The Besties - The Besties Besty of the Year 2024, part 1

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The Besties have places 16 games in their annual bracket. By the end of this extra meaty episode, eight will remain. Will your favorite make the cut? Listen to find out. Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

Holy crap guys, this is the cold open, but sometimes we're all so bad at counting our sync to sync the show, I don't think we should do a podcast anymore, like I don't think we were meant to podcast, I think we should get into like visual arts or something like a sculpture. Especially not a podcast that has counting in it. Yeah, cause the best is to be a sculpture,

is what I'm saying, could it be a visual arts project? Now hold on. Instead of this audio, we're locked into the audio project, the besties be a sculpture, is what I'm saying. Could it be a visual arts project instead of this audio? We're locked into the audio projects, the besties. Russ has just raised a really interesting question, which is can you do a goatee list without numbers and counting in it? Oh man. And so it's more of a sort of free form.

All the games land instead of on a line, a sort of sphere. A palette. Sure. Where they place on the sphere. I like to think of video of on a line, a sort of sphere. Where they place on the sphere. I like to think of video games as a palette, and we're all just artists with our brush, and we're just dabbing it in the Elden Ring. That's cool. And then we paint it, and that's the goatee.

The painting is the goatee. Yeah, and maybe there's not a goatee. Maybe it's just, you look at the sphere. No, there is. There's gonna. Yeah, there's gonna be one. People are gonna be fucking pissed. The thing that is... There is still a number one best game. That's the only thing that's different about it.

But if we could get this sphere idea going, then I think people could just look at the sphere when we're done with it. You will clearly be able to discern a numeral sign and then a one and then a one and then a Triple a video game released in the year 2024 in it like that's the only thing y'all is here Will be a clear number one best game. This is literally the plot of metaphoric Fantasia Spoilers a seriously plant no kidding. That is the Bj o ty the Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Griffin, now that's the BJOTY. Congrats. Late, late year entry. Griffin swoops plant with the BJ of the year.

Unless there's some more great BJs in this one. We'll see, baby. We only just begun. We are back here with the besties awards yeah! We do this every year. You guys, Justin and Russ surprise, but this happens every year Yeah, plan always seems the cold theme the cult that is the famous the world famous besties game of the year theme opening welcome That tune can only mean one thing and it's time for everyone's favorite time of year where the besties finally Make it come due

We're not gonna fucking start the show with us saying our names. No, not this time, it's a special. My name is Justin MacGurray and I know the best game of the year. I'm Griffin MacGurray, I know the best game of the week. You know who we are, you're here for our game of the year show.

My name is Chris Plint and I know the best game of the year. My name is Ross Rutschke, and I know the best game of the week. My name is Justin MacGurray and I know the best game of the year. Where's Chris keep going? We're choosing it this time with the besties.

This is how many years of excellent? It feels like 11. 11 or 12, something like that. We started, we found it in 2012. This is our 12th year of excellence. We are going to be picking the best game of this year. I think we might have missed a couple years in there by the way. It should be noted.

No! No, we've always picked the best game of this year through a site. I think we might have missed a couple years in there, by the way, it should be noted. No! No, we've always picked a best game of the year. We've always picked a best game of the year. Always. There's a full list you can review. I'm so glad. Yes, there were times where we picked multiple games, and there were times where we deferred to,

I think, the Chris Krant pod. The Chris Krant at Chalon, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. An unfeeling, sentient video game criticizing device. Which is honestly less funny in this world of AI now where we could create a Chris Granatron. Very easily. Very easily, yeah.

It's gonna be a neat one, I think. No clear front runners, no Eldon's Rings, which was a pretty anticlimactic episode if memory serves. Yeah. No Breath of the Wilds to breathe in. We got a clean slate. If I could just ask, just as a thought experiment. Sure.

If you guys could look at the list of 60 games that we have. Sure. And tell me how many games you would feel comfortable being number one. I mean, I'm always comfortable. When you look at this, how many different number ones? Cause I don't have one number one. I mean, I'm always comfortable. When you look at this, how many different number ones? Cause I don't have one number one where I could be like, yeah, that's mine.

I have several. I got five. I have nine. I have nine this year. Nine? Nine. Nine where you're like, if we pick the best, if we get number one, you're like,

yeah, sounds about right. Comfortably nine. And I could go higher. Comfortably nine. What a year. What a year. What a year, guys. I got at least six. It's a good year. Yeah, it's a good year.

All right, so give me that structure, Chris. Here's how it works. We do a bracket of 16 games. 12 of those games have been picked by us, the besties. The four of those games. We don't say it enough, but okay. Experts. Four of those games have been picked by you, the besties listeners.

We should, they show down and one V one matchups. We do this in two episodes. The first episode is eight matchups that will fill up the entirety of the episode, all of round one. The next episode we will be actually whittling down to the true bestie of the year. We'll also be handing out some superlative awards, which is new this year. And we're really excited for you to hear more about that. But first, we got to work our way through this.

Yes. Beginning with round one. What a year for video games. Astro Bot, also known as Russ Frusik says it's the best platformer of all time, better than Mario and certainly better than Sonic. Whoa. And Rise of the Golden Idol.

Yeah, this is what you want me to start on my little baby. Yeah, let's get some Ast me to start on my little baby. Yeah, let's get some Astro Bot knowledge from you, Russ. Little baby boy. Look, back then, this is a few months ago when Astro Bot came out. Actually, we're gonna take, go even further back and say how excited I was after Astro's Playroom came out

and I was like, damn, I hope they give them a full-on platformer to do and they've done it. Ashtrot comes out and there is not a single game on this list that was so consistently joyful and fun throughout the entire start to finish experience. Uh, I fucking loved every minute of this game, the music, the graphics, the art design, playing it, the actual platforming of it. Can I ask a question? This fucking rules.

To clear, to zero in on what you are saying about it, because I trust you, as we've established an expert. Yeah. If you, when you say it's the best platformer, are you saying that like, this is the best game that you would put into the genre of platforming or if you divorce all aesthetics and other like Non-gameplay elements. No, I know I add I added all together. I think they're all together. So yeah The platform is probably a better feeling. Let me just yeah, there's probably a better fee Whatever like jumping from platform to platform. there might be a better game than that. I think as a whole, as a cohesive experience,

no platforming has done platforming better than Astrobot has. That's so fascinating. That's really interesting. I don't know that I agree with that. You feel being wrong, do you have a sense that you're wrong? Like when you think,

that's an obvious question. I feel like, no, I'm saying how do you, kidding aside, how do you say that over like, when you're adding a superlative like that, I'm not disagreeing, I'm like trying to think about it. Like how do you weigh that against like, Mario Odyssey, 64 Mario Odyssey. Yeah, I mean, a lot of it has to do with consistency. I think all of, Mario Odyssey, 64 Mario Odyssey. Yeah, I mean a lot of it has to do with consistency.

I think all of the Mario games, and there's a lot that are fucking amazing, we'll look at Mario Odyssey, which was mentioned, and yet all of them have excess at times. Things that you don't necessarily wanna do, but you have to continue doing, because whatever you need to find a moon, or whatever you gotta do,

it's not all fucking straight bangers as much as I wish it was. Yeah. And that, I think, really, for me, I always prioritize, like, give me the purest experience of this thing, which is why I always blanch at, oh, you need to play 15 hours before it gets good. That is, like, the biggest curse to me. Because it's like, just give me the good shit. Don't hold it back.

I'm so into this argument, Russ. I genuinely am, because I agree with you wholeheartedly. For me, what this game accomplishes, that is I think almost impossible to define, is a vibe and a tone that is so pleasant and good and silly and clever in a way that I feel like when games try to go for, it gets a little too like twee for my tastes.

But this game feels so authentically joyful. And I think that that is absolutely like, it stands head and shoulders above certainly anything else that came out this year. But I think I would agree with you that I can't think of a platform that is this, that makes me feel this good from a visual and an audio and a sort of mechanical kind of standpoint.

Meanwhile, over at Rise of the Golden Isle. This is a late one. Did you finish it? Has everyone, I guess who played it? I have not finished it. I am like halfway through the fourth of five, like acts, case groupings. Are you gonna say it?

Rise of the Golden Idol is, I think you could most accurately describe it as like a point and click puzzle game, where you are, it is taking point and click adventure mechanics, but distilling them to single like situations where everything's contextual. And rather than how items in the environment interact, it's much more about like how the ideas represented by those items interact. So you're looking at a sort of tableau that's lightly animated.

