The Besties - The Besties Podcast X

Episode Date: April 27, 2012

This week on The Besties, we've promised to dethrone Journey as the Game of the Year, but will we actually deliver? Can Journey bring about world peace before the show ends? Also, we welcome world-renowned indie developer Jean Baptiste. It's a profound moment.This week on The Besties, we've promised to dethrone Journey as the Game of the Year, but will we actually deliver? Or can Journey bring about world peace before the show ends? Also, we welcome world-renowned indie developer Jean Baptiste into the studio, which we predict will be a ... divisive moment. 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!

I feel like we need something for the beginning of the show. We said a bunch of- I said so many things. I don't know. Like, before we started? I feel like we just counted it off and then started going. I said that thing where I was like, Oh! Everybody laughed? Hi, my name is Justin McElroy, and I know the best game of the week. Hi, I'm Griffin McElroy, and my game is pretty special.

Hi, I'm Chris Plant, and my game is from Korea. Hi, my name is Russ Rustick, and I know the best game of the week. Ladies and gentlemen, you're listening to the besties, and this is the besties. That was the smoothest intro we have ever done. Frustik didn't sing. Chris Plant didn't say something just really dumb about his game. Ten out of ten so far. Let's keep the streak alive.

10 out of 10 so far let's keep the streak alive nothing nothing says a smoothness like stopping to appreciate your own smoothness even that joke was really good it was appropriately timed i think we're off to a really good podcast today i hope nothing happens to upset it here on the besties we examine the games that released that week or maybe a little bit before that, and we pit them against each other in Mortal Kombat until one comes out supreme, and then we then pit that game against our current champion. Rest fresh, Dick. What is our champion still? Still. Our current champion is Journey because it allows people to communicate without using voice and work together, creating world peace. Right. But what is the caveat here? Oh, the caveat is, so Journey we picked about, what, a month and a half, two months ago?

A hundred years ago. A hundred years ago. And I'm sure people have noticed world peace has not arrived and we're all pretty upset about it uh this week journey's out whatever game is this it i think it has one more week no this is it okay fine whether or not whether or not uh this game is is a comparison journey whatsoever Journey has had its time to bring about world peace. Now, admittedly, it still has about a half hour while we record this show. So maybe.

Who knows? Let's get it together. Definitely Google world peace before we make that decision. We'll check in to make sure that it has not been attained. But for now, let's get into the pitches. Griffin, who's going first this week? This is going to be great. I am thinking of a number between one and four.

Four. Okay. Between one and four. Two. Jesus Christ, you guys. Get it together. I pick one. Justin picks one.

Plant has three. Fresh stick? One. Can't also pick one. What's not picked yet? Two and four. It's four things. How do you not keep track of that?

There's a lot of numbers. It's Justin Frustrate Plant Me. Okay. See what I did there? Yeah, I did. You just picked your own order. That was good. I'm all about self-sufficiency this week.

I want you guys to be able to feed teach amanda fish and so on go on when you teach amanda fish scampi by noon bar or linder b red sky at night scampi by noon poor richard out um we're gonna take a break from almanac hits right now to talk about The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead is the newest adventure by Telltale. It is an episodic game, and I reviewed it this week. I was not looking forward to this game. I thought Back to the Future was just okay, and I thought Jurassic Park was so bad I couldn't finish the first, like, 20 minutes.

I tried to play maybe eight times but uh Walking Dead is a really exciting uh adventure game I think is the the best sort of genre descriptor but uh a lot there's some of the traditional you know hunt and find looking for items and how they interact with each other but the real hook of this game is the branching narrative and how you are constantly being called on to make a decision that's going to completely alter the course of the story uh now some of it is big obvious decisions a lot of the time it's you can only save one of two people who is it going to be uh and and that is of course thrilling in the moment.

