The Ringer-Verse - The 25 Greatest Games of the Quarter Century | Button Mash

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

Ben Lindbergh, Steve Ahlman, Matt James, Rob Mahoney, and Daniel Chin press F to pay respects to the finest video games of the 2000s (so far), making five picks per person in a knock-down, drag-out draft of 25 stone-cold classics. Intro (0:00)25 Greatest Games of the Quarter Century Draft (11:00)Outro (1:43:23) Host: Ben LindberghGuests: Steve Ahlman, Matt James, Rob Mahoney, and Daniel ChinProducer: Devon RenaldoAdditional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the 21st century was getting underway, Hollywood released a series of films that were daring, entertaining, and absolutely unmissable. Films like, 25th Hour, Bring It On, Zodiac, and No Country for Old Men. They arrived during the George W. Bush era, a chaotic time in America. Think 9-11. Katrina. The mortgage crisis. After the Bush years, the country would never be the same, and neither would Hollywood. I'm Brian Raftery, and in my new limited series, Mission Accomplished, we're going to dive into some of the biggest movies of the bush years. And look at what they said about the state of the nation. We'll go behind the scenes with filmmakers and experts and relive some of your favorite movies from the early 2000s.

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Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. And welcome into the Ringerverse, your Nexus feed for all things fandom. I'm Ben Lindberg, senior editor at The Ringer, Button MASH host, and like Ray Davis, a 20th century man. But today, I'm talking about the best games of the 21st century.

And for that, I will need some assistance. Fortunately, we have a very full house here. No fewer than four guests, five total podcasters. I believe the technical term for that is a planeteers of podcasters. So let me do the roll call. Earth, fire, wind. No, I'm not going to do that. First up, a midnight boy and junior mint, Stephen Universe Alman.

I am wind, but just don't smell it. Next, a man who paints pretty pictures with his words and with Photoshop, Ringer Deputy Art Director, Matt James. Hello, I'm ready to pick five Dreamcast games. Only if I don't get to them first, because that was my draft strategy. So hands off. Also with us is my Last of Us season two gamer guide podcast partner, Daniel Chin. Hello, hello, good to be back. Good to have you back.

Actually, it's been an eventful time in Last of Us news since we did our last Last of Us pod. Neil Druckman left the show for season three. we went from Craig Mason saying there's no way to complete the story in a third season to HBO's Casey Boyes saying Craig is still working it out whether it will be two more seasons or one more long season

and Noddy Dog found yet another new way for people to play The Last of Us Part 2 by releasing a chronological narrative mode with Ellie and Abby's stories intercutting. Can you believe that they did that after we discussed all season what that would have looked like on TV?

I still unwrathes wrapping my head around it. They already have so many releases of this game and they found another way and it's just completely against the most interesting part of The Last of a Part 2. We'll never doubt Nottie Dog's ability to re-release that game somehow, although this was a free update in fairness to them. Perhaps The Last of Us will earn another mention today. We will find out, but finally, another colleague who covered the Last of Us season two as almost everyone employed by the ringer did, because he is the hardest working man in the pod biz, joining us during a rare lull in the basketball calendar and a slight slump in prestige TV, Mr. Rob Mahoney.

Maybe a lull, maybe a slump, but I'm flattered to participate in the time-honored tradition of naming some games, you know? Yes. It's really what we do best around here. It is. And drafting. That's what we do best, or do most at the very least. And you know what?

the prestige industrial complex may tell you that this is a TV downturn, the summer lull, but this period is peak TV as far as I'm concerned. airing right now, we have Dexter Resurrection, Foundation, Star Trek, Strange New Worlds, the Gilded Age, and just like that, twisted metal, platonic, I could go on. Somehow, none of these series has merited coverage on the prestige TV podcast, but put a microphone in front of me and I will recap. every one of those shows. Well, if I can hit you with a withering, I love that for you. Wow.

It's the most withering. It's like Joanna's in the room with us right now. My contact comp just runneth over right now, as far as I'm concerned, this is a great TV time. But this is not a TV podcast. The Ringer Podcast Network does feature multiple TV podcasts, but this is the lone video game podcast. So let us turn our attention to interactive entertainment. And gentlemen, before us today lies the monumental task of determining the best games of the century so far, the best games of the millennium, even. That makes it sound even more impressive.

It's a lot to tackle in one podcast. Can we do it? Probably not. Not sensing a lot of confidence there. We're going to do our best. Again, I think we're going to put this century so far through its paces, but there are a lot of paces to go through. And I am already dreading the honorable mentions of what will not be selected today. Yeah. It's early yet. It's a young century. I know it doesn't feel like that so far.

It feels like a lot has happened. But there really, we've been present for all of this century. Who's more qualified than we are? We've played games. We've seen this century from the very start. We were alive in the 90s. So we're going to give it our best shot. And we certainly have quantity on this podcast, if not quality, in terms of guests. And a communications increase can mean only one thing, a draft, because that is what we ringer staffers do when we are confronted with a job this daunting. And that is, in fact, our task today

in one single podcast to determine the top 25 games of the century, the best 25 games of the century. Best may be in the eye of the beholder. We could each take our separate approaches, the consensus best, the personal faves, the best of the Sega Dreamcast in my case and that's case. But we will put the results to a listener vote at the end so that you all can weigh in.

And nothing about a five guest podcast seems efficient, but this does seem like the most efficient way to do this. Five people, five picks each, 25 in total. There is a certain symmetry to this, at least in theory, if not in practice. Producer Devin will determine the draft order, and then we will follow a snake format from that. And really, this one's pretty simple to explain as draft explanations go, because usually we have categories, which adds some strategies, some intrigue, but also some complexity. And when we've done previous drafts on buttonmash, usually we're drafting games from a certain year or a console or a franchise.

and then it can be helpful to have categories. But this time, we figured it would just be best available talent, that we have this huge pool of potential titles and categories might make it more difficult, but also could kind of constrain us. We want to actually draft the games that we think are the best here. So we toss around some possibilities, like we could have gone with original sequel,

single player, multiplayer, wild card, but we didn't want to compromise our ability to draft the games that we think. think are the actual best just to squeeze things into certain boxes. So this will be a very pure approach to the best 25 games of the century. Is everyone with me? Absolutely with you. I'm very curious to see which genres go underrepresented in that way.

You know, in the same way that, you know, around Academy Award time is all drama all the time. What is the video game equivalent of a comedy? I'm curious to find out. Yeah. We'll see which consoles are overrepresented. Are there franchises that are selected more than once? There are certainly some that would have a credible case.

But all platforms are fine. We don't even have to specify if we have a multi-platform release, that you can certainly single one out if you'd like. Also, we should say that we are starting with 2000 here, Y2K. I know that there is a vocal contingent out there that believes that the 21st century started in 2001. And I am somewhat sympathetic to that perspective, but we can count 2000 just to keep things consistent across the site, across the network,

with how we've done this in previous rankings and drafts with quarter century stuff. So 2000 to 2025, which is technically 26 years, but the 26 years, not over yet. If it makes you feel better, you can just say that these are the best 25 games of the 2000s, and we can compromise on that. So games have to have been originally released in 2000s. or later, and I drew up some rules here, specifically thinking of Rob Mahoney trying to pull some shenanigans here. So no pre-2000s games that were ported or re-released or remastered, et cetera, in the 2000s,

has to come out for the first time in the 2000s and no games that were released elsewhere in the world, let's say in Japan in 1999, and then came to North America in 2000. Original releases only. So don't try to sneak anything past Les Mahoney. I know you did in a previous draft, and I've forgotten the details, but I remember my bitterness. That is what has stuck with me.

Whatever it was, it sounds legal and well-intentioned and ultimately very successful. It probably was successful, or it wouldn't have bothered me so much. Even remakes, remasters of games that were originally released in the 2000s are ineligible, we decided. So originals only,

even if there's a game that came out for the first time in the century, but was re-released, remastered, remade also in the century. It's just the original. That's what counts. However, if there was an original release that perhaps had a buggy launch, let's say, and improved itself over time through many patches and updates, that is fair game. So you can select those compilations, collections, ineligible. So no one can select, say, the orange box. as the orange box was.

Doesn't count too many games. Okay, so we're going to get right into this, and I believe that producer Devin has a draft order, which we do not know. Is that correct? That is correct. I'm going to be bringing good news to some of you and bad news to some of you as well.

So no better time than the present than to tell you all the news. Yeah, rip the pandemic off. Let's go. All right. Number one, Matt, it's a good day for you. I can feel it. Daniel, I'm so sorry, Ben, you were coming in for and Rob them who are closing things out. But because it is a snake draft, you get two picks up top.

So. Yeah. It all evens out. Where's that leave me, though? Mr. Fourth, just a terrible place to be. All right. So we've got Matt, Steve, Daniel, me, and Rob. We'll see if we can remember this.

So, Matt, you have. The pick of the century, you have an entire 25 plus years of games laid out before you, and you can select any of them. No pressure. Okay. No pressure at all. Just looking through the Dreamcast library again. Okay, I'm not going to overthink this.

There's one game that immediately comes to mind for me, and I'm going to pick it. So I'm going to pick The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild as my number one pick. Yeah. A game that has redefined modern video games that has been emulated not only in similar genres, but across all of video games in many, many ways. Don't say emulated in connection with a Nintendo game on this podcast, man. Yeah, no, shut down already before it began. Yeah.

Careful. Yeah, no-brainer for me. Yeah, it would have been a bit of a brainer for me. I would have had to think about it at least, but it's a good picture. It's a great game. My only argument against it is from a positional scarcity standpoint in that you could fill out

an entire draft board with Legend of Zelda games in this draft. Okay, let's not get ahead of my plan. None of them came out for Dreamcast, Matt, so your plans are in conflict. It's a misdirection, Ben. Yeah, I can't wait for Minish Cap

to be your fifth and final pick for this draft. I actually finished that this year. Wow. Oh, good Lord. I'm about to play slash replay Majores Mask actually for the 25th anniversary also eligible for this podcast but not selected.

