's the team. Yeah. Because when we originally, where when I went and previewed this right before SGF and that's where I did it, uh, there was a, hey, like, this is supposed to be out in the summer or whatever, September. And I remember like, wait a second, I was looking for that Robocop game and it never came out. What the heck or whatever. And yeah, it wasn't out yet. You go to a basketball court at one point to, like, talk to somebody and the guy,

like, hey, what are you doing here? Fucking Robo cop or whatever? And one of the dialogue options that you have to respond to it is, I can realistically break your ankles as well or something like that, like on the court and in real life or whatever. So great. The writing is so cheesy. The dialogue is going to make you laugh in a lot of moments

because these guys are just so stupid. The voice acting is really bad. And I kind of hope it's bad on purpose. That's what I'm assuming so. That's what I've been doing in Slack in my. myself a link for because I remember when I when I talked about this back in June we did a breakout right and it was based in the tweet was I played Robocob Rogue City and dot dot dot dot it's pretty fun and it's clip for me Gamescast talking all the same shit we're talking

what's like I enjoyed myself to which uh yeah the developer quote tweeted it and said Robocob Rogue City is definitely and then puts in all italics pumped with humor and satire and then the eyes emoji like get ready to become part man part machine like they know what they're doing. They know what Robocop is. This is not going to be a nine out of 10 game, but it's going to be a fun, weird, really detailed Robocop RPG? Yeah.

The skill trees are so fucking deep. Deep systems, there's moments where I'm thinking of my time with cyberpunk or Starfield where you walk up to a safe and it's like, you don't have enough deduction skill points and it's like, oh, I need to put points into deduction and by doing so I can

gather evidence all around the world or I could just take down baddies and keep on doing little side quests. It is surprisingly deep, and, you know, there's moments where you just have a mission where you got to go talk to Pereira, and she's over there in the locker room. And you go talk to and she's like, oh, my brother's missing, blah, blah, blah. It's like, I will take care of that. It's hilarious.

Did you, in the demo, did you get to do the, or in the, you know, the demo, did you get to do the thing I talked about the last time where it was a, you call the guy who's a drug dealer and he's trying to play dumb? and then people break into his room, and he's like, Robocop, come help me. And you get over there. And, like,

there's this whole conversation on the thing that's, like, this really detailed, hilarious supply and demand argument of, like, that's predatory practice. You want to do that. It's people on the roof talking to this guy about, like, how he's cornering the market for the drug nuke.

And they're like, look, it's simple supply and demand. With profits up, you're doing it's like these gangsters talking to this dude. You're on a verge of antitrust. Yeah. And then Robocop walks out and he's like,

enough with this economic talk or whatever. He just shoots everybody. everybody down. It's hilarious. It's a great time. This game's going to be like a solid six out of ten. But it's going to be a freaking blast for anybody who gets into it. Plus, have you ever watched Robocop? I'm not actually. I'm still with Andy where I've only seen clips. I have not seen it either. But did, did you know that there's a scene where a dude gets his dick blown on? Yes, I've seen. I've seen that scene particularly. There's an enemy, I mean, there's enemies in this game that, like, don't wear pants and

they just have underwear on, but they have really good face protectors, like, steal helmets or whatever, you can't shoot them in the head. You have to shoot them in the dick. Yeah, you got to shoot them in the other head. It's a great time, like shoot out windows, grab people, launch them across the, it's, it's so gory and stupid and over the top and they're nailing the tone. Yeah. Good time.

Hell yeah. Any other Steam stuff to talk about? No, I mean, I talked about another crab treasure that I played, which, you know, Steam X Fest is officially now. So go download a bunch of demos if you want to go try. try out a bunch of random games or a bunch of random developers. But another crap treasure debuted about a week ago. They dropped their demo about a week ago, like a week prior to the Next Fest.

And it's a great time. The boss fights were a blast, and it's really, really tough and punishing. Love it. Can't wait? Yeah. All right. So then moving on to the Game Awards conversation here, all right? So six nominees for the Game Awards.

Let's start there. Do we think the number stays six? Yeah, they moved up to that, what, two years ago? Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. I think they'll stay there. I think so too.

You don't think it'll like, uh, what's that? Bring it down to one. No, what's the one award show that's not the Oscars? Emmys. Golden Globes where they have like 12. They have like 12 comedy and then 12 drama or whatever. Like we don't ever see that number raising up. I hope not.

I feel like six is like, man, this year's going to be so many snubs. It's crazy. Yeah. Snub central. That's what we're going to get into. I want to start the conversation then. if we're assuming it's going to be six. What are the garren

goddamn tease that there's no chance in hell these games aren't there? I think there's only two. Legend is Zelda. Zelda tears the kingdom and Balders Gate 3. I agree. That's it. So those are the two locks.

Then we only have four spots left then to fill out what we think is going to make it. And again, remember the way that these things are chosen is a whole bunch of the different outlets out there get to vote and nominate what they want and then whatever gets the most. Those are the six that are actually at the show. So Paris, Lily, posted his sex.

Not as good as good as Andy. I mean, bless that whole thing, did it? Oh, yeah. We got attacked him. In my opinion. That's good. That's good. That's good.

That's good. His are Super Mario Brothers Wonder. Sea of Stars. Final Fantasy 16. Parentheses, y'all write about Diablo. I don't know what that means. Zelda, Baldersgate 3, and Starfield. So obviously, we're working off something interesting here

where we are talking about, sorry, I should have set this up earlier even. Obviously, Game Awards nominees aren't the full year game. It's not 365. Normally it's the cutoffs are what second weekend? Somewhere in November. November, something like that. And so games that came out the second half of November

or in December last year will qualify for this year. Recently we went through a list of those. and it doesn't look like there's anything. Yeah, we didn't have anything that I remember getting cut out. When did Pentemitt come out? Before that, because I think Pentiment was nominated for awards last year. I think that was an RPG or maybe an indie or something. It wasn't big enough to get Game of the Year nominated, I think.

Right. But that game kicks ass. It came out November 15th. Let's make one of Paris. I believe off before the thing. So there we go. Then we got, um, anything that like, I'll whip you.

