Video Gamers Podcast - [Bonus Round] Most Anticipated Games of 2024 - Video Games Podcast

Episode Date: January 1, 2024

The Video Gamers Podcast is back and video game hosts Paul, Josh and Ryan are breaking down our most anticipated video games of 2024! We’ve a lot to look forward to from gaming in 2024 and we let you know what games we’re excited about, as well as what games should be on your radar! Thanks to our LEGENDARY Supporters: Redletter, Gaius214, Nate, Kiitaclyzm, YayaArizona Morgau and Disratory Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Samsung Galaxy. Ever captured a great night video only for it to be ruined by that one noisy talker? With Audio Erase on the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, you can reduce or remove unwanted noise and relive your favorite moments without the distractions. And that's not all. New Galaxy AI features like NowBrief will give you personalized insights based on your day schedule so that you're prepared no matter what. Buy the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra now at Samsung.com. Hello fellow gamers! Welcome to 2024. We're back from our two-week Christmas break. We're

very excited to have new episodes for you all once again. After an absolutely massive 2023, we're here to talk about what has us excited about 2024. I am your host, Paul. I am joined by my two brothers in gaming. And hey, I get to recycle and repeat one of my jokes from last year. Joining me, his most anticipated game is skull and bones and he has his money on it for winning game of the year. It's Josh. You crazy Paul.

Oh, I really hope this game gets delayed to 2025 and I just get to make it once again. Every year. How many years we're going on three or four years straight with this joke now. Yeah. This one's been brought up a lot. It's coming out, Paul.

It's coming out. It's just going to suck. But yeah, I think it's fair to say not one of our most anticipated. Just in case the sarcasm wasn't obvious. All right. And then joining Josh and me, he is most excited in a 47-way tie for every single multiplayer game coming out this year. It's Ryan.

Give them all to me. I will play with anybody whenever if it's multiplayer. Any game, any time. Except for Remnant 2, just one of the best games of 2023. It's fine, Ryan. I'm calling your bluff. Dang it. Oh, we have tried to stiff-arm Ryan into playing that so hard and it has not worked

all right well before we start our actual episode we do have a touch of housekeeping housekeeping you want towels need sleepy we would really like to ask for everyone out there listening to just stop for one second go leave a five-star rating on spotify and in apple podcasts if you haven't already done so please do that ratings help it's a huge part of getting our show out there and we would really appreciate the help just takes a couple of clicks and also we owe a couple of shout outs for new patreon supporters oh yeah it's been a couple weeks so we do have a couple people to thank uh we do rely on listener support to stay running. People can sign up for five bucks a month.

In return, you get a shout-out on the show. You'll get bonus episodes called the Squadcast, Discord perks, all kinds of stuff. You can sign up at MultiplayerSquad.com. Here, over the last couple weeks, we want to give a very special thank you to Sabution, who signed up with Rare

Status. We also want to thank Patreon user Wurtzleg uh who is also in discord as brown ncsu love that diablo 2 reference they signed up with rare status and disretory signed up with legendary status so thank you so much to the three of you guys man i'll tell you what the listener support has been incredible. The podcast is growing. I mean, we are climbing the charts, dude. I can't begin to tell you how pumped I am for this year. But the only reason that all this is happening is because of the people that support the show. There is a lot of expense with buying these games, reviewing these games, hosting fees,

the website, just there's a lot that goes into it. And honestly, if you are listening right now, just in your head, say a thank you to everybody that supports the show because it really is the reason that we are still doing this after so many years. And if you want to support the show, like Paul said, it means the world to us.

You'll get a shout out, you get early access, you get ad free, all that good stuff too. But again, head on over to MultiplayerSquad.com because you can help bring joy to the world. Put a tear in my eye, man. That was beautiful. Nice Christmas lyric reference. All right.

And then Josh, why don't you tell the people since Distratory went legendary, they get a extra special perk. There is an extra special perk for the people that support the show in the legendary tier. You get to hijack a host. We do these Force of Friend episodes where we get to pick another host and make them play a game of our choosing. But if you go legendary, you get to hijack that episode. You get to pick the game. You get to pick the host. They are a ton of fun. We absolutely love it because we have played games that honestly, we probably never would have played before. It's always great to get different takes on things

like that. It's super fun. We keep it hidden from each other. So when it's time to do those episodes, people have no idea who's getting picked. They have no idea which game is getting picked. It's all real. It happens live. It's fantastic. But yeah, if you want that perk, again, it's the legendary tier. It is a ton of fun. Everybody that's listening just loves when that happens. It's great. Maybe sometime next year, Paul, you'll get to do your Force of Friend. Oh, I know. We've been waiting for such a long time. Paul's been waiting for his pick for legitimately, I think, like four or five months now. Since we did the Witness episode, that's how far back.

