Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - What We Played Over Christmas Vacation - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

Click this link https://www.boot.dev?promo=KINDAFUNNY and use my code KINDAFUNNY to get 25% off your first payment for boot.dev. Thank you Boot.Dev for Sponsoring! Thank you for the support! Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - Topic of the Show: What We Played Over Christmas Vacation -  Metroid Prime 4 Beyond - Ghost of Yotei - Elden Ring Neightreign Forsaken Hollows - Ads - Lies of P: Overture - Shinobi Art of Vengeance - Dispatch - And Roger - Hollow Knight Silksong - Control - Fire Emblem Three Houses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boot. Dev takes your coding from beginner to expert, the fun way, through a hands-on RPG-like experience. Go to boot.com. And use code Kind of Funny to get 25% off your first year on the annual plan. What's up and welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Wednesday, January 7th, 2026th. Of course, I'm your host Tim Gettys. I'm joined by Blessing Adioia Jr. Hey, Dave, Tim. Snowbike Mike. What up, Tim?

Greg Miller. Hello. And Andy Cortez. Hello. We're your two biggest fans. I mean, I love. Come hug him. Come on.

Come on. Have you seen this sweatshirt? Me and Mike have Nitro Rifle. Nitroifle.com. Go get yours today. I want more. Give him more. Give him more, Andy.

Why have you given more? As I was making clips over the break, I also had that one clip where he's looking at my hoodie. He's like, that looks great on you. I was like, I gave you one of these, Mike. Yeah, it doesn't fit me anymore.

Yeah. It's happening so fast. Oh, everybody. Of course, if you're watching live, be part of this show by super chatting on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. Remember, we couldn't do this without our producers on patreon.com slash kind of funny. So very special thank you to Delaney, the Somm twine, and Carl Jacobs and Omega Buster. Today, we're going to start with Kev's here.

So I don't think we're going to have the effect of topic of the show. But we start with the topic of the show. It was okay, Cassie. We don't need to do it. We appreciate you making the cameras work. Don't worry. We love seeing the hustle. There we go.

There we go. It doesn't show up in the stats sheet, but we'll remember that. Barrett is prepping Game of the Year, which is next Monday. So while he's doing that, Kevin's running all the shows today. So Kevin's literally running around. So we appreciate everyone's patience with it. And also we appreciate Kevin. I want Kevin to learn how to dodge roll.

Because I would love to see, like, when you need him in a hurry for him to, like, be setting the camera and then like just do a dive dog. I'm like, man, there's something about that front somersault, not on a pad that I'm just like, I can't do it. You gotta hit that shoulder. Yeah. Yeah, but I feel like that's how I throw out my shoulder. Yeah.

But like you hit that shoulder, you're in. There's just one kid on TikTok who's really good at archery. And he's like trying to be an adventure and he's dog trolling all the time. There you go, hit that shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, no.

It was all blocked from the TV. There was a loud audible knock. Oh, God. I'm talking about you drive your shoulder into the ground. The last time you summer assaulted. Oh, dude. No, I don't do that. It's been years for me

Do you think you'll do it more Now that you're about to have a child? No, I, I There was a reckoning That I had to have with myself I'm just like, I am having this child At the worst time I think that by definition

Is always going to be the case Where it's like, the older you get, You know what I mean? The worst time it is But yeah, I know I am I am not physically able to do anything cool I'll stand there, I'll toss her around a bit You know what I mean?

Start doing daily stretches. I'll be, yeah, but I've never been able to stretch. presidential fitness exams back in the day I fucking crushed that shit I was like top of my class in like every single thing Hard to believe but I was Presidential You remember this?

That's what used to be called back in the day Yeah, not in my day I don't Yeah there was a presidential fitness Is that the one where you're running from back and forth The beeps? Down Sit-ups, pull-ups Oh yeah we did those, we did those

Yeah Okay But the touch your toes thing Never could do it Not even close Stretching is my enemy What? Oh yeah I wasn't flexible

I just I just I just would brute force breakdancing, but I wasn't, I was never like fucking like doing the splits or anything like that. I could just be, I think I'm just more quick and more like agile is not the word. I guess just physical. I don't know. I freaking love it. We have a lot of games to talk about because today's topic of the show is what we played over Christmas vacation. And we have so, so many games to talk about so many games to give review scores too.

because some of the bigger games of the year were finally got to by some of the members here like Metroid Prime 4 Beyond, Ghost of Yote, an Eldon Ring, Night Rain, Forsaken Hollows. I want to start with Metroid Prime 4 Beyond because who beat it over the break? I did. I did. I did. Rage quit.

Rage quit from Bless. Two beaters over there. We're the master beaters. I want to start with Andy Cortez. What did you think about Metroid Prime for Beyond? And what would you give it on the kind of funny scale? I've been giving it the most basic basic ass bitch analysis

which is just saying like the great parts are so great and the bad parts are not good and kind of bad and unfortunately it just feels like such a mixed bag and I could I could almost feel and sense all the

struggles that this went through and with different visions and all sorts of stuff like that like at its core it's still such a really cool game with what it does MetroidVane wise and then there's just a lot of other ideas that I just don't think we're really super well thought out or I think if they had another chance to redo things they'd be like actually

let's take the let's take the green crystal stuff maybe out of it and let's change some other things up now however you look at my screenshots on my Twitch too but again you swear this is a 10 out of 10 for me I mean shout out to Nintendo and retro for like always showcasing Sammas because she looks so fucking good all the time. She always looks rad. They give her like always really cool hero shots. So I was constantly taking screenshots. I would give Metroid Prime 4 beyond a 7 out of 10.

Good on the kind of funny scale. Greg Miller, what about you? What would you give Metroid Prime 4 beyond? Yeah. I would give Metroid Prime 4 Beyond. On the kind of funny scale, a 7.5 good, which is heartbreaking. You were there with me, Tim. When I was at first night, I came in,

I was like, this and the hell, my the Volt Forge. And then that excitement and energy was with me for a long time. And then it just felt like it went away, where it was just like, all right, we're still, and then it was getting into the ending.

Some of you came into this and what really recontextualized it was you, Tim, saying like, it isn't a first person shooter. It's a first person adventure. And when I was like, oh, okay, awesome. I can get behind that.

And then by the end, I'm like, if you are making a game like this, where it's not about the shooting, why am I shooting so much right now? And why is it not fun? Like that final boss battle I did not enjoy. The boss before that I didn't either, which I forget the name of.

But like the green crystal thing, yeah, it was just like, oh, we got to a point where it was like, now this is grading on me rather than being fun. And what was grading was being forced in these combat scenarios when that isn't what this game's good at.

And so I was loved exploring, finding the upgrades. Now I have more missiles. Now I have this. I'm going back. I'm doing this. you know, for as many complaints and even watching the direct about this, where I was like, damn, that desert doesn't look good.

When I was fucking ripping it on Viola, you know what I mean? I went and bought a goddamn amoebo for this game. I need, I want to remember that fucking red suit, that viola suit and the motorcycle. When I was ripping it, that all fell away. It was so much fun to do that and do it. And then it was eventually a point of like, I understand that I'm coming into a game that I don't play, where I was like, man, no fast travel. Like, I still have to cut back and forth.

