Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - The Fantasy Critic 2026 DRAFT - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

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Boot. Dev takes your coding from beginner to expert, the fun way, through a hands-on RPG-like experience. Go to boot.com. Dev and use code Kind of Funny to get 25% off your first year on the annual plan. What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, January 6th, 2026. I'm one of your host, Greg Miller, alongside Forbes. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't introduce him first. I'm the champion. You're the champion. I'm the champion. Let's run it. Run it. You remember it?

The man who brings the boom. The undisputed champion of 2025. Two zero's on the board. Save the league against Barrett Courtney taking Donkey Kong Bonanza. When you have boys, I don't like them saying Mike, baby. What did I do? I even wrote it all down on the bottom of my trophy. Just so everybody knows what happens.

And he's wearing his glasses so he can read it. Wow. What is this? I'm going to do it for you today. Oh, okay. This says do it for him, Andy. Okay. Thank you, Greg, for announcing me first.

Well, you know, we could have talked about it. We said, roll it. I thought you had a clip. I thought you had to hear from the boom song or something. I was going to go out. Now, there's a song. Your game is a showdown champion. And there is a man.

Answering this room right now. The real hero of genera. The real man who saved this company. He saved us his CEO, Jr., and now he will save us as Tim Jr. It's the boss baby, evil Barrett Courtney. Thank you. Thank you so much, Greg.

I felt like the first piece of evil I needed to do, obviously was steal someone's walk on music. Oh, okay. That's my first act, 2026, being evil. The jacket fits. Yesterday, if y'all missed it. He looks great. It does.

If you missed it, I won the championship to become Tim Jr. And I was granted a promise, a wish. One wish. One wish. Only get one. And I only get one. And I went to Blessing at EOA Jr. And I asked him, my one wish, our great commissioner for the fantasy critic, is to change the team name for one, Roger Picorni.

No, why me? Why me? For those who missed out yesterday, why have you? yesterday. Why, why Roger? Why me? And why Roger? Why Roger? Why, Roger indeed? You know, Roger and Mike, because it's, it's these two together all the time. You know, I'm someone who is constantly good to these two. Very good. And the payback that I get for the last year is torment. Mental torment. Physical torment. By dunking on your ass. I mean, fucking breaking ankle. Everything. It was nuts. Everything. Every corner. And that's the thing.

I get which has turned me evil for 2026 and with that I have to start playing the game and I have to start thinking the long game the mental game it's time to play the game and my decision to change Roger Corny's name which right now is titled team snow bike mic number two perfectly legal it's in the rule book it's fine yeah it wasn't even really targeting Roger because you know what a lot of there's some suggestions on how I should change Roger's name Greg had a great one. Leenza deserves better. But my target at Roger Pkorni isn't really about Roger because his new team name, he's going to look at throughout the year. He's going to roll his eyes. He's going to be annoyed every once in a while. Maybe chuckle. But really, it's about the man at the center of it all.

Yeah. It's about playing the mind games. I like that. The champ. With the true ring leader. Our goat. We love them. And I want to change Rogers.

team name so that every time Mike goes on to FantasyCritic.com and sees Roger's team name, it stings a little bit. Slowly, slowly making him breakdown throughout the year. That's 365 tournament right there. I've spent the last few weeks being evil or learning to become evil for this year to win Fantasy Critic.

And my first move for Fantasy Critic 2026 is to change Roger Pocorney's team name to Barrett is my best friend. Whoa. What? I knew you wouldn't. It's changing it. That's really good.

I don't like that at all. Barrett is my best friend. Wow. That is the name. That is the name. Barry is my best friend. As I'm editing it, there's like a warning. At the top.

It says this feature is intended to fix mistakes in other exceptional circumstances. There you go. Except. I count this as exceptions. Yes, exactly. Tim Jr. Thank you.

There we go. Clap it up. He's gone full evil this year. Wow. Has a ring to it. It is very powerful. That's a great promo bear, by the way. That was good.

He's good at this. I thought it was going to be I counterpicked exhibition third game of the year. Which I thought would be very. Welcome everyone to the kind of funny games cast. I'm one of your host Greg Miller alongside as you know, the champ, Snowbike Mike from last year's fantasy critic 2025. Next to me of course, Tim Gettys. Of course.

Blessing Eddie O'ye. Good day, Greg. Paris, Lilley on the wall. Hey, Paris. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you too, sir. Roger Pekorny. And then Andy Cortez. Third place, baby. It is our time to throw away the history.

All right. Move forward and and drive with one of our favorite events of the year and that's the fantasy critic draft. But before I do that, let me remind you this to the kind of Funny Gamescast, of course. If you didn't know you're watching it and you can be part of it live, you can super chat on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games right now with what you think we should be picking,

what you think should be going on. They can't see the chat. I can talk to what's going on over here and bring in some of that stuff over there. You should super chat with what they think we should be picking, but he only sees it. Interesting. Don't worry. I'm a former champion.

All right. I don't have to worry about this. Is that why you were all bringing our trophies? I got my trophy out. My guy is his trophy out. He's like the recent champion. Right there in the center, of course, 2026 trophy that will be going to somebody. This year, of course, in 365, or what is it?

Of course. I win one time. Where's your trophy? Where's your trophy? That's a good question. They know. I don't think I got a trophy. Everyone knows.

Keep that mind. Well, where'd you put yours, Tim? To my drawer. Go get it. Oh my God. The disgust in going to get it. God. This is what it's like when Ben asked me to play him on my phone.

I'm like, fuck off, kid. He's got senioritis right now. I know, right? Yeah, I know. He keeps checking the phone to Geotax, the Gitax. When is that happening? Of course, remember, we couldn't do this show without our Patreon producers, patreon.com slash kind of funny. So thank you to Delaney the Somm-twining, Carl Jacobs and Omega Buster. But we're already into it. But still, let's dive into what is and forever will be topic of the show. Tots, tuts, tuts, tuts. It is time for the fantasy critic draft 2026.

if you have been living under Iraq and don't understand what fantasy critic is. It is an amazing website you should check out. Go right now to kindofuny.com slash league and you'd be dropped right on to our Kind of Funny Gamescast League that's been going for many a year now run by the Honorable Commissioner Blessing. Of course, the idea here is that we will sit with you right now in draft five games. A snake draft. We'll go through and do the thing.

Come back that are coming out supposedly in 2026. When those games come out in the year, we will then be awarded points like fantasy football. For every point on Open Critic, it gets above 70. You get a point. Once you cross 90, the points start doubling, but don't worry about that. That's two in the minutia for you right now. If it was below 70 on Open Critic, you would lose points from your team. There's also things called counterpicks. So we draft our five games today.

Then from the ones we've drafted, we often pick one game from someone else's team that we think will either be a bad game, and then the negative points would become positive points on our team, or usually we think it'll be delayed, it won't come out, so it'll just be a zero and not affect anybody's score. There's trading, there's shenanigans as you can see. Bless, as commissioner, what have I missed that the audience needs to know about fantasy critic? I mean, I think you nailed all the big points, right? Today we're drafting five games, but then throughout the year,

we have five more spots that we can fill in with other games by bidding. And we start off with $100 and we had to bid at least $1 on a game. There's secret bids. They processed on Saturday. And so if I bid for a game $5 today and then tomorrow, Mike thinks, oh, man, I want to get that game. Mike doesn't know that I bid for it. Mike thinks, oh, I'm going to put in $10 just to be safe. Mike at the end of the week would end up getting that game on his team.

There are drops. You can drop three games that will not release this year confirmed, right? So if I bid for GTA6, for example, and GTA6 gets delayed to 2027, I can then drop that game. That'll count as one of my three drops. I then also have one drop for any unreleased game. So if I bid for GTA 6 and for some reason something goes wrong, we learned that half the map just fucking falls off of the cliff or whatever. We think this game is going to be terrible.

I can drop one of those. But remember, they have to say publicly it's not coming out. Well, no. For the first. For the first three. Yeah. Then there's one, any unreleased. Right.

For the will not release ones, though, they've said. That last season that got me with like Mina the Holloware. We're delaying it to some time. They never said not last year, which meant I couldn't drop in. Correct, correct, correct. In order to score points, the game has to get a score. That mainly applies when we get into the early access conversation. We'll get into that in one second.

In fact, we'll get into it now. So we have a list of band tags. It's all the same as last year if you're watching and listen to last year, except there's one new one which we'll get to. The current list of band tags are as follows. Currently in early access, so games that are already in early access you cannot bid on. Directors cuts, partial remix, which is the new one, which we'll talk about deeper in a second.

Ports released internationally already, so if a game's out in Japan currently, and it's about to release in the U.S., you cannot bid on that. And then straight up remasters you cannot bid on. Partial Remix are the new band for this year, as was voted by the people playing. Examples of partial remix that I'll pull from Rogers last. Oh, okay. Rogers roster for last year. Final Facing Tactics, the Evil East Chronicles is a partial remake.

The Talus Principle reawakened as a partial remake. X. Actually, I don't think that was actually counted as a partial remake, but I digress. I guess. I think it was a full remake. The website defines a partial remake as hard to define. There are a lot of games that are a little too remade to be a remaster, but too similar to be a remake, they live here. So more examples would be Demon Souls in 2020,

Shadow Colossus, 2018, Diablo 2 resurrected, GTA, the trilogy, and The Legend of Zelda, Skyward Sword, HD. So it makes our rules slightly stricter, but in the spirit of trying to avoid those weird categories of games that we think might be remastered, but other people might think might be newer. Another new one for this year is trading.

Trading was off last year. Trading is on standard rules for trading. It just needs to be between two consenting adults. Yep. Now, hold on, hold on, man. Is that all the need commission? Is that all that it needs to be? Well, here's what I'll say.

Okay. Is that we heavily frown upon in real life deals. Okay. So what does that mean, though? Yeah. Yeah, you have to define that. I like some of words. You're trading game for game.

You're playing the game of Fane's Critic. I can't go to Greg and be like, Greg, I like your sandwich. You give me your sandwich and I'll give you Eldon Ring. Sure. The new game or whatever. So that is not frowned upon its ban. We can't do that.

Yeah. Yeah. Let's like if I'm going to. rob a person in the streets and the cops goes, we frown upon that. I'm like, all right, but you're not going to run. I don't care if the cop doesn't like me. With the fantasy critic panel in San Francisco,

damn it, I'm so tired. I'm so fucking tired. Recognizes Paris Lily from down south. What a Paris. So my question with the trades, and I am specifically talking about Mike and Roger because I can see this happening. Yeah, he sees it. Roger knows

he's going to lose. So late in the process, he trades Wolverine to Mike for, I don't know, some random indie game. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, it's clearly an unfair trade. Like, is there any, do we get a chance to, you know, like, yeah, to veto it. Can the commission, the honorable and wise commission step in? Here's the thing, because that is, that's a gray area. What if Roger really likes the fucking, don't ask.

that he's about to get. Yeah. I think genuinely, if there is like a, hey, this person is probably tanking, we can put the flag down and have a conversation.

I think that's what happens. If we see that happens, because it's all, it's all automated in the website, right? They don't have to come to me to trade. Just go to the website, figure out to trade yourself.

