The Ringer-Verse - The Games of the First Half of the Year! | Button Mash

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

Ben, Steve Ahlman, Matt James, and Justin Charity banter (sans spoilers) about their ongoing adventures in the Land of Shadow in 'Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree' and how they've handled the popular DLC's difficulty. Then, they share their big-picture takeaways from the year in gaming so far (25:00), collaboratively (and only semi-contentiously) construct a top 10 GotFHotY (games of the first half of the year) list (34:50), and pick the upcoming releases that they hope will make their year-end GotY draft (01:29:00). Host: Ben Lindbergh Guests: Steve Ahlman, Justin Charity, and Matt James Producer: Devon Renaldo Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're a fan of the inner workings of Hollywood, then check out my podcast, The Town, on the Ringer Podcast Network. My name's Matt Bellany. I'm a founding partner at Puck and the writer of the What I'm Hearing newsletter. And with my show, The Town, I bring you the inside conversation about money and power in Hollywood. Every week, we've got three short episodes featuring real Hollywood insiders to tell you what people in town are actually talking about. We'll cover everything from why your favorite show was canceled overnight, which streamer

is on the brink of collapse, and which executive is on the hot seat. Disney, Netflix, who's up, down, and who will never eat lunch in this town again? Follow the town on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tramphia, proper training is required.

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Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphiatoradio.com. This episode is brought to by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need weather tech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. 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. Hello and welcome into the ringerverse, your nexus feed for all things fandom. I am Benvenberg, a senior editor for the ringer and your button master of ceremonies. You've come to my cocoon, you've grasped my withered hand, and you've let me lead you yet again into the shadow realm of the ringerverse, the one where we talk about video games. As usual, I've summoned some friends.

With me today is a man who's been busy producing or appearing on almost all of the multitude of podcasts appearing on the ringervers or has a bar this summer. We just wake him up, stick a microphone in front of his face, remind him whether he's on Midnight Boys, Middition, or Button Mash. And he just starts talking. He is Steve the All-Father. Alderman. Thank you for having me.

I'm settling all of my Bruno Mars-sized gambling debts by doing all these posies. This is button mesh, by the way. We're talking about video games. Okay. Oh, okay. Yes, video games. Yes, yes. Yes.

Also with us is the ringer's deputy art director, a man who, like me, lives in the Land of Shadow year round and doesn't know what all the fuss about sunlight is for. Matt James. That's right. It's early, but I am ready to go. Yes. Second consecutive early morning recording for you on the West Coast. I just, I love you all.

And a senior staff writer who would love to talk about the big boss fight from a brand new expansion. I speak, of course, of the showdown with Dogda in the Shin-Megami Tence Five Vengeance, Holy Will and Profane Descent D.L.C. I got him! That was a lot of words. Ringer's senior staff writer, Justin Charity. Let's tear it up. Let's look and tear it.

Let's go. Well, fellas, we are just a few days past the midpoint of 2024. And what a half a year it's been. In the immortal words of Darren Ravelle, I feel bad for our country. But this is tremendous content. Video game content, of course. At the end of this year, like last year, we'll do a goadie pod to discuss the best and biggest games of the past 12 months.

But why wait for the end of the year when you could instead just jump the gun and do it halfway through. Not a gody pod, but a goat foe hoody pod. The games of the first half of the year. You can get goady pods everywhere. Everyone in games media does a gody pod. But where else can you get a goat foie pod? Only on button mash, an exclusive.

So today, we will be formulating a preliminary, premature, tentative top 10 live on the episode. We don't know what it will look like, but we will soon find out. But before we do, let's banter a bit about one of the games that will probably appear on that list. Messmer is the new Melania. Let me solo him is the new let me solo her. Shadow of the Erd Tree is the new Eldon Ring. Last time we talked, Shadow of the Earth Tree had been out for about 10 hours. Now it's been out for about 10 days.

This game is so omnipresent in the culture that we recently learned from Leslie Headlands that the Internet's new problematic boyfriend, the stranger, from the Acolyte, played by Manny Jack Sinto. His armor, or lack thereof, was inspired by summons on Eldon Ring, all of my interests and Ringiverse content coming together. So we'll start with some updated impressions, some thoughts on the difficulty discourse. It has sparked.

Charity, you weren't with us last time. How are you finding your time in the Shadow Realm and everyone else's conversations about their time there? Doug, I haven't even started the DLC content. So what I did, I was like, I'm just going to start a new game. No, because I was like, I'm going to start a new game for all this. That's ambitious.

Wow. Right? And I wanted, because I wanted to do a different bit. Like I was like, I'll do a samurai build, right, this time. And yeah, it's like, don't you have to get all the way through like Moog to start the DLC stuff. Right. So it's like, no, I'm not, I'm not there yet.

I'm like at the Margot fight or something like that, I think so far. So I'm not even caught up to you guys. I'm sorry. I got nothing useful. Well, you're sort of in the same shoes, I guess, as a lot of players who were probably like, Hey, new Eldon Ring DLC. This is so. exciting and then they realized, oh, I can't actually play this until I get to that point of the

base game, which I guess. Which I'm having a ton of fun playing Elden Ring. I'm just like, wait behind everybody else. How has the re-learning curve been for you? You know, the thing is, like, I had this whole period where I wanted it, this is like months ago, I was going to get back in the Eldon Ring. And I was so daunted though by the whole, oh my God, I would have to be bad at this game all over again, especially if I'm going to do like a totally different kind of build. and I was so intimidated that I then picked up Sekaro instead.

Oh, right. Yeah. For countless hours, Sekiro. But then when I finally came back to this because of wanting to get to the DLC content, I actually haven't found it that bad. Like, you know, it's like classic sort of once you get past the market fight, you've learned enough.

Like, even if you're playing, like, I played an int build the first time I played Eln Ring and now I'm doing like melee, obviously. And it works. you know, like, it's not that bad. And also, probably all that time I spent playing Sekiro, even though it plays very differently. It's like immersing myself in the from soft mindset

probably helped, honestly. Famous last words, it's not that bad. We'll see how you feel when you get into the land of shadow because a bunch of people thought they were ready, thought it wouldn't be that bad, and then discovered that it was, including us last time we talked about this. So guys, Steve, Matt, now that you've spent,

more time there. Have you acclimated? Matt, what's your hour count up to now? Well, keep in mind, I've been traveling for most of the past week, so I've only sunk an absurd amount of hours into it and not an absolutely absurd amount of hours. I have gotten past Mesmer. You're not steam deck in this thing, are you? No. Unfortunately, I'm locked to my PS5, which doesn't travel very well. No. No. Unless you have a portal and a great Wi-Fi connection. But I found a jet. I'm in a hotel. I wasn't even about to try that Y-Fi. It's a miracle.

I can talk to you all right now. I got through Mesmer, and that seems to be the sticking point for a lot of people, that Messmer fight, and that's a fight that I tried about 25 times before catching the vibe on Reddit of how people were doing on this one fight. And come to find out that if I go back and talk to. one dude who I hadn't talked to in a while, there would be, and this isn't too spoilery, so don't worry, there would be a summon sign on the ground of that fight where you can summon that dude to come help you.

And, you know, there would be no way you would necessarily know that. But as soon as I was able to summon that person for help within the fight, I was able to get through Mesmer in less than 10 tries, probably closer to five, I guess. But because remember in Eldon Ring, the difficulty sort of scales based on when you enter that boss door, right? So when you summon an ally from inside a boss fight, the boss fight doesn't recalibrate at that point for difficulty. So it's like a completely free bonus character in there, drawing attention from the boss. Anyway, there have been a few boss fights that have been super hard, but I, I've had some boss fights that I've struggled on that my friends have blown through.

And I think the big takeaway from this so far has been that the difficulty discourse is really should just be based on like the builds that you have. Because for some people, it's going to be really easy for to do certain things. And for some, it's just going to be very, very hard. Has Mesmer supplanted Molania for you now in the Eldon Ring boss battle, difficulty hierarchy, that's been a big conversation. I think that if I didn't have that summon, I would say that that's harder. I got through Millennia in the first game,

or in the base game, excuse me. This isn't actually a sequel. It seems like it is, yeah. I think without that summon, that's harder than Millennia. Oh, I don't want to play this D.LC then. No, forget that. I'm going back to SMP5. No, man.

You're in for long haul, man. Millennia took me like a month. Like, stop this. Well, you've got to talk to that guy. You've got to get the summon going. And then I believe if you're using that summon, it's a little bit easier than millennia. It's funny. I meant to mention charity that Hitataka Miyazaki from Software's president,

creator of these games, has been playing Eldon Ring himself, has gone back and played the base game and has discovered that it's very difficult. even for him. Even as the guy who knows all the secrets who made this world happen, he prefaced his comments by saying, I absolutely suck at video games. So you don't have to be amazing at video games

to create a video game that you have to be amazing to beat. And he has found that it has challenged even him. And he's taken advantage of everything he can because that's part of the discourse. Like, are you allowed to summon or what are you allowed to avail yourself of Should you be kind of pure and do it the hard way? Or should you, you know, take torrent and run around?

