Video Gamers Podcast - Best Space Game of All Time - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

Gaming hosts Paul and Josh and returning guest host and gaming legend Michael Butler are back with another awesome tournament style episode where we draft best Space Games of all time before pitting them head to head in a bracket style challenge to crown one video game supreme in the genre. It’s the best of gaming, in the best gaming podcast around! Thanks to our LEGENDARY supporters: Nevo, Waynerman, TFolls, AceofShame, Jake, RangerMiller, and Ad   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/multiplayerpodcast Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/multiplayerpod/ Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/MultiplayerPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q Visit us on the web: multiplayerpodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before you jump ahead to the episode, we have a super quick announcement for you all. Spotify has added the ability to rate podcasts on a scale from one to five stars, and we are asking that all of you take just a few seconds to find us on Spotify and rate us five stars. Almost all of our listeners come from the world of Apple, so adding a rating on Spotify is a great way to help the show grow. That way we can continue releasing two episodes every single week. Just make sure that you have the latest version of Spotify, listen to at least 30 seconds of one episode, and then they will allow you to leave a rating. Thank you so much to all of you for listening and supporting the show. Let's get into this episode. Shazam! hello fellow gamers welcome to the multiplayer gaming podcast we are a family-friendly podcast devoted to gaming please remember to rate our podcast five stars and leave a review if your

podcast app allows and if you would like to connect with our multiplayer gaming podcast community come join us on discord it's completely free there's a link in the episode description you allows. And if you would like to connect with our multiplayer gaming podcast community, come join us on Discord. It's completely free. There's a link in the episode description. You can come chat with us from the show and also other listeners who enjoy the show as well. And then finally, if you like what we do here and you want to help support the show financially, you can head over to MultiplayerSquad.com to see our Patreon page, where you can pledge starting as low as $5 a month. Our show is funded by our listeners, and in order to keep the show going, we do rely on listeners like you guys to help support us. And on top of that, you do get a couple extra perks, like getting early access to the episodes,

along with some quick take episodes as well. All right, on to introductions. I am your host, Paul, the Captain Picard of today's podcast. We're going to boldly go into this bonus round, looking at the best space games of all time. And then joining me today, we have a very special guest. He loves to step over the backs of chairs. He's the Commander Riker, or the number one of the podcast. It's Michael Butler. I will run with that honor. I cannot believe that you gave me

number one, which is just amazing. And by the way, a short, funny thing about why he steps over those chairs. Jonathan Frakes actually has a back problem. He came out with it years later that he was stepping over the chairs because he had a hard time bending over because it hurt, and that's how the Riker maneuver started. And I'll take that Riker maneuver because it's a fantastic maneuver, stepping over chairs. Paul, you better have a good person for me, Paul, because the fact that I'm not number one to your number one is is worrisome but there is a

correct answer is data oh of course of course there's a proper answer because we are a crew of three today so we've got our third host he is the acting ensign the youngest of the crew our wesley crusher if you will is Josh. You're such a jerk. Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. I thought it could be Worf, it could be Data, it could be Jordy, you know, any of these guys,

and yet you make me Wesley Crusher. Shut up, Wesley. Shut up, Wesley. That was the greatest. I'll get you back for that, Paul. You know, we're talking about space games. Michael is a fellow Star Trek fan. If there was ever a time to have a Star Trek intro, this was going to be the week.

I am the first to die. And so I feel like Wesley Crusher would be the first to die as well. Maybe. He did save the ship a lot, though. But I gotta say, Paul, because of that intro, I'm about to tell a grown man that I love him. I love you, Paul. That was beautiful was beautiful thank you i actually brought a tear to my eye michael yeah i love you too yeah that's because you get to be reicher you're right yeah i just hope michael's gonna pull out the trombone and start playing it during the episode just like

reicher could all right so before we jump into today's bonus round we do have a couple of new patreon supporters that we want to thank. We have MuchToBuku, who signed up for rare status just earlier this month on the 19th. We also had Nevo, who added legendary status to his Patreon support, which means he gets to pick a game that Josh and I have to deep dive on the show. That's one of the really cool perks of one of the patreon tiers and then i am awesome just hit a one-year anniversary starting to support the show back in january of 21 that's cool so we wanted to throw all three of them a shout out thank you so much for your guys support it really does mean the world to us it does seeing the

legendaries are great i love seeing people that have been in the Discord server for a while, like MuchToBuku, that have been active. And then all of a sudden, it's like you see that they pledged to the show, they're supporting the show. It's just such a cool thing to see. And like you said in the intro, we would not be here if it was not for the listeners helping to support the show. So if you like what we do and you want to throw a tip to your witcher, that's the way to do it for sure. Toss a coin. Toss that coin to your witcher. Yep. And I think we have a review that we're going to read on the show today. I do have a review. And just to mix it up a little bit, you know what, Michael, since you're the number one now, I think it's only befitting that you step up to your responsibilities and you read this review now. You know what? I'm going to step up. I don't know if you noticed either when he introduced everyone. He did introduce me second, and he said I have a third co-host today. I know. I've done it all. Don't you you worry so i'm gonna be judging some of these rounds tonight um what i'd like to say is actually you are number three on the co-host list but number

one in my heart i hope you like the games that i pick and i hate them all speaking of number one in our hearts though i will go ahead and take the honor of reading this review which comes in from reithick or if you use the german pronunciation, it could be Reithic. And it's a five-star review because, well, we love five-star reviews, and so why not? The title is Best Podcast for Gaming. And Reithic says, Been listening for a year now,

so I believe it's time for my review. This podcast is my top pick for anything gaming because of how in-depth and warm the conversations are. I can always look forward to hearing all the news I need as well as getting some laughs in along the way. Keep up the great work, guys. You guys are awesome. Especially that Michael Butler. That last part, I might have not.

He didn't maybe say that last part. I didn't see that in the review. That's crazy. Yeah. We don't normally't see that in the review. That's crazy. Yeah. We don't normally ad-lib during the reviews. Oh, shoot. I'm sorry, Rythik, and thank you for the review. The guys love you as well.

And I'm an honorary guy, and I definitely love you. Thank you. Oh, thank you so much. We love reading your guys' reviews. It really does help our show get seen by more people. And so it really does help us out. So if you have especially Apple podcasts out there, we really do appreciate when you're able to rate the podcast and to leave a written review. And we love sharing those on the show time to time.

All right. So today we're having a bonus round episode. I think these are our favorite format shows, Josh, when we get to do a draft and a tournament. These are such a blast. And so whenever we get a chance, we like to bring Michael on and do these. And so if you are new to the show, Josh, do you want to tell the people a little bit about how the draft and tournament works? Yeah. So we love competition and what better thing to do than to compete against your friends. But since we're a gaming podcast, we had to figure out a way to do that. And the easiest way is to just say, let's go head to head. Let's all pick a list of games that fit whatever

category we're talking about. We will draft these like a football draft. So somebody will get the first pick, somebody will get the second pick, and then somebody will get the third pick. We do it in reverse order following that. So if you had the third pick, you get to pick again, and then it goes in reverse order. And then that way it's fair. Everybody gets a fair shot at drafting the best team of games. And then we will go into a tournament style bracket where we pit these games against each other to be voted on by me on all of them. No, I'm just kidding. But we will, uh, we'll vote and to see which ones move forward in the tournament until we crown an overall winner. So they're a ton of fun. We love doing these. The listeners have loved them because you guys and gals out there are coming up with games that you would think, you know, are your number one or games that we forgot and you're going man how could you guys not draft this game and then we go oh yeah that's a great one um but they're just a lot of fun it's a much more laid-back vibe for these than like our deep dive episodes and uh and we just have a good

time i can say that i really do appreciate looking in the Discord chat after these shows go on, not just because I'm part of the show, but because I was before that person like, guys, you forgot this game. And now I'm like, I forgot that game. But there's a lot of chat in there. I love it. Your listeners are great. Yeah, they really are. All right. So Michael, since you're the guest, we tend to let you have final say on the topics of these drafts. And you landed on space games. So I'm guessing you must be a big fan.

I am a huge fan of space games. I was a Star Trek fan growing up. I was the only third grader who was using Rendezvous on a daily basis in class because I absolutely loved Star Trek. And that love of Star Trek and also Star Wars, you know, they say you can't be fans of both, but I think that's different now. I love them both. And because of that, I just gravitate towards these games. And I typically gravitate towards ones that are more RPG-like because y'all know I love my RPGs. And so that might give you a little spoiler behind the curtain on some of my picks i'm really terrible at shooters so a point of clarification

here all right what exactly constitutes a space game because i'll be honest the first thing i did is i googled best space video games and i was seeing things in the list that i don't know i would necessarily qualify as a space game like what if the game only takes place on like a foreign planet but you're never actually in space like i don't know if that necessarily qualifies i would say yes if it's extra planetary then i think that qualifies as space like i don't think you have to be in deep space uh-huh but i would say if it's a foreign planet then maybe i don't know it's a that's a tough one what do you think michael i'm gonna say that i i when i put together my list and i only went and googled games later on like the first thing i thought of was i know a lot of space games

i didn't even think of games that were like hey you're on a different planet you know like i thought of games where it's like um I'll give you a movie equivalent, right? So like if you're looking at something like Starship Troopers, the movie, which I guess it's an older one. Y'all might not know it. There's a lot that takes place in space. There's space battles, but there's also a lot of land. I think if there's a good mix of it, that's fine.

But if it's just literally just on a foreign planet, or it could even be like a space fantasy game because there's just the only space you see is the stars i don't think that counts okay so this might take it well i'd like we should argue if somebody picks one i think that's a good idea yeah i think we might have to litigate a little bit i think i was a little more in line with michael i tried to focus on my list of having games where you actually spend time in space. So I was seeing on lists... Okay, so what about Satisfactory? See, that was the perfect example.

Would Satisfactory qualify as a space game? I say absolutely not. I say yes, because there is a space needle that connects your planet to space, and you are a space explorer exploring an alien world okay so we might that kind of opens it up pretty broad i think we'll just have to take it on a case-by-case basis i think michael and i might color within the lines a little bit more than josh on this one i've never pretended to follow the rules guys we'll just have to see what happens all right so the way that this draft just so happens to turn out the number one pick will go to michael i get to go number two and then josh gets to go three and four so michael you're in the hot seat bud

what are you taking with the number one overall game that takes place in space? Do you guys remember when Michael tilted on the last draft? I sure do. Don't tilt, Michael. It's just the biggest choice of the entire draft right here. It is. And the funniest thing is my first pick is actually a question to you guys. Do you want me to pick the assumed 1.01, the 1.01 that I have not played that I know will win this draft? Or do I pick my favorite game in space? It's a tough one,

isn't it? And as long as I just sit here and just talk about it and get you guys to think about, is he actually going to drop the game? What's he going to do? What should I do? I do not see a clear-cut frontrunner, so I have no idea what game you're even referencing. I know what everybody thinks the frontrunner is, but I can tell you that I'm less likely to vote for that frontrunner. Oh, man.

Okay. Well, then that actually helps me make my choice, because the frontrunner that I thought I would maybe pick that I've never played, I'm not going to say it because one of you guys is going to pick it. I was like, wouldn't it be fun if I didn't even know anything about it and you guys just argue to win my point for me and I don't have to say a word? All right. So my pick is, man, it's my favorite.

It is my favorite game in space. And I honestly don't think you guys have played it. And it's an excellent open world, if you could say open universe, open galaxy game, where you can literally go anywhere you want to go. You can land on a lot of different planets. You can do anything from being a space pirate to killing space pirates. You can be a merchant to, well, killing merchants. You can go anywhere merchant to, well, killing merchants. You can go anywhere across the galaxy, and if you find a planet that no one in this massive multiplayer

game has ever discovered, your name is on it for the rest of the time this game is live on open servers. And that game also has an outrageously good VR port, which is what puts it over the top for me. The game is Elite Dangerous. And I know that is not a popular 1.01, but it is my absolute favorite game because I can do anything I want in that game. I can design, well, I can't design spaceships. I can fly spaceships that I modify and upgrade depending on how I want them. And literally, it's like every day I do something different in the game and I can do whatever I want. And it's in space. And there you go. And it's 100% space. I have seen you play this game. I remember seeing you cracking out on this game. I don't know what game I was playing. But every time I'd log into Steam, I would just see Michael Butler is playing Elite Dangerous.

And I looked into that game many, many times because it seems like it's super cool. I like the open aspect of you can be like you said, you can be a merchant, you can be a pirate, you can literally just haul stuff back back. You know that I know people that play this game and all they do is haul things back and forth like there's some galactic trucking company. I've never played it. Well, if you do, you'll probably deep dive down the rabbit hole. Because honestly, Josh, I know you and I kind of had a little teaser. We talked EverQuest a long time ago. We did the first draft that I was on with. It was a long time ago. It was two months ago. But we were talking about EverQuest. This game is a little bit more like EverQuest,

where you get in it for the long haul. You're going to sit there, and you're going to do some boring things, some great things. But it's very realistic when it comes to travel and just the time it takes to do things and i just love it and you can fight aliens if you want to um but yeah like you said i did crack out i have over 2 000 hours in the game and i only played it for like three months have you ever played it paul i have not but almost every list i brought up online mentioned elite dangerous but then inevitably there were multiple comments of

people saying it's very slow, you might consider it to be boring. But I did land on, apparently I have to play this game because everyone talked about it. So Michael, I feel a little bit bad because your number one pick is already a little bit of an underdog seeing as how neither Josh nor I have even played it. No, it's out for sure. Unless I'm... It depends on what I'm up against, I'm sure, and I can maybe talk about things that are great about it. But I would say that I will fire it up at any point if you guys want to hop in and play There are dozens of listeners out there that know, that are agreeing with Michael, though,

right now. Dozens. Yeah. All right. So Michael's coming in with Elite elite dangerous with the number one pick i get the number two overall pick and okay now now look i was kind of joking earlier about not seeing a front runner i do see a front runner but i don't want to be too on brand i'm not gonna take it here but i very well could uh instead i am going to draft no man's sky this is like to me the very first thing i thought of best space games this is a

game where you literally pilot your own ship you go planet to planet very similar it sounds like to elite dangerous there are infinite number of planets you can visit. The game has been improved upon so much since release. There actually is multiplayer now. A lot of the bugs and the stuff that did not work has all been fleshed out over time. No Man's Sky was one of the most pleasant surprises that I ever jumped in to play. To me, that was kind of easy as my first pick. I feel like it's a very traditional space game it is it's a lot like dangerous just not nearly as good oh oh shots fine i wouldn't know uh no man's sky is an amazing game it is one of my favorite like redemption stories in video games at this point, what I want to see now is for them to just leave

No Man's Sky alone and go develop another game. Yeah. You know, it's like we have repeatedly said you have served your sentence. You've done your time. You're allowed out of No Man's Sky jail. Go develop something new for us. You know, I'll buy it. I'll buy it. I like to support the studio at this point for what they've done. I would 100% support whatever they come out with, provided it's finished and not overhyped. Now, that game did have a notoriously rough start, didn't it? Oh, horribly. It promised a lot of things in underdelivered. And I feel like I've heard people say, because I tried to check it out.

Honestly, transparency, I haven't played it. But I did hear a lot of people say, I know, I believed the hype poorly at the beginning. It was like, I'm never touching that game. And everyone's like, you need to go have a look at it now because it's actually pretty good. It's really good now. The irony is that Hello Games was trying to put the brakes on the hype. They were actually the ones coming out saying, don't make all these assumptions. This is what the game actually is.

It was more the community that kind of ran with the rumors and false expectations. But yeah, the game is absolutely beautiful. It works great. The last thing I'll say about it is that one of the neat mechanics, I thought, is that there are multiple alien races. And when you first talk to them, it's all just gibberish on your screen. But more you talk to them and the more you interact with tablets in their world you start to pick up just individual words and letters and then pretty soon before you know it you can start to understand the alien races and i always thought that was really neat because you could also you could also mimic things that they would say and so you would hear a certain sound and you would mimic it back and they would say, and so you would hear a certain sound, and you would mimic it back, and they would shoot you a dirty look. Who are you to say that to me?

It was such a crack-up. Well, so Josh, how are you? This is where I'm just going to evil laugh right now, guys. That you got this game at the third pick. Yeah, I know. You fools!

I can't believe neither one of you took mass effect 2 as the greatest space game ever how did this fall to me at number three i'm taking mass effect 2 i can't believe neither one of you took it it is hands down one of the best space games ever made. Is it my favorite game? No. But is it one of the best? Yes. A point against Mass Effect, which I do not find myself saying often.

Oh, let's hear Paul slander Mass Effect. You never actually fly in space. Now, the in-game cutscenes do, but you don't ever pilot in space. There's plenty of space travel in the normandy you know i may not be controlling it but i i mean i love i can't believe that this happened so thank you to both of you for handing me this victory on a silver platter if i drafted it you would have just given me a hard time for i would have you're darn right my plan worked to slander you both up front all right mass effect 2 great pick i i can't slander it ah one of the

all-time best games i get a back-to-back on this one oh gross and i know what you're picking here you you do huh i know what i pick here i don't know i'll tell you what i'm gonna pick this is this one might be a little bit borderline. I don't know if it's stretching the rules a little bit, but I'm going with StarCraft 2. Okay. Because lots of space, lots of alien races, different environments,

and you go into little space stations on some of the missions and stuff like that. So, I mean, I'm assuming this qualifies. There's no naysayers? No, I think it qualifies. I don't have an issue with StarCraft. I had it on my short list. It's on my list, too. So I can say easily, because it's funny,

because I was trying to think of ways we could get Mass Effect thrown out, and I kind of blanked out. I'm like, Star Trek? StarCraft? StarCraft, for sure, counts. Absolutely. Okay, good, good, good. I just wanted to make sure, because. I'm like, Star Trek? StarCraft for sure counts. Absolutely. Okay, good, good, good. I just wanted to make sure because now I'm going to roll into why StarCraft 2.

It could have been the 101. Absolutely one of the best, if not the best RTSs ever made, in my opinion. This game also launched esports into the limelight with people actually wanting to watch people play video games and seeing what's going on, the various expansions in StarCraft 2, Heart of the Swarm, Wings of Liberty, all that. I mean, absolutely one of the... I'm not even an RTS fan and I absolutely love StarCraft 2. So when you talk about games that are in space

that are just iconic, legendary, StarCcraft two for me is one of those. I like Starcraft one more, but I, I love them both. They're both great. I think, I think two is better than one. So I'm with Josh on that one.

Thank you, Michael. Voice of reason. Yes. All right. So Josh, Josh, I've never been called that before.

The sequels. Josh is loading up on sequels. Mass Effect 2 and Starcraft 2. All right. Destiny 2 is still on the table for you, Josh. Just saying. Dude, I will say this. I saw it in a list, and it did not make any of my lists, not even my honorable mentions.

Oh, shots fired. Poor Destiny 2. All right. So with my second pick, after taking no man's sky in round one i'm taking a look at my list i think i've got some real winners that i can take late in this draft i don't necessarily have to reach for it um i'm gonna go with a more popular game that i think might be more on your guys radar i'm gonna go with among us that i was hoping i've got back to backs and i'm like do i need to reach for among us i'm gonna take among us but uh that's a great choice it's like the

biggest game of the last two years so i mean i gotta take it it's definitely a clear-cut space game uh you eject people into space which is one of the best things that you get to see i gotta go with among us it's a solid pick i i do like that pick because like it's pandering to the popularity portion a little bit but we also had a lot of fun playing among us with friends i just like how mad my friends would get oh yeah it was so much fun to see the sweetest people the nicest people you know my friends and get. Oh yeah. It was so much fun to see the sweetest people, the nicest people, you know, my friends and they're very nice wives who are just sweet about everything. Just get so mad because that game is so stressful.

Um, I might've also gotten mad a few times too, but not like, you know, I love that game. I've called him out before on the show, but our friend Curtis could not handle losing when he was the imposter. If we ever voted him out, he would be like, oh, yeah, well, the imposters were me and Josh.

Screw you guys. And then it's like, okay, well, that game's ruined. I know. Like, dude, I don't think you know how this game works. Yeah. So, yeah, Curtis in particular definitely would get upset in Among Us. See, here's the beauty of this category, the space games. There are so many different ones.

Among Us was not on my list at all. And yet it's a great game that takes place in space. I thought it was a good value pick, getting it in round two. I thought so too. All right, so Michael, you get back to backs here. I do, and this is hard because after these two picks, I have the last pick, which is the throwaway pick.

So like, which one of my games do I think will fall to the last pick? And if I recall, I can't remember what it was, but I think Josh had the last pick last time we did this. And like that game actually made it pretty far. So, um,

there are some good dark horses. I've got to get this one out of the way because this one actually is still a contender for the winner because uh ironically enough it's also a sequel uh but a sequel to a very innovative uh dog fighting game um which uh you know of course the first one uh you get to be the good guys and in the sequel you get to be the empire and that game is tie fighter which is the best of the series really now i know that there's there's later tie fighter games that you could say well they're better but tie fighter took what x-wing did and it made a better story the graphics were much better and it only came out like a year later like it was right afterwards but i remember

sinking hours in this game in like what 1994 and i i don't what i remember that game i remember it looking great and it was so hard you had to have a joystick you couldn't play with mouse and keyboard and it just it broke the rules of what a space video game could do at the time and i think the replay value like if they were to remaster a game well i guess it's basically squadrons but you know it's not the squadrons does not capture what TIE Fighter was. Yeah. Have you watched any video footage of TIE Fighter lately? Oh, it looks terrible.

It's awful. It looks so bad. I dialed it up earlier today because I had TIE Fighter on my list, and I could not believe how poorly that game's graphics have aged. But in the time, I i mean 360 degree space was like very rare in a game so it was incredible to not only have that and to be star wars and you got to be the bad guys like that did not happen very often where you got to be as yeah and they did it over and over with star wars like uh dark forces one and two they they let you keep coming back to

play the villains which i always thought was really neat well the interesting thing about about that is you really didn't feel like a bad guy you felt like you were really just fighting for the right side and you were like i'm taking these orders and i'm just gonna go do it and stuff and it i just i love it and i know that i know that it hasn't aged well which i know might hurt it or bring it down a couple rungs but you gotta remember that back in the day you're playing on these old crt monitors and the blur on it like you watch it now and there's no motion blur on these you know super awesome leds that we have and all that stuff um and so it just looks worse now it's like playing golden eye on a flat screen tv you're like what if you plug it into an old tube

tv it actually looks better and so it's just i played another old sony trinitron back in the day it's just you know but that's a great pick man it's uh it goes to show you as much as i love beautiful games the graphics don't make a game because that game looked like hot garbage but was one of the funnest games i played when I was a kid. Yeah, it was great. All right, so I feel like I redeemed myself a little bit with that pick. I was hoping Among Us would fall, but I wouldn't have picked it above Tie Fighter. So I think, Paul, maybe there was a misstep there because Tie Fighter is just going to cream it probably when they match up later.

But my next choice, I've got a lot of choices here to make. And I've got a lot of choices here to make. And I've got a, I've got a lot of things on my list. This is very different from the last draft where everything I had on my list was gone. By the time we got back to me, I've got a lot of choices here for the second choice. Um,

do I pander? Do I pick something? I know you guys are going to vote for and, or do I go with the, Nope. And the answer is yes. Well, I don't know if this counts, though.

Throw it out there. Oh. All right. Outer Wilds. Yeah, it's a space game. Boom. It's 100% a space game. And you stole my next pick, you giant butt face.

Yes. And much like I was going to do... Have you played all of Outer Wilds? Well, so remind me what's in that game again. Hold on. It's a time loop game with the sun and super so remind me what's in that game again. Hold on. It's a time loop game. Okay, there's time loops, guys. Yeah, of course I've played it.

There's supernovas. Supernova every 12 minutes or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, I've played all that game. Nothing to worry about here. Sure sounds like it. I had to pander there for a minute because I'm like, I know. Is this where I start quizzing Michael on various aspects of that game?

We just talked about this last week. You told me it was on a Steam sale, and I bought it because I've never played it before. Have you played it? No, I've never played it. I'm super excited to. I'll tell you this. Outer Wilds quite possibly would have been my second pick, but I know Paul does not like it. And I wasn't sure that you had played it. And I passed it up just thinking that it would never get voted for because I

didn't think either one of you like either had played it or liked it. It is hands down for people listening. Outer wilds is one of the best space games ever made in existence. Look up the reviews for this game. Paul is crazy. This game is absolutely beloved. It's up there with Subnautica. Also overrated.

Oh my goodness. These games are fine. These games are amazing. They're amazing games. So that is a great pick, Michael. Now, and I gotta say some of the listeners might be like, you know, Michael just picked a game that he's never played. First of all, this is the first time that I've done this.

Second of all, against these guys, sometimes you just got to do something that might pander a little bit. Because the other games I was going to pick probably wouldn't have made it. They were just my favorite games. This is best space game. This is not best space game that you've played. Sweet. So you picking one of the best space games in existence is a smart move. Thank you.

I appreciate you as well. And I've got to wait until the very end of the draft to hope that one of my three other picks, I got a good chance, a 75% chance that's going to come back. All right. It's back to Paul. Back to me. Paul. All right.

My third pick to add on to my team, I've got No Man's Sky. I've got Among Us. I'm staying true to this space theme best I can. I'm going to go with a pick that I kind of think is probably on neither of your radars. I really hope at least one of you have played it. I'm going to go with Super Mario Galaxy.

I have played it. It is not on my list. This is not Bodewell for me. It's one of the best mario games hands down by far one of the best is this the one with let me clear is this the one with the little planets that you run around and the different hats that you get or is the hats one odyssey the hat is odyssey that's odyssey so mario galaxy is yeah where you would be able to jump through space and go to different

planets they could all be run around full 360 degrees and it's one of the highest rated games of all time so i wanted to go with super mario galaxy one wait is there a super mario galaxy two yeah yeah there's two of them wow they both came out on the wii i think maybe two came out on the wii u but yeah there's definitely two of them i feel very uneducated when it comes to Super Mario Galaxy. Right? I definitely played that game and I enjoyed it. It's gonna be a toss up on what it goes against because I did enjoy it. And I saw it when I looked at Google later on and looked at the lists. And I was just like, you know, I just don't remember it being something that I was like, yeah, I want to draft that. But it was good. It was fun. was fun and it was innovative too in a weird way for mario to be in space you know so good choice

yeah my only real beef with that game is you could play with two players but the second player all they could do is aim the wii remote and click on stars and collect them for the first player so it like wasn't really two player yeah it basically like, watch me play this and feel like you're participating, even though you're not really. Yeah. It's perfect to give your five-year-old to play with you. But if you're two adults, it's not going to work well for multiplayer. Yeah.

All right. So I'll stick with Super Mario Galaxy. And now, Josh, you get your last two picks. Oh, man. This is the problem with being the third pick because my draft is over after this. I don't get to hear you guys take a couple and then go, oh, they totally forgot about this one. If I swing and I miss, it's bad. Okay. This one, I mean, I got to go with this one because I cracked on this game so hard it was right around

the time that I don't remember the year that it came out but I feel like it was either high school for me maybe early college I don't know but Space Invaders oh come on now you know what's funny why did you do that dude you know what's

funny I was telling my wife about the upcoming show and the category, and she goes, oh, are you going to pick that game that's the little spaceship going back and forth? And I'm like, Galaga? And she's like, yeah. And I'm like, no, I'm not aging myself that much. I did play a lot of Galaga, by the way.

I was legitimately hoping Space Invaders fell to me at the last pick, the throwaway pick. I'm like, dude, Space Invaders, it started all of it. Space Invaders fell to me at the last pick, the throwaway pick. I'm like, dude, Space Invaders, it started all of it. Space Invaders sucks. Just kidding. I'm glad that didn't happen because I remember loving that game, but I'm also really, really old. I'm taking, this one is near and dear to my heart. It might sound like it's pandering, but it's not. I'm going with Halo 2. That's good. I like that. Yeah. I mean, this game was the game that all of your buddies were playing. This is the best multiplayer in Halo out of the entire series, in my opinion. Infinite is a lot of fun, but it doesn't quite capture what Halo 2 had.

The campaign was awesome. I think it's one of those games that when you think about space games, a lot of times you forget about Halo, but it's the epitome of taking place in space because you're on the ring. You can literally look out and see outer space out there. You're going to different areas. I mean, there's aliens, there's alien technology, there's spaceships, all that stuff. So I feel like that just fits the bill perfectly. I feel like you just try to talk us into letting him pick that because it's mostly no i'm just i'm just hyping i'm hyping it up for the uh the brackets no i like how josh's argument is you can look out and see space like i can do that in my front yard uh i can do it through my window right now and we live in a big city so good luck seeing space

through all the lights yeah i'll still allow it halo any halo game is space sure why not this is where i'm really torn i have like three picks right here that easily are all tied in my opinion um one of them is probably one of my favorite games to play but the other one i think is probably one of the best space games ever made because it's so unique it defined an entire genre and i'm picking that one i'm going with dead space okay the first that's a good that's a good choice because this completely changed the horror genre this the the horror scifi. It was revolutionary when it came out. Paul, we've talked about Dead Space, I don't know how many times on this podcast, and for a game that's that old to still be so relevant and current, you know what I mean? Dead Space has aged well.

It did so many things just perfectly that I think it stands the test of time. And it's just a scary game, man. It's just such a shame that the series devolved into what it did. I didn't pick the series, by the way. Yeah, I know. You picked the first one, which is the best one, for sure. Yeah, it's such a great game. It's fantastic.

We've talked about it a lot. But yeah, the sound design, the lack of UI. I remember that being one of the earliest games where you did not have an HP meter and all these things. You just simply had a couple of notches on his suit on the back of his neck, and that showed his health. It was very immersive. Great, great pick. I feel like almost every pick in this draft, I've been like, that's a great pick. That's a great pick. Whereas it was... I mean, well, Super Mario Galaxy's on here, but other than that, it's a lot of great picks. You know what? Let's do a quick search.

Metacritic. Oh, no. Oh, no. I love this is happening right now. Mario Galaxy, 97 on Metacritic. Oh, that's really high. User score is a 9.1. So I'm going to say you guys are in the minority here.

It's one of the most beloved games. It's probably higher than Elite Dangerous, unfortunately, which is a way better game. All right. They're very different. So, Josh, your team rounds out with Mass Effect 2, StarCraft 2, Halo 2, and Dead Space 1. That's your team. I'm sensing a lot of 2s in there. Well, he wasn't number 1 because I'm number 1,

so he had to go with the number 2s. That's right. Alright. Oh, man. Last pick for me. This is hard. There are so many good space games I could pick here. Even just the other day, Michael and I were talking about Descent, which is a very old space game is

yes i was thinking about that i'm thinking about starfox 64 i thought about that too so many good ones i still have a pick left though and you can just keep listing all these games and i'll just pick one of those i'm gonna i'm gonna go with descent one and descent for me was one of the very first multiplayer games i ever played this was on direct dial-up so you would call your buddy your sister would pick up the phone in the middle of the match and it would start to glitch and you'd start screaming hang up the phone i'm on the modem right now but descent was an incredible game because like tie fighter it was a full 360 degree environment and the idea of the game was very unique i've never seen a game quite like descent where you flew your ship into an enemy base you would have to fight ai controlled

bots and then you would have to go through the maze of the ship to find the reactor, blow up the reactor, and then you would have a one minute countdown to escape the ship. And if you were still in the ship at the end of the timer, the whole thing blew up and you failed the mission. And there were dozens upon dozens of ships that were designed for it. The single player content was immense. The multiplayer content was even more fun because you and your buddy would hop in and race each other. But sometimes if you found the reactor first,

you would hide and try to ambush your buddy. That way you could kill him and then shoot the reactor. I had so much fun playing Descent growing up. I've got to go with that as the nostalgic pick. There is a million people out there that have no idea what you're talking about. And yet Descent was incredible. I know I played it. I know Michael played it. The fact that Paul played it. Everybody that is above probably the age of 28 has played this game. And at the time, it was revolutionary. The whole getting out, doing your mission, but then having one minute to escape and failing miserably sometimes. It was not easy to escape.

Yes. It was not easy. It was such a heart-pounding, adrenaline-running experience. It's hard to describe to people, but Descent was amazing. I just remember what would happen when you came across a new robot and you hadn't seen it before and it was shooting something completely different at you. And it was like your hands would get sweaty because you're in there and you're trying to escape and you don't know what next thing he's going to throw at you. And he's right in front of the reactor. You got to blow up. And it was terrifying. That game, that was the first game that I played where really like I would have to walk away for a minute and take a deep breath because like my heart started

pounding and it was it was beautiful and incredible dude nothing was funnier than blowing the reactor hightailing it as best as you could getting lost and then you round a corner and see the blown up reactor again you made your way in a giant circle

and it was like crap you just immediately knew you were dead. Or how many times were you trying to fly out and you see the tunnel, because it's always a big, long tunnel. And you're flying and you catch the edge and you skip off. And you're like, get back in there. I have to go. And it was great.

You know, there's actually, I was talking to Paul about this the other day. There's a VR game that's almost the exact same game as Descent. It's called Overload. Really? And I bought it on a Steam sale for like $5. It's now like $30. It is probably my favorite game to throw a VR headset on and play because it literally is Descent in VR.

Could you imagine that VR? Overload is what it's called? I'll have to check that out. The reviews aren't great for it. I think it's more for people like us that loved Descent. Yeah, a little bit of nostalgia. It's exactly that game. Yeah, I feel like Descent's one of those games that most of our listeners never played,

but the ones who did absolutely agree it belongs on a short list of space games. Agreed. All right, so that rounds out my team. I've got No Man's Sky, Among Us, Super Mario Galaxy, and Descent. Michael, you get your last pick. It's about time. It's been a while. It has been a little while, and I, you get your last pick. It's about time. It's been a while. It has been a little while, and I've never had the last pick.

So I've never had a chance to give my honorable mentions before I actually make my pick, which could be fun. So looking at it, there's, man, so it's tough. I'm actually going to list like three games, and then I'm going to pick one of them, because I just, that's how I want to do it. I thought that

Kerbal Space Program is hilarious and ridiculous, and that's how i want to do it uh i thought that kerbal space program is hilarious and ridiculous and that's a space game right because you're literally just trying to get to outer space and i thought that was amazing obviously space invaders was on the list but y'all wouldn't have voted for it so i'm glad that paul spoiled that because that would have been a disaster um uh outer worlds was also a game that I liked because it's literally Fallout New Vegas the same producers, it's by Obsidian but it's more of a space western but the game that I'm actually picking

is I'm picking a game that is just so much fun to play with your friends, it's a VR game and as a Star Trek fan when you close this out you've got to say Star Trek Bridge Crew because I've never seen a game do that before you each have your own role.

The captain has to call out orders. The engineer has to transfer power and do all these things. The tactical officer, the navigator. And it was just as a Star Trek fan in a game like that where we're literally trying to work together to solve this mission, whether it be Kobayashi Maru or anything like that. That game was innovative. And the fact that it was cross-platform, the first time I played it, I played it with a friend on a PlayStation, and I was playing it through SteamVR. And that blew my mind that we could actually do that.

And so that's what I'm going to round out my draft with, is one of the best just overall cooperative VR games that I've ever played. And the graphics were great, too. I wasn't so sure a Star Trek game would get drafted, but I did also have on my list on top of that Star Trek Armada, which was the Star Trek RTS. So you could pick the Borg and build your Borg cubes and take them out and fight.

Yeah, I mean, there's so many possible honorable mentions. I mean, Knights of the Old Republic, Deep Rock Galactic. I almost, yeah. Alien Isolation isolation my personal favorite star wars game was star wars rogue squadron and uh that one was available gears of war i think you could argue if halo counts because gears were was earth yeah and they don't actually go out in south america i thought wasn't it it's not no it's earth it's earth no it's not are you sure

yeah it's not earth why are we defending's Earth. It's Earth? No, it's not. Are you sure? What? Yeah, it's not Earth. Why are we defending that planet, then? All right. No, because they came from underneath. Because they came from underneath. Yeah, they lived under the crust. I'm pretty sure it's Earth. Yeah, or inside the crust, yeah. I will do some research while we start round one.

Stuffed crust Earth. By the way, the last Star Trek game that I really... Did you say stuffed crust? No, I'm hungry. He did. No, but honestly, I almost picked Star Trek Online, but I knew you guys probably never played it, because I loved the fact that you could do more Star Trek stuff. The Gears of War series takes place on Sarah, a fictional Earth-like planet.

So there you go. Sarah. So instead of Tara, it's Sarah, right? It's like... Sure, it's Earth-like. There's not a copyright on Earth. Just call it Earth. You guys can admit when you're wrong. It's alright.

I admit nothing. So, Michael's team, he's got Elite Dangerous, Star Wars TIE Fighter, Outer Wilds, and Star Trek Bridge Crew. So, at this point, now that we've drafted our... Wait a minute.

Do you have any honorable mentions, Paul? Oh didn't i just name like well you named gears of war but then we got into the debate about whether that qualifies that's true sure so i was saying knights of the old republic oh yeah oh that's right you did okay alien isolation rogue squadron gears of war steam world heist you get to play as robot pirates. I don't think either of you have played it, but that's a great one. Metroid Prime, I never played. I thought about that one. And Chorus, which I really

enjoyed the demo and never bought the game. I know. But I really liked it. We talked about that. A couple for me, Jedi Fallen Order. You do hop through different planets and stuff like that. That game was really impressive, actually.

That's the one with the ending, right? And we don't spoil the ending on that one? The whole game was pretty dang good, but the ending, I was like, that's one of the best Star Wars games ever. I think it's one of the most underrated games to this day. Borderlands 2.

Does that qualify as a space game? You go to different planets. I passed on it because I didn't think so. That one was stretching a little bit. And then FTL. I don't know if you guys have ever played FTL, roguelite space game. Very, very highly rated, which is super good.

There's an old one for those old gamers, Masters of Orion. I don't know if you guys ever played that one of the very original like space strategy type games pick your different races research technology branches that kind of thing think civilization but way way better and then star control 2 i linked you guys the remake of star control star control 2 one of the best space games ever made in my opinion the problem is it's old oh yeah but the remake for the older listeners out there that know how awesome my takes are check out the remake star control origins it's very good

is the remake is the remake good like the remake is really good like yeah is it still faithful to the original it is faithful to the original it's not faithful to the original. It's not as good as Star Control 2, but it captures a lot of the magic that that game had in a very acceptable way. Interesting. Yeah, I think more than any other draft we've done, this one probably has the longest list of honorable mentions. I mean, so many great space games. It was really wide open.

So now we get to match all of these games 1v1 until we're left with just one game standing as the overall winner. So let's start with round one, match one. Elite Dangerous versus Descent. For real? Like, for real? For real, for real. For real? This is your round one pick against my last round pick.

They're like the two best. So here's the worst part, is what do you do here? Because Elite Dangerous is going to be on so many lists. It's an incredible game. You can do a lot more than Descent, yet all three of us have played Descent and love it. I was going to say. You give it to Descent, that's what you do.

There's the one game that we've all played. Because it's Descent. That's what you do. There's the one game that we've all played. Because it's way better. I'll say, in the effort of saving a little bit of time here, while I've never played Elite Dangerous, I have been tempted many, many times. I have watched gameplay videos. I've watched Here's Why You Should Play This Game videos. I know it's an absolutely incredible game.

I know that it's not for everybody. The one overwhelming complaint that I see is it's not for everybody. The one overwhelming complaint that I see is it just takes forever to get anywhere. So it's like you're going to spend 10 minutes flying through deep space to try to get from point A to point B. I don't know if they fix that or not. I'm giving it to Elite Dangerous because it's a game that I still have a lot of interest in playing. Descent was amazing at the time, but I think if you tried to play Descent right now, you would be going back to playing Frogger or something. It's just not going to hold up. That's true, and I can't say anything about that because I have TIE Fighter on the list,

but I will say that later on in the game, you do get something that makes travel faster. It wasn't something they fixed. It's just the way the gameplay gets as you get better. So two versus one. Let's move on on we can move on i will call shenanigans we have never put through a game that we have not played but i will say if josh is gonna start judging things on how they play today your your uh most recent game is mass effect 2 which is like a good 12 years old uh legendary you got some oldens legendary edition hello all right we will put dangerous uh elite dangerous through as the winner round one match two no man's sky versus dead space two heavy hitters oh that how is this the first round uh because dead space got drafted round

four it's a fourth seed yeah yeah now i think the trouble here is that michael has not played no man's sky have you played dead space i have not but i want to play no man's sky and i don't really think that i need to play dead space i'm gonna give i'll concede this to no man's sky to be honest with you dead space is a little bit older uh it's not going to be for everybody it was revolutionary when it came out and it's held up to that a lot but no man's sky for the category that we're debating i think is a better space game yeah it's definitely it ticks every box that you would possibly think of with space like uh ship combat,

flying between galaxies, flying between planets, all that kind of stuff. Space stations, planets, alien races, discoveries, artifacts, base building. I mean, you name it, it's in No Man's Sky. Yeah, I'll just concede this one. Dead Space is an amazing game,

but No Man's Sky is going to win that. And I heard that in No Man's Sky, if you're really, really, really, really lucky, you might actually, it's a multiplayer, you might run into somebody. No, they fixed that, actually. Oh, did they? Okay. They fixed that too? Yeah, yeah. It's true multiplayer now, where you can go out on missions with other people. And start together

and play together and all that stuff too. Yep. That game has come light years. I want to honestly try it now just to see if i like you late daniel you can play it in vr by the way you can play the entire game in vr man that's amazing yeah that's that's okay i gotta try it all right round one match three mass effect 2 versus star trek bridge crew okay so i get it. I've already pasted the winner, but go ahead, Michael. What were you going to say?

It's Mass Effect 2, but Star Trek Bridge Crew is amazing, and if y'all have VR and you have friends that want to pick up a game that's relatively cheap now at this point and do something truly innovative, don't count this one out. But yeah, it's Mass Effect 2. I will say I don't think I've ever giggled in a video game

like I have playing Star Trek Bridge Crew. When you start looking around at your teammates and the arms you can see the little arms doing all this stuff and the mouths talk when you're talking to your friend yes the mouth like how do they even do that i don't know but it's hilarious it's coming out of your mouth it's hilarious yeah that was a fun game it did age fairly quickly like once you do a few missions it's kind of like well i'm just pushing this button and turning the style kind of thing. But it's a very fun VR game with friends. Well, later on, they made it really hard and they put out the original Enterprise and none of the stuff was labeled. So you had to basically just try to figure it out. Really? Yeah.

I kind of like that more. That's funny. Yeah. that's funny yeah so oh how funny yeah i actually never played bridge crew i watched a lot of videos online and streamers but by the time i got my vr everyone else was already done with that one i'm gonna give the tea in your steam library we're gonna fire it up next week just just just for like one night we gotta do it just to goof around in it yep all right round one match for starcraft Round one, match four. StarCraft II versus Super Mario Galaxy. StarCraft II. Another heavy hitter for round one. Honestly, this should be a close call.

I know I'm not going to win this one, but it should be very close. StarCraft II is great, but so is Mario Galaxy. I just don't remember a lot of it. I think my wife played that one mostly. I think this is when I was off doing ps4 pc something i don't know what tell tell me a big game that came out around that time and i'll tell you why i wasn't playing super mario galaxy was that the same that's not the same no it was later but you were probably playing everquest for years anyway well the warcraft would have been around that time. Yeah, I didn't get into that that much. But I mean, the Super Mario games are incredible. I think they're amazing. They're a ton of fun. But I feel like Starcraft 2 is just legendary. It defined an entire genre. It perfected a genre. Its impact on the gaming industry, I think, can't be overstated.

Yeah, I think ultimately, I agree. Super Mario Galaxy was a lot of fun. It really was. But I remember going back to StarCraft 2 in between almost every game that I was playing. Like, what am I... Yeah, I want to play StarCraft 2. It's been a few weeks. The game just was... It was incredible. It was iconic and it like you said a lot of those rts games now it's like they look at starcraft 2 is perhaps the best one because probably was yeah i think it still is to this day to be honest like i don't play the genre very much anymore but i if if you put five games in front of me and starcraft 2 is one of those and i played them all i have a feeling i would still default to starcraft 2 as the funnest of the bunch well just as a as a death cry here as super mario galaxy gets murdered it did sell 13 million

units compared to 5 million for starcraft and while mario galaxy is a 97 by critics and a 9.1 by users. StarCraft 2 is a 93 by critics and an 8.3 from users. So, that's fine. People don't like difficult games as much. You know, they require a lot more thought and effort. Sure, why not? This is the greatest counterpoint I've ever heard of why

this game didn't sell as well is because it's hard. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah. You have to think about it. All right. StarCraft II makes it through.

Now, round one, match five, we have Among Us versus Outer Wilds. It's a tough one. Oh, Paul, this is just a bad luck of the draw for you. This draft's not going well for Paul. It's a tough one because I— It's not tough at all. It's not tough at a tough one. It's not tough at all. It's not tough at all. It's not tough at all.

Wow. Wait, so am I the decider on this one? No, because I picked Outer Wilds. You picked Outer Wilds. That's right. I'm the decider, which I feel bad for Paul, but I'm picking Outer Wilds, hands down. Which is fine.

I get why people love Outer Wilds. It's just a boring story and boring gameplay. No, it's not. Other than that, it's awesome. You did not get far enough in that game, man. About half of your listeners. It's like The Witcher 3, Paul. How many times did you get six hours into The Witcher 3 and then go, I don't understand what the hype is about this game.

And then you finally gutted through it and you went, okay, you're right. This game's amazing. Outer Wilds is exactly like that, dude. Absolutely not. Go look at, dude, I just, I Googled because I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing some like space game that was incredible. So I was on a Reddit thread where people were talking about space games and the overwhelming majority of comments were Outer Wilds is one of the best video games I have ever played.

It's one of the best experiences that you can have in a video game. The sense of exploration and everything that's going on is incredible. What it comes down to is, Josh, you do not like casual games. And I have drafted a lot of casual games. So they're getting murdered. Mario Galaxy is honestly like a lot of people's number one favorite game of all time.

Among Us is so popular. Among Us is great. Do you have any desire to play Among Us anymore? Yes, all the time. Really? Yeah, I love Among Us. I'll play it with you. If my friends were playing, I would play. But I do not ever go like, man, I miss playing Among Us right now.

Yeah, but seriously, though, I played a lot of Outer Wilds. Plenty to know I do not like that game. I found everything about it to be designed almost the exact opposite of what I would do. The only thing I did like was when you would get sucked into a black hole. I thought that was kind of neat, but all right, that's fine. Outer Wilds is going to win. I'm not bitter.

And then we have our last matchup in round one. We have Star Wars TIE Fighter versus Halo 2. That's kind of a funky matchup. Wow, that's weird, yeah. I love both of these games. Right. I don't even know if it was called Star Wars Tie Fighter. I think it's just Tie Fighter.

It was just Tie Fighter. I don't know why it's bugging me that he says Star Wars, and I'm like, no, it's Tie Fighter. I still remember the box art with the Tie Fighter kind of crooked on the front. Yeah, I do. I remember it, man. This is a hard one. One is like a genuine space combat. There's no land land it's a space

game you know what i mean and then one is a game that takes place in space and is a fun shooter they both require a lot of hand eye control because they're both essentially shooters because really a a game like tie fighter a fighting uh what's it called what's the word i'm looking for dog fighting dog fighting game really is still like it's just a space shooter but this is tough but i personally definitely go star wars tie fighter both for the nostalgia what it did for the genre and also i hate shooters so because i'm terrible at them halo 2 was that game i told you about when i never made out of the bunker remember that that's true that's true we know that michael does not like shooters i i absolutely adore both of these games, to be honest. I this is this is where this gets dicey because I have fonder memories of playing TIE Fighter.

Believe it or not, when I think back of like being younger and the video games that I was playing, TIE Fighter, I think, stands out in my memory more. Halo 2 was just more fun in that social with friends aspect of everybody sitting around on a couch, having the LAN parties, the multiplayer. It was incredible multiplayer, probably the best FPS multiplayer since Goldeneye, in my opinion. And it's hard to not pick halo 2 when you're talking about best space games because it's such an iconic series i'm i'm kind of i know you've played both of these you see this is why i like that paul's the judge on this one because i know he's actually played both of them i have and i love them both they're both great games games. I think the argument for TIE Fighter is that it is a more true space game

in how I would define a space game, but I think Halo 2 is a better game. Yeah. So it's like, which one is going to outweigh the other? It's tough. For the record, I have played both of these games. I just played the one for about 20 minutes and said i'd never play a shooter with my friends again so i have to give it to halo 2 because

i definitely sank way more hours into halo halo 2 i believe was the first one where they added the banshee and the multiplayer was so incredibly fun in the day and age it was right at the peak of like high school paul getting land parties together as much as i love tie fighter halo just provided more hours more overall fun so i'm gonna give it to halo you know what's funny is on this now i kind of wish i could go back and halo 2 wasn't super aged compared to the shooters now because i feel like it was a simpler more fun time to play just like a land party like that you know what i mean i feel like a lot of the shooters now are just so complicated that now i really can't get into the genre because there's just so much going on all the time um but you're right though a lot of my friends i would sit on

the couch and just watch them play because i hated it but it was really it was really like the experience of bringing i'm gonna bring my Xbox over, we're getting eight people in here. You know? Yeah. It was amazing. All right. So now we are going into round two. We have narrowed the list down to six. Some of us have one game remaining. Some of us have four.

But the remaining games are Dangerous. I'm sorry. I keep saying that first. Elite Dangerous, Outer Wilds, No Man's Sky, StarCraft 2, Mass Effect 2, and Halo 2. So a lot of sequels. All right. Round two, match one. Elite Dangerous versus Outer Wilds.

This is one game I've never played and one game that I actively dislike. So I do not know what to vote for. Oh, man. I can't. I mean, I've never played elite dangerous i want to but i have played outer wilds and the dlc for outer wilds which is almost as good as the original game this is also ironic because i have not played one of these games and it's the game i picked them both but for the one it's the one that you guys have played i mean if you like if you actively dislike a game paul then i mean you have to vote with

you might actually enjoy elite dangerous whereas you know you don't like outer wilds for the sanctity of this podcast i am just going to put it on record that Outer Wilds is an amazing space game. Elite Dangerous probably is too. They're both actually at the top of most lists that people have put together. So I don't think we can necessarily get this wrong. Give it to Elite Dangerous.

You can't in good conscience vote for Outer Wilds. This is really funny, though. You are correct, but I will say having a game in the finals that two of us have not played is kind of bananas. That's true, too.

It is bananas, isn't it? It's the 1.01, though, because it's that good. Also, you guys don't have any counting arguments about why it's not that good. That is very true. It's very hard for me to make any arguments against it. Alright, next matchup.up wait what did you pick we said elite dangerous was oh you did pick that okay i was i didn't hear that part i know sorry i thought you uh what i was still you conceded you conceded the race i didn't

concede but i just told you to make the choice i guess i didn't care they're both my picks so i didn't care which one went through neither one of them is making it past this next round. Anyways. All right. Round two match to no man's sky versus Starcraft two. Dang. That's a juggernaut matchup right there. It's a big one.

I belong in the finals. I'll say that. I think with the way this is shaping up, someone's getting robbed here in this match. I feel like, because this is only round two? Yeah, but there's only the round. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is round two.

You're right. This seems like this would be like a final matchup. No Man's Sky tackles a lot more. It's more broad, whereas StarCraft II is only specifically in RTS. That's true. What StarCraft II does, it does insanely well. No Man's Sky is a little bit more of a jack-of-all-trades. You've played both of these, Paul.

I know Michael has not. Um, I, I want not just because it's my pick, but I think I would lean Starcraft two just because of how incredible the game is. Um, that's not to say that no man's sky is not, but I feel like no man's sky is Jack of all trades, master of none. Whereas Starcraft two is Master of RTS genre as a whole. See, I would say No Man's Sky is a Master of Exploration. I don't know that any game explores better than No Man's Sky, but the actual combat itself certainly takes a backseat, things of that nature. Michael, do you care to weigh in on this debate?

Here's the tough part about this one is that if no man's sky is like elite dangerous i would pick that over starcraft 2 hands down because i love exploration i love going out and doing those things the combat piece you know i know elite dangerous probably has better combat than no man's sky i know we're not putting that in there but i'm kind of trying to compare them right now and making the pick on like, you're right, Starcraft 2, like it is the best of what it is. And No Man's Sky is just like, you can do whatever you want. And that's what intrigues me. And that's what I want to do. So I want to lean towards No Man's Sky. But I feel like it's, this is a weird one, because I feel like if I just pick Starcraft 2, because I've never played

No Man's Sky, then Paul gets robbed because of my ineptitude on not playing a video game that everyone else has played. Here's the other thing. No Man's Sky, I believe there are something like 17 septillion planets that you can go visit. Starcraft 2, I think, has just one planet. Just saying. I'm going to let you make this call paul even though even though you have a horse in this race i don't think that either one is wrong necessarily uh and i'm gonna have some games in the finals anyway i'm not conceding i'm just saying i'm gonna let you pick you have played both of these games i have said i think that starcraft 2 is the uh better ambassador for the game that it is i mean name an rts that's better than starcraft 2 warcraft 3 command and conquer red alert come on

yeah you think warcraft 3 is better than star dang i mean i was pretty close all right all right warcraft 3 is chef's kiss it's it's the pinnacle of rts for me it was but that's not to take away from starcraft i played hundreds of hours of starcraft 1 and 2 i mean they're both fantastic how many hours of no man's sky have you played way fewer than that yeah 20 exactly 20 and no man's sky exactly but that's because this is back in the day when I had no money, and you had to play StarCraft for the whole year. That's the only game you got that year.

$8 a month allowance. Yep. Yeah. Personally, I think No Man's Sky is a truer space game. It's a better space game. Personally, I would rather see No Man's Sky continue on here. I'll say this. I think StarCraft is a better, more perfect video game for what it is, if you like that genre.

Now, obviously, if you don't like RTS, then it's junky. But I think for this category, No Man's Sky is a better space game. All right. So we'll give it to No Man's Sky. And now we've got a matchup of Josh versus Josh. We've got Mass Effect 2 versus Halo 2. Why do I have to choose between my children? Well, you don't need to because it's clearly Mass Effect 2.

Yeah, it's Mass Effect 2. As much as I love Halo 2, yeah, I mean, Mass Effect 2, I've been on record. It might, for me, win just best game, full stop, of all time i've been on record it might for me win just best game full stop of all time mass effect 2 might take it for me so i i gotta i gotta go for that one i feel like mass effect 2 is like the one of the few games that i wish i would have played back when it was relevant and playable it's still relevant now like well but but can you really play it now with the graphics the legendary edition is is really good and the graphics hold up very well okay there's also a very active mod community so you've always been able to download updated textures and stuff for

the old mass effects so honestly you didn't even really need the legendary edition but it still plays great you just made my entire world because i I love modding games to make them look better. And if the only reason I was thinking about not playing this game was because it might not look as good, I gotta play it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Lots and lots of quality of life mods and texture mods. All right.

So we all agree Mass Effect 2 is the winner of that match? Yep. Yep. All right. So not exactly a surprise surprise but everybody from round one has survived as we've now narrowed it down to three games this is always a little goofy because we've got a 12 team bracket it always ends up leading down to three finalists we have elite dangerous no man's sky and mass effect 2 so we're just going to match them all up against one another and see if one

game wins a majority of the matchups. So first up, we have Elite Dangerous versus No Man's Sky, which from what I understand are very similar games. I've only played one of these games, so I can only vote my conscience on one of them. I have only played one of these games, so I can only vote my conscious. And Paul has only played one of these games. So I think by default, is No Man's Sky going to win just because two out of the three of us have played that one? Probably makes sense. Probably. If I was shaky on No Man's Sky, then maybe there would be an argument.

But I think No Man's Sky is like a 10 out of 10 space game. So I don't know. Here's what has to happen from here, is we each have to play the game we haven't played between these two, and then compare them, because I have to know now which one actually would have won, because I think that

Paul, or Paul, you don't like the, I'm sorry, Paul likes more casual games a lot of times, I think you'll hate Elite, and I think Josh will love it. I feel like I would like Elite Danger more than no man's sky to be honest I think you would I don't care about base building that much I don't care about a lot of the I think it's neat like the alien

language and I feel like no man's sky is very distracted in a lot of ways and I feel like elite dangerous because there is that I can play how i want to play even though you can do that in no man's sky i just mean like i think it still has a little bit more focus uh and you can literally in that game i can be a pirate which is exactly what i would want to be i hear that's not very successful to do in elite dangerous it's not

super successful but it really depends on like if you want to go out there somewhere you know but one of the things about it is when you talk about no man's sky with the 17 trillion worlds or whatever it is elite has the same thing you can literally just i'm going to play this game i'm going to fly in that direction until the end of time and name every planet on the way out you know what i mean which is kind of cool but but yeah no uh i guess because the rule of it there's no rule after this but i think that if i were a listener i'd be like two to one because two people have played that one. So No Man's Sky. Yeah.

If you're a fan of Elite Dangerous, we're sorry. We just haven't played it. I am. But you know what somebody could do is they could become a legendary supporter and then make us play Elite Dangerous. Oh, that is true. Hold on a second. Michael's pulling out his visa um if you were curious to know elite dangerous has 20 000 planets no man's sky has 18 quintillion planets which if you're curious to know is one two three

four five six commas i don't see much of a difference yeah honestly are you ever gonna see more than 5 000 it doesn't matter right at that point all right so uh i think elite dangerous very well could be the best one but i don't see how we could ever award it the win when only one of us has played it so no no man's sky will give it to that one yeah that that that's perfectly fair what What is my Patreon login? All right. Second matchup of the finals. Elite Dangerous versus Mass Effect 2.

Mass Effect 2. That one's easy. Yeah. Michael, you're just running into my favorite game. The only thing I said about this draft to Josh was, I'm not going to take Mass Effect 2 because I'm just curious to see where you guys would take it. And I'm not just going to draft Mass Effect 2 because I'm just curious to see where you guys would take it and I'm not just going to draft Mass Effect for every draft because I want to but you know I'm going to vote for it

so I got to go Mass Effect 2 right before this podcast I called a friend of mine and I said what do I do I said I'm doing this podcast we're drafting best space games I know the guys Mass Effect 2 is going to win everything I've never played it do I do I do that do I pick Mass. I know the guys. Mass Effect 2 is going to win everything.

I've never played it. Do I do that? Do I pick Mass Effect 2 with the 1.01? Or do I pick my favorite space game, Elite Dangerous? And you guys totally talked me out of it because I left that call saying, I'm picking Mass Effect 2. I'm winning the draft. And here I am now again on my third episode with you guys not winning any drafts because I didn't tilt this time, though, and I'm still not. I did try to pressure you guys and say that I would not vote for your Mass Effect 2 picks, and my point paid off handsomely.

Oh, man. I just – and I totally – Also, I'm never the imposter in Among Us either. Right. Right. I still think that there's an argument to be made that Elite Dangerous is a better space game. Because Mass Effect 2 is a very good action shooter third-person RPG that just happens to be set in space. So I still vote for Mass Effect 2. But if I had played Elite Dangerous, there's a chance I might actually say it's niche enough that it would deserve that title.

But Mass Effect 2 is going to win that matchup. I will say, though, that when you do play Elite Dangerous, put your VR headset on because it's one of the best VR ports on the planet. It's beautiful. I'll definitely look it up. And if it's cheap, I'll pick it up. All right. You're going to have to because I'm still working on my patreon right now the uh last matchup so this will now determine the winner because elite dangerous lost both of its matchups so we now have no man's sky versus mass effect 2

in the finals i mean i've played a lot of both of these games. I've played No Man's Sky four or five different times with various people. I've played Mass Effect 2 from start to finish. I think it's got to be Mass Effect 2. And as much as I hate that we always gush on the Mass Effect series, there is a reason for that. That is not bias. It's one of the best received series in gaming history. It does everything that you could want in a game. The only argument I feel like you could make is that it's not 100% in space, kind of like

you said. Where the first one is. Right, right. You know, it takes place in the Citadel and the planets and yada, yada. And it's like, are you really out in space a lot? And it's like, no, but the whole setting is in space. And so I feel like that argument would fall a little flat because I don't think it applies as much as it would with like Satisfactory or Halo 2 or some of these other games we've talked about to where it's like,

yes, technically it's in space, but is it really a space game? So I can say as a person who has no horse in this race and who has played neither game and wouldn't care as a listener primarily, because I guessed, and it's why it's kind of cool coming down between you guys. And I kind of get to put this hat on for a second i have heard you guys talk about mass effect too a

lot more than i've heard you talk about no man's sky for sure yes yeah it's just and i think that's that's just the winner i think and the the thing is we we try to be conscious of the fact that it's like yes we talk about mass effect a lot we talk about dragon age you know i talk about the witcher and god of War and things like that. And it's like, because these games are the pinnacle of video games in a lot of ways. I'm not saying it's the best game ever made.

I'm just saying that they're a cut above a lot of other video games, which is why we talk about it. And as your friend, Michael, you should play Mass Effect. It's an incredible series, but only after you finish Divinity Original Sin 2, which I saw you starting up the other day. I did.

I got on the home screen. I was ready to play it. And then I got really tired because I'm like, I don't know which one of these 19 choices I pick. Is it classic? Is it... I don't know. But yeah, no, I will definitely give it a shot. And I will probably mod it because I do want to have really good graphics. It looks incredible. Like I said, the graphics hold up.

It really does. Modders are amazing, by the way. If there's any modders who are listening right now, you guys are just... You blow my mind. Yeah, for the benefit of gamers everywhere. Yeah. Honestly. Yeah.

All right, Paul, do you have any complaints about Mass Effect 2 being the winner? No, no. It definitely qualifies as a space game i think mass effect 1 is a little bit more traditional because you can land on any planet that you well not every single planet but a lot of planets you can land on explore find mats mass effect 2 they go more of an action route but it's the best one in the series it matches the perfect story with the perfect combat it has my all-time favorite video game character morden who i've talked about a thousand times yeah mass

effect 2 is the best space game it's not colonel sam shepherd or whatever when i said that on the first show commander people i'm like oh sam sam shepherd oh no there's no sam shepherd yeah oh right the colonels right yeah that's exactly it right well all i know is i can't wait for starfield to come out later this year which will hopefully take the title i am i would love nothing more i'm excited i'm excited all right well congratulations once again to mass effect 2 i think they've won one or two other drafts along the way but they deserve it they're the heavy hitters they're i guess the the the merrill streep of video games just soaking up all these awards all right any closing thoughts or comments on space games? This was a hard category in the sense that there were so many games.

So broad. Not to go to honorable mentions, but there's a game called Rebel Galaxy. I don't know if you guys have ever heard of that, but you play as a capital ship in that one. But it's an amazing game. Everspace. I don't know if you... Apparently, neither one of you guys have played E space but ever space is incredible and is the epitome of a space game and is absolutely beautiful it's one of the most beautiful video games that i've seen uh and they're making ever space 2 which is going to be

like a huge open world space rpg uh like anyway so there's just there's it's like there's this infinite plethora of space games that are absolutely great in so many different ways. None of us picked Stellaris. I'm not into 4X games, but Stellaris, if you look at the ratings, is beloved by so many people. It's just not my thing. I don't have the patience for that. You don't want to set like democratic uh governing policies and economic policies i feel like i don't want to work in my video games i don't want to work and do government stuff well i don't think any of us brought up eve online

right yeah another one that's a big one too that like a lot of listeners are probably like somebody say that now the show's over and it's like i had to put that out there because like you bring up there are so many games in the space and my thought when we first picked this i was like oh it's gonna be like you know tie fighter is gonna be up there it's gonna be like dangerous to be a couple of these games and we're gonna have a bunch of you know slim pickings at the end and then when you look at it of the the couple shows that i've been on now like this one clearly was the one that was most difficult picking between round four and round one when we actually went head to head and it's like,

this is a round four pick that might knock off a round one pick. Exactly. Great, great genre games. Great genre. Good choice. Whoever picked that. Paul suggested it.

Stay tuned next month when we drafted the best game set on earth. That's like the only, the only thing more broad than all space games all right well yeah thank you so much to everyone out there for listening as a reminder please rate us five stars and leave us a review and come join us on discord come check it out that's completely free link in the description and our patreon is available at multiplayer squad.com and hey if you want to shell out and be legendary status pick any game you want us to play we'll play it and we'll deep dive it and do yeah pick legendary and please pick elite dangerous so

i don't have to do it because i'm probably gonna have to do it all right so thanks so much to everyone out there who already supports us on patreon we really do appreciate it and then we will be back with a half hour episode on Thursday talking about This Week in Gaming. So have a great week, everyone. We'll see you on Thursday. All right. See you, everybody. Bye, everybody.