Coming out this year would be November 15th would be around there we assume will be the cutoff point so that means that there's going to be a couple of games here that we haven't played yet. Mario Wonder,

Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2. That's why it gets so interesting. Yeah. Is that I think we could sit here and we're going to say a bunch of stuff that I kind of feel is going to be out of date maybe immediately,

a moot point if you will. If Alan Wake is as good as I want it to be off that E3, SGF demo, right? If Spider-Man 2 is as good as you made it seem from your preview. If Mario Wonder is as good as you made it seem from your preview on games daily. You know what I mean? Like, all three of those get added into the pot of games we already have.

Throw back up Paris' thing. And that's where I think a lot of Paris, the shit starts exploding immediately. And that's why this guy's in needy. See a Starz, underplay, it won't be there. Starfield, too polarizing. Farfield not going to be there. Sorry, really quick. With C of Stars, I feel like that, like, even before Spider-Man,

Mario Wonder and all that. Like, I don't even know if C of Stars even would make this list even without those games. Yeah, I think even in, I think C of Stars has a tough time even getting into like the list of RPG nominees, let alone game with your non-

I'm gonna get R-G nominee. Yeah, I think it'll easily get nominated. I think it gets... I'm about easily, but I think it could get in there. He said easily. He said easily. Yeah, with me, I don't, I feel like Super Mario Bros.

Wonder is going to get that. You know when people kind of give you shit and they're like, yeah, but it just didn't have the Zelda name on would it be in that same sort of conversation? I think Mario Bros. Wonder gets thrown on there because it seems to be this return to form with the ultimate creativity

and it seems like that. I feel like it's kind of, you've got to put it on there. It's the big Nintendo game of the year, aside from tears. Aside from the big one. That's exactly how I feel about Spider-Man 2. Right?

I think like if Spider-Man 2 is what Tim's talked about in the previews, right, and what the Internet's talked about in the previews. And if it is, just a straight-up follow-up to Spider-Man 1, I think it gets put in there just based on it's the big PlayStation game of the year and it's Spider-Man, right? You have that name recognition. So I honestly think as we go through

both Super Mario and Spider-Man, I'm putting in his locks. I'm taking Spider-Man out and I'm saying Alan Wake 2 is going to be the darling of this year. I see again, with fog of war right here, a week from the Spider-Man review, two weeks, three weeks from Alan Wake 2's review, right? Like, that is still the thing. You look back at 2018, Spider-Man getting snubbed

in every category. in except dice awards like music or something audio like you wonder if allan wake being something decidedly different puts it above spider man being oh you theoretically off tim's preview oh this is more spider man this is great yeah it's rough though because it's spider man and like more spider man still means it is going to be something that is appreciated by appreciate it by like he did such a a great face it you didn't see this face he did such a great like will of defoe face it was very great Spider-Man, because of the character and the IP that it is, like, is so beloved by so many that there's more inherent interest in it, I would say, than something like a horror game that's a sequel that people might not have played. And, like, there's questions around.

And also, it's insomniac. It's PlayStation. It is presented. People know what the Spider-Man fancied is. But Tim, we're the gaming press. We love to sniff our own farts. They're going to say, oh, it's Spider-Man. It's just fucking more superheroes.

Alan Wake, Cerebro. It's horror. Yeah. Then you look at the Game of the Year nominees in the past. don't think that one. That's my thing is like I think I think when you get to nominees right I think it is more of a popularity game than a oh this is objectively a better thing game better game right with like you know Spider-Man 2 is going to be the most played game of the year or one of the most played games of the year just based on the fact that it's Spider-Man right whereas

island like two yeah like one it's a sequel to a game that's already been out it is horror but it's also like ethereal and mystery yeah yeah you know true detectiveie and it's doing all these things that I think are going to turn a lot of people off from like really from at least the amount of people that touched the game right like I have way more yeah I think mainstream sure of course you're right on that but I think in terms of gaming press I think I think Alan wake is going to turn heads in the fact that it is a oh wow cult classic game that I never played because it was so old or tried and didn't do or enjoyed gets this modern thing from remedy on you know hot off the heels of control which I think put them into a different stratosphere like I think it's going to get

touched by a lot of people. I don't think it has to be worried about the popularity part. This is the, I think it's like hitting the sort of art, like games as an art area of gaming, as well as people who love horror games and people who love mystery and saying like, this is the HBO project. Exactly. If the arbiter of taste, Martin Scorsese, bellied up to the bar right now, he would play Alan Wake 2 and not Spider-Man too. Bellied up to the bar. What is that? You come up to the bar. Oh, okay, okay.

Yeah, it's interesting too. So if we have two out of four lock or two out of six locks leaving only four spaces, and we're talking about like games that aren't even out yet, like potentials there, let alone the games that are already out that we, I feel like are going to, like, what are the potential games that aren't locks, but like if they were there, it wouldn't be wild? Final Fantasy 16, which I think honestly I'll put Final Fans 16 is like the most lock out of like games that aren't Ballers Gate through Zelda. I think the fact that it's Final Fantasy,

I think the fact that is excellent, the fact that it is this, like, big Game of Thrones style, hey, we are going big with the cutscenes, we're going big on the production. Like, there's so much put into it. The gameplay is really fun. I think really the only main knocks

for Final Fantasy 16 are how RPG it isn't. And I don't necessarily think that makes it a worse game, right? And I think that puts it up there. And so I'm saying Final Fantasy 16. Sorry, on this Final Fantasy 16 thread. do you feel that reception or public opinion on it has cooled? And I only ask that because at review, everybody's all about it.

It sounded like this. And I just feel like I've heard less and less about it, which isn't unusual, obviously. But like when high fire rush comes up, people still, I feel pop and get crazy about hi-fi rush. And granted, that's our audience. It's like 10 people. But I mean, but still, it's like Final Fantasy 16,

maybe because it's just a known quantity. Oh, a game is great. It's a great game. See, I feel the same way about, Jedi Survivor and RE4, which are two other games that I think are in the conversation. Yeah. I think that might just be the amount of like, yeah, big games that are coming out this year. For sure.