I'm like, I get the point, but if I'm doing that, then the desert needs to be more exciting. I, when an enemy comes up on it, I need to be excited to fight them rather than go, oh, this fucker again. Oh, those are really annoying. Like, I don't, this sucks. I'm just tracing you and letting it go. And like, no, don't do that or either make the combat more fun by making it more fun to fight and shoot or just get away from it and give me more to explore. Because it was the exploration. But, you know, throughout the game, and I know this is Metro Avenue, you go into something,

find out you can't do the thing you clearly need to do. Like early on when I was finding all the crashed sites and all these things and I'd be like, oh, I don't have the thing, but I'm excited to get back here. Hours later when I got back there and I had to fucking every time shoot the fucking the things that were spawning out wasps on the wall or shoot the guys who shout out. I'm like, this sucks.

It makes me not want to do this part of it. And again, yeah, the green crystal thing, so stupid. While exploring and trying to fill in all the things and shooting around, I was getting crystals at a really great clip. And I was like, great. Now I, this, clearly wouldn't have that much work to do. You thought you had way more than I.

You did. I'm like, what the fuck? And it was like, and then it's like, you know, I was bitching about it online and like, Brennan Graber popped up about the, and I'm like,

I get all that, but that's not fun. Like that wasn't, even when it was, well, go blow up these things outside of all the entrances. It was like, I still spent a lot of time doing that in a place where I was like,

I'm ready to finish the game. I'm ready to take Samis at another level. So I was deflated. I was so high early on on it. I expected this to get onto my top 10 list. And I was like, this is going to go somewhere. And then by the end of it, I was like, damn, what I, it didn't, uh, stomp out the flame to go play remastered, like actually go through and play remastered. I brought my switch in today because this afternoon I'd like to try to get in there and start some stuff before Animal Crossing before redacted shows up.

There's a few things like that. But yeah, I was, I was crestfallen by this one. Mike, that's a good word. Oh, yeah, I was just softly raised my hand as someone who was on the fence about this game. Roger really pushed me away from this during the break said it wouldn't be for me. Can you explain a little more about the green crystals? Like maybe I was zoning up, but like, what are they there for? Why is it become such a headache?

Well, yeah, so you have a vagina that you need to fill in with green crystals. Oh, they put it on the screen there. It's very clearly an open of the pedestal. They put the pussy on the bedstall. And so, yeah, I forget the narrative hook to it, right? It is the idea that you need to get into all. It gets you the fruit, right? Is that the deal or whatever?

It gives me something to help me remember what these squid people all wanted me to do. And so there's a tower I got to go to and you organize your guys, you get everything together. Like, cool, we are ready to go assault the tower, but you still need to fill in the green crystals.

And it was like, again, I'd actively been doing crystals so that I wouldn't get to. I'd listen to the kind of funny review with you and Logan, where it was like, you know,

make sure you're doing these, you go, you'll be all right. And I was like, I got there and I was, I was not all right. And I was tilted about it. I was like,

come on. There was too much of things I didn't enjoy, not enough of things that I did really enjoy. And I just wish that that ratio was evened out a bit better or maybe just kind of like eliminate the parts that are unfun about the game. Now, for the good stuff, I still like, I loved the exploration. I loved the investigation. I wished that when we did that podcast,

the games cast with Tim and Logan Plant reviewing it. The vagina. That's the vagina I'm talking about. I really wished that the, that when you all were mentioning their version of shrines, I thought there were going to be a lot more of those. And I was so bummed out when it was just like

five or something like that. I thought I was going to be running into a lot more of those. And when I finished my first and I was like, that ruled. I love little puzzles stuff like this. This is awesome. And they didn't give me nearly enough of that. And yeah, it's one of those things, Greg,

where it's, okay, let's make these enemies while you're driving on the motorcycle. easier and funner to interact with and fight because those times where I'm just spinning around the camera like where is this goddamn guy yeah yeah and it none of them are challenging they're just annoying it got very very annoying and it's like okay

make those a lot more fun to interact and fight or just make the desert a lot smaller because driving across it is like yeah okay this is I gotta go all the way back over there and it's not a super fun experience to do that bless what were your thoughts why'd you rage quit when did you raise quit um so I race quit probably

around, I think exactly halfway through the game. I know because I looked at a walkthrough to see how much of the game I had left, because I had to make a conscious decision. I think Rage Quaid is probably putting it way too much. It's more of an apathy quaint. I got to a point in the game where I realized that I just

wasn't having fun, and it's not a thing of it's a terrible game, it's not a thing of it's a bad game. In fact, I think the game is a solid good. I think the game is enjoyable somewhat. The problem is that I loved Metroid Prime remastered so much, and I started this game off loving it so much, right? You step into the Fury Greens, the vibes are there, the music is there,

the visuals are there, you progress a little bit more into the game. I got to the Vault Forge, and VaultForge is where I was like, oh shit, this is fucking awesome. I love scanning everything. I love seeing how everything in the level design has a purpose, both in terms of the story they're telling in this world, but then also how it contributes to the platforming and the navigating and figuring out what to do next. I think the Volt Forge is such a spark in good level design and really interesting Metroidvania gameplay. And post that, I think that's where for the game, it's time to start being a true Metroidvania.

Right. It's time to start going, all right, now get this ability and go back to this place and figure out how to open this thing because now you have the ability to do X, Y, and Z. And I think for me, that's where it falls apart. I think the Metroidvania aspect of this is so disappointing, especially coming off of playing Metroid Prime remastered, a game that for me made me really. really love exploring that world because of how interconnected it is, because of how maze like it is, and because when I get that new ability, as I'm working my way to the next thing,

I'm seeing things where I'm like, oh, shit, hold on, this door that I passed earlier is actually this thing. There's this relationship I have with the map in Metro Prime 1 that I do not have in Metro 8 Prime 4, and I think a big part of that is the open desert area, right? Like the thing that we're comparing to Hyrule Field and Ocarina at a time, which I think is an apt comparison, except I think this thing pales in comparison to the to Hiro Field in Akron at a time, mainly because it's uninteresting. And for what you want to do as a Metroidvania, you want me to have that relationship in the world, what relationship with the world.

You want me to moment to moment be interested with, okay, this thing's over here. How do I get there? Oh, this thing's there. Oh, I got this ability earlier. Let me use it here. Here, everything is so spread out and everything feels so iterative and uninteresting in the ways of even like, all right, I got a double jump. All right, cool.

That's just going to get me to allege, and that's really the only use for a double jump. Oh, I got this thing. Okay, it really only has one use and that's to unlock these specific things. Like, I think my favorite Metroidvania's that I've played have provided me with multiple ways to use, like, the same ability

and make that really malleable, right? I think of a game like animal. I think of even like a Metroid Prime one of, oh, snap, I got this one ability, now I can do all these different things. Yeah, like a lot of this just didn't hit for me in a way where halfway through, I just had to make the conscious decision of,

hey, I'm not reviewing this. I am on break, choosing the games I want to play. And Metsre Prime 4 halfway through just became a game that I was like, I'd rather not spend my time during my break playing this. I'm going to move on to playing Dark Souls. So I did that instead. Let's move on then to Ghost of Yote, Andy. You beat that over the break as well.