If you're having trouble with it, then come to me. But trade yourself. If we start to notice that Roger's tanking for Mike, then we have a conversation. Which I wouldn't do. And we kick Roger out.

Yeah, we'd get rid of it. This is why I recommended they be on the same team. well what we did last year was not saying you wish i got i got crimson don and then and then he got uh ninja gotten four fair trade fair enough send mike picks don't send mike anything the one more thing i'll add and this comes from mike is the winner of last season this is one of his requests that i'm granting the winner of this season will be

able to make last place do whatever they went i love that yep and you guys did something for me i'm excited for next year who will win so and then Let's get in the weeds of that. We got to. What the fuck does that? I assume as a fan in somebody who's played fantasy sports, it's the, you wear the weird shirt. You go to the bar and every drink you drink takes time off of the clock. But you have to be there.

I love that. Like that, but it's not like, mow my lawn. Change my oil. Is it something crazy? Mowing a lawn. I'm going to keep that one in my back pocket. Get Kevin in here. Like Kevin lose.

I would love to mow Alon. If I was last place and you tell me Mow Alon, I'll be so happy. This is what I'll say. All of us here are content creators. Make it fun for the content. That's all I say. Make it fun for the content. I feel like it should be that.

It has to be content. I like that. Mo someone's long. Honestream. Yeah. R.R.L. Stream. It has to be content.

Okay. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that covers it all. Oh. Catch up as we go. One more thing. Uh-oh. Mike, again, this is one of his requests as winner that I'm granting because I like it.

And also we kind of voted on what rules should be as well. So Mike, we'll get first pick as the winner of the winner. You're playing for something, right? That's what we're talking about. We're playing for it. We will then randomize the picks thereafter. I sent Barrett a wheel that will use to determine the random. Oh, wow.

Anything else? So every year, the winner now gets to basically say their three wishes to you, and then you get to say yes or no? Yeah. Okay, I like that. I genuinely like that. That's awesome. Yeah, if you win and you're like, I want to change this rule,

okay, let's have a conversation. Let's have a conversation. Yeah, let's have some fun. I like it. All right. Everybody, if you want to follow along, if you're live,

kind of funny.com slash league will take you to our page. If you're watching later, maybe don't follow along because you ruined it for yourself and see what we did. Then everybody logged in, everybody ready to go,

and then we turn our lonely eyes to Mike, I believe, to figure out what pick number one is. Well, we had to figure out to figure out to make the draft order. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were doing it like one by one.

No, no, no. Yeah, we got to do it before. All right. All right. So Mike's number one. Number two will go to? I'm giddy.

Me. Andy. Oh, baby. Oh, I was like at the top. The weird wheel. I was like, oh, Paris. All right. The error didn't give it away.

I was on the top. What the hell? Yeah, I never seen an arrow on the right. Have you ever watched Wheel of Fortune? Whoa. Have you ever spun a wheel? Everybody, we got to calm Tim down. He's cringing up right now.

You know what I? Bear it. Tim Jr. Barrett's number three. Woo. With the fourth pick, it goes to... Roger.

Well, here's my thing, right? I'm like, now I'm hoping I'm last. Now I want that double pick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now you want to flip. Fifth pick goes two. Tim.

Okay. Tim. Tim. Timmy, Tim. Spinning this wheel makes me miss the 99 bananas. Oh, yeah. Goes to

Harris. Now it's been you and me, a man who's who's getting that snake pick? Fascinated. I like the guy's background. Yeah, that's nice.

Ah! Damn it. That's no, it's good for you. You got it. Oh, no, no. No, no, no. Yeah, I go number six.

I slept about four hours. I'm a funny day. And I'm feeling it, y'all. So that is the draft order. It goes. Snowack Mike, then Andy Cortez, then Sad Boy Bear.

then Roger, then Tim Geddes, then Paris Lily, then Blessing, then Greg, in that order. And then it snakes back all the way up. Let's do this gentleman. Let's have a good time. Start drafting. When you get in there to announce your team name

for our audio listeners. Yeah, very clearly as well. Yes. Roger. Absolutely. All right. We start with the one and only snow bike Mike. Andy, can you please give me the ESPN? Beat, do you remember it?

Do do do do do do do do do. With the first draft of the 2006 Fantasy Critic, kind of funny games cast draft, Snowbike Mike has been handed a very special envelope. Wow. With the winning picks. You hated it to yourself. You know,

these pigs are the picks, okay? I know. Mike before, I know inside. Mike before this set out, he went to jrpg.com. I have some very special picks. And I'm very excited to get into the first pick because last year I had the second

pick. and there was the big conversation. Does first pick take GTA 6? The elephant in the room. Do you believe that GTA 6 will release this year in the fall? Or will it be pushed once again? And if I don't pick GTA 6 first pick, will Andy then be forced into it or will he be confident enough to skip it?

Because there's another game out there that might be. be, you know, dare I say, just as big in the ratings as GTA 6. A game that was a game of the year contender that surprised many, but you knew in your heart of hearts, this is one good ass game. And this year, they travel to a country that we all know. He's so smart. This year, you get behind the wheel. And the song plays Tim Gettys, your favorite.

Forza Horizon 6 heads to Japan. That's for sure. And your voice don't like Mike. That's for sure. The one. That was the number one. A great pick. Instead of GTA 6.

Wow. Of course, as I feel very confident with that pick and I feel safe with it, I am going to lock that pick in right now. Of course, as I kick it over to my good friend, Andy Cortez, for the second pick once I lock in here, one second, Andy. You now get stuck with the fun moment of will you pick Grand Theft Auto 6? I'm curious. Was that anybody else?

his first pick. Yeah. That was my first pick. That was my first pick. Yeah. It would have been mine. Oh, wow. We're an interesting position now.

And now I pass it to you. This feels like GTA hot potato. I just assumed, you know what? I'm like the person winning in a war that didn't, they didn't write a speech. You know what I mean? I didn't expect to have the opportunity to even have GTA. And I look at that and it's a golden goose. You got to take that.

And there's no way you could say no. You got to take it. You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it. However, I'm looking at some choices out there, and I'm bobbing and I'm weaving and I'm seeing the fortune. Fortune's weave fire emblem. Nice.

My choice. Come on. They put in the work, everybody. Come on. Yeah, no, they did some study. I would check it too. That was my number one pick. I am picking Fire Emblememble fortunes weep.

That's crazy. Wow. That was also my pick under Ports. I mean, Barry, you gotta take GTA. Baird, you got to. You have to. For the record, Fire Emblem, Three Houses on Metacritic has an 89. Check out Engage.

Fire Enblemenegage. I know that Fortune Sweeve is more of a sequel to Three Houses, but. I know Engage did worse. Yeah. Fire Emblem Engage on Metacritic has an 80. Yeah. Oh. Oh.

But, oh, different director, though, right? Fortune's weed feels way more mainline, for sure. And I think it's the same, like, creative, like, directors or heads from three houses. So it might have a comeback. Don't call it a comeback.

Here's a question for everybody. How do I, like, draft the game? It's on the left side. Here, I can draft this one for you. Let him learn how to fish. Oh, let him learn how to fish. You're right. You're right.

He just made a fish. Oh, draft game. He was deep in the curve. I was in the Colonels. This is scary, guys. Yeah. Bam. Oh, and my apologies.

My team name is Team Snowbike Mike number one. Oh. What's your team name? Nitro rifle. Whoa. Woo. Andy, what was your team name last year? That's Rifle Games, I think.

Oh. Just kept it. You dropped the game. Yeah. Cleanor. We got bought up by like a conglomerate. Got him burn. raised.

Yeah. All right. Now there's the big question. For team Barrett, parentheses, evil. Somehow, we're in the third pick of the first round. No GTA 6. And I'm in a precarious position here, because I'm in between two members of one team, Mike and Roger.

And it's like, do I let them have it? And the answer to that is? Yes. I'm going to let them have. The Therapeutautos 6 because I'm going to pick up Marvel's Wolverine. Yes. Wow. Okay.

Okay. Wow. Holy shit. This, I mean, Mike, right now, GTA is, you know, the Patrick Mahomes coming out of draft, but Tours A.C.L. In the final game, you're like, is he going to be good or not? It's funny because everyone rode my ass last year about picking GTA's second pick. And I had the conundrum.

Here we are. It's now been pushed down. to the fourth pick. I want it so bad. Let it get to, you know. Let it get to me. I think last year, though,

was the thing was there was enough word of mouth internally that we knew, we knew that game was getting get delayed. Here, it's like, we don't know. But you can easily see. You can see it.

But like, I've not had anybody come up to me like, oh, no, that game's not coming out. I don't think it's going to be dead. I think it's going to be shit. Hi, everybody.

Barrett is my best friend is here. Just the entity is here. Again, a lot of good picks to go here. Of course, GTA 6 is the number one, but it's November. It's a November game. And it's like, oh, fuck.

You can see that just being pushed just a little bit. Even just two months, you know? Yeah, we're so close. We're so close to that being pushed. But I got to pick it. I got to pick it. You did what you had to do. I have to pick GTA 6.

So I will pick GTA 6. So I'm going to drop the game. I'm going to go into here. It's, and I don't know. I know it. There's nothing wrong with that, Roger. There's nothing wrong with it. Someone's going to probably counterpick it and, you know, egg on someone's face, right?

But I just, I think my biggest fear past is being delayed is just, what if, what if it doesn't live up to the hype? What if there is some issues? What if there is some issues? What if they do rush it out because at the end of the year and there is some bugs and there is issues with it. I don't know. I guarantee you. You can't. I know. I know.

I know. I know. I know. I have pressed the draft button. Did it go. Like I think I think Vice City or GTA 6 could disappoint. I don't think it'll like... You're not getting below an 85.

No. Yeah, okay. You're probably not getting below an 89. Yeah. I think they're so hyper aware of the cyberpunk situation of it all and how this is the, that times a million. But even like, I'm curious on what cyberpunk got on Metacritic at launch. That wouldn't be, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it got a pretty good Metacritic

despite the month. It did. It actually scored pretty high. That's why everybody got all mad because they were like, what the fuck? Like, why are the ratings so high? And we're like, well, we played on good PC. Okay. Wow, I didn't expect to get GTA 6.

That's kind of crazy. I didn't even run it down. I can't believe I'm dislaid into it, and I almost had it, because I would have went at it for sure, but I will be going with Resident Evil Requiem. Righting the sins of last year. I bet big on it. I failed, but I will win this time.

I thought you were trying to psych me out. No, I wasn't. I was trying to play reverse, reverse psychology. It didn't work. I was just trying to play psychology. It is what it is. selecting it, Resident Evil Requiem, I believe. We have a winner on our hands.

All right, we turn our eyes to Paris Lily and Paris born again. Yes, I am born again. And a game, I'm actually surprised, did not already get picked. Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Night. I thought about it, Paris. I've been thinking about it. Yeah. It's just one of those like, they're a vote.

a time and an era, and I'm very excited about that in Lego form, but do they pull it off, Roger? Like, I feel like this is a game made for you and me, and it's like, I don't know, I'm nervous. Tell me, Paris, why did you choose that one? Why first round pick? Because I, well, I cheated a little bit because I did get to see that games come. I was pretty impressed with them. That's just doing your word. That's just doing it. And it's a Lego game. These Lego games have just progressively gotten better and better with each iteration. And I think this Batman one's going to nail it. So I think this is something that's going to score very high.