Yeah. I want to keep talking about this. I'm free. But real quick. I want to take a word from our sponsors. Meen. His episode's brought to you by Draft King's Sportsbook. The NFL season is going strong and Draft King's Sportsbook is hooking new customers up with an offer that's even stronger.

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Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boothal Casino-L-Rour-L-L-A. 21 plus age varies by jurisdiction void in o and t bonus beds expire 168 hours after issuance see sportsbook dot draughtings dot com slash football terms for eligibility and deposit restrictions terms responsible gaming resources he took his watch off and said i'm free just doesn't feel good today i don't know yeah it's interesting because i do think that the conversation on final fantasy 16 uh is more that there's just so much stuff coming out than anything else And I do think that initial conversation was You either loved it for what it was

Or you're mad that it wasn't what it's not And I feel like that is probably the most dominant Uh huh Uh Conversation around the game Even to this day But I do feel like at this point Those people have kind of moved

The people that didn't like it have kind of moved on Was the people that still rock with it Or is like still super stoked on it I don't know that it's a lock though I mean I think that it's not actually Like I think Spider-Man has a higher chance that's Final Fantasy. Oh, I probably agree with that.

I agree with that. But I think then we get into, like, chat's kind of going off right now, right? Like Calvin Perez says, no shot for Jedi. Jason says Jedi Survivor is six out of ten. Cameron Kennedy says Jedi has the same problem with, aspirated me with me,

but like, but with an unpolished launch months ago before everything big hit, right? Like, I think when we start to get down to it, it's going to come down to what are the things that we can ding this game for? And I think Final Fantasy 16 has like a few things we can ding it for.

I think Jedi Survivor is another one that it has like a few things that we can ding it for it. In Diablo 4, I'm not a Diablo person, but from what I've heard about Diablo 4, as much hype as there was around that game, it sounds like there are things that people can ding Diablo 4 as well. And so, like, I think

it's going to be a game of, like, what game is least-laws. As someone who loves Diablo 4, played so much Diablo 4. He's excited for next week's fucking Mike, trying to make me doubt myself on games daily today. Next week's update in the vampires and shit. I don't think, I don't, I don't, Diablo 4 doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell

making the tough of 6 year, I don't think. I think Diablo 4 is a great game. I think it is a fun time suck jump in grind it out do the thing but in a year like this of stacked games no i think when you get into multiplayer and maybe best ongoing even though even then people would have problem with balancing and then you have a conversation about it but diablo is one of those games that honestly this will sound like a big insult and i don't mean it to at least how we talk about it reminds me a lot of outriders where diablo didn't succeed and get us all playing diablo because there was nothing else

to play you know it did have its hooks and it's it's a great game but it was that thing that that we all jumped in and really enjoyed for a couple weeks and then pretty much everybody fell off of completely right like i i still come back joey still comes back but i i even me and jenn haven't been back in a month now let's talk to yel before like andy do you think that it has a chance at being in the top six no only because of the more recent sort of news development about like the dlc and how turns out gablo's the devil fans weren't happy about kind of the you know what's happening with how they're tuning this and how loot is going to be dropping and all that stuff. I feel like those more recent news stories are going to be in people's minds because like, can I interrupt you? Sure.

Because I don't want you to. No kidding. I don't think those will be in the voting tally's mind. I think that's such hardcore you go and listen to the Pure Diablo podcast like I do. That's the ongoing audience thing. It's almost like destiny, right? Where it's like the destiny audience is so different than gaming press. I think gaming press will just be, oh yeah, I played it for a while and it was great. But I haven't been back to it forever. I think my problem when we talk about games as a service, like something like Diablo, is that I don't play those games like that.

And I don't think that we should say, well, a lot of people fall off on it once they were done with it. Well, it's like, well, they beat the game. Like, that's something that happens. You beat a game, you move on. And I don't think that we should, obviously, Activision Blizzard dictates its blizzard, dictates its success on how many concurrent

players are still going. But to me, like, I, the only reason I didn't play that was because there was like three other games out at that time. And I kept wanting to go back to it. I just never had time for it. I don't think that, I think there's a lot of people out there that had a great time with it. They played it. They did the campaign with their friends. They had a blast and they moved on. And I, I think it will still get high marks for, we played through it. We had a decent time, but is it game of the year worthy? I don't see it as one of those type of games. I'm wondering like what outside of like single player narratives

makes the game of the year top six. And what I hope does if God shines down on me that I think deserves it would be Street Fighter Six. Like Street Fighter Six is such a fucking excellent game that I think... Like the forts of this year or something. Yeah, where I think gets snub because it's a fighting game, right? And it's like how many people are playing this? how many people are voting are educated enough or up enough on Street Fighter to want to write it in.

But for me, like when you talk about the little flaws, right, like the little flaw for me with the Street Fighter 6 would be the single player mode. And even with that, right, like for a lot of people, the single player mode was good enough. I don't think anybody's like, oh, man, this is the next step. This is as good as Moral Combat single player. But when you play, when you play Street Fighter 6, at this point, I am 70 something hours into it. And that's me like taking a break for months and months because more games came out. And the single player is such a small amount of time that I spent with Street Fighter 6 to where now I'm like looking past it. I'm like, wow, this is some of the best, this is some of the most fun I've had in a game this year.

This is one of the most solid fighting games I've probably ever played. And like, I mean, it's up, I mean, debatably, it is the most solid, right? Yeah. Finding game ever made. It is incredible. And it is one that I think for sure deserves to be there. Does it actually get there? I think that becomes more of the question.

Yeah. What's the biggest surprise this year? Because I think last year, straight. That's the big surprise to me where I'm like, wow. That's here. That's kind of wild. As a game of the year? Yeah.

I don't think there will be a surprise. I just don't think that there's room for it. I don't think so either, but stuff we've talked about, right? I would think C-A-Stars would be a surprise to me on overall game of the year. There's no chance. But, I mean, what was the other game?

