Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - The Best Games of 2015 - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 50(Soundcloud)

Episode Date: January 1, 2016

We take a look at the best games of 2015. (Released on Patreon on 12.25.15) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up guys, welcome to the first ever. Get this, motherfuckers. Episode 50. Oh, wow. Of the kind of funny games cast. I can't believe we made it this far. Do we get a cake? We don't get a cake, but we did.

From iTunes themselves. Yeah? We won their best of 2015 podcast thing, which is really fucking cool. In Canada. From what I understand, Canada voted for us. So we got Canada's vote. It's iTunes. So we're there overall.

We're there overall. Is this publicized anywhere? Yes. They gave us a whole thing. There was like we get badges we can put on our artwork and stuff. So it's pretty cool. Let's do it right now. Kevin put the badge on there.

I don't want Canada's awards. Kevin bring in, no, I think he's saying it counts. Yeah, but I just don't want it. Kevin bring up the badge right now. Put the badge over my face, Kevin. Fuck yeah.

Yeah, that's how that feels. My God. We're coming up the end of the year here. Now we're winning awards. Finally, it's all happening. I'm really excited about that. It's been a long, not even a year for us.

Yeah. And here we are at the top of the mountain. So that means we have a couple episodes left in this year. Because of the way we distribute this show, there is going to be some overlap. I think next week's is the one that kind of is going to go into the next year. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah. So it counts both.

Early people get in 2015. Late people get it on 2016. If you want to get things early, Patreon.com slash kind of funny games. You can get all the things early. I can hear right now very well. Why? You got water in here? No, I just feel like a little congested.

See, I'm very sick, and I can't hear anything. Oh, you're very sick. Good. It's good that you're here with us. Yeah, I had to. He was sick at the holiday party, too. So now he's no longer contagious, but that night's super contagious. Yeah.

So I'm. When you were sharing drinks with him, Colin? That idea. Done. I think you shared drinks. But it'll be okay. It's going to be okay. Get me the zinc and the vitamin C, Kevin.

Kevin, echinacea. Bring me a pair and a side of Nutella. I went. Don't bring me those things, Kevin. I went to, uh... Stad hanging me that belt. I went to Walgreens's like a couple weeks ago to get echinia, and they had no idea what I was talking about.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know what that is either. Echinacea is like an herbal supplement that's really good for your immune system. It's quite popular. Had it shown this off yet. Yeah, that's great. Of course, when I beat you

in the Nintendo World Champion, or the kind of funny Nintendo World Championship on Mario Tennis, we said there needed to be a traveling championship belt, and then our good friends at ToastyStickers, flamingtoast.com made it for us. They made it happen? That will be mine, Greg.

I hope you know. What do you want? I'm the champion, so what let's play do you want to take me on in next with it? Any. Any Nintendo Let's Play. You're that confident. That confident. Mario Golf, Toadstool Tour.

Let's do it. Go fucking get it. So, okay, what we're doing here, guys, it's a little different than our normal shows. This is a year-end wrap-up, the beginning of our year-end wrap-up extravaganza. What we're going to do is this episode is going to be a look back at all of the video games that came out this year. And we're going to review all the ones that we played in quick little synopsisize. It's going to be fun. 20 point scale.

Colin has to number everything. Colin loves numbered video game reviews the most. So what we're going to do is topic one is going to be kind of the multi-platform games. So your Fallout 4s, your Metal Gear Solid fives and whatnot. Topic two is going to be PlayStation. So we're going to review all the PlayStation exclusive games, both Vita and PS4, and just kind of reviewing PlayStation's year in 2015 overall. Then Nintendo, then Xbox with a game. couple, you know, the PCs and the mobile stuff will add all into one little thing.

Just because... All the shit we don't care about. It's not as knowledgeable about that subsection of the gaming world. I'm getting ahead of myself. I know some Xbox games out there, buddy. But then what we're going to do... Mobile, I don't know anything. Next week, so this is kind of looking back at this year.

Next week, just a little hint at the future here, we're going to predict 2016. So it's going to be the same idea. First one's going to be looking at the big games of 2016. then it's going to be predicting PlayStation, predicting Nintendo, predicting Xbox. I like this show's idea, and I like that show's idea. And I like them so much.

I say when we do it next week, we wear the same clothes. Okay, I like that. It's almost as if we're going to record that episode right after this episode. But that would be weird. But that episode, we're not going to record today because we're going to wait until the new year

so we can think and ponder on this. It's our game of the year episode. Portie is going crazy. That's how he's going to get really hard. So we've got game of the year coming up. So just so people are asking when it's coming. It's going to come in 20. and it's going to come hard.

What we're going to do then. It's going to be four topics. You're familiar with the format of the show. Topic one, it's going to be my 10 favorite games in 2015. Topic two, Colin Moriarty's, one of the coolest dudes in video games. This will be the intro right here. Favorite games is 2015. Then the other half, the coolest dudes in video games, Greg Miller, his 10 favorite games.

Then the final topic is going to be the kind of funny game of the year discussion. So we got some good things in the next couple of series. A lot of good shows. A lot of solid shows that are worth the dollar. They're all worth the dollar. What are you going to do with that, Greg? I'm going to throw to my shoulder now. Oh, okay.

Go through all the championship belt poses. You remember who beat you. Oh, I remember. And who is the kind of funny Nintendo World Champion. Look at Mario with a little kind of funny face on it. He knows what's up. Kevin, you ever think you'd be this close to a champion? The trending gamer.

The number one voted Canada podcast of iTunes. We have so many awards. It's just raining. The awards, not only the ones we make up, the ones were actually awarded in foreign countries. In foreign countries. Let's get right into this. So foreign.

Let's get right into this. So let's start off with the big one, Fallout 4. Okay. You guys have had some time. You've platinumed it. I did platinum it. Another trophy from my collection. You just, man, they're just raining down on you.

I know. What are the thoughts a couple weeks past the platinum? Oh, one of my thoughts past past the platinum. It was fun. It was good. It was what we wanted. You know, coming into it, we had this conversation, right? Of like, you were talking to me and calling about it and what we wanted out of it.

And I was like, my expectation. is that it will be fallout three on p.s.4, but my hope is there'll be something there that'll blow me away, and I didn't expect that that didn't happen. Fallout four is Fallout 3 for me souped up. It dropped a lot of the mechanics and things I didn't like about it. It's my favorite fallout of all time, but it wasn't revolutionary. You know what I mean? It didn't catch us off, it caught me off guard like Fallout 3 did. You know what I mean? That was like a huge, huge event for us. Fallout 4 was a lot of fun. Loved it, but I was just talking about the other day about another podcast. Looking back at it, I really only have a few handful of like, wow, and then there was this moment that happened.

Like my, you know what I mean? Like, I think of it and I think of going there and getting things and picking locks and do, you know what I mean? Like not mundane activities. They were fun. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed leveling up and building my character and, you know, da, da, da, da. But I, you know, for me, Fallout 4 is me and this one companion I chose and then fell in love

with and then banged all the time. You know what I mean? Like that, for me is like, that's the story of Fallout 4. Whereas like, Fallout 3, I mean, you know, you go down. meet this robot. He thinks he's Thomas Jefferson. The first time you run into a super me or super behemoth or whatever, blah, blah, blah. Like those are like stand out. Oh my God, that was crazy. And fallout four I do feel was more like, it was what I expected.

It hit the spot. Loved it. Platined it. Don't regret it. You know, I'm super excited for DLC for it. But I'm not sitting here at all considering it for my overall game of the year. Colin? I played for like 25 hours. Went out to breakfast with a friend of mine yesterday. And we were talking about the game. He sees playing it as we speak. And we both kind of agreed.

It's just not Fallout 3. And that's a shame because it's a good, it's a great game. I think it's a fantastic game, actually. But it's, the bar was set so high by its predecessors that I, I think that that's why I just fell out of it. I just didn't feel like playing it anymore. I really barely touched it since it came out, actually. We had the game very early. We had in October.

So, I mean, that's when I was really cruising through it late October, early November. It's a, it's a great game. I just think that it, in hindsight, things have. happened in the way Western Role playing games are made since fallout three came out that makes this seem a little bit rehashed in a way and I'm not I don't want to say I'm disappointed because I don't know if that's necessarily the right word it's just that it's it's not quite what I wanted it to be I was way more excited to play it than I was after 10 hours of playing it or after 20 hours of playing and that's why I just this year for me as people I think have noticed I was going through my

my trophies to see games I played I've not beaten many games this year because my my whole mantra now is like, I'm just going to play until I just don't feel like playing anymore. And that's kind of where I got with Fallout. I think I'll go back to it eventually for sure. But it's a game that in 25 hours, I think I've seen everything that there is to see in the game in terms of like what you could do. So you have a sense of what it is. Yeah. Story, of course not.

But yeah, it's just not it doesn't, I remember Fallout 3 like I was obsessed with it. And I don't feel that way with Fallout 4. So it's certainly not. It hasn't lived up to my lofty expectations. Do you think it's just that the detriment of, you know, having Fallout 3, already. Fall 3 was such a game changer, right? We talk about all the time. Like that was like out of the blue because, you know, there's preview tours and yada,

yada, yada, but it changed everything, right? So then to now jump into fallout four and it's not changing everything, it's just building on what fallout three does. I feel like that's more some of it's coming through. Like it's great, but I'm not like, why? Everybody, you know, why haven't you played it? Yeah, it's definitely, I mean, it's very popular. It's a second bestselling game in November and it's doing extremely well.

And I'm sure that they're very proud of it and they should be. I just think that there are developers and with, with Western role playing games specifically, maybe even Witcher that show what's possible in those kinds of worlds that I think that Bethesica can learn a thing or two from. That said, the game's fun. It's got a hook.

It's definitely one of those games where you go in any direction to do whatever you want and you never tethered to anything and I appreciate and respect the amount of freedom that the game gives you. But I really am more intrigued now at Bethesia Game Studio's ability to take the next step and I don't know that they did with Fall Out 4. I mean from the 25 hours I played over which I think is plenty of time to realize to a plate of game and know a few.

25 hours is more than than you would spend with 95% of the games you ever play. So, um, you know, I think I've seen enough to kind of have a feeling that. Yeah. And in hindsight, people have tweeted me like, are you disappointed? And I again, I don't know if that's the right word. I just, it doesn't have its hooks in me at all. Yeah. It had its hook and hooks in me, but like what he's saying, like they didn't do anything new,

like, right? The new thing they did was settlements and I fucking hate them. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to build the town and do this. It's, it's clunky. It's not fun. You know, I only did it for the trophy. And that was like, such a bitch.

Because it was like, yeah, let's manipulate the system and put down 15 clinics. And then maybe rugs work, maybe statues work. Everyone on the internet saying different things. So I'll just fucking throw this shit everywhere. You know what I mean? Like, it's rugs everywhere. Rugs everywhere. Like I, yeah, it's this weird thing of like, I don't want to make it sound like, yeah, I'm, I'm not disappointed, loved it.

It's just not like, whoa, you know, my hair is blown back and I can't believe what I just experienced. You know what I mean? It's totally like, when we talked about it leading into it, like, what do I think it's going to be? Like, this is what I thought it was, which is great. Again, totally stoked for the DLC and I'll get all that. So the next game we're going to talk about, Which are three,

which kind of has a different scenario going into it than that Where with Fallout, you played Fallout 3 and loved it. So you expect something of 4. Whereas Witcher you guys didn't play one or two. When Fresh into 3, what are the thoughts on 3 now? Witcher 3 is, it's still, it's this weird thing with Witcher 3, I feel like, right? Where it's that like that song,

Love the one you're with. You know what I mean? I was, this whole year, I was so stoked for Metal Gear's open world, in quotes, fallouts, a big open world, you know, even Batman to extent, you know what I mean, where it was like, I want to get lost in some worlds. I want them go in and, you know,

have progress bars and stats and this, that, and the other and build my character out the way I want to build it out. And so, which are three, the more you heard about it, the more we saw of it, the more we played it, it was like, I'm not a fantasy game guy. You know what I mean? It's really not the world I like to exist in,

but I'm so, I'm ready to drink the sand. I'm so thirsty right now, you know what I mean? So when it got there, jumped in and put what, like, 35 hours in? I'd have to go look at the save file, right? But then when Batman came, it was like lights out. You know what I mean? And like, now I sit there and I'm so often, like, maybe I'll get back to that one day, but it's going to have to be that I'm thirsty again and there it is. Like I, I, Witcher 3 is an amazing game, I feel. I love the fan community that's around it and how passionate they all are all are about it. But yeah,

it was totally one of the things I was visiting. You know what I mean? So it's like, I had a good time playing it and I enjoyed myself. And I told you. totally understand why it's winning game of the year already, even though Calmore already said it wouldn't happen. But yeah, like, for me, it was like, cool, this was what I need right now and now I don't. So now I'm on to something else. Yeah, Witcher, it was the game I spent the most time with. I think I spent 50, 60, 70 hours with it.

I mean, I played the hell out of that game. I didn't beat it because there's no beating it, apparently. It beats you. But I think that the game got really long in the tooth and I just didn't want to play it anymore. But the, the, there's something about it. And I've said many times now, CD Project. very, should, did themselves very proud. Definitely, like, appeared on the scene with this game.

And really, when you put it next to Fall Out 4, like, you know, you can see where some people are upset with Fall Out 4 and why you get it. I mean, Fall Out 4 is not a good looking game. It's, it's got its style, but it's, you know, when you put it next to The Witcher 3, which is, you know, vibrantly colored and beautifully kind of rendered, not that maybe the wasteland should be colorful, but... But the vistas and all these different things you see.

Yeah, there's just something about the, you know, the characters and the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, I think it just seemed like it was alive. I didn't seem like I was doing shit just to do it. And, uh, there was just a lot of shit to do it. Um, I think, uh, it's a special game. I think, I think that, I think that, uh, I think that was the thing, too, is I remember coming into Witcher 3 and Christine, who was, you know, was so into it. She went back and, and, um, didn't meet my expectations. Um, um, didn't meet my expectations. Um, um, that was, played one and two again to get ready and super into it was telling me that like yeah like you're not it's not going to click for you it's not going to work and even like sure i don't like the fan the fantasy setting but like garralt and tris and you know i'm like i liked these characters and syri and stuff and watching them play off each other i was interested from that angle even though it wasn't necessarily this setting i really dug you know what i mean like i was into that world i and like that's what i'm talking about with fallout right of like for for me and fallout i think back right now and i think of my companion in one specific mission where i was like oh that was really cool because it wasn't

I was expecting, right? Whereas, like, Wish or three, it seemed like every, not every quest, but most quests had some twist or element to her. Like, oh, my God, this guy buried his fucking aborted fetus out in the front yard. Now it's out there terrorizing the town? That's fucked up, but I didn't expect that. And then you have to make a choice and you make a choice and it plays out badly. And then you go on the internet to talk to Christine, who's a human Wikipedia for the game. And she tells you, no, the other, it adds really badly over there. It's like, that's really cool. You know what I mean? What Colin's saying is like, the world is alive. And you do, you interact on what you think are just little side quest, but

they're fully fleshed out and they're fully fucked up and that's awesome. Yeah, I think it's like an example of a studio that didn't remain stagnant and really push it. It's really, it's really surprising how good The Witcher is, you know, in many different ways. I was definitely shocked by it in that respect.