It's one of those good problems, right? People sign up Legendary. They get excited to pick games. Fun fact, next Monday, you'll get to hear the announcement of what game my mom chose for one of us to play. So make sure to check that one out here next week. because sometimes we're right, sometimes we're wrong, and it's just fun to go back and see. I even said in that episode, let's make some predictions. That way we can go back and laugh at ourselves for how dumb we were.

I love it. I love it. Oh, I don't even remember what I picked, man. So it's like part of me is a little nervous because I'm like, am I going to look like an idiot now or what? Well, for better or for worse, Ryan was not yet on the pod. So Ryan, you don't have any predictions for us to talk about well unless we bring up your red first episode

so for game of the year josh you predicted diablo 4 as did our third co-host at the time michael i selected tears of the kingdom all, so we were all wrong. I guess Tears of the Kingdom was at least nominated and Diablo 4, solid pick. I don't think any of those were terrible. Biggest letdown, Josh, you predicted Atomic Heart, which was really funny because you and I were so like

it's going to be the greatest game or it's going to be the worst game. We didn't think it would be anywhere in the middle. Michael picked Skull and Bones, which has not yet released. Although still probably accurate. Yeah. worst game we didn't think it would be anywhere in the middle um michael picked skull and bones which has not yet released although still probably accurate yeah yeah still accurate oh for sure yeah and i picked the day before so i think we crushed that category that's not bad yeah i think it's fair to say even if you think atomic heart was good it still was a bit of a letdown and then biggest surprise hit i thought

this was kind of funny michael selected another game that did not release suicide squad killed the justice league josh you selected remnant 2 which i think was a surprise hit dude i nailed that one and i picked lies of p oh i think another great which was a surprise wow yeah love that game man sold over 3 million copies. It's almost like you guys know what you're doing. A little bit. Sometimes. I think in this one case, we kind of crushed it, Josh.

Yeah. Wow, that's really good. Man, I've been playing so much Remnant 2 lately, it's ridiculous, man. That one felt good to call and then have it be even better than I was hoping for. Yeah. So we knew at the time we said 2023 is going to be one of the all-time best years. We knew that in advance. We hyped up so many games, but looking at 2024, I don't know if you guys feel the same or different.

I'm a little nervous about this year going forward. We do not have anything similar to the hype of Starfield, Diablo 4, Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3. Those are all games that were very hyped going into the year. Undoubtedly, there are going to be surprise hits along the way, but I don't really know that we have those heavy hitters for anticipation. Do you guys kind of feel the same way? I do. It's funny because people are already calling 2024 the year of the backlog. I mean, which is funny because, I mean, we've said it all year, but 2023 will go down as one of the best years in gaming ever. I mean, it's going to rank up there for sure. And then now

that it's over, everybody kind of goes, well, what now? And we're going to talk. I mean, that's what this episode is. We are going to talk about our most anticipated games for 2024 because there is a list for sure. I mean, I'm looking at this list and I'll be honest, every single one of these games I am hyped for, but it's just different, man. There are no projected like mega blockbuster games like Starfield, Baldur's Gate 3, Tears of the Kingdom. I mean, we went into 2023 knowing this. We're going into 2024 a lot more unsure as to what is the game of the year going to be? What is the surprise hit going to be? And so it's funny to see that kind of be out there in the world where

people are like, I'm just going to play my backlog of games this year because there's nothing really on the horizon. Now, I personally think we're going to have a lot of really good surprises in 2024, but I get it. And I kind of laugh at that. Well, at least I'll be able to catch up on some of these older games. At least three quarters of the game. Because we all know you don't finish. Well, exactly. But at least I'll get to play some of those finally. Yeah, I think a lot of people... I was just going to say, I picked a good year to join a video game podcast.