High-Fi Rush? The one that stars Amelia. High-fi Rush would be the surprise. That's not happened. What was the one from last year? It was like a sequel, a lot of rats. Legs like that. Amicia. Amicia.

Amicia. High fire rush would be a surprise. I would love it. But it is one of those like unfortunate where like it came out. Like if High Fire Rush came out a month ago, you know, I feel like there'd be a better chance.

But because it came out in January, it's just like not fresh in people's minds. High Five Rush is not the top six game of the year. Is there too many rocks in this? I love it. I love it. It's not in the same level. It's like so many of the games.

Less wild than Jedi Survivor. What? Less flawed than Jedi Survivor. I wouldn't disagree with that. I mean, I mean, if Survivor's a better game. It's like,

take away the part of it. I would, I would disagree with that. 100% percent is not. I'm the Jedi fallen order hater. You all know that. Jeter is a better game than

High-Fi rush? Yeah, that's right. There's a taste here. If I was fucking fucking loose in the beating Baird-Barrant. Yeah, quit fucking miniclorians over there.

I'm the Star Wars fanboy too. I think my high-fi is so good now. He doesn't want to hear about it. You know what I mean? I was sure your ass and get out of my studio. But I think that's a sleeper contender.

I would be surprised. I'd be very surprised to see it in Game World's nominees. If it's in your top six, though, yeah. It's not in the world's top six. That's fair. I think that's a good point where like I think for high-fire rush to make it or for anything to make it, it has to be in some people's number one. Exactly. And I don't know if high-fi rush is anybody's number one.

But Jenna Survivor is. So now here's another question. It comes from the chat. It's actually a comment that I'm going to make into a question. But thanks Calvin Perez for reminding me. Hogworth Legacy. Oh, yeah. But I, it's,

Calvin's actual thing is remember when people thought Hogward's legacy had a fighting chance this year, LMAO. Like I agree with that. We're in the beginning of the year. Oh, this giant open world wizard game, people were having a lot of fun with or whatever. It's another one where I have not heard,

I think sales, obviously, the Harry Potter fan base, obviously. Yeah. To your point, though, about like not hearing about it. We're not hearing about Zelda anymore. That's the year that we're having. Because of Starfield. No, I mean,

real talk, though, just because there's so much stuff. I don't think people are talking about anything still. No, no, but I will say that I think Hogwarts Legacy is like the NBA 2K or Madden of single player games where it sells a fuck load. Yeah, it's so mainstream. I didn't see

any game this year lose traction of the general audience faster than Hogwarts Legacy. It was one of the videos of people showing combat started going on. It was the talk of the town because of controversy and because of people saying this is an amazing. amazing RPG. Everybody needs to play it. And I've never seen a conversation die down faster.

Where it's like, oh shit, that was last month. God damn. That came and went extremely fast. Faster than anything else I could remember this year where I, it's like WOLong. Like I bring up my God. I bring up WOLON. I bring up WOLON. I bring up Wild Hearts. And that, wild hearts. The conversation died as quickly for those as it did for Hogwarts Legacy, which is crazy because that game sold gang busts. But I feel like you can apply that to any single game this year. Like, Jedi Survivor had a two-week conversation, and it was like, oh, it doesn't work these two weeks. And that was the end of that conversation. And that's the tasted people's mouths about it.

But, like, you look at Resident Evil 4. There wasn't even a conversation about it. Dead Space. There wasn't even a conversation. And we're talking about games that are, like, critically beloved. And, like, we see them as potentially being deserving of being here. I know they're not going to be. That's my thing is, like, those were remakes, you know what I mean, of games you knew that were known quantities you knew.

you say there's no one talking about Zelda anymore. I disagree. I still see people talk about Zelda and here. Like there's been this new resurgence in a respectful fashion from you and other people about the actual ending of Zelda, right? Like that there is a conversation happening there, let alone that. Baldur's Gate, right? That story continues. Granted, it's because 150 hours game.

Yeah. But, well, to your point of like everything's gotten a two-week conversation, not everything. I'm paraphrasing. You know what I mean? Whereas I think a Star Wars Jedi, even though I loved it, has such a great time with it, it is that boom. blockbuster movie you go and see it you all have fun with it and then yeah you move on and when we get closer to the third installment we'll start remembering oh what I remember bowed and remember Marin and remember this and of course when I get my PlayStation portal that's on the list to go platinum but there's you know that's that kind of game of the year on thin years that kind of game can be game of the year but on game of the year for the best year in gaming ever like it's going to be a different conversation on what you need to bring to the table do we think that the conversation would have allowed to lasted longer and been more impactful throughout whenever we bring up

these topics like this, which according to our audience is every episode. Every episode, every day. If RE2 had the RE2 remake version of itself this year, because RE4 was already one of the top rated games of all time, third person

behind the shoulder action game, and they made it look a lot prettier and improved quality of life type stuff. Do we think the conversation would have been a lot more impactful, more important, if RE4 was originally a top-down isometric game, or like the way you're used to tank

controls and shit like that, similar to if Metroid Prime was originally not a first person type game, if it was just a side of... You're bringing up the point that our... If they did a radical change the way RE2 has... RE4 remake is almost your rose-tinted glasses of RE4. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. But I also think it's the thing of we had RE2 remake in 2019. And for me, I'm playing these games for the first time, right? R.E2 remake was one of my games

of the year of that year, right? It was an incredible experience. I couldn't believe R.E2 was that good. I played R.E3 remake. I played R.E.7 and R.E.

And now I'm playing R.E.4 remake, and it feels like more R.E. Again, as somebody who's coming in and playing these games for the first time, I think if R. If R. Not coming off of us

already having a bunch of R. Especially R.E., I think the impact of it would have been way more. I think for me, I would have been like, yo, this is fucking incredible. I have the same thought about Dead Space, where I'd never really mess with the original Dead Space,

but I play this year and I freaking loved it. Yeah. But if the original Dead Space was a super shitty bad game that had awesome ideas, and then they made it this third-person action horror game, would we be talking about it? This year, like, wow, what a massive glow-up for the Dead Space game, but it ended up being a much prettier game with quality of life.