Every way is the hard way. Jeez, right? It's a meckerow if you would be like that. Nobody summoned nobody. Yeah. So it's hard for everyone, even the people who made the games. Steve, what are your updated thoughts on Shadow of the Art Tree? Well, I didn't know that Matt James was a dirty, filthy summoner.

So that's disappointing. No, it's just me and my mimic tier run in the world. So I have gotten to the mesmer fight. I haven't passed it yet, but I'd say overall, I think I was a lot more down when we first asked for impressions on this game, but then there was a moment when I was doing, I won't spoil, I mean,

I could spoil a weapon type that I have, but I was doing Kung Fu in an ancient library, and I was like, we're so fucking back. I was dive kicking people to death in an old library. Are you Jerry Hahn Street Fighter Six in it? Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no.

there's a weapon type that allows you to do some like real awesome kung fu and it's it's really really great so i i've i've been loving this fun is we're we're post fun when it comes to elgin i think i think that we can we can say we're out it's post fun for me but it's really just like there's a level of achievement and fulfillment that supersedes a level of fun that comes with most video games and i think that's actually in all seriousness what elden ring is actually kind of the best at is a level of personal achievement that I crave when it comes to beating something or achieving something or finding something new in an Elder Ring DLC that I don't think I've had since I first tried this two years ago. So yeah, I'm loving this.

Yeah. It's interesting. There was a balance patch and update, right? And when I first saw that, I was like, oh, did from software Nerf Shadow of the Earth tree? No, not really. You might not even notice the difference. But there was at least some consideration given to, like, is this actually impossible? It's just sort of some stat boosts to the shadow realm blessings, right? One of the new mechanics introduced here to make things maybe a little bit more forgiving. So from software, not meeting people halfway, but at least some small fraction of the way, I guess.

They compromise there. No, it's supposed to be impossible principles very, very slightly. It's still extremely difficult. But I think part of it was a skill issue and not in the get good kind of way, but just not really realizing how to play this game or how to make your builds and how the scad tree fragments worked and how to level up, right? And just thinking that you could kind of waltz into this game and be good if you were good at the base game.

And now I think people have realized, oh, you need to explore, you need to find these things to buff yourself. And if you do, it is merely mostly impossible, but not actually literally impossible. I'll tell Miyazaki to get good right to his face. I don't care.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Wait, but hold on, Nick, because y'all got me a little shook. How about this? Tell me each one of you what your current vigor level is. Oh, Jesus?

I got you. Oh, I don't know the number. I do. I know mine. What is it? Go ahead. Go ahead. So I want to say I started this DLC with my Vigor at 39.

Okay. Vigor is the stat for those of you who aren't deep into the depths of this game. Vigar is the stat that controls pretty much how much health you have. Yeah. I started at 39 and then I decided I know what I'm going to level up in this in this DLC. And now my Vigur is at 46. Oh, that's nothing. I'm at 41 in the...

Okay, no, we're good. Thank you. Okay, now I see where we're coming from. All right. Yeah, you definitely are going to want to up your vigor in this DLC because, like, everyone's first impression is, oh, everything's two-shodding me. If you can get to that two-and-a-half shot, that's where you want to be. Yeah.

I see you're sipping some coffee to up your real life early morning vigor right now. That's taking effect, too. It seems like maybe the biggest complaint has been just about the length of the boss combos that they're just so long now that there's just no respite, there's no recovery. It's tough to anticipate or even memorize the moves the way that it was in earlier from games and that they've really just leaned into that even more so than in the base game. So there's a lot of trial and error and death built in. That's not surprising, I suppose.

That's specifically the Mesmer fight. There are some very long chains of attacks. And in the Eldon Ring, you know, when the bosses are hitting you that hard, you have a tendency to want to immediately heal. And that mesmer fight in particular is one where, like, you will get hit and your bar will go low. And you have to have the self-discipline to keep focus and avoid damage until a moment when you actually can heal. But I think what's irritating a lot of people is also that some of the fights have visual elements that sort of obscure the boss's attacks and make it a little bit hard. harder to perceive what's actually happening.

So when you combine that with the patience of waiting for the heel, when you can't always see what's going on, it can be very frustrating. Yeah. I think my main criticism of the DLC, though, is that you're going to need to probably change your build for certain fights, boss fights. And don't worry, they made it super easy. And there's no way to get confused about it. Wait, didn't they make it free, though?

is the DLC. It's not free. Wait, I thought they made it so you don't have to use the larval tears. No, but they give you a few more larval tears to. So this is my big criticism, right? When you up the difficulty level like this to the point where certain boss fights really are, unless you're just so good that you don't even need to worry about ever getting good again, unless you're at an insane level, you're probably going to need to respect for some fights.

and that is kind of frustrating because the rest of the game encourages you so much to do things your own way to find a build that is fun to explore these new weapons. And the new weapons are fun. I spent a bunch of time as a perfumer running around just throwing firecloths of people being like, this is me now, this is who I am. And then I got to this mesmer fight. I got to this mesmer fight and I was like, well, back to what I was doing before, the good old reliable build. and it's kind of frustrating to have to change my build and have it be cumbersome and be charged a critical item that has a finite number. That's my main frustration with the DLC is if we're going to go down this route where you need to shift builds for certain fights, we need to make it easier. You need to let me save a build to even if you're going to charge me an item to swap my build, let me save it.

let me save a load out. It's just very tedious, and it's not really encouraging me to try the new weapons that I pick up. Yeah. Despite the quality of life difficulties, despite the barrier to entry and all the difficulty discourse, I have been struck by just how this game has been embraced. I mean, yes, there's been some review bombing, in this case, review bombing, just about how hard the game is. I guess it's almost refreshing that review bombing would be based on something actually related

to the quality of the content. But people have dived right back in. And From Software announced that 5 million copies sold in three days, which is really pretty impressive, given that this is DLC and given that it's gated. And a lot of people who owned and played the base game can't even access it without getting to a certain point. I don't know how that compares exactly to Eldon Ring the original's pace. But I think the first sales update officially we got on that game was that it had sold 12 million copies. in about three weeks.

So I guess on a per day basis, sales-wise, maybe it makes sense that it would be ahead of the pace because all the hardcore Eldon ringheads are going to, of course, jump right back into this world. But just to put that $5 million sales in three days into perspective, Sekaro sold $5 million in more than a year. It took that long for Sekaro to get to that point. So that just goes to show.

Everybody quits Sekaro 20 minutes. They hit the refund. And they were in the refunds that show when they could not get past the ogre. They're like, nah, dog. I'm genuinely curious. Like, do you think that the people that came back to this genuinely forgot about, A, how hard Eldon Ring was in the first place? B, how hard it is could you even get to this thing?

Yeah. And maybe they bought it on PS5 where you couldn't refund the thing. Yeah. I mean, not to compare playing Eldon Ring to childbirth, although there might be some commonalities there. But, you know, I have a kid. And when we talked about, do we want to have another? Sometimes mothers will say, you know, you forget how hard it is.

Let's respect another. No, second kid, charmless, demon bell. Yeah. No hit. Exactly. No hit chalmers. It's almost like a nature's protective mechanism just kind of blurs the memories of how much it hurts and how hard it is. And then you're like, yeah, we can do that again.

It's kind of like that with Eldon Rig, you know, the intense page. pain fades and only the good memories remain maybe. But it's really pretty impressive because Eldon Ring has sold 25 million copies. So this is an attach rate of 20%, meaning one out of five of the owners of the original game have bought the DLC very quickly after release. And to put that into perspective, I mean, months or years after the release of, say, Phantom Liberty, the DLC for cyberpunk or the Witcher 3s, beloved expansion, those also had attach rates like low 20%.

So this has already gotten to that point. So it seems like even though a lot of the conversation has been, you are not ready for how hard this is, this will break you. Everyone's like, yes, I want to be broken. I want to get back. And it just goes to show how much from software leveled up with this game, with the open world formula, which was maybe more appealing to people,

more palatable to people, a little more forgiving because if you're stuck somewhere, you can just wander off somewhere else and hopefully power up and do something else for a while until you're good enough to get past that boss your suck on. That has really just caused this whole franchise and this whole studio to level up in a pretty big way. The vigor is off the charts right now compared to the earlier Souls games, Soulsborn games, which were kind of niche compared to the phenomenon that is Eldon Ring and also Shadow of the Earth Tree. So I think it's worth the sacrifice, at least.

Sometimes it's so frustrating that it feels unfair, but when you get past that bottleneck, you feel just great about yourself. How many opportunities do we have to feel great about ourselves in life, right? Especially in a video game. So we may talk even more about this game a little later in this episode. And I imagine we will be talking more about this game and this franchise much more in the months and years to come because both me as a lot. Zaki and George R. Martin have been dropping hints in recent days about adaptations,

maybe a movie version of Elton Ring, which is something from software teased from the start and pitched this as the new big IP and gaming is just the beginning. And I'm almost surprised, just given the feeding frenzy that we have for video game IP now, that it has not already been snapped up and something hasn't been announced, but maybe they're waiting for the right partner and the right opportunity. but George R. Martin on his Not a Blog blog blog the other day wrote, and I quote, oh, and about those rumors you may have heard about a feature film or television series based on Eldon Ring. I have nothing to say.