Metal Gear Solid 5. Oh yeah. So I haven't played it for a while because I put it on hold when Uncharted Collection came out a couple other things and I haven't played those. And then a couple days ago, I was like, oh, I'm just going to play one more episode. Sure. Chapter. Chapter, whatever the hell it's called.

And I was just, my God. How did I put it down? Oh, no. It's episode. You're right. It's so good. And I love it. And I love that it's every time I play it, I'm like, this is fucking fun.

Yeah. Like, I just have fun playing it. And it's not the Metal Gear that I want. We've talked about Metal Gear so much at this point. But I liked that even after putting it away for a while and coming back to it, I still get that same rush of fuck. I love this. Yeah.

For me, that's the thing. my game of the year. And now, yeah, what I put in initially on launch, 120 something or no, it was 110 hours. I remember. And then I started manipulating the clock and trying to get all these things. And again, put it down forever. And then an extra life picked it up with the intention of platinuming it, even though everyone on the line is like, you're not going to be able to.

I'm like, oh, what are we able to do it? And like, granted, that broke me. Because it was, but it broke me in the fact that I was playing for 12 hours straight in making no real, like, you know what I mean? Like checking off one box rather than the 15 I needed to get to the platinum. But playing that, it was still like, man, this is fun. This game's so much fun. You know what I mean?

And that was one of my things. I was afraid taking a break, like I had taken a month or two off. Coming back and getting into it, would it hook me again? Would it do this? And right back into how good it felt. I mean, the best thing about the game to me is the reward system where it just constantly you just feel like you're learning something new. And there's some new mechanic that they teach you and you want to use it.

And I want to get this weapon. I want to be able to shoot my arm and do all this weird shit. And then even when I step away from it, I come back. And there's already just that one mission I play, there's like new shit that I play. there's like new shit that I'm doing. I'm like, fuck. There's, I don't,

I played a lot of stuff this year, and there's a lot of people who really get gameplay right. You know, we'll talk about them throughout this, I'm sure. But like, I don't think there's a better gameplay loop than Metal Gear Sond 5.

You know what I mean? In terms of like, yeah, you come back from a mission and now, okay, while you were gone, these biological resources, you know,

process this way. If you're into FOBs, this is happening. Now this development is done, so you get to take this gun out and do that. You know, I mean, like,

it's like, fuck, syndicate right now, which I'm late on. I'm enjoying it. But it's not as, it's not as the, the loop isn't there in the same way. You know what I mean? Like, I'm like, I want to clear this entire map. And I look at it. I'm like, well, that and things all the way over there. And my trains all the way. Like, how do I get over there easy? And like, yeah, well, I'll go look at what, you know, unlock this, that of the other. And it's, well, it's not unlocking the way I want to hear this. And like, why, why even buy that weapon? If I keep upgrading this, you know what I mean?

Whereas Metal Gear was so clearly spelled out, like, here's what's happening and how it's happening. I felt like for a long time you have an abundance of resources, right? And then by the time you start making those tough decisions, you've kind of taste tested everything so you know where you want to go. Do you see yourself platinum me ever? I do. I'm going to platinum metal. You're solid, the fan of pain. It is going to be, I'm not going to do it the way I thought I was going to do with extra life, which was I'm going to sit down and beat it all. No, it's like, cool. Tonight, let's try to S rank this mission to get the task done and then put it aside and come back to it. It's going to be a long play for me. And do you think you're going to beat syndicate? I do think I'll beat syndicate. Syndicate is one of those two where it's like that's when I toy around with platinum

because it's one of those where I like this they don't there's no other multiplayer garbage in there and I like the collectathons. You know what I mean? Like I do like that and that's what I'm in the mood for right now. So like coming into a holiday break with it seems really good. The only thing that might stop me is that I want to go back and get all the DLC trophies for Batman, which is like, you know, doing the challenge rooms again and the Batmobiles with the different things like that. So that's going to be that'll be what's competing for time. And then it's also like, well, I want to play Life is Strange and I want to do this and I want to do that. But when I just want to fucking put on a podcast and chill out and go sink points and get treasure chests and

check things off the map you know what I mean just like rise of the tomb writer assassin's street syndicates great at that and I really like the characters in that when I beat syndicate which will be into the new year we should come back and have it's own topic because I'm really really enjoying the game works for me have you played any more metal gear than just the opening mission no no comment on metal gear okay um call the duty black ops three you did a let's play did you ever get any further no I never got never touched that's that's always going to be like a holiday game for me um um black questioner movie basically is liked what I played so far, but I mean, you know, I don't have any real comment on it other than to say that the game murdered at retail.

Best selling video game, I think, since 2013. Damn. That's crazy. That's surprising, right? We were talking about when is the drop-off. When is the drop-off? Dying Light. I still say dying lights, like, the best experience I had this year.

And it's one of those games where I never beat it and, you know, I'd like to, but I'd Again, I saw the loop and I understand it. It reminds you the Witcher and that it comes from a, you know, a team, Techland that never showed that they can make a game like this and really appeared on the scene. And frankly, it's another game that makes Fallout not look very good in its open world. I like the setting. It's like a Mediterranean kind of like Turkish kind of thing. Like you don't really see that in a lot of games. The parkour is really great.

And it makes sense. I remember when I first played the game, I was complaining about how you couldn't map. and buttons. And then I realized like, wow, you can't map the buttons because what I want to do doesn't even make any sense in the grand scheme of things. It's a cleverly made game. And I didn't know that they had it in them. And dying light benefited from when it was released because I think it would have been buried

if it wasn't released then. But the zombie thing is kind of like tired and I get that and I'm fucking over it too and like they're boring and all that kind of stuff. And I want new things for sure. That's true. But, you know, it's a fun game. crafting, you're exploring, you're doing side quests, the characters are like zany and weird. The story is like a cool idea. There's like a real feeling of like imminent danger in the game too

when you're out at night. Jesus. The game's like really the day night cycle is scary. Like you can get caught out in the like way far away from where you need to be and like you can't do anything about it. Just run. Yeah, like you just start running because the game gets impossibly hard at night. Um, so it's great. Yeah. So I think I think dying lights a fantastic game and it was definitely like the game that I love the most this year. Um, for me it was a fallout. Like, like, his was with fallout or yeah i put i don't know 15 20 hours into it will say or whatever you know so i get this and i really i'm so i can't believe that they did it either like especially being a dead island fan right and watching that series progress and whatever that this is so good not i you know mirrors edge

i thought the parkour really put me off it just wasn't fluid whereas this is totally not that you feel empowered you're running around having a great time but it was that thing though of a while and it's like well i can play this another 20 hours and keep going but i understand what it is and i like what it is and I'm good. Star Wars Battlefront. I have to say, one of the most fun games I've played. Sure.

I just keep on to play. Just little chunks. Have you played more since we, yeah, like when we were all into it? Have you not called me? Why don't you text me to play? I don't know.

Why don't you like me? I don't like people, dude. I don't like the whole having a deal with people thing. Kevin and I were playing a whole week together. We did a whole week of a game. It was great. You could have been there.

You invited me one time. Yeah, I couldn't figure out how I do shit with this. I was like, I'm done. I'm just, I'm just going to keep playing about myself. What are you going to say, Kevin? Is Tim playing online?

Are you, no, are you doing a single player mission? No, no online. Okay. Battlefront took me totally by surprise. I'm not, not,

like let's go down the list of why I shouldn't care about this game. Not a huge Star Wars fan. I like it enough. But a great example of this is, we're recording this, the week Star Wars comes out. And yesterday, Christine and I were talking about

we needed to buy for dinner this week. And she goes, well, is there anything that's going to take us away from dinner this week? And I go, no, no, I don't think so. Let me look at the calendar. I'm like, no, no. Oh, Thursday, we're going to see Star Wars.

Like, totally forgotten. I hate you so much. Not a huge Star Wars fan. Don't like competitive multiplayer, usual. Don't play multiplayer to begin with, really, right? And I don't even play first person shooters all that often. But when it, you know, the more and more we saw of this game. And then when I watched Colin and Nick's Let's Play and they were having such a great time with it.

I was like, all right. And then yeah, sure enough, got in there. And it's the first time I've ever used party chat on PlayStation 4. Me and Kevin run around having a great time being idiots calling each other, debating what web? He got the jetpack. I'm like, what's it like? Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like all these different things. It's like we talk about it a lot on, I think calling it live the most of, you know, well, it's this, it's casual. Yeah. It's not aimed at Alfredo. It's not aimed at that. And like, how is that going to play out and blah, blah, blah. For me, it plays out great of like it's the kind of first person shooter where I put it down and haven't played it since like right.

But I feel like if you were going to say we're playing tonight, I'd jump back in. Yeah. I'd totally be in there. We're saying the casual thing. That's so right. Like for me, I'm very casual when it comes to video games overall. But specifically first person shooter is like, that's just not my thing. Like I loved Halo back in the day and I loved that stuff.

But like once things, once college duty kind of took over and like there's all the perk systems and the leveling up and all that stuff, I don't even know that. Like I don't even understand how that all works. So this with Battlefront, it's kind of a cool way for me to play where it's like, it's like, you know, you always talk about Pokemon being like baby's first RBG. I feel like Battlefront a lot of ways is just like, it's a, hey, here's an easy way to introduce you to what modern first person shooters look like. And I'm like, oh, fuck, I actually like this. Yeah. I like playing and leveling up and all that stuff. Whereas being an outsider of a.

before I was like, oh, that sounds like a grind. That doesn't sound fun at all. But it's like it's not intrusive and it's cool and you do feel a sense of progression. Sure. And even you don't need to be good. That's the thing is you just have fun. Even when you die, it's like it's not like you're out of the action forever. Exactly.

You're right back in. And that's the thing is like it can go, I guess, spawn to respond. You know, one spawn, you can come out and you just get your fucking teeth kicked in. And then another time you can actually post up at a good location or something. You figure out this great like place where everybody's going to choke and you're going. You know what I mean? I always felt like I was in it. Even when my team's getting decimated,

I'm just happy to try to work my way towards the middle or top of the pack, right? I'm like right there, it's like awesome. Historically, Kevin and I are the worst people every time on our team. But when we're not, we're like, oh, man, good, that was great. And that's, I love that.

And it's, you know, so many people hate it because, like, oh, is it worth $60 or whatever? And it's like, I can't even comment on that. I don't know. Is it probably not? But, like, I'm having a lot of fun when I do play. And it doesn't need a million modes

for me to have fun with the modes that I'm playing. Yeah. So it's great. And I love that during every match, like the musical kick in like when it's like the final like 20 kills or 50 or whatever it is like when it's close to the end like star wars music starts playing you're just like fuck yeah this is so fucking star wars and you get 10 kills and no death's waddle comes out oh yeah yeah yeah it's a pogimudad so greg this is probably just for you destiny the taken king oh yeah i had fun you know what i mean i had been i destiny originally

comes out last year i play it at launch for a good number of hours get up to 20s. 22 or whatever, it was just at the time, you know, getting close to the ceiling or whatever. And then, yeah, took the weekend off. Everybody got amazing, started raiding and I came back and I couldn't, you know, I was like, well, whatever. Fell off. Everybody continues to be crazy about it. And then taking King came out. It was like, it's a story and it's this and it's that. And I'm like, all right, cool. And like, jump back in. I only played it again for like a week. You know what I mean? Still haven't rated. I'm just running around doing all that stuff. And it was like, totally. This is fun. It's more game than it was before. And it is that thing of in a different reality where I have a normal. normal job. I'm playing Destiny nightly and I'm going on raids and I'm having a great time. You know what I mean? Like, I

enjoy that kind of gameplay. I enjoy you know, that was my big thing with shit, what was it? Um, Halo, which we'll talk about when we get to Xbox, right? But when I was playing Halo with Smyr on co-op, I was like, yeah, this is all right, but like, why don't we just play Destiny? You know what I mean? Like, I'm invested in my character and my gear

and my engrims and all, you know what I mean? Like, I'd if I'm going to play that kind of game, I'd rather play that game. I'd rather play that. And Tate King does a great job of spicing stuff. up and putting things in making it more approachable you know what I mean like I keep trying to push my friend Poe to buy a PS4 and if he does then I'm gonna get him take a king

and then we would just go off and do that because he can just jump to pretty much right where I am we can go just cause three um just cause either you played any more than just the less place I've played like very real I installed in that I deleted it basically I did a bunch of space yeah I did a bunch of

I mean a handful of the early missions yeah I played maybe an hour and a half I like it more than like just cause two Just Cause 2 came out. I remember and Clements was like, This game's awesome. I was like, yeah.

And I took it home and I was just like, I don't like a movement system. And all this is is blowing stuff up. And I'm like, whatever. There's no personality to this, but I get why people dig it. Don't get me wrong.

Not my kind of thing. And so the more we saw for Just Cause 3, of course, I'd hosted a panel at Pax and they actually showed the destruction. Oh, okay. This looks like it's more of Just Cause 2. But when you pop it in and like it opens with that like, it's like the cinematic,

like they're introducing goofy characters and this and it's fun. And it was like, oh, okay, good. Now it feels like they've taken the crazy-ass gameplay and combined it with a crazy-ass story. And it's like, okay, now I'm in. Just because three reminds me of what I remember Grand Theft Auto 3 being. Sure. When I first played it, I'm just like, you could do anything. And it's crazy and blah, blah, blah.

But it's like really in GTA 3 now, modern times you look back and it's like, oh, you're pretty limited in what you can do. But this, you really can do any of those dumb ideas you had and anything. Anything get exploded. And I fucking love that. Yeah. And that's the thing. I don't think I'm going to pick it back up. You know what I mean?

I played a couple, maybe an hour. I don't even know. And it's the same thing of like, I like how it took the story and they merged it with this crazy game playing. But it's like for me, like I, for me,

for a collectathon open world, I want to do something like Assassin's Creed where I'm clearing this off and doing that. And oh, hey, I'm talking to Charles Dickens and Charles Dickens and Charlie things neat.

You know what I mean? Shout out to Charles Dickens. Yeah, definitely always. Colin. Yeah. Lego Dimensions. Just playing Greg.