I think different years. Yeah, I think, for you know, for me, a lot of my, like, response while playing RE4 remake was like, oh, yeah, like, this is cool. It's more RE. And also, I think I might have liked RE2 remake better, right? Like, that was where my thought process was with it, because, like, at this point, the way that they're making RE,

make them feel like more of a, like, beat-to-beat, sequelized franchise as opposed to these big moves that you had between RE2, RA3, originally, and RA4 that felt like these big steps between games. I'm totally with you. And I think that the conversation around four, despite for remake being, I think, objectively the best of them. It's like when you have just played through to with such a glow-up

and it's such a great experience with the zombies. And it's everything you have heard about Ari, but it just presented well and played well. And then you played Village, which is such a similar, like, location to eight to four. And then you play for it's like there was just been so much that I feel like the,

this, what makes Ari4 special to a first timer is kind of drowned out a bit. And I feel like even in a, different, like, RE2 remake for as much as I love that, it would not be in the top six this year. Okay. You know what I mean? So it's like, I feel like that. It's good to have that nods because I'm just not sure how massive these upgrades are for

people like you all who are like the die hard. I mean, like Greg put it really well that the RE4 remake does just feel like how we remember RE4 being, but it's not. It's clearly way better, but it kind of feels that way. RE2 remake is a different game. Like totally different game. A couple ones all throughout out for like dark horse. slash indie games.

Cacoon, you know, like, there's a pretty good conversation happening around Cacoon. Yeah. Right now on Metacritic is sitting at a 92, which is... And everyone that I respect and follow is talking about. Like, oh, my God, this is amazing. And I've only gotten to play a little bit of it. But based on what I played, I'm like, yeah, if we're talking about indie games of the year, the cocoon is right there.

Yeah. And then there's another one I see here on Metacritic that I feel like I've only heard of momentarily called The Case of the Golden Idol. And that has like a 93 on Metacritic? That was, that came... Oh, was that late last year? Because that came out last year. You're right.

It's a, it's a, James was, uh, obsessed with this one. The entire giant bomb crew fucking, I assume it's a port then that got the score. It got,

it just got DLC, I think. Oh, is that it? Cause yeah, I'm looking at the release on October 13th, 2022, so never mind about that.

Lucy listening on nine inch nails and think, you know, that's how you play case of the golden eyes. Of course. I ain't that. It's not that. It's not that.

So I want to go back to one that we dismissed early on, but I kind of want to hear a little more discussion on Starfield. Because like, it's funny. like almost immediately after we had the conversation of Starfield moving on. It was just like, oh, well, Spider-Man's the big PlayStation game,

Mario's the big Nintendo game. Starfield's the big Xbox game. And you love Starfield and know people like mixed, whatever. Where's the conversation out with Starfield now? Because I feel like post-review, people are really into it. I think it's either, the conversation I see is someone who just tweeted about it yesterday is either, because I tweeted like, there's not a day that goes by that I don't wish I had more spare time to play. According to my sources, my tweet from yesterday.

But I mean, what I have as holding up that lightning rod, it's either you're 100% right, Greg, or you're a fucking joke. Are you kidding me? And I feel like that's where it is. So like either you really vibe with Starfield, they're like, oh my God, this game feels like it's fallout. It feels like Bethesda from a different generation. They're not even part of this current generation. I think I think that right there is what eliminates it from being one of the six. I think it's easily RPG nomination of the year. Of course. I don't see it. I think Baldur's Gate kicks the living shit out of it. Yeah. It's that weird thing. by a TikTok algorithm too where I either see very positive TikToks about Starfield or super negative.

And whenever I click into the comments, the comments always agree with whatever opinion that is. Yeah, right. Yeah. I read the other day, I read through so many negative opinions about Starfield. I was like, huh, didn't know people felt this way. And I saw like another positive one. I was like, huh. All right.

Turns out people had different opinions. There's something about Starfield, though, that I feel like the fact that there are that many people that rock that hard, I can see them rocking and it's showing up. Like, we always talk about the splitting of the boats. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I feel like that's the thing right now. Like I will be 100. percent frank with you right now as of October 10th Starfield is my game of the year

it is my number one slot right now and so that is me of course in understanding all the follies and all the problems and yada yada yada and I feel like there are how are we going to play the game blest there are a lot there are a lot of me out there are a lot of me out there but I don't think there's a lot of me at every outlet I don't think there's a lot of me at this outlet right like

when we get to doing top 10 if it's still my number one and I give it all my 10 votes or whatever like I know I'm throwing those votes away Yeah, you're a big game of the year for us. You like Star Wars more than Hi-Fi Rush, this guy. I mean, exactly. Well, you shook my hand on that. But I feel like that's how it is.

You know, you're talking about like knocking each other out. I feel like at an IGN, a game spot, a giant bomb, wherever, with the exception of Jeff Gersman's show, whatever he thinks is it is what it is. But like, I feel like you get to those outlets. And even if there is somebody's like stumping for it, there's going to be enough people being like, well, no, I didn't like X, Y, and Z. And that's why it's the outlets vote and not the person's vote. A quick counterpoint though

Like even though you feel like you're gonna be throwing your points away Like you still have like Mike was really into it Paris was really into it And that's how I know I'm wrong Yeah, Mike's into it Paris is into it What the fuck's wrong with me? So I think while you definitely feel like there might be

Like a downward trend of people being into Starfield I think there's gonna be enough like I think Starfield will be like one of the ones That gets nominated by like the skin of its teeth Kind of it's so true man I think that there's so many bangers this year that it just won't have the juice.

I think we're so undecided this year. It'll be a lot of people's, if it's going to be a lot of people's, there's going to be a lot of outlets, if it's going to be a lot of Jeff's voting outlets, it'll be a lot of people's like fives or sixes, and I think that ends up getting knocked down because. I got a question to throw in here. I think you should go first because I think mine is going to be a little bit

more off top. Well, this is coming off of like, you know, Starfield and like, I feel like kind of the reverse of me and Greg where I played cyrus punk family on Liberty. Yeah. That's where I'm going. That's one where I'm like,

oh, I think I would see this nominated as Game of the Year, right? When you're talking about like a thing that came through and really had an impact and like really lived up to the occasion and feels like a brand new game in 2023. Right? Like, I would, I think it'd be dope to see that as DLC nominated for Game of the Year. I don't know if it will happen, but I think it's chunky and big enough.