You are digging through all the clues and all the, everything that you can find. And then like, that's like one layer. And as you play the game, what you're really collecting is words and ideas. So as you explore the world, you might find like a test tube and you collect the word test tube. And then to solve the scenario, you'll get basically what's like a mad libs where it lays out the story for you. And you have to pull in the clues that you have collected in the world to lay out what actually happened in this story. And as the situations get more and more complex,

there's more and more sort of like lateral thinking required that gets you to, and sort of like less initial context presented, where you are really having to establish a lot in order. Pretty much every scenario will also have like a one or two sort of like smaller bite-sized puzzles that you're trying to solve. Like a lot of times it's like pairing names to faces. That's pretty common one. In some you'll have to like pair, for example, like you'll have a diagram of different symbols

and then you'll have to write what each one of those symbols means. And sometimes it's a clarifying thing of helping you to understand what's happening. Sometimes it's a way of like of helping you to understand what's happening. Sometimes it's a way of like you proving that you understand what's happening without necessarily brute forcing it. But all these different like cases

are telling a cogent super story across all the different cases and scenarios that are all these people interweaving. And like the story such as it is, is like unfurls over the different cases and as you're playing them, you're seeing how they like jump around in time, how the stories interact, where the different layers of the story are. Sydney doesn't play a lot of video games with me, but I downloaded this on my the surface studio that I have that folds into an iPad.

And we did that with like a stylist and we played the whole thing together on a recent trip and for somebody that doesn't play a lot of video games but does love like puzzles and mysteries. It was fantastic. It's like such a good game to play together that way. And we had like a fantastic time. It's kind of its own genre at this point, heavily inspired by like

the Return of the Overdent and things like that. But like it really does with this one, feels like an even more sort of like self-assured, like this is what a Golden Idol game is. And I think it's just fantastic. The music is great, it looks great, it's so fun. It is so cogent and fair. By the time you get to the end of it,

it almost, you don't even remember what the puzzle was. It's so clear what happened that it like, it doesn't even feel like a puzzle. It's just like, oh yeah, I just sort of like, yeah, I understand this completely. It's- I just wanna hammer home. I think the story of this game is one of my favorite

like pieces of storytelling this year. You will do a standalone little mystery and think like, there's a mystery where someone has been killed in an aviary by a bunch of birds. And you're like, what does this have to do with anything? Like, what does this have to do with anything? There's a lot of those that just come completely out of left field, and then two chapters later,

you figure out like, oh my God, like, oh, that was telling me this, that was telling me this. You'll see a character watching this like TV talent show that had nothing to do with anything, and you realize like, oh, that's what that was doing. The dance. The dance, yeah, the whole story of this game

really, really stuck with me. And I think it's fantastic. And I think it's free if you have a Netflix subscription. I think that's right. I think they have both of the Golden Idol games. These are two completely different kind of like things, right? We really struggled to do these matches. But one's better than the other.

That's the besties, baby. I guess the question I had, so I played a ton of the original Golden Idol, but didn't finish it, and I was intimidated to start the new one, because I wanted to see the end of the story of the first one. Mechanically speaking, are there substantial changes to the second one, or is it more of the same great puzzle stuff? Definitely more of the same. I would say the place is it kind of more of the same great puzzle stuff? Definitely more of the same.

I would say the place where it kind of stands apart is each chapter has like four mysteries in it usually. And then once you're done with those four mysteries, there will be like a little booklet that is like, here is everything that happened in this chapter. I think that stuff is a lot more fleshed out. And that is good because it really helps you to start putting the pieces together of like what this entire story is all about. And it is such a story that I kind of have been tempted to go back and replay it already, just now knowing kind of like

what was actually happening the whole time. I think that Sid and I will probably go back and play one together after we finish this one, which should be kind of fun. Did you do the DLC for one? No, I didn't do that. Some of it's really, really good. What I would say about the,

what I think is so cool about what Griffin is saying about the story is like, it is layered onto you in a way that is not like literally told. It is something that you almost sort of absorb and find yourself understanding. As you're playing through these levels, you're like, something in this is sticking in my mind. I remember it.

This game, I think compared to the last one, for me, as somebody who bailed on the first one, I think that while the basic mechanics are the same, the connective tissue between the different levels, there's like little, like extra bits that you get outside of the quests themselves that are like little bits of information that contextualize some of what you just saw.

But I think it's much better at like pulling you into the next mystery, rather than the other one kind of felt like once I finished one, I often felt like- You didn't have the momentum. Yeah, yeah, there's a loss of momentum. I think this one keeps the momentum and I don't know how they're doing it

like without like directly like looking at the UI, but I feel much more compelled to keep moving forward in this one. Okay, is there anyone here that thinks Astrobot shouldn't move forward in this matchup? It's asking me like what I think is more important, right? Cause I think Rise has a, I mean, Astro Bot doesn't have a story per se.

The PlayStation 5 gets stolen by aliens and you have to repair it. Yeah, so that's, I remember that. I think Astro Bot is more of an accomplishment from an artistic and like, I don't know, just ambition standpoint maybe, but, so I do think in my mind it goes a little bit higher, but I do like Rise.

And I won a million of these games. And so if that means we have to give them the goatee to get there. We don't need to do it. So that's the price you gotta pay? Yep. Plant, where are you at? Oh, I mean, I'm Astro Bot. to give them the goatee to get there. So that's the price you got to pay. Yeah. Plant, where are you at? Oh, I'm, I mean, I'm Astrobot.

It's no fault of Golden Idol. A recurring thing I noticed when people really like Golden Idol is they say exactly what you said, oops, I love it. I was playing with somebody else. And I think it's better that way. I think it is such a game changer and that I played both these games solo. And especially the second time around, I found myself a lot more frustrated. I don't think that's a knock on the game.

I think it is a game meant to be played with another person in the same way that when you watch a detective movie, there's always like a Sherlock and a Watson, I'm sure like, but yeah, I think said Sherlock and the Holmes. That's interesting, yeah. But yeah, I think that is the missing piece for me. So it's purely on personal preference. It's Astro Bot, yeah. We don't have a good way of talking about games like that. I think that ostensibly single player games that are really better as a shared experience,

you know what I mean? It's not strictly a multiplayer thing, but I'm I'm fine with Astrobot. I think this game I think rise of the Gullniles freaking fantastic. I really really like Astrobot a lot I could see where in terms of like if you got to pick one in terms of what's doing something that you want to like celebrate and honor Astrobot feels a little bit more of like a Mark achieve. Yeah, sure is a good really good way of putting it and honor, Astrobot feels a little bit more of like a, a high-water mark. An achievement. An achievement is a good, a really good way of putting it.

All right, Astrobot, bump it, bump it up. Boom. Next up, we have Animal Well and Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown. Shit yeah, man. I'll talk Animal Well, is that all right? Go for it. Animal Well is, I mean, I follow video game Dunkey

on YouTube, enjoy his stuff quite a bit, and they announced he was opening his own publisher, and this was going to be the game that came out of it. It immediately, I think, just seized my attention just from a visual kind of standpoint, because the game Looks kind of unlike anything I've ever seen before It looks like a light bright video game. It looks like a light bright video game. Yeah, like a super low low

low-fi neon kind of gritty animal platformer I a gritty animal platformer. I have talked about this a lot when we talked about the game the first time around. The experience of playing this game at launch, before launch, like in a group of,

in a Discord of fellow reviewers was truly unforgettable. And I think the game definitely stands on its own apart from that, as evidenced by the fact that it's pretty widely renowned, even outside of that Discord. It is just a platformer with a few ideas that it explores to the molecular level, to a degree where some of the basic puzzles you solve them, you're like, okay, I get it.

I kind of get what this game is serving up. And then down the road, you realize like, oh my God, like this is the smartest, this is the smartest thing ever. I still feel uncomfortable talking about some of this stuff because I think those moments of discovery are so important and Russ will certainly bang this drum louder than I will. But I like having a moment, I'll say one.

I realized at one point, hey, that bush looks weird. And then I got a barcode scanner app. I downloaded it on my iPhone and scanned the bush and it turned out that it was a barcode with like a secret in the game for it. That is one of 50, like really, really, really neat things that this game does. It has multiple sort of like strata that you can go into if you want to just play it like a platformer with some like kind of neat Metroidvania esque mechanics and

exploration. That's cool. If you want to get deeper into it and try to find all the secrets, that's cool. If you want to find all the secret, that's cool. If you wanna find all the secret secrets that are like really crazy universe brain stuff, like you can also go that far into it. There's no game that came out this year like it. There's no game I can really think of maybe that have ever come out like Animal Well.

