Video Gamers Podcast - Bonus Round: Best RPG of ALL-TIME Tournament - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

Gaming hosts Paul, Josh and special guest host Michael are back with another can’t miss Bonus Round. We go head to head, tournament style to determine the best RPG ever made! This gaming podcast isn’t for the light hearted as we duke it out to determine the pinnacle of RPG gaming. Which RPG will reign supreme?!  Thanks to our LEGENDARY supporters: TFolls, AceofShame, Jake, RangerMiller, and Ad  Thanks to Razer for sponsoring the show. Use code: Multiplayer at checkout for your free gift! 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

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gift to go along with it. Buckle in because this show is going to be wild. Hello everybody, welcome to the Multiplayer Gaming Podcast. It is a Monday, we're excited to be here with you all. On Mondays we have hour-long episodes. Normally we are a podcast made up of two dads who love to talk about our favorite hobby, gaming. But today's a very special day. We are not just two dads. We are three dads today chatting up the world of gaming. As always, our show is family-friendly, and today we have a bonus round episode

that'll be roughly an hour. I have a feeling it's gonna go a little bit longer. If you have not already done so, please consider subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts or by becoming a Patreon supporter by going to MultiplayerSquad.com. You'll get a couple of awesome perks, including some extra bonus round, I'm sorry, extra quick take episodes from me and Josh during the week, and you'll also get a shout out on the show if you subscribe on Patreon.

Now, today we are talking about RPGs. I am your host, Paul, or I suppose the tank of the podcast. I'm the one going out early, making sure things go right, joining me as usual. Today we're going to designate him the DPS of the podcast, going off who knows where, but putting up numbers on the stat lines, getting the job done it's josh and dying repeatedly don't forget that part it's what happens when you wander off by yourself right i was gonna say you guys know that i'm not a good healer so i'm really glad that you gave me the proper role of just yeah just go out there do something we know you're gonna die come back do something we know you're gonna die yeah we know back, do something. We know you're going to die.

Yeah, we know our skill set. We stay in our lane, if you will. And then we have a very special treat. We have a guest host with us today. He's joining us for the very first time. I know he liked playing Mercy in Overwatch, so he's going to be our healer. It's our good friend, Michael the Butler. Hey, hey, I'm so happy you made me the healer, because I really do prefer to play a healer in almost every game.

And that just happened to be that way. However, comma, I always have a problem with when my DPS just runs off and I've got to go risk my life to go save Josh. So, Josh, I mean, I'm happy this is a head to head episode because we're already starting out with a little bit of the gloves coming off. If you follow me to try to heal me, that's on you. That's probably true. That is not on me for being stupid and running into the enemy team.

That's on you for following me in. You know, lawful good, hero to the end. I just want to keep you alive. It's my thing. Oh, I love that philosophy, Michael. I do the same thing when I'm a healer and oftentimes end up dying as a result of it. That's not my fault, though, right? We can agree. Sure. I mean, I'll look the other way for now.

Now, Michael, you are new to the podcast. Our listeners don't necessarily know who you are. How are you connected to me and Josh? How do we all know each other? Yes, the nasally voice you're hearing right now is friends with Josh and Paul. Man, how far back do we go? I've known these guys for, I don't know, half a decade, a little bit longer, maybe? I think a little bit longer. It feels like an eternity. Really, it's video games i was playing world of

warcraft with paul when i had never met paul i don't know who paul was at the time a mutual friend got me into that and then you know we all just kind of got together and and we realized we were like-minded people and you know honestly they just needed a healer and they said hey this guy's willing to heal so i kind of stuck with the Yeah, I think we ended up with a couple connections, whether it be like home group at church. I think we were sort of, we didn't quite overlap in our fantasy football league, but we definitely talked a lot about fantasy football. And, you know, me and Nikki grew very close to Michael and his wife, Sam. I might even say they were probably our closest friends. And then Michael decided

to move to Texas. But the good news is you're coming back. Yeah, yeah, I'm really excited. I always think of Paul as my best friend that I wish was my best friend, because he's always got the best advice. And he always makes me feel good about myself. But right when we were starting to get really connected and close, I just absconded and just went away. And I hope I learned a lesson. But yeah, I mean, I, I'm excited to be back. And I'm excited to, I don't know, just be be with the group again. And you know, it's really fun. What I love about nowadays with gaming is we can sit here and you know, record a podcast in multiple rooms and play games together thousands of miles apart.

But it's also really fun to do things in person and stuff that's healthy. So I'm excited. Yeah, yeah. Us too. Now, I'll let you decide what you want to say here, because I know you might not want to show your cards for the upcoming episode. But why don't you tell us a couple of your favorite video games? What kind of games are you into? Oh, man. So I am terrible at shooters. FPS games are my least favorite. I'll give you a really quick anecdote. My first experience playing games together with a bunch of friends must have been back in the mid-2000s. And a bunch of my friends had found a way to hook their Xboxes up together. And they decided, hey, you

know, they've been playing Halo for a long time, I'd never touched the game. And there was 20 people playing and I literally never got out of the spawn point once. And 15 years later, I still think I've never gotten out of the spawn point in an FPS. So I'm definitely an RPG gamer. I love games that really like take my heart and make it pump. And I'm a bit of a crier. I do like to feel a lot of emotion in games. And you may see that theme a little bit with a couple of my picks that it really just emotionally got me somewhere. So that's my thing, though. As a gamer, I can say I'm quite the opposite of what Josh is. Josh never finishes a game. I will pick one game and play it until it's done. Now,

I'll sprinkle in other games here and there, but when I go into a campaign mode or a really big story, I like to see the whole thing all the way through. I'm not going to pause Godfather at the intermission. I'm going to go right through it and finish the whole thing. Your dedication sickens me, Butler. Granted, it does take me like four years to finish a game so i'm slow at it so i do sprinkle in a lot of other games but oh how funny well you know since michael is our guest today we did give him the option of choosing the topic for today's episode and for those of you who are long-term listeners of the show you probably remember that we used to do a whole bunch of video game drafts, and then we would face all of our draft choices head-to-head until we would

come up with one particular winner. So we've done this in the past with things like Best Celebrity to Game With, Best Gaming Dad, which Reinhardt came out as the number one winner. So if you have not heard this format, we haven't done it in a while, ever since Todd decided to move to the East Coast and was no longer able to record with us. So now that we have Michael here, we wanted to make sure that when we had the opportunity, we did another draft. So today we are going to be determining as our three-person tribunal, what is the best RPG game of all time? Now, I think there's a lot of contenders. This is going to just purely come down to personal preference, and we are going to just be drafting selections. As we choose our selection, we'll just talk a little bit about the

game, and then eventually it's going to be like a March Madness bracket. We're going to face things off and we're going to whittle it down until we have just one remaining game, which will be the overall winner. And we randomized the draft order and the order for this draft is going to go me, Josh, Michael, and then it'll be Snake Style. So then it's reversed in round two. It'll be Michael, Josh, me, and we are going to draft four games each and then we're going to see what comes out on top. Me,

me. Yeah. Can I just say, this is one of the geekiest things I've ever been a part of and I am the most excited that I've ever been in my entire life. And since Michael's a crier, if he doesn't win, we might have our first

crying meltdown on the show. It could be Michael. That would be amazing. I'm not going to make any promises. But stay tuned till the end. Oh, man. All right. Now, Josh, you and I know each other and our gaming preferences pretty intimately at this point, having done this podcast. Do you think that that makes Michael as a wild card? Is that to his advantage or a disadvantage? I'll be honest. I'm used to being the wild card on this show. And I know, like you said, I know Paul's like, I would put money on what his number one pick is, you know, and what his number two pick is. I have zero clue where Michael is going with this. I'd like to think that he is a very seasoned gamer. So I have certain expectations.

I just don't know. Yes, I smell of thyme and oregano for sure. I'm very seasoned. I'm really curious to see. Part of me is kind of like, man, I hope this guy just goes completely way out in left field, but then I'd be a little disappointed. But then if he picks the games that I would think, then I'm kind of like, well, I knew you were going to pick those. So really, there's no winning in this case. You know, this was actually really hard to prep for because when when we talked about it i thought about a lot of my favorites that you know in the days of yore or ye old days um you know back when i understand those days yeah the really your beard does too it's a very wizardy um uh you guys can't see it but he has a

very wizardy beard it's a it's it's twice the man I am. Just his beard, not himself. But I look back and I'm like, how far back and how deep do I go? And I've got a few choices that definitely come from my college days of gaming where I'd sit down and realize I've been playing for 12 hours and I've probably got to go do something else. But then I've got a few probably that are just those that you just expect to come. Let me ask you this, Butler, since I'm sure this will be on nobody's list. But did you consider the game Wasteland at any point? Or do you even know what that game is? I did not consider Wasteland because I don't know what that is. Actually, I've heard of it. Thank you for confirming how old I am. Because Wasteland is truly one of the best RPGs ever.