And the fact that it is Idris Elba leading the screen and he is one of the main characters in this story, I can easily see it Like I'm you know he's getting a nomination I am oh absolutely I am likely putting this in my top 10 Because of how impressed I am with it so far And usually with DLCs it's always like

Is this like a contender rather Let me do a contender Is this like is this like is this like is there enough You know mass in here Is there enough food in this little case of in this lunchable Are there enough crackers and ham? Yeah, Greg you know Yeah that's what about the Oreos and the Capriese?

Sun. Pacific Cooler I'm in. I think that it's large enough. I think this DLC is big enough and doing it enough impressive things, especially when there have been so many stories about can't cyberpunk ever have its No Man Sky redemption. See, that's my conundrum is do I write in cyberpunk Phantom Liberty or do I just write in Cyberpunk 2077? Because like on both, they would put them together. I would think that they would mash them together, yeah. But I think on the end of just Cyrupunk 2.0 and how good of a revamp that's been for Cyropunk, it looks better. It was way less glitches. I didn't, I had like maybe only one or two glitches in Cyra Punk while playing through

Phantom Liberty, right, and putting in maybe additional 25 hours into the game, which is way less than I had in 2020 when I reviewed it, right? Like, between that, between how leveled up the writing is and Phantom Liberty and Idris Elba and the performances and presentation and combat and like skill tree, I can keep going. Like, this game is fucking awesome. Yeah. When are you going to play it? I want to do.

I think the Phantom Liberty is, is likely. I don't think it's a shoe in by any means, but I think it is 100% in the conversation that it is a toss up between that and most of the other things we're talking. Yeah, like it's in my, for the year, I'll put it in my top five,

maybe top three, honestly. Like I put it in a tweet of like, you know, this Cyropunk 2.0 plus Phantom Liberty. I think it's taken up Cyropunk to being in my, one of my favorite Western RPGs of all time, or I guess just RPG. these RPGs of all time, right?

Like, it is fucking incredible now. I do wonder if enough people have gone back to it, though, with just how much new shit there is out there, you know? Yeah. To say, I mean, yeah, they were killing, they were killing it with just, like, Steam numbers. They were breaking

their records of, like, concurrent people people in the industry, though. People, well, yeah, I mean, I would say so. I think because the DLC is this, like, big new story drop, this big new content drop, I think that's enough to demand attention and demand people coming back. and playing it. And anything within outlets, you then have word of mouth of people going, oh, hey, y'all got to play this for a game of the year. Yeah. And I also, I get your line of thinking,

Baird, but I've always kind of tricked myself going the wrong way and going like, yeah, but will the industry really fuck with this? Or this game's certainly going to be there because the industry loves it and that never happens. Like, Tim is right. The Spider-Man thing, Spider-Man will likely be in that list because of just the mass popularity. And there have been so many games that I'm like, oh, but dude, my Twitter is blowing up about it. Like, all the games industry folks I follow love this one game that came out two years ago and then it's nowhere in any of the nominations. Yeah, but that's my that's kind of feeding into my argument though. It's like I see a lot of people or not a lot of people like I see a good amount of people

talking about cyberpunk, but I don't feel like it's that conversation has been widespread across the industry of people who'd be voting. Interesting. I don't know, man. I think it's again in the conversation. Like I feel like there's so. I feel like there are not a surprise. I feel like it's right. we could make against anything of just like, oh, there's just so much to play. Like, that's how I feel on Armour Corps 6, where it's like, you know. Oh, we haven't even brought that up. Like, Armour Corps 6 is probably one of the best games I've played this year, but also I've not seen as much conversation about Armourke-Six because it's a bit more

huge of the thing. I don't think so. No. I don't think. I think best action game. Yeah. And it should win best action game. I agree.

That or a high-fi rush. Hell yeah, bless. Yeah, let's go. So much. Or Liza P. Put Liza P in there, too. I feel like Starfield and Fatsy 16 have equal chances of being in here. because I think both of them have enough on the pros and cons of how people see them.

What were the cons for Final Fantasy? That it's not a Final Fantasy, quote, unquote. Yeah, I think it's like the hardcore nerds being. But I also, that's my thing is I think it's the hardcore nerds being nerds about it that are beating down Final Fantasy 16 in this way, right? Yeah, I thought the Final Fantasy kind of issues were coming from the same type of people that would like, you know, say Xbox better. Like I feel I thought it was that same sort of vibe of like yeah, but like certain people are saying that that aren't necessarily

You know people that you would Yeah I think a little more credit than that for this conversation not Entirely but I think like at least like I know Large swaths of people that feel this way and whether it's just because it's not an IPG in this way that way The side quests how open some things are how linear most things are like that type of stuff like there's actual valid criticism not just like yeah I mean, my criticism was the side quests, a lot of very, very, like, just unrewarding side quests. And some of them were good. And what sucked was like me having to ask my audience and the kind of funny audience,

what sidequist should I play? Because I don't want to waste my time on the ones that do suck. Because there's a lot of them that you, you know, here's 20 Gill and a little pat on the back. And it's like, none of that was really interesting. There's, I feel like there's a lot of side quests like that. and there are some that are absolute gems that you shouldn't miss out on. And it just kind of sucked having to deal with the other ones

and seeing the much lesser quality in production because game development is expensive and not everything can have top of the line type budget. But, you know, again, seeing these amazing action sequences and then talking to MPC and it's MMO from 2007 NPC animations with mouth flapping. And it's like, ooh, this is like a different game that I'm playing right now.

I think that's a tough thing about Final Fan 16 is that there's a handful of different things where you can nitpick and bring it down and I think does bring it to like that Starfield thing of you have like the side quests not being as robust and not being maybe as interesting all the time as you might want, right? You have the shift in what Final Fantasy has been

in terms of turn-based combat and all that stuff that's gonna hit people in different ways. You have like the controversy in terms of like, oh man, you're not putting black people in your game? Like what's up with that? And them handling all the statements about that from the director, right?