You did. That's right. You did. Now Ryan's going to be like, what happened, guys? The magic's worn off. And we're like, no, it's just 2024. It was like every week, we got this coming, we got this coming, we got this coming. We got to play it. We got to play it we got to play it i'm like oh my goodness but uh yeah like you said backlogs

this year will be uh catching up on maybe some remnant too oh yeah it might be one of those years where most people are playing games that actually released the year before all right so what we're going to do here is we each made a list of our five most anticipated games for the upcoming year. Normally, we don't share these lists in advance. Today, we did just to make sure that we have a wide array to talk about. So these are going to be 15 games that you guys can have on your radar. Some of these you've probably already heard of. Some of them you may not have.

We're just going to go around and share what we picked, spend a minute or two talking about it, and then move on. Ryan, let's go ahead and start with you. What do you have here as your most anticipated game of the upcoming year? Most anticipated? I am a Star Wars nerd. Yeah, so not an Ubisoft nerd,

but a Star Wars nerd. Yeah, but Star Wars Outlaws, I am very excited for. You know how I am with trailers and music and cinematics and all of that stuff. It just looks like it's something, if they can do it right and get that environment and that world and make it to where those missions don't get repetitive And it's not like you're just doing the same thing over and over. I think it'll, I think it'll be a banger. One of the few, maybe,

you know, this, this year. I love the idea of playing as a scoundrel because normally when you play star Wars, you're always a Jedi or maybe like a storm trooper. So this time playing as a scoundrel, trying to pull off a heist,

I think is a really cool idea. And they also have shown us footage that we all thought looked great i love the idea of having stealth and action all put together is there anything in particular you feel like they have to get right in this game in order for it to be a real success well one if you're able to look at the birds, because I hear in Star Wars games, you can't not crash the game. Star Wars Jedi Survivor. So performance, obviously, is a big thing. If they can fine-tune it to where it's going to run smoothly.

And I mean, just the lore of Star Wars, the world, everyone can always get sucked in. If you like it, typically, you'll like these types of games. And like we said, being the scoundrel, one of my favorite Star Wars was an old school on, i think it was ps2 those bounty hunter i love i love being a bounty hunter you know i like going kind of a little off the the good side and um so yeah i think if they just make it to where it's engaging and it runs well i think it's gonna i think it's engaging and it runs well, I think it's going to perform well in sales. And then maybe, you know, who knows? Yeah, I remember seeing the very first trailer for this game,

and they were showing the main protagonist kind of ducking behind cover and pew-pewing people. And I remember thinking like, yeah, okay. I mean, I love Star Wars, but it didn't really stand out to me. But then they did the extended gameplay trailer and that's where they showed them riding their speeder bike and going into a cantina. And they kind of started showing more of the world and the game and all of the different things that you can do in it.

And for me, that's where that really clicked because I didn't just want a cover shooter with a Star Wars skin on it. I wanted that. I want to live in this world. I want to experience all of these different aspects. And when they started to show the extended gameplay, to me, it at least looked like they nailed that part of it. You are in this universe. You are doing a myriad of different things. They said it's not going to be some huge open world, which I think we are all fans of at this point. Give me that finely crafted experience. Give me the good story. Give me a character that I care about. And I mean, you're in an IP that I absolutely adore. So I am very hyped for this one as well, Ryan. I'm with you. I hope that they just kind of nail that. Let me feel like I'm living in this world like don't just shoehorn me

into a cover shooter with blasters because that's not really what i'm looking for i want to feel like i'm in that star wars universe well being ubisoft i can't wait to climb all the towers and mark all the points of interest uh i will say that this game is developed by massive entertainment who did the division one and, which is a great sign. But they also did Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, which was pretty mid. So hopefully they had their top brass working on this one. Maybe they had their more talented team working on this. All right. There's no release date yet, but we do know it's scheduled for 2024 release. All right, Josh, let's move on to you. What's one of your most anticipated? I just want to say too, because just in case we glossed over

this a little bit in the beginning of the show, we are trying to cover the top 15 games. So while we all have a list, what we did is like, I know we have a lot of overlap in our lists that we started off with. And then we said, Hey, let's try to have a wider variety of games just to kind of put on people's radars. I will say with that said, my number one most anticipated game for 2024 that I don't think you guys are nearly as hyped for as I am is Black Myth Wukong. Dude, I have been ever since the very first trailer for this game came out, I was blown away and I legitimately thought this can't be real because the trailer looks so good that I was like, this is not, you know, this is not going to be the game. This is going to be one of those stupid mobile games where like it looks really good, but