Not a word. Nope. Not a thing. I know nothing. You never heard a peep from me. Mum, mum, mum. What rumor? So George has been busy, presumably, with Eldon Ring and not winds of winter.

Not a word about that either, unfortunately. But I look forward to future incarnations of Elton Ring. I got beef with George R. Martin. Yeah, we love him. He's off that milk of the pop. He's just saying all that stuff. As soon as the Jets win, I'm sure he'll get right to it. What was that onion headline?

It's like instead of finishing winds of winter, this man will do literally anything else. Is that a love-heat relationship? You don't understand. She doesn't know us anything, but still. I've been on deadline. And what's the first thing you do when you want a deadline that's really challenged?

You go and you clean your apartment. That's what you do. Yeah. His apartment must be spick and span or his castle or whatever it is. Anyway, we will have more announcements about that. How can we mimic the experience of playing Eldon Ring in an adaptation, though? How can we port the difficulty over to a theatrical release or a streaming release? There should be like some barrier for entry there too.

You should have to pass some tests just to watch the Eldon Ring adaptation. Or maybe it'll welcome everyone in and they'll say, wow, what a great movie slash series this is. I should check out the source material. This is based on several YouTube guides to understand the thing. How about that? That could be. Yeah. All right.

So a short edition of programming reminders, not because we don't have a lot of programming, but because I'm not sure anyone needs the reminders. Hot nerd summer is in full effect. So as Tyrion told Danny, you're in the great game now. So each week we've got Talk the Thrones on Sundays, Midnight Boys, Poo-Pew, on Monday, and House of R on Tuesdays, all on House of the Dragon. I'm just describing Steve's recording and producing the schedule here. Then on Thursdays, Midnight Boys on The Boys and the Acolyte, and House of ours, Acolyte deep dive,

rinse and repeat for a few more weeks until Deadpool and Wolverine arrives in late July. But MASH will be back before then. you can contact us anytime at ringerverse gaming at gmail.com. So that's the look ahead. Now, let's look back before we get to the goat Fahodes and start naming names. Let's each share a big picture takeaway from this year in gaming so far. What stands out to you about this year, surprises, trends, the biggest hits, whatever you want to single out. Steve, you want to start us off?

Yeah. This is more of a personal reverend. I'm a Rogelike's guy. That's just who I am now. Well, there's an ample supply for you in that case. No, and there is. And I used to think that that was a bit of a... I kind of looked down my nose at Rogue Lights for a while

because I used to think that like, okay, well, this can only be so rewarding. This can only be so fulfilling with the amount of like gameplay loop or the things that you can achieve in real time based on the progress that you make in that gameplay model. but at the end of the day, I'm really a sucker for a good gameplay loop first

and then any small amounts of achievements that I can make along the way are exactly what I need. So upon like revisiting the likes of like a dead cells or a balatro like we're going to be talking about later, like I'm going to definitely be talking about later.

I think that's kind of like I found like my genre for my mid-30s where I'm like, we don't have that kind of time. We don't have that kind of resources to dive into something that unless it's an Eldon Ring where it will be my car in the garage that I fix up in home improvement. I'm not going to be doing this for too long. Life itself becomes an endless cycle of repeated disappointment.

Occasional triumphs. So it makes sense. Yeah. And there's been a lot of that. I guess it's not new that there have been a lot of rogoyks. This is your personal journey. But there have been a lot of roguelikes. There have been a lot of Metroidvania's this year.

There have been a lot of Soulslikes. There are certainly some genres that are so hot right now, and that would be one of them. Matt, what would you care to mention? I think my takeaway from the year is just how much the game landscape is shifting towards us talking about things that aren't traditional game releases. There have been so many DLCs and early access games that, as I was putting this list together, I was like, oh, that's a DLC, oh, this is early access. Things aren't just a game that ships on a cartridge that is the complete full thing ready that everyone is going to, you know, the 1.0.

It's complicated now. Parts of games are being released well after the game, and games are being released before the game. It's done. It's a much more complicated landscape, and it definitely complicated my list as I was putting it together. Yeah, we talked about that a bit, I think, maybe on our first part of the year when we were looking ahead at what was coming and we were saying, who knows, right? Like, we know about a few big releases that are coming down the pike, but mostly it's surprises. It's things that we're not even anticipating will pop off the way that they do. And there have been so many more of those, the steam sensations.

some of them kind of ephemeral and they're here and then they're gone and they have a million concurrent players and then no one's playing them a month later, which is fine, by the way. Every time I see headlines about Game X has this many players and used to have that many players, I'm like, yeah, that's okay. People move on. We finish the game and then we play something else. It's not necessarily a sign of disaster that not everything is a game as a service that we play for all time.

But you do have to sort of keep your head on this. and see, okay, what's the new sensation now? Charity, anything stood out to you? Yeah, it's like mostly related to Matt's point, right? I was surprised by how many, I mean, I guess this is like a trend over a long period at this point, right? But how much of my 20, 24 playtime is in games that I've like played before, right? If I think about like SMT vengeance and SMT5 already came out, but this is sort of the classic like Atlas, you know, other shoe dropping expansion to that or something like persona three. It's sort of like when you take the confluence of the DLC model that you're talking about,

the remake trend, all this stuff, it sort of leads to this landscape, even something like Street Fighter, right, where it's like that is the same Street Fighter 6 that came out last year, but it's also kind of like there is a sense of seasonality to it now, right? Where like the character releases and the events are sort of positioned in such a way that like, yeah, they really are selling you on the idea that you are playing the sort of new wave of a game, even if that game did not come out in 2024. And like I said, that's obviously been like a long time coming in terms of with the texture of video games and sort of the release calendars like.

But I was just surprised going over my Steam account, like, how that's reflected in like where I'm spending my time in games, is in games that did not come out this year. But release stuff, they should. Yeah. Yeah. There have been some stats surfacing recently about ongoing games and just how much of people's playtime is devoted to games that didn't even release anything new this year. I mean, just your fortnights and your many multiplayer games that will just last forever in your Minecrafts, et cetera, right? So there's only so much bandwidth that people even have for new releases and some of that bandwidth is now being taken up by the constant.

And yes, expansions, remasters, remakes. We did a whole draft about those. But this does feel like peak remake. Maybe I shouldn't even say that because we'll find out that there's another peak to come. This isn't even my true for. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. This is the first phase of the millennia fight when it comes to remakes.

But I think there have been a lot as I was kind of scanning my best games here. We didn't have any conditions. We didn't say no, this or that allowed. So there are some remakes at least, you know, remasters for me. That's probably not going to crack any goate or goat foote list, but a remake from the ground up. And we've had some excellent ones this year. So that's true. I think maybe what stood out to me is just like how many great games there were, which sounds simplistic.

But I honestly thought we were headed for a bit of a drought or a lull. We launched this podcast last year, and I thought, wow, this was brilliant of us. What foresight to launch button mash in the midst of just one of the greatest gaming years of all time? And I thought, well, there's going to be a correction coming. There's going to be regression. What are we going to talk about? We have never had to struggle for anything to talk about because there's always some enormous great new game coming out. And I think maybe part and parcel with that trend is that, yeah, it's not always a full-featured, finished one point.

no release. And often when it is, it's not a AAA big budget release. Indie games have kind of carried this year, right? I mean, there are a few that don't fall into that category and shadow of the earth tree and we'll mention more. But whenever there's a bit of a break between the big budget blockbusters, there's some great indie game that comes along. And you're like, I wasn't even looking forward to this. I didn't even know that this was happening. And suddenly it's a sensation and everyone's playing it. And I guess that's important because the AAA development cycle is so long now, and it takes several years to make a game like that, that you need the Indies to come along and fill in the gaps. And they have. So I've never been wanting for anything to play this

year, just the opposite. In fact, you guys feel the same way? Definitely. I also think the end of exclusivity has been a big trend, right, that we've seen more and more games just coming to all consoles. these barriers being broken down, Xbox games on Nintendo and Sony consoles, Sony games on Switch, Sony games on PC, all of these console wars or whatever you wanted to call them

are kind of breaking down. And not everyone is pleased about that, but it's all about just getting your game in front of the most people possible. And that's something we've seen really across media, not just in gaming. So now you never know when something will come out in what form it will come out or on what platform or platforms it will come out.

So we've had to stay on our feet, stay on our toes, and adjust to the shifting landscape. All we know is the Capcom fighting collection is not coming to Xbox. Okay, but real quick, I genuinely, we didn't mention this for the Nintendo Direct the other day, but I genuinely gasped when I saw that Horizon Legos is coming to the Switch. Yeah. Because that really, I was like, oh, wow, that actually made me think that exclusives are dead. And something as ubiquitous as Lego and as hardline Sony property as Horizon coming to Switch actually kind of blew my mind a little bit.