I did, yeah. Ghosts of Yote. I had an awesome time with it. I played it for about 55 or 58 hours or something like that. Um, found myself super interested in doing a lot of the side quests. Uh, obviously visually, it's super stunning. Was kind of bum that I wasn't able to play on my PS5 pro back at my parents' house, uh, in the RGV 956.

We don't play no game games. Um, I didn't take my PS5 pro there, but I brought home a, my old PS5 to like leave there so that I'll have there because my other one went to my nephew. Because he's, of course it, the question starts off of like, hey, do you mind, if Aaron takes the PS5 back home so Nathan can play it and I was like okay

this is just gonna turn into it's his now so sure whatever but I was able to play yeah all of Yote there super enjoyed my time with this game this is a very similar situation to the way

to my relationship with God of War 2018 and Ragnarok where Ragnarok is a better overall complete video game than God of War 2018 in terms of what makes a video game, a video game. And I think if I maybe played Ragnarok first, that would be a more special experience. But 2018 was the thing that's sort of like, whoa, that this is a brand new

experience that I haven't really had in gaming. And I feel a lot of the same way about Yote, where Gosa Sushima was so special to me. And it had story moments and twist and turns and so many things that made me feel a lot. And I just didn't quite get there as much as I wanted to with Yote at the, not only the amount of times that, you know, a game wants to make you feel, but like also just how hard is it making you feel, you know? And I would say that Yote is an overall better video game when it comes to mechanics and combat and everything it's doing with just exploring the world. The open world, I think, is far more interesting than Sushima in terms of how it's built out and the random things that

happen and everything kind of always feeling fresh but it just isn't quite as special to me as Tsushima was and I think it's one of those situations where if I played this before Tsushima I'd probably feel the reverse right but

it's awesome I like Atsu a lot more than Jin I think her character is great and Eric Aishi fucking crushed it with the performance and visually it's stunning in so many moments and I got a lot of Final Fantasy 16 vibes from this

and even Final Fantasy remake and rebirth where the characters and the cutscenes look so good when they are the mo-capped character cutscenes

and if I could wave the magical Andy Cortez game development one I'd say give you I'm gonna give you one more year

and a couple extra mill to like make more cut scenes of these qualities because then you'd be experiencing another story

another story moment with a side quest And the story being told is great, but the characters are standing there and doing the automated mouth flaps. And it's like, oh, this is really taking me out. Because the last kept scene I just saw looked so incredible. And you see the performances. And now I'm like having to experience just these animatronic robots mouth flapping. And it's just not hitting quite as hard.

But that's not the fault of the studio. That's just budget. And, you know, I would have said, I would have said maybe take some of the weaker storylines. weaker side missions and focus a lot more time and budget towards like making the better moments, you know, feel higher budget. I would give Ghost of Yote an eight out of 10. Great. Highly recommend it.

Couldn't stop playing it. Just kept on going back to it even though there'd be times or it's like, I got to go play in the den. And my, my parents' room is right there. It's like, I can't really play the volume. It's going to be an uncomfortable situation with like, am I going to be able to hear headphones, whatever. It's like, I still wanted to keep on playing and still kept going. Had a great time with him. Yeah, somebody who loved it, obviously, gave it a nine when we reviewed it.

I agree with what Andy's saying, where I think when I sat down to do a top 10 list this year, no, is it on there? It's on there. But like, it was that idea of like, man, it's interesting how it doesn't resonate the same way that Ghost of Sushima did, right? And it is very much God of War to God of War, a God of War, Ragnarck, I think. And I was asked a very benign, basic question on threads of like, what was your favorite weapon? I was like, honestly, I didn't have one. Because I don't like this system. I've decided, I think I've gone.

I've decided I don't like the stand system and I don't like the weapon system to sort of eniote of them saying let's change the stand system and give you now this, the rock paper scissors system of this weapon is good against these. Let me use the katana. They're so badass. I just, yeah, I found myself just, they were just tools for me. but a weapon should be so much more and cooler to that. The relationship that I have with weapons in any from software game

where I'm like, oh, I'm doing a run with this fucking weapon. This is sick. I'm going to go with dual daggers now. Oh, now I have the twin blade and I'm like, I can't wait to feel awesome with this. I just never felt that with this. And I think a lot of it is the nature of being forced. You're not being forced into these Rob Kaper scissors situations.

You can still do better against that one weapon, even if you're using like a weaker thing, but you'll just not be as strong against it. But I just like, because the system's built that way, it feels like I'm kind of, like I want to play by these rules and I want the thing to feel the way the designers

want it to be designed. Yeah, and I don't know, I just like, just didn't give a shit. However, all of the armor changes and the armor loadouts, an awesome change in something they, I think they introduced in Souchville by loadouts.

Yeah, they patched it later, yeah. But I, I fucking loved customizing my different loadouts and knowing that like this is my stealth build and I look sick as fuck. And this is my whatever build that's good for this power up and it looks awesome. The different colorations, the different, you know, finding flowers out in the wild and getting new color schemes. All that shit I loved it. I loved making Atsi look awesome.

But I just wish that I gave a shit about the weaponry. This is what I'll say, right? Because I feel the exact same way as you. I also gave it an 8 out of 10. What I'll say is that we got to play ghost of old tale legends when that. Oh, I'm so excited for Yote. Because, like, I had the realization moment for myself after reviewing Ghosts of Yote where I was like, I mean, that's crazy how much I love Tsushima.

And I, like Yote, I like, right? I gave him an 8, but I'm not as in love with it. And I realized that Legends was the thing to really upgrade that experience. And I think that's where the combat shines even more. I forget if they kept the rock, paper, scissors weapon system, and Legends chat remind me. I don't think they do because you selected classes. Like, you'd be like, I'm going to be a range dude who maybe has a second secondary. Like, I remember focusing on, like, I want to be the arrow guy or whatever.

Like, yeah. I remember that too. And so I feel like that would be the thing for us that might take Yote as like a single player game and make us fall in love more with the full package. Because I think that really makes the gameplay shine. Yeah, I mean, it's still like an easy recommend. Like, there are still a lot of awesome stories stuff that happens here that had my jaw on the floor like, oh shit, that's really cool they're doing this. You had great reactions. Yeah, I kind of just to I think it's like nothing can compare to that first time, you know. That first time with Riosu, you know, that first time with, or that one side quest

that had me just tearing up like crazy in Ghosts of Tsushima. Like I didn't quite get there. Landy, I want to hear about not your first time, but your second, third time with Artorius. Oh, shit. An elder ring night rain for saking hollows. That's another thing you're going to review right now. I'm going to throw it to Mike so I can stop talking for a little bit and throw it. Oh, no, you can't throw it to me because I don't know any of the details.

Of Night Rain? Of the DLC? No, no, you have to lead me on this one. I'm just your passenger. I'm your teammate here. Okay. But I'll tell you that. You know what?

Fuck it. Yeah, this shit's lit. Let's get real. Tim, we got the DLC. We got new content. And of course, the new excitement of what bosses will they add from previous games? And what will they create, right? New bosses, new moments, new music as well.

Always fun to hear on those boss fights. But yeah, it was really cool to jump back in with Andy after riding such a high of Eldon Ring Night Rain this year. Right, I spoke on it before, but this is my favorite from soft product as of right now because I've always loved sharing my Dark Souls experiences with others. I love the co-op nature of the game that can be. And the idea that we got more of it was exciting to me. And they delivered, they nailed it, right?