It just makes a lot of sense. 82 for Skywalker Saga. You know, you think that they've learned from the years of, you know, And that was like how many years ago at this point? Like they took a pretty... April, uh,

2022. Yeah. Yeah, they've taken a hefty break. And yeah, I think that's one where they stretch themselves too thin. And maybe they, if they make this one a bit more focused,

they can bring it back. It's an 86. Yeah. Okay. Not bad. I think it's an 83. I'll say 85. Oh, Resident Evil is a 70

In your face Fuck you I can say stuff too Paris are you picking on your end Or do you need to lock it in on his Oh yeah I need to learn how to fish I don't know what I'm doing Can you just pick this one for me?

Yeah, I got you on this one All right You said Lego Batman Yeah Legacy of the Dark Knight The main page of the league Paris On the very very top one It's your turn

it'll say you draft or whatever. Yeah, I see it now. You play. So this is an interesting moment for strategy for me. What's your team? Sorry, my team name is level 6-7. Inspired by level 5, the developer, and nothing else. I'm an interesting place because I'm second to last pick,

which means it's going to go to Greg, it's going to go to Greg again, and then it's going to come back to me. Yeah. And so I have a pick in mind. that in a different circumstance wouldn't be my first pick but I have to think about locking out Greg because I think Greg is most likely

to be the other person to pick this. Amers gamer. This is a game that last year turned out to be my downfall but I think this year will turn out to lift me up and that game is mixtape.

Mix tape is my first pick. I love that. Nice job. Yeah, yeah. I thought you were going to do like a play on words. He's going to lift me up. This game is felt lifted away.

I drafted mixtape last year. Of course, the previews came out. Everybody was super jazzed about it. We're super excited about it. Seems like that game is going to be incredible when it comes out. But it delayed. And it was locked into my team. It was the game that was counterpicked on my team.

Now that we're in 2026. I have way more faith that the game's actually come out this year. And I got faith that the game's going to be good. Not even good. I think the game is going to be amazing by review standards. And so that's my first pick. Very, very solid. I just keep on glancing over and seeing Mike and Roger

just looking at their notes. Individual notes, not each other's notes. It's a big deal. Scratching things out. Here we go, Greg. It's me, Greg Miller. Ecto-one games on the clock. As we all have,

I've assembled quite the watch list here. And now as you enter in, you say, who do you believe in the most? Who do you believe in? Who is the one you look at your list and say, this is the one this is the one this is the first round

and when I think of a first round stud I close my eyes say it Greg and I see him yeah eyebrow

a little slit in it accent a little English wow bro developer a little finish I'm gonna go with Soros and take Soros

great that's a good I thought you're going to say 007 No, I don't press that I'm not I'm not for a 007 I'm going to win this

I'm gonna say like a wild take right here I don't know where I just For some reason I feel like Soros will be the third highest rated game of the year Wow I mean I looked at it I've already off it but it was like what 85 86 86

86 on open yeah for eternal Yeah so just don't don't mess that It's gonna yeah do better than that But how much better is the question I mean I'd be happy with you doing that better You know, just doing the same.

Just do the same at that point. I'm not trying to mix things up too much. And then again, you look at this list. Studs left and right. Duds. Just asses that don't quit. And I get into that space. Where like, it's a little bit like, what was the Souls multiplayer when I took last?

Night Rain. Where I was like, I don't know shit about this. I know you guys love those kind of games. and that, like, I would expect that to be good. I look at this and I see a game staring me in the face blessing at a I'm not saying anything. I see it staring me in the face. I'm not saying anything.

And I see Captain America Shield. Yeah, yeah, you do. And I see Iron Man. Wow. And I go, do I want to take? Marvel Tocon Fighting Soul. Love that. Oh, yeah. I loved this, friend.

Tim, I thought he was doing the Amy Hennick game. I look at Captain American in World War One or whatever it is. in the Black Panther's dad. And I go, no, I'm not doing that. No, fighting souls is what I think of. Like, again, though, I'm not that guy. I'm not, but it's, so I'm, but it's also the mic thing where you fall into these things.

And I know that, like, the fighting game community loves this game so far. They're all about it. Marvel. Sometimes you got to stretch out of your comfort zone. Yep. Do it, Greg. Dude, I don't let blessing. I like, oh, no, it's not a blessing thing.

I'm just looking at my other list. He's got to pick it next. Now the strategy becomes, though, is like, the other. games that I want, because I want to be spicy this year, will they get back to me in the draft? Or are they going to be gone by the time I get here? Yeah. That's what I got to worry. Long draft.

Big question. I'm going to do. I'm going to take Marvel. Wow. Wow. Wow. For you. I like that. I like that. Do we not believe in that game? It's risky. No, I know. Yeah. Here's what I'll say. Like a game at lunch. Is that the last beta they did. Yeah. Had a lot of feedback, is what I'll say.

Had a lot of feedback. The audience wasn't the happiest with it. It also is appearing at Evo this year, which means that it'll be second half of the year if it comes out. Okay. I think there's a chance this game gets delayed because of all the feedback. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Did you think he was talking about something else when he was mentioning? No, I knew.

No, as soon as I said Night Rain, I knew he was going to go Marvel Toa Khan. Because I think that's the easy, like, oh shit, this is such a contender here. Which puts me in a very interesting position. Because it's the thing where I have picks that are like, More niche, but like niche with big potential, that I don't know if they're going to come back around to me. And I have two in mind. One that I think somebody else would pick,

so I should go with it. But the other, the other that's a little bit more niche. But if y'all know ball. You know ball. We know ball. We know ball. We want on JRP.G.

Inside of the table, we know ball. Okay. You're looking at a champion. Per place. Ball, no ball. I got to look at bronze. I got to make sure. I got to commit.

I got to make sure. Also, Mike and Andy, what were you to do? Yeah, they were talking a lot. We're talking about it. We're talking ball. Just talking ball. You got to talk ball sometimes. Sometimes the giants pick up the phone.

They talk to the Bengals. Yeah. What are you doing? Oh, yeah. What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? And sometimes it's to throw the other team off, too.

You know what I mean? You don't know. Do we want Joe Shishty or not? Exactly. I don't know. Joe Burroughs. Seisty. They love Shisty.

They love them. Yeah. He was smoking cigars in the locker room. People love that guy. Here's the question that actually. Because I have one that I've locked in on. Okay. But the question is,

we'll slay the spire to reviews and early access. Yes, it 100% will. Oh, yeah. That's a big enough one. For real, for real? Yes, it will, bless it. Yes, it will. How many?

This isn't some reverse or triple or quadruper reverse psychology. This is my can a million percent will get. We've seen way small. All our games get early access reviews. Yeah. And even if, like, the audience, like, excitement for Slay the Spire 2 is still, like, early, with that being in early access, I think there's still such a fervor from, like, journalists who want to cover that game because of the first one. Yeah. We also don't know how, what type of early access is.

How deep it goes. Yeah, will the early access be, like, a high-quality early access? It's, like, a dip in the toe thing. We're testing some new ideas. They have a brand-new engine as well. He's trying to, I believe they moved over to shoot a Godot. Godot is brand new. We're swinging for the fences.

I'm going Slade the Spire, too. Wow, I'd have to Slade the Spire, too. Wow, I love that for you, blessed. All right, up next, Paris Lily, we're back to him. Parris Reborn. Come on, Parr, it's like a Phoenix. I am going to go with a proven developer that has, what was it, two years ago they had a game of the year,

had a game last year. Not so much. But I think the sequel is going to be big. Yeah, you know where he's going. Yeah. Control, resonant. I can't go for that one. I'm surprised that wasn't a first round pick,

honestly. I'm surprised too. Control resonant. It's on my list, but it's really low on my list. Why? I feel like we don't know enough about it. You don't know enough about it. It's a different play style.

Control one came out. What was that last game that they just missed on? We just missed. Oh, that's so different. That's a fun project. Okay, make all the excuses you guys want. Go ahead. Go for it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Control has an 84 and open critic. And then what was Allen Wake 2? Like a 90? Yeah, but this isn't Allen Wake. This isn't Allen Wake. This is a good one, Paris. You got me.

That's a really good one. Until it gets delayed. You know what I mean? I'm just saying. Who's next? Your games get a 62. I love this energy pair. Come to it.

Our team. We don't know. We mean our team. It's not as single individuals. We're split in a half. While Tim Geddes looks for his next pick, I'll remind you that we couldn't do this without your support by getting a kind of funny membership.

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I thought I was next. And I thought I was going to get control. She's definitely got me there. But it's not bad because I'm going to go. with one that I'm pretty confident in the success of, which is Dragon Quest 7. Damn. Yeah.

That game looks beautiful. Damn. And I look at all the tags. Yeah. I clear the test. This is a reimagining. By name and by definition. Roger,

your preview made me really excited for that game. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I'm very, very excited for that game. I'm excited to try it up. I'm going to try that game. I think it's a little riskier. We're all trying the game.

It's a little riskier than the HD2D remix that I've been coming out that I feel like We're a bit more surefire. We're going to get the points. But people love Dragon Quest 7. So I think that there's a lot of good energy with this one. All right. Team Barrett is my best friend. Up next.

There's a lot of places I can go. A lot of places. A lot of exciting ideas. But I just want to apologize. Don't do it. Don't fucking do it. Don't do it. I'm doing it for the people.

And they love me for it. I'm sorry. You dare do this. They'll revolt against you. I'll tell right now they're going to go up against you. They will. They will be pitch forks. They're coming after you.

Don't blame my word either. Listen. You'll turn the tide on them. I'm going to pander to the audience as well. You're not part of them. Because I'm not part of them. Trails in the sky. Wow.

Wow. This guy went to jrpg.g.com. This guy went to jrpg.com. That's fucking crazy you would do that thing. Should have went for your first pick? Yeah, Mike. If it wasn't going to Roger, it was going to go to me. Yeah, exactly.

They don't get down with the weeps like I do. Did you finish that game? No, no. He's the fucking fraud father, man. He played the demo for an hour. Don't you fucking do that, Roger? A lot of great picks here. Because, yeah, Trails in this guy in the second chapter was a priority for round two there.

Yeah. Which is why I was happy to be somewhere around here to be right before Mike or a little bit before Mike. Now there's a couple of different plays I can make here. And you know what? It's going to be a risky move. But sometimes we got to risk it for the biscuit. Risky for the biscuit. And I'm going to believe in this team.

That takes so long to make shit. Suck my ass. But their DLC that is slated for this year seems to be cut content from the main release and I'm confident that they will hit 2026 which is Hollow Night Silk Song, Sea of Star Wow, Barrett. Nice job. Shit.

Man, everybody studied. Good for y'all. I'm excited. I've had to chop down so much my list. Damn it. We turn our eyes to Nitro Rifle who curses under his breath. And D.L.C. has popped off the past couple years. Yeah. With the... That's what lost me last year was dropping

Sea of Stars. D.C. A. of Stars. Mike Popper. off with King of Gum Deliverance. Damn it. Okay. There's just a lot of a lot of the games

that you would expect to be drafted right now, I just don't think you're going to hit very high. I think a lot of, when I think of something like Pragata, that's like a top spotta.