then you download the game and it's Candy Crush, you know, or something like that. But boy, I'll tell you what, we got a glimpse of a new trailer during Gamescom. You know, if you look up Black Myth Wukong, I don't know if it's the animation style. I don't know if it's the realism. I don't know if it's the speed of combat. I don't know if it's the Asian inspired mythology. But dude, I feel like there was a group of developers that just said, let's make a game for Josh. Josh is great. We love the podcast. We're going to make a game just for him. And that is Black Myth Wukong to me. I mean, I love every single second of gameplay that I've seen about this game. It is going to be an over-the-top action combat souls-like game

with that Asian mythology flair. The boss fights look absolutely incredible. I mean, I don't know what more I can say about this. You've got to watch a trailer or two for this game because you're going to do the same thing. You're going to be like,

is this real? Like how does this game look so good? How does it look so fluid? Is the combat really going to be that good? And my answer to all that, because I'm being optimistic about this is yes. is the combat really going to be that good and my answer all that because i'm being optimistic about this is yes yes it's gonna be great josh hyped for an asian souls like i never would have guessed by the way spoiler alert josh is really repping the the the asian soul likes today this is not the last time you're gonna hear one on his list three out

of the five are very asian neither of you are like, I don't, Paul, I get the feeling you probably won't even pick this game up. And then Ryan doesn't have a ton of experience with Soulslikes. Well, so here's the thing. I wrote down two notes, one positive, one negative. All right. I will say, I love the fact that this is drawing from Chinese mythology. It's based on a Chinese novel called Journey to the West. The main character is the Monkey King. I think all that stuff looks cool. I thought all the audio sounded really, really good and really well done. On the slightly negative side, and I'm not saying this as a negative comment per se but when i see these asian souls likes the combat

looks exactly the same in all of them like i feel like mugatu and zoolander where like it's all one look and i'm like i feel like i'm taking crazy pills like doesn't anyone notice this i feel like i'm taking crazy pills that's my one thing i think the story in this is drawing me far more than most souls like games this one seems to have more of a focus on story than we're used to that part i'm very drawn to but combat to me just looks like i've seen this game 100 times elsewhere that that's the only thing for me that's kind of holding me back for being too anticipated i get that roll roll roll roll dodge dodge yeah a lot of dodging i still know what you're missing man those spam dodge rolls are legit uh yeah what about you ryan is this one that that you're hyped about um most of the souls like

games like you said aside from the combat alone too too, they just all looked the same to me. It was just the same game with a different name over and over. But I do like, like you guys said, the Asian inspiration to it and the fact that it comes from that story. I was a big fan of Ghost of Tsushima. Loved that game. I love all the culture of asia eastern asia and stuff like that so um this may be a little venture into the soul's world for me you know once it comes out so i know josh i'm gonna take much to get me hyped up so

it definitely feels like a game will probably deep dive i'm sure i sure hope so i don't i mean i'm deep diving this on my own time, if nothing else. Fair enough. All right. The first one I have here on my list is a game that's coming out in just a couple months, which is kind of nice. I want to bring up Dragon's Dogma 2. So for anyone out there who may not recognize the name, it's a third person action RPG. It's in a fantasy setting. There's this whole story about a power struggle for the throne. We kind of trolled a trailer that came out back in September. If you remember, this is the one where they were defining what an archer is. Yes. Like they were giving us like a 101 lesson where they're like an archer fires arrows from distance at their enemies. And we're like, yeah, we know what an archer is. Let let's just see gameplay the one thing i'll say is that as more and more footage has come out which we've not talked about

on the show they have released a lot of updates the enemies are looking crazier and crazier there's like massive walking statues that kind of remind me from like the original god of war trilogy days there's like minotaur like creatures spectral beings that stuff looks awesome i know the one thing that we all really did feel hyped about was how there's a lot of footage of you like jumping on the back of a boss as like a rogue and climbing your way up there and attacking it i think that stuff all looks really awesome my one worry was that it just looked a little too traditional at first i was like okay you can play as a fighter or an archer like these are very vanilla classes but they have shown that there are newer things like the trickster yeah where

i don't know if you guys have seen it you run around with a sensor that has like burning incense and you're like swinging it around and you can like create illusions and support the rest of your team because you run around as a group of four in the game uh so i think this one looks really fun i love that there's no loading screens while exploring and this one's set for release on march 22nd and i feel like this one's on a lot of people's list for most anticipated have have either of you played Dragon's Dogma, Dark Arisa? I think that's the first one. This is crazy to me because this game got a good bit of hype. And Dragon's Dogma 2, the trailer only released a few months ago. I mean, we knew nothing about it until all of a sudden they announced it and it was like, whoa. And I am