It is not going to make this show, but that tells me all I need to know. It sounds like a prequel to fallout. It was exactly the prequel to fallout. Was it a text based game? It was not, it was actually graphical. I mean it,

but fallout took a ton of, uh, of their inspiration from wasteland. Okay. That's where I've heard of it. I think I saw a special on it. So for everybody listening, Butler's not nearly as old as I am.

That's what we're getting at. I'm half as old as your beard. I just can't wait until Josh drafts an all-text game and Michael and I have no clue what it is. It might happen. I totally just pictured the movie Big, you know,

when that's that text game that he's playing. Like, the wizard appears in front of you. What do you want to melt him with? And I'm like, who would play that? I grew up on those games. I grew up on those games. Oh, man. All right.

Well, let's go ahead and jump into our draft because we have so much to talk about here. I have the number one overall pick, which means I don't pick again until number six. And I got to say, this is the kind of draft where you don't really want the number one pick, because I feel like there's a good three, four, maybe even five contenders for number one. But, you know, so I feel like I can't screw up this number one pick. You better get it right, because if this one doesn't win, you're out, Paul. I know, pretty much. Let's do pick trading.

I'll offer you my two dot something for your one dot one, and we'll swap. Oh, man. All right. So my number one pick, I need to play the game of the draft. It's gonna be a long time

until it comes back to me. I know that this game is not gonna make it, so I'm just going to go ahead and play the game. I'm going to steal a game that I know one of you guys would have drafted. I'm going to go with The Witcher 3. What?

I love that pick, but I kind of don't like you for making that pick. I cannot believe you just did that. Yeah. Of course. Okay, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Yeah. Of course. Okay. Okay. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Pause.

Time out. I just today listened to your Quick Takes episode of you finally beating The Witcher 3. That's literally what it was titled. It's Paul finally beats Witcher 3. Yes. Yes. And monster spoiler, you said, hey, this game is not in my top three, but it's in my top five. Oh, no. And normally we would, but it's in my top five. And normally we would wait

till later to slander each other's picks. But how are you stealing the Witcher 3 from me? It's not an early pick if it would have been gone by the time I draft again. And I know this is my only chance to get the Witcher 3. I have

some other options that I think will be around that might be Dark Horse picks. So I got to go Witcher 3. Oh, man. Oh, my goodness, Paul. You have never done me so dirty. It's called strategery. It is. And I don't like you for it.

Honestly, that probably wouldn't have fallen past my double picks of Dune that were coming. Rightfully so. It would have probably been in there. I mean, I've got like three that I've got loaded up there, and I'm just like, what's going to fall to me? And it's going to go. Well, you know, The Witcher is having a real renaissance. The Witcher 3 was an enormous hit.

Netflix said that The Witcher was one of their most successful series. They're currently making like three different Witcher spinoffs. Which I love. Everyone's gone crazy about Geralt of Rivia. And, you know, I love The Witcher 3. Great game. Best, best RPG of all time. Oh.

Oh. Oh. I'm so happy that you have that on record and the listeners can go back and hear him say, you know, probably my top five, not the best. And then here he is with the 1.01 saying it's the greatest RPG of all time. You know what it is? He knows that when it comes time for voting that I can't vote against. No.

That's what it is. What? Yeah. That's all right, Paul. I got you. I got you. I always pick from the heart, Josh, and I'm offended that you would imply that I'm just trying to win a draft.

Paul, just curious, what platform did you play the witcher 3 on because it's available everywhere oh i played it on pc and i beat it in like nine days like i played i played so much of the witcher it was my full-time job for like a week and a half and i knocked it out i'm totally a completionist and that took me probably three years to finish that game i think i finished it two or three months ago because i probably have 400 hours in it and i haven't even touched the expansions yet and that's why i would call that maybe near my 1.01 but you sir are not deserving of that pick yeah thank you see uh you know uh well hey we'll see if it wins maybe it won't well you know what? This actually, not to be spiteful, okay? Okay. This is not being spiteful at all because this is legitimately the number two on my list.

I'll show you guys right there. You can't see it, but it is number two. And it's Mass Effect 2. Yeah. Mass Effect 2. I thought for sure you were going to. The way in my head this went is you were going to pick Mass Effect 2. Yeah. Mass Effect 2. I thought for sure you were going to. The way in my head this went is you were going to pick Mass Effect 2. I was going to pick The Witcher.

And then Michael was going to pick some random game we've never heard of. That's how I planned this to go. And it didn't go that way. You think so highly of me. I know. But yes, Mass Effect 2 is, in my opinion, the best of the Mass Effect two is in my opinion, the best of the Mass Effect series. It put everything together that it needed to put together.

I feel like three and then Andromeda and all that stuff. It's they started to lose their way. But for me, Mass Effect two is the second best role playing game ever. It's got combat. It's got characters. It's got story. It's got epicness. It's got polish. I mean, there is everything that you could want from an absolutely epic RPG. Your choices matter. You get invested in the characters. It's fun. I mean, I don't know what more I can say. We've talked about Mass Effect a

lot on this show, as we've talked about The Witcher 3 on this show. And legitimately, as much as I would like to say I'm sticking it to Paul on this one, that is my number two. I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite shop on the Citadel. It's such a great game. The comedy, the action, the stories, it's fantastic. I think comedy is so important. When you actually look at getting into a game, there's so many games that are so action-oriented, and they've got great, powerful stories.

But comedy is something that a lot of them miss, and I can tip my hat to that, Josh. You know what other game has comedy? The Witcher 3 has a character named Doodoo. It does. They're bringing the comedy also. All right, Michael, you get your back to back picks here. I have no clue where you're gonna go with this. I'm so excited to hear. You know, what's interesting is I really thought that this that's something at least in this line,

because I'm going to pick from a series of video games. And I figured that one of these might go in the first two. And the first thing that I thought when you guys didn't come anywhere near it was me thinking, oh, is this really worthy of my first pick? Should I think about it again? But really, it's probably my favorite RPG of all time. And it's funny when you talk about Mass Effect, Josh. I didn't even think of that

because I think of RPGs as dragons and kings and knights and epic tales. Again, the days of yore, you know? of RPGs as dragons and kings and knights and epic tales. Again, the days of yore. And so my game has all of those. And my game is an entry from the Elder Scrolls

series of games. And it is not the most recent one, which might surprise you. I know where you're going. It is the right one. It's Oblivion. And the reason why I picked Oblivion, okay, because you look at the Elder Scrolls game, right? It has all that stuff that I want.

You can be chivalrous in so many ways. You get to choose a lot of different things that you want to do. Your character really is what you want it to be. But something that Skyrim missed that Oblivion really had was that world building around the protagonist. You know, the first time you go into any major city after you close the first Oblivion gate,

and someone looks at you and says, Hey, aren't you the one they call the hero of Kvatch? And you're like, I am the hero of Kvatch. I'm the hero of Kvatch. Like, that's me. And you get so excited. And Skyrim didn't have much of that. People would call you Dragonborn. But the reason why I think Oblivion's my number one is because it has that epic feeling. You start out as a nobody. You are a person in a dungeon, and then randomly the king comes up to you and says, I see something in you. And then, spoilers, it happens in the first few minutes of the game. Patrick Stewart gets slaughtered. He dies. Oh, no! But then, you know, by the end, you are an epic... You are in the... I mean, if it was Star Trek, the Klingons would make tales about you and sing songs and toast over blood wine. You are the matter-of-fact thing in this universe, and I love that about this game. It made me feel so big, and it gives me everything I want from a video game that i i play video games for to sometimes just escape

from you know work and just the mundane parts of life where i've got to take the trash out no no no i'm not taking the trash out today i'm slaying dragons and closing oblivion gates okay that's what i'm doing that's why it's my first do we all like oblivion more than Skyrim? Because I totally agree. I liked Oblivion the most. I agree. I think Skyrim did some things better, but I 100% agree with you, Michael, that you felt more in tune with your character in Oblivion. Like you said, going in and closing those gates, you felt like you were really doing something not only for you but for the people around you like in skyrim you're fighting the dragons but it's selfish you know it's like oh i'm this is for me you know and stuff like that so i i'm a little torn like i definitely

get it i thought for a second you were gonna go morrowind because Morrowind is what started the journey into Oblivion and Skyrim and making the Elder Scrolls series like what it became, which is amazing. So I'm with you. I do think the character, for sure, you definitely identify with the character a lot more. Like, don't get me wrong, I want to be able to shout dragonborn, you know, words and stuff like that. Right. But, you know, you definitely are more connected in oblivion well and one of the things that surprise me about oblivion and i won't show all my cards in this game right now because i know i've got to argue on its behalf later is that you know you go through and you're looking at the oblivion gates and you start to

think oh this is going to get kind of old and then you know the puzzles change each time and it's a different it adds in a little bit of that strategy piece to where you've actually got to think through something. And I did like that. But you're right, I did love Morrowind. I didn't play nearly as much of it. But one of the things I did think stood out about Morrowind that I really liked is there was no like quest markers on your map and so forth. So you had to actually really try to immerse yourself in the world more. But also looking back now, that was just a pain. And I like having maps. Yeah, maps are kind of nice.