How do I spell, would it be two T's or one T with Spada, Andy? Two T's. One would be Spoda. I just feel like a lot of these games are probably going to be like 82, 83.

However, there is no however really. Do you need a phone a friend? Because I'll help you. No, I, I, uh, I'm going to go ahead and do another risk for the biscuit move. And I'm going to select Mina the Holloware. Wow. Andy, I believe, despite all of the conversations,

I believe in Meena the Holloway. I believe in that, too. I mean, me too, more than the other titles, but like maybe one or two points more. Yeah. I don't think it's, I don't know. Getting in a definite delay scares me. Bear really fucked me with that DLC. Yeah, what that trier article right about it, though, made it seem make a break for the studio.

So I really do feel all hands on deck. They, you know, scrapped everything and restarted kind of thing. I think that's going to be a great game. We now look at your reigning champion. Snowbike Mike, team snowbike Mike number one. Hello, everyone. I'm looking for the top spotter. And, you know, Roger really hurt me there.

I'm going to remember this day. I'm going to remember this pain that I currently feel deep down inside. I'll never forget me. And when you go first, it's a long wait. Yeah. I will tell you that for next year. When you go first, it is a long long way that I have to sit here and wait for. And you guys have selected a lot of them.

Roger, taking in particular the only game that I know about. You know what I'm talking? That was all he studied. It's all the time. It's all the line. I bet on a lot on that one. But I'm happy to say that I believe in myself and I believe in some of my picks. And I've gone deep.

I've gone deep into the internet for this one. Yeah, you had to. Let me just type it out first. That's what champions do. Before I reveal what it is. Andy is a screen sniving. What letter does it start with Andy? No, it's not what you think.

It's not what you think. He's looking for stuff. What the fuck are you doing? It's inel. I was going to go with the Legend of Heroes Trails Beyond the Horizon Because it released in Japan last year Ah That's unfortunate

You were going to have that Fraudulent! Fraudulent! Just go to JRPG.com It's January 15th this year, but it's ineligible. Well, then I'm going to go with my main man Biggie, okay? I'm going to go with my main man Biggie right here. Oh, wow, here we go. Wow.

I'm going to go with the Adventures of Elliot. Wow. A great pick. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Really confident with that one. I'll say this by,

I don't think that games would be good. Yeah. It's going to get me wrong. Remember how dummy looks in his hat? I hate that. I played the demo. I was like, you guys about this guy?

Yeah, we popped on. What's the land he lives in Philadelphia or some shit? Yeah. It's something like that. Oh, yeah, that is right. Yeah. And then now I'm going to have some.

fun with you. Man, I got some fun picks and I just need to know who did their homework, Tim. Because I can go deep, Mike. I'm going deep, deep, deep. Like the question, do you want me to go deep? Don't deep.

Don't deep. You want me to forget surface level? Yeah. Okay, you ready for this? Super Meat Boy 3D. Yeah. Okay. I thought you said good.

That's good. I saw it out there. That's good. You like that at, um, what was it, packs at the Xbox event? I really like that. That shit was fun. On the board.

with it. I'm so excited for that. I will take Super Meat Boy 3D for Team Snowbike Mike 1. Okay. I kick it over to my 1.1 Andy Cortez. Because Roger's definitely in the dog out now. You're definitely 1.40. I know.

He named me as his best friend. He took trails from you. This is crazy. Crazy. I'm out to win. Okay. There's a game. I'm shocked. Nobody's picked yet. There's a lot of games. Me too. That's why. I'm trying to be quiet.

Okay Call me if you need me No I mean I have a lot of choices I just wish I had two back to backs coming up right now Yeah Looking at the list

Looking at the list I am going to take Uh Hey one second Sorry Andy Go ahead Hey Jack Quaid It's Greg Miller

You're live on the kind of funny gamescast How are you? Tech Queen was calling you. But it's actually me, Vegeta, Prince of the Saints. Hey, so I know Evangeline Lily primarily from Ant Man and the Wasp. Fuck you.

I'm freaking up on you. Fuck you! You're supposed to be your innema. This is cinema. Boo. Fucking how. That was the greatest response to even possible.

That's all we're going to ask for. What a follow-up. Like, what a callback. Please do the edit. And then it'll be like 15 hours later. Oh, that's so good. Okay, I hate where I'm at right now. I don't like where I'm at right now, in life, in general.

Same. But I'm going to go with... I just feel it. I'm going to select a game that I fucking played and I really, really like. Here we go. I'm going to pick Reanimal. Oh. Wow.

That's not right. Great call. Wow. That's a great call. I really, yeah. I had a good time with it. That he's Andy knows something that we don't know. I mean, that over the other game I was talking about. It's kind of crazy.

I mean, that's the little nightmares. Now I might pick that game. I didn't think I'd get the change. That's it for me. We turn our eyes to Barrett, parentheses, evil. It's got to change up. That changed things, man. Barrett with his third pick in the 2026,

kind of funny fantasy draft. Yeah, being kind of in the middle here is very precarious. I'm not a fan of it. So far, Barrett's team is Marvel's Wolverine. Hollow Night Silk Song, See if Sorrow. That's Siosarro pick. That's going to be the one

that gets Baird like 91. We're going to rock with it. Andy, what was last year? Was it the year of the snake? Yes. Yes. And this year is the year

that Phantom Blade Zero is going to come out. I just moved it up. I think that'll be my third round pick there. I just moved it up to my next pick. Andy, why wasn't it yours? There's still part of me that wonders, like can it deliver on the full experience.

Yep. Like I, and I'm surprised it's even still coming out next year. Like that's still shocked me with how early, the date though. Yeah,

I know. It's just everything they were saying just felt like, yeah, these couple of boss fights are proof of concept. I don't know. I'm like,

I'm happy to be proven wrong. I'm more than happy to be proven wrong because I loved playing it. Yeah. But I'm also worried about optimization and how it's going to look can run because those are some big things that I had issues with.

Totally fair, but also when we see those bosses or the one that you showed me it, like this is not something I would even dream of counterpicking. Don't get me wrong, yeah. Hi, everybody. Barrett is my best, I just zoned out there. I was like, Barrett's on the screen, no one's talking.

I was going to say, oh, Barrett is my best friend, is my team name. I'm going to go with something tried and true, a franchise that is going on its third entry that gets around the 85 range, which is where I'm looking for. Oh. That is Neo3. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That is very good. I was going between Phantom Blade and Neo3 in my head, Roger, just because, yeah. I'm going for the tried and true, since I can't get a partial remake. Yep.

Right. You come back to let Tim publish with his third pick. Sir, currently his team is Resident Evil Requiem, Dragon Quest 7, Reimagined. I was right there with you. I'm just trying to get them points, Roger. and I was going to go Neo3, but you took it from me. I'm going to go somewhere crazy where I am kind of risking it. Yo, it's a biscuit.

People like I.O. I'm going 007. Whoa. Wow. If I pay off and it might really hurt. But yeah, going 007. I just, yeah, I look at it and I feel 80. Yeah. Best case scenario.

78. 10 points. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Eight to 10 points. That gets you something. Maybe Lenny Kravitz. Maybe Lenny Kravitz.

When's you going to invite Mike to the compound? Paris Lilly with team Paris Born Again is back on the clock looking for their third pick. Currently the team looks like Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight and Control Resident. So with my third pick, I'm going to have a little fun with it because I am wearing my X-Cass hoodie. So we need to go to the world of Xbox. And Mike smartly with the first pick took Force Horizon 6.

You know it, pairs. Let's talk it out, Paris. I think it's going to be a big year for Xbox. It got a lot of titles coming this year. There's one that I'm not touching because I picked it last year and it didn't come out in Fable. But this game is coming out in 2026 or in knock on wood. They said it's coming out in 2020.

And that clock is ticking. And it is Gears of War in the day. Good selection. Good for you. Clock for us. You weren't you to say that. Paris, I like that selection. It has, it's been fun, right?

The conversation of Xbox games, the selection of Xbox games, especially last year with Roger and his selections, and that we're moving to here. What do you go? Fable, I love that you avoided Fable, Paris. When I look at the year for Xbox, that is the one that I could see slip, right? I think we know HALO will definitely be there.

That's a very smaller scale-sized project there. And then Gears-E-Day feels strong for that. But out of those three with Fable, included. I was worried about fable as well there, Paris. I think you did a good choice on that. And Paris, was your pick again? Gears of War E-Day. Okay, cool. You want me to put that in for you? You already did. I just did it. Oh, okay. And Gears has the opportunity with it being a

prequel to, I think, really hit and have that moment of like, oh, shit, the nostalgia. Picking up the Lancer for the first time is going to make everyone fucking cream their pants. We turn our attention to level 6,7. That's blessing our fair and just commissioners team. Currently, with our first pick, They took mixtape, followed by Slay the Spire 2. Blessing, your third pick will be. So far, my team's kind of risky. And I'm going to continue that trend.

Hell yeah. I'm going crimson desert. Wow. I like it. It has a release date, so that fills me with confidence. Even if it gets delayed, I don't see it getting delayed out of this year. I think that would just be an insane story for this game. And from what I hear, from what I've heard from even directly from A,

or Mike, right, who've gotten to see the game up close. This game sounds like it's doing crazy shit. It sounds like it's really trying to push the boundaries. And I think even on the review conversation of it, certain parts, even if they don't come together, I do think reviewers respect the game that's innovating and pushing things forward. And so I'm hoping that it's swinging for the fences enough to get me there in points. But I know it's risky. I know it's a risky one.

I like that pick, bless. I have it here on my little whiteboard for fun every game in one game, right? That is what Crimson Desert kind of shows you. and it's a exciting pick for sure. It's going to be an exciting game when it gets to launch for all of us to get our hands on and see if the dream truly becomes reality, right? There's a lot of tech on the back end

that really does some incredible stuff that makes the promise of, hey, we can deliver something really cool. Then, of course, it's going to come down to gameplay, story, the narrative, right? We've seen the tech behind the game, but we haven't really seen it in motion, the storytelling with it all.

But I'm super excited for this game. That's the biggest question is, Will this character be somebody we give a damn about at all? Yeah. And will this story in the world resonate where when you play a game like that, you kind of hope that that's the case because they are focusing a lot on it. And will, and if they don't, then we at, will the tech be able to kind of carry the weight?

Yeah. It's just a wow factor enough is right. Greg. The draft comes to me for my back-to-back third and fourth pick. Currently, Ecto 1 games has Soros with the number one pick. Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls with the second pick. With my third pick, I'm going to go for points. With my fourth pick, I'm going to go for headlines.

So for my third pick, I am in fact going to take Cult of the Land. Cult of the Land, Wal Haven. Indie D.L.C. I like it. You know, the original, well, it's so much more than just D.L.C. And I think that's part of my narrative for picking it. Where I think Colt of the Lamb in 84 and Open Critic right now, the original, right? but years of DLC and additions and things they've put into that game and done it and, you know, found such a sweet spot within the community.

