Video Gamers Podcast - 2025 Indie Award Contenders - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Gaming hosts Ryan, Ace and John are putting on their prediction hats and diving into the biggest Indie contenders for this year’s Game Awards! With video games like The Alters, Blue Prince, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 all making waves, we’re breaking down what makes these titles and more stand out in a stacked year for gaming. Is The Alters a genre-defining experience in choice-based storytelling? Does Blue Prince live up to its mysterious buzz? Does Expedition 33’s surreal beauty and emotional weight prove its one of this years best video games? From innovative mechanics to unforgettable worlds, we explore how these standout titles reflect where gaming is headed and if they deserve a spot among 2025’s AAA video games. All that and more, right here on the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’Jake, Gaius and Phelps   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, Patrick and PeopleWonder   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: ⁠https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz⁠ Follow us on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠ Follow us on X: ⁠https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠ Subscribe to us on YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠ Visit us on the web: ⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Follow us on Twitch: ⁠https://www.twitch.tv/videogamerspodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs, a $10 one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday, anywhere along the Go network. And the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network, starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online Go Pass ahead of the show at Gotransit.com slash tickets. This episode is brought to you by Dzone. For the first time ever, the 32 best soccer clubs from across the world are coming together to decide who the undisputed champions of the world are in the FIFA Club World Cup. The world's best

players, Messi, Holland, Kane and more are all taking part. And you can watch every match for free on Dazon, starting on June 14th and running until July 13th. Sign up now at dazon.com slash FIFA. That's D-A-Z-N dot com slash FIFA. Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. The year is only halfway done, but the indie space is already swinging for the game of the year gold. Today, we're breaking down the standout indies that we've reviewed this year for our

Indie Mid Year Award nominations. I am your host Ace and joining me, he is president of the I Hate the Midnight Walk fan club. It's John. Happy to be here everybody. Happy to be here, ladies and gentlemen, down with the Midnight Walk with expedition 33. Woo woo woo. Let's go. Oh, it's, it's funny you mentioned that, John. Yeah. Oh man, the midnight walk, we will get to it, but man, it's going to leave an impact I wasn't expecting this year.

We'll see. You know, he's made leaps and bounds and broadening his indie horizons, but he still only thinks expedition 33 is just okay. It's Ryan. Is it my turn? Oh, I have to, yeah, I gotta wait to make my move. Oh! Oh, okay.

Okay. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Where else was I gonna go? You know that. That was pretty good, Ryan. That was pretty good. I thought you just muted yourself again. Nope. Not this time. I prefer turn-based Ryan. Turn-based Ryan? Yeah, that might be my favorite version of Ryan, I'll be real. Thunderbolt!

Anyway fellas, we have reviewed some crazy good indies this year. Individually, together, and some reviewed some crazy good indies this year, individually, together, and some of us, you know, in duos, I guess is how we'll put it. Because there's some you've played Ryan that I didn't play. There's some John's play that I didn't play, but you two have played them together and that's good enough for me. But we're halfway through the year.

So I figured now's the time to start gathering, you know, all the games up and deciding what we think they were standout qualities were, what we would nominate them for at the end of the year. Heck yeah, man. Yep, great. And just as a little bit of preamble here, I mean, indie, it seems like has sort of ruled

the last two years in the pre-show chatter. We were just talking that in 2024, seven of the top selling games on Steam were indie games. And this year in 2025, which has been an absolute banger year, about half of the games, the top selling games are either AA or indie titles. Yeah. It's insane.

And we're really seeing a shift in the gamer space for where people are really considering indies as more of what they want to invest in, which I totally get. Ryan, I don't know if we've sort of flipped that switch in your brain yet, but I think I keep hitting it every now and then. For sure. I mean, we've had some awesome experiences so far in the indie world and the cool- Oh, this year alone, dude.

Yeah, this year alone. And then the cool thing that I absolutely love is, is even if it's a great game, you remember you paid like ten bucks for it and that makes you feel even better. You're like, oh yeah, and this was totally worth it. I've got 20 hours of awesome experience out of this and it cost me ten bucks, you know, cheaper than a movie. So yeah, it's... What if you paid 40 bucks for it? What if it was also hand-crafted over a millennia? What if it had pot boy, the most iconic character in all of indie games, the sack boy goth sack boy with an open head.