Two new bosses, Andy, for the mega bosses, we'll call it. They added in night bosses. of course there's a night one, night two mechanic on that, Tim. So there's more bosses added than just the two mega big title names right there. But really, really exciting stuff. Map-wise, did they add anything new, Andy? Well, they added a completely new map, which the way they were doing map and procedural changes before was you're going to have like different seeds of the core map.

But every now and then, we might throw a randomized section of, there's a volcano now on the top and if you could go visit and explore the volcano and when you do you will fight a final boss there that will give you the ultimate upgrade of take any weapon in your inventory make it a gold epic legendary thing

with all this like extra power I remember our first time doing that it was we were guided by like a random player and we were like where are you taking us and he just kept taking us deeper and deeper it felt so dangerous it felt like elementary school playground secrets were back yeah somebody's like you know something so you follow them

Check this shit out. Dude, yeah. So the other, so, you know, the other sort of world changes that they've had in the game are, there's a snowy mountain on the upper left corner, and you explore that, and if you beat the final boss there, you're going to get, you know,

this other extra power that changes the game in some kind of big, meaningful way. And they do a really good job of that. This one, they didn't just add a different section to the already existing procedural map. They just gave you a brand new map. And it's this whole area that is sort of similar looking to the underground areas in Eldon Ring, but it's a very kind of ghost town looking, freaky, dark, scary area.

And it has its own mechanics where there's all these, there's about seven or eight really like bright blue, purpleish crystals around the world. And you look at them and they just kind of look like set dressing every now and then. But when you walk up to them, you can break them. and if you break four of them in a run, then the giant big-ass crystal in the center cracks, and then you could go get the ultimate power there. And all of them have,

those ultimate powers all have these really cool passive and runs that will help you out for your final, taking on the final boss. Also, whenever you break all those crystals, there are two separate areas on the map that whenever you walk into, the screen gets kind of blurry and scary looking, and like you get this weird,

vignette around the screen and your health goes down by half. And when you're in there, you're like, why is my health down by half? I don't want to be here. So you leave and you get your full health bar back. But if you break all those crystals, you can now explore those areas without your health being halved.

So part of the strategy is like, let's break those crystals immediately. Then we can go explore those parts without having the health tax or whatever. And these areas are, like this map is fucking massive. It's crazy that we are still discovering wild moments of elevation.

Like, how did you get... Wait, it goes all the way down there. Like, it gave me a lot of sort of just core, elven ring game moments with exploration. And, yeah, the bosses in this DLC are so awesome and so much fun. And they essentially added two bosses, but then what they'd been doing to sort of extend the life of the game

was we're adding the ever-dark versions. of these bosses. Ever dark. My man, this is why by the merch. This is why I buy the merch. And so the bosses, normally the Ever Dark versions are, it's harder, but it's not we're giving the help, the boss just more health or more damage. We're adding new phases to it, and they're going to have new movesets.

And that's what kind of makes them more difficult also. So it's like an added challenge for people that want to go back and keep playing. And they already added the Ever Dark version of the first boss that they added for this DLC and it is it's straight up just like a different boss I was blown away by you beat the first phase and it's like okay what's this going to be and it's like

whoa like you all kind of undersold if there's two bosses because this feels like a completely extra boss that you're doing now with this sort of ever dark difficulty it's awesome it's really cool the final boss is one of the coolest things that me and Mike still have not beaten

with the help of Melissa with a Y we're going to get there one day though but It's just so much fun. It is so many laughs, so much, like, so many epic music being cranked up. I send the clips to Tim, and Tim was like, I don't know what's going on, but this is some of the hype as shit possible. So sick, dude. That one boss was so damn cool. New bosses, new map, new characters as well.

New classes to play we haven't talked about. Yeah, the new nightfarers, which are one of them, you know, I've been maining, and she's awesome. She pulls a bone out of her body. it's the reverse of Adam and Eve. Yeah, she pulls out like a gross bone out of her body and then she like stabs the enemy with it flies towards him and it's awesome and rocks. And the other character's name, he's the scholar.

And he's like a much, he plays a lot differently. You have to like, you do this L1 ability L1 trying. I forget what the button combination is. But then you sort of like bust out a book and then your whole screen goes into like third person mode like way closer behind the shoulder of the character and then like a circle surrounds the screen and it looks like you're scanning enemies

and you're analyzing is what you're doing and you're analyzing enemies and the longer you focus on them and the closer you are to them the faster a little red circle fills up and the closer you are the faster it goes if they're far away it goes a lot slower but when you fully fill in those circles on the enemies you like activate it and then they get super debug and your squad can do a lot more damage to them.

Our runs with the scholar didn't go great to a point where Mike, I was like, you know, I don't know if I should be analyzing. I said, yeah, you're not doing shit. Mike wasn't happy that I wanted to really just analyze. I need to be carried. There's a certain gameplay style that I need from Andy, and that's like a heavy carry,

and when he tries new things, it doesn't work. Just Mike was not happy with stick to the track. He wasn't happy with the analyzing, but TikTok just makes me really want to analyze Mike. TikTok's showing me all these builds of like, the scholar is the most overpowered character. It's like Mike just doesn't want me to believe in the vision. It's impressive.

It's very cool that they've added new characters. Like we said, new bosses and new map. It feels fresh and fun to play. I hope that we can get blessing back in the squad and have a good time because it is so much fun. And these final two bosses are like amazing and awesome. The balancers is so much to juggle. There's like eight different units running around

that you're trying to duck, dodge, and dip on. It's like really fun. They fly across the map. They're in the air. They're summoning spears all around in different AOE attacks. It's like really, really cool.

And then on top of that, the final boss is like wild, man. He's jumping all around the screen, Tim. He's up vertical. He's down the ground. He's sword slashing your left and right. It is the ultimate dance of Dark Souls when you think of it of like being patient,

learning the boss combos, then dodging, then getting your hits in, while also protecting the team. I'm like, it's so much fun. Yeah. It's probably, the final boss is up there with, like, favorite soul's bosses ever. Wow. So much fun.

You want to give it a score? I would give it a nine. I think it's an amazing experience. I, you know, honestly, it'd probably be a 10, even though I look at all the flaws. I just feel like all the pros of it and the fun that I have outweigh a lot of the flaws. It's just still no crossplay. And that's just from software, man. They just do things differently.

they, you know, dance to the beat of their own drum, and it, it sucks. And that's the same way I felt about, like, I was doing my tier list of 2025 games, and I felt the same way about rematch. It was like, you didn't have crossplay at launch. You do now, but, like, not having it at launch was like such a bummer. Night Rain, not having crossplay still just stinks. Remember the Kind of Funny membership on patreon.com. Or YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games gets you the show ad-free.

And speaking of ads, let us tell you about it. our sponsor. This episode brought to you by boot. dot death. If you're listening to this show, there's a solid chance that you, one, like video games, and two, at some point in your life, have been interested in learning software development. Boot. Dev combines those things because they know that the smartest way to learn is to never get bored.