Making such a big deal like they are with Woolhaven, I think it's going to be all those lessons they learn and people's chance to really say, hey, look where this game is gone and what it is and yet, yeah, yeah, and why you should do it. And then, hold on, let me, I want to make sure my watch list is there. There it is. So you're going for headlines with that one. No, that was the points. Oh, now headline. Now headlines. Oh. Oh, ladies.

Oh, gentlemen. He's doing it. And NBs. When you bring home your brand new steam machine. Oh, yes. Oh, my. Wow. You are going to need a game to play.

Wow. You are going to need a game that has been gestating in the Pacific Northwest for what seems like hundreds of years. And it will be an unannounced mainline half-life. And that is what I'm picking. Yeah, I like that. That's fucking brave. That's really good. Didn't even cross my mind.

Hopium. There's opium for sure. Wow. Damn. There's crazy. You think the portal gun will be in it? Why are you laughing? That's the whole idea.

There's for so many steps. You know what I mean? This is the first half like before we can talk about a portal. We go back to level six. seven. So I'll be honest. I wasn't thinking about the rules with the next pick. Oh, because I, one of the rules is that you can't pick a game that's currently out in early access. I was going to go to XCO. Oh yeah. Yeah. That game has been out in no, since November. Thinking blast. Yeah. Yeah.

And like an open beta early access kind of thing. I don't know the formal term, but it's ineligible. And so instead, I'm going to go with a pick that has me reaching into a bag. Oh, reaching deep into a for a game that I've been kind of scared if you guys have been like doing your studies, doing your research, like seeing what's out there for a game that could have good impacts when we're talking about being a critical hit.

That game is a game called Mugenics. Fuck! I made the right decision. I was thinking about it. No, that game's gonna, that game's gonna hit. Really? Tell me why? Previews came out over like kind of holiday, like right before the break.

And all of the, like several previews I read were like once their preview code was taken away or their access, they were like heartbroken. This is from the creator of Binding of Isaac and like. I've been trolling, yeah. Yeah, like truly one that like they know the roguelike and this is going to be one that I think really takes over for another decade. Because I've been following this game. This was an game was announced like a decade ago almost. It's been an interesting for a very long time.

Dude, we're on JRPG.com, but they're listening to the podcast. I'm listening to all the podcasts. And it finally has a date for next month. Yeah, it's coming out February 10th. I, this is one that I learned about because I was doing a stream where I was just going through the calendar. I was like, what are all the releases that are coming out this year? And I got to this one. I was like, what the fuck is this game?

Started looking into it. And I was like, shit, I got to set this aside. And I knew the only other person who was probably thinking about it was you bless. And that's what I was going back and forth really between Phantom Blade and Muggenics. And I did, like, I'm taking a chance by taking Phantom Blade now because I want this in my back pocket. If you didn't take Phantom Blade, I would have taken Phantom Blade. Yeah. I know.

I know. That's my pick That's a good one Thank you We now look back At the one the only Paris lately with Paris Born again

I'm actually surprised This hasn't been taken And Now that we're with This is the fourth pick right Correct I know what my last pick wants to be So at four

I'm gonna take Dusk Blood I'm not saying that right Okay Yeah I just moved it up To my next pick It's risky though Night Rain

gotten 80 on an open critic for the record risky but yeah we're starting to get towards the end why not take a chance fair enough it's the original one right it's not just based off of elven like it's them going in there we're making something new from from the ground up that looks exactly like bloodborn sure sure but still switch two which two power of the switch two which is i don't know if that blows well the power of the switch two online think about that in game chat now it's me we come back to let tim publish of course Resident Evil Requiem, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, and 007 First Light. Man.

Really running out of stuff. I think this is only going to get me a handful of points. Not even 80 is a sure thing, but I'm going to go because I love it so much. Onimusha, way of the sword. Chase your heart. Chase your heart. Yeah, it looked good at Summer Game Fest. Yeah.

I play it. It's like I love it. I really enjoy what it is. but I think that the people reviewing it are going to be really mad that it's not a Souls game. Still doing it though. Man, it'd do it. It felt like such a Souls game, though,

when I'm like... Which I think is that, like, then when you're direct comparing it, it's going to, like, not hit the right way. Oh, my turn. Hi, everybody. Hi. Hello. Barrett's best friend here.

And my draft is going to be something that, surprisingly, I've never done. I've never drafted one of these games, but one of my favorite franchises, and that is going to be Yakuza 3. Cori and Dark Ties. It's a full-on remake, and it includes a brand-new story content.

You saw Blessing Xan Tenta go away. I'm looking at it. He freaked out. I'll let a slide. So if you look at the open verdict for the other Yakuza games, of course, the last one, the Pirate Yakuza, which is a spinoff,

was about an 81, but Kawami 2, which is the last mainline remake, was an 86. So they, and of course, the Like a Dragon, Infinite Walth was 90. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of opportunity

for me to go. up into the high 80s. So very excited for this one. I played a little bit of it at a preview event. It was very, very good. So very excited for it. Okay.

A great pick. I'm a great man. Oh, thank you. No problem. We now turn our eyes back to Barrett, parentheses evil. I'm very mad at you. He forgot he was mad at you.

Marvel's Wolverine, HoloNight, DLC, Phantom Blade Zero. Oof. Wrong list. I already think Barrett's going to win. Yeah Counterpicking is gonna be tough Yeah

Counterpicking is gonna be really hard Um Yeah I gotta start thinking about that French team made a couple of things that like Now I'm getting to the part of the list where Yeah I'm not like confident enough in like A lot of these games but there are some games that stick out to me where I'm like I want to believe in you so bad

Like I feel like you might have something here And it's something that trailers very well And it's something that people have been excited for, especially with the boomers who love boomer shooters, but also love cartoon art styles. I'm going to go with a mouse PI. Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes. I would have been my five. It was on my list, but it's still another one where it's like, yeah, I want to believe. I want to believe I'm going to love that game and it's going to be good. But that, you know, Xbox direct they got. It was all about

them did pretty good. And so that's one that that's a shot in the dark, but that also has a release date. So. Yeah. We go to our publisher, Nitro Rifle, the one, the only, Andy Cortez. Reanimal. I'm gonna-ina the hollower, Fire Rebel.

I'm gonna do what I've done the last several years or it's like I always pick a game that didn't come out for me the prior year. Yeah. Skate story happened with me. I'm and this year is going to be Witchbrook. Yeah. Ah, yes. You've been talking about that game. Which was supposed to come on in December.

Then it got delayed into this year. And it's a cozy witch co-op game where you're just kind of a little cute pixel characters in a version of Harry Potter that's not Harry Potter. And it's been in development for like seven years. And apparently it's going to be, I think it's going to really, really hit with that crowd. Snowbike Mike, our reigning champion, team Snowbike Mike number one. has forts of Horizon 6, the Adventures of Elliot, the Millennium Tales, and Super Meat Boy 3

with the fourth pick. Yes, thank you, Greg Miller. You know, this is a fun one for me, Tim Gettys, as I look you in the eye, because this is the turnaround. This is the end for me, right? I go four, five, and this will be the end of my run right here. And so I need to kind of plan out what I want to secure, and also what are the games maybe that will go under the radar

forgotten that I can go out and bid for and not have to battle over. So I'm trying to look for those that I should secure now and hold on to nice and tight. There's a team out there that has been very good to kind of funny. There's a game out there that one Greg Miller and Gary Whittah have absolutely loved. And they're making a new game. Sometimes you've got to crawl before you walk.

You know what it is. I will be taking vampire crawlers. Good for you. Our friends in punk, oh, course. Good job. Yes. The team over at Ponicles making something new. We will see how that goes.

I'm very excited. Of course, there's a rage right now. There's something in the water about these games that you just see people go kind of crazy over, right? Deck building sort of rope light stuff. I think the Balotro, the Megabonks, of course, vampire survivors. It's just like there's something in there that people love about these games. It's crack. They're very good.

Exactly. I'm going to ride with that. It does say 2026. Of course, on their Steam page, it does say, TBD. So, yeah, you're rolling those dice. But on the trailer, it says it. And this is one I think I got to kind of secure before anyone else gets it.

I think that's a great call. The great call. Now we play the game. Now we really play the game. Do I embrace Mike? You know, there's young Mike, there's old Mike. There's two different mics here that are. that are balancing right now, Roger.

Like, what do I pick here? Okay? There's also, like, other games that I don't think people have on their radar. There's a game that maybe needs to be secured that I don't know if it should be secured or not. Shakured. Secured.

Like securing a Shakira. Fucking paper. Guarding his notes, and he's on the last pick. You know? Here's the deal. You got to lock this in because if it goes unchecked,

it will probably be selected. If not, it will go up for draft and it will be selected. And there's a team out there that's going to release a game that might have been selected first overall. But they also have another game. And yes, it has been pushed. Wow. Yes.

Wow. It is a delicate dance in the end of the year, especially come fall. But this game has to eventually come out. And that is fable to him with playground games. You look at Team Xbox. 25 years of Xbox. Halo Combat Evolved coming out. You have Gears E-Day.

You have Forza. Can they actually hold true and release all four of these juggernaut titles? Or will one slip because of GTA or maybe they need more time. But Fable is one of those out of that group that you probably want to get a grip on and hold on to. Mike, if there's any game out of that list

that's going to slip, that's the one. I know it is, Paris. But also what if it delivers? And I'm not the one holding on to it, right? What if I'm the guy who said I could have had that date at the dance? And I didn't ask. You didn't ask? You know?

And I didn't. The one is. I'll keep you awake. Go for it. He's doing it. Psych, young Mike would say, Mike, you're an idiot. I'm drafted HALO campaign. He needs a weapon.

Now here's the deal. A religion five. We're so back. We're so back. could absolutely ruin me. There's no multiplayer has it right now. They are returning to the greatest game of all time.

And they're adding new levels with Sergeant Johnson and Master Chief. We're going to get a buddy cop, sci-fi action thriller with these two. The Flood is back in Unreal Engine 5. The Covenant is here. Like, you got to ride this shit to the moon. Yeah. I love it.

I love it, Mike. That's Xbox, Mike. I bleed green. Yeah. I bleed green. Jesus. I mean, I think that's going to get in more points this year than Fable. Maybe because I don't think they was coming out.

I got it in mid, Mike, you had me in the first half. We now go to. Parrish, you might have pulled me out of it just so you know you're going to save me. Parents are trying to save me. That's why. We turn our eyes to Andy Cortez for his fifth and final pick. Huh. I mean, it's, it's got to be the year.

that Ken Levine delivers Judas Wow it has to be the year it has to be it has to be the year I'm with you there's like we've been waiting for so long friends per second did a goddamn interview and play it like it was like a decade ago

so many people have played this game exactly though it has to be this year it has to fucking be this year dude I like it great call have fun dude no Andy's on point and don't say anything fair

What's up, Perry? And he's on point. He's doing it. Doing awesome. What's up, Perth? Did he pick it already? No. Oh, okay. I'm going to say nothing. He won't say nothing. We don't want to throw you off your game. We love you. I'll pick it for it. However, I'll pick it for it.