Yeah, I guess so. Well, starting off, we're going to go way back to one of the first Indies we talked about this year. It's not Ender Magnolia. I know audience, you can stop holding your breath. I know. I know. They know.

You're tired of hearing about Ender Magnolia, but we're talking about Tales of Iron Two, Whiskers of Winter. This game gave me the greatest opportunity, I think, in my entire career as a podcaster to talk with, you know, Odd Bug Studio and Jack Bennett personally. It was one of the coolest things we did. They got to show us that artwork and show us the layers of how much work goes into this. But I want to know, John, did anything stand out about Tales of Miron 2 for you that you would nominate it for this year? Well, first of all, I want, I want to echo your sentiment there. Speaking to Jack Bennett and Oddbug was like, yeah, that was just such a cool experience

and such a generous guy with his time. And yeah, they showed us the behind the scenes Unity stuff as far as like how the games are actually designed. We shared that on like several like Facebook groups for indie game developers and stuff and people ate it up. They loved it. It was such a cool peek behind the curtain.

With regards to whether this game is award worthy in anything, I do have to say, you know, as an advocate for truth in the show, I didn't like Tales of Iron 2 as much as I was hoping. Same sentiment. I did like the first one more. I felt like Tales of Iron 2 was a great story and perhaps like more of an expansive DLC

than a standalone game. But I could definitely see an argument to be made for an award in the best art direction. I really like that woodblock art style quite a bit. It's like some of my favorite game art, honestly, even though it's sort of like Marionette based, not my favorite game art honestly, even though it's you know, it's sort of like marionette based You know not not unlike South Park honestly like Yeah, but I

Yeah, exactly. I really enjoyed the art direction I'd agree. I think that's its standout quality Definitely and I you know, I didn't really spend any time playing the game but but talking with Jack and seeing how it was designed and developed and how that art looks was it was just so cool it's so unique and I also I just love that art style but what I would say is it nominated for best rat. Oh you beat me too I was gonna say best rat of the year! Best rat in gaming this year was my nomination. I know you do know where you're going. You definitely beat me to it though. This ain't even a draft and I snaked your pick

There's what there's another one that I've got here This is for sure like IP most deserving of a cartoon or a show or something I would love to see this fleshed out into like a show man Dude seeing a tales of iron like TV show played out like Thrones would be so cool a Tales of Iron like TV show played out like Thrones would be so cool. So cool. That'd be pretty cool. Yeah. No, Tales of Iron 2 was a great game.

Don't get me wrong, but unfortunately among the sea of fantastic indies we got this year, it just, it was lacking and that's, it's really sucks because it is really good and I do think people should go play it, but there's just, that just tells you the quality of games that we've gotten this year That's exactly what I would say. I would say it's not that like it's not that this was a bad game Any you know any other year if this would have come out and we've been like, hey, that was a pretty good game but like when you put it in a contrast with your like Kingdom come twos and yeah You know your your other huge mega standout games that have come out this year, it's tough,

it's tough competition. And I even think that game has a great soundtrack, but the soundtracks that have come out afterwards are even better, so it's like I can't say like, oh yeah, I'd nominate this for best soundtrack. No, no I can't. Moving on from Tales of Marn 2 is the one me and Ryan played through together.

The drug filled world of schedule one. Yeah. Ace cops are coming. The cops are coming. Hide the drugs Ryan. Hide them quick. Oh, don't worry. It's just Benji. He's never mind. Never mind. Yeah, that's our boy. All right. We're all good.

This game took the world by storm for like that first few weeks, man. Like I felt like I was seeing this everywhere. Enough so that we got Josh to pick it up, which we just Josh pick up games like this. Have a lot of fun with it, too. We did. We had a great time. Yeah, I even went back and played some more. It's it's yeah, it's just one of those that has a very satisfying game loop. It's it's not crazy difficult, but it yeah, it's just one of those that has a very satisfying game loop. Um, it's, it's not crazy difficult, but it's just, it's just one of those just fun, goofy games that makes you laugh.

And, and like I had said, when we did the deep dive, just hearing like us all sit in chat and talk about, um, you know, like, oh yeah, we got to deliver, you know, three grams of meth here and do this and that. And it was just, it was listening to Josh say all the, like the specific strains to, like, Oh yeah, I got some granddaddy perp and it's just, dude, you were breaking dude, that was racking me up. You joined that voice chat with me and Josh talking drugs, like trying to figure out where things go.

We were just reading descriptions of things. We didn't know what you were talking about. He was like, okay, let's go buy some more baggies. I'm going to start bagging up the granddaddy purple we have here. Watch out for the cops. Don't get caught. What did I join here, man? What's going on? Am I on the right channel? Dude, we had a great time with schedule one. So if you had to pick one of these nominations for schedule one, what stood out about schedule one, if anything, Ryan? Man. Gosh, that's a hard one. Because I feel like overall, it was a cool experience

that I really enjoyed. But does it stand out? I don't think there's anything really unique that really pops out at me, though, that man, this was just standalone from everything else. Schedule One is the video game equivalent to Pop Rocks, where you're like, ah cool. All right, I Will say this the dev it's a solo dev he's still updating the game and adding more features. He's adding rival gangs

He's adding, you know more drugs and more things to work towards but you know, the game is Yes running. I mean it's running as intended, but I don't think it's got what it takes to take anything home Unfortunately, yeah Really fun really fun experience. It's awesome that they're still supporting it and that whoever that is has either a Comfortable retirement or a bright future in their future. Yeah. Yeah, as long as no one checks what game they developed and they're like, oh it's a game about drugs. Never mind. Well, yeah, but couldn't you see this being like a whole mini game or a game within a game of GTA 6 or something like that? Yeah, I get yeah, I could see that. I could see that. That's true. I forget that I haven't played any Grand Theft Auto games. So I

don't think about that, but that's true. And GTA 6 is set to be a big release, huh? I keep forgetting that you never played GTA. That's wild. Like any of them ever? I have the fireworks dogs. Now, I tried to play GTA 4 on an Xbox 360. It just wasn't going well, so I didn't continue.

Got enough to pick up some of the funny lines though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey cousin, let's go boy. Yeah come on, Roman. Anyway, moving on to a game we actually all three played, so we will all have something to say about this, be it good, or in my case, bad. We're talking about blueprints. Yes. Oh my gosh. I wish. liked that. Yeah, man This is like it's it to make another comparison This is more in that like Oppenheimer category where like if it resonates with you, it's really gonna resonate with you

But if you don't like it, there's there's some reasons why that are totally valid for me That gameplay loop got tired real fast. It's way too text heavy, way too slow paced, and the RNG drove me nuts in it. But there's a lot of people that it really, really worked for. Do you think it's going to get nominated for anything? Even if you don't personally nominate it,

what do you think maybe stood out the most about it i think if i were to i think it's definitely it might even be a g a game of the year candidate just based on you think so oh okay it wouldn't it wouldn't be something i would pick but i i mean bro take it's like approval rating it's like 90 i think it's got a higher approval rating on steam than than expedition 33 does by marginal but it's like 90. I think it's got a higher approval rating on steam than, than expedition 33 does by marginal, but it's, but I just don't, I don't understand it. Yeah. I, I get it. I actually, for the opening hours of it, I had a lot of fun with it, but it just got so frustrating for me where I just stopped playing it. I watched the videos and I think a argument could be made for best narrative. Like the actual storytelling, if you can slog through all of the texts and the notes that you're going to have to keep to be able to make it through this game,

the narrative is actually pretty cool. Um, it's just, you know, can you, can you fight through it, man? Yeah, that's a tough one. Yeah. And it is, um, it's a, on Metacic, it's a 92, but this shows how kind of the difference, which is wild because the universal, it's universal claim Metacritic score of 92. Metacritic must play the user's score. 7.5.

Wow. Look at that difference. That's, that's to me. That is, that's a decent difference, man. I mean, honestly. That's pretty big. Typically like a must play. It's, you know, it may be different.

The user score may be different, but not as much as the Metacritic score. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, that's a decent difference man I mean honestly that's pretty big typically like a must play that it's you know it may be different the user score may be different but not usually that much but yeah I mean I I am NOT a puzzle game guy it's they just typically I'm not a fan of the loop I just kind of get bored I'm like okay what am I solving this puzzle for where you know what's the purpose just to do it well Well, it doesn't really get me anything, but this one I, I, I did like, it's one of my favorite puzzle games that I've played, but once I was done, I was done. I've had no interest or no thought like, Oh man, I'd like to go back and check it

out. Cause again, like you said, John, the RNG just really just was not cool. In my opinion, like I just, I just beat it. Did you finish it? No, no, I got to I got to the last room That's when I ran into the freezer that makes three of us who did not finish this game Yeah, and then I went and then I was like I went I used it on that room cuz that's where I had opened the Door and I was ready to go. I'm excited And then I got a freezer room that has no door in it.

And then I was screwed. And I'm like, there's no more keys. I have no more other way. And I had to do start a new day. And I was like, dude, this, that was, I think the last time I played it, I was done after that. Did anything of it stand out to you? Something you would consider it nominee worthy? Geez, that's a hard one.

There's no, there's no narration, not much narrative. No, there's not much narrative. Well, there's not a lot of narration, but there is actually a pretty deep. The story is actually really cool. Yeah. You just gotta read everything.

The other thing I didn't like is. Boy, I wish I knew what it was. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to go find it all and then read it all. And then you can't, you're taking million screenshots. You have to have a folder on your computer with all your screenshots.

Like, yeah, I don't, um, I don't know what I would give it. I honestly, I think it's kind of like schedule one for me. I think it's, I think it's a great game and I think a lot of people love it. I just don't know what, what really pops. Maybe it is the narrative. I'd say, yeah, I'd give it to the narrative I feel like if this game had voice acting very similar to like disco Elysium I don't think I'd like disco Elysium nearly as much if it didn't have the voice acting Oh, you wouldn't because I played it both. I played I originally started and everyone's like this game's so amazing I'm like, oh no. No, this is dude. It's horrible

Man ace I couldn't agree with you more man And the funny thing is is that getting voice talent is pretty economical Dude, like they could have got they could have hired some really talented unknown actors to do the voice acting for this and it would have enhanced the experience so much. And frankly, the times when they did have voice acting, I found it brilliant. I don't remember the name of the grandfather or whatever who like, is it the grandfather or the uncle? Whatever. The recently deceased person who owned the mansion, which you're trying to solve the puzzle for or whatever. When you're listening to his kind of like grainy lo-fi audio narrative, like sort of explaining the scenario to you, the main character, it's like haunting, man. It kind of reminded me of being in like the

haunted mansion a little bit where you get that like kind of creepy narrative and you're like, oh man, I dig it. You know, like they're able to evoke emotion with so little here. I don't know why they didn't do it. I mean, like, I don't know, man. I don't know. I mean, I think, I don't know if it would have saved the game for me

because the game still doesn't respect your time. It doesn't respect you, the player. It doesn't. It really wants to waste your time, but you know, it will get nuts. I've never had a game. Violate my time more. But yeah, no, I'd give it to best narrative as well, honestly, because otherwise nothing's that great.

Unfortunately. Moving on when we've all played again, the midnight walk, you know, I'm going to let Ryan go first. So he's got nice things to say, hopefully Speaking of a violation of time. Oh, no Violation of time. Yeah, I was yeah, it's like freaking 30 minute game, but I was I Was higher on this I think than both of you. I did enjoy my time playing this game. I thought it was cool, neat world.

Definitely probably a whole different game in VR, and that's probably the only way you should play it, honestly, if you can handle movement and stuff in VR. But I think that would have changed my thought process, because then I think the environment, the world, would have been a lot more meaningful and impactful, and I think the the environment the world would have been you know a lot more meaningful and impactful and I think it would have you know done a good bit so probably something along that lines you know for for what I would recommend for it but yeah it was this is a

good game overall all right John let them have it yep I've probably punched down on these guys enough. The reality is that they created something much more substantial and brave and worthy of positive critique than I could ever do myself. And so anybody who's listening to me just beat these guys up over and over again. Know that I acknowledge that. I'm kind of having fun a little bit. And honestly, secretly, I just want them to invite me over so I can look at their little puppets.

I personally didn't enjoy this game, but I do know that there are a lot of people who really, really liked it. And I could see a case being made for Best Art Direction for this one as well. it didn't quite resonate with me, which is shocking But but I could see it yeah, I I wanted to love it more than I did and

I softened on it them farther away from it I get and then I'm reminded just how little game there was for what I paid And I get mad again, and I'm not mad, I guess at the game, but more of that this wasn't clear, I guess, at the beginning, how short this game was. Yeah. The fact that people seem to have come to the consensus that this game is a VR game. It is a VR game and they are selling it as a

regular game. And I guess that's fine for most people. It just wasn't for me. Yeah, this, uh, so I so I had the privilege of talking with this entrepreneur who's who runs a VR sorry mixed reality augmented reality company called mixed rift and he had this great point of view on this stuff where he was like VR the technology came out without people really understanding what the utility wasn't what people would buy. And so what you had was all of these studios spending tons and tons of money on VR, Resident Evil, and half-life experiences, and things like

a midnight walk, the midnight walk, sorry, without really understanding if that could be business-solvent, you know? Like, are enough people going to buy this as a VR experience to justify the huge production costs associated with it. And in this case, they probably did some projections late in the in the development process and said no, and made it a broader available game.

And it just doesn't work. You end up with this game that's kind of neither it's like kind of not a VR game and not a Standard, you know single-player experience. I don't know but again, man, we're in the minority. It's got we are Minority. Yeah. Yeah this game well many people love it But for me I would nominate it for either You know best art direction I could see possibly for that just because the effort that went into it and all the, you know, the, the 3d scanning of the models into the game.

But also I could possibly give it to best audio design. It had really pretty good audio design, pretty good audio, especially like when you did the whole closing your eyes thing, you had to listen for the whispers and walk forward, things like that. I could see that. And especially because I don't really, I can't really think anything coming up that could possibly take it Yeah, again, I think it's just what it's just a different experience and probably in VR that you know, you can't really

Get like I've talked to people that I mean like one of my favorite VR games is super hot and People will play it on like, you know They're systems controller and stuff not in VR and I can't even imagine Not playing it in VR. It would be a totally different game So that's how I kind of feel what this is, you know an opposite direction So but yeah, probably the art style our direction is what I would say Sorry the midnight walk. Sorry Sorry again moon hood But moving on to what I think we're all expecting

to get nominated for the big one, it's Expedition 33. Here we go. We've all played it. John, go ahead. The floor is yours, buddy. Yeah, Rick. How many awards you were nominated for? Well, so if I'm going down the line here game of the year clear contender

I can direction clear contender best narrative clear contender best art direction clear contender best score and music Locked locked in locked in 100 audio design Locked best performance clear contender games for impact. That's only so there's a category in the game Awards That's recognizes games that address social issues and promote positive change. I Don't know this I could see it, but I don't know that it's quite as impactful as Maybe you think it sweeps the board pretty much almost Maybe you think it sweeps the board pretty much almost This is as clear a contender to sweep as I've ever seen man. I gotta agree Can you guys think of a game that has had the social resonance that this game has?

No, especially not for a turn-based RPG, which are usually very divisive among the Western audience And it come out the way it did where it just kind of like was boom and then just yeah Yeah, just took over that I think that there's games that if you were to look at them in the rear view mirror Where you go like okay cyberpunk or red dead, you know red dead to got a war 2019 That if you look at them through the rear view mirror you'd be like, oh gosh, yeah, these are like clear sweep contenders or whatever. But I think that those took a little bit for people to appreciate them.

It took a little bit for people to really appreciate what masterpieces these were. Expedition 33 came out hot. People knew right away that this was something special and celebrated it and still celebrate it. I mean, it's somewhat of a cultural phenomenon. The fact that it came out of a indie studio too at the beginning of the year for a reduced price point,

available day one game pack. I mean, it just checks so many boxes. I'd be surprised if it doesn't come pretty darn close to a sweep. So who would you nominate for the best performance in the game? Who is it? My, I don't remember the actor's name, but if I had to give it to somebody, it'd be Mael, the voice actor who did Mael or Andy Serkis, bro. I was thinking Charlie Cox did a really good job. actor who did my L or Andy circus, bro. I was thinking Charlie Cox did a really good job.

He did. He did. And there's not a lot I can say about that without spoilers. But, uh, but I w I would say that Charlie Cox himself would say that he is not deserving of this award. Yeah. I think you're, I think he would agree. I would say the only game I could think comes close to the success I've seen with Expedition 33 is Baldur's Gate three.

That game came out and that was a phenomenon that hit the shelves. And then all I could see on my for you page was Baldur's Gate three for like the next several months. I had to listen to Josh talk about it forever over and over and over. You tried so hard to get you guys to deep dive it, and you guys would not do it. You guys are not. Go ahead.

I was just gonna say, I wasn't a fan of the game, but I've softened on that game too. The reality is it's a D&D game, and anything that gets people dorkier is, I'm all for it. And Shadowheart and Mael have the same voice actor, so there's that too. Very true. There you go and Mael have the same voice actor, so there's that too.

Very true. Oh, there you go. Maybe she's the key. Well, are you guys done making donuts? I was saying, you ready to say your piece to speak for the people? No, I, to be fair, you know, and keep my integrity with this game

I'm not gonna trash it because it is I think everything that you guys have said is is is fair praise to it There's it's just one of those that's not my type of game I do think there's a different direction when they could have gone with some stuff, but overall I mean the music was outstanding. It was beautiful You know the gameplay for what it is was was great. So yeah overall I think it I think it kind of has potential to get a lot of these Yeah, I agree all right games left fellas, but before that

What before we break here, what were your opinions on? Expedition 33 I didn't finish it I'm about halfway through it before I got pulled to do something else But the time I spent with expedition 33 and that's like the best turn-based RPG I've played in years and I love persona persona is my one of my favorite series ever Which that's saying something if you can make a turn-based RPG. I prefer more than persona Because I already like persona is already a very hyperactive turn-based RPG, where you don't feel like you're waiting that much. Then you get into Expedition 33, and now I'm never waiting. I'm just parrying like I'm playing Dark Souls.

J.D. Yeah. Yeah. Then I like... J.D. Then I write... Persona 5 would probably have been my favorite turn-based game before Expedition 33 too. And I love them both for kind of different reasons too. Dude, they're both so good. But I would agree with you, John. I think it sweeps. I think it's gonna take the whole thing. I think as soon as it pops up, it's gonna take it.

And before Expedition 33 came out, I thought this was gonna be Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's year. I thought they had it. I thought it was over. I thought they had it. And it was, you know, cause I'd heard nothing but Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 for months.

Or a month, I think. And then they dropped Expedition 33 and you know what? I'm still here about Expedition 33. Yeah, that game has real legs, man. People still talk about that game so fondly and they're still dumping hundreds of hours into it. And again, couldn't happen to a better group of guys than the team over there at Warhorse is so awesome. Dude, that soundtrack just makes me ascend sometimes. It's just... Yeah. But we got two games left. We're going to take a quick little break

and we'll be right back. No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Delivers! Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFrails.ca. All right, fellas.

This one is all on you, because we're talking about the altars. You two dived this one, and one of you seemed to have liked it a lot more than the other. So since I gave you the floor with Expedition 33 first, Jon, I'm going to give the floor to Ryan first with the altars to tell us what stood out about it. So I think there was, aside from Josh just completely not knowing how to play this game, I think it was- Me either, apparently. Yeah, I still don't get it with you guys, like with that, but I digress.

Uh, I feel that this one was, was one of those that, um, caught me off guard. I was expecting a lot after that demo, cause the demo really got me hyped. And for me, it delivered. It gave me that kind of deep, dark, gritty world on another planet that was chaotic but also impactful and there was just so much to do. And yeah, I don't think it had anything super special with the music or, I don't know. So I would think probably like, I don't think it'll be up there for Game of the music or, you know, I don't know. So like, I would think probably like, uh, I don't think it'll be up there for game of the

year or anything like that, but maybe, you know, our direction, um. What about performance? Performance. He was one guy doing, yeah, he did, he did all those, all those, uh, alters, you know, he, he voiced them all. And, and, uh, I don't know, I thought I sent it

to you guys, but there's a video on YouTube where it's him doing all the other characters, and it has them walking in and stuff, and it's hilarious when he gets the refiner guy. That's like the hippie dude. It's good. So yeah, I would say probably those two, performance and then art direction.

I think that's completely fair. And what about you, Jon? Where does the altars land? Well, I didn't have a good experience with this game, but I'm like Josh, I am a dummy. Apparently, I just didn't know how to play it right. I just felt like several boyfriends were breaking up with me at the same time.

It made me really sad. I do definitely think that a strong argument could be made for Alex Jordan, who he played basically all of the alters and it was so clear he was having such a fun time, you know, like playing all these different voices. I could definitely see a best performance nod coming out of him. I could actually see him winning that. There's a couple of strong contenders for expedition 33 that I think would be right up there with them, but I Think awards tends to lean heavily on people who are playing

You know multiple personalities in a role this game Was so weighted on On Alex Jordan's performance in this, I could see that, I could easily see that happening. I could see it too. I didn't play the game, I played the demo when it came out. I thought I was gonna pick the game up when it finally came full release

and then I just got super freaking busy at work and stuff. So I just had to let you guys handle it for me. But then I got mixed opinions and I was like, well, maybe it's good. I didn't pick it up. No, dude, you'll have to, you'll have to put in that backlog and check it out. And I mean, who knows if it'll still be, but

the game pass, you know, it's just so awesome. This is true with game pass. There's no reason to not check it out. Hop in and check it, play for a few hours and see, but the biggest thing in, in just for your help and anyone listening and for, for John and Josh, if you ever go back, like all you have to do is just realize that they're just a bunch of whiny babies. You don't care about their, their feelings or anything do what's best

for you and for a survival. And, and I finished every night looking for stuff to do. I would sit and watch movies in the rec room. I would play beer pong with them and stuff. Cause I would, I, so you just have to be decent with your time management and set tasks. And then like, you can, you can go pretty far in this game and it's in the, at some point in the future, whenever I've recovered a bit, I'd, I'd actually be curious to get a walkthrough from you, Ryan, because I, I, I seem to, there's a lot about

this game that, that would have resonated with me really well. And I just feel, I felt dumb, honestly, I felt so stupid playing this I felt so incompetent so yeah yeah exactly there might have been something that I just missed and you know I'd like the I'd like the opportunity to enjoy this experience heck yeah I feel like it is a 50-50 split though with people like some people it really clicked for they really understood it and then other people found It really monotonous and hard to keep up with so I don't know if maybe like there's just like you need to be taught that if you don't have it click or if

Maybe it's just not in some people's capacity Which I mean, I'm sure like dude who knows playing a playing a souls game and not being good at timing Like that's that's gonna make that game miserable for you So if you can't it is play it the way you're supposed to, the way it's designed, it's going to make for a bad experience. So I mean, a little tutorial or a walkthrough to get kind of how you're supposed to play it might be something that, you know, yeah, help a lot of people. Yeah.

All right. We're going to finish it up with the freshest of the Indies for sure. Brought on by the legends themselves of agro crab and landfall games. It's peak. Yeah. Man, we've been streaming peak a whole lot over on our Twitch, which if you ain't watching Twitch,

what are you doing? Like you could be come talking to us. Living a normal fulfilling life. That's what we're doing. Now, now John, they want to watch us fall screaming from the mountainside while they're on their lunch breaks. Patented a scream.

Yeah, man, I get way too into it. I get so into my games that I just like forget what I'm doing and scream at two o'clock in the morning. Oh, it's great. I love to hear it. Yeah. But since we haven't talked about it,

I'll go ahead and bring up what peak is. Peak is a minimalistic climbing rogue-like. You heard that right. It is multiplayer up to four players. You and a group of friends will try to scale mountain tops and try to make it to the final mountain top where you can be picked up by a helicopter and taken out of this hell hole.

Uh, but it's harder than it sounds another game and I'm gonna keep jogging on them another game that Josh played wrong you just climb a mountain right and how can you play it wrong he just hates it no for him it was a death simulator because he was just always dead at the bottom of the call it, whatever you want to call it. Who was always walking up to him feeding him poison apples? Okay, listen, listen. That was me.

Okay, it might have been me as well, but you know. This is just one of those that, it's those repo lethal company, those just fun, streamable party friend games that you can all hop on online and just laugh and crack up and have a blast. Like no matter what, most of the time you're going to, you're going to enjoy your play session. You're going to enjoy your play through, um, what it, what it could be nominated for. That, that's going to be hard because it's, it's a lot of these well enjoyable, well because it's a lot of these well enjoyable, well memorable, they don't have a lot that stand out that are like nomination worthy,

that are gonna beat any of these other powerhouses that come out, you know, so. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if there's anything really that stands out with that. Pop rocks. Yeah, I think John might be right about the pop rocks again. But it was eight bucks, man. Eight bucks.