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There's no better time to give your coding dreams a chance, just like Kevin Coelho's doing. Again, go to... to boot. Dev and use code kind of funny to get 25% off your entire first year on the annual plan. So during the break, you and Andy had a little quick conversation that I think that people want to hear. Yeah, yeah, of course, Andy talking about Eldon Ring Night Rain, mentioning that boss being probably one of the favorite from soft bosses that Andy has. Remind me that I also finished Liza P. Overture over the break, which Andy's been asked me to do for a very long time.

Andy's been asked me to do pretty much for the entirety of the year since Liza Overcher came out because of course me and Andy fucking loved Liza P when that came out that shit delivered. It is really, really good. Honestly, I think when we're talking about DLC for games, we got to give like some extra

tips of the hats to like some of these souls like developers. Because it's kind of crazy how much content and how much quality they jam pack into this thing. I'm talking like fantastic bosses, fantastic level design, fantastic story elements. There's music in Liza P Overture

that goes fucking crazy towards the end of it. There are moments, honestly, that were reminded me of, like, my first time playing Last West and how, like, Last Was kind of blew me away with some of its environmental storytelling and, like, seeing the clickers and all this stuff. There are things in Liza P that took me back to that of, like,

oh, shit, I'm walking through this hallway, and there's, like, there are things happening that are really setting the tone in an environment that is very much top tier in video game design. And so big shout out to, is it Round Eight Studio? Round eight, yeah. Big shout out to Round Eight. Round eight.

and Neo is kind of in... Neil was being the publisher. Yeah. Yeah, I think this is a studio that you cannot not pay attention to you, right? If you're somebody who's paying attention, especially to action games or in Souls likes, but even outside of that, you all got to keep an eye on round eight. They're doing shit

another level. Yeah, it's such a special experience and it reminded me a lot of when I beat Silk Song, I was like, I can't think of a whole lot of boss fights that I didn't like in this experience. It was just, I loved all the boss fights in the Liza Pee, DLC. So much fun. The final boss, the LizaPo DLC is like I'll put up there with probably one of the best souls like boss fights that I've done, which is crazy because FromSoft is the standard. Like there is not many boss fights that all compare to FromSoft boss fights as far as how they design things, how the characters look how the characters intro.

And round eight, I think they're like they're keeping up. Like they're doing shit in a crazy way over there. So shout out. Hell yeah. Shout out. I played so many games over the break. Some old ones. Got to get them all in before that time.

on forever. Yeah, no, because also, I want to talk about this later at some point, not today, but I finally built my new PC, so I was really... Oh. So I used to playing a lot of very low, necessary performance games, but, like, still, they looked great. So I just want to kind of run through some of them quickly and give some of them, because I finally finished Shinobi Art of Vengeance.

Yeah. Oh, man, I loved that game. It was so much fun, and I really feel like I was blind. less this year with video games that spoke to me. Getting both this and Ninja Guide and Ragebound in the same year is so special and they are so similar but incredibly different. And I appreciate them for completely different reasons. Ninja Gaden Ragebound being way more just old school in its methodology and gameplay and

what it's asking for you or of you. And I do love the twist that it has gameplay wise of the blue and purple kind of system and it being more rhythm game based. love that stuff and I really think that more than most people in games media I really enjoy Ninja Guide and Ragebound and I know everyone really loves Shinobi and I am also part of that list. This game is just modern. Like I don't think there's anything old school about it except for the fact that it's a Shinobi game and it's a 2D side-scroller.

But the reality is like I don't know that I've played a game quite like this. It's level based but the levels are like mini Metroidvania's and that's such a great concept. and you add on incredibly deep combats. Like I am so impressed with how much the combat and platforming kind of work together in a very Prince of Persia lost crown style. But there's something about this one that is just a lot more frenetic and Smash Brothers-like in terms of the one-on-one matches that you get with some of the bigger enemies that you come across or some of the bosses specifically.

But yeah, really, really loved this. I'd give it an 8 out of 10. I do think that there were some just overall things about it that were like, okay, I think this could have used a little bit more polish. But Lizard Cube are definitely a team to look out for and there's someone that I'm going to be like anytime they put a game out now, I'm going to give it a shot. And I really don't think that I've given Streets of Rage for the love that it deserves because they keep just going back to these classics and like modernizing them in a way that I'm like, wow, you all are redefining what these genres can be. So definitely give Shinobi Art of Vengeance a shot. Is Lizard Cube? Are they owned by Sega or do they just partner with Sega?

I think they just keep partnering with Sega. And like, again, shout out to Sega for their initiative. They started a couple years ago and we're starting to see the fruit of all that labor. And it's so far been kind of a win for them. And they're partnering with the right team. So it's cool to see. Next up I want to talk about dispatch, which all of you all recommended to me before the break. And I knew I was going to enjoy it.

This was one that I was like, I need to wait for the break because me and G we were going to play it together. and I absolutely loved it. Hell yeah, hell yeah, yeah. A nine out of ten on the kind of funny scale. It is an amazing game. I think it is easily my favorite of these narrative type games I've ever played. I've given Walking Dead a ton of shots.

I played the first couple episodes of season one, but never even finished it. There's just something about the jank of the telltale, even the good ones that just got in my way. This game is jankless. Like this game's production value is through the roof, not just in terms of all the cinematic, look good and the performances are great and the music's awesome and all that stuff,

but how it seamlessly goes from you're watching something, you're interacting with something, now you're playing something. There's a lot more gameplay in this than I expected and it was awesome. Like I feel like the type of game that it is where it's like a real time strategy almost as you're like dispatching all the different heroes. I was so surprised at how well the game presents what it's asking you to do that Gia, a known non-gamer completely understood what was being asked of her. And I let her make every single choice, let her direct who we should send to everything.

That's awesome. And she was thinking, like, she, like, her gamer brain turned on for it all. And I thought that was like totally because of the team that made this game, making it well designed enough that, like, you can understand what's being asked. Because in the beginning, there's kind of a lot. When you first get that dispatch menu coming up, you're like, what am I doing here? And it goes from, this is really, easy to, oh, I'm overwhelmed

pretty damn quickly. And I think that they had a really great pacing to the whole thing. I really wish I would have been able to play it week to week. I think that would have been a super fun experience for season two. Do you think G would have hung in there? 100%. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. And

we ended up playing it like one in night over the course of you know, what a hour, eight days or whatever. But it was very, very funny playing with somebody that does not play games and doesn't play games like this. doesn't get that we're going to make a lot of choices.

So when the first person comes up, we don't need to fall in love with them. You got to at least wait to see to do that. And she just doesn't think that way, you know? And then I was like, I don't even really want to ruin the experience by explaining that to her. I just want to let it all happen.

But it ended up so funny where I think the majority of episodes when the credits would hit and you get the like your percentage versus other people, the amount of times we were in like under 5% of making the same decisions as other people. It was so funny to me.

And it still told a great story. And I went on YouTube and started watching other variations of it. I'm like, damn, man, this game is awesome. And I hope that we get a season two not too far away from now because I really loved that. And also Greg, amazing job with the interview.

I ended up watching that after beating that, which was really cool. And Roger, another one. I wanted to kind of play some more games for the game of the year conversation. And I was like, all right, what are the short ones that everyone's talking about? And I kind of looked at like the top 50 games

people are talking about from last year. And I tried to find the how long to beat some at all. And this one, I'm like, all right, love the kind of art style they're going for. Every once in a while, I'm here for a Florence or like these type of indie games. And I was like, I'm going to give this one a shot. I've heard you guys kind of rave about it and be into it.