So yeah, that's all I'm saying is that it's a deep draft board in Zelda games, but this would be my number one pick from that franchise and arguably from all franchises. I think you could also argue, you can make an argument for Tears of the Kingdom as well. Yes.

I mean, if I were to fire one of those two up today, it would probably be Tears of the Kingdom. But I think the importance of Breath of the Wild in this context is more important. Yeah. That's something that I really wrestled with throughout my draft strategy here. I don't know whether you all have thoughts on this too, but just the originality argument. The impact. Yeah, the influence versus iteration, basically.

Because I kept coming across so many examples where maybe the first game in the series, without the first game, you can't have the second game, blowing your minds there. But also, sometimes the second game is better. And so are we drafting best games in isolation? Like, we'll just have the best time playing this game, or are you giving points for being the trailblazer and breaking the bolt? I don't know. We'll have to come to our own decisions.

I think that has to be a part of it. And to what you were saying, Matt, about how copied and iterated the Breath of the Wild formula has already been. It's crazy to think back to how fucking daunting this concept of a game is. Like the fact that they were able to pull off this kind of creativity at this scale, like an open, a truly open

ended open world game. I honestly have no idea how they did it. And I think a lot of other studios been reckoning with it ever since in terms of finding their versions of it. But that creativity, that originality, there's a reason that's number one off the board. I keep finding myself becoming a

naysayer for the likes of Breath of the wild because as much of a terrible traditionalist I am with Zelda games when it comes to something like a Link's awakening that actually to me is like the distilled Zelda experience, I see something like a breath of the wild and I'm like, okay, so this might have like probably brought forward a lot of the survival game mechanics and Minecraftian types of philosophies that are iterated and perfected upon in a Zelda framework, but to me just never rang true as like either the best or most important in its series. Yeah.

I mean, nothing is ever really original in any mediums, right? Everything is building on the shoulders of giants. And you could even say that Breath of the Wild is basically building on the original legend of Zelda. It's just a lot prettier than that one was. Not the cartridge. The cartridge was very golden shiny. Because, Steve, I've always loved all of those 2D overhead Zelda's.

And I do agree that when Breath of the Wild came out, as incredible as it is, part of me did miss what Zelda was and now what Zelda is after Breath of the Wild will never quite be the same. Although they have put out some, they put the Links Awakening remake out and we got Echoes

of Wisdom. So it doesn't seem like 2D Zelda is dead but I absolutely do miss it even with this great new 3D Zelda landscape. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad they're doing a bit of both at least And it seems like Breath of the Wild just leads the league in terms of other developers and other game makers citing it as an inspiration over the past almost decade at this point.

So purely on that basis. Plus, with it being a Switch launch game, I think that enhanced the just open-endedness of it, the really originality of it because you could take the game anywhere in addition to going anywhere in the game. And so that just enhanced, I think, the feeling of, oh, wow, this is actually an evolutionary leap of some sort. I also just love that they were able to recreate that whole, the puzzle feel of the original games, but do something so modern with it and just, like, really make that world and that open world aspects, like, so fun to just go explore and, like, do the little, like, coroc quests and, like, all these random little puzzle. It really rewards you for exploring the world in a way that I think a lot of games miss the mark on. And the fact that Tears of the Kingdom is able to do that, like, three times the scale, too, is I think that something that's, like, extremely, like, underrated with the game that's, like, still a sequel and so derivative of Breath of the Wild, but still able to kind of re-event itself, too.

Yeah, I wasn't a huge fan of the depths, personally. But nonetheless, so scary down there. Too dark down there. Yeah, really. I don't play hard games. People know that unless I'm doing it for content. But if someone selects tears, I would not begrudging. them that because it's a great game in its own right. It's not like a re-skin of Breath of the Wild.

It has a whole different mechanic and different kinds of puzzles, even though it's sort of the same world essentially. Anyway, we're almost 20 minutes in. We've made one pick, so we are rolling right along on pace to wrap up sometime before the end of the century. So Steve, now that you have hated on Breath of the Wilde, basically called it a derivative rip-off. What would you care select seconds. Well, I'll make mine short and concise for how I chose to draft, and I think I equated best to, in my opinion, the most important and the highest cultural impact, as well as games that I absolutely love, because it's hard to ignore my first pick as far as pulling us out of the dark ages, only by comparison to what this game brings after it.

and Valve doesn't make a game unless it has something to say. And I think it said the most with Half-Life 2. And that's easily my first pick where the introduction and probably implementation of physics-based puzzles, actual, like, philosophical, philosophical, philosophically important game design that is echoed to this very day. I implore anybody that has ever played Half-Life 2 or wishes to play. Half-Life 2 to listen to the game makers commentary on the levels that you hear insights from level designers, Gabe himself, and a couple of other people. It really is an incredible insight as to

what it takes to not only make a game, but to kind of teach a language to a player that you hope that they learn and make them feel as empowered as you want them to be. And no game has ever done that better than Half-Life 2. Yeah, I thought you were going to implore people to listen to the Butmash 20 anniversary of Half-Life-2 episode with me and Jason Concepcion, but sure. You can listen to the right after you talk to, I guess. Right, yes. No, it's an excellent pick. It's a landmark game.

It's a milestone. And not just the game itself, but just everything around the game, like the source engine and all the other games that kind of came out of that and Half-Life 2 assets being reused in Portal, for instance, and then just establishing Steam, really. The entire implementation of Gary's mod is based on what Half-Life 2 made. And that's been a Machinima staple for decades now. I mean, also speaking to the importance of that game, and you mentioned the physics engine at the time,

it's easy to forget how much Half-Life 2 pushed things forward. And if you need a reminder, there is an old YouTube video of them, like, revealing Half-Life 2, I think at E3 at some event, in a fairly small room. Oh, with the cinderblock's fuzzle? Yeah. And they're just showing off the tech and people in the room are just gasping. And like, definitely go check that out if you haven't seen that. Yes, it's like the stories you hear about the people with the first movie,

with the train coming at the screen and everyone panicking and running away, which I think is pretty apocryphal. But that's the idea, basically. This just kind of blew everyone's mind. It is a great pick. Okay. Daniel, what you got? All right.

So for my pick, I'm going to go. with Red Dev Redemption 2. Yeah. I was, you know, a little bit torn just thinking about like GTA 5 versus Red Dev Red Dev Redemption 2, but I feel like Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best rock star game, in my opinion. And it's just such a, in the same way that like Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild really allows you to enjoy the beauty of the environment

and explore the world. Like Red Dead Redemption 2 does it so well too, but in such a different way. Like I would often just find myself just, you know, I play like poker or like, go fishing, like when I'm supposed to be saving a kid or somebody, like, doing something much more important. But it's just, it's such an immersive experience that I feel like few video game experiences that really captivated me the way that this game has. The fact that there is a full-on elaborate hunting and fishing sim just like hidden away in this game, I remember when I played through

it and then someone was like, oh, did you catch all the legendary fish? I'm like, what are you talking about? Yeah, I did not 100% this game, but I felt the temptation. I know a lot of of people who did, which is a pretty impressive undertaking, given how much is in this game. But it is the kind of game that you do just want to kind of run around tracking rabbits just because the game world is so immersive, which is probably an overused term in video games, but it's fully deserved in Red Dead too. I think immersion absolutely is overused as far as a video game descriptor. but I think what Rockstar does kind of know better than anybody else,

especially in Red Dead 2 and probably in other GTA experiences, is the fact that it encourages the player to participate in that immersion. The way that you play Arthur Morgan, the way that you can play games like GTA, it makes you kind of restrictive. Yes, you can run around and shoot people all over town and run in any other place, but you actually buy into the role of Arthur Morgan

in a way that you want to ride around town, you want to go up to the mountaintops and maybe chill out for a while and do some fishing when you don't feel like doing life's responsibilities and stuff like that. When you let your hair grow, you can kind of act like a wild man out in the Old West. I think that's the actual conceit

is that if you allow yourself to be immersed rather than the game making you think you are being immersed. Yes. I developed a case of sympathetic tuberculosis while playing Red Bed Red Hat Redemption, too. That's how immersed I was in this game. It feels like the open world model just coming to fruition, just its fullest, greatest expression thus far. I don't think it's been topped in that respect,

even in the years since. And I guess that's sort of a segue to, my next pick. So if Red Dead 2 was the open world just fully flowering, then I'm going to select really the first blossoming, which is Grand Theft Auto 3. And I'm opening myself up to the same criticism that I had for Matt's pick in that very deep board here for Grand Theft Auto Games. I could do an all-GyTA draft, and it wouldn't be the worst approach in the world. And I I could see this not being the first or second or third GTA game that some people would select. But you don't get any of the subsequent GTA games without GTA3.

And you don't get that entire genre without GTA3. I don't think that any game, you know, we talked about Breath of the Wild just seeming so open and emergent and everything in 2017. That doesn't compare to what I felt playing GTA3 on PS2 in 2001, which was like, this is. is this is a new era. I've never played anything like this. The freedom, the way that I can choose how to go about these missions and just spend time in Liberty City doing all of these other tasks, not necessarily fishing and legendary creatures, but like, you know, doing odd jobs, just exploring, finding hidden packages, whatever else, right? Like, this just set the template. And for years after that, everything was kind of a GTA3 clone. And, yeah,

like Vice City is probably a better game on its own. And you could make the case about GTA 4, certainly, if not San Andreas. And then DTA 5 is like, you know, second bestselling game of all time or whatever. And people are still buying that thing and playing it online and role playing on Twitch and all the rest. But none of that happens without GTA 3. That's my argument. And I rest my case. That was my top pick for GTA.