You're having to go off of gut instinct, basically, because it is a very quick decision. But that idea of a branching narrative even trickles down to conversations, where in a lot of games, especially adventure games, conversations are just sort of rote, going through the motions to get as much exposition and exposition as you can.

In this game, you have a secret. You're an escaped convict, basically, who is watching over a little girl that you found whose parents have gone missing. So how much you reveal about that to the people you encounter depends a lot on what you've told other people that you're with and how much you trust this person

to be able to keep your secret that you should probably be in prison. So it turns every conversation to sort of this really daunting dance between how much can I trust this person and how much do I need to keep to myself. And that intensity goes throughout the whole game. It's really thrilling. between like how much can i trust this person and how much do i need to keep to myself uh and that

intensity goes through throughout the whole game it's uh it's really thrilling uh so you're a quick question yeah in terms of branching narratives like are you so you're deciding like okay this guy dies and this guy lives i mean it is sort of like it is to the point where like yes there are instances where without like i'm i'm really hesitant to give anything away. But, like, there are instances where zombies attack. One guy is, you know, stuck up against a wall of zombies. And another person is being grabbed by zombies. And you literally choose in the moment.

And it is not a – it is an incredibly quick decision. I mean, it's like three seconds i'm just curious um are these choices going to extend to the future episodes like if you if x guy died in the first episode it's like is the other guy doing stuff in the other episodes completely to the point where just to give you an example uh i i was in gas station you know convenience store drugstore type thing no spoilers no spoilers well now i know there's a gas station well i i got it wrong it's a drugstore so there i was in a drugstore and i found some energy bars and it gave me the option as i I was talking to people, to give them an energy bar, right? So I thought, well, that's nice.

There are four people who need energy bars, and I have four energy bars, so I'll give everybody an energy bar. And then the little girl I'm looking out for, I gave her one, and then a few minutes later I'm talking to her and she said um she said something instead of i'm still really hungry do you have any more of those and i'm like oh i just i just doled him out to everybody and then when i finished the episode and i watch the trailer for the next episode there's a plot point where this girl tells me that she's starving and everyone is dying for food and it's just because i gave energy bars to everybody and that's like one little

thing in it uh that that that it it deals with so like yes the repercussions I mean even in the episode itself you know self-contained to this first one people I didn't let die would continue to be members of my party and what's cool is you can actually in the default ui um you are getting feedback on when one of these like little forks come so you can if you say something and somebody catches you in a lie you know it'll say herschel won't forget that and it'll say that on text like ah damn it now he, damn it. Now he's going to know I'm a liar and everything. But you can turn that off if you'd rather the story just kind of sort of play out as is. Denise is going to ask for more energy bars.

It will tell you. Denise loves energy bars. So basically what Justin is saying is it's not just anecdotal. You've got to get on GameFAQs before you kick this baby off. And you've got to look at the energy bar fact and just, like, read it over so you know how to distribute them. Don't even play the game. Just read the fact.

Just read the fact. You'll know everything. I know you're joking, but it actually raises a good point in that The Walking Dead, by nature, just, like, sort of the setting of, like, a zombie apocalypse, is so sort of desperate and dismal

that it doesn't really dwell on the idea of making the right decision in in in any scenario i mean like everything's still pretty much going to suck everything's bad all the time everything's bad all the time which is cool because it kind of liberates you from the idea of having to make the right choice you can just sort of let the narrative play out like you can let the story be what it is because it's not like you're gonna find a key that's going to kill all the zombies like that's not gonna happen is there is there an energy bar achievement though that's you you hoarded all the energy bars for yourself second episode comes around everybody's dead except for me but boy god do i have a lot of energy yeah your carbs are right your proteins

right you're feeling good no ketosis for you you're feeling awesome my moral compass would totally be determined by how many achievement points each decision that's honestly how i would decide luckily i played on pc so that it wasn't right but uh anyway that's walking dead it's super interesting and and probably the best thing telltale's ever done i guess wow yeah it's likely yeah absolutely it's it's the things that are doing are are really interesting and i have not seen any other games attempt them so fresh rustic i'm up hit it know it let's do it okay i'm bringing a game called spell sword to uh this week's podcast it's an ios game um i'd seen a trailer of it and the trailer sort of made me think it was a super crate box ripoff uh it's not there's a lot more going on um i wouldn't

necessarily say that it's better than super crate box they just sort of take the concept in a different angle um the way it's done is you know you're a guy with a sword, pixel-style graphics, and it's arena-style, like one screen, and cards are appearing as, like, tons of enemies are floating on the screen, and each card gives you a different ability for a very short amount of time, so like five seconds. So the idea is you, like, grab the fire card, use the fire sword to kill a bunch of people as you're running to the next card and you sort of leapfrog from card to card using those tactics um i realized that it still sounds

a lot like super crate box they added a bunch of elements like a currency system where you can buy buy upgrades um you could buy hats in-game hats which everyone seems to love there's also a whole campaign which super crate box never had where with like different challenges like you need to get 20 cards within 30 seconds or you need to kill like 50 blobby enemies before something happens so there's like more I guess you know super great box really just had that one mode and you just like play it forever it seems like there's a little more variety here uh and i really the great soundtrack like cool pixel-y uh 8-bit soundtrack and good art controls are like not pitch perfect but uh

pretty close and um yeah i really really dug it it's only a buck and it's a universal app and it's got game center achievements which i love did you say the sound has pixels no i meant 8-bit you know what i'm talking about 8-bit if this thing can make sound tangible and physical well i don't think pixels are physical to begin with we'll never get the answer now um done no that sounds good the only thing i'd be worried about is the touch I don't think pixels are physical to begin with. We'll never get the answer now. It's done. No, that sounds good. The only thing I'd be worried about is the touch controls, because even Super Crate Box on iPhone will screw up that every once in a while.

Yeah, I played on iPad, which gave me a bunch more screen real estate to mess around with. I haven't played it on iPhone yet. You need some knuckle room. But it wasn't screwing me over very often. And also, unlike Super Crate Box, there's room for error here. You can have hearts and you can collect health potions. So one hit isn't going to kill you. How do cards fit into the fiction?

Into the fiction? Yeah, like why are there cards in this place uh i don't know they're like magic cards like magic the gathering cards yeah it's it's a cross branding with magic the gathering they just don't say it but it's but you know i know i know on the inside that i'm i should be double tapping this uh wood swamp i've never played magic the gathering that's it you pretty much double tap swamps over and over again you know it's funny we give uh russ the hardest time on this show and i think we can all pretty much agree that he is the worst at pitching games yeah i'd agree with that i'm glad we're all in consensus but the truth is that whatever russ recommends a mobile game i'm

literally like it is all i can do to keep from picking my phone up that exact minute and downloading it because he's always right. My game this week is actually a mobile game that Russ suggested to me. I will literally, but you would do well to always get the mobile games that Russ says because he's always right about them. I am a seer of mobile games.

You're a kingmaker. Well, you play them too, I hope. This sounds good. I like, it's got progression, you say? Yep, progression, I hope. This sounds good. It's got progression, you say? Yep, progression. Hats. That's my jam.

I like that. You can make each of the cards more powerful if you spend money on them. So you can make the fireball card when you pick it up. Instead of shooting out five fireballs, it shoots out 30 and just demolishes the screen. Is that over time, though, or is that game to game? No, it's permanent. So if you spend the money, every game after that will have that upgrade. So definitely more self-contained than Super Crate Box, or less self-contained than Super Crate Box.

Right. Can you tell me, what are some of the best hats? There's a wizard hat, which is pretty cool. There's a Spartan hat. Ooh. And, yeah, there's a few other so each all the items in addition to like looking like hats uh also have passive upgrades like some will give you more health or some will increase the ice card by five points or stuff like that like hats in real life

some will look great like spring season yeah yeah if you're a winter i wouldn't recommend the wizard hat it will not go with your complexion yeah winter is becoming wow thank you jesus wow topical as ever in that hat topical humor hey we're obviously exhausted let's take a break uh from the the regular show um guys do you mind sorry i i need to grab a drink so i'm gonna step out for real quick go bev out this week we have such a treat for you uh we will welcome into the studio um here he's coming in right now mr jean baptiste uh independent game designer oh my god i know i know griffin's been looking forward to this for so long he's such a a big fan of Mr. Baptiste's work. I love his stuff. I love Tower Time, City Town.

City Town. All brilliant games. No one purchases, typically, or buys his games. That's by design. He rarely offers them for sale. He thinks it corrupts the art. But he's going to tell us about his newest game this week ladies and gentlemen please welcome the studio mr jean baptiste yes thank you hello hello griffin thank you for your uh support of my work ah thank you thank you for your art, it is not what I would call art as much as soul. Because my soul is dark. But I bring light into games. You've brought so much light. So I wanted to come. Thank you, Besties.

Oh, thank you. The honor is all ours. I wanted to come today to talk about something new that I have been working on. Wow. So Bessie is exclusive, right? I'm writing a news post right now. No one has heard about this game before except so I told my niece, but she will not tell. Okay.

Okay. Whenever you're ready. I'm going to tell you how I came to this game. I was in, where was I? Oh, yes. I was upstate in Iowa. I have family in Iowa, and I visited them in their farm. What town is this?

I do not know. The town is actually called Upstate. Oh, Upstate, Iowa. There was a corn there. Okay, so just one. So I'm in the farm, and I look at the fields, and I am thinking maybe this is a game. And then I realize, yes.

Okay. You were looking at the corn, and you realize that this is a game. Yes, but not the corn specifically. Okay. that this is a game yes but not the corn specifically okay what if there was a game where you could run around planting corn that is it okay so wait you would you would you would plant corn yes but also no just corn okay okay so you do you cultivate it or is it just the is it just the act of putting the seed in the ground and like the promise of tomorrow is that sort of well okay okay here here is this is a spoiler i do not know if i should share this with you guys

we'll cut we'll listen i can take it out in post. No one listens to this show. Okay. So you plant the corn, and then once the corn is planted, it does not grow. Oh, man. So you must journey out of your farm with a pickaxe and mine for other things. Okay. So,

okay. But there's a few. There also is a sheep that you can mine and a zombie. Alright, so, uh, here's the thing. And a boat. John, I love, I just love your stuff to death, and you know that.

Yes. This is not the first time Where the core concepts The conceits Behind your game Are taken directly From another game What are you talking about Griffin

Griffin you have always supported me Why would you say this I will continue to support you no matter what because you take it and you put your own spin on it it's like uh it's like how 50 shades of gray is basically like twilight but it's been rewritten exactly with some of the same brushstrokes but more bdsm erotica so what you have done here yuck what you've done here is you've mind you've taken the minecraft but you put you've put in yeah there's impotent corn in it let me ask you a few questions about your game is that is that okay yes

yes questions do you mine uh coal in the hills it is called black rocks okay okay but um do you uh do you use that to start fires and smelt metals? Ouchie yellow. Okay, ouchie yellow. What is that? That's the fire. And then you do, so is there some sort of energy system? Are there red stones that you use to power? No.

That would come in alpha version 4.6. Oh, so you're doing like a layered alpha release. Yes. Okay, great. Hey, tell me, John, can you just tell me just real quick, are you wearing any kind of hat right now? Yes. real quick. Are you wearing any kind of hat right now?

Yes. I think it's called a pork hat. It's a pork hat. It's not a fedora. A pork hat. Pork hat. So you're saying right now you're sporting the chapeau

uh most made famous by jughead on the archies that's what you're wearing right now i do not know jughead are you talking are you talking about a pork pie hat maybe no yes so that's what's different from your game and notch's minecraft is that notch wears a fedora and you wear a pork pie do i is that the main difference between these two games but also the title what is your title what is your title my game is called my craft because i made it okay out of the thank you john baptiste thank you so much for joining us but no thank you we really appreciate your time if you're in germany okay it is called minecraft okay okay you're out thank you so much for joining us what an honor what an honor to have you in studio thank you Thank you for the years.

Just send Russ back in, please, if you see him out there in the hallway. Thanks so much. Hey, guys. Hey, Russ. How did the interview go? Oh, God, you missed it. I just saw him in the hallway. Yeah, we filled this room with artistic expression.

What type of hat was he wearing, Russ? It looked like a – what is the hat the jughead wears griffin who's pitching their game now uh it is now chris plant's turn okay uh i i have a game called teleporter oh actually wait the full title is azt teleporter HD. It's an iOS game from HighMind, a Korean developer. And in this game, you play as a teleporter and also the power of necromancy. And you combine those powers, going around an environment and killing all of humankind. And that's pretty much the entire game. Sounds a little grim there, Chris Plant.

It's kind of dark. It's really cute. Like, your characters are these little pixel guys, and then you teleport behind innocent people. They don't have weapons. And then you murder them. And then from the pile of blood that remains, you raise these, like, machine humanoids. And then they go out and they kill everyone else.

Jesus Christ. Yeah. I'm just bummed listening to him. I know. I can't imagine. See, I knew that you guys were going to be a little bummed out by this. So what I did is I went to the teleporter download page on iTunes.apple.com, and I found a poem that is actually written into their product description.

It is called Checkmark Crash Problem. called Checkmark Crash Problem. AZT is designed to be played at iPhone 4 or better devices. If you are having some kind of crash problem, first free all your other applications. Then turn off your device once if you still face crash write down your device send it to our twitter please wow that's a ee cummings was that in iambic pentabiter uh yeah i believe that is trochaic oh is it trocha Yeah. And what is the name of this game again, in case people want to avoid it?

It is AZT colon teleporter HD. What does AZT mean? Yeah, that's... I knew you would ask that question. And the answer... Most famously, it is the shortened version of acetothemide, which is, of course, hiv medication frequently referenced in rent the musical so azte break azte break me me me i thought it was the arizona tucson

no incorrect chris point you were on a plane for six hours this week yeah i i played well okay so i wanted to bring this game called zagas 33 or zaga 33 it's it's like a net hack and it's really good except you can't go to the top right of the screen so if you get a randomized dungeon with a door at the top right you can't leave so then i was like i need to find another game it's been a really bad ios week for me yeah yeah it's it sounds like it and i just thanks for just bringing all that in here there's a game also by developer high mind uh called a kiss when boss is not watching and the title screen is a a and woman, and they're kissing. There's hearts. It says bonus kiss on the screen.

And there's a very troubled-looking older man in the back. He's looking at you, Kiss. He looks very upset. And he has one hair that is pointing crooked and erect. And it just says kiss her while boss is not watching. Now, this game, it is rated 17+. There is some sort of mechanic where a lady is in a bikini and you have to rub her hair to please her and then you can shake the device to see her bust animation but you have to be at heart level six uh chris i hate to be strict with you uh because i

i don't have any power unless the other two guys agree. But I'm pretty sure I have to sentence you to bringing this game for next week's besties. I think next week you have to pitch us on Sneak a Kiss while you're at Boston. I can only bring High Mind Games. Yeah. Next week, another selection of High Mind Games. I would prefer Sneak a Kiss. What is the name again, Griffin? A Kiss When Boss Is Not Watching.

Let's not count it out before that bad boy goes live because it does have a unique poker slot machine with kiss system and mission system. Oh, okay. Nice. Sounds like Jetpack Joyride. Customize your girl. Three faces, 14 hairstyles, 28 clothes, 22 accessories. Really hot costumes available.

That doesn't sound good uh who's last up it's me but like this is the week where we have to dethrone journey right there's a one in four chance that it's gonna be a kiss when boss is not watch or or be a kiss when boss is not watch or or teleporter teleportation it could be aids medicine zombie attack uh but i think we all know it won't be we don't we don't do this randomly here there's a lot of expert expert analysis uh griffin my game this week is also an ios game is that okay sure it's been it's been still america my game this week is called Polymer. It was made by one Whitaker Trebella, which is a fun name. It is sort of similar to the old puzzle game Pipe Dreams, if anybody remembers that. I do.

Only instead of sort of taking these pieces of pipe, you have a grid of blocks that fall down when you clear them and each block has a piece of basically like a tube on it and so there's corner pieces that turn in different directions there's end pieces there's straight pieces there's square pieces that you can connect and you try to you slide these around sort of like you slide a Rubik's Cube. You can move a column or a row to put these pieces together into pleasing multicolored shapes that you then clear by touching a complete shape. And the shape has to have all of its ends joined. So there can't be any, sort of like in in pipe dreams you couldn't have just like a loose

pipe that went to nowhere um and it's a really neat puzzle game the the sliding mechanic adds a whole lot to it and it's it's got really really great production values um let me play some of the just listen to the music and just like i'm just gonna play this gently under just playing it's just sometimes you need to be soothed by your games and not many i don't think that oops oh no um no it is really good and it's got a bunch of unlocks like so so so many unlocks that you get for uh getting high scores and and earning you can unlock new blocks and new color schemes. It's a very visually appealing game, and it's only a buck. Well, that sounds pretty neat.

It's hard. I think it's so hard to pitch puzzle games in this format without seeing it because it's so hard to comprehend just from spoken word. But I would take your word for it. Another fun thing is that whenever you make a really long shape, there's one mode where you have infinite time. You just have to try to make the longest shape that you possibly can. And when you do it, you can tweet your shape.

Oh, that's fun. Hey, everybody, hey, look at this shape that I made. Wait one second, Griffin. You know what I just want to say? Yeah. Is that you thought this game was going to be kind of boring. I knew you were going to bring that out against me, you bastard. Griffin, it turns out, judges games simply based on their trailers

and thought this game was going to be kind of boring. What do you have to say about that, Griffin? I think that there are people who are listening to this podcast and listening to that thing, all that bullshit I just said said and they probably thought this is going to be kind of boring so i think my tale of redemption is inspiration it's inspirational it's like remember the titans basically it's basically my story is basically tantamount to remember the titans so guys what's the best game this week probably walking dead yeah probably walking dead walking dead yeah i wouldn't argue yeah okay well uh we gotta go we gotta we gotta put up some fight don't people kind of expect it

i guess but like what what okay so chris's game is bad right chris's game is out wow uh chris is surprised our directness, yet not arguing the veracity of our claims. I think it's clear that Walking Dead would definitely be in competition. I think it's really whether Polymer or Spellsword goes up against Walking Dead.

Can I make one argument for Polymer? Yes. Wow. No. No. Okay. Polymer versus Walking Dead. for polymer yes wow no no okay polymer versus walking dead can you just is there any way that you can like load up the walking dead soundtrack and we can it would probably it would just be like get the hammer headshot headshot i'm so high peace papa can i please have an energy bar okay congratulations to walking dead our game of the week and by default well wait wait wait Please, Papa, can I please have an energy bar? Okay. Congratulations to Walking Dead. Our game of the week.

And by default. Wait, wait, wait. Can you? Guys, I just Googled world peace. Oh, God. No, just here is the first result. Lakers world peace says he didn't expect seven game suspension. Seven games, seven days.

I believe that's in reference to premium basketball or meta world peace. Do we have a consensus? Can we agree? Can you at least put a little bit of effort into it? I feel lousy. Just like this honor has to mean something. We can't just throw it at walking dead like a wet pile of laundry it does mean something because walking dead is a revolutionary uh incredibly

intense uh are you reading the back of the box no i'm telling you it's unprecedented the the the the way that the narrative branch is here would you describe it as visceral i would not that that i think that a lot of the war that the energy of that word has been depleted what about viscous no absolutely not i'm sure all the games sound neat but this i'm sure they're all very enjoyable but this is a game that really changed things i mean it really presented a a narrative in a way that i've never seen it presented in a video game before um and it's hugely exciting that's great that and that's seriously you're doing a great job but uh the last time we gave this honor out to a game it was because it could change the world forever the entire world not just the people who play

it could change the world forever the entire world not just the people who play adventure games so right but this time it's because that game didn't do it sure but you gotta can i can i throw out a a possible rule adjustment to the besties okay what's that this is what i'm thinking maybe we could have like throughout the month like each month gets like the game of the year pick for that month. And then at the end of the year, we could battle all the months together. Okay. This is definitely the kind of conversation we should have as we're recording.

It's thrilling. It's thrilling to watch rules emerge. All right. Game of the day. And then at the end of the week, we have the seven right and then we take the four weeks at the end of the month and then 12 months at the end of the year but each every other tuesday has its own game as well we do a decade off

this idea leap year we have more games let's let's let's come at this in the same way we came a journey is the walking dead if the zombie outbreaks happens more than more than one um if if it happens it's gonna prepare you is it gonna instill you with the the kind of fast decision making skills and survival instincts that you will need when say like your your wife and your son are both about to get zombied you can only save one which one do you go with it's gonna prepare you for that sort of split second decision making and it's gonna harden your heart yeah to those repercussions that's the important so like in this in this situation you know that with the wife, you can make more suns. But the sun will eat less energy bars than the wife will. So you can keep more of your energy bars.

You got to have an energy bar per sun, like, ratio in the back of your mind at all times. And the only way you're going to learn to do that is if you are fully engrossed in the world of the Walking Dead interactive video game. So to extrapolate what you guys are saying, this will allow humanity to survive beyond the zombie apocalypse thanks to Walking Dead. Exactly. That doesn't sound like the game you pitched. Okay, but I pitched the first episode. Most of the lessons come later. But it sounds like what you pitched is a sociopath-making machine.

The way you described it was, here is a game that is going to tell you that it's going to suck no matter what, so you can make horrible decisions involving your wife and children, and you can just kind of go with it because they're going to die anyway. When the shit hits the proverbial fan i'm clinging to the sociopaths and and and i need to understand how their mind works or or else my family is not gonna make it so you will say it is a sociopath making machine we all need to be sociopaths to do some things we're not proud of if we're gonna survive this thing when the aliens land 300 years

after the zombie apocalypse hits and there's humans still walking around they would be like how are there humans walking around i thought zombies came here and the humans are gonna be like nope played walking dead yeah check it another scenario you commit a petty crime and you go to jail and you get out of jail and you're at a party with a bunch of people that you don't really know very well and you're introducing yourself to them and talking to them and you have to figure out how to lie about the fact that you were in jail. Right. The walking dead will instruct you on how to do all of these things.

All those things. So congratulations to our brand new game of the year. Walking dead. I'm still not sold on it, but I'm so journey came out in 1996. Like we got to move on. We got to move on with our lives. Maybe when there's like a reissue of journey,

when they put it on a disc finally, like a big boy game, we can talk about it again. But right now, I'm going to hand that honor over to Walking Dead. Thank you guys so much for listening to our show. You can follow us at Polygon on Twitter. We now

have a Tumblr at polygon.com.tumblr.com which is a lot of fun to say. You can also read all of our stories. We're at theverge.com forward slash gaming as we build our brand new web empire. Thank you so much for listening to our show. Make sure to join us again on Friday for the besties

because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? besties