However, I'm going for definite points here. I'm going to go for definite points with the sequel. Yes on Judas right now if you want me to click it for you. I will be selecting. Definite points, Andy. What are we? Definite points, Andy. My for sure points, for sure definite points.

I'm gonna go with... Ha! I feel like your Judas point. It was really... I'm gonna go with... He's making a... Planet Olana, too. I like it.

That's solid. Wouldn't Planet Alana one get over on the Open Critic? Not high enough. I think like an 83, 82 is something like that, yeah. Planet Alana, 81 right now. I expect more from the sequel, for sure. Oh, of course, of course. I was hoping with everything inside me, you would pick Judas, you idiot.

fucking little too one. You're evil when you when you're lying. He's like, yeah, man, for sure. Yeah, dude, I was so excited. Have you ever played social deduction with blessings? Yeah, you're evil. I love it.

Andy, I will say that was a very smart pick. I played it at Gamescom. It's as good as the first one was, they're improving on everything. So I do think this is going to score pretty well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or just for sure points, you know, when I think of later in the year,

when you're just picking stuff and you pick a game and it's like, oh, 78. It's like, whatever, you know, I'd rather have a couple more points here and there.

I always turn our eyes to Barrett Courtney, Barrett, parentheses evil. I'm waiting for the, the booboo. Do you lock it in? Yeah. Andy's locking you in.

While he does that, why don't you lock in your kind of funny membership, patreon.com slash kind of funny YouTube.com slash kind of funny game. Apple or Spotify. Get all of our shows ad-free. Keep the lights and mics on for our 11th year as an 11-person small business.

Man, I will say this. What my other... Is he still debating what to pick? Roger just gave you... No, not you to him. No, yeah, I'm just having to, like, fucking click the goddamn thing. Where...

I can pick it. Let me... Let me... Let me... You said shoot us? You said Judas? He's got it. I wanted to make headlines and go.

When that steam machine comes out, you got to have a couple of big games. Like a multiplayer game made deadlock. A big box. The steam machine's like a box, but could it be orange? Now, Andy, you left the door open for me. Because you're talking about guaranteed points. And I feel like now that we're in our final round, we're just looking for the scraps of what we know in the first week of January, right? But a game that previewed surprisingly well last year,

a lot of people were very interested in. I do believe might hit a little bit more than we're all expecting is one, Pragmata. Oh, I like that. Good for you. I like that. Okay. That's at least an 80.

That's for sure in 82. Yeah. Wow. 82. I think for sure is 78. Wow. But that's like a still good range. Yeah.

I think 82. I had a lot of fun with it. I was wondering, how are they going to do this on keyboard mouse? because I played the demo on PC, which I had never done. Okay, yeah, yeah. Because the other times I played it, it was always on controller. And instead of, like, the D-pad control stuff, you, yeah, you use, like, your mouse to kind of, like, swerve through the snake. And it's still pretty cool.

I was kind of hoping for, like, give me some mouse buttons, like, let me do a little... Like, the hell divers. Yeah, I was kind of hoping for that, but it was still fun. Yeah, it was one of those feelings of, like, it's very cool at the beginning. And then you're like, how is this going to feel eight to ten hours in where I'm, like, I don't know if I like this anymore or like I'm getting a little frustrated here so we'll see. That would have been my pick

if it got to me Barrett. There is one awesome thing that's why it's like it's one of those it feels like a good final round pick one awesome thing about Pragana like it is so fucking optimized that thing like that game had no problems like and I just kind of expect

you know issues with Capcom games visually whenever they sort of are close to release or whatever and this was like super super super smooth when everyone has to use a, you know, GTX-1080 in the near future. Yeah, exactly. Great. Hi, Barrett is my best friend is here.

And it's our last pick. And I'm going to go with a swing, a game that we don't have a date on, and we don't know when it's going to come out, or if it's going to come out this year. It might not even come out in the next few years. But I'm going for one of the greatest developers and publishers in the game. They haven't released something in a while for this, but CD Project

is looking forward for the Witcher No So I'm gonna go for the Witcher 3 unannounced DLC Literally that was my pick That was my pick I was going for Fuck

I like that It's your DLSC It's been in the news a bunch And big headlines In the last 24 hours about it Yeah It looks like it's May It makes a lot of sense

And I also feel like this is a weird rumor that they would stomp out if it wasn't actually happening. I feel they'd be like, hey guys, no, we're not doing a fucking Witcher 3 DLC, but the fact that they've been completely silent about it, a lot of, seems like, rumbling. I wanted it for the spice, but the fact that it's not CD Project in house,

it's Fool's Theory. Oh, is that what it is? The rumor is it's fool's theory who are the people who are doing the remake of Witcher 1. So it's like, I don't, get them kind of, yeah. Well, it's supposed to, this, the rumor is that this is then beginning

the hype cycle to Witcher 4. Yeah. So it's like, all that sounds cool, but it could also be, Here's this paid DLC that's not blood and wine, and it's also an ancient game we're attacking this onto in the grand scheme of things. And so I feel like it could bring it down. It's less than because it's not them.

I was still going to take a shot. I appreciate that. Plus and I talked about this on games daily, but plus how many people are playing Witcher 3 right now? On Steam, about 30,000. 30,000 people. That's great. Do you know how many people were playing Battlefield 6 last night?

Same amount, 30,000. Really? That's crazy. considering that. Oh, yeah, for sure. No, like, considering that. That seems low for Battlefield 6. Yeah, it's very low.

The arc rate is at 128K. I would actually count to that and say that's pretty strong for Battlefield 6, right? Battlefield for the past decade has really struggled. The idea that, like, it had a solid launch and it's still holding that many players, which might sound small, I know, but like that is a lot of players to Battlefield right now. I think a solid number. The main Eldon Ring game, not Night Rain, also had 30K. Night Rainer was around 60K playing.

Paul dude is only a 40k on Steam. Battle on that. Yeah, but still. My final pick here. I was going to go Pragmona, try to get the Capcom 3. Just get some points on the board. But it puts me in a spot now. I'm looking at the games I have,

and I don't really want the two or three points that any of these might get me. So I'm going for a swing. I'm also going to make this game a little spicy. I feel like there haven't been too many obvious counterpick potentials here. But I'm going to put one on the board to give people a little light. Yeah, bait.

A little bait there. But also, I believe in this so much. This is my most anticipated video game possible, currently. It doesn't have a 2026 date. So I'm being real risky here, but I believe in it in the same way. I believe in Expedition 33. Oh. When we first saw it.

Where I was like, this looks awesome if it ever actually comes out and if it is as good as it seems to be. And that game is tides of annihilation. Hell yeah. I love that. Jennifer English, killing the game. her leading. There's just a lot here that if it all works out, it's going to be awesome.

PlayStation keeps focusing on this game. We've now seen it in multiple state of plays, and it is a little concerning with how far out it might seem with them not time on dates at all. But if not 2026, then when, you know? It's the fifth pick, man. Yeah, exactly. And I just feel good about it because I want that one to win.

Tim, I just want you to know last year, I did a counterpick on you. I'm doing a counter pick I'm doing a counterpick on you Thank you Let's see How do I do this shit? I don't want that

How does the counter pick stuff work? Is it just snakeover again the same order? Goes from the bottom of the top. Yeah Bottom of top again Not letting me pick it I can't pay me to do it for you Yeah

They're like it already released In another country How do you spell annihilation guys? A and N Oh I nailed it too Thank you All right that should be adding give me any word I can spell right now

Bill is there it's there first we should have spelling B I'm down F-I-R-S-D thank you T-S-U-R-T Oh you said cert No I said first

And then they were doing the terst bit So we all set them Can we move on So we move on to Paris What is your final pick Paris Lily So my final pick I have to kind of run down the list

Mike Greg and Roger, you all helped me come to this decision on this pick. I'm happy to help you, parents always. Mike, because Mike, you know, the fable fake out really started me making me think about, you know, open world game. Maybe I should do an open world game, something like that. What's on the list?

Then Greg, you boldly took Half-Life 3, very smart on your part because I think it comes out this year and it'll be big. Well, yeah, I think it comes out. So I think that was a smart pick. So that then made me think, well, what about like some kind of DLC, some game that people aren't thinking about? And then Roger picked a Witcher 3, DLC, which I do think is real. I think it's going to come out. We'll see how big in scope it's going to be as far as it scores. So then that made me think of a game that I got to talk with the creative director at Gamescom.

I got to see gameplay from it. Actually, there's been some recent talk about it here in the last week or so. I think it's going to be at that new Game Plus showcase as well. And it is former CD Project Red developers that are making this game. And that game is the blood of Don Walker. I think it's going to be good. And it's the last pick. So, hey, let's take a shot with it.

Seems like it's coming out in 2026. So I'm going to go ahead and go with that. Blood of Dawn Worker. I will pick it right now. Hell yeah. Love that, Paris. I love that. The idea of having, like, this Majores mass 30 days left or whatever, and there's also

going to be, like, timed missions in there where if you don't do them, you're just totally fucked. Oh, like, Dead Rising. Yeah. I love that. Blessing. Such a cool. What's going on?

I just like, I thought I had a counter pick. But now I'm like, do I kind of pick that? You know what I mean? Like, this is the situation. And everybody, if one of these games ends up game of the year, we're not dumb. You know what I mean? I sat and I watched a 20 minute gameplay breakdown of Blood of the Dawn Walker, and I think it's a neat idea. But it strikes me as like...

Ambitious. Ambitious. Double A that's striving for AAA scale. You know what I mean? Like, you know, Paris mentions these are people that worked on The Witcher or whatever. But like, I feel like the follow up to, oh, I just came from a studio that made the Witcher. I'm going to make something that's Witcher-esque. I feel like that rarely pans out as a thing.

I don't know. I don't know about this one. Well, this is why I hope all your games are 62. Let them go, Paris. Let them know. Fair. Fair. My turn.

On January 1st, Toby Fox tweeted out, happy 2026, everybody. Delta Rune Chapter 5 is on track to release this year. Wow. I'm picking Delta Rune chapter 5. Easy. Right, your turn.

Hold on. Okay, hold on. Hold on, everybody. When all of Delta Rune comes, out can we'll be able to select all of delta rune see it's so weird because um delta run chapters three plus four are one page are one page and it has like an 89 yeah to just make a normal game toby yeah i mean i'm with you come on to put the shit out yeah but it seems like these things keep killing it these things keep getting that 90 range oh yeah

they keep delivering it feels like a a very safe bet especially if he's saying it's coming out this year. I think it's the late. Cool. I'll just drop it. But as of now, I feel pretty comfortable with it. Time for Ecto1 games to pick its fifth and final game in this draft. I'm sad

that it's come this far. And it really is the grandest piece of evidence there could be of why I saw the torch in the dirt last year and I picked it up. And I said

I can be their champion. I can be the voice of the new generation. Can't. Pokemon Jank 10. Wow. The 30 anniversary. This is the one, right? This is the one that's got to be the one that answers everybody who wanted everything.