I know. Are we going to get Astrobot on Switch 2 eventually? They would be so lucky. Also, is Aloy an industry plant? I don't know. She kind of, I'm glad you said it. And I love Aola. I actually love Aola, but you're right. She just has that vibe, right? She just has that vibe, right? Yeah. She definitely has the, there's some nepo baby thing too. She's like, you don't find out she'd descendant. Is Nathan Drake her dad or something? Right. I feel like she had, I can't substantiate this at all, but I totally am on your way.

It's just a feeling. It's just a feeling. No, absolutely. All right. Let's get to the goat fajotes. 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. It 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 already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters.

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Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting.

Watch only on Prime. I'm making fetch happen. This is going to catch on. Everyone's going to be saying goat footee soon. On our Goody pod last year, we did a draft. We drafted in separate categories. And we filled out a board and we had people vote. And that was fun.

And I see no reason not to do it again at the end of the year. But there can be too much of a good thing. We wanted to do something different today. So it doesn't feel like we're repeating ourselves later in the year. So we came up with a more parliamentary procedure today. Each of us will nominate a game for inclusion on our collective top 10 goat fojody list. If any one of us seconds that nomination, then it is at least provisional on that list. And once we have 10, we can maybe open the floor and see if anyone else wants

to nominate anything else. And then it'll be just a bare knuckle brawl. It'll be a free-for-all as we decide what makes the cut and in what order. And no conditions. Again, we're not excluding remakes or remasters or DLC or early access. We didn't discuss that at least. So for now, anything goes. Maybe we'll impose some restrictions when we get to the end of your official list. But this is just a fly-by-night operation here at the goat Fahodes. So we'll go in alphabetical order by surname. So Alman, Charity, James Lindbergh, so selfless of me to go last. And that means that Steve, you're up.

Well, I'm going to actually zag and not talk about the thing that I've been talking about in Slack and this pod to the entirety of this. And this may be considered a bit of more of a flash in the pan than most, but I think, think for me, my first pick is probably going to be the thing that I actually want to commit the most hours to over the course of this year. And that's hell divers too. Yep. Second did. Yeah. I don't think you'll get any arguments from us as to why this should be up there. But there's been a lot of talk, at least recently, about how this game was the best thing in the world when it came out. And then Sony did some stuff. And then it was the worst thing in the world.

And then now they fixed that stuff. And now it's sort of equalized into a player-based. that's actually going to probably stick with it for the long haul and not be in the hundreds of thousands of player counts that nobody expected it to be. Helldivers works because it's often, I've always said that the best games are often the most simple, in my opinion, that the things that I gravitate towards the most

are the things that I can either play with my friends for hours on end that may or may not actually work, that have a bit of jank to them, that have a bit of charm and wit to it. And I think Hell Divers absolutely has all of those things in spades. It's fucking fun to play. I love shooting bots. I love shooting bugs.

And whatever that one dude that they have to make the whatever conodical story is, I think that's the most insane job in all the video games right now. And I think that it's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, it's been fascinating to watch the progression of Hell Divers too in the Hell Divers community. because when we did a whole pod on Hell Divers earlier this year, I think we speculated about can they keep this going, right?

Like, will this remain as pure and joyous at experience as it has been thus far? And the answer was no, not really, because this is real life and gaming and nothing great ever lasts. But it has, as you said, sort of normalized. It was almost like the milkshake ducking of Hell Divers, too, and now it's kind of come back around and we love it again. Are you really? Yeah, I never abandoned this game.

I mean, I think a big part of the backlash was about Sony's misguided decision to link Steam accounts to PlayStation Network accounts, right? Which would have locked a lot of people out. And clearly, the game functioned just fine without that. And after many complaints and negative reviews, they backtracked on that. It was a mistake that they just entirely of their own making. And there has also been, I think, an element of part of the. the reason this was so thrilling at first was because of the pace of change and new content and new story. And that just seemed unsustainable, right? Like, they were just kind of

lap in the league when it came to creating content for an ongoing game like this. And it seemed like, how can this one studio keep this up? And it turned out, well, they probably couldn't, really. And they've dialed that down a bit. And there have been buggy issues and balance issues. And there have been highs and lows. But the core formula here is just, just so fun that I think when all I said and done, this will be the game that I played the most this year. So this would have been my first nomination too. And it's still a game that you can hop in and out of very easily. If you have, you know, a small amount of time, you can hop on there, however many months it's been since you picked it up and you're still going to be able to have

a great time in a very short, digestible little amount of time. Yeah. And a pleasant surprise also. It's on that list of didn't know this was going to be as big as it was. Maybe Steve knew as an OG helldivers, the original fan. Now, this was about the right path that I assumed it would go on. There's no way that was going to last. Yeah. Just so many memorable moments too. Like with online games especially, I mean, one season can blend it to the next or one

match can blend to the next. But this game has already made so many indelible moments and campaigns and general orders. and just all out pitch battles on particular planets. It really has this capacity to create memories and like, where were you when this happened? That many games struggled to do. Or you were just like running off on a map doing your own thing and then you come back like carrying a horde of bugs with you

and you're like, I was just in a movie and please help me kill this horde of bugs following me. Yeah. Like that's how you, that's, that's gaming. Come on. Charity, you're up. So I'm reluctant to say this only because it feels like rewarding bad behavior

or maybe that bad behavior, but it's the classic Atlas thing of will release a game and really will release the real version of the game in 18 to 24 months later. Yeah. They do this with SMT. They do this with persona.

However, that said, Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance, which is the kind of like full version of Shin-McMegh Kinsei 5 that came out, however many years ago at this point, is just such a decisive upgrade over that original game, which was originally a Switch exclusive,

problematically, right? Because it didn't run that well on the Switch, the base, SMT5. This one's a multi-platform release, right? I actually played it on Switch, just because that's what I got the code for, but you can play it on Steam. And the thing is, like, you know,

SMTs, kind of the thinking man's. And not the thinking man's, but it's like the difficult, it's like the difficult. It's the notoriously like high maintenance difficult JRP, right? A lot of just getting stomped. A lot of,

I don't know, sort of like turn-based combat that's actually decently like strategic and that you have to put thought into, especially if you play on the higher difficulty, stuff like that. And yet Atlas is just, when it comes to making systems

in turn-based combat, which, you know, I think in general turn-based JRPs feel a little bit like they've gone out of fashion in favor of, right, like action RPG style combat. But yeah, man, when Atlas makes, I think Atlas just makes these systems that are very deep, that are very multifaceted, and that reward a lot of sitting and considering like the interaction of ailments and weaknesses and stuff like that. And I think there's just a lot of quality of life improvements and a lot of like, frankly, one of the biggest problems with the base Shimagami Tensei 5 is just that the story and the characters are kind of late, like insufferable, honestly. And there are now two routes in the sort of updated game. And one of them has much better writing and is a bit more coherent.

But if I wanted to preserve that terrible experience, I can still do that right. You can play the, what is it, the canon of creation route. But I think the new route, the vengeance route, has just more capable, like, characterization and character development. And it feels like it is a better articulation of the classic SMT idea, right, of like law, order, neutral, sort of, you know, you as the player, kind of determining the fate of the new world in this post-apocalyptic sort of interregnum period based on how these different friends representing different philosophical and moral. points of view sort of articulate themselves to you as you're exploring. Yada, yada, yada. It's just better written, better quality of life, better combat, some really great fights. Also, the music rip.

Like, the music and the bass, SMT5 is good, but the soundtrack in this rips. I cannot stress enough. SMT5 Vengeance going on with this. Come on. Anyone? Can we get a second here? I won't poo-poo it only because I'm not that deep into JRP's or SMT lore, for that matter. but I was intrigued by something that you said, Charity,

and I want to get your comparison on this. You say that you're reluctant to do this because it rewards bad behavior. Yeah. Is this along the lines of, say, a Bethesda that doesn't know how to make a fully fixed game when it comes out, or is it just more when they have time with a community to address sort of like Quabbles, then they'll, like, upgrade a game that comes with it?

Yeah, it's definitely not the Bethesda thing, right? Because Atlas definitely doesn't release games where you're like, wow, this is jank, this is busted, this is broken, this is half baked. I think the story of SMT5 was half baked unreleased. But I think it's usually, it does feel like double dipping. It feels more like a classic like, yeah, we're making a thing that is decidedly a base model of something. And then we're making, you know, the iPad Pro version of it. It feels more like that. It definitely doesn't feel like a company that's kind of insulting you by releasing a product that kind of just,

doesn't work. But I almost feel like it is because sometimes I'm like, well, then what makes it any different than early access release that like may or may not be waiting for the features that we actually want? It's just of a higher caliber. Yeah, like, am I going to play persona 6 when it comes out?

Or am I going to chill for until persona 6 crystal or whatever that? But that's also why you do it, right? It's because the answer, if you're me, is you're just going to play persona 6 and then you're going to play persona 6. Yeah, the real heads are going to it anyway. And that's great for you.

And you carryover bonus, right, and all that stuff. But it does feel a bit like, I hate that this company has the power to compel me to play the same game twice. When I should have just waited at least twice. They got me again. Yeah, they got me again. I got me again. Okay. Well, so, yeah, let's say for now.

Yeah, sure. Steve threw it a courtesy second. We'll keep it in the conversation here. What do you want to nominate, Matt? I got to nominate Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. It's the best remake of all time in my mind. I know it's been a while probably since most of us have touched it. No, I've, listen.

I'm always watching. It's because of gold saucers. Furrowing his brow when he says this. Yeah, it's gold saucer, man. Yeah, I think I just, played through it so exhaustively that I haven't picked it up because I pretty much did everything in that game. But yeah, you know, the magic of it hasn't really faded for me. I just don't think anyone has ever reimagined a video game in a more complete, compelling, and respectful way.

And I think I'll still feel that way at the end of the year. All right. I think you got a second, a third, and a fourth on that one. So we can see that to the list. You do. Okay. All right. Well, then I will go with one that I hope Matt at least will back me up on just to nominate this now because I fear it will get lost in the shuffle when it comes to the Goody conversation. But Prince of Persia, the lost crown. Hell yeah. Okay. Thank you. Definitelyively yes. This is still one of my best gaming experiences of the year. Just pure pleasure. So polished, just the epitome of the Metroidvania. And there have been so many good ones this year. This may not be the only one on our list.

Probably the best, though. It probably is the best, at least, for me. And it'll be back in the spotlight because we're getting Story DLC for this and other updates coming in September. I'm excited for more Prince of Persia of the Lost Crown. But this was, again, sort of a surprise, obviously a big franchise and Ubisoft, but I think expectations were sort of low. And it had been a while since we'd seen a big Prince of Persia game do well.

And initially, at least it was reported that the sales were slow-ish. So between that and the fact that it just immediately got eclipsed by a bunch of bigger games and it was right at the start of the year, I fear that it will be a little lost in the conversation by the time December rolls around. So I will remember to remind people about how great it is, and I wanted to make sure it gets some shine here. Absolutely. I'm doubt with that.

All right. we're rolling right around to Steve again. All right, Balatro, baby, let's go. Let's go. Who's played the shit? Who's played this shit? I have not. Oh, God, damn.

I have completed multiple runs of Balatro. I think Balatro is a stroke of genius. I think making a game that's as simple as something like Yotsie and putting rogue-like elements that are polished and, like truly inspired as to like how you can play a something as simple as a card game and bring it to a very addictive degree is something that I've absolutely loved. The polish on this thing is incredible. The price is right. The amount of hours that I put into this, I do not care to comment on.

The replay value is amazing. And you can feel like different. You play through it and you play. it encourages you to play in different ways every time. Yes, and you will never play a single run the same way, the level of ways that you can adapt to a run where you think like, okay, like the amount of times that I'm going to be like, all right, this is going to be a run where I play two pair a lot.

And then you get a certain type of Joker or a certain type of upgrade to where you're like, well, I guess I got to think about trying to find full houses or flushes now. Yeah, you can't force it. You have to, you have to like, really rewards you for going with the flow and adapting on the fly. Yeah, I think it's incredible. And I think that even if they were to like have a small expansion,

it was like, hey, we have a new pack of Jokers that we're going to be adding to this game. We have a new pack of deck conditions that we'll add. I will play this endlessly. It's so fun. It's so addicting. And I'm so far in debt from it. Catch me at the MGM Grand this weekend. Wait, can we sew down for one second?

Can I ask? So here's the thing about Bellatra, right? It's like, one, the way Steve talks about this game, y'all, like, I'm like, I'm afraid of it. It feels like it has a power. It feels like it's a game that has a kind of power that I don't know if I want something to have a hold over me. But two, it's also like, okay, I look at it. I look at the Bellatra hype and I'm like, well, it's a card game. Like, can you help? Maybe this would be helpful for listeners too. Can you explain? Because at face value, I feel like I'm looking at Steam, okay, it's a card game where I people hype for this card game, but what is Bellatro like really? Like, sell out. Okay. So it's basically like take any sort of game like Yotsi or poker where you're dealt a series of playing cards in a 52 deck

and you have to make a poker hand. And that poker hand is valued by the value on the card that you present. So if you'd like, say you have a two pair and it's like two sevens and two fours. You will have like a chip value for that

played hand that you have along with the value of the cards that you present, and that tallies up to a total score. That's the simple enough way of like, okay, so you're blind, basically the each level, quote unquote, is you have to get to a certain score in order to pass to go to the next one. And there are different ways that you can both upgrade your deck. You can be given sort of like buffs that are in the form of jokers where you're like, okay, well, any diamond card that you play is going to have a multiplier of 1.5 to your total payout. So that will add up to your score better.

So then you can adapt to saying, okay, well, I'm mostly going to be playing or finding different diamond cards in this run, or I'm going to be playing different types of flushes or trying to find a straight in the best way. And the level of variations that the game can throw at you to be like, okay, well, we're going to give you a joker that, like, makes it so that you can play. play a straight with every other card rather than a straight. Or you can play straight with fewer cards. Yeah. Or it rewards you for only playing four cards rather than five. Right. And the level of variance that comes with this, like just gets your brain thinking about how you can play this

game differently along with it being so incredibly rewarding simply to play and unlock different ways that you can play your deck. And that's kind of the tip of the iceberg because even if I were to explain it more, the things that you can get later on down the line with different runs is exponential. Like there are endless modes. There are different decks that are only a certain suit. There are different decks that can only be used in like there are only kings or something like that. And you've got to find different ways to kind of adapt and play it. Like it's a great math problem.

I find it incredibly stimulating. And I should mention too that it communicates really well what's happening. And, you know, if you're worried about like, oh, I'm going to hit the score. it sounds really complicated. It does a good job of showing you what's happening and giving you enough reference points to, it never goes over your head. Steve, is this your Marvel Snap Methadone?

Have you kicked the Snap? Oh, my God. I still have the app on my phone, and I occasionally jump onto that. But yeah, no, this definitely got me out of Marvel Snap Jail, for sure. Okay. Well, you don't need my second because Matt gave you one. I'm not a card game guy.

I'm not a deck builder, but I would happily approve this game appearing on this list. It's a horror card game, Ben, so you really don't need that. Yeah, just catering to all of my interests. That's great. Thanks. It is once it comes out on iOS and Android, man. I don't know if people should have this in their pocket.

I will not buy this on iOS. Like, I keep this in the house. We'll see if you have that sort of self-control. But yes, this should be on the list just based on reputation, prominence, the impact it's made, the number of people whose lives it has taken over. like it's taken over yours. So that's already five spots on the list used, at least for now. So we run out of real estate pretty quickly here.

Charity, what would you care to nominate next? Well, first, I have to confirm, right? Like, Queen's Blood counts as part of five. Oh, for God's sake. Not a separate entry. Let's do this to Ben. Let's have all-game talk to. But listen, we can't have with the Queen's Blood-only expansion for this.

Yes, when that happens. Oh, okay. All right, Ben. All right, cool. If that happens to the second half of the year. That can be the goatee. Let me talk to my guys as Sony is through a weekend arrange. Oh, well, then I'm just, I'm an Atlas six.

Persona three reload. No, absolutely. I'm playing a bit today. And that's like another kid. So that's obviously different because that's a remake, right? Yeah. And I found that like I was very wary of Persona 3 reload because I really, of the Modern persona games, I feel very mixed about the original persona three.

I shouldn't say original because that's also a game where there's like four different editions of persona three. Yeah. Before you even get to the remake. I like the characters a lot in that game, but a lot of that acting in it is kind of bizarre. I hate the sort of sub-villains of that game. I don't know. There's, it's sort of before, I think persona four is when the persona games kind of hit their formula of like, okay, they sort of nail the kind of like teens,

killing God, the power friendship thing. And I think three is a little rough, but also a little better than the later games in some ways. And I think that Persona 3 Reload as a remake is just so beautifully done. I feel like there's good quality of life stuff. I feel like they improved a lot of what people's complaints were about the sort of main dungeon that you explore in that game. I think just like even stuff like the anime,

animations in it are really great. And that was a game that by the time I got to the end of it, like, I was like sad as shit, man. I was just like, man, this thing is just as powerful as ever. You know what I mean? I found that that like in terms of just in a bigger picture sense, right? Like the whole remake, yeah, with the ongoing remake trend, I just found Persona 3 Reload to actually be a pretty nice gem of like things that

pulled off what they were trying to do very, very well. I will endorse this, actually, because I had only played Prona 3 on PSP, and I had been waiting for a while to get into Prona 3 reload because I know that

in their remakes, and more or less since Prona 5, Atlas seems to be putting a lot of care into its presentation and knowing that P3 was something that was very well-belied. loved mainly for its characters and for its story to a lesser thing.

Like that was a shoe in to give it the full-blown remake treatment. And I had no doubt that it was going to be something beautiful and something special. I think that that alone rewards that. Because, again, like, nothing about P3 reload kind of carries over past that original PSP version. And I think it's for the better. Okay. it's going to be tough to squeeze two Atlas and Xxas.

Charity's really getting his wish today. You might have to kill your darlings, choose between your babies here, we'll see. I have this game installed on my Xbox and my PC, and I will get to it this year. Matt, what's next? What is next, Ben? I guess we should talk about this erd tree.

Yeah. Talk about this nerd tree. Should we all just repor stamp nerd tree? We've talked about it. Yeah. It's got to go on the list. Okay. What else is there to say?

Ceremonious. Whatever, I guess we'll throw it in. It's the best reviewed DLC of all time, that alone. It's really fun. It seems like some qualification for this list thing. Yeah. All right. Ertree.

It goes on the list. Then I will nominate Animal Well. Hell you. Nice. Okay. We've done some big budget, AAA super polished blockbusters. So, yeah, let's. do the one developer kind of came out of nowhere, indie surprise that everyone loves, including at least a few of us.

It is just a really good game. I mean, just great puzzles. You can have kind of a quick animal well run if you want to. You can beat it fast, or you can spend maybe the rest of your natural life solving all of the puzzles in animal well and doing so collaboratively. and there's almost the Eldon Ring community kind of aspect to it, where it's not exactly like straight multiplayer game as we traditionally think of it, but it becomes kind of a multiplayer collective, holistic experiences. Everyone combines to solve some of these thornyer puzzles

that one person may never solve on their own. It doesn't look immediately like something that amazes you. You know, it's kind of like lo-fi pixelated, but very distinctive neon-colored kind of look. And it grows on you, I think. And it doesn't take a whole lot of time for you to sort of figure out the core mechanics and the platforming and the puzzle solving. But it could take an extremely long time for you to truly plumb its depths.

So one of the more pleasant surprises of this year, Animal Well. Yeah. It's just a beautiful, beautiful Metroidvania and unique in the way it operates, really mysterious and I really appreciated how much paying attention to your surroundings in this game led you to some interesting discoveries. I endorse this and I tell you why

because I'm very mixed on pixel art puzzle games and there's a charm and a polish I emphasis on polish for this game that is kind of unprecedented to me for an indie that feels really really, really, really good.

I think that easily earns in a spot. So we've named eight games already. Let's go at least one more round and then see where we stand. Steve, back to you. I got to put Crow Country in here. Woo! Co-side! Do it!

Yeah, let's go. No, there's a really great... I think that we're just hitting a sort of apex for the PS1N64 aesthetic to come back and see what fun indie developers can do with it. I think Crow Country is a very, very interesting take on this because it has this like sort of diorama level of detail

that you can like kind of have. It's not something like a Silent Hill. It's not quite like a Resident Evil, but it has these incorporated systems that have come with that kind of lineage and brought a really interesting, both aesthetic and presentation to this type of stand-and-shoot horror-based exploration

that is something really impressive. And it also has, like, its easy mode is actually something that's kind of narrative-based where things just kind of don't attack you and you can engage with the world as on your own terms. Tell me more. And I think that's a very interesting way to bring a horror game's easy mode.

or accessibility mode to the forefront. And I've really, really enjoyed it. I love what Crow and Country's got going on. Can I also add, I just think that, especially if you play through little times Crow Country, I have to give a lot of credit to that game for being really well written. Like I think it structures, its core mysteries,

like very, very well. And actually think on a maybe on a gameplay level, its replayability is a bit limited because of the nature of how the exploration works. Right. But I think the writing, I definitely think it's just like a lot of attention of detail is put into like how characters are introduced.

Like what, like, I don't know. I just, I was really, you really get rewarded if you play through the game again and you will have like a ton of, oh, moments. Like it's that kind of game. Yeah. See, your seconding Crow Country charity? Yeah.

All right. What are you nominating next? Children of the Sun. Did you guys play children? Yeah. Let's go. Oh, my God. That's another one where I was like,

my only complaint would be it's a little bit, it doesn't, I mean, maybe I should jump back into it again to make statements about its replayability because it has like a kind of score that you can kind of rack up, so to speak. But Children of the Sun,

if you didn't play it is a game where you, it's like cult themed and you're a sniper and on each level you have one bullet and you have some number of targets and you have to kill all of your targets with a single bullet with the caveat, right, that the environment and the sort of like

the sort of surroundings, right, you end up having to make the bullet interact with your targets as well as the surroundings as well as, you know, as the game goes on, different kind of, I don't know how to, what's a word for, like phenomena that happen in the level

that can kind of change the trajectory of the bullet and things like that. And so basically, each level becomes this exercise and like optimal pathing of a bullet's trajectory in bullet time. And it gets sort of decently complex the further on you go.

You get to be really impressed with yourself when you manage to kill like 32 targets with a single bullet somehow. You know, stuff like that. I weirdly got a lot of like super hot vibes when it came to that because it's very much about like it becomes a puzzle game. It isn't an action game, I wouldn't say.

It becomes more about the cool thing that you can do with this one great mechanic. Right, exactly. In many different forms. And it's honestly something that I would love to see like a bigger budget action game get to do as a small thing. But when you make that a full focus of a game, it can be interesting if you want to take your time with it. I really enjoyed it. I found it to be pretty interesting. I only played the demo of it.

I definitely loved the art style and appreciated the unique gameplay design. I don't know if it would be on my top 10, but again, I only played the demo. Okay, we have one tepid vote of confidence and one actual second from Steve, I suppose, for now. Matt, one more you want to mention? Yeah, I mean, I would love to do an off-the-path selection that I'm super enthusiastic about, but instead I think we'll just cover the base of something that really deserves to be here that I don't feel super compelled to talk about much more and that is like a dragon infinite wealth Oh, okay

You're such a loaded intro Wow All of that Sorry, Matt, can you hold up a copy of today's newspaper to make sure that you're not being held hostage by that game? Games are very canceled or something This is a game, you know, I usually play games like all at once and I blow through it and I'm dumb with it. But like a Dragon Infinite Wealth is the rare game that I come back to every couple of weeks and get a little further in and put it down and then keep coming back to. And it's just fantastic.

It really is. But we've talked about it plenty on here. And, you know, I don't think anyone is super excited about it anymore at this point in the year. But it really does deserve to be on the list. It's the most hilarious game I've ever played. I'm sure we'll talk about it more when the adaptation comes out and we get another round of, like. like a dragon discussion later this year. I literally, that's one of my most anticipated things of this year,

is the television adaptation of that game. Yeah. All right. My last formal nomination will be Dragon's Dogma II. Again, that we did discuss on this pod. Just a really engrossing game and world. It has some of the ambient multiplayer aspects of an Eldon Ring, let's say where you have the pond system and ponds that people create can go between worlds.

And ponds, it's problematic, frankly, with the ponds that's going on with these poor ponds who are just traded from player to player. But putting that aside, it's a game that, again, I guess, like Eldon Ring, makes you figure it out and play on its terms and doesn't cater to you or your ease. but it is really rewarding. It's this very kind of clockwork, emergent, immersive world that feels like it's happening and it's present whether or not you're actually playing at any time.

You're just being invited into this world. Like it doesn't exist for you. You're just a traveler. You're just a visitor in the world of Dragonstogma II. It's a really pretty game. It's a really deep game. It's an improvement on the formula of the. original, but sort of true to the original's principles.

So this was my first Dragon's Dogma experience. I was impressed, also sometimes repelled, but kind of in a good way. So Dragons Dogma, too. Anyone won a second. Yes. This is one of my most memorable gaming experiences of the year. Fantastic exploration, replayability, too, after your first clear. I'd love the combat.

I love the huge world and the sense of discovery. And I think that it's funny to revisit after the Shadow of the Earth tree, like difficulty discourse. Yeah. Like revisiting the Dragon's Dogma 2 discourse about like, oh, well, like fast travel. You can't really fast travel at the start. And like, yeah. It's very. Sweet day.

Yeah. If you were in on that Dragon's Dogma 2 is like too, like difficult or obtuse, then I don't think you're even eligible to play Shadow the urging D.L. That's very true. I had to black with you and Steve, bro. I didn't like, no, right. You've done it. All right.

So we've done three rounds of nominations, which means we have 12 games on the board right now. We've all been very kind and courteous. No one has blocked anyone else's nominations. But in order to arrive at a top 10, we got to winnow this down. And we might have other games in consideration here briefly. So we are going to need to be cruel and make some difficult decisions at some point. I'll just throw out some other games that were kind of, on my long list here.

I can do that too. Yeah. And if anyone wants to say, this must be on the list and stump for it hard, you can interrupt me if you'd like. Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door, one of the many fantastic remakes, but ultimately just a newer,

better version of a game that was great decades ago, right? Destiny to the final shape, which I've not gotten around to yet. It's been years since I kind of fell off the destiny experience. it was well received. Congrats on the decade of destiny, et cetera. But I don't know if any of us is still plugged in enough to this game to want to make a case for it here.