Three was definitely it because that was the first time that technology. really allowed the open world experience in 3D to happen. And that was the first massive 3D open world success. So I totally agree that even if I'd rather play other GTAs, there is no GTA for me that is more important than the third one. Agreed. Yeah. Plus the cultural consternation,

the cultural kerfuffle, just everything that came out of that game and being able to run over innocence and such. I mean, that game just, you know, I always play the plot in GTA3. I'm not just there for the mayhem, but I certainly do the mayhem as well. And so the whole kind of moral panic

that developed around that game, that's not a good thing exactly. It's not something I really remember fondly, but it is one of those cases of video games crossing over into the mainstream, not the first time that that sort of moral panic surrounding video game violence happened, but one of the more notable times, too. So it just, it had such a huge impact on everything, really.

Is this a safe space? Go for it, Rob. I feel uncertain about saying that in advance. But yeah, let's say, let's say it's a safe space. I am here for the mayhem. I am just here to get the police star count up as fast as possible. And just like, how quickly can we inflict the, how quickly can I turn this into burnout is usually my general approach to Grand Theft Auto, and yes, I will participate in the rest of the game.

I think there was something about that moral panic, though, especially, where it was like, it was a bit of a forbidden fruit in a way where I'm like, I just want to engage in the insanity as much as possible. Yeah. I've probably recounted on this podcast before, just my efforts to purchase Grand Theft Auto games not being old enough to do so, whether it was hoodwinking my own grandmother into buying me this game has a gift. Thank you, grandma.

I'll never forget it. Or just getting upperclassmen in my high school to buy these games for me. Whatever it took, I was not going to be denied. And that's a perfectly viable way to play these games. And I don't even think that makes them any less great. So yes, it's a safe space I can say now. It's also my first instance of learning half-baked talking points in order to convince my parents of something. Because I was like, no, it's like actually a critique on like American violence and stuff.

and I'm learning quite a lot culturally about why, you know, you can beat up prostitutes and sex workers. That's, that's, you know, it's part of the American experience. Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. 2001 era. I am 13 years old. Rock star among our more subtle, nuanced, sophisticated cultural critics. Of course.

You should have just tried the grandma method, which is. Right. She'll just get you whatever game you want. If it is a felony that the game is named after, though, it is a tough sell. Yeah, it's true. Okay. Rob, you have two picks to make. We've just been too open for my taste.

Let's go back on the rails. Let's go back to relatively linear. Linear storytelling. I will take the original The Last of Us. All right. Which I think is just like as good as AAA narrative storytelling gets. Concise, character-driven. Another kind of real before-and-after moment in gaming,

not unlike Breath of the Wilder, Grand Theft Auto, where The Last of Us is, clearly iterating itself on all kinds of tropes and genres that we all know very well. It seemed like every game for the next six to eight years was basically trying to be the last of us as well. It was trying to be an escort mission or a partner mission or a protection mission of some kind or some fashion, none of which did it quite as well or quite as impactfully. And I think there is just the right balance of devastation and pure joy in the first last

of us that puts it in a really, really special place. So I will take that for my first pick. It's a good pick. Yeah. It's almost like I have Last of Us fatigue after all these years and all these remasters and all these remakes. It's like a great song that perhaps has been overplayed. And you've just heard it so many times that you need to go cold turkey for a while to re-experience how great it was the first time you heard it or played it. It's the Californian of video games.

Or the Hotel California of video games. But yeah, it's also, it's just like it's been hyped. so much. And I guess it's been sort of at the center of that our video games art and how do they compare to other media kind of conversation, which can get kind of tiresome. And so, you know, people holding it up as like, here, this is our ambassador to the rest of the world. That's, that's unconvinced of video games greatness because it is ready made for an HBO Sunday Night prestige drama. I guess that whole, like, this is the greatest art that the medium has ever produced narrative that the makers of the show have kind of pushed also. And I like the show too.

But yeah. But if you could go back to when we first played the original Last of Us, it deserves to be here. Well, and thank you for driving home the case that many, many other people have made besides me that this is a great piece of art. Maybe one of the greatest pieces of art that the platform, or at least the medium, has ever produced. Thank you. And with your next pick, you'll be selecting The Last of Us Part 2. It'd be quite a move. You know what? I will go open world, though, for my next pick. One that's a little bit more primitive in some ways than something like Red Dead, but I'm going to take The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt.

Damn. Which for my money is the most comprehensive game I've ever played. I am still mind-blown by how tailored and specific every single interaction in that game feels. Every single NPC, no matter what order, no matter what part of the world you're in, everything felt so considered. and the voice acting is incredible. The characters are obviously indelible in a way that has led to obviously all these sequels

and then the TV series. It's just the kind of open world game that resonates most with me, which is one that is fine-tuned down to the smallest possible details. Yeah, we ran a 10th anniversary retrospective feature on Theringer.com. What a great website recently by Lewis Gordon. And he talked to the developers

and he talked to people influenced by that game about just the quest design and how it really stands out in that respect. It's not just sort of fetch quests and Ubisoft style tasks. It's just, as you said, indelible, like Bloody Baron on down. Just every character has some sort of story. Every biome, every region of the world has its own sort of design and terrain and atmosphere. It is a really great game.

I also probably would have taken Gwent itself second. Hell yeah. I'm getting that for free. Let's fucking go. my Gwent heads. Ben, you hate card games. Did you at least try Gwent? No, I did not try to Gwent. What? Man, I'm sorry. I will not be selecting any card games in this draft. I will spoil that much right now. All right. It's back to me already, and I face a difficult decision here.

This is another one of those cases where do I take the original or do I select a sequel? And I think I'm going original again because it was so groundbreaking, although in this case I think you could defensively select a sequel and call it almost as groundbreaking. But I'm taking Halo combat evolved. And this game also just changed everything to some extent. Obviously, this comes along at almost exactly the same time. Well, I guess Halo 2 was the same time as Half-Life 2. We kind of did a two-for on our retrospective episode.

That was a good week in our lives. But the original Halo, it kind of had the golden eye sort of establishing that, yes, you can do a shooter on consoles, but then Halo coming along with Xbox, you know, helping establish Xbox, for one thing, giving Microsoft credibility in the console space, which is now ebbing away, but was there for quite a while for a few generations. and showing that you could make this sort of multiplayer spectacle on a console, that it ran so smoothly that it was so pretty that it was just so easy to pick up and play, but also difficult to master. You know, it led to so many memes and just so much culture and red versus blue and blood gulch and hang them high and all these templates for multiplayer maps that were just repeated on and on down.

this century and, you know, having like system link to join multiple Xboxes, because this was the dark ages still. If you could get enough friends and TVs and system link cables together to do that, that was basically the highlight of my life at that stage. And every subsequent Halo, obviously subsequent halos really push things forward in terms of online multiplayer and Xbox Live and all the rest. But the gameplay was just very recognized. niceably set from the start. You can go back and play the original Halo in the Master Chief Collection, or maybe there will be a remake coming out, or even the OG,

and it just, it feels right. It just sort of set the stage for all of the HALs to come. It's really the only Halo story that I understand. Maybe HALA 2, kind of, but after. Do you want to recount it for us, Ben? What is the plot of HALO? Let me tell you about the R-Bron and Halo and Reach, and there's so much lore, little of which was covered in the TV show Halo, at least in the first season, which did not feature a Halo.

But that actually was like a, you know, sci-fi space opera that had not spiraled out of control. And there was just like a lot of lore, but just a manageable amount of lore, I would say. Everything about that game just emblazoned on my mind forever. or so original Halo for me. Which of the sequels were you thinking about out of curiosity? Because you were saying you were torn. Yeah, I mean, they're still on the board if anyone wants to take them. But Halo 2, I guess. But even Halo 3, I mean, you could make a case just, there are people who will ride for Reach or others as the best Halo game

or at least best single player campaign. But yeah, just in terms of like Xbox Live integration, online matchmaking on console, which was something that was sort of the province of PC to that point. And yet, you wouldn't have had that without Halo Combat Evolved. So, original flavor for me. There is not a game that will be drafted today that hard carried

more slumber parties than either Halo or Halo 2. Those are really the only contenders. I think I got one in my pocket. Very well slumbering happened at those parties in my memory. I love that tease those, Steve. I can't wait to see what we got. Okay. Daniel, what do you have?

This is very tricky. I'm already getting to the point where I'm like, shit. This is just my options here. Just like choose your own adventure. I'm just going to completely go. I think for this one, I can see the argument for there being more influential games for this, but this is where I'm going to lean for more of a personal favorite. And I'm going to go with the original Bioshock.

Yeah. I love the Bioshock trilogy. I could definitely see there being an argument for like Resident Evil 4 as being like more influential and like really helping to lay the foundation for the Bioshock games. But there's something about that original game that was just. is so iconic. And I know you said you weren't a big fan of the horror games, Ben, but they're just playing that for the first time, which there was just so many great moments for the horror elements of it and just like a wonderful aesthetic to the whole game. Yeah, that's what I'm

going with. Yeah, Bioshock was within my horror tolerance. It was, it was creepy. It was not full on horror life compared to where it wet, but. Yeah. When a big daddy is stalking you and you've got people roaming around Rapture in various states of sanity, then, yeah, it could be a game that I would play with the lights on. But I could manage it. It's a great pick. I mean, this was another one that just dominated the discourse. I guess we kind of just, we went from Bioshock to The Last of Us maybe in terms of like,

here's the exemplar of the form. Here's the sort of sophisticated complex, morally gray story. you can tell in video games, even if it was a lot less complex than subsequent games would be and sort of simplified in that binary video game good or bad choice way, but just the design of Rapture, really,

and just some of the influences that it pulled in and the twist and the plasmid gameplay with the shooter. Like, yeah, very influential. Yeah. I'm actually surprised they haven't, I'm sure they've tried before, but haven't adapted yet.