very excited for this one. I don't know that I'll play the first one before this comes out, but this does look like a complete action RPG. The world is set, the fighting and the characters and the graphics and all that stuff look top-notch. This is going to be an epic RPG. People are very, very excited for this one. I think I would be more excited if I knew a little bit more about the series or maybe I had played the first one, but this literally checks every box. Gigantic boss fights where you're climbing up a creature, a la God of War, classes, RPG elements, a very fleshed out world with some kind of you know in-depth story about trying to take over the throne or whatever you know i mean i just unless it's janky or is just boring as anything which i don't think it's going to be i don't see a world where this game is not

really really good yeah yeah i think it's something that is uh as long as they they make it to where like you said those characters aren't boring and then from what i saw like the action and the gameplay looks awesome so i think especially uh are you able to team up as a multiplayer or is it just no it's a single player that's okay that's what i thought but that has me a little nervous because you run around with your three ai controlled teammates are you guys a fan of that i don't know that i'm not normal to be honest i it's like it's weird to me because it's almost distracting and it's like i think i'd almost rather just be the hero in the game and like instead of having companions in it they're all like you know sometimes that's distracting it's just weird because I think that, but then there's games that have done it really,

really well. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy game had that where you could just instantly swap between the characters and issue commands and stuff like that. We've seen it with Dragon Age, a ton where you don't need to control all of your companions and stuff. So I know it can work. It just kind of gives me pause. And I don't know why my brain just goes to, well, just let me be the guy. So I think it'll be okay, but it's just one of those weird little things that just doesn't click for me right away.

What are you doing? Get over here. No, use this weapon. Come on. Why are you not healing me? And then I'm screaming at bots. It might be one of those games where you go into like a tactics menu

where there's like a million if- then statements that you can manually add. And when I see that in games, I always feel a little overwhelmed. That feels like too much work at that point. Yeah. So if they can nail that aspect, I'm very confident in this one. If there is a path for this game going wrong, I think that's where it'll get screwed up is with the AI teammates. All right, well, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break and we'll be right back.

Behold, my name is Maximus Intertanius and I come to you with big stars in big dramas like Gladiator 2, Dexter, Original Sin, and 1923. Stream Paramount Plus for for 6.99 a month all right guys continuing our list here ryan we're back to you what's your next one we are back we are back um i am gonna go with a game that's been uh highly anticipated what's supposed to don't you say it every time somebody brings this game up it gets delayed again ryan hopefully the curse is broken because i am a huge metroidvania guy and i want me some

hollow knight hollow knight silk song and it's been delayed another month thanks to you right sorry sorry everybody no josh it hasn't been delayed it doesn't exist that's the running joke is that it doesn't exist they made like 10 minutes of it for people to see and then that's it no i think um i absolutely loved uh hollow knight it's one of one of my favorites in metroidvania genre um and in silk song just looks like it takes that and compounds on it and just makes it even better. The environment is amazing. The exploration. I love achieving different things and getting to go to these new areas that you couldn't get to before.

And then you just have a couple more hours of content. You have all this extra exploration and battles and fights you can do. And speaking of battles, I love the combat. I love the quick twitchy jumping actions and then you know you get hit sometimes it takes a lot of damage to you so um i am highly anticipating this one and i really really hope it comes out it does look like it's going to release in 2024 it was supposed to be 2023 and then it just kind of went yeah it's not ready yet i do remember the developers saying hey we're going to release in 2024. It was supposed to be 2023. And then it just kind of went, yeah, it's not ready yet. I do remember the developer saying, hey, we're going to show off a little bit, but we are working on this and we want this game to be right. We are not going to release it until we feel like it's the game we want it to be. I am not nearly as big on

Metroidvanias as you guys are. I know it's one of Paul's favorite genres. I know, Ryan, you love Hollow Knight and some of those. I would say I'm the least into that genre, but I'll tell you what, man, I loved Hollow Knight. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's the atmosphere, just how good the controls were, the soundtrack or what, but I am super pumped for Silksong. I will pick it up day one, even though this isn't really my genre. This is one of those ones that I've been like, I can't wait for this game to come out because I feel like it's going to be even better than Hollow Knight was. And that really excites me. I love knowing that they are perfecting this game and that they won't release it until they feel like it's 100% ready as well because that's what this I mean that's what this series deserves I guess it's not really series now but

it will be you know but yeah I love the passion in theory it'll be a series yeah so Hollow Knight I enjoyed the problem with Metroidvanias and for our listeners who don't know, Ryan is my wife's cousin. And my wife and I started dating in high school. So Ryan and I spent an inordinate amount of time playing Castlevania Symphony of the Night. Mankind ill needs a savior such as you. What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets. But enough talk. Have at you.