This one's hopefully in 82. They got some VO in this, maybe. Would a VO in this game yet? To celebrate the 30th anniversary, you're not, I mean. Except like a six-month development cycle. five people working on it I'm tossing it out there It's hopium for sure

I like it I don't expect big point I feel like there's a lot of upside to it Yeah It's not like I'm gonna lose points on it But it's like I don't But maybe I get out it with six Yeah because shield was what

Oh your wave So sword and shield was an 80 And I was a 79 Yeah but the last turn base one I looked at right before Scarlet and Violin it was like 72 Or whatever like I'm not I think there's a lot of upside to it

I do think that was a one-off situation with Scarlin'Rivot. Hopefully, fingers crossed. That was such a cluster fuck of a release, and they got so much blowback for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It would shock me if they repeated that again. Oh, there it is. Plus, we're on Switch 2. And the people most likely

reviewing this are going to be playing it on Switch 2. Yeah. You know? And, like... And again, what, Legends ran well. Legends ran well on Switch 2. On Switch 1 as well. And if you think about it, like, 71 is kind of the floor.

like if you like for how bad scarlet and violet came out like even though i stand by it i think the game design is great i think that's a very fun game i think that's the worst of polkine can get in terms of quality and it's a 71 so i think it's a safe bet in that i think you're guaranteed in 81 okay well that's good i mean hey yeah yeah yeah it's definitely i will know next month it's gonna be very interesting to see this because i do think that looking at sword and shield from 2019 scarlet and violet like the legends rcest and za it's like a narrative has been crafted and i feel like on the technical side they're fixing things but i do think there was like a growing trend of like the igns giving these game sixes you know what you mean it's not like oh it's Pokemon so it gets an

yeah yeah for sure for sure there's a little bit more like critical eye put on it i don't i think the floor is like a 71 or whatever but like yeah we'll see i also think all the rumors pointing to having a lot of water you know winds and waves baby too much water Much water. Much water. We know that's, you know, the reviewers don't like that.

Just get, hey, get the fucking Nintendo Mario team to make that render that water because their water always looks so good. I know the Mario games

are water. Do you just have great rendering? Oh, I never looked at the water. It's gorgeous. Yeah. We now come to the counter pick. Again,

this is where we now snake back from me, back to Mike, picking the game off of each other's lists. I feel like this would be a good time to recap the teams, though, for somebody listening later. So Snowbike Mike,

number one, why don't you kick us off with what your team is? Thank you, Greg Miller, previous champion Snowbike Mike here for team Snowbike Mike number one. I would like to go down my list. My first pick, Ports of Horizon

6, into the Adventures of Elliot, then Super Meat Boy 3D, vampire crawlers, and then to finish it off, Halo campaign evolved. Andy Cortez, Nitro Rifle. Fire emblem fortunes weave, Mina the Hollower, reanimal, Witch Brook, Planet of Lana 2, Children of the Leaf. Barrett, Evil.

Marvel's Wolverine, Hollow Night Silk Song, of sorrow, Phantom Blade Zero, Mouse P.I. for hire, and Pragmato. Barrett is my best friend. Grand Theft Auto 6. Trails in the Sky's second chapter. Neo3. Yakuza, Kuwami, 3, and Dark Ties. And of course, last, unannounced, Witcher 3 D.L. Timothy, Robert Gettys. Resident Evil Requiem, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, 007, First Light, Onimusha, Way of the Sword, and Tides of Annihilation. Paris, born again. Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Night Control Resonant

Gears of War E-Day The Dust Bloods The Bloods, The Blood of Dawn Walker Level 6-7, blessing Mix tape, Slavis Spire 2 Crimson Desert, Mugenics and Delta Rune Chapter 5 And then rounding it out me with Ecto 1 games

Soros, Marvel Tokon, Fighting Souls Cult of the Lamb, Woolhaven Unannounced Mainline Half-Life game and Pokemon Generation 10 unannounced another great year where you look at this and it's like, oh, it's tough. How do I counter? I think you jumped to counterpick and you think,

oh, it's got to be the worst game there. But it really is like, you really just want to. Yeah, what's not going to make it? What's not going to be there? You're looking for what's going to get delayed to get you that zero possibly, lock that in on somebody else's thing? What's going to be that low 70s that you're hoping for? Some good options here, Greg, as well.

I know it's tough, but there are some options that are calling. The one that's calling my name, and it was as soon as it left the lips of one Paris Lily is blood of the Dawn Walker. Like it's not, that one hurts because I'm interested in that, but I'm interested in it

the same way I was with vampire bloodlines to masquerade where it's like, oh, this is an interesting idea. I don't know if you can pull it off. Like I don't think it's going to be terrible by any stretch of imagination. I also think there's a high likelihood

it could fall out of this year. You know, it is, hey, we're the people who made the Witcher, we're trying to get this thing off the ground, we're going for it, you just get late enough, late enough, late enough. All right, GTA's bearing down, like, don't even bother, let's push it. So I'm pushing the blood of the Don Walker.

I'm picking blood of the Don Walker. I'm clicking the select button. It's staring at me. I will say that does make it easier for me as the next counter pick. Can you pick for me? I apparently am frozen or something. Let me see. Draft game for next player.

Yeah, I can. Thank you. Blood of the Don Walker. The blood, yeah. T. I got you. Thank you, brother. Okay.

So that's been selected. Boom. Makes it easier for me because I was balancing blood of the Don Walker for the reasons Greg said, but also I have unannounced mainline

half-life game staring at me. It's a big gamble. Is it? I mean, if it comes out, yes, it's going to do wonderful. And I think there is a non-zero chance that it comes out.

But I feel like we're betting hard on it. Yeah. I feel like that's a, I don't know if the odds are in its favor. Of it coming out? Of it coming out. Okay. I think there's a good chance, but I'm like, I think those chances are like 30, 70.

Like, sizable enough for me to be scared of it. But I think I'm still going to bet on it. Fair enough. If I lose, a Half-Life 3 comes out to this year. You're back to your, wasn't it Mario? Yeah, the same thing with Mario. So I got a bet on Half-Life. Yeah.

That's good. Love that. Bless, I was going to do the same thing. Yeah, I was going to do the same thing. If we get a Half-Life 3, I don't give a fuck about this. I can retire, I can move to the mountains I don't give a shit That's incredible

Oh yeah it is kind of weird Why does it look like this for me But then we found a den man in the woods With a laptop It's a little charger Turfus laptop doesn't run the game Okay Sorry I'm almost there

No it's funny It's you know You're doing your thing All right I'm done Paris Lily We turn our eyes to you In Paris born again To figure out what you will counterpick

Torn because I have two that I feel I should take. I think of Roger and I think of this unannounced Witcher DLC. Try it. Again. But if it does come out and it's paid and gets scored, it's probably going to score reasonably well.

But then I think of Tim with tides of annihilation. It's risky. There's a chance it just doesn't come out at all this year. There's a high chance. Yeah. It's not even dated for 2020. I got to go with tights

I'm gonna go with tights that just makes a little sense yeah and let me see if I can pick it here where is it I can do it for you it's kind of confusing

for people yeah I'm not even seeing it on here it says I already did it I'll just do the counterfeit thanks thanks now we look to the stars

and we say Tim Gettys what are you counterpicking man I don't feel good about any of the Tough. I feel like the easy ones are out the way. I'm really between Marvel Tocon Fighting Souls

and the Dusk Bloods, which I don't like. I think that Dusk Bloods has a higher chance of being really good if it comes out. So I'd be stupid to do that. I'm going Marvel. Yeah. Yeah. Good counter pick.

Marvel Tocon Fighting Souls. Yeah. Roger, we're back to you. For me, Barrett is my best friend. I'm actually going to have to go against Barrett. evil because I'm going to go for mouse PI for hire. I don't know. Yeah, that's a fair one. Yeah, it's just a weird one. It's like, I don't know. It might be really great, but every time I see it, I'm like, is it just a gimmick? Is this, you know, how deep it's this game? I don't know.

I think it could, there's a chance it could surprise this like Cumphead, whereas like, for years, all we saw, like, was trailers for Cupphead, and it was like the appeal of this being a unique, cool art style, but then we got to actually play Cuppet and it was like, oh, shit, this is actually pretty good. It's a weird one, right, where, oh, when it was even you're just seeing it in snippets and trailers like, okay, maybe it's a gimmick. That'll be a fun four hour game. And then they did the direct where they're like, there's so much going. You're like, oh, this is, oh, there's a lot.

Oh, there's too much. Like I almost feel like I watched that. I was like, there's too. I don't want to spend this much time in this world. Yeah. So, you know, it might be great, but this is a big. I don't know. Barrett.

I don't know. Dude, I mean, all of us, it's tough, right? Like, like, what of the, like, which of these is going to be? scoring less than 10 points slash maybe not coming out this year. I don't want to run mixtape back. Barrett, can I have a conversation with you? What's up, Les? Me and you.

Yeah. We're both over Snowback Mike's shenanigans when it comes to fancy critic. We are. We got to do something about this man. We got to stop to it. We got to do something about this man. Take it from. Because he's starting, Fort's our Horizon 6 is the most guaranteed.

That's going to allow him to soar it. He tried to stop him last. Dude, you tried. I think somebody has to counterpick Adventures of Elliot. That's a fucking good call. Somebody needs to lock him to that. I was looking into the... Yeah, but what if Elliot?

We need to lock him into, like, one of his lowest picks. What if? What if Elliot? What if Elliot? Because if he drops... If he drops that, his team is looking so fucking good. He's going to be able to drop it if we don't do it. Yeah.

It's funny, I wouldn't have dropped Elliot. I believe in Elliot. at least my boy but it's also like I don't know if Blessing is trying to play a game with me right now as well I'd rather you win than Mike win this season what about Halo we talked a lot of trash on Halo

not having multiplayer I was thinking about Halo as well not having multiplayer adding new levels and new people going and you'd be able going Unreal Engine 5 is you know super stuttery and cool you added a sprint

yeah yeah I can see that What if they release a Halo multiplayer as well on the side? And that's a separate project. And this kind of stands on its own and it's fine. $70. $70. If this is $70, yeah, this is game's $1.

Then I look at 007 first light. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's for sure coming out this year. I know, but it's like how well, like,

how well are they going to be able to pull out that vision with like how not great technically those trailers have shown off? Dude, it ran so bad. Yeah. do we believe in IOT to optimize. How about dusk bloods? Let's get real.

I was going to have the conversation about it. Right. Everyone talks about Dark Souls online. Never been good. Now they've made strides in Night Rain, but that's PVE. Now we're talking PVP

where people are going to get frustrated when that hit reg is not clicking on correctly, when something is stuttering and breaking, when you can't find a match. We thought that would be the case with, uh, Like, I think I think

Arc Raiders has made people think differently about PVEVP games True And I think there may be in a different thinking space now of like Now I know what to expect with this PVPVE game

Also Barrett November is so close to January Right? With J. Oh yeah, that's a good call I think about that. It's so fucking close Bear this is Mike talking real Mike right

This is a real guy Next door neighbor here. Let's talk about GCA 6 because like I was willing to counterpick that as well. It's like what is the odds? This is a make-a-break moment here of like what if you pick that and it doesn't come out, then you're in. You know what I mean? Are they going to push it to spring summer next year? Paris, you were about to say something?