Yeah, Lego dimensions. You're like a fucking nerd. I just popped it in a couple days ago to finish off my Doctor Who DLC trophies and stuff. also to try out the Superman they gave me. How was it? To John.

It's awesome. I mean, it's Superman. You know what I mean? Like that, so that's the thing about Lego Dimensions. Dial it all the way back to the beginning of the year when they put out the teaser trailer for it. Remember, we were on Colin and Greg Live. And I was like, Colin's like, what do you think of this?

I'm like, there's a million toys of life games. I don't know. I need to see more. They put Superman or Ghostbusters in. I'm in. And then the chat was like, they tease them at the end of that trailer. I'm like, well, I'm in, fuck. and then it was at Comic Con where I sat down

and actually got a demo from Arthur and saw the game and the Doctor Who people were there. And I'm watching it. I'm like, oh, it's the Lego game gameplay with this toy. Like, I don't know what I was expecting, what I was thinking, but I was thinking more along the lines of like that Lego, not MMO, a builder, Minecraft thing that's on PC or whatever. Which isn't like the Lego game you know, you know what I mean?

Whereas this was the Lego game I knew, but it was all the different Lego game shoved together. You know what I mean? And I keep going back to like, at the Comic-Con thing I'm watching and they're putting different characters on and like their huds are changing and they look like the ones pulled from Lego Batman or Lego Jurassic World

or whatever. I'm like, that's rad. That's really cool. And then when they came through and did the thing here and showed back to the future and I'm just nerding out over and over again because it's like you're driving around Hill Valley and it's like they're playing Power of Love on repeat. And then you know, in the open world that isn't even connected to, or the hub world

that isn't even connected to the story, you can go between, you know, 85, the future and the past. And I'm like, this is all. And eventually the developer turns to me and he's like, yes, it's as if we care. And it's like, right. you guys do you know what i mean and so that was when it was like fever pitch height for me of just like

if they treat every franchise this way then like that's fucking incredible and then you get i got the game and played it and they did you know what i mean and for me it was even this weird thing of like i don't like scooby-doo particularly i don't hate them or anything you know what i mean i'm a big scrappy do fan yeah but like scooby-doo is not my cup of tea but like even his level was fun and like it was weird to see it work in reverse too which you know we always talk about when we talk about games bringing people of different things where I've never watched a Doctor Who before, but Doctor Who's involved in the story of Lego Dimensions, even if you just have the base pack with the three guys or whatever, right? And so when we went to his world and fooled around with him, I finished

off and I was like, huh, tweeted about like, what Doctor Who episode should I watch and got recommendations and watch Doctor Who on Netflix? You know what I mean? And like, then I was motivated to buy the level pack. And it's this weird thing of like, it's this great mix of the gameplay I love of Lego games, which, you know, you have the humor of Lego games. And then a reason now to play with Legos, if that makes sense because you like I bought you know I have the Lego Ghostbuster car over there. The Acto 1 you know what I mean? I've never put it together because where the fuck am I going to put it in our

apartment? You know what I mean? But one day I will when I have my own place and I'm going to buy the firehouse and never unpack it and have it ready to go. But this is the perfect thing of like playing that game and in the first 10 minutes of it. It's like okay, stop playing our game. The directions are on screen. Let's build your portal. And you sit there and you build and you get that the you know putting the blocks onto a base and it's like I haven't done this in years and this is so much fun. You know what I mean? It's so goofy and fun and then going through and every car has it's like three different variants and it's like

when I'm changing I need I want the the time machine to be a hover car the directions pop back on screen of how to rebuild it you don't have to but I do it every fucking time because it's just fun to play with Legos you know what I mean like it's this awesome mix that I'm like it's for me I've played infinity I like not you know extensively I played enough infinity here and there and then I've played to Skylanders in the same respect and this is for me more active but it really just comes down to having the franchises I love. You know what I mean? A big fan Lego Dimensions. Good. Is Harry Potter ever going to be a thing?

A thousand percent. Not confirmed. There's a, there's this, I'll give you a link to the website. I can't remember off top of my head. But there's a Lego Dimensions fan site that I was on their podcast. And he had a leaked thing of what, like, this like coded thing. It looks like Harry Potter's in wave or next wave or whatever season. But yeah, of course, of course Harry Potter's going to be in it. Good. Then we got Tony Hawks Procator 5. Tim, how you feeling on that?

Biggest disappointment of 2015, period. Wow. Yeah. It's so sad. We knew it was not going to be good. I didn't know it was going to be that bad. You didn't know it would be that bad? That's always the worst when you're like, this won't work out, but.

And they patched it and I tried going back and the patch didn't really fix too much. It definitely improved the game, but it just brought that up from like horrible to like a little bit less horrible. It added Ninja Turtles. So that is a plus. I'm a big fan of Ninja Turtles. Well, there's a silver lining, too. Yeah. It's just like it's upsetting because like it did you know I try to be optimistic about stuff

And even that game there was stuff I liked about it it was fun playing a Tony Hawk again and like having the music play it felt like a Tony Hawk game like just in tone and and look and all that stuff It's just just wasn't good and I wish I wish it was better because that that I think ruined the Tony Hawk's franchise from ever having a chance of being good again. I think that this would have been it's one shot at redoubt After the fucking peripheral games right right full of technology Tony home right real quick sorry brick inquire.com Brick inquire I know it's one of those things you know the kids who run that site were listening like no say the name yeah Fuck it uh and then Transformers devastation which did not disappoint me when I thought it could have so that was a both those games came out like the same yeah right around each and uh it was hard for me because I was like I was wrong about both But with Transformers, it was fun.

It was very short, which I like. I wanted just that quick experience. Was it full price? No. Okay. No, no. And it was really cool. And I never thought we'd play a Transformers game that nailed the Transformers cartoon that much.

Like, it was really... You kept describing it like it was like you'd be how you would play with it on the carpet. It was like ramming... Just ramming toys together. Again, it's how you remember the Transformers cartoon, even though even the battles in that show were not that good. Yeah. But it's like they nailed the aesthetic. They had all the voices.

And they nailed the... Stupid plot of the game where it's like Megatron's taking over the world and it's just like it it was just Throughout the whole thing. It was good. There was like a lot of nice little hints and Teases it potentially a sequel to what is going a direction that I totally would like So that's good and I also think that it's it opens the door for things like a Ninja Turtles game being made by platinum in that style That looks like the 80s cartoon in the same way that tell tell games you're saying a couple episodes ago can kind of tackle games from a different perspective and make it more story-based instead of like action like you can finally get a Batman game that's about Batman instead of just like yeah um I feel like this kind of opens up a

the licensed arcade games from the 90s to kind of make a return in a more modern format gotcha um where we actually get a turtle's 80s cartoon game so I like that a lot good then we got the music games rock band for a guitar hero live yeah both of them I've had ups and downs with. Sure. Both of them, when they work, I enjoy. When Guitar Hero Live works and I can get it to sync, I actually love that game. I think it's really fun and I like how frustrated I get with it because I'm not good at it and I want to get better.

And then you play the songs and I loved that it reminded me the old games where I didn't know a lot of the music and then I heard it. I'm like, I like, I like this. Discovery. There's the discovery aspect. Rock band did not have that. Rock band was very much like, I've done this before. and it was fun doing it again for about an hour

and then you're like, all right, I'm done. I don't need to do this. And whether it's the drums or the guitar or whatever, it was my friend's birthday and we kind of like all got around and had the band together doing the thing.

And it was fun. And then we busted out guitar here and we had more fun with that. Really? That's interesting. Yeah. Because it was new. It was fresh.

And that's the thing for us, I feel like, you know, Colin and I, in particular, we were stoked for a rockman four when we knew it was coming. And it got here and we set it up and it was immediately like,

our DLC's not, working for some reason, even though it's supposed to. The set list packed in sucks. And this is like the exact same tour mode and rewards and story beats. And it's just like, this feels just like rock band, which I was over a couple years ago and I'm not ready to jump back into. And we put it down and never picked it up again. He gave it away. Yeah. And then Guitar Hero came and yeah, I unboxed it one night when I was in between games that liked to play. And I jumped in and yeah, I played it. And I was like, oh, this is fun. Like I like, I didn't, the guitar hero TV, I thought was poorly explained, you know, leading into it or stuff.

So when you sat down and did GHTV, I was like, oh, this is cool. And then, yeah, like the set list I remember reading on Colin and Greg Live and Colin saying, well, that's like marginally better than rock band. But then when you got into GHTV, you can go and like play songs that aren't on the set list, you know, the set list, quote unquote, but are there for you to jump in and spend your credits on that you are earning in the game. I never had to give any real money, even though I'm sure if you play for years or something you'd have to.

But like, yeah, I was like, oh, this is cool and this is fun. But it was another thing. And it was that I liked the challenge, that all of a sudden it was something completely different. I had to focus on getting, you know, these six buttons down or whatever. But same thing of like, put it down and I was like, okay. I've never picked it back up. Yeah. Had a good weekend with it. Yeah. I mean, I think it's one of those things where I will randomly pick up every once in a while when I'm just like at home and I look over at the guitar. I'm like, yeah. It's time. Time to rock out. But it's, I did enjoy guitar. I think overall rock band. I'm like, eh. I don't know if I'll ever even

play that again. Yeah. I enjoy guitar here away more than rock band. Yeah. Um, Batman Orcum Night. Ah, Batman Arkham Night. Thoughts? I enjoyed Batman Arkham Another platinum this year for me. Yeah, I mean, looking back on it, I feel like I talk, not more negatively, but I think the things that I immediately jump to are my cons with it, right? I mean, the pros are,

it's beautiful, it's more Batman. It's a system of combat that you've played before, obviously, and if you love it, you're still going to love it here. And I loved so much about it. But then when I talk about it, I always come down to, I hated the fucking Bat Tank, parts. The tank parts only. They kill 36 things strafing back and forth.

Like, this is stupid. This isn't Batman. Whereas driving the Batman, ramming cars off the road, using it to get a location, location, totally down with.

I enjoyed that part of it, but just the forced tank parts that felt like every other mission I was getting forced to fucking take out 36 guys or whatever it was. That and then the story for me is still not, it's not that I'm hung up on it. It's just that it was presented all wrong

for Batman hardcore fans, I feel. You know what I mean? I'm not going to spoil it. I will not spoil it or whatever, but like, they telegraphed way too early. You know what I mean?

Like they built up to this reveal of what's happening and I knew it, I mean, it's hard to tell how long that game was. I knew it seven hours before, six hours before.

Like, you know what I mean? Like literally upon this character's introduction, I was like, oh, fuck. And that sucks because you said it wasn't going to be like that, but there it was like that.

But the whole problem is if they would have said from the beginning, it's this. I would be like, oh, cool. And then my expectations would have been said correctly.

You're not waiting for a twist. Exactly. Rather than waiting for the twist. And they do some amazing stuff in there I feel with like fucking with perspectives again not spoiling things and screwing with your mind and like awesome there's like so much great there but I'm hung up on these two parts

that I just like oh loved the game uh yeah loved the game platinum it's the first Arkham I've ever platinum before I've tried like no I'm gonna go get the 230 Ridler Trovers in Arkham City and played it for two seconds like this sucks I'm not doing that whereas in Arkham night I enjoyed going around getting them granted I did after the fact you know after my before my new game plus play through it or whatever enjoyed that and then like

like, I know this is always a sticky situation. I enjoy the DLC still. You know what I mean? Like I bought the season past. I enjoyed the back girl content. I got all the trophies in that. And then, you know, these character interstitials are short, which I expected, based on how these DLC bonuses have always worked when they're like, you know, get, play a fucking Harley

Quinn map or whatever. You know what I mean? But what I didn't expect is that when they get me back in to do those missions for the 15, 20, 30 minutes, or whatever it takes. It's then I look at it. I'm like, oh, right. And now there's a Batman v. Superman Batmobile. And there's a silver trophy attached for getting the stars.

Yeah, I'll do that. Or now there's a new skin for Robin in his 60s thing. Yeah, I'll go do his challenge rooms and sure. Then I'll play it trying to get the 31st. Like there's this weird gameplay loop that I didn't expect in that, let alone the fact that now the one thing I can't comment on, hopefully it's out by now because it's supposed to be out by the end of the month is season of infamy, which is the five supervillains,

which is supposed to be a meteor pack, but I don't really know what I'm getting into that. But I'm surprised that I've come back and done so much with it. Because even with Arkham City, it was like, they're going to give me new challenge. I'm like, fuck that, I don't care. And then it was like, here's the Harley Quinn, you know, DLC story explanation.

Okay, cool. Played that and I never went back. You know what I mean? It's interesting. Cool. I think, I think Arkham Knight is overrated. It was one of the few games that I beat this year.

I think that it's got unparalleled storytelling. I think its presentation is unparalleled. I think its gameplay is fucking boring. And I, I just, I had a hard time making parallel its brilliant story. storytelling and its character development and all this kind of stuff that I really wanted to like and enjoyed to like the just mash buttons kind of gameplay that I think is boring and old now and I just don't feel like it's skill based and I know that a lot of people disagree and that's totally fine but I just think and everyone's like well look at all the things that were bottled after this and I'm like that doesn't necessarily make it good or imaginative because it's really not like there's all of this tech in the game and all of these things you get they don't really need to use you run into the guy with the the gaddling gun you deal with him the same exact way every time you run into the guy with the sheet. you deal with him the same exact way every time.

It's like, I'm just like, ah, like you look around and there's like six guys, four of them have guns, so you use your thing to disable their guns. That's taken care of that guy with the shield. You know, you have to do the certain button combination to get his shield off of him. Then you punch him in the face and you knock him out. It's like I just don't feel like there was, I don't feel like the gameplay loop is parallel in quality to everything else in the game. And that's really disappointing to me because I really feel like they made an exceptional game.

It's just not fun. like I really like I just didn't find it like to be to be fun I do think that Arkham Knights side quest system especially is brilliant I love the idea of organically running into things. You have to wait and be patient. You don't really know how to like, I especially like the firefly ones with the with like when the fire houses are on fire and you have to like, you just see it in the distance and you know he's there and you have to chase him around or,

you know, the ones with the murders where you like hear the music, the opera music and you have to like go and investigate them and stuff. I think there's a lot of really clever stuff in there. But like every time I had a fight, I was like, Jesus. Like I just, I'm like this isn't there's got to be.

It's something better than this that I really feel is more skill based. I know a lot of people like vehemently disagree with me out there. but I just don't feel like it's that clever anymore. And this game suffered for the same reason, Fallout 4 suffered. Like, this isn't new anymore. You know, like, Arkham Asylum and when a lesser extent,

Arkham City were really, really resonated with me because they were so different. And now I want to see them do something again. And like the Bat Tank stuff, like all these things that tried to differentiate the game from the previous two games or three, I didn't play Origins, but I was like this is a waste

like I found the tanks to be tedious I found the fucking AR missions to suck I like so there was like all this cool stuff in there I love the bank like the stuff with the bank heists and yeah two face and I love like the man bat shit where you had to like chase him down and like inject them with shit like I was like this is so cool like I would rather just watch this

you know like then then have to do the same fights over and over and over again I just I just the lack of boss fights in the game especially I think was I know that some people didn't really like the boss fights. I know some people found them tedious, I think in city specifically, if I remember correctly.