And I think it's just a- Yeah, I think Fez is like in the ballpark, but I think Animal Well is doing- Fez is certainly in the ballpark, yeah. I would grant that. But I think Animal Well, and I think it's just a... Yeah, I think Fez is in the ballpark, but I think Animal Well is doing... Fez is certainly in the ballpark, yeah. I would grant that. But I think Animal Well is doing that idea in a much more thoughtful and cohesive way. Also just such a labor of love,

and that comes through in every aspect of it, including if you find the developer notes. Just incredible. I think the story about this game is really fantastic. Earlier Hoops mentioned, you know, like how many games could you see getting our game of the year? Animal Well is not even on my top 10,

maybe not my top 20, but I'm thinking about a game that I would be happy to like literally take that crown as like what it represents for like the besties and what it represents for a game of the year and where I really admire a game animal well is that. And I think that's a testament to something as a, I don't know, an object of creativity that it's not really for me. I didn't really enjoy my time with it. I admire the shit out of it. and I probably watched five hours of videos about it. Yeah.

Yeah, it's the epitome of my like no guides thing is animal like that is the core of that. Only because it it goes to the point of like I think the best things for me when I'm playing video games is the feeling of ownership. I made a choice or I discovered something and it wasn't like external force or whatever it is. And Animal Well is a game about having ownership over like the things you discover and some of them are like very well curated and obvious and some of them are really, really hard to spot. And some of them you absolutely need to team up with a group of a dozen people to solve. It really is a lot of dope shit.

But. In Prince of the Perch and the Lost Crown, you can shoot five arrows, which is way more than at any point in Animal Well. Let me tell you, if you wanna slide underneath an enemy and stab him in the back, you can't even do it in Animal Well until you've played for like 10 or 11 hours and you can get the sliding gem,

and the murder frisbee, I don't know. Murder frisbee is from Animal Well for what it's worth. Okay, but there is also- Both games have murder frisbees. Sorry, they both have murder frisbees to be clear. Fair, fair, fair, fair. I'm glad this matchup happened. I made the matchup, so I'm glad it worked out nicely.

These are totally interesting approaches to the same genre. And I love both of them. Like these are both- God, you're right. I didn't even really think of them being the same genre, but they are, aren't they? But they are, effectively.

But they're like coming at it from two completely different directions. Prince of Persia is a much more guided, directed experience. It borrows a lot of the same tropes of unlocks and map discovery, things like that. I do wanna say, like, I don't want it to become like, I don't wanna cheapen Prince of Persia, Lost Crown, through the comparison, because there is an amazing

amount of work that has clearly gone into the flow of this game and making each like little tiny scrap of it feel like cogent and fun to get around. Like especially once you've gotten through a lot of unlocks, like getting through this world and the different number of ways you can like approach like traversal and combat and like there are so many different like completely valid ways to go at it. And it's like there's a lot of love, especially for a game that like you could see a world

in which a Prince of Persia game doesn't need to be, doesn't get that amount of TLC because they're relying on, you know, whatever power the brand has to keep it going. But it is really well balanced. It's a lot of just pure fun. I actually finished it just because it was like that enjoyable to play and stick with. But it is like, it is not breaking a lot of new ground. It's familiar.

It's definitely familiar for the genre. And I don't think that's a bad thing to Justin's point. It's probably combat wise, I think that's a bad thing to Justin's point. It's probably, combat wise, I think it's a lot more fully fleshed out than a lot of search action games are, right? It's a lot more about building your skillset and finding combos that work together, stuff like that, rather than finding a super weapon

that lets you blow through stuff. Yeah, no, I think the boss fights were fantastic. There's great puzzles in this game. Animal Well is like you're learning a new language from scratch. This is not that, but I do think this game takes a lot of swings that it didn't have to take in really smart ways.

There's like amazing, like you're making clones of yourself to like weigh down switches and spin around whatever. Other puzzles, almost all the powers do something like interesting that I've never ever seen before. And yeah, it's fucking spectacular. Also like refreshing when it came out, I was not expecting, it was one of those games that I feel like it happens a few times a year on Besties

where it's like, what are we talking about next week? It was like, oh, Prince of Persia the Lost Crown. And I'm like, I don't know, I've never heard of that. I don't know what that is, but it's probably not gonna be very good because it's a Prince of Persia game, and those have a pretty mixed track record in my book. And then it blew my ass away at how fun it was,

and I don't know, I feel like it was just what I wanted right when I wanted it. If you didn't expect that Prince of Persia game, I bet you super duper didn't expect another one three months later. That was the real twist that kept you guessing. Can we get that one into contention here? Just real quick, throw it in. Cause it was also really-

The rogue Prince of Persia. The rogue Prince of Persia is also very fun. It's surprisingly also weirdly good. I gotta get as Animal Well though, right? I mean, it's Animal Well. I think Animal Well Animal Well though, right? I mean, it's Animal Well. I think Animal Well is pretty genius, even if I'm kinda closer to plant than you two.

I definitely dig it. All right. Next up, we have UFO 50 versus Fields of Mystria. Ooh, is this our first audience pick in Fields of Mystria? Yeah, and I think the only in-progress game on the list. Oh, early access. Early access, yeah. Yes.

Can I be honest? That's kind of, I really, really like Fields of Mystria. I think what they're going for kicks ass, and the game definitely got its hooks in me. It is hard for me with a game that is like a life sim, like Stardew Valley, like I know I'm going to put a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of time into this. And so there was part of me that felt like

I should just wait for full release, which is not fair, I think, when it comes to talking about these games, but I did put, I mean, probably 20, 30 hours into. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot. Yeah.

Fields of mystery. I think we'll come back next year or the year after and be pretty, it'll make it far in the bracket. I don't think this year is that year. I will say for folks who are thinking about trying it, if you are looking for a Stardew Valley light game that I think has a lot of the rough edges polished off, which is wowed to say about a game that is one of the most successful of all time, you can start playing it right now.

And they've added updates, even since we talked about it on the show, it is a very complete game, but. It almost hurts knowing what they have yet to add, right? Yeah. They have been clear about saying this game is going to be that much better. Um, so I, I'm, I'm really glad it made our, um, sweet 16.

I think it certainly already earns a spot there, but I agree that, um, it has a little bit more time to cook. I do wanna mention this point because we are having the early access conversation. There is a notable absence from this list, I think in the place of Hades 2. That's a game that I've been playing a lot because I continue to wanna keep up with it. But I think that is a game that I've been playing a lot because I continue to wanna keep up with it.

But I think that is a game that from talking to the other three, definitely something that we're going to return to once it's a little closer to like done, done from what I understand if the mystery is a little closer to what it will, you know, feature complete than Hades 2. But we will definitely be returning to Hades 2. I don't think Hades 2 won goatee The year it was released did it? Yeah, I think Hades 20

It couldn't have because it was released. But was it 1.0 Hades or was it the early access? It was released. It was no it couldn't have been because it was released During the Game Awards. You're right. Yeah, it was released on Epic Games Store during the Game Awards Yeah, Epic Games Awards during the Game Awards. So it was in the following year. The early access, yeah. Yeah. Can I talk about UFO 50? Yes. Please do. You like it too much.

We all agree. Maybe harder than any game I've ever talked about on the besties or maybe ever played before, I fucking slingshot it around the circumference of this one and came back so, so hard. Are you saying the besties got it wrong, Griffin? Are you saying on this one the besties got it wrong? I'm not saying the besties got it wrong.

I am saying that this is a game that, more than any game I've probably ever played before, it will sink its teeth into you if you approach it with curiosity, if you approach it with an open mind and you approach it with a faith in the game's ability to have innovative ideas in all of these really ancient looking packages.

UFO 50 is 50 games, not many games, pretty much full size games. NES era full size. NES era games. And that is like, I think the reason I was pretty quickly turned off by it is that I don't actually have that much affinity for NES games. I think that most of them aren't particularly fun to play.

I think a lot of them have not held up especially well and lean on like difficulty curves that are like insane as opposed to meaningful ideas that, you know, would keep you coming back for the length of a full game. I think UFO 50 at first blush does that stuff too, but also I am now, I've gotten the cherry on 31 of these bad boys now, and I just kind of keep coming back for more. It has gotten me to play genres of games I don't like, I'm not interested in,

that I get into very, very deeply because they are pretty approachable here once you kind of give them a chance and try to learn it. Once I sort of shed the idea of like, this is too complicated for me, this is too hard for me. Putting that idea out of mind and thinking like, this game was designed and there are ideas that I can approach it with that will help me succeed at this game.