It's so shocking that Ken Levine is so difficult to work. Yeah, that's been one of the ones that's like been floating around for a long time. About as long as Bioshock has been out at this point, someday, maybe. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, Reliable Internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business. They keep companies of all sizes connected with Internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support, millions of business owners

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Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Okay. Bioshawk off the board. Back to Steve. Okay. I think I need to, okay, on my board, I think I want to carry over with the slumber party goat.

Yeah, so when I get to heaven, when I hope that I would like to get to heaven. Yeah, that was a big when and not if. Yeah, when. It'll be right after this pod. When I get to heaven, I'm sure that when a recounting of my life comes up and, you know, either God or whomever comes to me. And it's like, now everything seems to be checking out fine. But you had a brief stint when you were 17 years old in the year 2007. You care to explain your activity in the Call of Duty modern warfare?

lobbies, I'll just send myself straight to hell. Because I think the time that we had with Call of Duty Modern Warefare is probably like the most integral part of camaraderie, like, liken only really to Halo. And it's the, I think the peak of what became Activision's kind of control over Trajerk and all of these other companies that would eventually splinter off into the massive of mega hit Goliath that is now Call of Duty. But before that, it basically modernized and made the most accessible that level of multiplayer gaming that is the most fun, the most toxic, the most like infinitesimely rewarding that like just scratches your primal gamer brain of like get kill, see yellow points meter go up,

get kill streak, calling a helicopter, nuke the level. I don't know if there has probably been a better time to play games with your friends than that time. And Modern Warfare was at the center of it. Like, I can't ignore that. I can't. Yeah. I feel like if this were the Midnight Boys and Van were here,

he would be interrogating exactly what words you were saying. In those lobbies? I simply would not know what he was talking about. My goodness. Steve is not confessing anything here. He was just, he was one of the weighing me and my God. One would mute. Yeah, if God is letting you in.

Yeah, which seems more doubtful now. He would just do that to talk me, really. The only thing you've admitted as far as I can tell, Steve, is that you love the military industrial complex. Honestly, and it's why I haven't supported it since I was 17. Hmm. Did you come close to enlisting at the time? Absolutely not.

Are you kidding me? Yeah. To think that that was even remotely relisting. America's Army. I could be shot with a bazooka at point-blank range. I'm going to do this from the safety of my own home. Thank you very much. Yeah.

America's Army still on the board. So you are selecting Call of Duty for the original modern warfare. Yes. Okay. Yeah. This is, it's a good pick because, again, could say it was surpassed perhaps by Modern Warfare too. But it did establish that Call of Duty did not have to be World War II forever.

And I'm fine with World War II forever, to be clear. but this did maybe open it up to it. A lot of boomer dads are as well. Let's just clip that audio right there. We're wanting to live inside World War II. Speaking of comments, we wish we could take. You could also click the moment where he was talking about being chased by big daddies as well.

That's true. Out of context, but mesh, coming back to Hot Me. Okay, it's a good pick. It was huge. And that was in the era when Call of Duty could be like Game of the Year. You know, not just in terms of sales, but in terms of critical claim as well. So it checked both boxes. It was a phenomenon.

It's a good pick. All right. We have come all the way back to Mr. Matt James. Two picks. Two picks in a row. Okay. Yeah, let's do it. I'm going to take Pro Skater 2.

All right. Cool. Yes, it did come out in 2000. It is eligible. It is the most important Tony Hawk game. the most memorable soundtrack. When it came out, there was no game that had... Oldanger has a word to say about that.

Yeah. There's no game that had ever felt like Tony Hawk's pro skater when that came out. And when two came out and introduced the manual and really linked tricks together in a way that you couldn't before, and it just became exponentially more enjoyable. And everyone you knew had this game, I think. did any of you not have Tony Hawk's a pro skater too?

Oh, I was living in it. Oh, my God. It's probably, it feels like it came with everybody's PlayStation at that point. Actually, I'm picking this as a Dreamcast game. Wow. Oh, shit. Power Stone, you're on notice. But it's console agnostic.

Honestly, it's not a PlayStation thing. It's not a Dreamcast thing. This just comes with your American citizenship as far as I'm concerned. Yeah. It's settled the console worse. ended them forever. It made peace between the fanboys. We could all agree that Tony Hawk was great on any platform. Most influential, did you say most important Tony Hawk game even more so than the original? Yeah, I think so. Okay. Because I think the breakout that two had was mainstream,

whereas Pro Skater was very successful and everything. But two was just a cultural phenomenon. Yeah. And arguably, well, some people would argue. you perfected in three, perhaps, but a lot of people think two is still the best. I mean, you can argue things that are wrong. That's fine. You can do that. Okay. So two rounds down, three to go, and that will lead off round three with another pick. Yeah. You can still select Tony Hawk three if you care to. I don't. Okay. Speaking of three, though, I'm going to pick a three. I'm going to pick Balders Gate three. Ooh, yeah. Ah, shit. No recency bias here. That game is an all.

timer and it has changed how we think of story in games. It has changed. It has raised the bar for what we can expect our choices to manifest within a video game. Everything that is trying to convey a story in which your input makes some sort of difference is going to be measured up to Balders Gate 3. And it's going to continue to be that way for God, knows how long. Yeah, it's a great pick. It feels like an active revolt against choice-based storytelling and video games when that game came out because there were so many, well, maybe not so many, but there was an infamous quote from a developer whose name escapes me where like, it's like, hey, so Balders Gate 3 is awesome. Do not expect this because this is

insane. And they did something incredible. And I don't know, don't expect this from most games out here. And I choose to not accept that. I think that that. is the video game industrial complex. They're like, no, we deserve health care. We deserve choices that matter in video games. And I think that's one of the tenants that we can do. We're going to be talking about this game for like decades from now. Because not only did it do all of those things, but everybody in the world played it.

Like people that had never picked up a game before in their lives wanted to experiment with the choices that you can make with that. And think about ways to play that game that never were understood. Like, people invented barrelmancy, and that was a viable strategy for doing some of the hardest combat in the game, where you just throw barrels in people. And the developers were like, amazing. You did that. That's how it was meant to be played. We love you. It's perfect.

Yeah. And Bear sex, Barrelmancy, all kinds of fair ways to play that game. I had Baldersgate two on my boards. I know. The social breakdowns in this episode are just off the audience. He really is. I had Baldersgate 2 on my board. My board has like 60 games on it for some reason, even though we're drafting 25.

There's no way we could conceivably get to number 60, but I just had to list it regardless. But this is another sort of storied franchise. And Matt is collecting examples of non-original games that are actually maybe the best and most influential and best received games in that series. And I did want to go with some recent picks because I did. I didn't want it to be all early century because I guess it's easier maybe to be influential when there's less that preceded you, right? I mean, I'm taking GTA3 because it was like, you know, new model of open world gaming and everything else just kind of had to top that. You can't put out GTA3 now and expect it to be well received. So it's good, I think, that we have some examples from fairly recent years.

And there are others that I have on my board here that could be taken just from the last few years. And that game kind of took people by surprise. Despite the brand name, I don't think anyone was expecting that to be the phenomenon that it was. And just the way that it was produced, there's just a lot that went into that game's success. It's a good pick. Back to you, Steve. Back to me. All right.

So this was a tougher choice only because I had to reckon with what I actually knew to be the better game versus my favorite. game in one of its sequels. And from 2001, I am picking Metal Gear Solid 2, directed by one Hideo Kajima. One of the true, I think, like, savants and lunatics of our time. And I think in Metal Gear Solid 2, there's actually this great thing that he does where he's very much the idea guy.

And he's like, he's understandably not the, like, technical wizard that people think he is, but he's incredibly good at conveying ideas that he wants executed in a game. And the things that he was touching on just in the story of this game, let alone moment-to-moment gameplays of how technology can't be trusted,

how information can be disseminated and manipulated. In as early as a thing that is released in 2001, which was in development for much longer, the things that come from Metal Gear Solid 2, both thematically and gameplay-wise, are echoed to this very day, hauntingly so. And I had to actually have an included poll quote from a recent interview that Kojima gave

just to emphasize how much of a true maniac this guy is. This is from an interview that he gave asking about the modern moments that he likes in the industry and he says, I think it's relatively boring. People are making things that are way too safe. Whenever you're making a military shooter, I can tell that these people don't even know how to dismantle a gun.

I've learned that. I've learned so many ways about how to kill people and nobody else has. He has not elaborated as to why. That's my go. I'm sorry. He's having a normal one. Yeah. Yeah, you can tell when you play that game.

This man knows how to kill people. Yeah. And I mean, who has lots of thoughts about lots of things, as you said, Steve. Like, to follow a swing as big as the first Metal Gear solid with this, which has all like the high-minded gobbledygook that I love in a Kojima game. Yes. But just like overall,

like the pixelated, blurred out balls on this game. Like they really take some huge, huge risks. First, like in terms of the perspective, in terms of the gameplay, in terms of everything that they're at you, and it all just kind of works.

It all just hits for reasons I cannot articulate. It's nonsense and high art at the same time, and I genuinely don't know how it happens. Yeah. And he's still doing it to this day. Okay. Did you say this was a safe space? It was unclear if it was the safe space.

You weren't on our death stranding two, I mean, I don't know how to dismantle a gun, Matt, so it is a safe space. You kept your powder dry, your anti-Kajiba hater, your Hideo hater take. Wow. I just think it's a little over-rate. That's all. Okay, let's move on.