Right? Maybe it was even Arkham Asylum. I can't even remember anymore. The boss fights I'm thinking about Mr. Freeze, I think was one of them. Mr. Freeze was Arkham City.

Yeah. Like, so I know that some people didn't like that kind of stuff, but I think it like adds a little bit of imagination to the game and a little bit of, like some difference and some nuance that I don't think was there. So Arkham Knight, I think is like a game that just,

it just exists. And I know that Rocksteady can do better than that. You know, that's, I mean, that's, that's my opinion. I know it's not a popular opinion, so you know, calm down out there, but that's how I feel about it.

So moving on to your game of the forever, Mad Max. And Max, you want to talk about the game? That does, that does have great gameplay. And this is, and this is the brilliance of Mad Max and why I want more people to enjoy it. I know people out there are played it is that there's really dynamic because it has that like button mashy, blah, blah, blah, Batman stuff that is like really not very fun. But I think the car combat's actually like what's really cool about it. The idea of like chasing down caravans and using all of these weapons at your disposal, like the spikes on your wheel. and like your your your grappling hooks and all sorts of shit it like really does capture the essence of like mad max car combat um

it's a collectathon and a clearathon it's a newbyself game even though it's not a ubyself game so it's like so it's it's like very far cry or assassins create a huge map territories you like whittle them down get rid of these towers find these guys kill these guys kill this trade route take over this compound it's very far cry um but i think that it's just there's something really cool about that world that i will say again with the exception of maybe journey uh i i I don't think a desert has ever looked better in a video game ever than it looked in Mad Max. I just feel like that that world and its desolation, it's destruction, its hopelessness. I think it was captured beautifully in that game.

I think Avalanche deserves a lot of credit. I think Avalanche is getting a lot of shit maybe for just cause from some people. People are forgetting that Avalanche also made Mad Max. And I think it's a pretty special game. We play it up or I play it up as being like this fantastic over the top game. I think it's just a really rock, solid game. And if you're into just checking boxes, And that's like why a lot of us play games.

I think that's why people play Assassin's Grie. We were talking about that before. That's why I play Far Cry and I fucking love Far Cry. I can't wait for Far Cry Prime. I think the idea of just seeing progress beyond just the storyline is really quite satisfying. So to have all these things in Mad Max that you can do or not do, in addition to the storyline, the side quest finding caches of goods and diaries and looking at the world before it was destroyed and learning a little bit about Max himself.

I think Mad Max is one of those games that really, I think surprised some people that really went into it with an open mind. And I don't want to say a lot of people didn't go into an open mind. I think a lot of people just didn't go into it at all. And that was one of the things that I think was really disappointing because I think that that's really one of the better games of the year. That was, yeah, for historical sake, that was the one that came out on the same day as Middle Gear.

Yeah. And so it was like a lot of people went the other way. Yeah. Right as the Tomb Raider, same issue. Mm-hmm. I played episode one. I played episode one. I enjoyed it.

at Colin point of view where I was like, I'm just going to wait. So now I heard amazing things. Christine loved it. Alexa loves it. I'm stoked this break by the time you see this maybe I've already done it to go through and play all. Yeah, I want you to. It looks awesome. It looks awesome. Yeah. It looks right at my house. It's definitely an awesome story from that one episode, like where they set it up. You're like, oh shit.

Tales from the Borderlands. One of my biggest surprise. Probably my biggest surprise of the year. Like I, you know, I'm coming, I guess, no, not 100%. But like, one of my biggest surprise of the year. And the fact of like, it got announced. And I remember going, what the fuck? you know what a weird pick like i play all the i've played all the borderlands right and i've never been like this is such a rich world i can't wait to have a story told it and i don't know you're fucking shooting psychos in the head and running around and like how's tell tell tell going to put a game

the whole thing is collecting guns and shooting why would this be interesting and then downloaded it ignored it for two or three weeks and then it was like i was having not a we had like a rough day at work and i was really fucking shot and i sat down nothing i had i actually wanted to play like it wasn't hitting the spot and i saw that i was like i'll give this a shot and two hours later like I laughed out loud a bunch during that I loved the characters the performance the story's interesting and every time an episode came that happened

and there's just so many fucking like there's moments in that as far as dialogue and storytelling that I'll like never forget like Loder Bot like to be honest it's a mixed bag I mean that's like the funniest shit ever and then Gordas and all this different stuff is like man like talk about out of left field you know what I mean like I didn't I had

zero interest in that game for real and then it was like okay well I'll try try and here we are. Yeah. Evolve happened this year. Little Combat X. You're just going to skip over, you know, do Evolve dirty. Do you have anything more to add?

A sad story for Evolve that I think was predictable. You know what I mean? We played it at events. I had great time. Every time I sat down and was the monster and I was playing my friends in one room, I was like, this is awesome. And I'm like, I'll never do this when it comes out.

Like, no. You know what I mean? like because there's way too much like it's the antithesis in terms of like casual to hardcore that star wars star wars right you guys could call me at any point be like i'm play star or i'm like oh maybe i will maybe i won't depending on my day but evolve it's like i'm not i'm really good at being a trapper but you've never played before so i need a heat you know what i mean it's like it's like i'm getting to like mmo range where i want a really good squad to go out and roll in not to mention it just doesn't work like the reason left for dead worked so well i felt was the fact that

hey you guys want to jump online and just shoot fucking zombies tonight like you don't even have to pick up whatever gun you want. Don't worry about and have fun. Whereas this one is all about communication and collaboration. How are we going to make this work? And it's a new IP and it's this weird thing. And it's, it came out and it just didn't do anything. Yeah. Mortal Kombat X. Did you guys play

at all? No. No. We did let's play or two on it. And I played a couple times just outside of that. But Mortal Combs never really been my thing. Yeah. But people like it. Big fans like it. 100% big fan of Mortal Kombat X. I'm glad people like it. Mega Man Legacy collection. Got to give a shout out to that. Yeah, I mean, in terms of games released, in terms of gameplay, no game came out this year. That has better gameplay than the games on that collection.

But we've, not even close, but we've, you know, we've seen these games many times. So there's nothing really new to say about them. I mean, it was a great collection. It's cheap. The challenges are good. It's funny watching people just get eviscerated by that game. They just, they just don't know, Kevin. You know what I mean?

They don't understand. They don't know. They don't know what it is for a game to really challenge you, like really challenge you. do you have to be patient and play the game the way it's meant to be played I think the challenges were a nice little addition they're fucking hard

some of them are extremely hard it's cool that you can watch the replays of the people that are on the top on the lead board so you can try to replicate what they're doing and kind of get new strategies and new skills whatever and I'll give myself a shout out because my Moriarty's test

will be into 3DS version of the game Yay Yeah Including you know expanding the vast library Exactly oh it's needed Final game Rainbow Six Siege I've been here in really

bad things about it. I don't know. It's just, it's super anecdotal because I've only talked to a few people about it, but everyone I've talked to or like heard anecdotal stuff where I don't like it. Like I don't know, it's surprised me because we played it when we were at GameSpot. Yeah. And I don't play multiplayer games. I definitely don't play team base games, but I thought it was fun. Yeah.

Like I don't, I don't see what could have been wrong with it other than maybe like technical problems that we were having, like matchmaking and stuff like that, which I assume is cleaned up. So I don't know what you guys have heard about it, but I haven't heard the most positive things about it. My whole thing is that I heard nothing. Yeah.

It feels like it, you could tell me that the beta was released. I'm like, oh, that makes sense. I've seen Alfredo tweet about it. But that's it.

I've seen Alfredo tweet about it. Like there doesn't seem to be this giant presence to it of like rainbow six is out because people love rainbow six. You know what I mean? We all, we remember those days of playing rainbow six. Rainbow six three was my, yeah,

as I said many times, I fucking love that game. You know, like love it. Yeah, it was my most played Xbox, original Xbox game. And the game that I used to,

that I like introduced me to Xbox Live. This is 2003, 2003. 2004. Fantastic game. Fantastic, fantastic, impeccable game. But it's just not so much for me anymore.

But even with Siege, though, I remember when we were at IGN, like that was the talk of E3 when it was first announced. Yeah, because you get excited for it and becomes this thing. I think it won game of the show on E3.

Did it? That year. I think so. I think it did. I don't know why I said it like that. Like, I can't believe it. Yeah, I know. Because I remember it.

I remember the Witcher kept winning. The game never came to fuck out. All right. Moving on. I'm moving on. To PlayStation. Yeah. You guys might have a thing or two to say about this.

We're kind of reviewing the year of PlayStation. Exclusives. Exclusives. Gotcha. Yes. Let's start with the Vita. Okay. The only two games I have on the list that I could find are Dang Rapa, another episode,

Ultra Despair Girls, and Persona for Dancing All Night. Did I miss anything? I mean, I have some games on my list, but nothing major here. No, nothing major. Yeah, there weren't, I mean, there were many more exclusives. Many games, yeah. Or games that were on PS3 as well. Well, the big thing is PC games that finally made their way over or whatever.

That's where it gets sticky. You know what I mean? But you're talking about like true up, straight up PlayStation's. Or just whatever it meant to you guys this year. Like what did you play in your video? What it meant to me? Oh, okay. Dangarapa, I played it for 10 hours or so.

It's still in my Vita. I messed with it every so often because I'm trying to like get everything in the game because I would like to platinum it. It's weird. It's a weird game. I'm not quite sure what they were thinking with this game. I mean, we know what Kadaka and those guys were thinking. they wanted to do they wanted a they wanted a stepping stone of dangarrapa three and i don't think they

were ready for it yet so they made a weird quirky third person shooter um and it's bizarre it's a bizarre game it's for danganrapa fans very strictly if you've not played danganrapa one and two you will not enjoy this game you're not even understand it um especially the first one um but it's weird it's definitely a fucking weird grisly it's the thing about the game that really stood out to me is it's fucking really violent and that's saying something because dangan rap is a violent game. It's a very violent game. It's about kids killing kids. It's a very Lord of the Flies or Battle Royale kind of

Hunger Games kind of thing. I mean, it's like, that's what it's about. So this game is like over the top in kind of the gore. But the gore is like the blood's pink and stuff. It's not like, you know, scary it anyway. So I enjoyed it. But I have not seen enough to really like render a final verdict on it. I think people are a little lukewarm

on it. It's just because it's not dangan rapa. And we'll get more of that, you know, this coming here. The bear's back. Monazuma. Monacoomah. Monizuma's revenge. You're talking about like, you know, I'm looking through my trophies and like you want to talk about this was the year Vita, I think fully did move into being the indie station. You know what I mean?

That was a joke thrown around forever about it. But yeah, persona was like the big tent pole event. Still waiting on volume. But it isn't indie, you know what I mean? But like looking through like the things I played that stand out because there was tons of stuff I played. We traveled so much this year, right? But I'm looking at like Titan Souls.

That stood out for me. That was a lot of fun. That was a great run and, you know, exciting to play there. Super Meat Boy finally came out. I was playing rally copters for longer than I should have. But it's like whatever, you know what I mean? Like it's fun thing. Three, four, it's home was, I played it on Vita.

And when I actually sat down and did it with headphones, had a great time. Farming simulator came out. Super Time Force Ultra. You know, the one I want to give a shout out to that I don't think we talk about was actual sunlight. Have I ever talked about that on the show? Actual sunlight is one of those where I'm not sure 100% at storing. I should probably look it up because I talk about it ever so often.

We talk about Vita. But before this trip to Chicago, I went on the store on my Vita and I was looking for something. Oh, you did talk about this. or whatever, and it's this game where, yeah, you play as a suicidal person or whatever, and like from their perspective, and it's like basically all text over like a very, you know, 16-bit looking, you know, out or whatever, lay out of the game or whatever. And that was something that touched me, you know what I mean?

Because it was just something interesting. It was, it's that what can you do with games and how, what kind of stories can you tell and how can you speak to your audience in a very direct way? And that's what happened. And so, like, that was awesome. And like, I think Vita, you know, it's this JRP machine that has all these different things. You know, I'm playing what a, uh, uh, pro no, uh, uh, uh, promo trigger. Chronic trigger on it right now.

You know, there's all these different things of like, this is the year where I used my Vita very, very differently. You know what I mean? Leading up to this, I feel like I would download a PSA, you know, one classic to have it or whatever, do this or blah, blah, blah, get the Indies there. But I was like Freedom Wars. This is what I want to play.

Or I was this next big, you know, Vita game that was supposed to be like the savior of Vita. Whereas this year, yeah, it was. For me, it was persona dancing all night, which I got and was cool to have. But, you know, I, maybe I'll platinum it, but it's like kind of repetitive for me right now. I don't know if I'll get back to it, whereas there's all these other little things

I keep popping into and doing it. I'm more stoked. I mean, like what I'm super, super stoked about and I'm keep putting it off is finally playing Bastion on Vita because that's where I'm going to be, I'm going to platinum Bastion

because I love Bastion, loved it when I reviewed it back on 360, you know, when it was an Xbox Live game. Now that it's finally here, it's been on PS4 forever. And I jumped on and played it first nine.

I was like, this is it and it's, and it's great. I want it on Vita. Because with headphones on a plane and there's so much content of that game and jumping around and, you know, making the missions tougher on yourself to get this, to do that.

Like, I'm super, super excited to get lost in that. But similar to, like, how Collins always talking about persona four gold and, like, letting that sit there and always be there for him on his Vita, right? That's what I'm going to do with Bastion. Like, I don't want to rush it. I could go, you know, tonight while Christine watches YouTube videos. I could sit next to her and play Bastion, but I'm not going to, if that makes sense. Yeah.

I mean, I have a few games written down here. I want to definitely give a shout to three-fourth so. I think that's actually one of the best games I played this year. And that game was extraordinarily emotional and really resonated with. me on a storytelling level. It's really about a girl that loses touch with their family. And it's it's really fucking sad. It was just a really sad game. I just sat in my bed one night and played it. Very similar journey in that respect where I'm not going to play it again. And I thought it was really awesome. It's definitely one of my favorite games of the year. And it's

on Vita and it's perfect on Vita. I played a game called Heroes of Lute on Vita. It's actually a mobile game. And I played it on Vita. And it's just a very simple dungeon crawler. And I actually had a lot of fun with it. It's just like you die and you start in the beginning. you die starting the beginning. It just had a weird kind of loop in that. You already brought Titan Souls, which I thought was really fun. The final game on Vita that I played a lot this year,

then a lot of people didn't touch a Zio Drifter from Renegade Kid, which is a Metroid-Vania game, but it's like a really small Metroidvania game. You beat in like two hours. It's just like you're on different planets and you like jump from planet to planet, find things you need and go back to the planets. And very simple aesthetic and very simple gameplay.