I will say, it was eight dollars. Cheap. And unlike other games like it, like Lethal and Repo, this did not release in early access. This is a full complete game. It released full. Bravo. Bravo, by the way. It released in full game, and it's getting updates out the wazoo right now because people are playing the crap out of it over on Twitch and YouTube.

So, like... Two million copies in nine days. Insane. Wow. Insane. That is crazy. Awesome. Yeah. Like I said, I don't, I don't know if there's anything nomination worthy, but it was a,

it was definitely a solid game and, uh, we'll have its, its moment in the sun. To that Dev's credit, would you rather have the award or the bank account? Right? At this point, yeah. It's a split bank account, I guess, between AgroCrab and Landfall, but still. The money is a much clearer means of measuring your success. Yeah. Yeah.

Peak is great, but I think it peaked, unfortunately. Oh. So you've played peak and you've played Cairn, the demo anyways, which do you prefer? Well, I've played a lot more of peak, obviously. I think the ability to play with friends, I'm a social outgoing guy. I love basically any interaction I can have through a video

game medium, like online with people, it usually doesn't even matter what it is. Cause it'll just be fun and I laughing. But, um, I think with what I've played of Karen, like it's, it's got that little bit of a hook for me that makes it feel a little more real and more like there's some more depth to it. So I'm really excited to see, you know, when it comes out, unfortunately, it's not till like, what, November, I think October, but it is this year. Yeah. And the demo is only an hour. So you don't really get it. Yeah. Yeah. But what I played, I loved like, and it's, it's a little goofy with

the climate. It's a little janky. They may tie that up. I thought it was cool, man. I honestly thought it was cool. Yeah. I had, I had a lot lot of fun with that I'm super excited for that game though Josh hated that one too by the way he did yeah he hated Karen gates climbing apparently well either one it's interesting because he's really into turn-based games and it's it's just it's very meticulous Ryan said it best actually he's like you know it's kind of relaxing. For me it was like, it's weird how relaxing and tactical this can be sort of at the same time.

Also I'm glad it is cliff climbing and not cave diving because that would give me anxiety like you would not believe. Right. But I'm very excited for Karen over Peak because Karen's gonna have a great story, I can already tell. And it's got the survival elements

where you have to start, you know, you have to keep taking care of yourself in order to make it up the mountain, which very hyped for Karen, by the way. Yep, same. Definitely. And she seemed like she was a lovely person. Oh, Sophia was awesome, man.

And she gave us one of the coolest, like, behind the scenes sort of nuggets that we've seen on this show where she was, you know, it's a very intimate story. Like you are often very much just alone with your own character and your own thoughts and stuff. And there's all these kind of like grunts that could be like interpreted,

like thousands and thousands of different grunts and other emotions that are conveyed through just like, you know, odd vocalizations or whatever. And she was talking about how she would go through the alphabet and like go A would be like, ah, and E would be like, ah. You know, I just thought it was such an interesting acting technique.

I greatly enjoyed listening to her interview myself. So if you have- Yeah, check that out if you haven't heard it. Check that out if you Yeah, John did an interview with her and it was it was fantastic. So it's definitely it's up on all credit goes to Sophie Yeah, she was she was a star She was it was awesome editing the clips that alright fellas. That's it. We've looked at seven indie games for this year We've nominated them for we think they'll hit I'm curious at the end of the year, if any of them make it that far. Uh, we'll see.

Yeah. Some of them we didn't nominate for anything, which I think we're completely valid on, but you know, listeners, if you think we're wrong. Tell me what's so great about schedule one that it should be nominated. Tell me what's so great about the midnight walk that it should be nominated. Tell me, I want to know because I feel left out on some of these. John, you want to tell people how they can help support the show and keep us going? Yes, absolutely. So first of all,

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Super supporting non-toxic non-drama Gamers just like us three and just like you presumably the listener come join us be a part of the show Like I say non-toxic after I spent the whole episode trash and Josh It doesn't count if it's against us you know we're allowed and it was deserved it's called building character but thank you so much for listening and until next time happy gaming see you to lose