Has been like a truly exciting and like empowering journey that I have gone on with this game. And I could speak about each of the 31 games that I have gotten the cherry on so far and why they all kick ass. But I think that this game is a uh, a genuine mind boggling accomplishment in game design games design. Um, and I just like it so much. I hate to take away more UFO 50 conversation, especially from Russ Rushdick, but I think

we're going to be talking about this game quite a bit more in the next episode So how about we give you a 50 the old? Congratulations and move it on to the next round Yeah, I will also say it's 50 games. So good luck everybody. Good luck everyone else That's when Wario needs to pop up like, wow. Got 60, nine, wow. Wow. Okay.

Fuck, I love Wario so much. What are the next micro games? What I think of WarioWare game is just called Y69. And it's 69 awesome microgames. It's so funny. What's the next matchup? We have like a dragon infinite wealth versus 1000 X resist. Plank, can you confirm if it's a 1000 X resist

or times resist? Cause I've heard both. So often the X in these things is just silent. So it'd be like 1000 resist, like Spy Family. I like that. So it might be 1000 resist, but- You're telling me the name of that animated show is Spy Family and not Spy X Family?

Correct, yeah. Shit, man. Yeah, and Godzilla Kong. That's the name of that movie, is Godzilla Kong. Godzilla Kong. Can I say a quick word about Like a Dragon and Fentwelf? Please. I didn't ever finish one of these guys before.

I've played like four of these guys and I get like 10 hours into it and I'm like, this is cool, but it's just like, I don't know, man. What do you mean by these guys? These Yakuza games, formerly Yakuza games, now Like a Dragon, these are these fellows. I keep playing them and because like, there's a lot of things I like.

I love the idea of virtual tourism. You know what I mean? Like, sure. I like the idea of being in another environment and exploring it and like picking up some cultural stuff. And it's a it's a cool environment to be in. But I eventually just kind of get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that is in these games and the idea of like missing certain things and the idea of like I

Think being overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that you need to keep track of Especially when it's like a culture separate from yours. I think it gets kind of overwhelming. They also can get pretty talky etc. Etc This is the first one that I finished and I've finished it a lot. I finished a lot of parts of it that you didn't need to finish, but I did finish those. I think that once I sort of got into the wavelength of this thing, I will say one, it is really generous and open hearted in the way that it designs games and mini games and combat and all of it really.

It's a very player positive, like wants you to have fun, wants you to be engaged, doesn't want you to like, I don't know, it's very openhearted and generous in the way that like, it'll lay out entire stories that it didn't really need to give you, but it will give complete stories where one was not required, right? Like nice stories.

It'll make complete games like the, I'm thinking of Dondoko Island, like complete games inside the game when you really could have gotten away with something that was a lot more bare. In the same way, it's got a protagonist who is genuinely one of the like best heroes I think we've had in games in a long time.

It is so nice to play a character who is not an anti-hero and is not cynical or any of it. And is like really like someone who genuinely has morals and ethics and just wants to do the right thing. And it feels good to be in a game and be able to be a person like that. It feels nice to be in a game and be able to be a person like that. It feels nice to be in a world where people are like happy to see you and where you are not like the most important person in the world.

You know, like the world does not hinge on Ichiban. He is pursuing his morals and what he thinks is right because they are his morals and what he thinks is right because they are his morals and what he thinks is right, not because destiny has told him he needs to do it. He's just a good person. And I think that's a really powerful message and a really engaging message. And I just loved, it builds to,

I think one of the most moving endings to a video game I've ever seen. I adore this game. I adore this game. I adore it. And I, by the way, like, I don't know that I'm necessarily gonna play the next Like a Dragon game to come, like I don't, I'm not like, now I get it.

You know what I mean? Like, but this one I got a lot. And I think it's really lovely. Yeah, I feel like Ichiban and kind of Like a Dragon Games in general, are about a great community organizer, more than like a superhero. He has this kind of gravity well

that just pulls people toward him. And so much of the solutions are not, I solved it, but like, oh, I brought the other people involved who could help solve this problem. And that is such a refreshing change of pace. And such a better use- It's not like a Ted Lasso

from Open World RPGs in a real sense. It's so smart for open world game though, because you're gonna have all of these people. The whole point of open world is that you're in this space with a ton of people and a ton of community. So whenever you make it about one person, it just feels so, it's seeing this huge world through a pinhole.

And you compare it to GTA where everyone around you tends to either like double cross you or is trying to screw, you know, you're trying to screw them over and you compare that tone to this and it's really nothing. This game people try to screw you over and you refuse to accept it.

Because you know that deep down, they're actually a pretty good dude. And then they think about it for 10 fucking hours and you go off to your own island and you come back later and they're like, hey, you were right, I am a good dude. I came to give you this bat. It's on fire.

Kick ass. I'm gonna turn some diapers into snow and change the lives of the people around me. Jesus, how's your- hey PS, how's your pervert collection coming? That's pretty good! Depends on which pervert collection you're talking about, the one that fights or the one that farms? Yeah Or the one you take photographs of, there's a lot of different types of perverts.

Um, hey, 1000xresist, thank you so much. Actually Chris, the X is silent sometimes. Oh thank you. Sorry, I'm glad that we have somebody who's an expert on the show. Thank you to everybody who voted for this to get into the 16. Once again, a game that I am so glad is on the 16. Once again, not a game I can recommend going any further, as the biggest fan of the game on the 16. Once again, not a game I can recommend going any further. As the biggest fan of the game on the show. For people who are unfamiliar with it, it is

an absolutely stellar narrative game. Maybe the best story I played in a game this year. I think I compared it at the halfway point to the works of Ted Chiang who wrote the story that would be Arrival, the movie. These are sci-fi stories that are much more about people and the decisions that we make and how the big questions of sci-fi force us to like reckon with uncomfortable truths about our behavior. And this one, the best way I could summarize the premise without spoiling too much is imagine if COVID had happened, but it killed or was set to kill everyone except for one person. And what would it be like to be that person and all the responsibility that comes with

it? And now more so worse, what if that person was a teenage girl? And all of where your brain is at when you're a teenager, that suddenly comes into conflict with something that is so greater than you and kind of where your ego is as a teenager. It's a really good question. And where they go with it with the game is wild. It's also dealing with a whole bunch of other things, um, like immigration

and protest and really the past five years of kind of global culture, so much to put into one video game caveat or not caveat, I would say bonus real anime vibes. Um, and I think this is what often intimidates people or scares people away. The trailers for this game, I think are a little intimidating. You wanna say what just happened? Sorry, sorry.

The listener at home won't appreciate this. But the moment Plant said real anime vibes, Griffin literally stood up from his chair, spun around, and sprinted out the door. I think he's answering his front door, but if he's doing a bit of a... I think he's spamming pre-order. He's like, oh, I need a new pillowcase. I'm going to GameStop.

I'm going to run. Don't walk to my local GameStop. It is worth considering about a month ago because I knew how highly Chris Plant loved 1000 Resist. I asked him, I was like, hey, so I have to play this game, right? And I wasn't super eager, mostly because it's really rare that visual novels ever click with me.

And he specifically told me you probably shouldn't. And I appreciate that for him. And I also appreciate how much everyone who voted loves this game. And probably in a different time and a different space where I had a lot of time and a lot of reading time, I would take the time to do it. But this is not one.

How long are this? I always hate that. 12 hours. Yeah, and it plays well in Steam Deck. I think this is just the difference between like where we were when we started the besties and where we are now. We always believed in subjectivity, but I think

there was like deep down a part of us that believed whatever our favorite game was, was objectively the best. And now I, I, I am at a point where I can realize I can really love this thing, knowing it is a relatively small portion of the audience that will love it as much as I do. When there are games on this list,

like the one that this one's up against, that are on the flip side, I actually think it's a crime if you do not play like a dragon, Infinite Wealth, even if it is not my favorite game of the year, maybe it is. To not play it, I don't know what's up. Like, yeah, there's something there for everybody in my opinion.

You have sold me on a thousand extra assists. I have it downloaded on my Steam deck. I've not dipped into it, because I don't know what kind of mood I should be in to approach this game. That seemed depressing. It's a good winter season game. I think it would be great for us to revisit maybe in the slower of January.

I wouldn't know. There's no such thing as slow. We have like five games that we could be talking about right now that we're going to have to talk about January 1st. Anyway, let's move Like a Dragon forward. Listeners, please play both these games. They're fucking excellent. So, okay. So those are the first four matches. We've got four more matchups coming after the break. Stay tuned. I see four different cursors in this fucking Google.