I get it. I get it. Wow. He's a kooky guy. Okay. Steve of Liberty has selected MGS 2, and that means that we are back. to Daniel, very proud of myself for not losing track of the traffic. Yeah, you're doing a great job here.

Directing traffic. I can't believe. All right. Back to D.C. What you got? All right. So I'm going to go with a Bethesda game here. And I'm going to go with Elder Scrolls 5, Skyrim.

Yeah. Yeah. I was very torn between, like, going like the fallout route because I love someone like, New Vegas. There's some really good fallout games. But for me, at least, there was just something about the fantasy element that they captured so well in this game and just hunting down dragons and like getting the powers from the dragons and just be the open worldness of it was I like open world games clearly but the open

worldness of it was just so great and I that is definitely a game that I just spent hours and hours and hours getting lost in in high school so I feel like this is this is up there for me out of all because I mean oblivion was also a great game but there was many improvements I think substantial enough improvements for this to really stand on its own and especially after how much hype there was. I think that's something that a lot of these games can say as well. There's so much hype to possibly overcome that that's extremely difficult. But a lot of these games did that.

So that's why they're on this list. Yep. Yeah, we had to have a Fallout. Fallout 3, New Vegas. We had to have Skyrim, some sort of Bethesda representation here. So I'm glad that you pulled this letter. And yeah, for a fifth game in a series, you'd think that that would detract from the groundbreaking aspect. but it just, it felt so perfected.

I mean, I know it's a Bethesda game, so it's still buggy as hell, but like in terms of like, oh, yeah, this is what they were going for all along. And this can't be topped, though they will try, I guess, eventually, in the elder school six. This is a good pick.

Okay. Yeah, it's back to me. And I'm trying to break out of the first five years of this century, but I can't quite yet because I have no choice, but to take World of Warcraft. I mean, when you talk about games that became cultural phenomena, that became so closely associated with their genre as to be synonymous with it,

a crossover really mainstream hit, there was a little bit of that like moral panic aspect, like this game is so good, people can't stop playing it, which I guess was preceded by EverQuest, Evercrack, but just was more intense, with World of Warcraft. And this was also a game that celebrities would speak openly about playing and not hide their heads in shame, which was, I think, important to us at the time.

And this game is still going strong, which I sort of struggled with ongoing games in this draft. I don't know about you guys. I don't know how much live service we will have here, but there are certainly games that have just been so influential and have really remade the industry in their image. And this was maybe the first of those in that molds, just the fact that they could release World Warcraft Classic. And that could be a huge hit just for the pure nostalgia hit of remember what this was like in 2004. And then just the ongoing iterations and expansions and just the books that have been written about this game and the histories that have been told and the movies made in the engine. just so much lore, just an in-game economy, there's just so much depth to World Warcraft

that has just been a constant in many people's lives for the past 20-plus years. Also in terms of games that sort of reoriented people's lives around them, like shifting into a zone of online play where it's like, oh, you need to schedule your life around this clan raid. Yep. It's just like such a novel idea at the time and one that kind of blew my mind as friends were like neck deep in playing it.

that now we just kind of take for granted, that there are these windows in which we play games online with our friends, but it was not always this way, and a lot of that is because of wow. Yeah, we totally all have friends that we play with. Definitely speaking for all of us. But yeah, it's, it also was so accessible because there were MMOs before World of World Earthcraft, obviously, and EverQuest was pretty popular. But all of these things are iterative.

This is kind of why I was saying just, you know, nothing is truly original. and this was very much built on the bones of previous games, but just polished and perfected and streamlined to the point where you could play it without being afraid of what you were getting into. And it held your hand to an extent, like less so than it came to over time,

but more so than pretty much everything that proceeded, which is why it broke so big. So you could be a casual and yet get into this game in an extremely hardcore, possibly deleterious to your life, kind of way. So crazy. Okay.

We're back to double Mahoney picks. I will choose the game that sold a million wavebirds, Super Smash Brothers melee. Yeah. You know, the definitive version of a definitive fighting game. Not the ultimate version. No. Not explicitly so.

But one that has had a life that I never could have anticipated, certainly at the time of release. And especially when you consider how many smash versions have come out since, the fact that this is still the go-to competitive format, the go-to gold standard for the genre and certainly for the Smash franchise. It's got to go off the board at some point. How this franchise came to be, again, baffles me.

The idea that we're just throwing all these characters at the wall from all these different Nintendo franchises and somehow just worse. Especially with Nintendo. Yeah. Who are so gatekeeping around every single thing possible. And yet, Super Smash Brothers existed. It's a miracle and melee is the best version of it.

Yeah. I had just smash in my spreadsheet because I wasn't even sure which way to go. It's like, I mean, my favorite smash is the original, which is the game that I've probably sunk the most hours into of any game ever, but obviously ineligible for this draft. But like melee, brawl, ultimate, like you could just kind of select any of them. And I would have nodded and said, yeah, that attracts. So, but yeah, melee was fantastic. To Rob's point, too, it's like seeing the evolution of that game has been so wild too. I mean, the fact that with Ultimate,

you can get Sora from like Kingdom Hearts, like Cloud, like all the whole like Final Fantasy crew, like the sheer number of characters that it went to, but there was something so classic with Mele, with just like that core group, I don't know. Yeah. Like that pick. Another thing I hope will not get me in trouble with Nintendo's lawyers

is that I spent an unreasonable amount of money buying Smash Remix, which is just like the expanded homebrew version, of original smash for N64 with all kinds of custom characters and stages so that I can continue to play it for the rest of this century or as long as I live. So, yeah, I couldn't select Smash remix here, but I'm pretty sure that's ineligible. It's actually when you get to the most beloved games in Nintendo's catalog,

when you realize how, like, nonsensically gatekeeping they are to their own product because, like, the fighting game tournament that is Evo, like, only recently stopped making tournaments for melee, like as recently as just a few years ago. And it's because Nintendo refused to, like, update that platform for any modern audience, whereas, like, anything else that would have been, like, manifested around a community,

they would have embraced and updated or even modernized in some ways. But instead, they were sticks in the mud and wanted to keep this, like, somehow quiet because people were just playing old versions of this one game. And it really emphasizes the backwards thinking around kind of the most popular games in Nintendo's catalog. They're doing the same thing with speed running now, where at least one organization is having to get advanced permission and license certain titles to speed run. It's free promotion.

It's free advertising for your products. Nintendo, why won't you let us love you? Why won't you love us back? We want to. We're trying. Okay. Next pick, Rob. This is a pick that I would say was somewhat.

immune to the hype cycle that we've been discussing with all these other huge titles, with all the anticipation that they drove. This one was a word of mouth classic that caught on like wildfire. And by the time it caught me absolutely blew my doors off. And that's disco elicium. Ooh, yeah. As we've been talking about the immersion of all these games, it's like a good game will help you forget the random number generators and the decision

trees and like all the mechanics that are working to make it happen. A great game takes you to a place of wonder as it does. all that. And holy hell, Disco Leastym is a great fucking game. Like, how sophisticated it is about capitalism,

power, government, humanity, honestly. Like, it has so much on its mind that articulates so well, not just in dialogue

and in character, but in the systems that are baked into the game. I had such a great time playing it. I almost bought Kim Kitsuragi's jacket for like $500 as soon as I was done with it. So if you're driving, if you're driving the game

to merch wagon that fast, you've done something clearly right. Right. Hardcore. It's when I see like cosplays of rosacea-laden drunk detectives at conventions, I was like, wow, this is really impactful to know that this is a character that we can glom on to. Not only for his workplace politics, but for how good the game is. Yeah. I wish it had existed when we were younger so that we could have made the case to our parents or

Guardians, like, look how much text is in this game. I could read a book where I could just play Discoeusium. It's essentially the same thing. And you can now play it in some weird TikTok-I's version that's been released, apparently, on mobile platforms. Oh, right. Yeah. It has been designed for the generation of zero attention span, apparently.

For the record, I'm not drafting that version. Look at it. Yeah. I am fascinated to see the follow-ups to Disco Elysium because the entire team, has fractured and has formed like five rival startups. It's like Alexander the Great Generals carving up his empire or something after he died. And now they're all just challenging each other for the title of true successor to Disco Elysium. Seems like most likely none of them will live up to the original. But maybe divide and conquer.

Who knows we can make the next great Marxist game? We've all been asking. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Man, this is tough. All right. you can't really go wrong in this draft,

or I guess you could, but it would be hard to. See, all right, I feel like this would still be on the board in another round, but I don't want to take any chances. I'm going for another game that tests the limits of eligibility here. It came out in 2000. It's a little game I like to call DeusX. Oh, nice.

This is a game. I would imagine that the contemporary, sales figures would probably pale in comparison to some of the other classics that we've talked about here. But very much a sort of Velvet Underground-esque, everyone who played Deus X made their own game kind of influence. It's just, you know, you could also credit War Inspectors' other games and thief and all the rest, but just that idea of emergent gameplay that we cite so many times, that feeling that Breath of the Wild conjures. DeusX, I don't think it has been bettered in that respect.

It hasn't been bettered by its sequels, some of which were quality, some of which less so. But that game gave me a feeling playing it at the time. You can play that game anyway that you want to. And it's not just kind of cookie cutter either or stealth versus running gun. Like you can just make your way through every level. You can hack, you can shoot, you can sneak around. I just shoot people because I.

That's what I do generally. Oh, you're missing out. The hacking is really good. I know. There's a lot of vents to sneak through as is the way in video games. And, like, you can play through that story and encounter, like, major plot points that someone else playing DeiSX will not encounter. It just wouldn't happen for them based on the choices that they made in that game.

And, yeah, in the world of Baldersgate 3, maybe that doesn't sound so amazing. But in 2000, it did. And I do feel like so many games have. followed in the footsteps of DeSX or tried to or have cited it as the feeling that they're going for. Yeah, cyberpunk, right? Sure, yeah, cyberpunk system shocked to just like so many games that are kind of in that vein, but very few have done it as well. I actually had Human Revolution on my list.