And that is one of my all-time favorite games. That game has practically ruined Metroidvanias for me because it is so good. No other game can live up to it. But with that being said, Hollow Knight is my second favorite Metroidvania. So if there's one that's going to get me hyped, this is the one. Hollow Knight just works really well. The combat is so fluid. It's fun. It's an interesting atmosphere. I love the different biomes. I like it far more than the Ori games. I didn't play the Metroid one, but I know you enjoyed that one, Josh. So yeah, I think Hollow Knight, Silksong's a solid pick. I think lots of people, I think anyone who played the first one is excited about the second. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Josh, let's move on. What's your next pick? I'm realizing my list is a lot different than you guys. And I know that neither one of you is

probably going to be hyped for this one, but I have mentioned this on the show many a time. This game is the one on my list that's like an early access release um it does not look like it's going to fully release in 2024 but because i've been so hyped for it i'm bringing it up anyway and that is a game by the name of hyper light breaker um this is pretty much my perfect type of roguelike game. We went through a phase very recently where we all got into Risk of Rain 2 again, played the heck out of it for about a week or two. I just love that game.

And this looks like that, but better in my opinion. It's Risk of Rain 2 on crack. Yeah, I mean, legitimately, that's the way my brain looks at it is when I see Hyper Light Breaker, I just go Risk of Rain 2, but better. And then I just get all warm and fuzzy inside. You know, you have various classes that you can be.

It's like an open world, which sounds really weird for a roguelike game because it's like, how do you make an open world? But, you know, they give you like surfboards or hoverboards that you can move around on. So it looks like they've addressed movement. I've seen some crazy, crazy boss fights. The art style is great. I've watched so many trailers on this game. It just looks like it checks every box for me for what I want out of a co-op roguelike experience.

I know it's not done. It is, they have confirmed that it is releasing an early access in 2024. And the videos that I've seen show this is not... I don't think that this is going to be one of those broken, very, very bare bones early access releases. This looks like we're feeling pretty good about this game overall. We feel like it's about 70% complete and we just want to make sure we have everything good to go. So we're going to call it early access, but you guys are going to have a pretty complete game to play. That's the vibe that I get from this.

I just need to talk you to into playing it with me, Ryan. I don't think will be a problem, but I've brought this game up probably three or four times over the last year and how excited I am for this. And it's like, I know Paul's just kind of gone like, yeah, I don't know. But with our recent foray into Risk of Rain 2 again, I'm hoping that that kind of gets you guys more hyped for this because I think it's going to be an absolute blast of a co-op experience with friends.

Well, here's the thing, Josh. when you're in the middle of playing super mario bros wonder and balder skate 3 and alan wake 2 and you see a trailer for hyper lightbreaker you're like all right yeah it's fine uh now that i'm looking at 2024 josh this is one of the better looking games in the upcoming years so it has it's bumped by default it gets bumped by default yeah yeah all right i'll take it. I'm not complaining, man. Beggars can't be choosers. So if Paul's on board, I'll take it.

No, and props to Josh for not picking this massive AAA title. I mean, I think this game looks like a lot of fun. It looks the most similar comp as Risk of Rain 2. I think if you like that game, that'll translate to this one. I did think it was weird that they went out of their way to keep telling people that there's no story, there's no storytelling, there's no language, you're not going to have any kind of storyline. And you hear that in a lot of their videos, and that's fine. Risk of Rain 2 doesn't have a story that I'm aware of. So I don't know why they went out of their way. Give me that sweet gameplay with friends, man. Yeah.

When you play a game like that, it's just solely based on gameplay. So yeah, I'm all for it. I never played Hyper Light Drifter, by the way. I know a couple people have asked me, oh, is that because you liked Hyper Light Drifter? And I go, I never played that game. This is a completely different. This is a 3D kind of, I don't want to call it a fighter game. You know what I mean? But it's not Hyper Light Drifter. I'd never played that. Knowing me, I probably't want to call it a fighter game, you know what I mean?