That is a sign that it is time for water. They're all gone now. All the games are gone. More? More games? More games? Yeah., you boy get me the finest game That'll be 50 fence you heard me the finest game Wow as you started inhabiting both of those characters plant you really weren't leaving a lot of meat on the bone for the rest Of us you were both Scrooge and the little boy For I was trying to get in there,

there's just no room on the wall. I guess I could be like, yes, I still have that bird. I'll open up my shop on Christmas day. We got tactical breach wizards and we have SteamWorld Heist 2. Shit. Yes. Shit, man. Good match up. Year for a genre that does not get maybe as much love as some people would love in the besties.

It doesn't matter when games this good come out because hot damn. Steam World heist too, I know this isn't the order we have them written on here in. But I'll say that that's another one that's exactly like Infinite Wealth where I've played I think almost every Steam World game, which is across many, many genres, right?

And this one is so good that I just didn't want, I got it and I understood what was happening and I just couldn't stop playing it. It's just that, it's just so fun. I didn't really care. Can you put like a name on that, Juice? Like, can you figure out what it is that- SteamWorld Heist 2.

What is it that SteamWorld Heist 2 does? Because I also know this is not a genre you particularly love. Yes, okay, so SteamWorld Heist 2, I think, a lot of tactical games are very much about running math and doing equations, I feel like, in terms of I've got to figure out a really smart way of doing this.

And if I don't do it a smart way, it'll fall apart quickly enough that it's not gonna be fun anymore. For me, this game felt a little bit more like Worms, where even when the things didn't pan out, right? For me, this game felt a little bit more like Worms, where even when the things didn't pan out, right? Like if I miss a shot with a laser, that's a bummer. But maybe my laser went and hit a gas tank that's behind another guy and that exploded

and blew this other guy to hell. And all the characters in this, you know, if you don't, haven't played one, the specific sub genre of SteamWorld, it's a 2D tactics where you are going into a mission and usually stealing something and then exfiltrating or like killing something and exfiltrating. Turn-based, you go in with a crew of usually like,

I think one to four, four is about as big, I think, as you ever go in with. And you- Sort of a platformer perspective? Platformer perspective, and each person, member of your crew, there's like sort of different roles that they can play. They can pick up skills from the different jobs

and sort of like blend them together as they become more advanced. So you're going in with like, a close up weapons expert and, you know, somebody who's a little bit more about explosives and somebody who's more of a sniper, and then they can cross train the different ones. The cross training shit in this game is outrageous.

The fact that you can pull any skill from any other character and spend resources to like make any character a part sniper, part dasher, part whatever, melee guy. All that stuff is so smart. And it didn't feel like you had to, when you would get a character to a certain point, you didn't feel like you had to ditch them

and start playing someone else to level them up, because you could just start pushing them in a different direction. The real limiting cap is the gear that you have, right? For like how many shotgun guys is not about like how many characters you have, but more like how many good shotguns do you have that you could send them in with, you know? Well, and the structure of the game also incentivizes you

to use everyone. Because if you can go out and beat a bunch of missions without having to go home to home base, like you get this streak multiplier. And so you wanna use everyone. Because if you can go out and beat a bunch of missions without having to go home to home base, like you get this streak multiplier, and so you wanna use everyone you have, and so you gotta, but it's so quick and so easy to make each character what you want them to be and play the game how you wanna play it,

and I think that is really the accomplishment of this. It's also got great, great, great music. I don't know the game this year It's also got great, great, great music. I don't know the game this year, the music I've enjoyed more, although there's a lot of really good contenders on this list. I think the story, it's like all pretty sharply written.

It's pleasant. All the character designs are really good. And like, they are evocative. Like, you know what character you're looking at almost instantly. Like you get their whole vibe, um, from the design. Uh, I just think, I think it's fantastic. That last bit, um, that Griffin said about the streak multiplier, I think is the kind

of star of the game for me and the year for me of getting me interested in things that I normally wouldn't, which is I was motivated to learn why the game is actually fun and try all the things where I feel like often in games like this, we can talk about with metaphor and RPGs or same with like a dragon. I find a solution that works well enough and it gets me through a chunk of the game and eventually I hit a barrier. And during that time, I never learned the rest of the game. So suddenly I just don't like the game anymore because it's not working.

How I thought it was when reality, the game's like, well, why aren't you doing blank, blank and blank this teaching you to try so many things early on, I think is what saves you later in the game. And again, the same thing with metaphors, job class and infinite wealth, character progressions. Um, I think this game does a really good job of letting you get super duper comfortable with one or two characters and then nudging you to try others.

Because you can never get too frustrated because in the back of your head, they're like, well, I can bring in my guy. I got this one guy who's a level five sniper that could just come in and level this entire fucking board. But I'll let him sit on the bench while I level up these other dudes. Let's hear about Tackical Breach Wizards.

Yeah, I can speak to it. Yeah, please. You know, I was talking earlier about holistic games, games that kind of cross-shut every angle, and I think there aren't many games that do it as well as Tactical Breach Wizards on our list this year. In addition to being like a really excellent, isometric tactical game, which has elements of like Into the Breach that has that vibe to it. It's also just so smartly written. It was the narrative that clicked most with me for the entire year.

I was so invested in the small number of characters that you're interacting with because they are written humanistically, they're funny, they're like deeply depressing at times, but in like a very kind of welcoming way. They're very like exposed, I would say. And all of this is happening among missions that are like interesting and thoughtful, like how am I going gonna overcome this unstoppable force of like sixty enemy guys in two turns using all the powers that i have my disposal it is really quite a feat i adore this game. Great to fenestration right a lot of penetration and that you can knock a lot of people out. Yeah. I think the writing is what stood out to me with this game. I mean, the puzzle solving in the combat is great. You're right. It's hard to pick anything that's not working, but the writing has really stayed with me

in what has me wanting to go back to finish it. I made it probably like three quarters of the way through. I think it's a good example of how a game can introduce very complicated concepts throughout and still make you make sure that you're not losing the thread because you literally at times are connecting threads of all the different plot points using this like giant board. Yeah, which has been used in a couple games recently. And I think it's really smart. So yeah, there's both that.

We should have had a best, we needed to get that. Best murder board. Best murder board. That can be one of our support letters next week. Yeah, right? And I thought the moment to moment dialogue is really good in that it is a move away from the Whedon-esque kind of like cheeky action dialogue

and I don't wanna dunk on that too hard. There was a moment where everybody loved that and I'm sure all of us briefly were into it, but the times have changed and this reminds me of like a return to the Y'all remember that movie the rock and like that J era of Jerry Bruckheimer We're back this movies way more there. This game's way more self-aware than the rock is I don't I don't know about that. You have Nick Cage playing an action star at the time, which he had like never done.

Or Con Air. My point is, it's movies where they are being earnest with their story, but the characters have this kind of like laissez-faire attitude that makes them seem like both funny and cool and approachable and likable, while still being somehow grounded and not like oh these people don't actually even exist in this world it's it's really nice to have a game that has like this where It doesn't feel like it needs to jump out and punch you in the nose and say this is what the tone of this thing is

Yeah, because like it doesn't It doesn't immediately say like this is all a joke. This is a goofy thing that you can dismiss. Because tactical breach wizards is obviously kind of tongue in cheek a little bit. And I think the tone is similar. And then it lets you kind of decide, I don't know, how much of a joke do you think it is?

We're taking it pretty seriously. I don't know. And eventually, this narrative goes to places that are really tackling incredibly heavy themes of religion and totalitarian regimes and refugees and things like that. Yeah, it's really, it's very impressive. Yeah.

I really like both of these games. For me, SteamWorld, I think does enough kind of different stuff. I'm very, very big into like progression systems in games and I think the way SteamWorld handles it is truly, truly genius. And so that kind of like kindling kept me coming back, a bit more than I think Tactical Breach Wizards did,

but I imagine this will be a pretty split vote. It's so hard. I know that we don't want to. I don't want to get into denigrating either of these games. I will say for myself personally, I know that I would have loved I was loving like all of the narrative aspects of Tactical Breach Wizards. And I think that like had I pushed on through, I probably would have really I think I really would have clicked with that a lot.