Maps and fast travel. Yeah, fast travel. Oh, my goodness. All right. Well, good, good pick, man. That's your first. Now you get a second. Now this is...

Oh, man. I'm jealous. There's so many good ones. So I could choose to do a left field one here, and I'm not going to. I'm going to save that. Man, I've got so many but I I've got to go with Knights of the Old Republic oh you one or two the first one the first one just did it all like the second one improved upon it in a lot of ways yes but the first like how was Knights of the Old Republic not a game five or ten years before it was a game i mean

it's it's it's very similar in the grand feeling you know that you get from oblivion and so forth but you learn these skills you get to i mean you get lightsabers dudes like yeah you get lightsabers and um i definitely like it's one of those games that i haven't picked up in a really long time and doesn't it doesn't last it doesn't and part of the reason why is because it didn't stand the test of time as well kind of like oblivion like i'm i'm excited about sky believing or whatever the folks that are doing that um that independent uh mod where they actually take and put oblivion in the sky but i wish someone would do that with knights of the old republic um because it just it had

everything you could be a Jedi you know you could just I I just can't say enough about it's funny I'm at loss for words for one of my favorite games of all time it's just that great game it's such a great game now you have you heard the news that they are doing a full remake of Knights of the Old Republic they've actually announced it it's not speculation anymore see I did not hear they'd officially made that happen so I've got to quit the podcast now so i can google it and watch as many articles about it as i possibly i'll see you guys later have fun today uh i'm living forever i think kotor is 18 years old so yeah we'll finally get a remake but what a great game fantastic rpg did i steal from any

of you guys did i steal that was well it's not my next pick but it was definitely high up on my list okay it's on my short list i thought it was definitely high up on my list. Okay. It's on my short list for sure. And I thought maybe it would get overlooked just due to its age. Right. You know? And it does not stand the test of time because if you pick a KOTOR and you've not played it before, you're going to look at this and go, what? Like, why do people love it?

This is terrible. I mean, did I play that on Xbox One? Or not one, but like the original Xbox, right? Is that what I played it on? I think so. Yeah. If I remember right, that's what I played it on, too. The OG Xbox, yeah.

Wow. All right. All right. Back to Josh. First slightly controversial pick here, okay? Now, I could try to stick it to Paul. Okay? Now, this is not bait.

This is not... Are you going to go Mass Effect 1? No, absolutely not. I've already covered the Mass Effect series, so I could stick it to Paul, and I could try to take Dragon Age from him right here, because I know that's on Paul's very short list.

And while Dragon Age is amazing in a lot of ways, I had to, at some point, be a little true to myself on this one. And I started thinking about it. And while I'm looking over all of these amazing RPGs, I went, which RPG have I played more than just about any other out there? Which RPG have I gushed over to many other people? Which RPG have people picked up and played on our recommendation and then gone, this is one of the best RPGs I've ever played.

And that is Divinity Original Sin 2. Good pick. I know for some people that might not be their number two pick in a draft like this, but there is... I've played Divinity Original Sin 2 more than I've played The Witcher 3. And as much as I gush on Witcher 3, I've actually played this game more, which is telling. It is, in my opinion, almost flawless. The combat is amazing. The characters are just so memorable. I can name every character in Divinity Original Sin, and their quirks that go along with it, and their quest lines and stuff like that. I love the ability to play it however you want. If you want

to kidnap a merchant and then stuff them in a barrel and then throw them in the ocean, you can do that. I'm too lawful good. I can't do that. Yeah. Wow. You know, you can do just whatever you want in this game. It's fully voice acted in, which is incredible. It's just polished from top to bottom. It's an Epic, Epic journey. I don't know many people that have played this game that have not come back and said, I didn't realize what I was missing. Like this game is absolutely incredible. So that's my pick, boys. I know that might come as a shocker and I could have tried to block Paul, but that one's from the heart. A great game. And I think the greatest thing about Divinity Original Sin 2 is

just that literally there are 20 ways to resolve every quest. It is infinitely replayable because there's always little things that you never even thought to try until you actually start doing everything the opposite. You'll just discover so many cool new things in that game. I like it. Alright, I can't believe this. It came all the way back to me at 6.

Guys, I almost drafted this with the 1.01, but I did not. I thought for sure michael would take it he even already mentioned the game it's world of warcraft get out of here this is the game i have put way more hours and way more dollars into than anything else it's the best mmorpg of all time world of warcraft i cannot believe it fell to me with the last pick in round two. Some of us didn't play World of Warcraft a whole lot.

There's a reason why I didn't pick World of Warcraft because it's the second best MMO of all time. Oh, boo. Wait, what's the first? I'll talk about it later. Oh, okay. Star Wars Galaxies. No galaxies no yes that's it that

wastes time easy i know i gotta say i i did spend a lot of time in world of warcraft and and one of the things i like about world of warcraft is there they're the designers uh i forget the studio now blizzard there you go wow that took a minute only a giant um blizzard did find a unique way to recycle old content and make it relevant which is one of the things that kept it going for so long is like i can fight nax ramus again and again and again and get more cool stuff but uh i don't know if that's more of a stab or more of a what a backhanded compliment yeah that was hilarious you kids in your easy mmos man right look guys it came out in 2004 and it's literally still going strong. Now, it's not the same game it was

back in the day, right? But 2004 to 2007, I mean, everyone was playing WoW. It was the greatest game at the time, so I had to pick it. I love how you just said it's not the same game as when it was good. Oh, of course. Yeah.

It's been 17 years, guys. Keep that in your pocket you can't guys who can hold the crown this game came out the same time as kotor and most people don't even know what kotor is at least everyone knows world of warcraft so you know what whatever michael loves wow i know i did love wow it has it has definitely ran its course in my life. And honestly, I probably would play WoW still, but none of my friends play it. And that's one of those games that's just kind of like, it's like, well, you can do so much with the guild and so forth, but it's a lot more fun with friends.

A lot of times the memories are better than the actual game, too. That's true. When you try to go back to that kind of stuff, it really... Reality doesn't compare to the memories with a lot of the the mmo love and thoughts and stuff like that i agree well i'm just gonna pretend you didn't throw cold buckets of water on me right now i stand by it world of warcraft very deserving of the number six pick

and even though we might not quite be halfway through the episode, we do want to take a moment here halfway through the draft and we want to say thank you to Razer. They are the world's leading lifestyle brand for gamers. Josh, you and I have absolutely loved our Huntsman V2 keyboards. It has next-gen optical switches that are lightning fast. These are a lot faster than the old mechanical switches. So it actually gives you a competitive edge while gaming. You're going to be able to get those inputs a lot faster with less lag time. And so it actually helps you with your gaming. Josh, what else do you love about Razer? It really does.

I'll be honest. It's one of those things where people hear mechanical keyboard and a lot of people still think like, oh, that's what I want. You want optical at this point. Like we've moved into the light age at this point. But it's just their products are hands down amazing. They have taken everything that a gamer could want and upped it and then provided it at a good price. Quality matters. You get what you pay for in life. And with Razer, you get more than what you're paying for because their products are absolutely just top of the line. You can pick your Razer product up at multiplayerpodcast.com

slash Razer, enter code multiplayer. They're going to send you a free gift along with it. We've actually had some listeners reach out to us and say, Hey, I loved the free gift. That was super cool. I love my product. They've just gushed about it. We just had a listener today got the Huntsman keyboard arrived and he has just been gushing about it in discord and talking about the free gift. Pick yours up. It's going to be worth it. You will not regret it. You know, it's funny. It's funny. You mentioned Josh earlier when I mentioned loyal to the end, when you're the, you know, the DPS that goes off on your own and i'm just so loyal uh i i gotta i gotta plug razor real fast too just because i literally i had a warranty issue that they did a solid on me for about five years ago

and i've bought nothing but them ever since because i i truly do stand by their product as being just the best and i i'm actually gonna buy the huntsman v2 because i'm using the v1 and i'm so jealous yeah i gotta be up i gotta re-up the v up anyways i don't know if i'm allowed to say that or not i know we're past i've been i have been preaching razor for so long in fact i'm using the um the uh the that right now currently i'm on a webcam with their webcam so and michael's not even getting paid for that so you can definitely trust it but yeah we we love razor here they're by gamers for gamers go check it out again that url is multiplayer podcast.com slash razor enter promo code multiplayer all right we're halfway through in the draft we are back to my selection for the third game on my list this is the first one for me where i'm

just staring at a bunch of good games and i honestly have no idea what to take at this point i can't believe that skyrim is still on the table i thought someone might i thought michael might take that with the number three overall uh we still have everything from dragon age on the table oh my goodness all right there's a couple here that i think are gonna make it back to me so i i just gotta go dragon age origins i was really hoping you would just somehow let that slide one more yeah it i mean for me it could very well be a top three pick for rpg dragon age is such a fun series. Michael mentioned how fun it is to have dragons, the fantasy world. You've got your melee fighters and archers and mages. And I think