I have not yet gotten to play Lorelei in the Laser Eyes, which looks really fun. That was something I was considering mentioning. Okay. The Night Springs DLC for Allen Way 2. I know Steve's a big fan. Really great, especially the first episode. Yeah. More remake.

that we haven't even, I mean, the Braid Anniversary Edition, the Riven remake. I'm not going to push for those good as they may be. Stellar Blade, charity. Can we let, no, we should make the art. Come on. We got, no, put it on, no, we got, put it in contention. Because Stellar Blade. No.

Come on. I might hard know this. I might hard know this. No. Ultimately, we're going to need majority rule. We're going to need a waste of three people. Wait, I want on. Because Steve, you said it really hard.

Like, what's the argument against Stellar Blade? It's a cool wifu hack and slash, but, you know, at least the levels are boring, and at least the movement is slow, and at least that combat has done way better in many other games. And at least the costumes aren't that dope. And in the other character development. You are barring her up, bro. You are barring this chick up.

Stop it. I like Stellar Blades. I'm not going to say it has to be. on the list. It does not have to be on the list. It's a game where I'm like, I know what all of my little nits against it are. And yet, I think, I'm pretty sure I played it for longer than I want to tell you, right? So it's like, I don't know. I don't know. I actually thought that the, I think the level is short. There are a lot of fights that I like. You're right. It's one of those games that like, it probably falls, if I had to come up with a personal top 10, right? It falls shy. It falls probably

like 14 or something. Okay. So maybe, yeah. I, I, I, good. Good. game doesn't have the votes, I don't think. All right. Mini shoot, I have not had a chance to play yet. Looks really good. Ultros. You played. Yeah, I've finished that.

I wouldn't bring it in you for the top 10, but I did very much enjoy it. Senua Saga Hellblade 2. I like it, but I don't think I'll push for it on top 10. I was surprised. I was surprised people didn't. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good game. It's, there's not enough game in the game for me.

It feels like kind of a semi- interactive movie. Right. But I feel like we knew that, come the second go-around by now. Yeah, right. It's not a shock. And apparently, I've not played it more than once, but it is another game that is rewarding on multiple play-throughs and seeing things from a different perspective.

So just wanted to shout it out. Not going to push for it here. Tekonate, Charity. This would probably be you if anyone. I still haven't played Tekon-eat. Okay. All right. No one's in the Tekin Corner.

Apologies to the Tech & Crowd. Yeah. I'll get there. I'll get there. Sorry to that, man. Yeah, look, there's still a chance for all these things. I know that the competition will only get fiercer for the Goody conversation, but by the end of the year, maybe we will have re-evaluated or we will have played things that we haven't played yet.

So there's still a chance. Pacific Drive, Matt, you played, you liked. I just played, I liked. I don't think we're going to talk about it here, but that was a really unique, fun experience. Another crab's treasure? Too hard. Hey, I think it's too hard, man. No, it's good.

Herb tree is one thing, but the name is a grand game, though. If it comes out this year and if it's only slightly better, I would only say Deep Rock Galactic Survivor. Oh, yeah, you put me on to that. That's an early access right now. Yeah. That's a really fun one. Speaking of Early Access, so we've got Hades 2, right? I have not gotten around 2 yet.

I'm just, I've decided I'm going to wait for the final finished polished Hades 2. You're fine. You're fine for that. I mean, look, I just, I know I'm going to love. love it whenever I play it and I want to play it in the best possible form. Yeah, I've actually slowed playing. I kind of stopped playing it before. Yeah, I got to a certain point and I was like,

I don't want to hit like a wall of content that's not fully fleshed out yet. Exactly. And I put it down and was like, yeah. Yeah. It's kind of annoying. So it probably won't be out in the finished version by the end of the year. But whenever it is, I'm sure it will merit conversation and discussion and placement on a list.

So maybe we'll put a pin in that for now. I guess similarly, the only game that we did an emergency episode of the podcast of this year, Powell World. Yeah, what's our Power World? It's not best games of the year. It's games of the year.

It certainly was one of the games of the year. I still think it would be on my top 20. Yeah, but do people really not? Because I was surprised around the time we did that, I was surprised by how much it's like, I explored Power World for a bit. And then I started watching constant about it and I was like,

okay, some of this stuff that I'll be able to do if I spend time looks fun. But also, it just didn't feel like that great of a use of my time. You know what I mean? I'd rather,

like, yeah, I don't know. I didn't, it didn't have a ton for me after. Some people are still really, really fucking with Powell World. Yeah.

In this late in the year. And there's a new expansion. I'm impressed at the staying power for sure. I think it's compelling. And I think that, you know, we're a bunch of old for the most part. Yeah.

I think that's definitely a part of it, for sure. Kids are used to playing with a lot of jank. Like, you know, like Minecraft and Roblox are ugly sometimes in some regards. Yeah. And I think, you know, there's a certain group of gamers on the younger side who the jank of Power World just feels like part for the course. Yeah. Yeah, you can't talk about gaming in 2024 without talking about Power World and reckoning with Power Worlds. And maybe we'll return to it.

Again, it's another early access one. So we kind of have a loophole here. We can just wait for it to be fully finished and out. But, yeah, probably not cracking this list now. And then there's a whole lot of other games in that category of like, this was huge for a little while or like a weathering waves, the new Genschen like a lot of early access games or just steam sensations that kind of came and went and deserve a mention maybe, but probably not placement here.

So am I omitting anything that it? anyone thinks is a serious contender for the top 10? I got a couple. Well, you mentioned Lord Lay in the Laser Eyes. Yeah. That, I think I'm about probably like 15 hours into that. And it's a really cool, interesting puzzle game that actually does have a little bit of like a nod to like that PS1. Like there's something about that game running around that makes me feel like a little bit of like the PS1 like Resident Evil or Parasite E vibe of just.

exploring this castle, but, you know, it's a puzzle game and you're given a ton of information, and it's a challenging puzzle game. It's definitely not for everyone, but it's absolutely worthy of checking out. I think if there were anyone else on our panel here who had played it and was in about it, I would push more for it. But the other game I want to highlight that would crack my top 10 that definitely would not crack other people's top 10 is a game called Harold Hallibut. And it is not for everyone, but if you ever had that adventure game background. Oh, this might be up my street. Harold Hallibut is, first of all, beautiful.

It might be a little slow-paced for some people, but this is about having a really beautifully realized, complete world full of excellent, well-written, memorable characters. And it's a game that kind of has a message where you're really thinking, about, you know, what is it that I want out of life? And do I know who I am if I've never had to make a tough decision? Well, we're about to have to make some tough decisions right here. We're about to find out who we are.

But I just wanted to shout that game out real quick. Anything else that you think has to be? Did anyone play Nine Souls? It was our listener recommendation on Ringerverse Recommends this month. I played it for a bit. I kind of bounced, not hard off it, but kind of soft off it. but I was just curious. Crowded fields for Metroidvania's,

but a lot of people love that game. I've not gotten to it yet. I love Red Candle in general, so I was kind of disappointing to myself that I wasn't feeling it that hard. So reading the room here, I think there might be as many as eight games that we can sort of cement onto this list.

Let's see. I think we need majority of support here, at least three out of four of us to sort of solidify this. So Helldivers two, right? Correct. It's on the list. Okay.

Erd Tree. Yeah. On the list. Animal well? Do we have three? Yeah, I'm good with that. One, two, three. All right.

Rebirth. I think we're all good with that. Okay. Balatro. Yep. Come on, baby. All right. Now, that's five that we're definitely locking in.

Do we have support for Dragon's Dogma 2? I'm behind it. Matt's behind it. I am behind it, but we can sort of put a pin in it as a different point in a few minutes. Yeah. You guys are asking like it's a question. Like, we should be, there's this politicking that has to happen. Well, it's like, we are.

I might want to fight harder for something at least. We'll see. Okay. All right. Like a dragon infinite wealth, I would support. I'm down for that. I'm pushing that over. Yes.

Okay. All right. Prince of Persia of the Lost Crown. Absolutely. Matt might feel very strongly about it. This is the one I'm willing to fight in the streets for. Yeah. Fine.

Me too. Keep it. Keep it. All right. That's seven in some order. Now we have Crow Country. Again, I have not played this, but I... I can lose it.

I wouldn't veto if you guys feel strong. I'm not too precious about it. Okay, so that's kind of in the mix with Dragon's Dogma 2. Then we have Charity's multiple Atlas titles. I'm sorry, Charity, I think we might have to say goodbye to some of these. No, no, no, no, no, no. Do we have room for them? So here won't.

Let me speak. Let me speak, which is, I think Crowe Country. is a game I love. I'm willing to lose it. So that's the thing. I'm willing to make a sacrifice of something I want in order to serve the atmosphere agenda. You kill one of your two children. I also want to say that like I think we all

in our own homes, we might have items. I can offer 15 baritone saxophone means. I can offer some edibles. This man is looking around at his desk. I can offer USB SD card with the USBC. Well, we need you to do that for submitting the pod first.

I need you to... Yeah. If you had to choose one of those. I don't have to choose one as a thing. And I think that's a great... It's a great question. And I would simply choose not to choose that. Which one would you put higher?