But really, really fun game. One of the more enjoyable games I actually played this year, I think. So I like that a lot. Zeo drifters on PS4, I think as well. You can play it on 3DS. I think it's on Wii U. It's on PC. So you can play in a lot of different places,

but I played on Vita. And I thought it was a lot of fun. So yeah. Oh, when Shovel Night, of course, came to Vita this year. Yeah. Which was,

that was my video game of the year. Yeah. Oh, my God. I'm happy I waited to play Shovel Night because when it first came out on just the Wii U. It just, for some reason it felt wrong.

I didn't, I didn't want that. I wanted to play that game portably. and you can't really do that with the Wii you kind of can you play on three yes no I know but the 3ds I don't like the the buttons that you small had same problem with the Vita like it was the whole thing but then I was like I want the the screen I have the OLD like I want I'm very particular when it comes to this shit so I was very happy I played it on Vita and it definitely it made my Vita worth buying like I loved this shit out of that game

so Colin was right uh actually PS4 moving the fuck on to the big leagues bloodborne Bloodborne was hot. I mean, I played Bloodborn for 20 plus hours. I didn't beat it. I didn't get very far in it. I really enjoyed it. I wish that we didn't have to travel around when it came out because I was really in it. I was really in it. I used to sit in the couch like every night for like four hours after everyone went to Ben just played it over and over again. I was like I really finally get the hook. It's a little quicker. It's a little more Arcady, just a little bit than Dark Souls or Demon Souls. And that's what I needed. Because I think Dark Souls and Demon Souls are just so stiff and boring. I'm not into those games at all. And I tried. I mean, I took a whole week off to play Dark Souls last year just to see if I can get back into it. I'm like, I just don't like it. Blood-Born struck me the same way for about five hours, but I just stuck with it because it has the essence of something I really want to understand.

I want to understand what it is about these games. Everyone's like, you love Dark Souls. I love Demon Souls. And I'm, you know, because I like hard games. And I like old games. And this game's definitely got the soul of an old game. Pardon the pun. But I just didn't get it.

I just was like, I just, why, like, it's, it's hard because it doesn't control well. It's hard because it's, like, not fair sometimes. Like, that's not fun to me. Like, the essence of the games that I like that were hard were hard, but they were fair. Mega Man's fair. Castlevania's fair. These are fair games. If you're bad at them, it's your fault.

And I think, I think that sometimes, a lot of times in Dark Souls, for instance, it is your fault. And bloodborne, it is your fault. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it's totally unreasonable for you to expect that you should have known that this dragon was going to fly over this bridge and fucking kill. you out of nowhere, like, just unfucking announced. To be fair, Mega Man is like that, too. It's a trial

and error. Then you know the dragon comes. Yeah, but, but they're different. I think in that respect, the design's a little different wherever, but I understand why people love those games. I just wanted to understand more of it. Bloodborn was the game where I was really like, yeah, I get it. It's one of those games in my mind where I'd love to get back to, but who knows if I ever will, the DLC came out, you know, and it's supposed to be excellent.

I'm proud that Sony understood, this was a mea culpa to the fan base because I know that they understood that they fucked up with Demon Souls and that they could have locked this entire series down. Dark Souls would have never happened if they knew what they had and they just didn't know. And this was them saying like we have to fix this for our fans because it was PlayStation fans

that made Dark Souls a thing with Demon Souls without them that would Dark Souls would never been a thing. So I think this was that was a business blunder on their part. I think Bloodborn was a you know making that better and I don't think we've seen the last of Bloodbourne because I think it was like you know it sold some PS4 as people liked it. It did well. It did respectively and I think

that it gives a lot of credibility to the console. there was also order 1886. Well, I was surprised when it went on sale this past Thanksgiving break when it was 10 bucks or whatever. The number of people who bought it were like, this wasn't, what is that?

For 10 bucks, I think it's totally worth it. Yeah, exactly. And that was the thing. I'm like, well, you're not understanding the proposition here and the differences and also it's expectations. You know what I mean?

When people were building it up to be this big AAA game that it was going to be this, you know, PlayStation 4, exclusive. This is like what the franchise. This is what it can do kind of thing. It had different expectations. Whereas then everybody shed on it

for an entire. year and then it came off for 10 bucks and we're like this isn't man. Rocket League. Rocket League's hot, man. Rocket League's arguably the best game of the year, pound for pound. We saw that coming a mile away. I mean, it was so obvious that game was going to be big when people finally started getting in their hands.

I think it was a stroke of genius for them to release it for free. And I think that, um, it's so, like eight million players or something like that. It's like an insane success for a company that's small. I mean, they're, they're rolling in it now. So, um, it's just a great. It's just a great game. Just a really good game. Yeah, I think out of all the games this year, it's the one that I wish that I spent more time with.

Sure. Because I did the let's play and that was it. Like, I never really played it outside of that. But I feel like I'd like that. No, you still couldn't. That's the thing I was talking to with people. Just like, you know, it was similar for us. It's the travel schedule.

We talked about Rocket League forever. When it finally got there, we had like three days. Then we went to some event. Yeah. And I came back and I was just getting fucking bludgeon to death in matches. You know what I mean? I'm like, well, this is my time. But then I was talking to kids who were talking about playing it local or, you know, playing with their friends.

And it's like, okay, like there is still life to it even if you're terrible like me or if you want to go be amazing like Freddie Wong and try to go pro and all this different stuff. Is he really good? He loves. He's addicted to Rocket League. He loves Rocket League. And that's the thing is like that was what was crazy for us. You know what I mean? Like Colin coming back that first time after seeing it last year. Was that right? And telling me like, you know, Dunham's game is actually really good. And I'm like, oh, what is it again? He's like, oh, your car is playing soccer. I'm like, that sounds not good at all. And then you play it. You're like, oh, shit, this is good. And then to. watch it slowly build and build and build to where is this phenomenon. Everyone is talking about and you like, yeah, congratulations to you, Cyanics. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I'm proud

of them. I'm really proud of them. Until Dawn. Another unexpected Jam. Awesome. Big fan. Awesome game. Good Lord, such a big fan. You were like Tim, you need to play this game and you were fucking right, God. No, I knew you. I knew you. It's so good. I just, I enjoyed it and, you know, you say so much about, like, it's what

Telltel games should be. And I And Quantic, too. I get that. It's like, you play it and it's just like, this is, it's a story. You're not really playing a game. Like, you could watch a YouTube video of that game, and it's the same exact experience. But it isn't. But I mean, you're not getting like the, like, don't move. You know what you're making the choice real quick.

And like, there's so much to it. I understand what you're saying. Yes, I'm just saying, I don't think there's enough of that. Like, that's the equivalent of like a 3D movie where it's just like, there's a little extra shit. Yeah, you miss that. Sure, sure, sure. Really. You're going to get the story out of it, but not the experience.

Yeah. And it's like, to me, it's the equivalent of if the videos were annotated. And you can like click through. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's not a knock on it. It's fun. It was great. And like it doesn't need to be a, you know, game.

Like there doesn't need to be like you lose or whatever. Like I liked that it was exactly what it was. You know, fun to sit down with you. Like I, you know, I sat down with Christine and streamed it and we beat it in one go. And she'd already played it, but she wanted to watch me play it again and see the different. Like that's cool. Like I, you know, I hate watching games. I've beaten again, usually or even playing games I've beaten.

But then when you and Nick were playing it on extra life. Like, it was awesome to sit and you got. And like, I knew you guys were making choices that were different than mine. I'm like, oh, fuck, I can't wait to see what happens. You know what I mean? Like, there is that thing to it of like, oh, what are they going to do when this part happens? Are they going to know to move fast here and like don't take the safe route? And I do like that the changes affect it pretty substantially.

Sure. Like, it's not one of those like stupid like, oh, well, this thing happens a little different. Right. It's like looking at all the brand. Like once you beat it, you want to know, oh, what are the different things that could happen? Yeah. And then when you go online and look, it's like, oh, shit. Like, things can be real different.

Yeah. So I'm excited. I really hope that we get like a proper sequel. You will. with like a different cast of characters. Yeah, new characters, new setting, new everything will. I think Sony's smart enough to know what they have with until Dawn.

I don't think they knew maybe before they released it. I was really shocked that it didn't have a bigger push. And I think that they were trepidations about it. I don't think that they quite understood what they had. That game was in development and gestating for a long time. And I think that they'd spent a lot of money on it. I think they were scared. And I think there might have been a feeling that they were just trying to get it out.

I don't think that they understood that it was one of the best games of the year. And maybe the strongest in its own way. the strongest PS4 exclusive of the year. So I don't think you've seen the last of super massive working on that series. I mean, I think that, you know, when we first saw it at PSX, like that was, I don't know if that was the first time it was ever shown, but that, that, that demo of it,

like, you could tell watching it and I wasn't in the room, but I can only imagine that that, that was powerful. You know, it's like, oh shit, like, everybody's freaking out saying go right or last one. Because I do remember when you first see it and you see Hayden, Pattonada, whatever the hell, I don't know how to say it. Penitia area. Panetia.

Hayden Panchetta. Exactly, the panchetta. You see this, you get this instant feeling. feeling of like oh this is the game this is gonna be like it's like a licensee thing of just like let's put actors in this and you know you there's no way this is actually gonna be good and then you see that demo and it's like all right was that just cool because there's a crowd of people saying yeah do this do this whatever and it ended in the perfect way and just got people hype but it's like all

right I didn't believe it was actually gonna be good so it wasn't until you were like it's good oh shit it was definitely an experience I remember we got it early I sat down and played it. I beat it in like a day and a half. I was like this is awesome. Exactly what I need. It's unique. And like I said, it out telltale is telltale, but it really out Quantic Dreams, Quantic Dream, which is a, you know, resonate a lot more for PlayStation fans because I think that Quantic, if they can, you know, swallow their pride a little bit, can probably learn a thing or two about how to make a game by watching and playing until dawn, especially after Beyond Two Souls, which is, you know, not very good. Uncharted Collection. Awesome.

God. My first dive into two and three and holy shit. I mean, I couldn't give that game of the year because it's, you know, cheating. But it would be like my God. Such great games. Yeah. So good. And I cannot wait for four. I think them putting this out. We all knew it would happen, but I'm happy it did because there's so many people playing it for the first time. They're just like, holy shit. My friend Kerr never played it in chart again because he didn't have a PS3. And now he has a PS4. He's playing through him. And he's just like, how did I not fucking play these? Yeah. And I'm like, I know. They're so good. And I'm not. happy that I waited for the collection because it's beautiful man and it's like you play it and

they don't look dated like they look good it's like yeah they're not as beautiful as some of the new games but it's like you'll play them you're like this is great you know it doesn't take you out of the experience right and um I'm happy that they did that me too yeah I plan on the one and two again I plan on PS3 as well um really good reminder of just how stellar uncharted is uncharted is so far ahead of so many of its contemporaries it's not even funny you know and And they still are and they still hold up. Those characters are still fantastic. And the stories are a little weird, but they're fun.

It's, I don't know. It's a nice reminder of what we're going to get with Uncharted for, I think. Definitely. Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I wouldn't really kind of thought it was a PS4 game. And that came to PC last year, I think. But PS4, but PS4 gamers got it this year. I played it for a couple hours.

It's obtuse. But I don't have much more to say about it than that. It was a game I was really excited about. Mm-hmm. we got Journey Remaster this year I didn't I didn't I don't mess with that I'll never play Journey again Axiom Verge

Got a little more than halfway through it Nick really loved it I stopped playing because I thought it was gonna be imminent on Vita and we're still fucking waiting It's like a little redid up A little ridiculous now That the game's not available on Vita yet It's like a little fucking obnoxious

In its own way But you know things happen And complications happen or whatever But I do get a little annoyed Truth be told when a game is promised for PS4 in Vita and you just sit for months and months and months and months just waiting. You know, like it's a little, it's a little disappointing. On my list, like when I've been talking about this with people, I'm like, I fully believe

that volume could be one of the best games of the year. I'm just waiting for on Vita. I tried playing a remote play on Vita and that didn't work. So I was like, no, no, I'll wait. It's just, I don't mean to be a snob about it, but that's where I want to play that game or I want to have that experience because I need stuff on the Vita when I'm on the go. You know what I mean? Yeah, I just wish that people wouldn't, you know,

Things happen. Tom's a friend of ours. I'm not trying to shit on anyone in particular. It's just like, don't promise a game for a platform and then not release it. You know, like that I guess that's kind of like, you know, we were excited about that game for Vita. I mean, that's just real talk. And that's the other thing too is if it had been like a surprise later on that it's coming to Vita, maybe I would have played on PlayStation for and been able to, you know,

adequately talk about it. But like when it sounded like all these games are coming out at the same time, like, oh, great, no big deal. Same thing with Bastion. But I had played Bastion five years ago, so it didn't really matter. I can sit here and tell you, Bastion's awesome. That's that I just want to say action verge for what I played is excellent. Yeah, that's what makes it so disappointing that it's not on video because that's really where it belongs, I think.

It's where it belongs. Fallen Fantasy 7 remastered just came out. Yeah, I've been playing it for a few years. A few hours. I had an early bill for a few years. And a couple episodes ago we were talking about what's the definitive way to play Falun Fantasy? And I think this is. It might be the answer.

It might be the fact that you can speed up the game. Yeah, that shit's a little obnoxious. But you don't have to do it. So, I mean, if you want to cheat, you can cheat. Well, no, the cheating. I don't like the, so if you hit R3, I think it is, it automatically heals all your shit and gives you full limit breaks. I don't know about that. So you're talking about just using the left stick to move around.

You don't have to use circle plus. No, oh, I don't want to do that either. If you had L3, it just speeds the game up. That I know too. I mean, these things are there in case you want to use them. I think the one cool addition is just using left out of toxic to move is the same as D-pad plus circle, which is nice for fast movement. Yeah. like real time, fast movement.

It's fun. I mean, it's very nostalgic. I was going back and I'm like, man, I remember, I remember when I got this. You know, I, like, getting Final Fantasy 7 was such an extremely seminal moment in my, in my life. Because it got me, I got my PS1. I sold, like, almost my whole S&S collection to get it, which was a huge mistake. So there's, like, all these conflicting feelings about Final Fantasy. But going back and hearing the music and the characters, Cloud being so.

assertive as a protagonist, which is quite unusual in some Final Fantasy games and just a lot of RPGs generally. In Cloud, generally post Final Fantasy 7. Yeah, exactly. Barrett, you know, being introduced to Barrett and Tifa and Avalanche going on that bombing run for the first time,

like the boss fights, the music. It doesn't, we were talking about it, well, the game stand up even in pre-renders. The game looks like shit. Like all of it. But the fact is, is that, so even like the pre-rended backgrounds, the CG, like it's all looks bad. But it's, so no. The answer no, but it didn't hold up at all.