Oh, yeah, okay. All right, we are back to Daniel. Back to me. Okay. I'm going to go with another one that was a class. of my household. Mass Effect 2. Yeah.

Nice, nice, nice, nice. Honestly, he's a little torn between this original trilogy, but this one stands out to me the most. I feel like there's definitely criticisms of like the ending of Mass Effect 3, for example, but like everything, the way that everything ramped up to the climax of this game and just really the way that you assemble your roster, your squad, just like the character work of this game,

there are so many brilliant characters as you're exploring space with them. And just a big improvement on the first game, too, in a lot of respects, I feel like in terms of gameplay. This is actually another one I'm surprised they haven't. I think at some point they tried adapting it with. They are. Amazon is in the process. I was going to say, this is one that feels perfect for adaptation. But just such a phenomenal story and like really scratched an itch for me, like in terms of like a space exploration game that I hadn't had in like a really long time. I feel like Knights of the All Republic were games that really stuck out to me from before then.

But Mass Effect, too, was really good. Yeah. It's, I think, unquestionably the best in the series, given the controversial reception to the ending of Mass Effect 3, which was kind of a formative foundational moment in its own in terms of just like the community backlash. Yeah. Fan entitlement and fans sort of exerting their will and influence over creators to try to mold a story the way that they wanted it to be molded. but Mass Effect 2, yeah, the romance, the intrigue. Who you got to romance, exactly. Let me tell you, say what you want about Mass Effect 3.

That's still peak bioware, in my opinion, because it's a shell of itself now, and I can't think about it for too long because I genuinely get sad, because then you think about, like, the anthems of the world and then the failed, like, reboots at trying to get Dragon Age off the ground, and, you know, we had what we had. But BioRare really meant something special to RPG storytelling and a modern take on that level of games. Like they had Star Wars. Jade Empire Love forever, by the way.

I can't think of like when a game, when a company was at its powers, I don't think that they have made more favorites of mine than BioW. Yeah. The brand loyalty for BioWare was, yeah, it's been frittered away sadly by, Andromeda by even worse failures, missteps. Maybe Mass Effect 5. Who knows? Maybe they'll get their act together.

Not holding out much hope, but you never know. Okay. Well, we're back to Matt. Nope. Steve, right? So close. So close. I mean, I don't know.

You're throwing a perfect game over there, Ben. Yeah, I know. I was worried. I lost it for a second. But no. Other people made mistakes. Not me. Okay.

Hit us. Well, Ben, for that transgression, I'm going to press triangle and circle and give you a takedown and say, now talk, because I'm going to talk about Batman Arkham Asylum, baby. Do you want to be fucking Batman? Because this game is incredible. I don't think that there's a single game that I probably could have come back to and still having held up exactly the day that I first played it, like this game. I know that this is. I was going to say, bitch.

I was going to say. Yeah. Bro, easy. Don't say that Arkham Asylum isn't a classic when you know it is. It's a very good precursor. In Arkham City, it had been off the board. Absolutely would have looked at Arkham Asim. Okay.

But listen, we have incredible Metroidvania mechanics. We have like basically a perfection that was the Prince of Persia template of reaction-based combat. And you have an incredible production value. of both when WB Games was at the peak of its powers, as well as having great voice acting from Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill and all of the animated series regulars, it's probably like a perfect convergence that kicks off a near-perfect trilogy of Batman games.

That is now the boilerplate template that has been tried to be iterated upon for everything. You don't have your great Spider-Man launch games on Sony without Arkham. You don't have nearly every great, action adventure game that we've had from the past like decade and a half without that perfection of combat

with like reaction take down, explore. Even the like lesser like puzzle solving easy sort of detective based things that you would have seen in the Assassin's Creed a lot, Eagle Vision and stuff like that, all done incredibly well in this game. And everybody

has played it. Everybody loves it. Sure, Arkham City is better. But I like from asylum a little bit back. Wow. What a long wide up to that concession of the end of the screen. It was the Batman game that we had always dreamed of. Yes. Yes.

No, it's exactly because it's just like, oh, God, they're making another Batman game again. What is this game going to do? And then you're like, oh, my God, it's actually incredible. And they did it. Yeah. Yes. It took a little bit 20 years. Yeah.

Yeah. Speaking of swinging, put some respect on Spider-Man 2's name from 2004, which was another back on the story. I'll only put respect on it. Yes, okay. Fair enough. I mean, that was another example to just plug one of my previous picks where it was like Grand Theft Spider-Man. Everything after Grand Theft Auto 3 was Grand Theft something.

But no, it's true. Like the Arkham trilogy is just the finest example of super hero storytelling and gameplay in video games. Maybe the best licensed games ever. And if you want to go with the argument of first is best or most influential, Hey man, I didn't come to you being like, no, ODST is better. Like, I was, I was with you with combat involved, okay? Let me have it.

Thank you. Okay. You got it. Oh, by all these, uh, anyone who wants to select parties, he still can. Yes, still on the boy. All right. We've, we've really picked up the pace. We're, we're down to Matt's final two selections, I believe.

That's right. That's right. And this is super hard thinking of all these great games that I'm not going to be able to on my list. Harder and harder. The closer we get to the end and I'm looking at what has not been drafted

and feeling bad about it, there's no way not to feel like we snubbed many of the greatest games of the century because people are going to be emailing a lot. Be kind to us, folks. Yeah.

All right. Well, I think a lot of my list is kind of, I think, making a statement that the games that we've had in the past few years are fundamentally better than a lot of the old ones.

As important as a lot of the old ones were, it's not recency bias, I swear. And the truth will be very clear in a decade or two when we look at later historians at the end of the century when they review our draft results will look kindly upon them. So I think my next two picks are going to surprise

several people. All right, next to last pick, I'm going to take Hades. Hell yeah. Oh, I keep forgetting on this modern heat that we got is incredible. You could not put it down. And it's one of those games. You know, you talked about everything after GTA had to be an open world game, right? Everything after Hades is a rogue like.

It's true. It is the game that has broken the genre to the point where now many people are sick of broke likes and they don't want any of them. But you have to look like, God of War created a roguelike mode. And I think that's because of Hades. I think that's because of the, I think that's because of the success of Hades. I think it is a landmark game, and it is one of the most enjoyable games, and one you can still return to at any time, and get completely lost in.

So that's my second to last big, 80s. I think it's the best written roguelike game ever made. Like, not just the gameplay loop, which is infinitely satisfying, you have all of the art and the music and the design that makes Super Giant Game so special. But the writing of the characters was actually propulsed.

in a way that maybe want to keep playing, which is almost never the case in a rogue. Like, because how could it be? How is it even possible that it could be that? And yet, yeah. It's the mere fact of how much there is in that game. Because not only as you're replaying it seemingly like forever, there's still new lines of dialogue that I, like, 40 hours in, have not heard.

And different. Oh, 40, Steve. Lightwork, come on. I know. You know what I'm talking about. I'm just like, you have, I'm like, did they really? sit in the booth for that long and just record all of this stuff just for like little like two minutes like back and forths it's incredible with the work that they've done in this and you

might be right it might be the most the best written story in a rogue like yeah i think it's definitely a really impressive dimension of it too because it's like after the first play through i was like i don't know how interested i am going to be trying to get through this again and it's so rewarding because you just like keep on finding new lines of dialogue new new ways to to get through it try to get faster and it's so addicting All right, Matt, it's your last chance. All right, so this is probably going to be even more controversial, but I'm standing on business with this one.

I am going to pick as my last pick. Expedition 33, Claire Obscure. Who! What? I don't know the name backwards, but Claire's here in addition 33. Absolutely not. What? I know that you are an absolute hater of this game.

I am. I started this draft by hating on a Matt pick. Man. He's ending it the same way. This is. One of the best RPGs of all time. And it is, I would argue it is almost a perfect game. There are no lulls in this game from start to finish.

The plot continues to drive forward. The combat continues to evolve. And I found it to be a meaningful game. I found it to be one of the best art designs of any game I've played in the past two decades. and the soundtrack is incredible. There's just, there are no flaws in this game unless you're an absolute hater like Steve. I, it's so great.

And I really won't stay on it long because obviously I know I'm in the vast minority here, and I am the one taking crazy pills, but it's just, it's so not any of those things that you said for me. And I will sit over here and put my microphone away from my face. I love that rebuttal. It's just, it's not any of those things, actually. You covered all of Steve's points.

Yeah. In one sentence. Got a point. Well, it's a bold pick. And it's a very presentist approach that you've taken to your selections here. How did you not add Eldon Ring to your selection here? I was expecting. Yeah, I was looking at Eldon Ring.

I was looking at Final Fantasy 9. I was looking at Resident Evil 4. Just some good ideas for you guys. It's looking at Ghost of Sushima, Vampire. Pirate Survivors, you guys want any of these? Yeah, all right. Three. We thought the good games.

Rob's going to pick Stardoo if you don't pick it before him. Yeah, I just, I found this game to be profoundly moving and absolutely flawless. And I think a lot of people agree with me. And I think that you're going to see more turn-based RPGs with active elements in the years to come. In the way that we've had, you know, the Elton Ring, right? Everything is the soul's like right now, right? I think in two years, you're going to see a lot of clair obscure lights. I think that this is going to be nearly that influential.

Yeah. Although a clear obscure like would be like a lot of games that preceded Claire Obscure. Absolutely. Part of it is a conscious callback and sort of retro approach, as we discussed on our episode about it. And it is, it harkens back to that earlier era that we remember really fondly and puts this modern sheen on it. And I think I love it almost as much as you do. It is certainly my game of the year. I guess it's obviously too soon to say what the impact and influence will be.