Origins just really hit that sweet spot where it was highly strategic. You would have to pause the gameplay, tell your characters what to do. A lot of abilities had combos. So you could have one mage freeze a character, another one would do a certain melee bash, or another mage could do like calling down a meteor to hit them, and then that would shatter the enemy and they would immediately die. Or you would have to use CC abilities, and the story was incredible, all the options you can make i love the whole series dragon age 2 i think is actually underrated at this point but origin is by far the best in the series thus far i've actually never played it oh no michael's never played it that's not good

have you played any of the dragon age no so that's a series that i've been meaning to break into and so here's the way that i think sometimes is like i'm a huge fan of movies right and i literally watched the godfather for the first time in my life last year because i had to get myself in the mindset to experience such an epic and that's how i felt about those series of games is like i just i want to play the dragon age games but i just i'm always like am i ready to you know experience that world i've got oh here's another sequel to elder scrolls i'll play that instead or another or the 1000th mod right or yeah or the uh 578th uh next uh patch for world of warcraft yeah well i i gotta go off on a tangent here have you watched the godfather 2 yes yeah i've seen that as well yeah

i have not seen the godfather 3 okay Okay, did you like 1 or 2 more? Because this is one of those long-time debates. You know, it's funny. I didn't know it was a debate, and you kind of put me on the spot here, but I'm okay with it, because I saw them both as absolutely on the same playing field. I might want to

give the edge to Godfather 2 just a little bit, just because there was a lot more happening that was more higher stakes. But also what I didn't like about it is it took place too far into the future from the original Godfather. I liked

the Godfather living in its own timeline. The back and forth of Godfather 2 was great, but I don't know, not to get too far into it, but I liked them both a ton i i didn't see godfather 3 because i heard that godfather is really uh a single movie and a sequel and it's not a trilogy people say godfather 3 shouldn't exist in the same realm that it's a good movie but i liked both movies a ton i watched them both the same day actually so i i'd probably

go number two but yeah they're they're both fantastic. All right, Josh, your third pick, buddy. I have no clue where you're going with this. There's so many good ones. I'm looking at this list and I'm just like, there's still so many amazing picks. I'm going to go. I disagree with you, Paul, on the best Dragon Age. I do. I'm not going to pick it, though.

I am going to go. Oh, I was really hoping you would, because I'm sweating sitting here. I want to have this argument with Butler. Is blank in RPG? No, no, no, no, no, no. Is that what is coming? No. Because for me, while I do like a lot of the things in Oblivion, Skyrim is going to be at the top of many, many

people's list for the best RPG ever made. I'm a dragon nerd. I really have this thing for dragons. I absolutely just think they're the coolest creatures ever. I would have a pet dragon if I didn't think it would roast me and they actually existed.

But that's neither here nor there. Dracarys. Yeah, I was going to say he's Hagrid over here raising a dragon. That would be me, honestly. I would. I love fantastical creatures and where to find them. Not the movie, but the creatures themselves. But no, Skyrim, I still to this day remember playing Skyrim for the first time.

I remember meeting the dragons, which I completely geeked out about. I remember learning that I was dragon born and I thought that was super cool. One of the things about Skyrim and the reason that I am picking it is because it is one of those RPGs that never slows down. You can literally be anywhere in the world of Skyrim, literally anywhere, pick a direction and run, and something cool and amazing is going to happen within just a few minutes. You're going to find some incredible ruins or some little village that you didn't see before, or some grove or grotto or a giant. Something is going to happen in Skyrim. And when it comes to RPGs, one of the few detriments, because I know we are all super huge fans of RPGs, is that occasionally an RPG can

start to bog just a little bit. If there's not something really neat happening, it can sometimes be a little bit of a slog to get through that quest line or get to that next point or the next city or whatever to where, Hey, it gets really exciting again. Paul, you experienced this with Witcher three. It's, it's like the reason that you didn't finish it for so long because the beginning's a little slow and Skyrim, I feel like has none of that. It is just hands down, start to finish an amazing RPG. I mean, it's been modded. I'm not even talking about the modded Skyrim at this point because the universe is your oyster at that point.

But I love the fact that it's first person. I think that really makes RPGs a lot more immersive. I love the combat in it. My one complaint about Skyrim is that towards the end of the game, the combat got a little easy. And so it wasn't as entertaining. But at that point, the story's picking up and it kind of counterbalances. But for me, it's in my top probably three to five RPGs of all time. And so for me to get that in the third round, I think is incredible. You know, I'm going to say a really good thing about Skyrim. So I really hope that oblivion skyrim

end up somehow going head to head because i'm gonna take the gloves off and you're not gonna win oh but i will say that it doesn't hurt at all that skyrim is actually a pretty good vr port and speaking of mods i have to say that um when i did get a little bit stale with combat, especially with the repeated crypts in Skyrim, there was a realistic lighting mod that if you play it in VR, it is the most terrifying thing on the planet because all those Draugr's eyes, all you can see is,

unless you're holding a torch and the torch doesn't see that far, the lighting is realistic. You're in a cave underground. You can't see anything, but you can see glowing eyes around you. And I've played some horror games in VR and they didn't come close to terrifying me as much i literally ran out of one of the crypts one time like i was done well you know what else goes for

skyrim you can play it on pregnancy tests you can play it on little screens on keyboards it has been ported to refrigerators. I mean, you can play Skyrim at this point on literally anything you want. I have it on my Switch and I play it on the plane. Yeah. There you go. Oh, I like it. All right.

So we got Elder Scrolls V Skyrim coming in for Josh. Michael, these are your last two picks. You get to go back to back. It is back to back. And I'm going to knock out my MMO now. The best MMO of all time, which will age me just a little bit. And no, it's not Ultima Online, because that game was so bugged. That game was so bugged. I know that one.

I mean, how many times did I come home and all my stuff was gone? I've got to go with EverQuest. Yeah! And the reason why I really have to go with EverQuest and the reason why I really have to go I'm voting for you baby the reason why Evercrack Evercrack

that's the truth man it's true but there are several reasons why I definitely and I won't give you all the reasons I liked it more than World of Warcraft because I've got to keep some pieces in my back pocket this draft's over that one wins that's it we can end the show now thanks everybody for listening um thanks razor and um no but uh but really one of the things

that i liked about it so much when i go back and i nostalgia play it which i'm actually playing it right now again i'm playing um a project 99 no i'm not playing so i played project 99 for a little bit which is is honestly it's it's a little bit brutal it really is because the leveling in ever quest if you've played it, guys, is brutal. Oh, it's crazy. They had things like level 55 and level 59. Hell levels. They were called hell levels because it would take you a month

to get through level 59 and the max level in the game was 60. But what I liked about EverQuest was it remains really the only MMO left where there truly is an impending sense of doom. If you're going to die, you're like, please find a way not to die, because you have to go get your corpse back. You lose a level, or you lose a percentage of your level.

You have to get several different pieces together. You've got to get a cleric to come resurrect you so you can get part of your level back. You've got to get a monk to drag your body because they can feign death and get you out of the way of this dragon that you stupidly died in front of. You've got to tell someone they have permission to drag your corpse um which brings it to really the best point about it is it was a game that truly encouraged grouping you could not solo in this game unless you were one of really two classes you could be a wizard or a druid for the most part some of them could but leveling was not the best way to do it you really

wanted to get together with a group and level together. And that was just really one of the best things about it is you were terrified to die in that game and it's something that I never got. The first time I died in World of Warcraft, I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna get my corpse. And then I was like, oh, whatever, we can wipe the group. You never wiped a group in EverQuest

because truly that would set you back so much. It played with your emotions. And I said, I'm a crier. This story didn't make me cry, but I might have cried a few times and I might have rage quit a few times. But that's it for EverQuest for now because it's going to come back

pretty soon with something else. I was really hoping to get that at my last pick. I did not know that you had played that much EverQuest. I know Paul never played it. EverQuest was the game that got me into computer gaming. bought and built a computer well for that and another game oh my goodness oh i just might call an audible on my last pick oh no oh no no i no i can't do it i can't do it but it's got to be an honorable mention i have it written down too and i you do get a second pick i know know, but for my second pick,

I've got to pick Fable. Oh, that's a good one. Which Fable? Fable won, and it was really hard for me to pick between one and two. And again, I'm going old school. But I have to go with the innovation. That's why I picked Fable won.