Like not being that great. Especially with a game that's like all the heavy commentary on slavery. Exactly, right? Like, I think all that stuff stacks up against it, but I also don't know if that's one where, you know, is that going to reflect back on IGN voting on it or game spot voting on it, right? Or is that a thing that is focused on message board, like Final Fantasy Reddits or message boards and stuff, right? Is that where that conversation is happening? I mean, the game needs to get nominated because we need to hear Find the Flame in the orchestra. Oh, my God. We have, holy shit. I don't know how little consensus there is today.

No, it's great. But like what the game is. Yeah. No, I, I, But I, so what's funny is Mario Wonder to me is a very, very big question mark because I've been talking about this a lot. Again, I've only played an hour of it for a preview. But everything that we've seen of it, like it's funny. As somebody that loves Mario has played all the Mario games, most of them do 100% completion. If not all of the mainline 2D games. I rock with it in a way most people don't. Most people, maybe they tried.

Like, I'd be willing to bet that the majority of people that are even excited about Mario Wonder didn't beat the last three. or four 2D Mario game. Yeah. And that's totally fine. But there's a lot going for this one that I think people are going to be interested in jumping into. And I imagine it's going to deliver. And even I think that this game is going to,

no matter what, be super well received because even the things that aren't brand new to it, people will think are new because they haven't played and experienced it for the last 10 years or so. I just wonder like, there's something. Hey, God, dang. There's something about it that I don't know how much of a shoe in it is.

Like, that's, that's pretty crazy to me that, like, I'm thinking of that, and maybe it's the Nintendo, we already have Zelda, the way people are thinking

about all the stuff. They're different. I think it's the fact that it's a 2D Mario, not a 3D Mario. I think if it's an Odyssey, too, that it is, with all the creation and creativity

that we know Nintendo brings, I think a 3D Mario is a shoe in, but a 2D Mario, that does feel kind of lackluster. Like, unless you're, an indie game like Celeste, which kind of caught the, world by fire that year. I don't know if Wonder can do it. The only reason I said it was because of like

this looks like the first offering from Nintendo in a while in the 2D sense that is really doing something massively different. Maker obviously existed, but Maker never felt official in any way. It's important to point out that Mario hasn't had a 2D game that like crossed the like 90 Metacritic in really in a very, very, very long time. Like I don't think sense like more or if that even had it back then. I assume, again, just totally just guessing based on how the industry is and based on what I played at this game, I assume that this one has a chance. Like, I think this could crack that, that review score. And if it does, then I think it's like has a much higher chance of being in here, obviously.

But like, I don't know. It's not a lot for me. The thing that's tough is that, like, I view Super Mario Wonder as that like, you know, Nintendo being creative, making this family thing, making a platform. And I put it in that same category as a Kirby and the Forgotten Land and what that did last year. When I look at nominees last year, I curbing the forgotten land didn't make it to the game of the year. Zeno Blade Chronicles did. And like I think in the same way this year could be Legend of Zelda being that ambitious 100 hour like, you know, big old game that we've all been waiting for. And then Mario come through as a big old game. But then Mario coming through as this charming, you know, 2D platformer type thing that doesn't blow people away in the same way that a big open world game does. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. You know, it's the world's wrong. I disagree with the world. Gray also got nominee last year.

It's like, what are we doing? But have we missed any of the giant big ones? Because I don't think so, right? I mean, we didn't talk about Liza P. I mean, if Armored Corps 6 doesn't have a chance. Yeah, that's my thing is I put Liza P in that same ArmourCore 6 conversation of, I think a specific group of people really rock with this thing, me and Nandia are in that group.

I'm Barrett's in that group for Armour Corps, at least. I don't think the industry wide is going to hit that, right? Like, I look at the IG score. for both those. I think I jen gate both those games in eight. I think GameSpot might be aligned with that too. And so like if the overall consensus for media and outlets is like eights and nines,

I think you got to be hitting more than that in order to get into the conversation. Yeah, I'm with that. I think those are action game in the year for sure, like two ins, but I don't see them quite on that echelon. I think if it's, I mean, who knows? Maybe you put the from software title on there and say

like, this is a from software game. Maybe like... Yeah, they were nominated the last two times. I mean, there's a taste for those games, right? Yeah. But like, do you guys think that Liza P doesn't sound like it, but do you think Liza P kind of like hits that level that Bum does? I do personally in terms of like the gameplay. I don't know if it does in terms of the impact.

You know, I think it is very much, hey, we want to make Bloodborn and they made a real damn good bloodborne, right? Like mixed with a lot of other elements, but they made a really good one of those. I think the thing with From software is that when you look at their last few games, you know, like, or, let's take it back to 2015, right? Bloodborn came through, and it was fucking bloodborn, right?

Some years later, they come out with Sekiro, and Sekaro is different, it's fresh, it has this cool Perry system, it does all this stuff, and it hits. A few years later, you have Eldon Ring, and, like, all these games are moving things forward. Genre-defining. Genre-defining games. WisePee isn't genre-defining. It's just a really good one of those, and so I think that's the thing that holds it back.

I think it's easily the best souls-like that's out there, and I would put it above Demon Souls in my own, like, rankings of, like, I, you know, Andy, is this game better than any of the actual From Solver games? I think Demon Souls would be it, but I certainly like it's combat more than, like, Dark Souls 1. I think the combat's fantastic, but it doesn't quite have that, the wonder and the level design at Mario Wonder. But it's, it's so phenomenal that it kind of has no business being as good as it is. Does Dave the diver not have a chance? That'll be an indie title.

Yeah, it doesn't have a chance for a game of the year, but yeah. Is that, is that an indie game? Yeah. Dave the diver? Yeah. I feel like we've had this conversation before. Whereas like developed, I forget who developed it, but. Oh, really?