But it has already been held up as this just, hey, we can still make games in a sustainable way without hundreds of people building them and hundreds of millions of dollars and nine years in production. And so in that sense, it seems like it's poised to be pretty influential. there's also, I guess, I mean, you know, if we return to turn-based, then I guess you could say that that would be the clear-obscure effect. Or we've talked about how we're just at peak perry right now. And I guess this is an example of that, but you can't quite credit clair-obscure with our being at peak perying. It's an example of that, but obviously, like, parrying is everywhere. Yeah, and the Eldon Ring, you know, the Souls-like wave was brought the paring in, obviously. But yeah, the turn-based RPG was something that people were sort of looking at the clock ticking on.

And I think that this has proven that there is interest in these games and there is going to continue to be interest in turn-based RPGs. Well, history will judge you. We're trying to write history in real-time right now. It's always an imperfect document. You know, you read the presidential experts, ranking the presidents. See how much those change over time. We'll see whether Claire Obscure rises or falls in their estimation. I'm calling my shot.

Okay. All right. You planted your flag. Okay. Who is next? We are going back to Steve. That'll be me. Steve's going to pick something with guns in it.

Let's go. No, I will not, actually. I'm actually going to be picking something with energy here. I like this. So we're scamping and saucy. and saucy. No, I'm actually going to pick something without guns in it,

something with barely anything in it, except a vast landscape and a dude in his sword. I'm picking Shadow the Colossus on the PlayStation 2. And this is pretty much a... This was a come-to-Jesus moment for me

when it came to the idea that games can be something that's above the juvenile childish and And like, I don't know, like, something that's lesser than what our, like, child, like, sentiment was told that it was. Like, all of our parents, like, kind of shrug and it's like, oh, it's just you're playing your games. You are having all of this fun.

Like, when I first tried to try Shadow the Colossus, this is like, oh, like, I'm reading and immersing myself in a story that is not only elevated, but intimate and thought-provoking. the amount of empty space that I'm given. And talking about immersion, when I allow myself to be immersed in a game like this, I keep thinking about the absence of space and I keep thinking about the things that came before and how the stories in our minds can be almost like the things that elevate something that is nothing.

And Shadow the Colossus is probably one of the formative experiences that I've ever had with the medium or any medium in general. It's a simple story. but it's devastating and affecting and often difficult to play and arresting, but it is so impactful and so beautiful. And something that I actually can't not draft because while other games might have been more important

and far more influential, there actually has not been really any game like Shadow the Colossus before or since. And I can't ignore this. This is a one of one. It's a great game. I'm glad you picked it. I wish they would remake this because trying to revisit it now with the frame rate is a little tough.

But I do remember this being just an absolutely beautiful game, as you've said. I had a similar experience with Eco that you've had with Shadow the Colossus. I've got good news for you, Matt. They did remake this. Yeah, they did remake that. You can. Yes. Yeah, for the PlayStation 4 and now updated for the PlayStation 5.

Does it run it 60 or at least 30? Yes, it does. Beautiful. Yeah, it's a great game. I would have considered drafting this as well. It was certainly on my board. I like a colossus in video games. Even when I have to slaughter them,

I like the sense of scale. I like when there's something that is way bigger than your playable character. Maybe that sounds simplistic, but I like that. I like climbing something really big. a big daddy. Another out of context vote for me.

Devin, please cut everything I said on this podcast. Cut it and send it to me, for self-preservation. I'll put it to good news. This will be drops for future episodes forever. Yeah. No, great atmospheric design,

like understated storytelling. You know, just made you feel bad about killing the colossi without actively telling you that for the most part. without much dialogue at all. Great special game.

Okay. Daniel. All right. My last pick here. I will say I'm very tempted to go with a game that's within the same, like, franchise is something we've already picked. But for the sake of variety, I'm going to go with Portal 2. I feel like I could definitely see the argument for Portal 1, but between both of these

games, I think Portal 2 is just the better game that I personally played more. Yep. And I think it was just such a revolutionary puzzle game. Portal 2 with the aspect of it having a co-op mode too was incredibly fun at the time, I feel like. But really just such a really fun engaging video game experience, like very few puzzle games I've played before and since. And just like really, really creative way to go into a really tried and true genre of games. Not a lot of games are as funny as. Portal 2 or as just like dark humors yeah yeah yeah and and just mind fucking as well in the

possible way so cave johnson baby it's a good pick mm-hmm uh is this my last pick it's your last pick you've done the opposite of me you're you're entirely old games i know i know i know i feel like such a is it have you gotten anything post 2010 No. Don't pick on me. Calling me old. We're just provoking Steve here. The 17-year-old toxic Steve from the call of duty lobby is about to resurface.

I'll bite back. I'll, yeah. Can you explain calling duty lobbies and this podcast right now? Oh, man. Okay. Well, you've all shamed me into picking something more modern. You don't have to. No, I should.

I want to. because I fully believe that games are better now than they've ever been, and yet also they wouldn't have gotten to this point of being this good without the foundational games that preceded them. So really, I'm paying homage to the modern games by selecting the old games. That's how I'm going to spin this at least. But, no, I have an opportunity to pick a more modern game and also steal it from Rob at the same time.

So, Ben, I will be selecting starting Valley. Oh, wow. From the fairly recent year of 2016. This is a game. Rob is so good. Rob is so dejectious. Shambled. Rob is hanging his heads.

What have I done to hurt you? What do I do? I don't know. I remember some unspecified gripe that I had with one of your previous picks on a draft. And this is my revenge for whatever that was. God damn it. To be honest, I remember, and it was my pick that you had issue with and not Rob's. You're a pick.

It wasn't even me. It was Marvel versus. Capcom related, I believe? Was it? Maybe so. You should have been... You've wounded an innocent man. Strait's here.

Just lateral damage, innocent bystander, but I will poison all your crops, Ben. It's an incredible game that just keeps getting better somehow. It's, you know, like all the games that we could have listed like a No Man Sky or Cyberpunk or Fallout 76 or whatever, all the games that

launched in a rough state but then got better over time. Stardu launched in an already great state and got better over time. It is also available for basically everything and can be played by anyone for any period of time. And it never gets old, partly because there's constantly new content, but also because there's just such an endless wealth of content in that original game. Just everything about it is crafted so intricately, so exquisitely, just down to the music, the depth, like it seems somewhat simple on the server.

but then you find out that you can fall down the Stardu Valley rabbit hole and never resurface or play any other game ever. And my wife went through it. I watched her go through that phase. It's not even a phase. It never ends, really. Stardu never leaves you. And I have positive memories, warm memories of earlier kind of cozy game farming sims, harvest, moon, etc. But Stardu Valley has now also just become the default, just shining existence.

of that genre and probably will never be surpassed and we'll never stop selling or being improved. Plus, there's the whole community mod aspect of things where if you somehow see everything that's in the base game, then there's just an endless amount of material for you to explore after that. So at least I got barely in the second half of the century so far with my final pick. Sorry, Rob. Well, it's straight to my heart. Straight to my core. I know. you are right about the fact that it never really leaves you though the number of times i have just woken up in the middle of the night with the urge to start a new farm in stardew valley i again i can't fully explain what's happening to me but i am a weak man and i have done it many many times i have created every kind of farm i have if there's a thing in the mine i have killed it if there's a person to date i have dated them and yet there always seems to be more somehow clip that last sentence please

That's that's that's liberation. I don't know what that. I somehow have Starter Valley on my board twice. That's how much I wanted to draft it. So I had no choice. Is that more than you, Rob? No, I had it thrice. But yet I didn't end up with this somehow.

All right. Well, whatever you're left with after your draft board has just become a smoking ruin, you can now select the dregs of the century. Well, point of order is fun. Final Fantasy 7 rebirth a remake. Yeah. I mean... I mean...

I mean... The game before it was called remake. Yes. That's a great point. And it deviates quite wildly, I would say, at times. Yeah, you can say that. You know what? I don't need it.

You know, I've already explained... I've already explained my dating exploits in Starry Valley. Let me introduce to you half dating sim, half strategy game, Fire Emblemen Three Houses. Let's just shock that thing right up. Oh, a ball in my share. Not the hardest game I've ever played, not the hardest game I've ever played,

but there was something about the picking your path element that made me feel invested in three houses in a totally different way. So another game I have played through every version of, every path has a lot of replay value somehow for a game that, in terms of its cycle, is actually quite repetitive. It's got that sort of Hogwarts feel of going through the school and meeting everybody and forging relationships.

And yeah, that's an excellent, excellent game. It's genuinely astonishing how fun they can make that gameplay loop of just like choice after choice after choice. And then like just a little bit of fun combat, which is ultimately great. But you're in it for the story. You're in it for like an, again, an impactful interaction between characters that make it so, so fun. I'm glad we got a game like that because we have not selected an Atlas game, which, unless Rob is about to take one with his final game, somewhere if Charity is listening to this on Perentally.

He's going to burst through the wall. Perretto leave, forget it. I'm here to select Persona 5. Yeah, metaphor, whatever else could have been off the board. So apologies to personas of all kinds. Yeah. Okay. Well, we have to go through some snubs, though.

We could do that for the rest of the day. because there are so many unavoidably with an exercise like this. I feel like the youths will roast us for some of our

non-selections here because... And the old. I mean, many, many will roast us, but like, foregoing Fortnite and Minecraft

feels somewhat egregious, even though, like, those games are less meaningful to me personally. In terms of... You can make an argument for, for Minecraft, I guess.

But I don't know. The argument would be easy. It's the best selling game of all time. And also now has spawned a billion dollar movie. And people have been playing it for many years and many forms. And it's an entire economy and industry unto itself. Yeah, when X-Bor-3 has Jack Blackson chicken jockey, you call me. Yeah.