The innovative part about the fact that when you eat too many things that are fatty, your character gains weight. when you eat too many things that are fatty your character gains weight when you do too many evil things your character starts to look evil and of course me being a lawful good character i mean i i never experienced that but at the same point like it really made me finally like i i i'll step back and just say a little bit more about myself when it comes to it i literally cannot get myself to play a chaotic or an evil character i can't do it and i'll try so hard but in this game this was the first game that almost made me want to try it because i

wanted to see what it was like to physically change my character in that direction and i hadn't seen that before and i really haven't seen it since so that's why between the two fable one and fable two they kind of tie in my mind but i's why between the two, Fable 1 and Fable 2, they kind of tie in my mind, but I have to give the edge to Fable 1 because it really was the first one to innovate on that level. I feel like Fable was the pioneer for your choices matter

and they affect not only you, but the world around you. I mean, there may have been a game before that that did it, but Fable was the one that made that mainstream. And now we see it in almost every rpg that comes out you know whether it's shades of gray or you're good or you're bad you know almost everybody incorporates that they don't do it where it reflects on your character specifically which was a very cool touch um but yeah i i'm with you fable one to me was a huge pioneer.

I'm glad I went with that. I almost called an Audible just now. I somehow thought of... I thought of when I built my first PC, I built it for two games, and if the second game doesn't come up, I'll put it in the Audible mentions, because somebody's going to be like, why isn't that here?

Now, Michael, is there any way I can convince you to switch the order? Don't you want to really take Fable and then EverQuest after? Because I might be glancing down at the match's cheating that's cheating i really think you want to switch no no no don't listen to paul hey there are no shenanigans this is a professionally run draft thank you very much oh this is do we get ever quest versus world of warcraft yes we sure we sure do have that right down the road.

There is an easy winner. Yes, there is. Podcast over. All right. So Michael took the last pick. Fair enough. I'm already getting upset. I want a fifth pick.

Can we pick five? Josh, what are you going to do with your last pick? This is my last pick, man. Okay. This is not going to win me the draft. It's just... I don't pick, man. Okay. This is not going to win me the draft. It's just... I don't know, man. Then don't say it.

Okay. Actually, I'm going to Audible, because this one's not going to win me the draft either. But I started thinking... And, I mean, this is an RPG. And, I mean, it's just insanely fun. I'm going with Diablo 2. That was the game. I was going to take it if you didn't.

Was that going to be audible? That was the second game that I built my PC for. Because they were around about the same time, Diablo 2 and EverQuest. And I was like, hey, I'm going to build a new PC so I can play Diablo 2. What a golden age in gaming, man. Oh my goodness. Touche, my friend. Touche.

I was going to go Final Fantasy 7. Since I know Paul won't take that with his last pick. But Diablo II, it was just incredible. How much fun could you have with your friends playing Diablo II together? It was the perfect iteration of Diablo. The other ones, they're fine. They're fun. I don't have issues with them. But none of them came close of Diablo. Like the other ones, they're fine. They're fun. I don't have issues with them,

but none of them came close to Diablo 2. Agreed. It was the pinnacle of the action RPG at the time. The loot tables, I remember, man, it's been a long time, but I remember trying, grinding and grinding to get some bow that had, I think it was swiftness or whatever, let you shoot it really fast to pair with knockback so that you could just obliterate just about anything.

But it was like a God roll drop. So, you know, it never dropped over like a hundred hours and stuff like that. But I mean, there's a reason that they just re-released it. Now I don't like re-releases. So I didn't pick up the remaster on it but i'll keep my just amazingly fond memories of diablo 2 especially

as my last pick yeah that's that's it's amazing that it felt to you and also i played diablo 2 i actually played halfway through it got to the end of act 2 and had to restart because i rolled the necromancer and i messed up badly on some of my stuff and I could not beat Durial with a Necromancer. I couldn't do it. So I had to restart a Barbarian, but also Deckard Cain, you have no friends. The game has Deckard Cain.

Great choice. That's so funny. I absolutely would have taken Diablo 2 if you didn't. I loved it. Yeah, I was a paladin. I was all about those swinging hammers, man. Let those fly around the't. I loved it. Yeah, I was a paladin. I was all about those swinging hammers, man. Let those fly around the screen. I love it. Oh, yeah. So not only did I steal Paul's pick right before the end,

but I also picked the one game that Butler was gonna audible to. This is great. Yeah. That's tough. I hope I don't go against it. Super solid pick in the last round. Alright, so last pick of the draft goes to me. And boy, I don't like me being the decision

of whether or not a Fallout game is going to get drafted. I don't think it is. I think Fallout is not even going to make it into the draft, which is a shame. If it did, which one would it be? Because I've got one. New Vegas. I was going to say New Vegas.

It's hands down New Vegas. Okay, that was that was really close i almost picked that as one of mine uh but that would have left kotor off and i really want to go to kotor deserves to be on there yeah uh i know i would get laughed out of the building by most listeners but cyberpunk 2077 was absolutely a contender i I loved it so much. I'm going to have to go with the pick, the true love of my gaming life for a few years here. I don't even know if either of you ever played it, but I have to go Castlevania Symphony of the Night.

It's the best 2D game of all time. I thought about it, but I have not played it so that was gonna be michael has that was gonna be a complete pander like pick if i did make that but it is very widely renowned as one of the best castlevanias and role-playing games out there nes no it was on playstation it was a playstation okay okay yeah you say it yeah yeah i thought so good something but yeah that's well that's okay i know it's not gonna make it out around one but symphony of the night is still incredibly fun and uh i still love the fact that you are named alucard which is dracula backward which is just like i didn't know that goofy and so silly but i love it it's like a very campy game that's fantastic well let's just like very

briefly because we're already at like the 52 minute mark here we're so sorry guys what no no it's not your fault these these drafts always go long what what are a couple other honorable mentions so i already mentioned we don't have any fallouts and also cyberpunk what are a couple others that might have been considered i had uh deuce x which is a phenomenal series um the og or human revolution the og i think i've played like seven times like the old it would not hold up to this day but back then i i played that game so many times because it's that incredible um i had a game that i absolutely loved but they just never went with was jade empire that was bioware you know that was a really really good rpg dark souls is considered an rpg for a lot of people i think

that series is phenomenal i mean there's a ton of love for the Dark Souls series. And then Breath of the Wild. Yeah, that was one that I thought for sure would go. And I almost picked it. I don't think it qualifies. I don't think it's an RPG. We should have picked it then, because it would have been fun to argue about it. The show's not long enough.

I think it's just a pure adventure. I don't know that it's really an RPG. You get gear. I mean, what, you don't get levels? I mean, you don't level up necessarily. There's no skill tree. I don't know that it's really an rpg gear i mean what you don't get levels i mean you don't level up necessarily there's no skill tree i don't know it's it's a little murky i think i could see that for my honorable mentions i would definitely say that um the most rpg game i've literally ever played was pathfinder kingmaker because it's literally based on the rules of dungeons and

dragons like it is brutal it is a hard game. It is incredible. I also had Kingdom Come Deliverance in there because I liked the fighting system. It actually made you actually learn how to fight and don't play with a mouse and keyboard, by the way. It's nearly impossible. You had to use a controller for that. And then I also, honorable mention,

I had to put Shenmue on there because I really liked Shenmue back in the day on the Dreamcast. Smaller game, smaller title, not a lot of people played it. And then The Last of Us also made me cry a whole bunch. I don't know if that counts or not, but I had to put a game on there that really made me cry. Last of Us is so good. Yeah, I probably would have argued against that being an RPG, but great game. That's why I didn't really put it in there because I had games that were true RPGs.

True RPG, yeah. What about you, Paul? That's why I didn't really put it in there. Cause I had games that were true RPG. What about you, Paul? What's your honorables? A couple others that you got. I mean, almost all the ones you guys are mentioning. I had in a list.

I had a list of like 35 games. It was preposterous. A couple others, super Mario RPG, which was on the super Nintendo, all the paper Mario games are really good. Some are fantastic. Some people right now are absolutely furious that nobody took Chrono Trigger, because you'll

see that as number one on a lot of lists. Yeah. And also all of the old school Pokemon games, which I really loved. Gotta catch them all. Borderlands. I thought about taking Borderlands 2 with my last pick. Does Pokemon count? And does Borderlands count?

1,000%. No. Yes. We've had this debate. We've've had this debate and it's so stupid it is it is as old school rpg as you can get it's turn-based combat your characters level and learn new abilities it's 100 in rpg oh i guess i was thinking of the ones where people were blindly walking across parks staring at their phones looking oh not pokemon go not pokemon go no no no i'm talking about like on the game boy like Finally walking across parks, staring at their phones, looking for things that were not Pokemon Go. Not Pokemon Go. No, no, no. I'm talking about like on the Game Boy.