So I'm having to kind of get do a little guesswork here just because I the the mechanically it just didn't grab me in the same way that that Steam World did. I mean, I between these I love both these games too. So it's incredibly difficult for me. Between these games of the ones that of the one that will probably like stick in my memory the longest, it's probably tactical breach wizards because of the ones that, of the one that'll probably like stick in my memory the longest, it's probably Tactical Breach Wizards because of the narrative. I didn't think the narrative in,

I didn't like the, personally, like the narrative in SteamWorld. I thought it was a little eh, but I do like the gameplay probably more in SteamWorld. So it really is just, it's kind of arbitrary. I love both of these games, but I guess I'll. Yeah, I Would lean tactical breach wizards, but my I'm so close and the love the arguments here are so strong and passionate for

Steam world that I think we move it along to the next round. Yeah, I would probably feel differently I'm fine with that. I would probably feel differently if I had like Finished the narrative and tactical breach wizards, which again took to Justin's point differently. I'm fine with that. I would probably feel differently if I had like finished the narrative in Tactical Breach Wizards, which again, to Justin's point, I really want to do but I haven't finished it yet. And it probably could have used a few more like progression hooks to carry people along. So I'm cool with SteamWorld being the... I do hope that we get a sequel to Tactical Breach Wizards. Not that everything needs a sequel, but it feels like a game that similar similar to Steam World Heist 1, you know, where just a little bit more

is gonna like take it over that edge. Yeah. What a game though. Agreed. Good game. We have another very thematic matchup here. We have Crow Country, which was a reader pick, and the Elden Ring DLC Shadows of the Erd Tree. All hit Crow Country, which was a reader pick, and the Elden Ring DLC, Shadows of the Erd Tree. All hit Crow Country.

Cool. That shit rules, man. I forgot that game came out this year. I didn't actually, I think it was in the top 10 that I submitted for our own sort of like perusal, but it did come out I think pretty early in the year. Man, Crow Country is a, it is a PS1-inspired,

Resident Evil-inspired survival horror game set in an amusement park where something absolutely horrible has happened, and it is kind of up to you to figure out. Is it tank controls? It looks like tank controls. No, you can change it. You can make it tank controls if you want it to be. There's several different control schemes.

It is set in an amusement park called Crow Country. And I mean, when you start the game, you know nothing. You know that something bad has happened. There was an accident. And you are there as an officer of the law and you are there to find officer of the law, and you are there to find somebody. That's about it, that's about all they give you. And as you go through the game,

it makes you second guess basically everything. I think the narrative of this game is very, very cool. I think the way this game kind of suspends you in a state of unease the whole time is a really, really cool kind of vibe that it accomplishes. I really love this genre of games. And I think that Crow Country doesn't just like, you know, really nail what made Resident Evil 1 and 2

feel like as revolutionary as it did when those games first came out. I think it does like a better job in some cases. Really great writing, really great puzzles, a lot of really great secrets and hidden things to go around and collect that make your character that small percentage stronger that they need to kind of balance out the economy of this survival horror genre.

Just visually, I don't think it looks like anything else that I've, I mean, I guess it kind of looks like Final Fantasy VII more so. I think the comparison I made is it feels like the ghost sector of the gold saucer in Final Fantasy VII a little bit. But at the same time, it does get genuinely quite scary at times, which I appreciate. And the story takes all kinds of twists and turns.

I think this game flew way, way, way under the radar for some folks. I think it kicks ass, and I think it is one of the more memorable games that I played this year. But again, it also kind of hit me right in my, right in the sweet spot of the exact genre I like, executed to the top of its form, while also kind of doing this PS1 era stuff

better than a lot of other games that I've seen attempt it. Something interesting just for people that should be aware, if you like the puzzles of these sorts of games but don't like the combat, there is an option to play through this game without any combat at all and just puzzles, which is kind of an interesting approach. How do you, what is this?

It just removes enemies from the game. So you're just left with like exploration. So it's just like a house, just like somebody's house. It's like someone's house. It's like your house. It's like my house has no enemies, it's like my house. I'll add that where I think Tunic was a game that was trying to recreate the feeling of importing a game

and also going through an instruction manual, this feels like a game about what it was like to see and read about and see the guides for games like Resident Evil back in the day. So the actual visual of the game, yeah, it looks like a game from the 90s. But on top of that, it has kind of visual artifacting layers that look like screenshots of a game from the 90s. So it doesn't, it looks like it is being almost filmed off of a crappy 90s TV, or a photo had been taken of that screen.

There are actual like guides, items placed throughout the game that feel like stuff you would see in the pages of those sorts of magazines. I think it just does a great job of creating a holistic experience of playing this sort of game, really remembering the experience of this sort of game, versus you know when you go back and you play Resident Evil 1 and while it's still fun it is not. Your memory of sitting down with a GamePro next to you in a bottle of cherry coke when you're a kid.

Yeah. No, it's very much hitting that for me. I don't know if somebody who was born after, who was not of gaming age in the year 1997, may not, like it might not hit with them as well, but it really, really, it felt like a game that was made for me. And I like, it's, I mean, yep, you got me.

It's, you hit my goatee list for that very reason, Cro Country, well done. Um, we also have in this category, we have for this matchup, we have Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erd Tree, uh, which was the DLC to Elden Ring. It is the only DLC that we have in our bracket. I think that's okay. I played a ton of this DLC.

I have 50 hours of the DLC, I think that's okay. I played a ton of this DLC. I have 50 hours of the deal, something like that. Um, I think when it first came out, there were very reasonable, uh, critiques about the structure of this DLC, specifically the idea that you had to find these esoteric items to make yourself arbitrarily powerful enough to fight the boss. Uh, and good for from software. items to make yourself arbitrarily powerful enough to fight the boss. And good for From Software, because they heard that note very loud and clear

and rebalance a lot of that stuff such that you only have to find a couple of the items, which if you're playing the game, you will just kind of stumble upon as a matter of course. But if you bought it on the disc, but if you bought it on the disc, you're just screwed. Screw it.

I don't even know if they had a desk for this game. I can't imagine. Probably not. I cannot imagine, right? This game is, granted, it's a lot more Elden Ring. If you played Elden Ring, a lot of this is going to feel familiar to you, but it is also at times a refinement of what Elden Ring was doing. There are moments in this game that hit harder than anything that happened in Elden Ring.

Can you give me an example of one of those moments without spoiling it? in this game that hit harder than anything that happened in Elden Ring. There is a- Can you give me an example of one of those moments without spoiling it? Curse you, Baal! There's a moment where you fight a dragon on top of a mountain that is the coolest fucking thing I've ever gotten. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you do fight it. Yeah, that dragon fight is pretty kick-ass, yeah.

I apologize for the attempt at the best voiceover performance I've heard all year was from the guy who says, curse you, bail. I hear by vow you will rue this day. Behold a true Drake warrior. So fucking cool. Um, the game is filled with like really, really cool moments that do dope shit to the point

where I really do kind of wish that it was just released as a standalone. Cause I think it has a weird relationship with the main game and the baggage that like your character brings from the main game. I just, it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to make people go through a very esoteric process of accessing the DLC and kind of juggling through every, all the gear that you've already found when, I don't know, I feel like it would have been a better experience to have a standalone.

But as a game, it rules. I had a blast. I asked you that, Russ, because I genuinely, you know, as we got closer to this episode and, you know, it hit the VGA goatee nomination. Like I started to think about it and I feel like I can't remember that much about, I beat it, I played through all of it,

I did all the bosses, I explored the hell out of it and I feel like I don't remember a ton about it. And I don't know if maybe I rushed it, maybe if I rushed through playing it. I think it might be also a consequence of like, it melds with your memory of Elden Ring. And it can be- Well, I don't know, maybe, but I remember a lot about Elden Ring.

Of course, I did replay Elden Ring to get ready for this DLC. Yeah. I remember some of the bosses being very, very cool. For me, I feel like unfortunately, like the things that stick out of my memory are the things that I did not like about it. Well, we don't need to get into that.

No, yeah, I'm not saying I... Yeah, I'm not gonna... I don't like either of these, but you don't hear me going, no, I didn't play Crow Country. I might've liked it, I don't know. For those of you who have played, where are you leaning with these?

I would honestly go Crow Country. I have just so many, there's so many things that the Elden Ring DLC did that I wish they had done pretty differently. And these are two different things, completely different scale, different ideas, but I don't know, I feel like Crow Country hit more often than it missed.

As someone who played some of the Elden Ring DLC and also didn't play any of Cro Country, and also doesn't wanna say negative stuff, I would say that Cro Country should probably go on through. I'm cool with that. I loved Elden Ring, but I would agree. I don't think it did enough differently from the original Elden Ring to but I don't, but I would agree. I don't think it did enough differently from the original Elden Ring to justify

like a repeated presence. Like- Now Russ, if we're gonna start talking about negative stuff about it, you wanna open those doors, allow me, I got lots of stuff if you wanna- We're good, we're good. Let's keep going, let's keep rocking.

Congrats by the way to the readers for pushing Crow Country. Yeah, maybe before next episode, you guys could try Crow Country a little bit. Oh, that's a really good idea. I will play it, I will play it. Okay, next up we have two twos. We have Dragon's Dogma 2 and we have Helldivers 2.