And I did not know what was about. And that shit fucked me up. up like no game ever has and it was it was the most i don't even want to say a lot i couldn't believe how hard it hit me when i realized because yeah went into this game completely blind and it was about 50 minutes in or so and something happens and i'm like oh man i i i see what's going on here burst into tears immediately text gregg and i'm just like oh god like i didn't know i didn't know it was this and it's just beautiful man and it's so raw and real and there's like

there's writing in this that it just feels so authentic and it's the type of stuff that you can't make up you know what I mean? You need to just have an experience and then be to be able to be this open and to make art like this and put it out and share it with people there was multiple people that DM'd me like Celia from over

at the Shuffle Night developer Yacht Club we were going back and forth a bit and a couple other people it's like people that have family members that deal with these things, to be able to share this experience and have this game that just hit so hard, it's like, damn, what a special moment. Video games are really, really powerful. I don't even want to give it a score.

Like, I feel like it's not that type of game to me. I do think it's an experience that people should give a shot. And the way that it uses its subject matter to be a gameplay is incredible. And I think, like, such a unique thing that only an interactive medium can do. So shout out to and Roger. Saturday, December 27th at 546 p.m. Tim texts me. Greg, I'm playing Ann Roger and I think I just figured out what it is going on and I burst into tears.

I sent a hard emoji. Tim, I didn't expect this at all. Wouldn't have seen it coming in a million years. All right, I'm going to try to get through this. I go, what was the aha moment? And he says what it is. And I go, mm-mm. And he goes, fuck man.

Stupid ass indie games fucking me up. For real. And then the last one I want to talk about. That's the big one for me. I'm finally going to be able to give it a score. Hollow Night Silk song. Whoa! Yeah!

I beat Act 3. I thought it couldn't be done. I texted Andy yet. I don't even know what time. I texted him an image of me about to do the final dive. And I was like, here we go. And I didn't text him again because I thought that within a couple hours, I was going to be able to be like, I did it. It took me another couple days.

Yeah. That shit done. But I did it. Yeah. I beat the game. I saw the final credits. I love this game so much. This is an all-timer for me in every single way.

Like, I am so happy that I committed to it. I can't wait to go back to Holo Night 1 because I just want more. I can't wait for this DLC to come out. I got got yesterday so hard. The Hollow Night subreddits, I don't know what the fuck's going on over there, but they're all just like coming up with a bunch of bullshit and pranking each other. For several years, yeah, for several years, like, there's a subreddit tag that is a meme tag for, like, for fake silk song games that

skonger? Huh? Skonger? Is that what it is? Because I keep seeing skonger. I think, yeah, it's always like a fake. It's just like an inside joke. And if you've been there enough, you know that this is always like a fake post. But it'll still get you or people. Yeah. Silk post, yeah. Oh, Silk Post. Yeah. I thought that that Sea of Sorrow was going to be released today.

Oh, wow. And yeah. You're like, yes, baby. This close to setting it to the games daily Slack when I was like, I'm going to verify this and I was like, oh, I got fucking gut. But anyway, this game is absolutely incredible and so worth locking in for, I give it a 9.5 on the kind of funny story. Wow. I think it's amazing.

I do think that it is, is, there's enough things on a personal level to take it down from a masterpiece to me, but it is right there. Like, I think that in my pantheon of all time Tim games, like, it is incredibly high. I just think that, and a lot of people are going to agree, and I know people are very sensitive about Hollow Night. But I do think that a lot of the runbacks I understand it's designed. I just didn't enjoy it. And I feel like now that I beat it, now that I am 70 hours into this game, like there's about 20 of those hours that I didn't really want to be doing. And like that that's not fun to me.

And I also think that the act three stuff, like some people really like being lost and not knowing where to go and what's going on. I don't. And so because of that, It was like, without looking at a guide, I don't know how people would figure out getting to out getting into act three. Like it's just, you're even knowing there is an act three, right? Like, and the word of mouth stuff, that's all cool. I don't know.

Act three to me felt like the best ELC I ever played. I didn't need it. You know what I mean? I'm so happy I have it, but I needed it right then. Like I feel like the game to me would have been better if it was a little shorter, which is a crazy thing to say because I loved what came after. It's just it is too much of a good thing, I think. and that brings it down to a 9.5. God bless this game.

Can't wait for more. And now I'm going to stop talking so I can hear Mike talk. Oh, Tim, that's cool, man. I mean, you don't have to let me talk, but all right. Tim, I played some old games over the break. I messaged you about one of them.

And, man, I had a lot of fun. In this year of Mike exploring old games and, you know, add on to just the list of awesome times that I had, I played Fire Emblem, Three Houses, and Control. Man, I really wish that my best friend would have told me about the Remedy version. Man, fuck you.

Where are you? I mean, Roger was telling me all about it. Mike, we streamed it with Nick for like three days in a row. And Nick had no idea. No care for it at all. No idea where to go at all at any time. So I'll start with control really quick. I had so much fun with this game. I, you know, my Remedyverse is Crossfire X.

That's the running joke. You know, I jump into that. I can tell you all about that. But truly and honestly, this was awesome, right? We've done a couple of sponsored streams with Nvidia and we've played Control. old games to show off all the cool tech from Allen Wake 2 for the first hour with me and Nick and then of course Andy and Nick

playing control but I haven't gone on and played it and man oh man I was blown away by this I loved it. This is awesome. Right off the bat I mean the Federal Bureau of Control the old house like how cool is this setting and Jesse's a fun character there's a lot of mystery there's a lot of intrigue there's a lot of

reading and I put on I read every single one I did it all live on content too, read it out loud and had some fun and got lost in the mystery, wanted to find out what was happening with this crazy entity that was in my mind and all of the different objects. It was like really cool. And then the gameplay, I mean, I love shooters. And this third person shooter was it.

It had perfect controls. I loved the superpowers that you got throughout it to add the glide mechanic. Of course, the telekinesis of grabbing items and throwing them at others. It was really, really fun. I liked everything about this. I loved, man, it was freaky. Every time you would go in and find something new, something weird, when you'd go into the motel and you'd turn that light on three times,

you'd get teleported somewhere else. It's like, this shit rocks. It's amazing. And then I got to end it with watching the Control Resident trailer, where now it really clicks and kicks for me of like, oh, man, this is going to be so freaking awesome. It was so much fun. I did play the Control DLC that ties in to Alan Wake.

didn't give it the respect it deserves. Definitely was zoning out. But like, it was fun. It was fun enough. I think it's tough when you don't know Alan Wake. Yeah. Where it's like you're reading some of this. You're like, I don't know what's happening. But then there was a couple of aha moments.

So it's like, oh shit, this shit is real cool. I see what they're doing here. So very excited to add Alan Wake 2 onto my list here soon enough. And then after that, I finished off the year of 2025 with Fire Emblem 3 houses. I wanted to get tactical. I wanted to get strategic. and I wanted to see an awesome Nintendo property that I've never played before.