Obviously, the polygonal characters were not going to hold up. But who cares? Like, it's a product of its time. And I remember how blown away I was by that game when I saw it for the first time. I played it for the first time. And it just, again, it brings back a lot of memories for me about what it was to be a PlayStation owner, like, early on. I remember buying Final Fantasy 7 and not even realizing you needed a memory card.

And like, why couldn't, like, why couldn't the game save on the CD? Like, this was a huge, like, I was like, why not? Like, and I remember having to, like, go to Toys Russ and I bought one of those bootleg cheap memory cards. My memory card had a basketball on the end of it. I had the blue EA sports one. Good Lord. So it's just, there's just a lot tied. That's a loaded game

because there's a lot tied to it. I don't think I'm the only one. I think that people have said before and they're right, Final Fantasy 7 made PlayStation and before Final Fantasy 7, PS1 was out in the States for almost two years, actually a little over two years. And it came out with Ballerina Toshin Den. There was a bunch of games like that were fine. Wild Arms is one of the great games on PS1 and that was before Final Fantasy 7,

but Final Fantasy 7 made it a household name and got that system into people's homes and made the GRPG genre cross over and in the mainstream. And even though Final Fantasy 7 isn't by no way, shape, or form a hardcore role-playing game, nor is it a difficult role-playing game. It is a role-playing game, and it introduced many people to what it was all about.

And we should be so happy about that. I mean, it's so funny how I vacillated on Final Fantasy 7 as a gaming fan and as a critic so much because I really was, I really felt like it was so vastly overrated, and I was so mad, especially with like how much attention it got. compared to nine, which I think is a way better game. But the fact is, is it's important. It's just an important game, and it's a game that people should play.

It's a perfect Christmas game. Download it. Busted out. Play it for a week. Like, enjoy it. I think it's an important game for people to understand. And then you look at Final Fantasy 15 and you see where they're coming from. And when you fuse them together, then you get that CyberConnect kind of remake.

You get to see exactly where they're coming from. So looking back at PlayStation as a whole, is there anything we want to? I'm not talking about reviewing 2015. Yeah, because I got to say the press conference, E3. Oh, getting away from games, because there's a few games I want to add.

Oh, go for it. Everybody's gone to the rapture. We didn't talk about it. Yeah, everybody's gone to the rapture. We didn't forever for that. It's one of those games. Who was I talking to? I think I was talking to Shatt and Stutt still,

actually, the head of Sony, Santa Monica. That game was gestated by the Chinese room, but Santa Monica was the production, like, X-Dev team on it. And it was one of those games where I was like, I played almost more than halfway through it. I'm like, this is awesome. What a fucking eerie,

game that is and then I went away and then I came back and tried to jump back in and like I have no idea what's going on what I explored already and I didn't want to start it again I was like damn like that's a weird game and there's a what we've talked about I think on this show are definitely on PS I love you and definitely on Colin and Greg like there's a sort of kind of story about oh yeah that game in terms of how it was made it doesn't seem like it was a good time making that game it doesn't seem like the Chinese room and Sony necessarily got along with each other very well so there's a lot of, and we're just reading into that based on a letter written by one of the co-founders about why she's leaving the studio or taking a sabbatical or whatever it is.

So people can go read about that because it's really all a conjecture, but there's so much tucked into that game when you know, you know, like that it was probably a challenge from them to make it. Sure. I want to give a shout out to Hell Divers, which you didn't talk about. Oh, yeah. That was a huge surprise to a lot of people. I remember playing that game at Gamescom in 2013 maybe and came back and I was like, this is

fucking awesome. And I said, why Colin? You go, because it's really hard. I was like, fuck that that. And I came out. I was like, oh, this is great. It's that. It's like, it's like, it's destiny from a different point of view. This is rad. And then it ate my save twice. And I was like, fuck. Yeah, the game. The game was a little broken. I think in the beginning. But that is the hallmark of the game. It's fucking hard.

And it's not hard in a way of like, I got to kill these two enemies and make this jump, whatever. It's hard of like, it's just, it's comical how hard it is. And I think that that's what's kind of fun about it. You call down, reinforcing. to help you that can crush you. You, you set up a turret

and it'll shoot you in the back if you walk in front of it. I'm like, this is awesome. You know, this is, there's no friendly fire. There's,

there's, it's like, it's like, you throw a grenade and run into it. It's going to fucking kill you. Throw a grenade in your friend. It's going to kill your friend. You know,

I'm like, this is awesome. It's so ruthless. Arrowhead, right? Yeah, arrowhead, right? Yeah, right. Um,

two games I didn't spend a lot of time with, but I want to give a shout out for our PlayStation fans out there. tells his hysteria. I played for a few hours. And there's something wrong with it in my mind. And I just don't want to go back to it. And it's funny because I was reading a lot of NeoGap threads or just a specific NeoGath thread about it.

So a lot of people agree. I'm like, this just doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right. There's something off about it. And so I just didn't want it. It didn't grab me like Exilia grabbed me and Exilia too where I was like, I can't put this game down. There's just having played it for just a little while.

I'm like, I don't quite like the combat. I don't, the world is fucking huge, but it feels empty. So I want to give a shout Because I know a lot of people Care about that game But I didn't play nearly enough To have any sort of meaningful verdict on it But I will say that my first blush reaction

In the game is like, no, I don't want to play it Um Drying Quest Heroes Uh came out I played that for maybe 10 or 15 hours I really wanted to give a moosea chance I think we shit on these games a lot I certainly have and I know Greg has as well

These Omega Force TecmoCoA Hack and slash mindless games And I was like if If I'm gonna get into one of these games it's going to be with an IP I really care about and there's a few IP I care about more than I care about Dragon Quest. It's the same way people felt about when they did a Muso for Zelda.

And what I realized was like, yeah, this is fun. You know, like, I was like, I get it a little bit more now. So I want to give a shout out to all my my Muso fans out there because it's not a game I'll necessarily ever go back to, but I get it a little bit more now because it's just you have to care. So for Dynasty Warriors, if you care about, you know, East Asian history,

then maybe you do care about Dynasty Warriors the way I care about Dragon Quest. I don't know. You gotta give you American Revolution Heroes. That'll be cool. Running out there is Ben Franklin. Stabbing people in the head. And the final game that I want to bring up

that came out this year that I forgot about until I was looking at my trophies. It was a Super Stardust Delta came out or Ultra rather came out this year for PS4. More Stardust. How can you go wrong? Can't really go wrong with that, but really fun.

It was one of the first games I played this year and I really enjoyed that, so I wanted to give that a shout out as well. If you're into that, again, that twin stick kind of gameplay loop. Not for everybody for sure. But, um, and if you've played Star Dust once,

you've played it a million times. Exactly. But I'll play it a million times. So do you have any games, Greg? No, I think we've covered a lot of them. Okay, cool. So outside of games then, like just overall PlayStation,

just quickly. They killed it. You think they killed it? They absolutely murdered. I mean, they're trending. They're doing so well with PlayStation 4 that they're benchmarking against PlayStation 2.

That's, that's an insane assertion to make publicly and, um, can pull up in, their faces if it doesn't work out very well, but that shows a very bullish situation over at Sony with PlayStation. I mean, they're benchmarking against the best-selling console of all time. We talk about this all the time, too. I mean, the numbers right now at the end of the year, but going into the year, right, we

were so concerned that there weren't exclusives. Remember, and you were all like, there's got to be something in the fall. We don't know about that they're going to surprise us with. And there wasn't. And it didn't matter. It didn't matter. You know what I mean? They've done such a good job of pairing themselves with Destiny, with Star Wars, with these

things where it's like, this will move the unit and also make you think of us in that way. it's crazy to see these numbers keep coming in and them keep winning, you know, NPD numbers off this. Yeah, they're doing, they're doing a fantastic job. And yeah, we were wrong. I mean, I was wrong. I want to speak for everyone else. But, you know, I really assumed they would suffer more from a lack of first party content than they did. And the crazy thing about PS4 is that there's a dichotomy drawn between the lack of really meaningful exclusives and the sales of the console.

There's just not that many exclusives that you have to play on the console. There's not. I mean, I think Killzone's a fun game. A lot of people don't like it. Obviously, NAC is forgettable. I think Second Sun was a little disappointing, although it's DLC, I think was really great. Blood-Borne and Until Dawn, I think, are really meaningful, exclusives that people should play. The Uncharity Collection is fun.

But when you really think back to PS3 and how poorly PS3 did out the gate, yet it had Motor Storm and it had resistance and it had Heavenly Sword and had, you know, a bunch of games folklore. Like, there were games early on in the first 18 months that were pretty good. And it didn't matter. So it really goes to show. And I wonder what kind of information they're garnering at Sony about. like do we even need to invest this heavily in exclusive games because we haven't so far. We've sold well over 30 million units now in two years with a dearth of exclusives. And now the exclusives are going to start to come out.

So we're going to see with Uncharted especially, which is going to be one of the biggest exclusives on the console ever. And then we'll see, you know, later in the Earth Horizon, which I think is going to be a big, strong new IP for them. If this helps become something additive on that Venn diagram of, of, of, of, where the games fit because they're murdering, making third party games exclusive to them. And they've made smart partnerships. Oh, that make a lot of sense.

When I saw Xbox get in a bed with, Bethes with fall, I was like, that's a really shrewd move. Tomb Raider didn't work out so well for them. Call of Duty was obviously kind of stolen by Sony, but, you know, so to speak. But the game still sold best on Xbox One, according to MPD, not counting bundles.

But Battlefront ended up being ingenious for them to get, you know, destiny. It's not a long play for them Yeah From the beginning with that Yeah from the leaked Activision documents Yeah and PS4 They were at the PS4 reveal right

So it's like they were Like They were there from the very beginning And I don't know that I would have made The same bet in that same position It'd been like you know We're doing this MMO shooter From the guys that made Halo

Or they're not with Halo anymore And they're with Activision Who knows how much your attention They're going to give to them Because they have call of duty And all this stuff And are they afraid of kind of cannibalizing themselves and that was probably the shrewdest fucking move

that they've made so far this year is to just be with them to make Destiny a de facto exclusive even though the sales aren't necessarily dramatically better it's just looked at as a console that plays Destiny. So I think that they've certainly learned a lot of lessons and I wonder if they're

going to be able to keep the momentum going. I mean they're definitely killing their competition but you know the game's certainly not over yet. Yeah, we'll see what this PlayStation VR does. Yeah, I think all the conferences this year I think any time there was any you know, position for Sony to have press conference and announced things. They killed it.

I think they did great. And even if some of them weren't like, you know, people are probably going to bitch about places and experience. But then even then, like, that's just a press conference that the other guys didn't have. So all that's just extra. But whenever it was, like everyone's doing their shit, Sony fucking killed it, man.

Like they came out and came out swinging. Shenmoo, all fantasy seven. Like that press last guardian, like that press conference is unfuck with the ball. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, E3 was great.

PSX, not so much. Moving on. Nintendo. So we're looking at this. We're going to start off with the 3DS. Now I'm going to be honest. There's the vast library. Not at its best this year.

I look at this list of games. We got Yo-Kai Watch. We got Zelda Tri-Force Heroes, Maj. Mass, 3D, ZenoBlake Chronicles 3D, code name Steam. None of those screamed to me. Code Nate Steam was this year.

Yo-Ki Watch. I think it was. I believe you. I might be wrong about that. I was surprised, like, Yo-Ki Watch out of that, I was like, they have something huge with Yo-Kai watch and it just apparently didn't pan out very well for

them in the West. I haven't seen any numbers, but I was reading some anecdotal stuff saying like the game was kind of soft. And that really shocked me because I remember identifying that game a couple of years ago based on media create numbers in Japan. I was like, this game's going to be fucking huge. In Japan, it is huge. If you look at it, it's just ridiculous. But yeah, I mean, I played it's not translated. I played a bit of it. And it's, I mean, it's not for me for sure.

It is, you know, I always talk about the fact that I love Pokemon so much. But if I would play Pokemon for the first time now, as an adult, I'm not sure if I would. But then with YoKai Watch, it's like, I am having that experience. I'm like, this is not for me. But it is also way more dumb down than Pokemon is. So I don't think that's a fair assessment. But it's an even more kiddie Pokemon game. And that's not what I want.

I want a more adult Pokemon game. But I'm sure there's people out there that do love it. But like, I wonder. I wonder if it's that same. Because Pokemon's still kicking. It's not like that just run away, you know? Yeah. The cartoons and all like the little kids.

love Pokemon still. They're going to do something with Pokemon. They have something up their sleeves with that game or that franchise. I don't know what it is. Yeah, 3DS. 3DS is in a weird space. I mean, it's a, it's a predecessor of a fantastic handheld. And in its own right, it has a fantastic library. I just think it's lost a little something along the way. And they're in the weird space in between two. The system, the handheld's a little weak.

And the games that are coming out on it might not be resonating with the audience the way that the DS resonated with people for a very long time. But it suffers from the same problem that the WiiU suffers from. It's just they just have to do this kind of token support of it until they're ready to show the NX, which I think will replace both of these. And I know that they say that they'll live next to each other. The thing is they've said this before with GBA, GameCube, and DS. I mean, the three pillars, that was a huge thing for them.

And that didn't really pan out. So, especially for GBA. So, you know, I feel it's sad to see the 3DS die, but it are dying. but it had to happen. I mean, the same thing's happening to Vita in a much more pronounced way. 3DS came out, you know, almost five years ago.

So it's not a good run. It has had a... Definitely. It did have a good run. It does have a vast library of amazing games. But, like, I look at this and yeah, Major's Mask, obviously it's a classic, you know?

And I'm happy that it came out on 3DS. I was surprised at its announcement. Like, everyone... It's one of those things where every time there's a Nintendo Direct, you go on NeoGaf and everyone's like, Major's Mask is coming to 3DS. Like, this is...