Dragon's Dogma 2, what a game if you like living the D&D experience. And by living, I mean you like living the D&D experience. And by living, I mean you like to go to shops and not always have money for what you need. You like to go on a quest and actually have to walk every step of it. You wanna go adventure?

You can't right now, you're too tired. You just walked the whole way to be an adventurer. You gotta lay down. Take this horse cart, that'll get you there faster. Except while you're asleep steeping you were attacked Everybody you know in love was killed. It's fucking it's it's like you should have taken your horse just rode Why did you take a cart? It's like the Oregon Trail it very much is There's a lot of stuff that happens between leaving and getting rich. I

Love this game so much. I love how many memories I have of this game and how often I felt like a true hero in that I got by by the skin of my teeth quite literally, it was dark out. I thought that I had finally reached sanctuary after just the most brutal slog towards a glowing castle, and only when I got to the front of the castle did I realize, oh, it

was glowing because it's infested with skeletons. What a gift this game. I love it. It is going up against Helldivers 2, and I would love somebody else to honor this game, which I also liked a lot. I stand by this. They're gonna come out with a Dragon's Dogma 2 Dark Arisen. Like they're gonna, I pray to Christ they will come out with an enhanced version of this game. Or they'll make an Oregon Trail game. I actually want that now.

I'm actually like, when up you die again. Back to Boston. Helldivers 2, I can't think of a lot of big multiplayer zeitgeists that I got swept up in at least, and Helldivers 2 is probably the peak of that. It came out in February, right? Yeah, it was very early in the year. This was pretty early on.

I loved the original Helldivers. I didn't play a ton of it, but it was so madcap and so silly. It was like if Overcooked was a twin stick shooter. And when I found out that this was going to be like a over the shoulder third person shooter, I was like, I don't know how those ideas translate.

So much of it is like- I think we were both kind of bummed, right? Yeah, right. Because we had played a fair bit together in Austin and really got into the first one. That's true, yeah. The idea of like, I have this Gatling gun and I turn around in a circle

and I gotta dive under it every time. How is that gonna work in three dimension? Well, it does, because there's so many ways you could kill yourself and other people with Helldivers 2. And it is- It's so much funnier than the first game. It's so, so, so fucking funny.

I don't know why I bounced off. I guess I played it for a couple weeks, right? And with games like this, I have this unfair expectation of like, if it doesn't sink its teeth into me for two to three months like a destiny does, like it's maybe I didn't like it. I looked at my play clock for Helldivers 2. People talk about the fact that,

oh, Helldivers 2 was a moment, flash in the pan, whatever. I looked at my play clock. I had 75 hours played in Helldivers 2. Yeah, that's wild. I'm checking my own. You played metaphor ref 75 hours played in Helldivers 2. Yeah, that's wild. I'm checking my own. You played metaphor refuntasio in Helldivers 2. I love this. That rules. And it's just, because that experience of like, that 30 minute, however long a mission takes somewhere,

that loop, you know, point you were just talking about that like feeling of like surviving by the skin of your teeth, the entire game is designed around that same mentality and you're constantly doing that loop over and over again because you're fucking out of ammo and a giant fucking pterodactyl appears out of nowhere and you have to shoot it with a rocket launcher and it's your last shot before you die

and you do a crazy diving move. Like those experiences happen time and time and time again. And it was so great to get people together again. It felt like a throwback to like my college days when I was actually playing multiplayer on a regular basis. It was just such a delight. You mentioned the loop, and I think that that's actually one of the things

that I thought was really cool about this game is that you, for me at least for the amount I played it, I'd never really got the sense of the loop. It feels so dynamic that you're constantly sort of swinging. It never feels to me at least, it never got like mechanical. It always felt like the situation was always sort of spinning wildly out of control and you're just barely kind of keeping up with it.

But it always felt dynamic, you know what I mean? Like things were shifting so quick. The weapons that you have access to feel like such momentum shifters that it's very cool to have the ability in a game to know like, I'm gonna input one sequence and I'm gonna turn this entire thing around if we could just hold on for, you know, a few more seconds.

Yeah, it has that D&D feeling of like, if I can make this role, even though you're not making roles you're actually aiming, like I can be the hero of the moment, and if I don't, we're all fucked. Like we all do. Yeah, Fresh, you did a good job here with this matchup, because they both are kind of chasing similar things

in terms of creating a story that you are telling yourself. Yeah. I do think Helldivers 2 is much better at getting to that with more players and faster. Dragon's Dogma 2, I mean, yeah, we joke, but like, I wouldn't be surprised. You're right. There probably will be a better version of this game released in the next year or two. I would not be surprised at all if we got that. There will be a... OK. There might be a version of this game released, Dragon's Dogma 2,

that we would say is better to play. I guarantee there is this tiny sliver of Dragon's Dogma 2 perverts, excuse my language, who are getting exactamente, there is this tiny sliver of Dragon's Dogma 2 perverts, excuse my language, who are getting exactamante, what they want from Dragon's Dogma 2. And if you change a stitch of it, they're gonna go soft. Every single one of them, a guarantee. They're getting it exactly how they like it. Can I spoil where Dragon's Dogma 2 goes at the end?

Absolutely not. Don't you dare. I will play this game. They're gonna fix it. Like Griffin said, they're gonna fix it. Don't fix it, I'll play it. And I'm sorry to advance the nasty dog. He'll be left cold. Let's advance Helldivers 2 and get to the next one because this next one's gonna fucking suck.

Oh no. I don't know how this happened. This sucks. You just ran out of games. I can't believe I praised you. Okay, this is... go ahead. Bellatro versus metaphor refontasio. This fucking sucks. This is like this could be the final round. Two more similar games Like you can't really come up with Are there clowns in metaphor refontasio? Yeah, that's the closest I can think. You're there clowns in metaphor or re-phantasio?

Yeah. That's the closest I can think. You're the clown. I'll do metaphor or re-phantasio, you guys do. Oh God. Bellatrix. Yeah. Yeah.

Bellatrix, let me start with Bellatrix. Please. Okay, cause I've been playing Bellatrix again on my phone. Yeah. For no reason. I don't have any reason to play it. I've done the things I've done before in Bellatro. I'm doing them again on my phone.

Guys, I'm probably playing hands. I've done exactly four. I don't care. Bellatro is, in 20 years, we will have conversations about the best games of all time. Bellatro should be rushed into that conversation. Bellatro should be in the Smithsonian. Bellatro is a game where you play poker and you collect incredibly powerful

jokers and enchanted cards to play the devil's cosmos and you play poker so hard you're not even using cards anymore? And I'm not really joking. You go beyond cards at a certain point, but it is also a poker game that your grandpa could maybe get at first until it makes him insane from all the numbers that it has in it. It's the only poker game that'll make you worse at poker if the more you play poker, the more you get.

And I think that's the only way to get to the point where you can get to the point where you can't even grandpa could maybe get at first until it makes him insane from all the numbers that it has in it. It's the only poker game that'll make you worse at poker. If the more you play it, you get actively worse at poker. It'll make you better at poker until you start saying like, so five of a kind beats, no? Well, how many points is flush house? What do you mean I can't get a flush house? I am reminded of the conversation we had about Hades

when it first came out, which is what that game did great, is that it's fun instantly. And the first time you do the tutorial of Bellatro, and then it's like, okay, you know how to play now, so go for it. Do you wanna do this for a million years? Do you wanna do this forever and ever and ever? The answer then is yes.

And then also you keep unlocking shit. And everything you unlock, like you see these different avenues that you could take a run down. And then you get excited about like, oh shit, can you imagine if I ever got those two jokers in my hand at the same time? And then you do.

And then all of a sudden just Hulkamania runs wild. And you have these, there are these revelations that you have about how Bellatro works that are as much a like unlockable item as you would find in any search action game. And you'll have these realizations as you're playing. And it's like, for example, there is a card, this is gonna seem very obvious,

but I'm using an obvious example. There is a joker where clubs and spades are counted as the same suit and hearts and diamonds. So it basically reduces it to red and black. And you're like, well, wouldn't that make it too easy to get flushes? It's like, yeah, it does. So you should probably do that. And then the game, a little bit later is like oh by the way

If you play any flushes right now, I'm gonna fucking kill you But wait you told me flushes were like so easy remember it's like yeah I tricked you into just doing flushes and now you're sunk and you should have read ahead You should have read ahead Seeing what was happening because of course I was... And you forgot again, didn't you, that you can look at what the last blind is. You forgot again to check. Stupid. What's great about Bellatro is that it is the first time

there's been a game that other people, normies, can play, that explains why I love Binding of Isaac without making them having to learn Binding of Isaac. Yeah, that's a really good point, Russ. It is an onboarding for this genre in ways that no other roguelike has ever been able to accomplish. All right. Metaphor.