When I think of these games, I think of Xcom, and that is my go-to tactics game. And I was blown away by this one. I had so much fun, not only on the tactics and gameplay side that I knew I would, right? I love going to the grid. I love taking the units just like you're playing chess

and moving them, different ponds and kings and different units around and kind of playing with your opponent, playing with yourself to how fast can you clear this battlefield, but it was also the school side of things, right? Not being a persona guy who's really ever dove into that. But I did like the school side at the monastery where it was, hey, you are teaching class as an instructor there

and you are helping your units get stronger, kind of putting them into subclasses on where you want them to proceed and like kind of get better at and excel at, whether it's like, hey, my main man, Claude of the Golden Dears, I want you to jump on this dragon and become the ultimate dragon lord. or Hilda, I know you're a beautiful soft flower, but I'm going to need you to get in this armor, okay? And you're going to become my fortress night.

And then going, oh, wait, Hilda, you're so badass and my ultimate tool of destruction, but you're so slow as the fortress knight. I need you to get on a horse and then training her at the stables to then be able to get on and become a knight. Like, I really liked the instruction side of things. I liked exploring the monastery if you love, like the bonding with characters,

learning more about the world, just sitting back and running around the monastery every day and being able to talk with different characters of different school or different classes, different characters that were instructors. Also, you know, sweet talking of them to come on to my team. I had a list. Let me tell you what.

You're recruiting out there. I'm recruiting. I got NIL deals out there. You want some money? I need you, Bernie, Bernadette. Get out of the room. I got a lot of money. Come hang out with me in the Golden Deers.

She's like, no, no, I don't want to go out there. You know what I mean? I get it. It's scary out there. But, yeah, I had a ton of fun getting into another world, the characters, all the different students were so much fun. And also on top of that of, like, building those bonds, all of a sudden I'm taking you from a D bond to an A bond. And I like that of like, it's used through the combat of every time we attack next to each other, we're building those bonds.

And I go back to the monastery and the teaching side. And we get like those fun little cut scene moments of we're talking about our relationship. We're getting to know one another. I really dig that a lot. And so I chose the golden dears with stupid sexy Claude. He was great. I liked his vibe. I did fall in love with the girls. And I think we had a really strong, like, hey, independent ladies, we're all together. And so I started moving people off the list. If you were part of the boys team, you're on the back. You were being bench. So it's all girls out there. And from Manuela, the nurse to Catherine, the incredible flame night, which was awesome.

And also Samir, who was an incredible archer, it's like adding them in. Then I even went on and recruited Petra onto my team from the Black Eagles. So cool. So I had my dream squad. And I liked every scenario. I really enjoyed going off. Like they break it down into months.

And so you have about four weeks to develop your class, strengthen your units, prepare for battle, whether it be in the classroom, doing side combat. missions or like, you know, fishing, botany class. We'll talk about that, you know, the teacher ranking. It's fine. I'm excited to see what they do in the next one, right? Because it's a different vibe. It doesn't feel like we're going to be students and teachers again. So it's like, how do you elevate that each month?

But I really dug that. The battlefields, I really enjoyed except for one. At the end of the Golden Deer campaign. It's very medieval knights, you know, fortresses. You're kind of out there in the fields. all of a sudden at the second to last level, you're in this dub step, high-tech sci-fi fortress, and you're like, what is happening?

And it's full womp-womp. It doesn't fit any of the stages that you were already in. And it's like out of nowhere. And I'm like, okay, well, then that means the final boss will be in this. No, the final boss is not in that. And so I'm like, okay, that was very weird that we all of a sudden showed up to that. There's also missiles falling from the sky, like it's goddamn God of War or Gears of War with the hammer of dawn.

I don't know if you all know about that. There's just like U.S. grade military falling from the sky. It was insane. They're going to win. Amazing. So this really kind of like boosts your hype for the next fire emble. Oh my God.

And then again, I get to watch the Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave. And it's like, you see the character from the previous game. You immediately jump out of your chair. You get excited. I'm an old school fan of these tactics games. But a lot of you, if you're on the Xbox side, might remember Gladius,

which was like an old school tactics in the gladiator arena. The idea of like we're possibly in the gladiator arena in this next one, I'm all about. I love this. Can't wait to see where they go. And so, yeah, because of that, I got myself a little gaming journal. I got a very special gift over the holidays from a lovely person in my life. And they made Snowbike Mike's video games adventure.

Wow. And as you can see, there's many of callbacks of my favorite games that I've played last year, Expedition 33. My Pokemon Nuslock. Of course, coach Mike in the melon heads. You have Poulter Pultor pup from Louisiana's Mansion 3, Resident Evil 2 and 3 and 4. Yeah, I played a lot of Resident Evil. Half-Life.

The Blitzball from, of course, Final Fantasy 10. And the cute bunny from Kingdom Come Deliverance, too. And so, yeah, you can take that. You know, I love a gaming general. Talk to me about how you're using it. And so you flip the pages a couple ways. If you flip the pages a couple ways, I save it. until I beat the game.

So this will be a... Oh, you save it until you beat the game. Yeah, so I have the front two pages will be table of contents. And then, like, my favorite game. Mike, you aren't even journaling. Your scrapbook. Yeah, this is that awesome. I'm doing it all sorts of ways.

So I have a... You know how much I love a good gaming journal. I got a sticker printer. Oh, dear. Which you'll see... Yeah, that's my handwriting. You have a beautiful handwriting. Yeah.

I found out if you want a good handwriting, you just take it real slow. I legitimately thought he drew all these characters. Like, God damn, Mike. Like, you're fucking good. Again, one of the reasons. I love journaling my games. What happened? You have a page here.

So you go through and explain exactly what happened. That's awesome. And so I didn't know how it would go. This is my first test run of it. I love this, Mike. But yeah, as you take a look, if you were to ever open up my gaming journal

on this front page, it has like the setup of the game. And Tim, I'm sure you would know, like, I literally end the front page of like, okay, that's the buildup to the game. Now you know what's going to happen. I gave you met the dears, or meet the deers,

which is all my students. I even have Petra here as the Black Eagles. and the instructors that I recruited so you know all of the members of the team that I had on, just for fun. And then I was like, how do I want to do this, right? And I actually wrote out the entire moment by moment game of Fire Emblem.

So if you read this on the back, it has everything that happens from the- - assassination attempt. There was a kidnapping attempt. There was some sort of like, if you got green eyes and green hair, all of a sudden maybe like you got the,

super blood, you know? They were looking at one. Damn, eugenics? Who knows? You know what I mean? It was really good. It was really good. And so I wrote everything there. Put my little good and bads and then, of course, my star, Hilda. Hilda's a queen. She's my favorite, without all of them. And so, yeah,

that was just an incredible two weeks. I said 77 hours in 11 days, I need seven hours a day. Took me more like 50 hours. I think when you get towards like the second half of the game, maybe the final third, you have

a moment of like, hey, are you really in it for the character development? How long do you want to last in the monastery? And I felt like kind of a push of like, I'm good here. I don't want to do the side quests that they're giving me. Usually it'd be some kind of bullshit of like, some guy would walk up to me like, blessing. We got a lot of cats and dogs out here. If you feed them a fish that you get from fishing, maybe they'll give you something.

You know what I mean? I'm like, I'm good on that. It's like the smaller quest, like, are you into that? You can build up more time. Of course, your teacher rating, which if you, if you, level up your teacher rating gives you more opportunity to do things in the day-to-day teaching, right? So you go from four to eight opportunities from having tea with somebody, making lunch with someone. Took a lot of people out to lunch.