Of the two? It's another way to answer. It's actually tough because I think... I feel like we're in this new house of the dragon episode where they come in and they're like, which one is the boy? You have to pick one. This is your queen of the sun right now.

If I had to pick. I would lose Children of the Sun before I lost. Oh, well, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was going to force that off the list anyway. We can cut children's the sun. But no, but no, no. I'm saying I'm saying within the show of not.

All right. Glad me. Motherfurt. Children of sons off the list. Thank you. Okay. I'm, that I'm staying at my ground. Which Shimagami Tensei 5, vengeance.

and Persona 3 reload, would you rank higher? And I'm not even trying to cut one. I'm just curious. It's hard for me to say, right? Like, I think... It's a reload, right? You're saying which one would I... Which would you rank higher, right?

I'm just curious. I'd put reload probably slightly higher. That's what I thought. I'm surprised that, like, how hard that is to answer, though. Yeah, I don't know. But I'd say reloads later. Philosophically speaking, I'm more comfortable with a remake than an upgraded edition of a game from three years ago being on this list personally.

That's top. That's from ground up. I'm comfortable with both of them being on me. That's a great thing. I think you made that known. It's still a democracy on button mash if nowhere else. So we need majority support here. And I just,

I don't know if you're going to get it for both of these games. So you can make the case on the goadipad at the end, but too rehashed for how many, How many do we have on the list if you include Shemaget, Tense, 5, and Persona 3 reload? That takes up to 9. Did we have Helldivers 2 on there yet? Yeah, we do. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Hell Divers, Erdry, Animal Well, Rebirth, Bolatro, like a dragon, Prince of Persia. Those seven are locked in. We just need one more. George Clooney, Brad Pitt. We need one more. If we put Persona 3 reload on there, that gives us eight.

I mean, I would push for Dragon's Dogma 2, being. on this list personally. I would push for us and T5 being I guess we all have things we would do. We can do both of those. I'm happy doing both of those. You want to do those too? Yeah. And then

Shishen McCabe Ted Say 5. I've heard good things. Yeah. I mean, Charlie just had his birthday. It's true. That's a great point. That's a great

leverage the first day. That's amazing point. That's a great observation. I would have supported Crow Country being on this list over an Atlas title person, even though it's not really for me. I kind of... Listen, the Atlas lobby is mean out here. It's pretty strong.

Yeah. All right. I mean, look, if people aren't going to put their feet down about the double Atlas representation, I don't feel... I think he might be right, though. Yeah. I don't feel super strongly about anything that we're excluding. There are a lot of other great games here, and I feel a little bit better because, again,

we can return to this with the wisdom of time. See, I would put Unicorn Overlord in over probably one of those two Atlas titles. Okay. I don't need to push for that. I thought it was a really great game. Charity, as a concession, can we at least put them at the bottom of the top ten? Will you give us that? Are we doing?

Are we ordering it? We've bent over backwards here. I'm playing politics. Absolutely you can. Okay. We need to compromise. You know, you got to give up something to get something. Win is a win.

I mean, look, if we can quickly hash out some sort of order here, really, if you're on the list, it's a great honor, but we have a few minutes only here. So personally, Hell Divers 2 would be my game of the year, game of the half of the year, first half of the year, my goat Fahoti. So I would say, like, my personal list, look, just like kind of reading the room again, you know, counting the votes, seeing where everyone stands, what the levels of support here are. I would say Hell Divers 2 Rebirth Bellatro Erd Tree

Animal Well Like a Dragon Prince of Persia Dragon's Dogma Persona 3 Shin Megami Tensei 5 Anyone argues Remusely with that order

You want to shift things up I'm going to see Ben I got a different order Charity you got a different order I don't have a different order but I'm curious to hear your order for your order, we'll see. Okay, well, let's see.

I would have to put rebirth at the top. Yeah. And then after that, I would actually put Prince of Persia lost crown all the way to number two. All right. Okay, let's call it down here. We're not going to get it that high. And then I would put Helldivers too.

Yeah. And then I would put Erd Tree. Uh-huh. Is there a reason you guys are putting Ertree at the top? I feel like it's conspicuous. Y'all are Prince of Persia pilled for sure. We are. No, no, it's that the rest of the world, the rest of the world needs to be.

Needs the pill. Yeah, you all didn't get the pill. I don't know why not, but if you all don't start playing this, they're never going to make another than whatever. So please play this game. So good. Find the crowd, please. Chalotro and Like a Dragon somewhere around there. Animal Well, after that.

And then I would. I'm going to put persona three reload above Dragon's Dogma, too, even though I haven't played it. Okay. That's sporting a view. And then, yeah, Shinn-Mugam a 10-05-V-V-Ventions. Okay. All right. Number one, is anyone with me on Helldivers or do you all want?

Yes, I'm with you on Helldivers. I'm not going to, I don't have things. I'm with the rebirth. I think rebirth is a good, especially like all the narrative turning. Oh, it's disappointing sales compared to the first game. F that. Gold saucer for life. I'm going to be going to play a game so I'm dead.

squeeze blood. Quees blood. Come on. Even though it's maybe the greatest of all remakes, it is still a remake. It's a little longer than it needs to be argument. You guys stop with this. I don't know if it captured the same case as much as Hell divers. The aiming was a little excessively confusing as the main thing I'll say.

It's been in the Zygues. I'm making an executive decision here. You can challenge it in the courts. Hell Divers 2, number one. I'm going to challenge it in the courts. It's going to be fighting in the streets. And then we'll go with the rebirth two. Okay, for everyone.

Erd Tree three. Fine. All right. And Balacho four. Yes. Great. And Prince of Persia of the Lost Crown? Five.

Can we? Sure. Five. Okay. And I respectfully. All right. Like a dragon. Consent.

Like a dragon six. And then let's go. Animal Well, seven. And persona three, reload eight, dragons dogma two, nine, Shin-Mcame Tense, five, ten. Okay. We did it. We did it. We did it.

Lightning round, very brief responses here. We will, of course, return to this for the actual GoodyPod, but I want to ask you guys, what is one game for each of you that is coming out in the second half of the year that you hope will crack the goate list that is not out yet? because we now have clarity after summer showcase season and then send a direct about all the big games coming out. Give me one each. Steve,

what's your one game that you want to be good enough to crack the gody pod? Well, if it does come out this year, I really want to see what Troy Baker can do with Indiana Jones. And if Machine Head can make a fun Indiana Jones game, I might just be out of my mind. Okay. Charity? I mean, as the Atlas spokesman.

Oh, my goodness. That's all the answer for Charity. I have to say metaphor refraintes. Okay. Just know right now. You're not getting three Anglers games of the year in top ten. Part of why I want it is to prove you wrong.

I'm going to show up here with three rings. He's reclaiming his time. Three rings. All right. Three hours of a ring. I'm playing this out for that game. I will say that. We got three Atlas titles.

I'm calling my shot. Those gentlemen from New York, please stop it's chilling for outlets. I need a gavel to bang here. Matt, what's your pick? Yeah, it's Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. Yeah. I'm ready for a two and a half D overhead.

Me too. Zelda game. Yes. Ready for some new mechanics. Yep. I want the first mainline playable Zelda game to be as good as any great original Legend of Zelda with playable link game. So I would mention that or Astrobot,

except that I'm just so confident that those games will be good. Oh, so good considerations. I'm choosing outlaws just because I'm a little less confident that it will deserve to be on that year-end list, but I want it to be. So Astrobat, look, it's going to be great. I will brook no argument. Echoes of wisdom should be good, should be great. But outlaws, I'm confident that it will be good. I'm not yet confident that it will be great.

So that's why it's get my vote here because I want it to make that leap. So I'm very curious to see how many of our goat fahodes will be goadies. how much of our first half list will carry over here because it's been such a strong first half and maybe the second half will be a slight letdown compared to the first half. Only one atlas came.

Yeah, I know. Half the outless output of the first half. But I would have said that the first half of this year would be a letdown after last year and it really hasn't been. So perhaps it will surprise us and we'll see how many carryovers we have. Gentlemen, thank you for helping me hash out this list.

I'm sure no one will be. be mad at us. And only two of us are still at all active on Elon's Twitter. So you can at me and Matt, but Charity and Steve will be blissfully unaware of whatever you say to us. Thank you guys. Good to talk to you. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks to Devin Ronaldo for producing this podcast to our Juneer Ramgapal for being our network's air traffic controller and to our lovely listeners for supporting us and also for emailing us, which you can do at ringaversegaming at gmail.com. But Mash will be back later this month. But stay tuned in the meantime. time for continuing coverage of Hot D, the boys, and the acolyte. That's the end of our show for

today, but I will leave you with the words that a great president delivered on screen for the first time 28 years ago to the day. We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We're going to live on. We're going to survive, unless we're playing Shadow of the Earth Tree, in which case we'll definitely die. But when we do, we'll corpse run right back to you. Feels like every product claims real protein these days. But real doesn't start on a label. It starts at the source.

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