What do you think is better, Moby Dick or chess? You know, I think it's a good question, you know? This is the worst possible showdown. Lays bare the broadness of video games and how absolutely silly all of that is. The futility of exercise to spread before you. We have a game that is probably the best mechanical, if you made a fine machine game of the year, maybe of even more than that, as Hoops is getting to, versus a game that is about feelings and stories and characters and ideas.

Not to say it doesn't have mechanics, it does, and I think they're quite good. But what makes Metaphor Re-Fantasia special is the people you meet along the way, right? And I think that makes it damn near impossible to talk through. If we had any integrity, this is the exact point where we would retire the exercise. Like this is the exact point where we would, if we had any integrity as like creators,

we understand the dissonance, like we get it. Let me be clear. If we had any integrity, this is what we understand the dissonance, like we get it. If we had any integrity, this is what we would say like, we shouldn't do this, we should open up the vault door, walk outside, see the daylight. And we don't have the integrity. We won't do that. Yeah, that won't happen. But we're acknowledging the dissonance.

We're looking at it. Can I just lay out metaphor refuntos? Please. Just to make a case for it. I think Atlus has done this type of game a lot of times now, right? Like all the Persona games, I think some of the Shin Megami Tensei games, like this formula is something they've messed with a lot.

I feel like Metaphor Riffontazio is as close to nailing it as they have ever gotten I persona for Golden's probably my favorite game of all time other entries in this franchise are in my top 10 I think the way that metaphor refund Tazio allows you to you know customize your characters to the nth degree and build a party and Engage in combat in ways that feel meaningful to you. I think the stories that it tells with each of its characters,

I think the options that it gives you on how to spend your time, all of this stuff is literally firing on all cylinders better than they've ever, ever, ever done it before. And they do it in an original fantasy world that tackles really heavy real world concepts. And the story is also about that pretty explicitly. It is a game in conversation with itself,

which is a really annoying way to describe a game, I understand. But the fact that they were able to accomplish that much narratively in this enormous fucking framework is I think a staggering accomplishment. This was a year of RPGs for like, I can't believe how many great RPGs we got this year. And this was kind of the pinnacle for me.

I have trouble kind of like comparing it to Infinite Wealth, which is maybe not a super fair comparison because they are like about as diametrically opposed as two games in the same genre could be. I feel like there's some pacing issues with the game that hit pretty hard when you spend 80 hours with a thing. But I think that what this game does right is really, really fucking spectacular.

I think there are a number of people too who maybe have held off on this game because they know it's about democracy or racism or other complex issues and avoided it under the assumption that it would not handle those things well. And what really knocked me over with this game is that it does raise questions like,

hey, what is the point of a democracy? How can it be used? And it doesn't come away with like easy answers. A big part of the game is there's a setup of a book in the game, a novel that two of the main characters returned to again and again. And this idea of like, can fiction and can art improve or change the world? And it's so easy to imagine the most facile, annoying, you know, RPG ass conclusion from that. And the game resisted at every turn. And that's what will stick with me.

This is a game where I will remember every character. I will remember every town I visited, I will remember every beat of the story. The problem- It is also a game that I feel like will have its own Atlus side sequel, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 Royal, and that will probably fix some of the... There are parts of this game that feel like

they ran out of time and so they omitted like an entire dungeon. Like there's some pretty, there's some gaps that, and I adore this game, but there are some parts of it that made me very, very frustrated. So wait, Griffin, you're telling me that in this 80 hour game, there are parts where you're like, why all the rush? Honest to God, Justin. Slow down.

Fucking yeah, the midpoint of this game- This thing is hurtling out of control. At the midpoint of this game. This thing is hurtling out of control. At the midpoint of this game, I would stick with it for as long as it would have me. Absolutely. We always adjust the rules in situations like this. I think this would be a good situation

where we could pick a winner or whatever, but I really think both of these games are gonna be in the top five. It feels really, really weird to force a decision now and not say that for the top five thing. I also think the really challenging part for us as a group to like make that decision and it'll be easier when we're slotting it into the top five is. The dark side of this conversation is if you are not the type of person who can invest,

who invests yourself in this. So for me, like, Bellatro, I admire it. When I am playing it, I'm so locked into it. And then I feel just like almost gross afterwards because I, it feels like it literally is like a parasite that takes over my mind. I feel a loss lost control when I play that game. Are you saying you have Pac-Man fever? I'm saying, I have a case of Pac-Man fever. It's hard for me to do that. And I know the same thing goes probably for some of us

with Metaphor where it's like, this is a waste of my time. Yeah, so we can't do that. So Bellatro is better than Metaphor refunds Ozio, so we can't do that. So, Bellatro is better than metaphor refutasio, so it goes through. I mean, we're not gonna, we're not gonna send it through with a pat on the back because you guys like it. It's not as good as Bellatro.

That's not how this works. It's a system. We have a system of laws. I think the problem is the system would be a tie. But no, it's not. One of them, one of us didn't like it all, and we all like Bellatro. So Bellatro goes on through, right? I feel.

I'll even let Bellatro lose, but I'm not gonna send two games through, guys. Come on. Well, we've done that in bonus bracket episodes. We do carry stuff forward. We could drop. Not from 16 to five, guys. That's true, we've never done that.

That don't work, that don't work. I think that, the argument, here's the argument. My brain, and I think Hoops's brain to some extent, is not the proper shape and size to absorb a game in a fun way, like a metaphor via fantasio. To the same token, like I also struggled with Infinite Wealth, which is a game I think we all loved, but like didn't click with me in the way that everyone's here did. The question I think is, is the Basties game of the Year West the Basties game of the Year West?

Or is it, you know what I mean? Is there like a... A bigger, broader thing. Yeah, no, that's always the thing. I am fine with Bellatro... I'm fine with Bellatro moving forward and Metaphor not moving forward. I'm uncomfortable with Metaphor Riffontazio coming in 16th place or whatever. I don't think it deserves that, but it's also not my favorite game like this this year.

I give it five points. Can we make a, can we make a, like a concession here? The, if we get to the, and we still feel this way, then we can absolutely bump it up. I don't feel good about saying right now, it gets a stay of execution if it wants to come back

from Exile Island after it's been up, but it does have to die here. If we feel like the list is not where it should be, I think, yeah, that makes sense. We'll get down to four, and then there's always adding one more. If we feel like the list is not where it should be, I think, yeah, that makes sense. We will get down to four, and then there's always adding one more. So, here's what I'm saying is, there is a lot of really good games on this list,

and I am uncomfortable saying it is in the top five. Yeah. Right now. At this point. That's fine. That's fine. Because it isn't. That's the only reason, though. Other than that, there's no other reason. I think also, looking at my share play time at Bellatrix across the three platforms I have played it on now,

it's, yeah, like, yeah, let's do Bellatro too. I'm fine with that. That's a good fucking game, man. Okay. Bellatro, congratulations. All right, top eight, we got Astro Bot, we got Animal Well, we got UFO 50, Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, Steam World Heist 2, Crow Country, Helldivers 2, and Bellatro. Wow.

Heavy hitters. And we're gonna pit them all against each other next time. I can't wait. Let's try to play. I feel like I've spent a good amount of time with all these in the top eight. I probably need to go except Crow Country. Yeah, I need to try to play more.

I'm gonna try to spend some time. That is an audience selection that I can cop to, but it did get through, so I'm gonna give it a shot. We should revisit Helldivers 2 to see where it's at. I was also thinking that. That's actually a pretty fucking good idea too, Plank, because it was marred early on by a lot of technical hiccups for me. And the fact that there wasn't,

is there transportation now? I understand there's bikes. That's all I ever wanted is bikes. There are mechs. Mechs, fucking great, dude. What? Yeah, game of the year is easy Okay Okay, so we have our top eight. We're gonna be doing part two next week, which is very exciting

I'm pumped to narrow it down further to that end. I want to thank the patrons who have been with us through the year Thank you so much. We have a new bracket battles episode, which is live currently, but I want to thank these patrons We have killer and reis we have Kevin we have Matt and we have Holly Thanks y'all. We really appreciate you. You can go to patreon.com slash the besties And sign up if you haven't yet. We're a ton of great content. They're waiting for you And I think that's gonna do it. Yes, Justin had to leave to go pick up his kids because this episode is ungodly long.

So join us again next week for the besties because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties!