The Ringer-Verse - Our Most Anticipated Video Games of 2025 | Button Mash

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Ben, Jessica Clemons, and Matt James press reset on the gaming calendar and place hype-thetical preorders for the most intriguing releases of the coming year. First they look back at last year’s most anticipated titles to examine how predictable good games actually are. Then they discuss this year’s two biggest tentpoles, ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ and Nintendo’s Switch successor, assessing their excitement for each and the odds of ‘GTA VI’ avoiding a delay (8:30). After that, they preview a stacked February (40:00), select their most anticipated games of 2025 in several categories (29:30), and wrap up with big-picture predictions (1:16:20). Host: Ben Lindbergh Guests: Jessica Clemons and Matt James Producer: Devon Renaldo Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more, restrictions apply, services not available in all areas. And welcome into the ringerverse, your nexus feed for all things fandom. I'm Ben Minberg, senior editor for The Ringer and Button MASH host, welcoming you to yet another year of video game coverage on the Ringerverse. With me is the woman who was by my side when this show got off the ground, the great, Jessica Clemens. The Great and late.

Yeah, it's been too long. Lovely to have you back. Thank you. I resurrected just for this game in podcast because I have so many anticipated games for 2025. It's too much. Me too.

Happy to hear that. We will talk about that. Also here is the Path of Exile Addict himself. Deputy Art Lead for the Ringer, Matt, James, Matt, have the holidays deepened your addiction or has it started to subside?

Same as it always was, Ben. Man, Path of Exile, too. It's good. You got to kick that habit to make room. for this year's new habits. Though I guess Path of Exile is still technically in early access, right?

So it can be a 2025 and a 2024 release. Today is about hype and hope and positivity and maybe also some skepticism, but mostly sunny thoughts, because this is our annual rundown of our most anticipated games of the year. We did this last year. We're doing it now.

That means it's officially an annual tradition. Twice makes a tradition. And just like last year, we're going to go through several categories and pick the games that each of us is most looking forward to, along with plenty of honorable mentions and speculations and predictions. But before we look forward, I figured we could look back briefly at last year's pod, just to see how predictive this exercise actually is.

Because the video game industry notoriously secretive and unpredictable, we did our best. Last year, it was me, Matt, Justin Charity. Matt, how do you think we did when we tackled this task last time? Pretty good. I actually just reviewed it, so I'm cheating. I think we did pretty well. I think, you know, we were trying to determine which would have a lower metacritic score between skull and bones and suicide squad. I remember we were struggling mightily. And upon investigating it today, one of them was at a 59 and one of them was at a 60. Too close to call. I was going to say, photo finish. I think we did decently, at least six of our eventual joint top 10 that we published at the end of the year on The Ringer.com. What a great website. We're mentioned, at least, on last year's what we're looking forward to episode. I think only three were technically picks that we made, games that we selected that we were super excited about. And there were some notable omissions. Bellatro, not mentioned. Hell Divers 2, I believe, not mentioned. Astrobot wasn't mentioned because it hadn't even been announced.

Yes, right. So you can't blame us for that, I guess. But that just goes to show that there's only so much we can predict. Jess, you weren't with us on that one. But did you feel like you were taken by surprise by a lot of last year's big games? Or did you feel like you sort of saw them coming? I think I sort of saw them coming. But I do remember that I was on a podcast with you in charity where I said my most

anticipated game was going to be Marvel rivals. And guess what? Guess what everyone's playing right now? Guess what everyone loves right now? Yeah, you nailed it. It's not Concord. So it is not Concord. Okay, so you see it all coming then.

You're the soothsayer, you're prescient. So whatever you say, we can take as gospel here. I feel like every year, there are a few games you can almost take to the bank. Like last year, Final Fantasy 7 rebirth, that game had a release date earlier in the year. Given the track record, the ambition, it seemed like it was a virtual lock for game of the year list. and it did end up on them. And then maybe there are a few cases where you can sort of see a stinker coming

like Suicide Squads last year. Everything else, though, we either don't know enough or don't know anything because it hasn't even been announced yet, especially because so many of the pleasant surprises in gaming these days are indie games or maybe Steam sensations

that one person maids toiling in obscurity for several years. These games don't have huge marketing budgets. And then all of a sudden they drop and people are streaming about them and there's word of mouth and there's influencers and suddenly it's absolutely everywhere, this game that you had never heard of a week earlier. So that makes it surprising and fun, I think, but also sort of intimidating to look forward because we just know that we're going to be missing a lot.

And I don't think this would happen as much in other media, right? Like, video games, it just feels so much less predictable. Like, Astrobot was our game of the year and many people's games of the year. And I don't think it would ever happen really in movies, let's say, that your best picture winner just wasn't even announced. Like, no one knew that it existed before the year in which it came out started, right? That doesn't really happen. We just get more stealth drops for better or worse.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's not very common for someone to make a movie on. their own in their bedroom and have it be good. Yeah, or have it be super high profile and played by millions. It reminds me of it's like we're characters in some PS1 or N64 era 3D game with a really crappy draw distance. So you just can't see that far in front of you.

We're running around the levels loading as we go. The scenery is popping up right in front of us or popping in. Boom, a building just appeared. Well, where did that tree come from? It's kind of like that with video games where maybe your favorite game of the year is just something that you had no idea was coming out this year at all, let alone that it would be great. We're in the Silent Hill fog. We can't see in front of this. Yeah.

What was the biggest surprise of last year for you, Jess, if anything, since you saw it all coming, of course. Oh, okay. Now I think we're, let's not ride this wave. No, I do think we've been talking about it enough already, but I do think it is AstroBod. I was not expecting at all what we were expecting. I think I was just genuinely when I heard about it, and we got the game codes to play it. I was like, oh, yeah, it's just going to be another, like,

kind of little Mario game. And then I was obsessed with it more than I have been with any other Mario game in my life. And it was also much longer for me to play. But I was just, like, so enamored with it. It was beautiful, but it was also really fun. And I casually could play it all the time with anyone watching. I was obsessed with it.

I didn't think it was because of how game of the year, works, I was not confident it was going to win. I was like, oh, I love it. I don't think everyone else loves it. We all just adore it. There's other games that are really, really trying really hard to win, so I don't think they're going to win. And then when it won, I was like, I'm not surprised, but I am surprised by everyone's anger. Yeah. People will be angry, no matter what wins. That at least we can predict with some confidence. Game of the year, yeah, that's always going to, it's such a mess. It's such a mess. Well, I can't wait to find out what this year. Astrobot will be, we will not be able to predict it, or maybe we will. We'll drop some predictions

here, but let's start by discussing the two elephants in the room. The things that we think we can count on, maybe, although one of these, we're not entirely sure we can count on. Grand Theft Auto 6 and Switch 2. When we look back, will this year be defined by this game and this system? I don't know. But for now, they're the headliners, so we will not bury the lead. Let's start with GTA6. On a November earnings call, Take 2's president confirms that the game was still on track for fall 2025. Now people are clinging to a LinkedIn post from this week, where in a Rockstar recruiter teased that 2025 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting years ahead here at Rockstar, accompanied by a GTA6 graphic that said, coming 2025. So we're clutching at straws here. We're reading tea leaves.

we're trying to divine things based on phases of the moon that could coincide with when a trailer will drop or not. So there are some indications that this thing is still actually coming out this year. On the other hand, it's been 13 months since the trailer dropped, and we haven't heard or seen anything else since then. Will it actually come out in 2025? Can it possibly live up to expectations? These questions are kind of related.

Jess, what do you think? I think it can live up to expectations. I think people are giving it a lot of crap right now, but I think it can if we just all collectively stop giving it shit. We all stop collectively giving it shit. I think people have a lot of weird takes on it already, and those takes are just so weird. It doesn't, it does not matter.

But I don't think it's going to come out in 2025. I don't care what that man on LinkedIn said. Also, why are we using LinkedIn like Facebook? Why are we using that to source things like this? I don't know. It's not coming out in 2020, 25. Is it in my bracket thing? Yes, it is, but it's not coming out in 2025.

There's no way that game is coming out. You're asking great questions. Why are we using LinkedIn at all? Hey, people are finding love on LinkedIn these days. It's a dating app. It's the everything app. You know what? I don't know.

I don't understand it. I'm not there, but I like looking in on it from time to time to try to understand. If it works for you, then congrats. I'm so happy. There's not a single job in my life I've gone through that app. So I'm not using LinkedIn for anything in my life. It's where I get my gaming news. What is actually coming out this year?

Let's check LinkedIn posts by company recruiters. Matt, are you similarly pessimistic? I really don't know. I really don't know. But I can say that I feel like I'm not as hype for GTA 6 as most people seem to be. I'll happily play it when it comes out. I'll probably enjoy it. But I kind of have this standpoint right now that I don't think that GTA has

room for a ton of innovation. I think it kind of is what it is. And the best we can hope for is that it's the best version of kind of the same thing that we've gotten. I think if it really succeeds, it's because of an excellent story well told, which is definitely something that, you know, rock star is capable of. We know that. But as far as like playing the video game and being excited for playing the video game. It's not really even in my top five most anticipated games, which I don't know if I, am I weird? Is that weird to like happily want to play it?

But I'm honestly, like I've played every GTA since the first one. And I don't know, man. I think that's normal. I think there's a lot of people that aren't like as excited. It's such a weird congregation that is really for, I just have played GTA since I was a child. And I know, I'm not expecting anything to be completely different except for in just location and being like, oh, this does look like Florida. And those are just what I'm personally excited for is to be as violent as I possibly can in Florida. Yeah, look, it's probably

the most anticipated game of all time. So is it weird not to be hyped for it, I guess, by that standard. But I don't blame you if it's not a personal favorite or if you feel like what could they do to blow my mind at this point because that's sort of the question I ask. Can they actually live up to this hype? What would that even mean if this is the most hype's game of all time coming on the heels of one of the most successful games of all time? And GTA 5, the single player, the campaign, was a mild disappointment for me compared to some of its predecessors. And in a way, it feels like a long time ago to me because I played it the second it came out and I beat it And then I moved on. And that is not the experience of most people, because this thing has come out on

three generations of consoles. It's constantly coming out in new forms and prettier forms and slightly broken but later fixed forms. And of course, the main innovation of GTA5 wasn't really GTA5 single player. It was GTA online, which is still a living, breathing, thriving entity. So I am very curious about what GTA6 will mean for GTA online. How does it integrate that? Do they close down a world and start a new one. There's so much we don't know about the mechanics of that. And I'm interested in seeing how they will try to top themselves. I don't know how they will do that, a slightly more sensitive rock star approach to storytelling, whatever that means by rock star standards. I don't know what it'll look like. Is it just bigger? Is it just prettier? Will that suffice?

Will that satisfy us after this incredibly long weight and hype cycle? I don't know. It feels like they need to raise the bar somehow. And I don't know exactly how they do that, but hopefully they figure it out. They've done it before. They've certainly had plenty of time to plan and make sure this thing is good. But it's because of all that pressure that you think, well, maybe it just won't come out this year, right? Because we're used to some slippage and some delays. And there have been behind the scenes delays before the thing was even announced. But even so, it's just what's the incentive to not rush it, but release it at all before it's fully perfect or as close to perfect as it's going to be. Because whenever it comes out, it will be the video game blockbuster to end all blockbusters.

We're not going to just sour on it at some point and say, oh, it took too long. Now I'm not going to get it. So they can take their time and we don't have to like it, but we will lap it up whenever it arrives. I'm probably looking forward to just the historical nature of GTA6. The biggest video game ever to come out coming out is excited. that's probably what I'm most excited for, I guess. Me too. It's like the event more so than the game, I think. It's strange to say, I wouldn't normally say this, but I'm almost looking forward to the discourse about GTA6 more than the

game experience itself, as toxic as it'll probably be in any number of ways. Just the fact that it'll be the monocultural event. Everyone will be playing it. Everyone will have thoughts on it. We will certainly have thoughts on it here at Buttmash. We'll just have a lot to talk about. Whether we are disappointed, whether we love it, it will just dominate the discourse for a while. And that might actually be fun for a change. We'll see. Maybe that's a little too optimistic. But again, it speaks to just the unique nature of this medium that we're here in the year when it's supposed to come out. And we're like, I don't know. I don't really think it's going to happen. Because every kind of media is subject to delays. But outside of a strike or a pandemic,

it's hard for me to imagine a scenario where we would enter a year as uncertain of the status of the biggest movie or biggest TV show of that year as we are of the biggest video game of the year. Part 2 of Wicked, for instance, is due out in November. I'm pretty confident that that will come out. For one thing, it's already shot. It's been in post-production since last year. At this point, I'm more confident that Avatar 3 will come out this year than I am the GTA will. And that movie's been delayed like nine times. So it's just the nature of video games. When a big blockbuster movie gets delayed,

it tends to happen further from release. With video games, you just never really know. And Bloomberg's Jason Shrier, who's as well-sourced as any reporter, said last week that he expects it to slip to next year. So I certainly would not be surprised if it does. It feels almost inevitable. But I am holding out hope. And there's just so much at stake here,

which might be a reason that it gets delayed, but just in terms of like financial planning and what is going to do to your stock price and what all the analysts are expecting, like it's sort of a seismic thing when it does eventually get delayed if it does, even if that's sort of baked in and priced in to some extent, not to mention all the other games that are just waiting in the wings,

all the other publishers who are like, is this thing going to come out? Like a lot of people are waiting to see whether this game will come out so that they can schedule their own unveilings and release dates. It's like the entire industry is sort of just treading water until we find out which way GTA6 is going to go.

Surely there's a Horizon game that can release exactly on the day that GTA6 comes out, right? Yes, exactly. The planners at Sony are just waiting for the GTA6 release date to drop so that they can schedule Horizon one week before or after it. It actually is going to be fascinating to see release schedules around GTA6. We might have like a historic, like, just lack of. any other game releasing within, you know, weeks of this thing, which is, it's sort of like

the tide retreating before a tsunami, you know? Yeah, or just a total news blackout as we just all wait for that huge domino to fall and then all the others to follow it. So we will see. We will certainly cover it greatly, deeply, broadly, extensively. We will talk about the trailer whenever we get another one, and we will devote probably multiple episodes to the actual game whenever we get our hints on it. We'll find out when that will be. Now, Switch 2, we can be more confident that that will actually come out this year. The fact that this thing still has not been officially unveiled is getting a little ridiculous at this point,

given that there are new leaks on a daily basis. It feels like at this point, I'm imagining just like we're going to have people hands-on, like, live-streaming this thing with the full launch lineup before Nintendo officially announces what it's called and what it's coming and what it looks like. I don't know whether this is part of their plan and they don't care and they think this is building up hype or whether they're mad and they're considering suing countless people or what. But this rollout is quite unusual just in the window that we're getting into the system before it's officially unveiled.

So I don't know how much longer this is sustainable that they can wait because it feels like the thunder is going to be stolen. It's so weird to see Nintendo just like kind of sit there and take it while all of these like third party accessory manufacturers that they let in on, you know, the secret just like spill leaks on Main Street when Nintendo is known as like the most litigious entity in gaming. And you just have random accessory makers being like, oh yeah, here's the switch to joycons and they're just like twiddling their thumbs. Like, that's rude for you to leak our system. Meanwhile, like someone has like a Pokemon mod that they're making in their bedroom

and they're getting knocks on the door from Big Nintendo. Like, what is, this must be like something that they're okay with. Maybe this is a Nintendo strategy to like slowly leak the idea like, hey, it's just going to be a new slightly improved. switch, like let everyone down. Let's get those expectations of a new innovative thing, like slowly eroding by letting these third-party manufacturers grab some attention. I don't know.

Yeah. I wonder if that is part of it, that they're sort of seeding the ground. They're lowering the expectations that this is going to be some totally new, wild gimmick that we've never seen before. because with each grainy pick of joycons that are magnetically attached or motherboards or whatever it is, it just seems like it's a bigger, better switch, more or less, which is cool, but not super exciting. Just is your hype level rising or sinking with each little look we get at this thing? The thing is, if you have the first switch, you need this one, because your first switch is probably making a lot of noise and you need it regardless.

I got the second round of switches, and it fell for maybe half a foot off the ground and cracked the joystick. I'm excited for it only because I'm like, I wanted to buff out the areas where they messed up on the second one. I understand that mine fell, but I was like, it feels like it was very easily to damage this one. And I don't think they're going to come back with another one that's going to be as easily damageable. So I'm excited for it for probably the wrong reasons, which is like I just need a better, more stronger, durable switch. I don't care. I saw the leak that was like, we're going to make a mouse so you can play a first-person shooter on this.

And I was like, that's cool. I just need a joystick that won't break immediately once it falls 30 inches from the floor. The new indestructible switch coming in 2025. I know it sounds ridiculous because people, when I told my mom, she was just like, well, yeah, it fell. Like, that's what happens. If your phone falls, screen cracks. I was like, no, no, no, no. You don't understand how much I paid for this.

It shouldn't be able to do this immediately. It's just the one joystick. And I went, okay, I got it fixed, and then it broke again. And then I was like, this seems too easily damageable. And I just don't like the body of the first one and this one. So whatever this new one is, I'm going to get because I just need a more, I have to believe that it's going to be more durable. So my reasoning is not actually valid.

It's like, I'm injury prone for this shit. The unobtainium, titanium, adamantium model. It could be the binaurneum joysticks. But also, if they do make that mouse, that is kind of cool. I saw that leak that's not real at all. Actually, it might be. It might be. It might be. I shouldn't say that.

I'm waking up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. But it was kind of cool to see them protect, like, oh, look at the joy. Like, watch me use it as a mouse. I was like, that's kind of sick. I was like, that's kind of sick. A lot of the leaks look pretty credible, which I guess the silver lining or the upside here is, well, maybe they're putting enough of these things into production that they won't be back and back ordered, and we won't have supply chain issues.

And maybe that's why there are so many leaks that they're actually ensuring that they're enough or close to enough to go around when the thing actually launches. That would be nice. But I just don't know what to make of it because you expect something completely out of the box from Nintendo. But this feels like a time when they have a lot of incentive to play it safe. And maybe that's what they're doing, at least by Nintendo standards. And look, I'll get it.

I'm there for a bigger. better, faster, upscaled switch. But it just feels like more of the same, which, again, from Nintendo's perspective, more of the same. This is an immensely successful system. This is one of the best selling systems of all time. So they would want more of the same. But I guess for me at this point, and we'll see whether they're actually holding back some

gimmick or some unique twist on things that will actually give it that special Nintendo flavor. But for now, I'm not as excited for the hardware as I am for the. games, which is what a Nintendo system is all about when it comes right down to it. But I just want first-party Nintendo games that are not chugging and having a really hard time frame rate-wise giving me games that look like they're 10 years old. That's basically what I want and I'll be more or less happy. And we know it's backwards compatible.

And if you just give me a switch to, then I'll get it. But the market has changed in the past several years. And that's why I wonder whether playing it safe could come back to bite Nintendo because there's more competition now. Partly because the Switch was such a success, it inspired all of these copycats, and you have the Steam Deck, and you have the Steam Deck's many competitors,

and you have rumors or even confirmed reports that PlayStation and Xbox are working on their own portable machines, plus just the ability to stream on any device, and this is an Xbox, and that's an Xbox, right? So is the Switch going to be as differentiated as it was in the last generation? And if the hardware doesn't make it stand out, Then I guess you're just coming back to, well, this is where you get Mario. This is where you get Zelda.

This is where you get Metroid. And maybe that's enough, at least for one more generation. But I wonder whether this sort of post-platform reality that we're entering, with Nintendo being sort of the sole holdout, whether they'll be able to sustain that or whether eventually they'll have to change with the times. I think they will be able to sustain it. Nintendo has the special sauce that no one else can touch. They have outlasted all of, you know, like Sega with Sonic used to be their big rival and like, yeah, sure, Sonic's still around.

Sonic's making billion dollars and box office and everything. But when you think of like video game characters and properties that people actually want to play the games of, like Nintendo has endured for generations and generations. And I think that like 2024, we saw a lot of Nintendo releases that felt like this has been interesting. development. We don't really have a lot going on this year. Let's get this out. You know, like Mario and Luigi Brothership was kind of a letdown. Zelda Echoes of Wisdom was good. It was very good, but it wasn't top tier, right? Princess Peach Showtime was fun, but it wasn't like setting the world on fire. So yeah, I'm really excited for Nintendo to be putting out their A-list bangers that not just the leftover stuff that they have been waiting for a rainy day

to release, like, 2025 has to be a year where we see just Nintendo firing on all cylinders. Yeah, it's been a whole, like, two years since they did that. But I know what you mean. It did feel like they're emptying out the barrels. And, you know, Nintendo's dregs are better than just about any other developer and publishers' best stuff. But it did feel like the Swan Song and The Last Gasp. And you've got to imagine that they've been cooking up some stuff that we're going to be seeing

sometime soon. And I just don't know how Nintendo fits into this landscape, this sort of platform agnostic. Everything is multi-platform. There are no exclusives. What's the difference between a console and PC at this point? It's all blending together. Console games are on PC. PC games are on console. Sony games are on Xbox. Xbox games are on everything. Nintendo may be the lone holdout for a while. And maybe they'll make that work because Nintendo has always just done its own thing and charted its own course, and it's worked for more than 40 years. And also, if this system is indestructible as just a manse, then that'll be a big advance, too. The memories of Nintendo systems being destroyed run deep for me because my, and yes, my first system tragically was lost in an accident where

I was playing Ninja Turtles, the arcade game at home with my cousin, and her leg got snagged on the controller cord, and the whole system came tumbling down. and so did all of my hopes and dreams and my console ownership for years because that was the end of the NES and it led to dark days, dark days in my life. So I hope that it will not be repeated. You've told me this story. Yeah. Every time you get sadder, every time you see it. I relive it.

I see it whenever I close my eyes. That's why that box is pretty durable too. That must have been quite a yon. You would think. You would think. Yeah. Not on the inside, apparently. but I'm kind of an atypical switch user because I work from home and I mostly play docked with the pro controller.

So I'm not moving that thing around that much and I don't even care that much about the portability or whether it breaks or not because I'm less likely to drop it. But I realize that that's not the typical use case. All right. We will, of course, discuss the switch in depth to whenever the curtain is finally lifted. It is hard to know what games and or systems will come out this year. But we usually not always know which podcasts will come out on the Ring of Rehn or feed. And of course, you can count on all of our shows to be top tier and not let you down. The Midnight Boys, PooPew, will catch up on episodes five to seven of Skeleton Crew on Wednesday,

followed by a Mint Edition 2025 Confidence Meter on Friday. House of Our will have a gift swap up today, plus a Skeleton Crew episode seven deep dive on Thursday that you may hear me on. Next week, we have Skeleton Crew finale coverage on both feeds, plus the annual House of Our hype draft, where I will, as you, join Joe and Mal and Sean Fennacy to discuss what we're excited about beyond the world of video games. But MASH will be back later this month with Mythic Quest coverage. Maybe the best show about video games returning for a fourth season finally. And of course, you can contact us at Ringaverse Gaming at gmail.com.

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first? Find two good creamers at your local retailer in the creamer aisle. All right, let's talk some titles here. We have several different categories. We're going to do this the way we did it last year. We have sequel slash prequel. This is an established series that's getting a new entry. We have new game, old IP. Definitions can vary. I think of this as sort of an adaptation of an established IP in movies or TV, but it could be maybe a long, dormant video game franchise returning to life.

We have the all original category, which is just something we've never seen before. Hopefully something that feels fresh. We have the opposite of that, the rerun category. which is a remake, remaster, re-release, collection, etc. We have the adaptation category, which is TV or movie adaptations. We've seen so many, and we will see so many more this year. So we're just going to go through each of these. We've got six categories.

Each of us has a number one pick, essentially, in each category. I don't care if we overlap, if we repeat. That's okay. We can share. but we have numbered picks. So one to six, six being the most exciting, and we can award one of those numbers to each of our picks just to show which one we're most hyped about.

And then maybe we can conclude with some predictions because I forgot the final category is unconfirmed, which is games that we think might be coming, that maybe have been rumored, maybe we're just hoping that they exist, Maybe they're nebulously known to be in development, but there's no release date yet, and we hope it will be 20-25. We will try to confine this to what we think might actually come out this year, at least, until the end when we make some predictions. So I guess we can start with maybe the most crowded category, as always, which is sequel prequel.

And I mean, are you just going to go with the Gimmie GTA-6? I guess I am too, unless we're just going to say that that doesn't. count because we want to be original. Can I ask a question? Sure. Qualifying question. Would GTA still work for new game old IP? At this point, it certainly has been a long time, but I don't know.

I guess when we do drafts, things are eligible in multiple categories. So, you know, maybe 2013. It's been 12 years, whatever it is. Sure. Let's go with it. Because for sequel, prequel, I, unfortunately, I labeled this number two. on my hype meter, but it's death stranding too. Oh, okay.

Because that game's incredible. I barely finished the first one because I got so confused and irritated and how much they made me do a lot of things over and over again. But it's a gorgeous game that I always love watching. And I think I'm going to take turns. Me and my roommate have talked about how we're going to take turns playing it so we don't get irritated or frustrated with like the battles or just like walking. But when that trailer dropped last year, I was enamored.

Gorgeous. Can't wait. Yeah, I'm with you. It looks weird, even by Kojima standards, which is what you want from this game and this series. Matt, what do you have in this category? Ghost of Yote, I believe it is, it's like a few hundred years in one direction or another from Ghost of Zishima. It's not a direct sequel, but close enough. It's in the world.

Yeah, there's no game this year that I'm looking forward to more than Ghost of Yote. Ghost of Sushima is one of my favorite games of the past decade, and I just want some more of that. Give me some really engaging combat in some beautiful serene settings. I just want more of that. I just love that series, and I'm excited to see how they evolve that and how much they do choose to evolve it versus just going with what worked so incredibly well. Yeah, I'm with you on that. I guess I'll be basic and just take GTA

6 so that someone does. And if it actually comes out, then I'll, I'll give it my 6th. I'll give it my highest, both because I'm excited for the game and just because it'll change the industry somehow. For better or worse, we don't know how, but it'll be a milestone. It'll be a cross-cultural mainstream event. And I'm looking forward to all of the spectacle that comes with that, all of the fanfare, all of the discussion and debate and digestion and dissection and just really looking forward to seeing how they try to top themselves, how it's changed since the leaks. I'm very excited. And if I didn't take GTA6, then I'd probably take Ghost of Yote too. So I'd just double up there because, yeah, Ghost of Sashima, as great a game as that was, sometimes there's a game that

comes out that it feels like, man, this was an amazing first entry. And I bet, given the chance to build on this foundation, it's going to get even better. Later on, when you get to three and four and five and six, and GTA six, in GTA six, is case, you start to wonder, well, what else is there to do? How can they top themselves? But usually with a first sequel, that's when you build in all the quality of life improvements. You iron out all the kinks. You shore up the foundation and you add stuff. And you make it more polished and prettier and fuller featured. And often that's when it reaches its apex, I think. Absolutely.

I'm really looking forward to it, especially on this hardware. I know that the leaps between console generations are not what they were, but this game is going to be beautiful. And speaking to your statement about the second game in a series being potentially the most exciting and where they really hit their stride, there are a lot of sequels this year that are the number, two game, right? You have Outer Worlds, too,

subnautica, two, Slay the Spire Two, Hades, Two, Path of Exile Two, which is really good. Death Stranding, too. So I've heard. Citizen Sleeper, Two, Two, Moonlighter, too. Like, there are a lot of twos, big two year. Yep. Hopefully not terrible twos.

The Outer Worlds, too, that feels like one, where they didn't quite nail it the first time around. You saw what they were going for, the sort of fallout in space, but not Starfield's kind of aesthetic. And there were just issues with that game that it felt like give them another crack at it. Maybe this will be what they had in their minds the first time around. Yeah, there are more twos.

I just put together a full list, or at least the ones that I could come up with. If I don't run out of breath, let me just read some sequels that we think are coming out or could be coming out this year. Gears of War, E-Day, right, which is a prequel, which I'm looking forward to, back to basics. Just go back to the inciting events of that series that we haven't gotten to play through. It's been a while since the last Years of War. Hades 2, you mentioned, obviously came out in early access, but I bided my time. I'm waiting for the full release.

If we get that this year, I'm extremely excited. Metroid Prime 4 Beyond, right? So it's not a 2. This is a 4. You could even put this in the old IP at this point, probably, but we're pretty confident that this is coming. Doom the Dark Ages. Who else is hype for Doom the Dark Ages? I'm not a big doom person, but the...

I'm a pretty big doom person. Yeah, go back to the Middle Ages with the doom aesthetic. It looks great. Of course, there's another Eldon Ring. Can't have a year go by without another Eldon Ring, night rain, which in anyone else's hands, I would say, you know, sort of the same world and like procedural generation and like rogue like and co-op and is this kind of a cash in or something,

but I'm pretty confident that it won't be because it's from software. and they have a track record. So I'm guessing it will be better than that if last year's quote-unquote DLC is any guide. How hyped are you for Night Rain, Matt? I'm pretty hyped. It's different. So a lot of people are going to hate it,

but I'm sure it'll be good. People are going to be like, this Eldon Ring's not my Eldon Ring. It's wrong. And it's fine. It's going to be a different kind of game. I hope people realize that before it comes out. I'm going to enjoy listening.

to people whine about what I'm sure is at worst going to be a good game. Yeah. Assassin's Creed Shadows is fascinating to me because there's so much at stake here. A, I'm looking forward to it because people have always wanted Assassin's Creed to be in this setting and now we're finally going to get that. And because it was delayed, they've had a lot of time to work on it. But there is so much writing on this for Ubisoft just after all of the blows that that company has taken after Outlaws being a bit of a disappointment last year,

Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown, being an incredible game that didn't sell so well, ex-defiant, shutting down. It's just been one thing after another for Ubisoft, and there's a lot of talk about a takeover or a sale, and a lot of it is contingent on whether this game is good and whether it's a hit, and we will find out soon, and I hope it is good. And just, last I recall, you were actually excited for this one

on the heels of Rise of the Ronen, you're ready to fall in love, get your heartbroken by Assassin's Creed again? Why would you help me? I was, I was like, wow, this is going to be crazy. It's going to be my first Assassin's Creed that I'm like stoked for in like 10 years. And then I went to GamesCon in Germany and I went, I beeline for the Assassin's Creed, shadows tent, and I watched them play it. And it was not the greatest.

It was not the greatest. This was in August, so this before, you know, they shifted again. But during that August showing, they were like, no, but still coming out. Like, it's coming on the scheduled time, and then it got pushed. But I remember watching it being like,

I don't know what they're telling me is true because this doesn't look that great. And it didn't look that fun. And now I'm kind of sad, but I'm still going to play it. I'm still going to play it. But I'm definitely not as hyped as I was when we were last talking about it.

Oh, boy. Uh-oh. Well, we said positive vibes only today, Jess. Uh-oh, you're spoiling the mood. You're bringing us down. You'll be so much. No, I appreciate it.

No, it's going to be so fun. That's okay. I appreciate your honesty. I want the straight dope here. I'm hoping it'll be good, but either way, there will be a lot to talk about. February is just so stacks. I don't know how we're going to handle next month

because another two, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, comes out February 4th. Civ 7, Civilization 7, comes out a week after that, the 11th. Assassin's Creed Shadows, February 14th, avowed and lost records bloom in rage, come out February 18th. Like a Dragon, Pirate, Yakuza in Hawaii, comes out on 24th. That title makes me smile every time I see it or say it. And Monster Hunter Wilds comes out on February 28th. So there is not a week next month without a major release.

And a lot of these games, they delayed to avoid something else late last year. And they all delayed to exactly the same time. And we're screwed. So that maybe didn't work out so well. But hopefully they'll all be super polished. Like Kingdom Come Deliverance, too, they're sending out to reviewers four weeks in advance of release, supposedly, which is almost unheard of. Yeah, I would think so, given how crowded the schedule is. So all that's coming.

As I've confessed, I've never played a like a dragon game. But now that I've watched the show, I think this is my time. This is probably like a terrible time to get on board, so to speak. But I want to start this series with Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and just be like, what the hell is happening here? Yeah, I mean, go for it. Any entrance to Like a Dragon is fine.

It's not like there is one entry point that is perfect in the entire, you know, decade-plus series. So just get in the door and then you can worry about where to go. next from there. Yeah, sure. I'm really hyped for Monster Hunter Wilds, though, as someone who has never actually played a Monster Hunter game, I'm with you too. I feel like the hype on this is out of control.

People have been telling me that Monster Hunter games have been incredible for a long time, and I just have never fully been compelled to try one, but all indications are that this one is going to be pretty special. So that's my entry point into that. All right. Well-established series. So I'm sure you're like a dragon. New Leafs.

Yeah, this is our New Year's resolution. I will play a Yakuza game and you will play Monster Hunter. We'll exchange notes. And then there's Pokemon legend Z to A. Power World laid down the gauntlet. Your move, Game Freak. HyperLight Breaker. System Sleeper 2, you mentioned, I think.

Sib 7 is not the first civilization in more than eight years, which is nothing compared to like fatal. Fury City of the Wolves, which is the first fatal fury in 25 years. I guess that could be old IP. Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines too, which I'm pretty sure we listed on last year's pods. Maybe this will be the year that it comes out. Mafia, the old country. Imagine if Mafia comes out and GTA6 does not. That'd be a bit of a letdown. Borderlands 4. Again, lots of expectations there, right, after a bit of a slump for that franchise in multiple media. Fable, which is a I guess, Dorman IP?

That's more of a reboot, maybe. Little Nightmares 3, Moonlighter 2, Nirvana Noir, Opus, Prism Peak, Slay the Spireymery mentions Subnodica, the Outerworlds, Delta Rune chapters 3 and 4. Pathologic 3. Ninja Guiden is coming back. Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, Double Dragon Revive, Sniper Elite Resistance, Killing 4,3. Professor Layton, maybe that's a dormant IP, old IP. N0-117, Pax Romana, the Sinking City 2, Skate, Split,

Gate 2, Dying Light, the Beast, Revenge of the Savage Planet. I just listed so many games. Hopefully I did not snub any sequels or prequels. But that's pretty much all they make these days. That's not entirely true. But that is a lot of what they make these days. So something in there, hopefully you will be hyped for. All right, let's switch over to new game, old IP.

However, we're defining that. Jess, what do you have in mind for this category? First off, I will say that I did do my numbers off at the beginning. So Death Stranding is my number five, is my number five, because six is the best. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, one is the least. Number one for me, of course, is GTA six, which I'm putting in this category because it's been a long time. I guess it's, yes, it's GTA, but it's not a part of the other games.

It's not the same story. It's a different location, different people. But no, GTA, easy. My number one, a lot of people's number one. I don't even have to get into it. Yeah, it is, it's old in some senses, in other senses. it's perpetually new because it keeps coming out on different systems and different forms. And people keep buying it and people keep streaming it.

So it has never really left us. It's kind of an ongoing game. It's morphed into just one of those games that takes up everyone's time. That's the thing we should note is that we're hyped for all these new games that are coming out. But most people are just playing the same games that they were playing for like the last five years. And they will be playing those games all this year, too. Including some of us. Like, Jess, you'll be playing some four.

Fortnite this year, I imagine. Oh, I switched to Marvel Rivals. So for the next 12 years, it will be Marvel Rivals. At least there will be new characters and heroes and packs for Marvel Rivals. So there's that. All right. Matt, what are you going to try to cram into this category? I got three primarily.

I'll save my favorite for the third. So Professor Layton's coming back. And you know me, I love puzzle games. I love a puzzler, just like Jess. I have such fond memories of playing Professor Leighton games on portable Nintendo systems throughout time. And I just love Professor Leighton. I love the puzzles.

I love the vibe, the animation. So I'm really hyped for that series to come back. There's also a new Carmen San Diego game coming out very soon. What? And it is going to be a Netflix game too. So if you have a Netflix subscription, it's going to be free for you. and you play as Carmen San Diego,

which is fascinating. And I don't have any idea if it's going to be good or not, but that game... Where in the world is she this time? You say those words, and I am just in a computer lab in the early 90s. Looking through a book trying to figure things out while playing a video game.

What a time to be alive. And then the new game, old IP I'm most excited for, you briefly mentioned Ninja Guideon Ragebound, which is a new 2D entry in the series. It's made by the Game Kitchen, which is the developer who made the Blasphemous series. And Blasphemus 2 is one of my favorite games of the past few years.

It is hard as hell. It is incredibly good 2D combat. And I can't think of a better developer to be working on a Ninja Guideon game than the Game Kitchen. I cannot wait for this game. Good picks. I felt like this was a little thinner this category than last year, for instance, where we had a known big blockbuster Star Wars game,

even if that didn't turn out to fulfill all of my expectations for it, or an Indiana Jones game, which did and in fact exceeded them. So that sort of IP, a little thinner on the ground this year, but there is still a fair amount of it. I think I'm going to go, and I'll give it just my number two, So not super hyped, but cautiously optimistic. Marvel 1943, Rise of Hydra. I am pretty excited for this game.

If it does come out this year, we just haven't seen a whole lot of it, but it is supposed to come out this year. This is Amy Henig's take on the comics, the kind of flashback, you know, Cap and Black Panther and Tichala. And I'm excited to see what she does with that license and what kind of game it is and whether this will catch on and whether people will buy superhero games that are not free or made by insomnia.

And we'll find out all of that, hopefully, sometime this year. So that's probably my top one in this category. But some close competitors, Do an Awakening, kind of into Do an Awakening. I'm not that much of an MMO guy these days, but if something were going to get me to dive back in, it might be that.

I am excited for Marathon. bungee's reboot, which I guess you could say is sort of a sequel pre-pull, but that's the ultimate dormant IP, which they pushed back and hopefully will come out this year. There's some other movie-based stuff. There's Tron Catalyst, there's Terminator Survivors. There's also Tales of the Shire, which looks kind of good, actually. Hopefully this will erase the sour taste that Gallum left in our mouths, and this will be sort of a cozy game, you know, management in the Shire with a bunch of hobbits.

That could be fun. There's also a riot fighting game called 2XCO, which is based on Legal Legends and uses Legal Legends fighters, which is getting a bunch of buzz and sounds like it'll be good. Might be up Jess's alley more so than mine, perhaps, is not a hardcore fighting game guy, but it looks good. This isn't the League of Legends MMO, is it? No. Okay.

Yeah, this is a fighting game. Yeah, it looks, yes. Visually, it looks pretty stunning. Yeah. And there's FBC Fire Break, which is, I'm calling it old IP because it's kind of in the world of control and it's a co-op shooter. There's a lot of co-op shooters coming, a lot of extraction shooters coming this year. Excited for that. So that could be good.

And then, of course, there's always the prospect of Wolverine, which if I actually thought it was going to come out this year, probably would have ranked ahead of Marvel 1943. But I'm guessing what with the leak and as little as we have officially seen of it. That'll probably be a 2026 release, but I'm sure that we will get a good look at it at some point this year. And, you know, FinSomniac is just going to kind of keep making Marvel games. At least this will be a different brand of Marvel games. So a little less not played out.

Give me all the Spider-Man you want to make, to be clear. But a different character and a different kind of character. That'll be fun. I'm looking forward to that. But, yeah, multiple Marvel things on my list here. All right, let's go for all original, something that is completely starting from scratch. Jess, what do you have here?

This is my number two. It's only my number two because everything else I know a lot about. This one I don't know anything about, really. I just saw how beautiful it is. It's Claire, obscure, Expedition 33. Gorgeous. That's my pick, too. I think you stole Matt's pick.

I don't understand any system I have might be able to run. I don't know. It's gorgeous. I'm obsessed with it. It's beautiful. I think I'm falling out of turn-based games, but I like the way the fighting looks from what I saw from the trailer

or the long, whatever they gave us. I like the way it looks. I like that I can dodge. I like that I can do the fights. I love the running. I love whatever. I think I'm underwater. I don't know.

I'm obsessed with it. It looks incredible. And it is turn-based, as you said. It looks like there is a little bit of like an active component to the turn-based stuff from the trailers. There might be like timed button presses along with some of that turn-based combat. The voice actors that they have lined up are legit in that game.

And interestingly enough, it's supposed to be priced at $49.99, which is at the same time kind of like, great. And also kind of like, wait, what is this game? Right? You're like, do I need to actually lower my expectation? Is this like an eight-hour, like, FMV game, essentially? Or is this, like, what is the scale of this game that looks this good and yet is priced at $4999? So as you said, there is a lot we don't know about this.

But, man, you can't show me a trailer that would make me much more excited without giving me any, you know, relevant info to fill that in than this game. So, yeah, I agree with you. This is my pick, too. I'm taking one of the games that I was most hyped for coming out of the game awards where it was unveiled. That's split fiction, which will be my number four, so my third most anticipated release this year. And partly because it's coming out soon, March 6th. So after the lull of February, after we just blow through several games that come out then,

then I could just tackle split fiction right after that. But this is the next Joseph Fares game from Hayslight makers of It Takes 2 and other excellent co-op games. And I've played all this guy's games going back to Brothers A Tale of Two Sons and my wife and I have played them all together. We've loved them all together. And this seems very much up my alley and very ringerverse centric. It is about a fantasy writer and a sci-fi writer and you're splitting between them and there are sci-fi-inspired worlds and fantasy-inspired worlds. witching back and forth and just looks great. And I'm all for local couch co-op in all of its incarnations. So the developer does not make. It's a bit fiction for me. Yeah. Yeah. Not yet. What else do you have on

your radars, if anything? I put Crimson Desert on mine. It just looks really fun. I love dragons. I love that world. I love that world. I'm going to play both. I'm going to play both games, but I'm more excited for Claire Obscura, clearly, but I'm going to play both. I get a few things. Skate Story. It's coming out this year. It looks wild. It is a skating game. I think there's demons involved. There's, there's refracting light off of polygonal shapes and a awesome original soundtrack by a group called Blood Cultures. This game looks like it is going to be crazy good, really stylized and interesting and weird skate story. So I'm looking forward to that. Hell is Us looks awesome. You might remember this.

trailer. I can't remember when it was revealed, but it was recently. It's sort of a post-apocalyptic world. There's some sci-fi stuff going on in it. I don't know. The trailer was really intriguing to me. South of Midnight looks great. That's set in sort of like the deep south. I forget what system that's coming to, but that looks great. Yeah, that's an Xbox game. That's an Xbox game, right? Is that might be when the game pass, not sure. Anything. Because everything's an Xbox now. Everything's an Xbox unless it's an Nintendo product. Mix tape by the publishers behind the artful Escape, which is a game that I loved. Another sort of music

heavy. I knew that would be on your list. It's anna-purno published, indie music-inspired game. Yeah, that's all Matt James right there. Yep. And Wheel World, which is a biking game. You have some sort of ancient cycling spirit. The art

style of this one looks really cool. It's been a while since I played like a straight-up bicycle game. Type for that. Yeah. I had South midnight on my list as well. It's set in the South. Not enough games set in the South, and it's actually made by someone who's from the South and very beast of the Southern Wild sort of aesthetic. And it seems like Microsoft is really pushing it. There's Judas, which is Ken Levine's

biosec follow-up long in the making. Will it come out? Will it be good? It's sort of bioshawky in space, which I guess is basically system shock. But who knows? Judas avowed, which I don't know which category to put that in, but it takes place in the same universe as Pillars of Eternity, right? So maybe it's not really original. Maybe it's dormant. Maybe it's a sequel. I don't know. I picked that last year in this episode. Yeah. It's supposed to be 2024. Deadlock, of course, the valve shooter, which was being tested and played last year. Dispatch, which was introduced at the Game Awards, good cast, former telltale folks, A few Metroidvania's that have caught my eye, Blade chimera, Ender Magnolia, Bloom in the Mist.

I guess that's a sequel to Eternal Strands. I have played that in Early Access. It's very good. And I also played the Blade Camara demo, which is out now, and found that to be pretty intriguing, actually. Nice. Also coming out in February is Date Everything, which looks really fun, kind of like a boyfriend dungeon. Like, it says it right in the title, Date Everything, like Toasters, Inatimate Objects. Refrigerators, appliances, yeah.

Maybe they'll make the best partners. Who knows, in some cases, depends on your relationship. But looking forward to that. And then, yes, lost records, bloom in rage, which is the Makers of Life of Strange, one and two. There is a wonderfully weird-looking roguelite called Morsels with a bunch of eye stocks and giant noses. Just, you know, a lot of games that they look so distinctive

that just seeing just a still, let alone a trailer, grabs you. and who knows if the game is good, but you're intrigued at least. Wonderstop, which is from the creators of the Stanley Parable and one of the makers have gone home, so there's some good pedigree there. Adam Fall, which comes out pretty soon and is sort of like a post-apocalyptic survival type game. There are a couple Sims rivals coming out this year, which Sims has basically had that space to itself for a long time. And there was one competitor that got canceled, but there are a couple coming.

one that looks like it's spelled, well, it's spelled I-N-Z-O-I, but I think it's pronounced in joy and Paralives, which could be coming sometime soon. So if you're into that genre, the Alters, which is a sci-fi cloning management sort of sim, while waiting looks cool. Despolote, which is about being a kid, being obsessed with soccer. There's a big walk, which is the follow-up to Untitled Goose Game. Don't really know much about it, but that alone, I'm sort of sold, so we used to try it. cattle country, which is like red dead meets stardew. There are a lot of like good elevator pitches like that, sort of like, you know, the movie, the player where it's this meets that.

And you're like, well, I'm sold. I like both of those things, I guess. The makers of Celeste are putting out a game called Earthblade. There's a game called Herdling, which is like, I don't really even know, but it's wandering around in the wilderness and climbing mountains and herding livestock of some sort, maybe. There's a promise mascot agency, which looks kind of cool. A rhythm game called Rattitan replaced stage fright, more split screen co-op.

Jess, I know you loved the climbing game. We all played Jusant. So you will be excited for yet another climbing game Cairn, which is coming out this year. If it's not boring. I am on one this morning. I'm so sorry. Meditative. That's how I would describe it.

Not boring. Just meditative. There's a chronosphere, which is another, this meets that, Hades meets super hot. Okay, cool. Demon School, turn-based strategy RPG, unbeatable, which is an anime-inspired rhythm game. There's some Soulslikes that look good, as usual,

the first berserker, Kazan, Wu-Chang Fallen Feathers, Phantom Blade Zero. Phantom Blade Zero. Yeah, that one looks great. Sunderfolk, which is a D&D-inspired tactical RPG. arc raiders and other extraction shooter. There's a devolver digital game called Baby Steps, which is like, I don't even know, like a literal walking simulator, like learning how to take steps.

I don't know, but there's just a lot that looks good. But there's no real track record with these original games. So we're kind of like, yeah, maybe I'll try it. Let's wait for a demo or reviews and we'll see. Which is the opposite of the next category, rerun, where we're taking something old and making it new again. What do you have here, Jess? Okay, I put Donkey Kong country, but I might have been confused. Donkey Kong country returns HD. It comes out this month. This isn't returning of the, like, the original Donkey Kong. This is the one that was done for

the Wii. Yes, exactly. I don't know if I'm as excited for that. I don't know. I put, so am I, I put two in this category. I put, and I honestly, I put them both as three regardless, but I put Donkey Kong Country or Fable. And the hard part is, I love Donkey Kong Country. I remember playing it for Wien and was like, eh, this Fable, I liked the anniversary one that came out when I was like, just got out of college maybe. And I liked it. I know a lot of people didn't really care for it as much as the original, but I liked it. And Fable's very fun and very silly and very stupid. And I think it's genuinely a good game for me to like just play and not be stressed and not be mad and just like enjoy the settings and building.

And so I don't know which one to choose between the two. You know, I'm going to step outside the box. I'll do Fable. I'll choose Fable. Yeah, I guess, I mean, FAPL's, it's not really a remake, right? It's a reboot, but it's been a long time. And we haven't seen that much of this thing yet. I don't know if this is going to be like old school fable and Peter Mollinoo and

when will this thing actually come out and what will it be? Maybe not. But if it actually does come out, I don't know. We've seen mostly like, cinematics and we've kind of gotten the sense of the tone. I'm excited for it too, if it actually does come out this year. What were you hoping that Donkey Kong Country returns was? Because we already got Tropical Freeze and enhanced port, right? So were you hoping that this was one of the earlier Donkey Kong country games? And the thing is, I can't even, I was thinking about it last night when I was

singing the Donkey Kong rap that I was like, I think I'm just obsessed with the nostalgia that came with the original or like the old game when I was a child, which is a lot of me with a lot of Nintendo games where I'm like, yeah, I'm going to play it if they bring it back. And then I'm like, it's not the same feeling as I had when I played it as a child. Now I'm kind of just going through the motions. And that's why I'm like, I don't know if I'm actually, I was thinking about when you were talking for a minute. I was like, I don't know if I'm actually as excited as I think I was. I wrote this down immediately without thinking about it. And so, I don't know. I just don't think I'm going to, because the Wii one, I guess.

And 3DS, I guess, also. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. And maybe people are going to get mad at me. They're going to be like, what, dokey Kong country returns? I don't know. Well, you won't have to wait long because it comes out extremely soon. So that's nice.

Doesn't it come out like next week? Yeah. So that's a virtue of this that we know it will actually come out and you can play it if you want to. But now you're not so sure. No, I'm going to probably play it. You can give it your one if you're not fueling it. No, no, my one is strongly a one. Oh, it's a strong one.

Interesting. Oh, okay. This is my two of six, and I'm going to choose for my remake remaster, Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD 2D remake. I am right now 25 hours into Dragon Quest 3, HD 2D remake, which came out last year. And man, it is so good. It is my favorite, like, HD2D RPG ever.

I never played Dragon Quest 3, and the HD2Dization of it is so gorgeous. It's such an easy game to love. It's such a, like, cozy game of an RPG. It's just pure joy. And as soon as I'm done with this, I am going to turn to looking forward to the Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD2D remake. I think a lot of people are going to be shocked that I'm putting that out there

before what I assume Ben, you're going to pick in Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater. But I am not someone who views Kojima as infallible, despite perhaps snake eater being maybe one of his best games ever. But I'm just not as Kojima-pilled as some of y'all get off me and play some You can name Justin Charity. That's okay. You can call him out. But Jess just took Death Stranding. But also, I guess, Kojima's not actually making this game.

So there's just that. I mean, he made it the first time. But yeah, this got delayed from last year, Snake Eater. I'll give it my one because I'm just generally not that big remake remaster guy. And also not that big a MGS guy in general. But this was probably the most anticipated. It's more of an anti-stealth position than anti-MGS specifically, but we've gone to that before. For me, I love stealth.

It's about convoluted storylines that are over-hyped. Well, there's that too, yeah. But this is probably the widely most anticipated game in this category this year. What else? There's Tomb Raider 4 to 6 remastered, yet another February release. There's Xenoid Chronicles. Yeah. I mean, not the cream of the crop thing.

remember those games. Four to six, geez. There's Zeta Blade Chronicles X remastered. There's Freedom Wars remastered. There's Yuka replayly, which is kind of a clever title, if nothing else. A new ukulele. Yu-Gi-O, early days collection, Star Wars Episode 1 Jedi Power Battles remaster. We've all been clamoring for that, me and dozens of others.

Can't wait. There's a Capcom Fighting Collection 2. There's Sweet Ked N1 and 2 HD remaster. Those games are great. Yeah, yeah. That like Sweet Ked N2, getting to play that in some sort of HD remaster form, that I'm actually genuinely maybe more excited for that than Snake Eater. You should be.

And those games are hard to come by now. So it's great that they're releasing them. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Scarcity and inaccessibility is a big part of this category. And what else? There's like Amerizone, the Explorer's legacy.

remake, there's trails in the sky first chapter, always a lot of remakes and remasters, maybe not quite as many as last year. I don't know if last year was peak remaster or remake, but it was close. So not as slam dunk in this category as like Final Fantasy

7 was last year, for instance. I am going to give Xenoblade Chronicles X a try. I didn't have a Wii you. I've never been able to get into these Zeno Blade games. From what I'm told, this one is one of the best. So I'm going to give it a fair shot

to see what all the hype is about. Yeah, that's something that really bolstered the Switch lineup is that no one had a Wii U. I mean, not literally, but I didn't have a Wii U. That was like the only Nintendo console that I never owned. And Switch basically got to draft off that entire generation for a while and just release enhanced ports and new versions of that. So you had kind of a whole generation of games

that were sort of under the radar by Nintendo standards that you could just pump out on Switch, which will not be the case necessarily for Switch 2 because everyone had a switch. So it's a little bit of a different dynamic. All right. How about adaptations? We're just a few days into the year,

and we've already had adaptation announcements because Sony has revealed that they're making a Horizon Zero, Dawn movie, I'm psyched, and a Hell Divers 2 movie, even if these feel a little extraneous because, I don't know, I kind of feel like Hell Divers 2 is very much based on Starship Troopers and is already sort of more or less a movie as a game.

And Horizon Zero Don, I value because it tells a movie quality story in a good game. But we're getting movie versions of those at some point, not this year, I'm sure. And then the Last of Us season two release date got announced as well. That's coming in April. So Jess, what do you have in this category? Yeah, I put The Last of Us as my number four, love The Last of Us. It's amazing. I've been anticipating it since the finale of the last one.

I want to cry every Sunday again. I would have put a hell divers if it wasn't already Starship Troopers. But I do like the Hell Diver. It'll be like a more scary version of Starship Troopers. And that's what I like about it. So I'm not bashing it like my roommate is. But I'm here for them doing that. I don't think Sony's going to do a good job with Horizon.

But that's just me. That's just me. The Horizon movie feels to me like Sony, like people have been telling Sony that, sure, like Horizon is good. Everyone thinks it's good. There are some people who think the series is outstanding. But I feel like the general sentiment is that people tend to feel like Horizon is just being crammed down their throat by Sony.

And I think if they don't nail this movie, it could be like a borderlands level catastrophe that costs them a ton of money and also stalls progress on future Horizon projects. So they better nail it. Because the backlash is ready to come for that series. Not for me, because I'm one of the people who thinks it's outstanding. I didn't necessarily need a... I think Sony's going to do great. You think Sony's going to make what you want?

I don't think it'll be Borderlands bad. I think it could be good. It could be. It's a good movie quality world. There's a lot of story left to tell there. I'd be happy to just have it continue to be told in the games, but also fine. with a multimedia version of it.

And if we get a TV version, fine, that'd be cool, too. It couldn't necessarily need a... It could really go a lot of different ways for them. I don't need a Lego games version of Horizon. I think my favorite thing about the original Horizon game is actually the story. So unlike Borderlands, it does make sense to adapt, but I just worry that people are tiring of hearing New Horizon this, new Horizon that.

So we'll see. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm going to take the last of us as well, and I'm happy that we're going to get it in April. And I'm going to give it my three because, look, I've played the game. And generally, I get only so hyped for an adaptation of a story that I've already experienced. Although this time around, I am quite fascinated to see how it will actually be adapted, more so than I was in season one, which was great, to be clear. and I like the little changes that they made to it, but they were mostly little changes.

And this time around, for reasons that I won't spoil here, just in case, it's going to be more complicated to adapt. And it's going to be a multi-season exercise. I'm excited to experience certain twists and turns along with the general public that has not been exposed to them as of yet. And just really curious about the adaptation decisions that they're going to be making here. and we will be giving it the full court coverage press here at the Ringerverse. Hopefully we will have a button mash ongoing coverage of that show as well as all the other shows at the Ringerverse and elsewhere on the Ringer podcast network. So there will be no shortage of Last of Us coverage. Anything else that you two considered in this category?

I'm excited for season two of The Last of Us. Don't get me wrong. But I also, it's not my top pick. In fact, this category is my one. of six just because I like video games better than watching adaptations of video games. But less of us, like, I think it's one of the greatest game series ever. And at the same time, it's like so stressful that I want to engage with it as little as possible. I'm like, this is going to be great.

And then I'm going to have to sleep for 10 hours after each episode to recover. It's so stressful. Yeah. So it's like a double-edged sword for me. I just like. I'm going to replay part two in preparation for the season, and I'm sort of looking forward to it, but also sort of dreading it.

Yeah, it's long. It's my mindset, and it's really stressful. I am looking forward to seeing, as you mentioned, like how, without spoiling anything, you know, the game sort of follows one character and then follows another. So I'm curious to see if they're going to intermix these things, or if they're going to follow the format of the game,

it's going to be interesting to see. But my pick that I can watch without having to recover mentally is actually sort of a tie between season two of Castlevania Nocturn, the Netflix anime, and the first season of Devil May Cry, also a Netflix anime. Going with the Adi Shankar Netflix anime. I don't blame you. Yeah, those are fun. Yep. And then I go keep living my life without feeling depressed. and cynical.

So. Yeah. Says something that Castlevania and Devil May Cry or like a little light viewing in comparison

to the Last of Us but you're not wrong. Anything else you considered in this category, Jess? I did. I said Five Nights as Friday's kind of his joke,

but there is also, I don't think it's coming out this year unless I have not been listening through the Great Vine but Fallout season two. The fallout

was so much fun. Yeah. That show was so much fun. And unlike Last of Us, didn't make me sad. Yeah. You feel about it. That's right. Every week.

Yeah. Fallout sadly is a ways away, I think. Yeah, I don't think it's going out this year. But it's great. Keep doing you, Fallout, if you're listening. I am looking forward to Mortal Kombat 2. Same. Wherein we get the actual Mortal Kombat, the tournament.

Yeah. And similarly, Twisted Metal Season 2, the show on Peacock, where we get the actual twisted metal tournament. So we already had the throat clearing and the ground laying, and I like that. So now if we're getting into the meat of the thing, that's pretty exciting. Yeah, Mortal Kombat 2 should be some good, dumb fun.

I figured you'd have Five Nights at Freddy's on your list, Jess. I said it was a joke. It's okay. A lot of people saw it. A lot of people liked it. It was a fun movie. There's a Minecraft movie. is coming out, probably not on our lists, but a lot of kids will see it and like it.

I'm fascinated. I think it's going to be, it could be a real train wreck. It'd be fun if it were actually good. Nah. If it were like a Sonic style, even like a Mario style paint by numbers. I don't even want it to be good. What do we get for being weird? You want, yeah.

If it's good, we'll immediately get a Roblox movie. Do you want that? Is that something you want in this world? We'll probably get it whether we want. or not. I wish I was going direct to streaming because then I would actually watch it. I don't want to go to the theaters and watch it. I don't want to be seen going to watch this.

Oh, it's going to make so many millions of dollars. It is. I'm going to make so much. My nephew, you don't want to know how excited he is for this movie. It is too big to fail. Why isn't there a Fortnite movie? Such a great narrative foundation as Minecraft has. There's also until dawn, there is return to Silent Hill.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Which is the director of the original Silent Hill, adapting Silent Hill too, which already got a good game remake last year. So I don't know if we need this, but we're going to get it anyway. And who knows what else will pop up. But Hollywood has recognized the value that video games have posed all along and has finally stopped screwing them up to quite the extent that they used to.

Borderlands aside. All right. Our final category is unconfirmed. So this could be something that we think is coming, we hope is coming, we know it's coming, but we don't know when and we think it could be this year. Just feel free to explore the studio space. What are you thinking, Jess? This is my number one because I know it's not coming out anytime soon,

and I'm so sorry for putting it in this category. I put the Wolverine game. We don't know anything about it. Doesn't mean it might not come out in 2024 or 2025. It might come back in the past. Yeah. Can confirm that it did not come out in 2024. No.

Okay. Thank you so much. But we don't know. We might drop randomly in 2025. I doubt it highly. But I'm actually genuinely, once it got out, I'm very excited for the Wolverine game. But I put it as my number one because I have zero faith that's actually going to come out in 2025. What about you, Matt?

Well, same thing I say every year, Ben. New Castlevania game. But aside from that, because let's be realistic. I'm just shouting into the void with that one. How about a realistic one? How about a switch to mainline Mario game? I think we can get that. I think that is likely to happen, if not at launch, then by the holidays.

And it's been a bit. Odyssey was fantastic. and who's not ready for another 3D Mario game? That was my pick as well, and I gave it a five, and consider it somewhat likely, because it's been eight years almost since I see. It's been a really long time. Yeah, and that falls into the category of,

well, you know they've been working on something all this time, and a Mario launch title for Switch 2 or whatever it's going to be called, that can be a system seller, so would not be the first time that Nintendo. has pulled that maneuver, and I would not be surprised, but I would be pleased. And really, like, just as a broader category, just stealth Nintendo drop would be kind of my pick here in addition to 3D Mario specifically, because look, we know or we think we know, we're getting Metroid Prime 4.

And that, I presume, has to be a cross-consul generation release. There's no reason for that to be a Switch exclusive, so probably that will span the switches as we've seen Nintendo do with other releases in the past. Maybe it's time for a new animal crossing. Who knows? Right? It's been four or five years at this point. You know, there's maybe a little less intense development that goes into an animal crossing than some bigger budget deal. So maybe, right? Maybe they're going to hold it for the next pandemic. You never know. They're just holding it down and they're like, give it 10 more years. They're checking this bird flu, see how it goes, you know.

Oh, my God. And let me tell you, if there was one thing that saved me during the pandemic, it was animal. I don't know if actually saved me. It probably made me worse. It made me like a crazy person, maybe a psychopath. But I know every animal in the deep sea because of it. Yeah, as disconcerting as that time was, to have Animal Crossing and doom drop at roughly that same time. It was a nice way to distract ourselves briefly.

And also, like, polar opposite. experiences, but in a fun, complimentary kind of way. So, yeah, maybe it's like a stockpile of vaccines, you know, hold it in reserve for the emergency situation. Nintendo just has a new Animal Crossing, just, you know, in case we as a society need Animal Crossing again to get us through a tough time. What else would fall into that? I knew Kirby, I guess. Well, Mario, Mario, as was speculating last year. It's been forever. We are due for that. I think I think if the Switch 2 comes out early enough in this year, we could get a new Mario Kart and a new Mario in the same year.

And if it is a later release in the year, I think we only get one of those, perhaps. But I think they're both eminent within the first two years of that system's life cycle, Mario Kart being one of the best selling games ever, more so even than, you know, they move more units. than actual Mario games now. So yeah, it's become like GTA where you don't need to put a new Mario Kart out.

You just keep re-releasing the old Mario Kart and it keeps selling in droves. I don't get the hype. Well, I used to love Mario Kart, and then I fell off, but people still play Mario Kart to a degree that's like crazy. That's insane. They love Mario Kart.

That's the party. They don't even play Mario Party anymore. They're just like, let's get together and play Mario Kart. Everybody, get your switches. I'm like, I don't want to. I'm playing. There's also potential for some sexy remakes in Nintendo talk here. I mean, Wind Waker, right?

I don't even need a Wind Waker remake. I just want Wind Waker. Just give me an existing previous version of Wind Waker because that game holds up and looks great. I just can't play it on my current consoles. And my wife wants nothing more in the world than Wind Waker. And she never played it. And I want to give her that joy.

and I also want to revisit it myself. So maybe there's a Zelda waiting in the wings here, if not Windwake or something else. They're making us wait so long for that Wind Wake report that it makes me think they're giving it like the thousand-year door treatment of like really combing through it and updating all the art assets

and making it pretty, which like if they're doing that, great. If they're not, give it to me tomorrow. Yes. Just let me either make it worth the wait or make me stop waiting. Either would be totally acceptable to me. And by the way, we should mention,

I didn't know where to mention this, whether to mention it in old IP or sequel or unconfirmed, but it's got to go somewhere. Hollow Night Silk Song? Anyone with me? Never heard of it. This is the year. I really think, I said this on last year's pod,

I'm pretty sure. But I think when Schreier just recently said he didn't expect GTA6 to come out, he did kind of cushion the blow by saying he does expect Silk Song to come out. And he speculated that when it finally does get confirmed and we get the actual release date, it will not be long in the future.

So they've made us wait forever. But when they finally say, okay, here's when it's coming. It will be sort of soon. I think it could be sort of a surprise. It could be a Switch launch title easily. And I think like if they've held it for this long, like imagine switch drops,

switch two comes out, right? And you have either a Mario or Mario cart. You have Hades 2 and you have Hollow Night Silk Song. Imagine those are like the Switch 2 launch games. That is entirely feasible and it would be massive. I'd buy that thing. I don't care if it's no more powerful than a PS4. That's okay.

Give me some upscaling. Just give me those games. If you gave me those games and made them somehow run on a current gen switch, I'd be happy. So that'd be quite a launch lineup. That'd be pretty incredible. And it's not unrealistic is the thing, because we do know that the switch is coming. And we do know that they're going to want to roll out some big heavy hitters software-wise.

And there's a lot of likely candidates. Like, we've got a hit on some of these, if not all of them. And I do have one more overarching prediction. Either of you have just a bigger, broader prediction for the year that we have not covered already. Not really. Just that I've always been talking about that League of Legends' MMO. never going to happen, or eventually it might happen, but I don't think it's going to

amount in 2025. As far as like an overarching prediction, I think I just sort of anticipate the further market domination of PC into the console space. It seems like

people, more and more people are getting into PC gaming, handheld PC gaming. That market is really continuing to grow. It seems like it's not really going to slow down. Yeah. I know personally I've gotten back into PC games

in the past couple of years after a long hiatus, and I'm probably on my PC now playing games at least as much as my PS5, definitely more than my Switch, definitely more than my Xbox. So it ain't slowing down. There's good stuff coming out and weird stuff, and there's more hand-held ways to play those games

than ever before. And people are, thank you Switch, really enjoying playing handheld games after several years of essentially no real handheld gaming.

Nintendo really tapped into something with that Switch. People miss the PSP, people miss Gameboys. The Switch tapped into that thing, and man, is it not slowing down

anytime soon? Yeah. Console sales have stagnated. PC sales and software sales have increased And I feel my resolve weakening too, because I'm with you. I was a PC player as a kid and then became pretty dedicated console player.

And again, usually these days you can play things one way or another. There aren't that many PC or console exclusives these days. But I feel myself gravitating more and more toward PC playing. And I just, I need to be eased into it. I need the convenience of a longtime console gamer. but I'm getting there, and I think that is related to my prediction, which is that this will be the year of Valve.

Now, famous last words, I know. And predicting that Valve will release things. You can regularly go wrong by doing that. But this feels like a year, not only the Steam deck making the inroads that it has, not only the game that we know is hanging around deadlock, but also there is so much. much smoke right now surrounding Half-Life 3, which I know I shouldn't get my hopes up again,

but it feels real. It really feels real this time. There are so many kind of coded teasers, so many leaks, so many rumors. There's something happening here. And of course, this is why I think Silk Song is coming out so that Half-Life 3 can take over the crown of like the game that's never actually coming out that is hyped. And for some reason, people think it's coming out soon, but it's not. Yeah. It's just, it feels like it, right? And we've said that before and been wrong before, and maybe we'll be wrong again.

But I'm starting to believe. And beyond that, there's a lot of buzz about a steam machine or some equivalent, and maybe it will actually stick and will work this time. And that's what I need. I need the convenience of a PC kind of console in my living room. there's buzz about Steam apps on consoles, there's buzz about a Valve VR rig. All of this stuff is coinciding.

Probably none of it will actually happen. Maybe some of it will actually happen. But if any of it does, if more than one of these things actually comes to fruition, it will be the year of Valve, and I'm hoping that it will be. Yeah, we actually just out of, I think out of CES, just now,

we learned of the first handheld PC that's not a Steam deck that has Stom. Steam OS. I think that I'm pretty sure to serve the Legion Go S, the S for Steam, I believe, is running on Steam OS. And that's exciting to see that as promised, there are there will be new handheld hardware not made by Valve that has Steam OS. All right. It's a lot to look forward to apologies to anything we left off here. And not apologies, but extra anticipation for whatever we did not even know to be hyped about yet. I feel like this is a stronger lineup of announced games than we had at this time last year. I'm not saying it'll be as good a year or better. Last year was a good year. It wasn't 20, 23 good, but it was solid.

And I think coming into this year, there's more that I'm hyped about than there was coming into last year. We'll see how things shake out. But that's my take. Do you agree? I agree. I think, you know, this is sort of being hyped as the year of GT86 and whether or not that comes out, even if it does, I still think that this is going to be the year Nintendo. But I do agree that the outlook at the onset in January looks more promising than last year.

All right. Thanks, Jess. Thanks, Matt. What I most anticipate this year is talking to you two and others throughout the year on ButtMesh. Wonderful to have you today. Of course. I love it. I'm sorry that I was a grouch about most of the games, but I'm very excited to be playing these games.

It's only because I have no sleep because I've been playing as Marvel Rivals and New World. Happy to be here, too, to take some time off from Path of Exile and Dragon Quest to be here. Yeah, it's good for you. A different sort of screen time. Thanks also to Devin Ronaldo for producing this episode to Arjuna Ramgapal for his senior podcast management. Stay tuned for more 2025 preview pods, skeleton crew coverage, and right here later this month, Mythic Quest, You can contact buttonmash at ringerverse gaming at gmail.com. Let us know what you're excited for.

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