I'm predicting it. It's like, you never really think it was going to be announced than it was and it's like that's cool that it's there it was great for the new generation of you know zanblade chronicles like supposedly people love that game i never really got into it and a lot of people have been busting balls about you know about about zenoblay like why aren't you playing zenobley i'm like well i don't really want to play the weu and you know people like this game's right up your fucking alley and i'm like i'm sure it is uh but it's just not what i want that's that direction i want to go in right now i just it's to

Greg's point, I kind of feel like you got, the point we've made, not this time, but you know, you want your trophies or you want to just enjoy an ecosystem or you want to do whatever you want to do. And I'm like, I just don't want to like stop everything for this 150 hour fucking role playing game. You know what I mean? Like it just this momentum killer. But I've watched and

really been reading a lot about Zeno Blade and people really love it. They have something, Monolith makes that game, right? They have something really cool with that. I think that they have to treat it with a little more care and make sure that they segue it over to NX to make sure that people are really seeing it in a very notable noticeable way because it's certainly not pushing hardware and so the so the people that

the very limited amount of people that have 3ds and more pronounced the wee you might not be enjoying it well though i mean the biggest problem with the 3ds is you need the new 3ds to play it so it's like even more splintered you know yeah um so i could even play it if i wanted to yeah i still have the original 3DS myself the little tiny one that's ridiculous so yeah but you yeah you you dust it off once every two years the place the last time i played a game in any length. Well, actually, I dusted off to play some virtual console games a year. I really wanted to play Metroid for the reason. I haven't played

in a long time. So I dusted off to play that and that was fun. Link Between Worlds was the last native game I like really, really like left balls into. Yeah, well, I mean after that, you know, just off the top of my head, there wasn't too many like big games you need to play. Like, there was Pokemon and the Ruby and Sapphire

remakes and like there's a handful of things here and there. Bravely. And I think Bravely Second's going to be awesome. Yep. That comes out next year. I think March. So there's a few. Yeah, the 3DS, I personally think, had a pretty soft year. But the Wii U, I mean, it had a lot of games. Not all of them, the highest quality, but like, I'm surprised to look at this listening,

but oh shit, you know, we didn't get too many that I loved, though, but like, Splatoon, like, people really, really enjoy it. I had fun with it for what I played. It didn't capture me in that same way of, like, this is my fucking game of the year. Sure. It's fun and it's cool. And I love that we got a new Nintendo. that people genuinely care about.

The fact that, you know, we see the smash ballot and people talk about who they want and smash. And of Nintendo characters, the inklings are up there for what people want. And that's, I think, a good sign. Like, new Nintendo IP is a good thing overall. I agree. Especially they're not churning out meaningful IP to the degree that they were a long time ago. So to see something like Spiltoon really hit, you know, and inspire people to buy the system,

which they did, not in huge numbers. But even my brother, you know, calling me when Splatoon came, I was like, I finally picked the Wii. Spatoon is awesome. And I was like, you know, for a Spiltoon. Yeah. Oh, wow. And I was like, you know, that's cool.

You know, that's great. It's, again, not a game for me. I think the game's really clever. But it's not a game I would want to play. You'd think you'd like it based on your Mario Sunshine. Ridiclessness. Yeah, but then I have to play other people. Yeah, no, I get that.

It's a whole thing. But yeah, it's cool. It's seeing like game awards. Like seeing it win best shooter. It's like weird thing. And I'm sure there's some weird politics involved in that. But like, it's cool. I like that.

At least it's, you know, it's awarding something different. I'm sure the politics are that like half of the, or not half, I guess. Well, you know what I mean? A majority voted for this, another majority voted for this. And then there was enough people who voted for a spiltoon that those two that canceled out each other. Yeah. Well, good for split. Yeah.

That's how democracy works. Right, Colin. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Fast racing Neo just came out like last week on the, e-shop and it's awesome. It's F-0, but it's not F-0. But it's wipe-out, but it's not wipe-out.

And it's fun. It's really, really fast. You don't like the name. I love the name because it is what that game is. It is just, here is just a generic fast racing game. Yeah, but if we could have sat down for 20 minutes, we can come up with 10 better names than fast racing Neo.

Fast racing Axe maybe. Neo goes fast. That's even a better name. Neo goes fast. Put your pair in the slot. I like the name. I officially like the name, Neo goes fast. parent put your pair in the slot now so I don't know what that means but I don't know if I want

know Kirby and the rainbow curse just came and went there was a lot of games like that this year in the Wii U that's just like Yoshi's Willie World which took 10,000 years to come out and it finally did and it was one of those things where if that came if that game came out in March I think I would have liked it a lot more sure then it coming out yeah it's just too much going on when it came out that I couldn't enjoy it the way I wanted to yeah I love Yoshi games are my favorite but it this it's not 10 out of 10 it is very seven out of ten-ish. So that was a disappointing, but we did get a lot of that stuff just consistently throughout

the year. We got okay Nintendo games. Mario tennis. Mario tennis, another example. Okay Nintendo games. Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, based on like the way people feel about that Animal Crossing game and Mario tennis, like, I wouldn't even say they were okay. It seems like people think those games are bad.

And that was what really surprised me because you don't really see bad Nintendo games. And that's the thing is it's like this year, I think we saw a new level of like like you were saying, they're preparing for the NX. So it was kind of, there was a lot more than I remembered, but that's just because a lot of it was subpar to okay. So like the Yoshi, Yoshi and Kirby are the okay ones. And then Mario Tennis and Animal Crossing,

whatever the hell it's called, the board game. Amibo festival. It's like, they just did that. They just like put that. That's not a real animal crossing game, you know? No, definitely not.

And then there's other things like that too. With Mario Party 10, which could have been awesome. You know, the Mario Party with the game pad And being able to do all this cool stuff And then oh, you can't None of that is a thing But you can use it as Bowser in really, really, really bad mini games

It's like, damn Like they could have got it right with Mario Party They could have made it a kind of greatest hits Of all the Mario Party stuff And really kind of won people back And it being the 10th one Like that that's event But it wasn't.

Yeah, I don't know Their names on all these games And this is unusual year to watch for me Fatal Frame Made in a Blackwater finally coming over here. I didn't play that one. You're missing that, you're missing that,

the big one? I'm waiting for the big one. The big one's coming. Okay. Devil's third. Oh. Then there was devil's third. Another terrible game. So my thing is, apparently I didn't play it. The Wii U for me is completely three things. Two of them are DLC. Mario Kart DLC, which was awesome and how you should do DLC. give a nice substantial thing like the dlc offered for mario cart was essentially like

each one of them combined to be half of what mario cart had total sure super cheap and it gives you cool things it finally made mario cart what it should be which is just smash bros and here's link stuff here's f zero stuff here's uh animal cross and baby pot it's just and baby pot yes yes um so i loved that and i loved that it was just like kind of like we got the first bit last year but it ended this year and then smash bros which is just the damn gift that he's keeps on giving. I love that it's still not over. As of recording this, we're two days away from the final direct announcing the last batch of DLC. And that excites me, man. That means there's just, there's just more to come. And like, I wouldn't have thought that when they had the, the last

smash direct before the game came out and announced MUTU, I was like, ooh, I was like, ooh, this is a good sign that we know there's DLC, but it's a bad sign that we're only getting one character shown. I was like, I wish that it was more like, there's this many more to come. Because I thought that meant maybe we'll get one after that and then call it a day. But we've seen consistent, like, characters, you know, and levels. And I love that they're, they're really using Smash Bros. as a way to promote their other games. Like when Mario Maker came out, there was the Mario Maker level added and stuff like that. And it's cool that they're consistently doing this. And then Mario Maker is the Nintendo game. And they're also doing the strategy with

the DLC of just like kind of like consistently adding to the game and putting all these things out. there's the Mercedes Ben's events that they added. I don't know if you guys saw that. But I love that they can do that. I love that it's just like there's now these platforms for them to go on. I hope that this is experimenting for the NX. X can be able to see. No, Mario Maker.

That was one of the things that was amazing. It was like, oh, you guys want checkpoints? Sure. We'll give you that in like a month, a half. Here you go. I'm like, okay, cool. And I mean, Mario Maker alone has reminded me why I love video games and shown the, capabilities of video games and seeing what like Dan Reichert and Patrick do.

It's awesome and it's hilarious. And to see the level of challenge and to see someone try to outwit it, it's awesome. And it's just this like, it just keeps getting better to me. And that game just keeps giving and there keeps being more challenging things or more interesting things. And my favorite thing is that it makes me think about Mario differently and it teaches me things about how the gameplay works that I would have never thought about. Like the way that you can use turtle shells and the way that you can throw items in the air and catch them and do specific things. I'm like, that's built into the gameplay. And people are now using those as

challenges that would Nintendo would never do. Sure. Because that's too complex of a mechanic. But when people are doing that, knowing that you know how to do that, it's really cool. I wish you'd play it more. Colin? No.

When it comes to NX Con will play. Yeah. But yeah, overall, I mean, you know, reviewing Nintendo, it was a very year filled with a couple shining moments. Sure. And I think that overall it is the transition year and that's really the nicest thing I can say about it.

There was a lot of stuff. But the good stuff is good and I think it leads in a good direction. For them to give it to you next year. They're going to give it to me. They're going to give it to me hard. You better hope so. I'm hoping. I really am.

Everything rides on this. Everything rides on it and we all know it. And I think Smash Bros is going to be a really important thing with NX. Like they've invested so much in this Wii U Smash Bros that like it needs to somehow be compatible with the next one. And I think that they know that. And I think that they're going to continue. Like I'm speaking early because I don't know what they're doing at this final direct.

Yeah. I hope that there's at least some messaging of something. Like I'm pretty sure we're going to get... About NX? No, not about NX, but just in terms of like, smash isn't done. You know? Like, we might not be getting more characters or whatever.

But like this is, it's a big deal because it's Sakurai doing it. And like, forever it's always, oh, this is going to be his last smash. This is going to be his last smash. And this potentially is his last message to the people about this game. And I'm just interested into wording and how they kind of phrase it.

They're not going to talk about the NX, but it's going to be interesting to see just what Smash Bros. means to him and like where he stands with it. If he's going to say like, he's done and that's it

or if he's going to be like, I'm not done. Yeah. Oh, fuck you, I ain't done. Yeah. Which would be awesome. Yep, we'll see. I mean, this is going to be

cards on the table time for them. It's going to be fun to see what they have planned between their mobile initiatives and, and of course the NX But I you know

The rumors are circulating We're learning more about the NX So you know With patents and with stuff Coming out of Foxcon And they're in how many they want to sell And when they're gonna start manufacturing and stuff It all indicates a fall 2016 release date

But I don't I don't know if they were gonna be ready that quickly But they will be Final topic Xbox 2015 Going down the games Halo 5 Just that that's it

I totally like It's just like And I'm not, it's just playing it. It was like, right, this is Halo and this is why I'm not a Halo fan. Like, I just felt it was, I'm playing co-op with Christine. You know what I mean? We got halfway through the game in the night. I thought it was sterile, forgettable.

I understand why people love it. I played multiplayer for a couple hours. I was like, all right, yeah, cool. But it's just like, it's time to admit that I'm just not a Halo fan. You know what I mean? I'm on the other side of that completely where it's like, it's like, it's, I played a bit of the single player. And it's just like, this is why I like Halo. That's great.

I'm glad you like it. You know what I mean? But yeah, I mean, there was a couple things that it's not Halo. I've talked about this before, but the lack of the couch co-op, I'm like, well, fuck, that took away my Halo experience. So I was upset about that. I'm not so much an online guy. So like multiplayer doesn't mean anything to me. And yeah, the single player overall, not the best story.

So it was a forgettable Halo game, but not, I wouldn't say it. Just for me, just the Greg Miller, not as a critic, just as Greg Miller playing games over there. wanting to play destiny instead of this because destiny is more fun and progressive progressive. Gears remastered or Ultimate Edition Right whatever you call it.

Played it for Let's Plays with Alfredo I was like oh cool Never went back to it I was never I mean I'm one of the guys Who appreciates what gears does I think I've played Every Gears Like I mean we did the Gears 3 thing

at IGN I definitely played gears two Gears one I didn't have it one But I played at a friend's house So I'm like yeah more gear's cool And it was like But it's not like something That drew me back Where I felt like I needed to go play it

Yeah, the only Gears game I played, I beat one back in the day. Yeah. And then seeing this, it's like, oh shit, it's. Looks way better. Yeah. Yeah. Did you play it at all? Not the remaster, no.

No. But that's another one kind of seemed like it came and went. But I guess that's just with all the remaster. Yeah, remaster. It's just like it's going to speak to an audience, right? And then let's see what happens. Rise of the Tomb Raider. Woo!

Rise of the Tomb Raider. That was a game, Tim. A game that everyone should play. Mm-hmm. You can't because it's not in every console. And it didn't really sell well. because it's fall late at it's lunch but yeah great game man that's another or we're talking about it earlier in this show like the gameplay loops right like that game has a great game play loop of like

i've got to a new area and the mission is on the other side of the area but fuck i see a coin chest over there and i'm gonna take this side mission and that just unlocked all these new things and all crap i'm close to it and then like two hours later you've 100% of the area and you're like now let's go do the story quest and let's move on there beautiful fun uh it's a game that i feel like at the end kind of does the video game thing I hate where it's like let's give you some of the most annoying parts to remember us by and it's like duh and like the thing of course what is

that if I was into achievements and wanted a thousand percent that game or a hundred thousand pointed I would then have gone back and replayed the stuff I missed to the caves and whatnot and it wouldn't be my last my last impression of the game wouldn't have been these three corridors of let's fight fucking every enemy even though fighting is not the fun part of this game so I wouldn't have that but for me right now

somebody who's like well I'm done now let's finish this experience that's where it ends for me but I can't say enough nice things about that game. Great game. Really fun. It's the original Tomb Raider amplified. So if you didn't I thought the story was really forgettable in the original Tomb Raider. I fight a ghost witch or something at the end if I remember correctly. This one

in three years will be the same way of like I remember there was this guy and these people and they wanted that and then at the end they were totally setting up for a third so that's what they did. You know? Rare replay. I want to give a shout to that just as being one of the best compilation games I've ever played. It made me

care about games I don't care about and you know we we did a let's play series or we kind of played through all of them even a lot of the really early really shitty games but it it was fun that they presented it in a way that made me want to try them out and want to appreciate them for what they are um I loved the whole theater

look of it and I loved the all the modes that they added the challenge modes and the beat the um I forgot what they were called but like maybe they were reflies the ones where you go in and like it just gives you the here's what you should play this game for like Battletoads you play it and they you that speeder bike part, like just right away, got you straight into it.

Yeah, I really wish that other compilations would have that level of love and care put into them. Yeah, I was really impressed by them. I was glad to hear that it sold better than they thought, beat their projections. And, yeah, there was a lot of respect putting into that collection and did bring back some obscure games, a lot of obscure games, and definitely educated people on who rare is and celebrated a history that I think is kind of lost to the ages now. maybe Microsoft's

tip of the hat that that rare is not really alive anymore at least that was my that was kind of what I walked away from it's like here's what rare was and evolve into what they're going to be and they really haven't been rare in a long time anyway so yeah I thought it was really cool definitely a lot of respect put in a lot of love

I agree and happy to see some of those old games shine again yeah iDarb oh it's great iDAR was fantastic really really that was a really fun time when we were all playing that yeah it's one of the

those, I feel like there's a lot of multiplayer games like that with that kind of aesthetic, you know, like Tower Fall. Sure. And, um, Bural Halla. There's things like that. They're just like, hey, just pick up and play. It's a 2D fucking game. But they're fun.