Oh, I didn't know it was one of those. I thought it was a, like, just a smaller indie studio. I think it's definitely going to get some sort of nomination. It's published by Nexon. Yeah, we're not talking about publisher. Mm-hmm. Mint Rocket. I'd have to look into their games

But I think they made like a lot of bigger games They have 570 employees I clicked on Mitt Rocket Yeah and it took me to The Nexon page So are they owned by it? I think that's still an indie title though In 2020

Nexon announced the launch of Mitt Rocket A subbrand of division of Nexon That's special so no If you're a subbrand I mean there's not an indie award anyways right Is that all there is debut indie for sure Debut I think there's also best indie

Yeah Yeah, because they used to have debut Indy and overall Andy, which is always very confusing and weird. Because Vampire Survivors won best debut, but it didn't win, or there was one of those games that, like, should have gotten both.

It was kind of like, why doesn't this win both? So closing this out, is there any game that you guys think should be there that you just know is not going to be? Armored Corps. High Fire Rush. Because for me, it's just Survivor. Like, I can't believe that we have a year

that that that's not one of the top six. Yeah. I can. I can. It's a great game. I guess the thing is like I don't, this whole toss up like, again,

my personal connection to Starfield, but I understand why I won't be there. Yeah. I know what you mean. I'm not offended. I mean, based on the demo for Ghost Runner 2, like probably like such a great time,

such an awesome game, but of course it won't be there. It's personally going to be one of my favorites of the year. I can tell. I'm going to shout out from Chad. I was going to say that's actually a great grab. I did have a lot of fun with that. Three-fighter six is my answer, though.

I think forever six, 1,000 percent should be there, and I don't think it's going to be there. Shout out to Sponspox SquarePants, the cosmic shake. Very big game this year. Really quick question I have for y'all, because, you know, for the last few months, we've had this conversation here and there, and like always the conversations, the locks are these two games. The Locksons of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, and Balders Gate 3, which I personally believe is what the winner is going to come down.

to is between these two games. Who do you think is going to win between the two? At the Game Awards. Yes. Legend of Zelda. I think so, too. I really don't know. It's close. I think Balthor's Gate only because of Breath of the Wild one.

I think it's just say we'll go with a different thing. I think it's a better story if Baldersgate three wins. I think if I would vote for Zelda to here's the kingdom because I still get blown away by the fact that that game even works the way it does. Yeah. Like the fact that that game doesn't even buckle. under all the shit that you're doing. Like, that game shouldn't exist the way it exists. But Ballard's Gate 3, when you're talking about, like,

moving a genre forward and really having like a, hey, this is how you make an RPG in 2023. I think Balders Gate 3 does that so well that I think it will make a better story. For me, I'm equally impressed by both of what they do. I think Baldur's Gate is, I think Tuesday's the King is more impressive because Baldergate is just doing what other.

RPG should be doing. Yeah. Where like Tuesday of the Kingdom is taking the creativity and systems and mechanics to a different level where Baldr's Gate is like just doing what you would expect other RPGs to do but usually there's just not enough development time or budget or resources to put through all of the different like well if you if you took a shit on that little fucking piece of wood the guy eight hours later will be like hey just take a piece of shit like it's doing what other RPGs should be doing way better

but I think Tears's the Kingdom is a more impressive video game. I mean, the moments in Tears of the Kingdom, right? Like so many of those mythic moments of like when you get the master's sword or when you do like when you solve certain quests and all this stuff, like there's a build up to moments in that game that are going to stick with me for a lifetime in the same way that Ocarina did. Yeah. I compare it to my time with Breath of the Wild where like I was so impressed by Breath of the Wild

not by any of the story stuff, not by any of the cutscenes, but just by the sheer like gameplay and exploration and discovery. And Tears did that. along with all of the hype moments and making me cry fucking five times in three hours like goddamn that can add like three levels of maps

like it had like a fucking sky map ground map and unreal real impressive but also Ballard's Gate 3 I could roll dice and then kick a squirrel Yeah, that's big so let's put our votes in on what do we think at this moment

as of October 10th, 2023 who thinks that Zelda has it so okay Tim and Greg say Zelda and Andy and Bless say Baldersgate So now to close out this episode Gallum I want each one of us to predict what the six are

so Baldersgate and Zelda are two so we each need to say four I'm going Starfield Fall Fantasy 16 Spider-Man 2 and Mario Wonder Okay Why do I have a song lyrics I was looking at games 2023 Um okay

Ballers Gate Tears of the Kingdom Spider-Man Street Fighter 6 That's for you bless Hell you Love you for that. I'm going to go Final Fantasy 16 and Alan Wake 2.

What a year, man. Holy, right. Sorry, I'm finalizing. I'm finalizing. Damn Liberty is my one that I'm like, it's not a Mario one. Phantom Liberty I really want to put in there, but I think the fact that there are so many Bangor,

like new games that came out this year is the one reason why I don't think I'm going to include it. But yeah, Zelda, Balders. And then for me, it's going to be Spider-Man 2. Street Fighter 6, Final Fantasy 16, Mario Brothers Wonder. Reggie Miller. Blos us out here. Zelda, Balders Gate, Spider-Man 2, Super Mario Wonder, Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077.

Wow. Ooh. D-Dun-Dun-Dun-D-I. You said Alan Wake 2? I did. Wake up, Samara. Hey, hey, hey, Night City. And Pacifica's just Pacifica.

There you go, everybody. Let us know in the comments below what you think the six nominees for Game of the Year at the Game Awards. 2023 will be, of course, stay tuned to us for the next couple weeks and months and years and everything because we're going to be covering all the video games coming out. Of course, we will be live reacting to the Game Awards in December. I'm sure we'll even be doing our predictions topics once the nominees are officially announced to go through topic by topic category by category. what we think is going to win.

But have fun out there, you know? Have fun. It's the calm before the storm, and there's not calm at all, but the storm's coming next week, y'all. We got Mario Wonder. We got Spider-Man, and then right off of that,

we have Allen Way, too. But before that, what do we have plus? We got Sonic Superstars, baby. See you next week. Bye. Do you guys start Spider-Man yet?