Like, you know, all the old Pokemon Red and Pokemon Green and all those. And then also some people who listen to our show really love Kingdom Hearts. Maybe you could consider that an RPG. Maybe, maybe not. Pure adventure, Paul. Pure adventure. Yeah, that one might be adventure. And no one took Destiny 2?

Josh, did you think about it? At some point, I was like, I want to just make sure I'm not forgetting about anything that's really obvious. So I think I found some list of the top 50 RPGs or something like that. And as I'm scrolling through this list, I see Destiny in there. And I literally just closed the browser tab right away. Can't trust that list. Nope. This is not a good list.

You know, I'm actually proud of myself because I looked through about a dozen lists, and they didn't influence my picks at all. I already had my list, and I was like, what am I missing? What am I forgetting? And, you know, honestly, two or three of them did list Zelda Breath of the Wild as well so it's interesting you say that is it or is it not but you boys ready to fight yeah alright so if this is your first time

listening here's where we are now going to match these up one on one and then basically the three of us will vote and whichever game gets two or three votes will move on to the next round. And so coming up here in round one, match one, we have The Witcher 3 versus Diablo 2.

Oh my goodness. These are some strong, strong contenders as the underdogs. But yeah, Witcher 3 versus Diablo 2. Oh my goodness. So here, maybe we can all take like 15 to 30 seconds to make any points that you might want to make. But as you look at Witcher 3 versus Diablo 2, Josh, do you have an argument for Diablo 2 here?

No. Fair enough. I'm going to vote for the Witcher 3, Paul, which is why you stole it from me. Yeah. I don't know. I really appreciate Diablo gonna vote for the Witcher 3, Paul, which is why you stole it from me. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I really appreciate Diablo 2, and I really love Witcher 3,

and I love them both for so many different reasons. It's hard to say, because I almost want to pick Diablo 2, but I feel like I have to go Witcher 3, because maybe it's recency biased, that I just more recently loved that game and it doesn't need a revamp or a re-release because it's still current. The only thing I'll say is Diablo 2 is

just more fun. There is way more fun to be had in Diablo 2 than there is in Witcher 3. Witcher 3 is an absolute masterpiece, you know, but Diablo 2 with friends was some of the best times ever. And it's hard to compare those two types of games together, but Diablo 2 skirts the boundary of RPG a little bit. I mean, it is, but Witcher 3 is literally the perfection, in my opinion, of what an RPG should be. So unless Paul's going to vote against himself, which I don't see happening, then Witcher 3 is going to win this one. Yeah, it does win here. The one thing I will say about Diablo 2 that I did not like is that when you were playing Nightmare Mode and going up with the higher levels you had to grind

out certain pieces of gear and i remember just entering and exiting servers just trying to get the right piece of gear for my barbarian that had like plus two barbaric shout or whatever that ability was called because you just could not play it unless you had those pieces of gear so it did end up being a little grindy but other than that i mean diablo 2 is like a perfect game i mean i it's great right all right so the witcher 3 will take the cake there round one match two boy we got some heavy hitters we have mass effect 2 versus fable oh michael you got an uphill battle here with how much i love Mass Effect 2. So my biggest argument on Fable is the innovation piece. It was the first game to do a lot of what it did. I don't really see that from Mass Effect. It's a great game. The Fable, I think, broke the

rules in a lot of ways when it comes to just your character, your world building. When you think of an RPG, you think about immersiveness a lot of times and how how you can become that world and what you do with it and the world literally became you or at least your sandwich did so it's you know i remember i remember fable kind of being one of those first games where you felt like you could do anything like you could even get married and sacrifice your wife and it was like what you can do what in this game? It felt very open-ended. I might have done an evil playthrough on the second go-around. All right.

You could find work. You could do so many different side quests. You could do what you wanted to do in that game. You know what I mean? What do you want to do today? Well, I don't feel like doing the main storyline. And it truly was an open world that didn't have as much of a sandbox feel to where you were lost. You still felt guided when you did things like you were familiar with what you were doing and i liked that about it i'll say this fable pioneered it but mass effect perfected it and

that i there's not a game that i think compares to how mass effect allowed you to be in the gray zone. What is it, Paragon? And what's the other side? Renegade. Renegade, yeah. And all of the levels in between, it was okay to be a Renegade sometimes, but still feel like a Paragon, and that depending on the circumstance and stuff like that. As much as I give credit to Fable for what they pioneered, Mass Effect, in my opinion, perfected it. I don't know what more I can say. It's a more fully realized RPG. In Fable, you care about your character.

In Mass Effect, you care about 10 different characters because some of them are going to go off to die. And some of them you might romance. Some of them are going to save the galaxy and some of them you might romance some of them are gonna save the galaxy you know yeah and it had space too it did have space yes and laser argument for fable but honestly i'd probably go with mass effect yeah laser guns yeah yeah yeah all right so next match up here we have the elder scrolls four being Oblivion versus Castlevania Symphony of the Night. Guys, we can just make this short. Neither of you played.

I save all my arguments for the next round for this one. Let's just bulldoze over Castlevania. I abstain. I rest my case. Yes, case rested. Do I have a gavel? Yeah. The one thing I'll say with Symphony of the Night

is that it was the first game I ever played with multiple endings. And that was really mind-shattering back in like 1997 or something. So, yep, alright, well, rest in peace, Castlevania. You weren't going to make it, but I'm just glad you got mentioned. We're going to miss you, Akulad, or whatever his name was. Alucard. Alucard. Alucard.

Alucard. I was really trying to spell dracula backwards in my head and i should have spelled it out didn't work well uh all right round one match four we have star wars knights of the old republic versus the elder scrolls 5 skyrim oh this is a hard pick that's tough oh okay so my first argument is lightsabers. It's the only game on here that has lightsabers. It did add a lot of story to the universe of Star Wars, which if you're looking at lore and immersiveness,

it was like 4,000 years before the events of the Star Wars, the original trilogy. So you got a lot more content that added to the universe. I'm not just pulling in the fact that it was a great game. It pulled in the universe. I don't know. Well, and I think, not to try to bolster

your pick, but isn't that canon in the Star Wars universe too, or it follows canon? You know, it's funny because Canada's changed a few times with Star Wars, pre and post Disney and so I'm not 100% sure but I'm gonna say yes because it helps my argument like yes Josh that is canon the Star Wars canon um I guarantee that right now half the listeners are like half of them

are like no and half more like yes it is and then some of them are going kotor what's that right um i'll say this i am a huge huge fan of kotor i am super pumped about their remake and i do not like remakes at all um i will hands down take time off of work to play the kotor remake and that's you know that's high praise for But Skyrim is just the most complete RPG in a long, long time. Ages, I'll say. There is just anything and everything that you would want to do in an RPG you can do in Skyrim. Lest we forget the amazing, insane quests that we talked about that Skyrim is one of those when you go on your drunken night of debauchery and trash the temple and then you know all that stuff so I mean amazing questing great world building amazing combat characters dragons first person perspective

which really adds a lot to the immersiveness. The world is beautiful. It holds to this day. And Skyrim is 10 years old at this point? I think it's older. But yeah, it's pretty old regardless. KOTOR does not hold up to this day, but Skyrim does. And that longevity counts for something.

I've got three things to argue based on your point real fast. Because you said, what wouldn't you what what does it not have that you'd want to do well there's three things the four no no no specifically i'll look at two of them are things that oblivion did better is the world building when it came to like i missed that when i was playing the skyrim like yeah cool you're calling me dragonborn but you're not calling me a hero you're not changing the story every time i go somewhere else the second part is the fighters guild didn't really exist in the same way. The Fighter's Guild in Oblivion, I missed that.

So when you say, what would you want to do? I want to level up in the Fighter's Guild and really have these tests. And then also, what would I want to do? Maybe sometimes leave the snow and see a different landscape just once. Just one time. It's winter, dude. It's winter. I know.

You just said, what would I want to do and i'm like those three things i bet there's a mod for that where you can play skyrim in sunny summer weather i'm gonna tell all right so here's here here's the thing i think objectively almost everyone would say skyrim wins this matchup but But here's the thing. I don't really love Skyrim. I know I'm in the minority here. I personally like KOTOR more. I'm going to lose this because the judge doesn't like Skyrim. Yeah. Skyrim, I already said this before,

but I felt a little too aimless. I need just a little bit more structure in my RPGs. Have you heard of a quest marker, Paul? Yeah. That's your aim! I have to do something now that I don't think has been done on this show. I'm siding with Josh, and I'm picking Skyrim.