Took a lot of, a lot of characters. And I'll tell you, it was really only one person, okay? It was that incredible, awesome nurse. Okay, me and that nurse, we had a connection. Wow, beautiful. Look up the nurse. I'm going to. I'm going to.

Look up the nurse. Before we move on real quick, Kevin, can you bring up the video that I sent through to assets. This was during the pandemic. Me, Mike, and Nick playing through control. This is a three-hour Vod and then switches quickly to war zone about two hours in. Quickly quit out of control, moved on to war zone. So that's where Nick was with control.

You know, we just try to keep on a straight and pass. Sometimes it takes a left on you. So, yeah, I mean, I'm happy that I was able to knock those two games out. They were so much fun. something I'll remember and building into the next year and onward with the follow-up sequels. Right now I'm going to play Splinter Cell Blacklist. Because I played, of course, conviction this year. So now I'll continue my Splinter Cell play.

I want to close out the episode with a couple of Super Chas. But first off, I don't know if you heard, Mike. Yesterday, Bless said something that I was like, huh, really? What was it? He said something like that to me too recently. So let's hear that. Interesting. Yeah.

I don't think it's the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm curious of what I said to you. but you know to Tim I mentioned that I'm thinking about it Mike I'm thinking about booting up Final Fantasy 10 Oh

I'm in a GROPG mood and so But here's the thing You talk about Fire Emblem in Three Houses Also kind of like Lights me up a little bit But then also I was thinking about Dragon Quest 11 Echoes of Belusive age You got a lot of games

I'm gonna choose one But I'm leaning towards Final Fantasy 10 very strongly I think you'll love it bless Yeah bless brought up Fire Emblem before we went on break as well loved Fire Emblem adore Final Fantasy 10 You won't go wrong with either

One of those choices Okay The thing that blessing said to me Was You know The more I play Dark Souls I think I like it more Than Bloodborn

Yeah I was like whoa Like we have crossed the threat Like that's so I'm so high for you Because I originally wasn't going To do the DLC I like the game so much

That I'm like fuck I might do the extra 10 hours Whatever it is Because I'm right there Of like You gotta meet our Tori You know, I got a dungeon, I got the DLC, and then I'm probably barreling towards the last maybe 10 hours of the game.

And so- So special. Yeah, we got to have a bigger conversation about Dark Souls. I love that you play. We got to have a bigger conversation about Dark Souls guy. I'm happy that you're committed to it. I'm happy that you're following through with it. I hope that you keep going, right? Andy just experienced Dark Souls 2 finally.

And it's like, you just keep going and it's just so much fun time after time. And then maybe, you know, we lock ourselves up in the lab and we play the. the, what's it called seamless? The seamless co-a-mod for Dark Souls 2 or 3. Ooh. Where you don't got to do with the bullshit summoning. It's just the way me and Nick and Mike played Eldon Ring or just three Groni's running around. And then we can have the official rankings for kind of funny of the best.

Boss house games. Oh, I like that. Promsoft in review. Nibble Trent, Super Chat, saying long live, Mike's gaming journal and happy New Year's, y'all. Thank you, homie. Very excited. Happy New Year's. Then Send Nuggy says, more gaming journals, less manifestos.

Mike's the best. but Cam says, please tell me any of y'all played Balders Gate 3. I feel like that's directed at me. I had a whole thing on Gregway about, hey, it's holiday break. Here's the list I need to get through for game of the year. I'm finishing Metroid. I need to get back to this. I need to touch that.

And I was like, but I have this craving for a story. And I know I could go to fall out in New Vegas, but I also think that maybe I want to jump into Boulder's Gate and see all the changes. You know, maybe now with my expectations so low from not liking the way it controlled before, I could get in there. And so I downloaded it on everything and I jumped in there and it took me just another

that same thing. I'm like, I just hate how this controls and I'm not doing this. This is what I'll say. This January, the month that we're currently in, I've dubbed BBL January.

Sure. Big backlog January. Sure. Oh. There's not that many big games coming out. Quiet this month. It is very quiet this month.

I did a whole thing where I just sat down on releases.com, scroll through to see, okay, what are the big games I got to like pay attention to or whatever? And it's high guard and 2XCO. We got time to like dive into that backlog. That's all I'm going to say.

So you're trying to make Balders Gate three happen. I'm starting near Automata this weekend. See, I went the other way though. So once I was like, no, Baldur's Gate, I started a new Vegas thing. And I'm 15 hours into that. Oh, Andy, you're playing near automata? For the first time, man. Like, a full, like, dude. Here's the thing, though. Here's the thing, though, you know, Greg. We're sickles at this company. Greg making a lot of, you know, promises about Baldur's Gate. And, you know,

he was like, he was very, he was very, he was very, he was very much like, Andy, I'm going to give the altars a real shot over break. He wants the story. jumped into the altars and then it went to that fucking fallout shelter shit and I'm like no I'm good oh I love it's so good Gigger Gian says beat Expedition 33 over break haven't had a game resonate with me this much

on an emotional level since God of War 2018 it's a special special game Oral Sanchez play says I played Super Metroid Zero Mission Fusion Prime 1 and 4 the last two months for the first time I loved them all do you think Prime 2 and 3 come to switch somehow damn dude that is what a generational

I can't even imagine doing all those at the same time. I do think two and three will come eventually. I also during the break played through. I beat Zero Mission and Super again. And then I haven't beat it yet, but I'm making my way through Dread. And I'm just saying it, playing them back to back,

I think Dred's the best. I think, like, I think if I have to be honest with myself. Be honest to him. Super Metroid, the design of the world is so good. But there is a level of old game is old that I,

that really bothers me of just with the, how it controls, and I get that there's a beauty to that too, and of course, I still love it. But goddamn dread is fucking sick. As I was streaming a lot of Pokemon's I'm rank C now, I'm almost there. I kept on getting a little notification. Tim Getty's starting, you know, starting the game

on the top level of the switch, Game Boy Advance. Yeah. And Chad would always bring it up. And I'm like, you know what, Chad? He's allowed to because he beats Silk Song. He's allowed to play whatever he wants. That was me playing. Now that you've beaten Silk Song

Not gonna say this is anytime soon Let's say sometime this year If I decided I wanted to play A Metraedvania And I had to choose between Silk Song And Prince of Persia of the Lost Crown Which one would you say I should play Prince of Persia of the Lost Crown?

Okay Yeah I mean the thing is It's really just a difficulty in time thing You're a gamer though You're really damn good And like Silk Song is goddamn incredible If you're willing to lock in But I think Prince of Persia lost crown

That to me is my favorite metric venue ever. You know, with that, we're going to end this episode of the kind of funny gamescast. You should play both, though. You don't know what I mean? That's a lot of hours. It is a lot of hours. Let us know in the comments below what you played during Christmas break. And guess what?

You have another bonus games cast right after this. Me and Andy are going to break down all of the CES announcements from Nvidia from their G-Force on presentation. And that's going to be a good time. Thank you, gentlemen, for joining us. Thank you. Until next time. I love you all. Goodbye. Thank you to Vinsster.

Playing near automata.