Okay. I mean, they're adapting it. Coming since. Yeah. Oh, man, if Jack Black is in Expedition 33, the movie, great. Who would Jack Black play at Expedition 33? The bagget on your back. I feel like there could be some parts in there for Jack Black.

We could find a role for him in there. Man, okay. Well, I just feel like on pure ubiquity plus how pervasive they are plus, and Fortnite granted has kind of piggyback. on every other popular game and has just absorbed it Borg-like into itself, but has basically been as close to the metaverse as anything has actually come. It's a crossover sensation. It is now a platform as is Roblox in which you can make games and never leave the Fortnite ecosystem. I guess it's debatable whether any of these things is good, but it is unavoidable. It is everywhere,

and it's as popular as it was when it first became popular, which is quite something. I did not expect the Fortnite phenomenon to have this sort of staying power. So apologies to the many people who have lost their lives or devoted their lives to Fortnite. Just for the record, I do not apologize, but Ben done. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I try to be friendly to all of our listeners.

I try to meet them where they are. But in that vein of just, you know, like you could say that, okay, Battle Royale kind of came from PubG or whatever else, and then it became Fortnite-Ized. But even stuff like Dota or League of Legends, I mean, you know, these are some of the most popular games for many, many years running, and we have ignored them here, which I guess reflects, I don't know, our age, our elite preferences and proclivities. Yeah, our single player supremacy preferences, I don't know. I don't know what it is, but the live service games were not particularly well represented in this draft.

Well, I do think it represents our washness. Like, we're just not competitive. So, yeah. Our reflexes are shot. Yeah, that's probably part of it. I feel like exercises like this too, just like naturally you just gravitate towards nostalgia. And it's like, if you're really talking about something

from the 21st century, this is going to be stuff that you really like grew up with or you spent a lot of time on. And like, unless you're Matt. Unless you're Matt. Unless you're mad. And that stuff you played last weekend. Yeah. How did you not?

take Donkey Kong Bonanza, the most recent game that you've played. It's precious in your mind. It's not as good as Claire's gear, that's why. Well, that's true. Honestly, it crossed my mind. Donkey Kong Bonanza, but I knew it was going to get roasted for the fact. It's so recent. The recent is insane.

I love this game. Sometimes recent things are incredible, I swear. No, I mean, you're making the LeBron over MJ argument here, basically, of the era adjusting and the game has gotten better around them, and so compared to the peers, 100. The standards have increased and improved, and rising tide has lifted all boats. Yeah, all my games are from the era of people actually being able to make

and take three-pointers. Can we get Jack Black? Can he play Eski maybe in the Expedition 33? I was thinking maybe that expedition that was naked that would be good for him. Yeah. Yeah. That they talked about. Okay.

What else do we want to mention here to make people slightly less mad at us for not drafting it? I mean, I thought Eltoning. Ballotro maybe. Aletro has taken over my life. I have to say. Dog. I don't like gambling, but fake gambling is my life.

Steve, there's a game called Wordplay that is kind of like Scrabble-Boggling. I literally play World Play today. Oh, no. Workplay is amazing. Yeah. This is a concerning revelation for me. Yeah, Eldon Ring hurts to not have on the list. It does.

It does. It does. It does. or Knights of the Old Republic. For that matter, I considered. I want to go on 10 over 9 for what it's worth. Me too. Or rebirth over both because it should be eligible, but somehow it's not.

God of War. Yeah, God of War. Yeah, God of War. Yeah, some sort of Fallout. Metroid Prime, Mario Odyssey. See, that, yeah, we had no Mario games here. And as I was making my board, I had trouble moving Mario games up there, even though they are some of the best games of all time. if anyone had taken Odyssey or Galaxy or Galaxy 2,

I would have absolutely accepted and approved of that, but somehow it felt, I guess it was the originality influence argument, like just Mario influences Mario, and it's been doing so for 40 years at this point. And like Odyssey is maybe the best Mario game, maybe the best 3D Mario, certainly. But I don't know, it just didn't have the feel of a top 24.

I came for me for whatever reason. Galaxy 2. Yeah. I don't know. I thought you would have taken Winwicker. I'm strongly considered Winfrey. Yeah, where was that? Where the hell is that brand loyalty?

Yeah. Yeah. I really considered Odyssey, but honestly, maybe this is recency bias, but I do like Donkey Kong Bonanza better than Odyssey. Wow. I think I do too. I just couldn't do that to Donkey Kong Bonanza without, you know.

Yeah. I think the only thing that I know that I, missed out on was Resident Evil 4. That's probably like the biggest omission on my personal journey. Pretty egregious. Yeah, from Soft was sort of snubbed in this draft just in general.

I mean, Bloodborn and Dark Souls and nothing. I think Eldon Ring is the most egregious. I think. Yeah, maybe so. We mentioned Resident Evil 4, but that one also is right here in the running as well. Yeah, I mean, there are lots of like influential indie games that we could have taken, like Journey or Braid that sort of started the indie boom.

We could have taken a rock band or a guitar hero. We could have taken at Gears of War. I thought about like SSX. I couldn't take SSX, but I wanted to. Or SSX tricking. I love that. Astrobot even. I don't know.

There were some games like as I was prepping and I was just looking at the metacritic leaders to just kind of compare. to what I had. There were some games that have fallen, I would say, in the popular estimation or critical acclaim, even in the years since they were reviewed and released. Like, you know, Perfect Dark has one of the highest metacritics scores of any games. And I don't think many people would put it on a list like this. Maybe just because it hasn't aged well, because it runs at seven frames per second, which at the time we would put up with, even with an expansion pack, but now not so much.

like the franchise just fizzled sadly and didn't really go anywhere. And even like Little Big Planet, I was thinking, great reviews, kind of like market corrected by Astrobot, I guess. All right. Anything else? Anyone wants to shout up before we end here? Metropolitan Fusion. I was thinking Metroid Fusion. Prince of Persia lost ground.

No uncharted representation, uncharted two. No. Dragon plus 11. How about maybe remake Tetris effect? Is that kind of as a remake? Oh, good question. I feel like I'm rolling on acid play in that game. I didn't know I needed to see headphones on, baby.

That's what I do. Oh, my God. They're making a Lumines, if that's the correct pronunciation of that game, in the same fashion as that. It's going to come out soon. This is thrilling. The Sims, the original Sims came out in 2000, I believe. Would have been eligible.

Yeah. I mean, what's your dreamcast top five, Matt? Because obviously, if I were drafting with my heart, I would have selected Skies of Arcadia, number one, overall. But I couldn't really make the case on an influence level. See, man, obviously. Yeah, it would have been Skies, Jet Set Radio, Virtua Tennis. Virtuit Tennis.

Banger, absolutely. Are we taking virtual tennis over Mario Tennis, though? I take table tennis by Rockstar Games over Virtua Tennis. Another classic. Don't play. And don't slander table tennis. That game was amazing. In real life.

Yes. Virtually. Yeah. Soul caliber. Good one. We had very little portable representation. I mean, advance wars,

golden sun. I thought about Eternal Darkness. One of the horror games that I have played. Oh, I love that game. Yeah. Incredible. GameCube game. Miscast,

perhaps, as a GameCube game. Man, it's been a strong start to the century. Well done. everyone, I would say. Good job. Game makers. You've made some good games. And, you know, we came in at well under two hours, which I think is not bad for covering a quarter century. We knew this was not going to be a tight 60 on this episode, but we did our right. Do we want to recap the picks? Devin, are you prepared to remind us what we drafted? I locked in so hard. I got every single person's

I don't slander anybody for not including Nintendo dogs. It's fine. I have that. You guys just clearly hate me and Nintendo. It's fine. All right. Matt went with Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, great choice.

Baldersgate 3, Hades and Claire Obscure Expedition 33. Steve went with Half-Life 2, Call of Duty, Modern Warfare, Metal Gear Solid 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, and Shadow of the Colossus. And Daniel, you had Red Dead Redemption 2, BioShok, Elder Scrolls 5, Skyrim, Mass Effect 2, and Portal 2. Ben, you had GTA 3, Halo Combat Evolved, World of Warcraft, Deus X, and Stardue Valley. Rob went with The Last of Us, OG, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, Super Smash Bros. Mele, Disco Elysium and Fire Emblem Three Houses. It's a strong lineup.

It's deep. And I guess this isn't quite the ringer's top 25 official as a company, as a website, games of the quarter century. Maybe we'll actually determine that and publish it at some point this year. But it's a representative smattering of classics that we have known and loved. Guys, I just remembered something else we didn't draft, which is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. We did not.

It was mentioned at least. It was mentioned. Yeah. In the BioWare list. But it was not picked. But Kotor close to my heart, of course, as well. All right. Well, thank you all for joining me on this exercise.

You can all say, thanks for having me, Ben, in unison on three. One, two. Jake Rocks. Thanks, Ben. Thanks for agreeing with my great Batman pick. Yeah. Good bat. Yeah, no notes on any of your drafts, just perfect all the way down.

Thanks to all of you. Thanks also to Devin Ronaldo for producing this episode and keeping track of our picks and to Arjuna Remgapal for sending me a Slack message to say, you're having how many guests on this episode, but not protesting too much. You can, of course, vote, make your voices known not just in our mentions, but when Matt gets the art together and Jomi puts it on the socials, you can weigh in. and stay tuned to both feeds in the Ring ofverse family for upcoming coverage of Alien Earth next week,

including, I believe, one Rob Mahoney on House of Our, filling in for Joe, but we wish very well, of course. Plus, Peacemaker Pods the following week, you can contact us, send your positive feedback only for our selections on this episode to RingaverseGaming at gmail.com. Justice for Skies of Arcadia! Feels like every product claims real protein these days. But real doesn't start on a label.

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