And I think I DARB specifically added that, that just insanity level. Yeah, exactly. Why crazy assortar. The hashtag's going over. You fix one of us figures out how to dash before the rest of us and then you're trying to figure out. Yeah. And it's just like, again, it's why we play games. It's fun.

Yeah. So I, we should, we should bust that one out. Yeah, totally. point do a second let's play of it the third let's play yeah we did a launch actually um or in the blind forest oh very pretty very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very

awesome game I'm happy there's a definitive version coming out and all that um I like that that Xbox had that because I feel like forever Xbox was kind of missing the that level game you know there you think Xbox you definitely think forza and Halo and gears and stuff you wanted that artisanal platformer and already gave it to you and it's been good Yeah. Did you play a lot? Not I didn't, I still haven't beat it.

Okay. But they do the thing that I fucking hate where it's like I got far into it, but not far enough to, once they announced like the definitive edition where I was like, oh, I should just probably wait. Sure, sure, sure, sure. But yeah, I mean, it's, I love it and I love, I love that it felt different than games like that. Like, it's a, it's a Metroidvania kind of game, but it doesn't feel that way. It's not so much just like the physics of it are weird where you jump and you have to kind of like, Go the slingshotting type stuff that you have to do with the jumps. Yeah.

It's, I like when, when I'm playing a game and it's kind of like a guitar hero where I'm playing. I'm like, I don't, I'm not familiar with this. This feels different. I'm not good at it.

Oh, I'm getting better at it. Oh, now I can do this. No, I can just kind of zip through the thing. Sure. And yeah,

I mean, you know, just the first 15 minutes of that game is emotional as shit. It's like a Pixar movie. Yeah. It's like anything that I can relate to a Pixar movie I'm into. So I'm a big fan of a boy, Ory. And then forza

motorsport happened, which wouldn't matter to any of us, except for the fact that there was the Fast and Furious. And that shit was awesome. Like, man, like that, they really nailed that. Like, it felt like Fast and Furious. They added a whole bunch of dumb shit and just VEO and like stupid

songs over, like, just play it on repeat. And like, they took a game and made me care about it. Yeah, that's good. And yeah, it was really fun. It was like it's a fun two hours that you just, you know, in and out. And it made me realize how much I want a Fast and Furious Telltel game. Oh. And one day, one day.

You got to pitch it to him next time we're on Job. Yeah. So, I mean, that's it kind of for the Xbox. Fuck that. State of decay. Year 1 survival edition. Come on, son. That was great.

I, you know, state of decay on Xbox 360 slash PC back in the day. McCaffrey and I had a bunch of lets plays leading into it. I was super into it. And it was that thing. Yeah, it came out at E3 and came back, exhausted and tried to play in and ever. It just, I'd move two ships in the night. So when it finally came here, man, that was it. Like, that's the most I've played my Xbox one.

You know what I mean? Because I mean, like in a condensed period. Yeah. There was a week where I shut down and that's all I played. And as soon as I was done with something, it's back out there to fill my rucksacks and clear off the map and go get this. Got to do it. You don't understand, man. I got my settlement big.

You've got to. So that was a great, great one. I'm really excited to see what Undead Labs does next. So what do you thoughts on Xbox overall in terms of like conferences and announcements and just their year? They had really good conferences. They had really good announcements. I mean, we go back to the fact that D3, Colin has said it before. I think I agree with them.

The biggest announcement was the backwards compatibility. right like they're there like it's what i love about xbox right now is that you it's it's weird right because we're playstation fans obviously that's where our history lies that's where our coverage lies when we've recovered that beat for so long but you cheer for xbox because they are the underdogs now and they keep making the right moves they keep coming out and saying the right things they keep making business decisions that are based on is this good for games you know i mean that's what phil spencer has been all about when aaron greenberg was here with you guys and listen that podcast you know what i mean like they're cognizant of what where their missteps were

and how they need to fix them and go forward. And it seems like it's Everest. And are they going to be able to get up that mountain? Because PlayStation continues now to dominate out there. And it's one of those things where I think in the old days, it was so easy in the console war to sit around and pick aside and be like, fuck those other guys. And now everybody has these spokespeople, these voices, these faces that you connect with.

And it's like, I want Phil Spencer to win. I want him to have it. You know, I want him to be as successful as Shueh, Yoshida. I want these things to be out there and have it where like Rise of the Tomb Raider comes out. and it's an amazing game and sells really well. You know what I mean? Because it sucks when it doesn't. Because then people aren't playing this, that, and the other.

And when Crystal Olympics ever recover from it. Like all these different things. It's like, it's just, everybody's human now. And that's awesome. That's what I love about it. You know what I mean? Like everyone is human now. So you sit there and it's like, man, Nintendo's year wasn't great.

But we know people over there that are all great. Corey and Reggie and all these different. It's like, you know, I want them to do well. Same thing here. I think Xbox made all the right calls, all the right decisions. And it didn't pay off in the monumental, they're back on. top and now it's this race where they're going to, you know, trade the lead back and forth,

back and forth. I don't know what it looks like next year. Now the next year is like if they stick to their messaging of games, games, games, games and Sony does this PlayStation VR thing where, and that doesn't, let's say that doesn't work out. What does that do to Xbox? Yeah, definitely interesting. So just kind of adding into this topic, we also got PC games and mobile games. Hold on.

Shit's going crazy right now. Shit's going crazy on your mobile device. Yeah, it is. Wake me when all your mobile device games come to Vita in four years. So for PC we had at least on my list. There's her and Emily is away. Her story? Yes, yes, yes, her story.

I was like, her was a great movie with the Washington Phoenix and I really dug. Yeah, so I didn't play her story. That is a movie you need to see. It's about AI and technology and future. No, this is one of the ones where I'm doing the stress thing

to tell you you have to watch it. Good haircut, by the way. So did you play her story? No. So it was just you. Yeah, it was Nick and I, right? I don't remember. It was you.

It wasn't you. Then it was Nick and I. Yes, yes, yes. I think one of the only last plays we've ever taken down and then didn't put back up Oh yeah Because you got all fucked up in it or whatever Yeah great game

Really amazing performances And it was another one of you don't know her story Which is possible Don't it's like gone home Don't know anything about it Just jump in and play Because that's what we did Everyone was talking about it

We sat down and they started up And you're a computer terminal Yeah And first person It's like what the fuck is this And you start piecing it together And those like Wait search this holy shit

Oh my God do this Da da da like It's awesome Like I hope that game I mean, obviously, for selfish reasons, I hope it gets ported to consoles so you could do it. It won't because it's keyboards and everything else. So everyone should just go play it on PC. It's so much fun.

I was shocked to see it win so big at the game awards. I think that's a good sign for it because, you know, there's certain games that, you know, we have a lot of friends in the industry. So when something happens, you know about it pretty instantly. Yeah. Everyone's tweeting like, you got to play gone home. This was one of those things. You got to play this. Oh, I'm loving this right now, whatever.

But it's like there's that weekend. And if you miss that weekend, you never hear about it again because. because people are on to the next thing. And to see this game, I haven't heard about it since, you know, everyone's talking about it. You're like, we got to do a let's play.

Let's do this. Then it kind of went silent. Yeah. Didn't hear anything about it. And all of a sudden it's winning shit. I'm like, that's great for that. Like,

same thing with gone home where it's like, I feel like it did have that moment of conversation. And then it dropped off. But then eventually got to the mainstream because of the awards and stuff. No, yeah. Her story was great. I highly highly recommend it.

Yeah. And then Emily is away. My God. You want to talk about like I did a, I'm just. doing a piece for game informer and for giant bomb of my top 10 games and where Emily is away lands on it and I'm sure it'll be in the same spot when we do our video next or two weeks from now. Like totally man, I could not believe how high that rank because it is one of those things where

yeah, it's a short game. You know, we are let's place 50 minutes. You know what I mean? And that's with us hemming and hawing and being idiots. But it's like it's all realistic of us hemming and hauling and like, oh, such a trip. It got emotion out of us. When I kept talking about it and when I was talking when I talked to people about Emily is away is the fact that it's like you have to understand sitting there and playing that game in my spare bedroom for kind of funny with Tim next me or whatever fuck that like in my head I am at my desk freshman year of at miss at missu with my huge toshiba looking out of this like it's all right there because this was life this was it where you're you leave these people and you then start talking

to them through aim messaging and like picking the right buddy icon and then picking the right response all the stuff and like the way you and I sat back I'm like oh what are we saying what do What's funny is like you say that like you're not in this room. You're by yourself whatever to me. It's not even by yourself. Like those memories are having someone next to you. It's like, what should I say? What should I say?

And you over think it and like talk it over and like rewrite it 10 times. Like, oh, that game. It did something. Yeah. And I'm so happy that I recently looked at the numbers for it. Like the let's plays over 50,000 views, which puts it in the upper echelon of our let's play. That's awesome because it didn't. And when it first came out, it wasn't moving numbers.

And I was like, guys, like I'm not even talking about our performance. Like you need to see this game. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that. I love that it's like it is, it's, I want kind of funny to be known

for that type of stuff. It's for those, those moments of it's like, we genuinely enjoy this. Right. You know, it reminds me of your Batman v. Superman reaction.

Sure. Who gives a shit what everyone else thinks? Like you genuinely love this thing. Right. And I, it's great. Emily is away. Highly recommend it.

Do it. Definitely check that shit out. Is there any other PC games? I'm sure there's a bazillion, but I'm talking about that we really care about. We connect it with? Because it's out of our normal wheelhouse. What was the one where we jacked the car off?

Oh. Drive shaft or no. That was Charlie's band. Find the jack. It was a jack in a car off. It was not everything. Shit, there was one that I had a momentary glance at. Jack in the car off is what I said.

And that made me think of something else. I remember the game. Party hard. I enjoyed party hard. That's finally out or whatever. Or green light or whatever. Oh yeah, yeah. There was one, I don't think it's out yet, but we played the early version of it.

That it was like a very sterile white, white stuff. Super hot. Super hot, super hot, super hot. Awesome. Awesome concept, really cool game. I love the, you know, the Steam Greenlight stuff brings a lot of bad shit. Yeah, yeah. It's like mobile games.

Like, there's like so much bad. Sure. But then it does allow the like really cool, random thing to come through. Yeah, yeah. I was a big fan of that. Do you have any? No. No.

I don't think I played much on it. I played civilization five. That's pretty much the LAPC game I play. Um, and then for mobile, I do got to give a couple shoutouts because I have put so much hour. Like Pagel Blast, I talked about it all year. It came out at the tail end of last year, but I didn't start playing until this year. Sure. And there's a lot of problems with it just in terms of micro transactions and this and that. You've heard it all before. You could hard boot your phone to get around it. Yeah. But there's, there was a new update they put out recently that gives you a lot more

lives and gives you some shit. And man, I'm telling you, Pagle Blass is the best Pagel game. Wow. That ever happened. Like, when you don't have to deal with the bullshit. Sure. Like, you know, it's not too hard to get around it. But I mean, you saw me. Anytime. we were on a trip, I was fucking going through that shit. And it's like, if you could platinum this game, I would platinum this game. It is just so much fun. There's so much to do.

And, you know, Pagel's always been cool because it is just a simple brick-breaking game. But then with the powers and stuff and just the stupid-ass music that plays and like, it just, you know, adds a fresh twist to it. And Pagel Blast, I think is ideal because it's on a mobile phone where you play vertically instead of the horizontal version that you normally do with Pagel. It gives you so much more real estate. It just changed the game up enough. And I'm like, shit, I'm fucking addicted to this.

There was no game I was more addicted to than Pagel Blast. Lawyercroft Go. Oh, yeah. Very fun, very cool. I liked that it felt like a more fully featured game, even though it was on mobile. My biggest problem was that it's a tease. It's such a tease at what could have been a really fun, challenging, difficult puzzle game. It ended up just being kind of a puzzle game where you play it.

And you're like, I know exactly what I need to do. Yeah, you always said this. It was never hard enough. Yeah. You see the room. You have all the things. You look at you. Like, all right, I need to move this thing there. So then it just kind of becomes about going through the motions of doing it. But it's still fun to do. And it's still cool to see. And I love the art style of it. I love the music and just the visuals are just really, really engaging. And it's a fun Laura Croft game.

Like it reminded me a lot of the old Tomb Raider games. And, you know, we saw the, we had them on the panel in. Right. Pax. Pax Prime. Yeah. And they're talking about how this is. We made a game. that was what we remember Tomb Raider being and it's like that really is this. It's much better than the original T-Rater games. Yeah, there is many of them jumping around.

Pac-Man 256. Did you play it? No. I heard of good things. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, it's the same thing which is kind of like,

it's just Pac-Man, but back in the day, the Pac-Man, the 256 level, when you got there, there was like a glitch where everything would start glitching, and they're like,

let's make a fucking game out of that. And it kind of just became this thing where it's an endless scrolling Pac-Man game, we just kind of keep having to go up as the bottom of the screen kind of just rises with this like glitches and shit. And it's just a score attack thing and like it's randomly generated and it's

just, it's fun. Pac-Man just like techno music, just blaring and shit. It's definitely a playing game for me. I enjoy that. And the one that doesn't get talked about enough is Horizon Chase. You like cruising USA and I don't know why you wouldn't.

This is the game for you. It just takes that stupid arcade racing from the 90s thing where it's just like you just go and you perfectly drift around everything without having any skill at all. Sure, sure. Really just you just hold it, you just go and then you just, it's left and right and it just kind of like auto does it, but it's addicting

and it's fun and there's the stupid like dancing girls at the end and stuff and it's just now we know why Tim likes it. Oh yeah. I'm all, I'm all into it. But yeah, the soundtracks are great and everything. It's just, it's very 90s. It's very Tim. I'm a big fan of that. Those are my mobile games. Tim's mobile game check.

Yeah, got to give them the shoutouts. I'm glad you did. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, that was 2015. Whoa. Whoa, man. Hey, man. Dank yarn them nugs.

Yeah, man. You got them dank yarn them nugs. What are your favorite games, 2015? Let us know in the comments below. Make sure you come back next week where we will be predicting 2016. It's going to be a wild ride. It's going to be a lot of fun. One day, I predict that I'm going to get that fucking championship.

I never. I'm never letting it go. It's going to have. Toadstool tour is the next one. So start fucking practicing. Oh shit. You bitch. Yep.

Thank you so much for everything. Until next time.