Oh! Because honestly, I picked Knights of the Old Republic, and I love it. I was going to say, KOTOR is a good choice! It's a great choice, but I love Sky skyrim and given the fact that i've picked it up on like five different platforms you're the person like the fact that i've read through so many times releasing it they are because i'm gonna buy it and so edge goes to skyrim on this one wow very nice michael coming out of left field with a little bit of chaos

and I like it. The problem is Paul's just going to nix it in the next round. Yeah, it's going to eliminate it eventually, but we do have an underdog winner here. That's always fun. All right, next match up here. I don't... Oh, boy, I know Michael hasn't played mine, but I don't know

if he's played Josh's. We've got Divinity Original Sin 2 versus Dragon Age Origins. I'm going to go on the best argument here because I have not played either. Oh wow. Tell me guys, tell me why would I want to play this game? If you like amazing characters, if you like freedom of choice, if you like amazing, honestly, some of the best tactical combat that I have played in any video game ever, Divinity Original Sin is that. If you like a quest line that starts from

beginning to end and finishes the way that it should with thousands of side quests in between, if you want the ability to play the game however you want, that is it. And honestly, it's current and it's beautiful. Origins is a great game, but if you sat down and tomorrow you tried to play Divinity Original Sin and you tried to play Origins, you would quit Origins in probably a few minutes. 120 hours later, you're still going to be playing Divinity Original Sin. I have to give you a kudos for the way you started your argument because I thought I was in a 1990 early 2000s movie trailer. If you like original characters, if you like a tantalizing story, it's all very true.

In a world. Good argument. Hey, Paul, what you got? I want to play that game. All right. So the irony is these games are actually relatively similar. I will say Dragon Age has a much better perspective. You've got the asymmetrical view with Divinity.

With Dragon Age, it's more third person. I think it just has so much deeper lore. Dragon Age Origins lays out this entire world, and I know Divinity does this as well, but I think Dragon Age does it better. You learn everything about the city politics, about the religions. You get involved in all these things, and the stakes are just higher. In Dragon Age, you have these darkspawn who come out of the ground with an archdemon, and every 2,000 years they come out, and only the Grey Wardens can stop it. You are one of

these Grey Wardens. You have special abilities. There's just all of these romance options, which is, I know, also in Divinity. So ironically, these games are very similar. Tons of choice. And it's the first in a series of three. You know, Divinity Original Sin 2 might be a really good starting point, but I don't know if there's any plans to continue the story. With Dragon Age Origins, it continues all the way through Dragon Age Inquisition, where they are still talking about the Warden and making reference to your character in the first one. I don't know. I don't even know where to go with it all, but I find the combat in Origins to be far better. Divinity Original Sin 2, every single fight is 25 minutes long,

and you never have that in Origins. Origins, the fights are three to four minutes. They are just as strategic and tactical. It just cuts the fat. Divinity just makes it a little too laborious. It feels like work at times where Origins is just pure fun. But Paul, will it make me cry?

Divinity will, because you make me cry? Divinity will. Because you know what happens? I can't spoil it. I'll tell you later. But you have to make some very tough choices in Divinity with the characters that you have played all game with. Hold on.

You can choose to have a baby with a witch and the Archdemon's soul is going to go into your baby. There's hard decisions to make in Dragon Age Origins, too. Honestly, I think either of these could go on to the next round. I think it's really neck and neck. But for me, it's absolutely Dragon Age. I think what sold me about Paul's argument is he spoke my language with the whole thing about becoming involved with their religion, their politics.

Just I love the immersive world building. And Original Sin might have that, Original Sin 2, but I didn't hear it in your argument. And Paul just he spoke to the judge. And the judge says, Dragon Age Origins. Praise Andraste. Thank the maker. Dragon Age Origins makes it. You're all void woken.

I'm so happy I picked it just because I got to hear you say that. Hold on. Hold on. Did you say zoid woken? No, I said you're all void woken. Oh, I thought you said it with a Z. No. And I was like, hold on a second.

Okay, yeah. Void woken. All right. Dragon Age Origins. This is good because we all know what's gonna happen here in this next matchup well maybe not i don't know unless michael votes against himself round one final matchup world of warcraft versus everquest uh we've got the first big mmo versus the second big mmo this is kind of crazy so i'll and i'll make an argument there saying that everything that world

of warcraft did everquest also did did it better and did it first and yeah you could say the graphics maybe were better in world of warcraft nobody's going to argue that but one of the reasons why i didn't adopt world of warcraft wide away is because it looked cartoony the graphics just looked kind of like you know with the Big Crazy Ears. Whereas EverQuest kind of made it look like you were actually humanoids playing actual real dimensions,

not giant stacked. I mean, one argument that I think wins everything against World of Warcraft, Blood Elf males. Done. They were atrocious.

So I can say I have played World of Warcraft. I did level a character to level 80 from start to finish. Now it was later on when it was probably much easier to level. The game was 11 years old at that point, but go ahead. But for me, it was oversimplified, over easy. There was not a lot of challenge. EverQuest is to me the pinnacle of what an MMO should be. And Michael hit the nail on the head.

When you have serious risk involved, it makes the game better. And not many people out there will understand the sadness that comes from dying in a place that's very hard to get to in EverQuest. And the fear and the emotional response that comes along with that, like people that have played EverQuest. There has not been a game like it. EverQuest holds a place in my heart that no video game has ever been able to touch to be honest with you now and that's not to say it's the best video game ever but i'm just saying like the memories that i have from playing that game are not nothing has come close to that and so for me ever quest is hands down the winner see this this always drives me just a little bit crazy because josh tried playing

warcraft like when they added like the raid finders and they've really made the game super easy when i think world of warcraft in my head i'm thinking 2004 to 2006 i'm thinking vanilla and burning crusade where the rating was tough as nails i mean nax in vanilla you had only like 0.001 percent of players had finished it like that's how hard the early world of warcraft i guarantee you that the hardest world of warcraft raid is nothing in comparison to like the hardest ever quest raid well that's because warcraft was ever quest light yeah that's what i mean like that's what i'm saying like i i i enjoy the hardcore nature of that the risk reward and like i said i don't think and i did not play vanilla

wow to see the difficulty level but from what i have heard and what i've experienced with ever quest there's nothing that compares to the rating and the challenge that EverQuest brought. Josh, is that only because we didn't have voice chat back then? Maybe. Because it did make it harder. You had to type everything. Do you remember the healing cycles for the healers when you were bought? And you'd have to count in your head.

You'd have to count to six. And your timing, you better know the exact time a second passes because if you didn't cast your heel right then and the tank went down the whole raid wiped and if you couldn't master your macros your macros uh you also had healing rotations oh yeah just saying you know all right so we're we're we're going over quest i do like i do love world of warcraft i just it josh said one thing that really is true every single person that played everquest thinks of that game and it has a special place in their heart let me ask you a question as your best guess how many people do you think are playing everquest currently probably about half

a million maybe 400 there's actually a fairly popular... They've got a new expansion coming out. Well, and I'm playing on a progression server where we just... Luckland just came out. And so it goes back to the way the game was back in the day, but leveling's a little bit easier. That's the big difference. Well, World of Warcraft's still got 5 million subscribers.

So what's happening? It doesn't make it better. I wish the listeners could see Paul's face face i'm just so sad world of warcraft world of warcraft has an argument to be the winner of this whole thing it does seeing it die in round one is just very sad but all right we'll let ever quest move on tell that all right round two and uh all right this one worked out a little bit goofy because we had some upsets. So all three of these matchups are actually our own game versus our own game, which means all of us will have a game in the finals.

Ooh, that's cool. So that's kind of nice. All right. First, we have the Paul matchup. The Witcher 3 versus Dragon Age Origins. Oh, Paul, the truth is going to come out. Man, I should have voted. I know how much Paul loves Dragon Age Origins. Oh, Paul, the truth is going to come out. Man, I should have voted for the original Sin 2. I know how much Paul loves Dragon Age Origins,

and I don't think Paul loves Witcher 3 as much. But Witcher 3 has to go. What? No, go past. Oh, I was going to say. Advance. Yeah, no, no, no, no. It has to advance.

I thought you meant it has to go, and I'm like, Michael! Oh, no. I didn't upset... Well, no i i didn't upset um well i think i didn't upset that one never mind was that the one that i picked over kotor no it wasn't never mind i abstain yeah okay it's gonna be the witcher 3 i think all three of us are gonna vote for it i love the overall story of the dragon age games i I like the lore of Dragon Age more than The Witcher 3, but The Witcher 3 had higher highs. And as a singular game,

I think The Witcher 3 is better than any of the individual Dragon Age games. Now, if you gave me the choice, you can have all three Dragon Age games or just The Witcher 3. I'm going to go with Dragon Age. But with just individual titles, I'm going to go Witcher 3. So I think all three of us agree on that one. Definitely. I mean going to go with Dragon Age. But with just individual titles, I'm going to go Witcher 3.

So I think all three of us agree on that one. Definitely. I mean, Geralt of Rivia. Done. Moving on. Yeah. Classic. Alright. Yeah. Round 2, Match 2. We got the Josh matchup here. Mass Effect 2 versus Skyrim.

Ooh. You guys know what I'm voting. I would... Oh, man. I'm going to say Mass Effect 2. I know that's what you're going to pick, Paul, but it really is. It's a better RPG. It's a better RPG, and it has, for my money, the best action for any RPG. I think it has the most fun combat than any other game on this list. You know, it's funny you mentioned combat because combat does get kind of stale in Skyrim a little bit to me.

And I think that Skyrim has incredible replayability, but I really do agree with you on that action piece. And Mass Effect 2 has Morden, my all-time favorite video game character and i also honestly i feel like skyrim is a better sandbox like you can just get lost in it and just wander around and do whatever you want and i'm not trying to diminish that because for a lot of people that is the ultimate escape but when we're talking like what's the best rpg of all time like mass effect 2 is just a better rpg in my opinion. Skyrim's a better

sandbox. It's a better game to just hang out in and do whatever you want, because you can't really just be aimless in Mass Effect 2. But as an RPG, I think Mass Effect 2 just takes a cake. You're Commander Shepard. Yeah, yeah. You're Alan Shepard. No, wrong Shepard whatever whatever you want to name your shepherd still space you can pick any first name you want you can play alan shepherd but yes all right so now we've got the michael matchup elder scrolls 4 versus everquest no why do i have to do this why do i have to do this nostalgia versus nostalgia story versus old games

not as much story um i mean the only story i remember really from everquest is the whole venril sathir vruna vai thing loxer in a case of ice that whole thing but really everquest was not known for its story which is funny because everquest the quest is in the name and it's not really a quest game. You don't really do a lot of questing. You do a lot of grouping and grinding and just leveling up and getting better swords. Yeah. I really have to, and it pains me because I'm happy that EverQuest made it as far as it did.

But Oblivion, it just takes the cake. Oblivion is just, it's, I just love the feeling you get. You know, hey, aren't you the one they call the hero of Kvatch? I literally walked around for like weeks saying that to people in the grocery store. They're like, you're crazy. And I'm like, but is at the end of that game, you truly feel triumphant that you've closed off the Septim line. You've helped Martin Septim become this dragon. In Skyrim, I just kind of felt like it was okay. It was an okay ending. But not EverQuest, sorry. Oblivion really is.

It's the reason I picked it first. It is my favorite RPG, and it still, I'm sad to see EverQu go goodbye everquest we'll miss you norath i do uh josh do you concur no are you gonna go with everquest i i mean as much as i love the elder scroll series morrowind oblivion skyrim i think they're groundbreaking i think they're amazing i love absolutely love what they have done to the genre it's just nostalgia i you know what you're you're probably right michael like i tried to get back into everquest and maybe it was because i was doing the project 99 and i couldn't it wouldn't

like i was playing on a tiny little like six inch by six inch box because it wouldn't scale to my monitor and and and i remember like you have to type to hail characters and stuff like that. Like you have to go back. Yeah. Like you have to forget everything you've learned in video gaming in the past, like,

you know, 15 years. And that's hard to do. Whereas I could probably very easily just pop, you know, pop into oblivion, start playing and it's not an issue. I think it's more nostalgia that's swaying me,

so I'll agree with Michael on this one that it's... I don't know. It's hard for me. Josh, just come back to EverQuest. Join me on the server's called Mischief. It's the progression server. My character's name is Gloratory Cacciatore, which literally means hunter-healer, because I'm a cleric. I know it's ridiculous.

I just picked ridiculous things. But anyways, if you guys see me in-game, come hail me. I won't dispute it. You can come find Father Paul in WoW Classic. I no longer have a son there. Don't expect me to heal you. That's not what I do. Right.

He's awful. All right. Well, we've made it to the finals we all have a game uh unsurprisingly it's all of our first round picks so all of the heavy hitters made it even though we had a few upsets in the middle rounds we've got the witcher 3 versus mass effect 2 versus the elder scrolls 4 uh let's just break these down and i don't think there's really much left to talk about but let's just do all of these three games head-to-head against each other and we'll see who wins the most matchups if we had to vote witcher 3 versus mass effect 2 what are you guys voting for witcher 3 i'm'm voting Witcher 3. Okay.

I'm going to vote Mass Effect 2. This is where I get to have my cake and eat it too. But I'll go ahead and copy over Witcher 3 because of your guys' votes. What about Witcher 3 versus Elder Scrolls 4? Elder Scrolls 4, Oblivion. Witcher 3. I got to go to Witcher 3 for sure. No, you don't have to. I mean, you can talk about how epic that game is.

It's very epic. I love it. I loved Oblivion. I loved my accidental vampire that I ended up with in Oblivion, but I gotta go Witcher 3, which means technically this is already over, but let's go ahead and just do the last matchup. Mass Effect 2 versus Elder Scrolls 4. Elder Scrolls 4 elder scrolls 4 oblivion

poor michael mass effect 2 so technically our winner of the best rpg is the witcher 3 lucky for you josh i just played this game because if i did not do that last month, it would not have made it very far. I can say with full confidence that the game that should have won the best RPG of all time won the best RPG of all time. You know, as much as I want to stick to my picks, I think you're right. The Witcher 3 is second to none. It's incredible. The feeling you get from that game is incredible you truly are just an absolute anti-hero hero just like you love you know you can do good things you can do bad things um but uh it's just it's just an amazing feeling being Geralt of Rivia period it really is and I I worry a little bit if Oblivion had won somehow as much as I think it's a great game,

I think we would have caught some flack for, you know. I'm happy it made it as far as it did. It did. It was unique and it was original, but honestly, I stuck to it pretty hard. But The Witcher 3 really deserves the crown, even over EverQuest, which... That one hurts me.

And I don't know why that hurts me so much, man. We've got to talk after the show, Butler, because I really... There's a part of me've got to talk after the show, Butler, because I really – there's a part of me that wants to get back into EverQuest. I don't know that I can, but I want to. And then I'll boot it up, and then I'll just go like – a part of my brain will scream and go, no! What are you doing?

It does scale to regular-sized monitors now, even ultrawides. Yeah, it's all in there. I'll try it. I really just wanted Josh to go go get like a 14 inch crt monitor and like hook it up and play ever that would have been like this is what i remember he needs a sony fd trinitron on his amd duron 2 1.2 gigahertz dual processor which is what i played it on originally there we go i read a funny thing that said that everquest and world of warcraft are responsible for more divorces than any other video game.

Oh, I bet. 100%. Oh, yeah. So, funny story. When I was working, I was working at an electronics store back in the day. And there was a guy who worked there. And his wife said, you need to spend more time with your kids. You're playing that video game too much. I'm going to leave you if you don't spend more time with your kids. He got his kids to play EverQuest and his wife left it.

It's terrible, but that's the way the world was. That game was brutal. Oh, how funny. Yeah, well, yeah, funny and sad, right? Ripping families apart. Well, I was waiting for him to say he picked the game over his kids, and I was going to go, yo, I didn't have kids when I was playing it. I mean, he tried.

That's a smart move. His kids are probably loving it, man. They're probably going, dad, remember when we used to play EverQuest together? True story, this was my fault. No, not true story. And that's how I started playing EverQuest. That's why he built me that computer well i think it was a lot of fun doing this draft and tournament i'm so glad that we had

representatives from mass effect elder scrolls and the witcher in the finals dragon age i think could have plugged in there if we maybe had like a fourth spot in the finals but you know apologies to all the fallout fans i and borderlands i feel like those are the two series that agreed maybe got the short end of the stick just a little bit uh we want to say thank you once again to razor thank you to all of our supporters on patreon and through apple podcasts we will be back with our next 30 minute episode for this week in gaming on thursday and i don't know about you guys but i'm gonna go take a bath with lilac and gooseberries, and I'm going to go just enjoy this victory.

Just stay away from the unicorns, Paul. Ride off on your horse. What was that horse's name again? Roach. Geralt's horse? Roach. Ride off on Roach. I know.

I couldn't think of it. I kept thinking bug, but it's not correct. But that was not a specific horse, because Geralt says he's always named all of his horses Roach. So whatever horse he's riding is now called Roach, which I love. I love it. Paul did say that we'd be back whenever we're back again. I won't be here, but it was absolutely a blast hanging out with you guys. Thanks for having me, man. It was very awesome to have you on, man. This nasally voice is signing out. Yes, it was such a blast to have you on, man. This nasally voice is signing out.

Yes, it was such a blast to have you on the show. We're so excited that you're moving back here to Arizona. And for all of you listeners out there, thanks for spending this last 90 minutes with us. This might be our longest episode. I think it is. And we will see all of you guys on Thursday. Happy gaming.

All right. See you you everybody.