Oh, no. I was just going to say dustbloods, I triple double dog dare you to pick it. Damn. Now you got to do it. You can't let me talk about that bear. 981 81 not bad that's survivable if you lose 11

but also this being a switch 2 exclusive we know from soft's engine and this shit is not going to run at 60 it's not going to run it's an online game for the switch 2 from from software get real running at 30 if that we played Eldon Ring

there's some good options on the board possible can run well Never know. Never know. You never know? And then there's Elliot. Ray tracing. People were talking to you about Elliot.

Do it. You know what I mean? Who the hell's Elliot? Yeah, fuck that hat. God, that hat's so stupid. Stupid hat. In the pantheon of dumb shit that GRP does, I love that like,

we're like focused on this fucking hat. Like, why is this hat the thing? It's like so much dumb shit. You gotta look cool, but like when you don't look cool, that's step number one. Can I be honest? I thought Adventures of Elliot was a different game.

Don't, don't counterpick that Barrett. What did you think it was? I thought it was like a 2D platformer about an old guy with a hat. Oh, that's the one that he won. That's the secret last year. Walter Schmidt. I thought that was Walter Schmitty. I'm going to get crazy. And it's just one of those.

They have not been on great streaks. They're given no budget whatsoever to make games for the biggest franchise in his story. He's going for Pokemon. I'm going to counter pick Pokemon. My entire list. I mean, this is what happened last year with Mike. Greg's going to win next year.

Sorry, you said Pokemon unannounced. Gen 10. 10. I got you. Survival. It's spicy. I like it. I mean, it's one of those, like the spinoff games, the legends games that they used to, like,

experiment with the formula are scoring better than like the last couple of mainline gen games. And I don't know if they're going to be able to turn around for Generation 10, which should be a big comeback for them. Andy Cortez and Nigel rifle we turn our lonely eyes to you to find out what your counterpick will be Owee You gotta counterpick Mike on something

Feel free He's so free right now He's gonna win it He's gonna win it in like the hat He have Pragana He can drop anything Magma is not a bad call Magma

Pagmata Dustblood's a lot of questions Let's get the list going right now Get the list You and I because we're going back to back Pragmata, Dustbloods, those are our top two right now. You can add in Halo and Elliot if you want as well. There's your top four, right?

Going down the list. Who else do we got here? Neo 3, how good? Hey, that's mid-80s. Hey, people fucking love. 80 to 85, though? No, Neo 1 and 2 guaranteed mid-80s. Yeah, that's an 84.

I'm looking at survivability. When you get into this territory, we always talk, 15s or above will win you the least. I'll tell you what I got I got an article for you can survive a 12 well this is a reddit title Halo remake director on if the game is using AI quote it's a tool in a toolbox we use Photoshop there's generative fill for example the boundary lines and get a little fuzzy let me get real with you Xbox Microsoft they use AI it's just get real with each other it's it's it's between two for me okay and I can't discuss plus

is just such a question mark. And I questioned the fuck out of night rain. And I loved it and it was still an 81. Question I have about Dust Buds. What's our confidence level in 2026? I mean, they said it. That's all I'm not. That's all we know.

Do these games get delayed or they're usually pretty on it, right? Yeah. They, gosh, I mean, the thing is their teams have just been growing and growing. Yeah, but they put games out. Yeah. And what's the last project?

Was Eldon Ring the last? thing, Miyazaki was truly the director of... Yes. Because this one has been in development for like five years or something like that. Like a long-ass time. Think about the excitement though. Like you said, Art Raiders is so hot right now.

The idea that from software fans get to get a little taste... He's going to win. A little taste of what a PVVP situation could be. They don't know it until they tried and they're going to fall in love with it. It's really just two options. It's two options for me.

Lay it on me. It's Crimson Desert. Dude, I'm... Crimson Desert is high at my list. I'm scared. Crimson, no one. Never forget it. But I fucking hate this red hat.

I'm going to Adventures of Elliot. Oh, shit. Let's go. Red Hat. I just hate the red hat, man. I actually never played the demo. I did. Did it feel good?

I mean, it was whatever. Like, I don't know. You're about to get JRP. Yeah, you're about to get JRP. I'm going to get Octap. Yeah, so what's going to happen. But, like, it was not a good move. But, like, it was what's not a good move.

But, but, like, I just was really, really looking forward to this because Greg and I saw us and were like, oh shit, it's like Octobath, but not turn base. Great. And I put it, I was like, nah. How did Project Triangle Strategy do? That's a really good question. Was that a real-time combat game? No. Real-time strategy.

I think it was turn-based strategy. Or turn-based strategy. It was supposed to be like a practice. So I'm thinking just an HD-2D project that's not an RPG, so. All right, not bad. So 83, that's survivable. That's survivable. Yeah. It's just a hat, man.

Okay. Hey, I mean, that's a wild thing to counterpins. Because of a hat. Yeah, I really can't wait. My biggest concern with you, Andy, is that, like, I don't know that a single outlet besides us is going to comment on the hat. No one's. But, like, I played.

You're fucking right, though. I played it. I played it and it just wasn't like. Yeah. Yeah. It really kind of let me down. Like, where you're, it's, it's an action RPG or whatever, but, you know, it's the same animation.

Yeah. Like, Zelda style where it's like, if you hit the swing three times. He doesn't do anything cool. I was like, oh, this is kind of like not what I was. We also didn't like Ninja Guyton 4. That's true. Snowbichael Michael. You all didn't like Ninja Guy in four.

I've lost at him. Time for the final counter pick. It comes from the one. It comes from the one. Thank you, Greg Miller. Yeah, I'm in a fun one right now. I have three on my mind. That is Dusk Bloods.

That is the unannounced Witcher 3 DLC. And that is Pragmata, right? And so I go down the list, similar to the conversations we've already had, right? Pragata. Wow. Cool idea. fun little gimmick to get you going similar to active reloading.

I really thought that was fun. Now my worry is when you're in a room with eight to ten enemies and you do have to do that click drag, maze drop. Is that really engaging in fun eight hours in? Will you master it and go, I love this? Or will you go, man, this is frustrating

when I'm getting my butt cheeks, beat. Don't look at me. He looks straight in my eyes, straight to my eyes. fucking double down on it. He thought about it. Should I say it? Said it with confidence. Now, you're not thinking about G.J.6.

It's four? I mean, like, truly blessed, it was high on my list and everybody seems to have avoided it, right? Of, like... I would have picked it if half-five three wasn't sitting there. Yeah. It's the right answer. I'm just looking at fucking headlines that say all-style no substance for

Crimson Desert. Yeah, but I'm looking at headlines that say GTA-6 has been delayed into 2027. DJ6, 2027 has a ring. Would you rather, let's just be real, you and I, bless, okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Would you rather us release our biggest project during the fall holiday period

when the kids will have time off and play a bunch of it, or would we really push in the spring or summer? It was a reason that guy got out in May. For like a year and a half, that game was coming out in May. Yeah, but then they push it to the holidays now, so check it out, now win the holiday. Because it's GTA.

If I'm rock star, my number one priority is making sure that game is perfect. perfection. Yeah. Perfect. And if there's one pixel off, released in May. One pixel.

Are you going to bet it all? Are you going to lose it all on one pixel? I do love that less of like my year hinges on GTA 6 or not. Like that, I think that is a pretty wicked story to tell. It's too, it's way too high of a fucking risk. In my opinion of like,

well, you could pick any other game and maybe get negative 11 points. Or you could pick GTA6 and get negative fucking 29. 32. I literally lost it for me last thing. I would have won the league. Mike, let me have a conversation with you about last year. And last year you picked GTA 6 as your first pick.

I did. It got locked in. It got counterpicked. And you couldn't drop it. It got you zero points. That screwed you. That almost lost you the game, but you were able to manage it and make the win.

That's what champions do. That's what champions do. Right now, Roger McCorney is on track to become a champion because what did he do? He picked trails in the sky second chapter. He really hurt my feelings there. He fucked you. You really heard my feelings.

You have a chance to fuck him right back. right back. Fuck them right back. Lock in GTA. Yeah. And then just destroy your entire life. These are great questions. These are great questions.

Here's the thing. It's not like GTA is going to get you bonus points if you counterpick it in our correct. You're not going to gain shit. You're right, Andy. And that's why I have to go with the dusk bloods because they will not release this year. Wow. He's so right.

Wow. Okay. Just not release this year. Wow. That's incredible. Hey. Got it. You got to respect it.

You should have picked Fable. A little drama. I like it. I was hoping he would counterpig GTA and that it would come out. I know you were selling a little too hard. And there you have everybody. That's the Fantasy Critic, 2026 roster of games. Do we want to do a quick read through?

I feel like we did it right before we did counterpick. So it's okay. Let me get a couple super chats in then, okay? Red misfit super chat and said, Hey, kind of funny. Paris intelligently predicted on Colt Eastwood's show last year that if GTA 6 is delayed from May to fall, fable will likely move.

from 2026 to 2027. Highly agree. Great prediction again, Paris. Guy's the goat. Thank you. Ryant's 8028, said, I'm so happy all our back. Been listening since 2018 when I was in high school and now post college. Thanks for getting me

through my job every day. We're happy to be there for you. Thank you. Clawmaster, super chatted and said, Barrett's heel turn might be the best thing this year. Barrett, look up MJF from AEW if you get the chance. Dexter, Super Chat. and said, Tim or bless, here's a free one for you all to add to your draft.

New Mario game. It's going to be Galaxy 3 and it'll be the highest rated game in the year or pizzas on me. Love you all. Suck it, Greg. Well, let's remember that because we're getting free pizzas at the end of the year. Yeah. Yeah. No chance you don't think, huh?

I think being slimest of chances. Yeah, yeah. And there you have it then. That is fantasy critic, but it's far from over. It's just begun. Remember, we each have five slots left on our team and a budget of $100 that we to spend, bid on games from here on out to try to get them on your team. Obviously, you want to spend your money right away like some people do. You want to sit on it all year long, wait for things

to get announced at SGF and whatnot. There's always a different way to play the game. You can keep up, of course, we'll update you on gamescast throughout the year with our little things of what's going on, where the standings are, et cetera, et cetera. But you could always go to kind of funny.com slash league and look in live at what is happening. For now, of course, it's time for us to wrap up the gamescast, but the day is far from over here at Kind of Funny. Mike, are you about to play? Myself and Nick are about to have our first afternoon stream of the brand new year, and we're going to bro down with Army of Two.

That's a nice, awesome co-op epic. Come join us. We'll have some fun. We'll catch up with Nick and hear all about his break and his thoughts on Stranger Things because, of course, he's still thinking about it each and every day. Paris, thank you, of course, for hanging out with us. Where can people keep up with you? You can keep up with me at Gamer Tag Radio, and you can keep up with me

my YouTube channel, which I changed the name. It is YouTube.com forward slash Paris NEL. So now I know what it is. And right after this, I am going to talk about the G-Force on announcement by NVIDIA so we get

all the good, fun PC gaming news. But yeah, and then obviously on social media at Vista 696 and contributing here at kind of funny. Paris branding. Paris branding. Yeah. Way to go.

This has been another episode of the Kind of Funny Games cast. Thank you for watching. Please support us. We're an 11 person small business in our 11th year. Patreon.com slash kind of funny. YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny games.

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