But it's not Hyper Light Drifter. I'd never played that. Knowing me, I probably won't ever play it. But I know from what I've seen with Hyper Light Breaker, it gets me very hyped. I'm just... What you described as far as the comparability to Risk of Rain 2, with the mobility to have gliders, that was the one thing

I know I'm kind of making my dive into these roguelikes, that Endless Dungeon, Risk of Rain. I'm having a lot of fun. One thing I hated on Risk of Rain is if we couldn't find the portal and we're just running around all slow through the whole map. I wasn't a big fan of that part. So if they can do something with that to give you a little bit more mobility through the map, I'm all for it. We've had some funny runs in Risk of Rain 2, especially if you start stacking certain mobility abilities. I had one where I was bunny hopping everywhere

with Josh and Ace of Shame, and my guy was flying forward like 100 meters. It was so funny how fast I could just jump around. But I hear you, Ryan. It would be nice if there was some built-in mobility for everyone. All right, moving on to my next pick here. I think this is a safe pick for the game There was some built-in mobility for everyone. All right, moving on to my next pick here. I think this is a safe pick for the game.

I think we're going to have the most fun with in the upcoming year. Hell Divers 2. Yeah, this one. Dude, this is the very- You stole one of my most anticipated, Paul, because this is, man. But this game gets me jacked, man. And it's coming out in a month, buddy. It's not far off. This is the very first game that I

wrote down. I said, most anticipated Helldivers 2 is right at the top of my list. It's a co-op third-person shooter. You get to fight massive bugs, robots, all kinds of crazy mobs, and you get to party up. So we're all going to be able to play this one together. And it has full friendly fire for better or worse. I hear the yelling already. It's going to be a to play this one together and it has full friendly fire for better or worse i hear i hear i hear the yelling already it's gonna be a lot of fun oh man shooting me dude yeah held iris i'm sorry ryan i didn't know that was you i thought it was a robot i have watched so many videos on this game dude third i don't know why but i am in this massive co-op third-person shooter kick right now. Maybe it's because of how much we loved Outriders when it came out. Maybe it's because

of how much I loved Remnant 2, and I've still been playing that. I went on this kick this morning about like, hey, man, Aliens Fireteam Elite's only $9, and that's a third-person shooter. Like, try and put out feelers if anybody was interested in that. Yeah, I didn't get much response on that one. But I feel like this is one of my absolute favorite genres because it's just pure stupid fun with friends. I love the chaos. I love the pacing. I love the co-op nature.

Helldivers 2, if you have not watched a trailer for this game, you have got to watch a couple trailers for this because it looks incredibly fun to me. Is this going to be game of the year? No. Is this going to be one of the most fun games that I think we are going to play together this year? Absolutely. I would rank it near the top going like beforehand to just say, I think this game is going to be pure fun and chaos and laughter with, you know, oops, accidentally killing Ryan. They show some of that gameplay where it's like you can call down like this nuke strike and it's like, dude just gets obliterated. And it's like, I had to sacrifice you to kill that boss. Sorry, guys.

So, yeah, i this game is literally at the top of my list this and black myth wukong were one and two for me as far as most anticipated fantastic pick paul yeah it's gonna be an absolute blast i mean you've seen the gameplay footage flamethrowers rocket launchers centuries you get to plop down that fight alongside you. I mean, giant boss fights. Dude, bigs, bigs bugs. What's not to love? This is all the kind of stuff we love from a multiplayer game.

It's been in development since 2016, so they've put a lot of time and effort into this one. This is not like the day before where they created a company two years ago and try to push out a game that's DOA. This one is scheduled for release on February 8th, so it's not very far out. I think it might be the most fun we've had as a group since Outriders, at least that's my hope. People love the first one, and I've got a lot of hype here for the second.

So I literally, as we are recording this this just put in for my time off on february 8th and 9th so okay it's been a while since we've had a game delay because of your request for time off i'm rolling the dice boys shout shout back to uh cyberpunk so many time off requests well that game's getting delayed yeah all right ryan let's come back to you what's your next one um i am gonna go with something that you and i played together and we had a lot of fun with me we did one of us got left out of that by our boss with yeah defiant baby um first person shooter cruising around gives me a lot of uh it's real kind of tight structure. I liked the gameplay a lot.

I think it was a la, you know, modern warfare two kind of, but with a lot of these cool tech upgrades, you can, uh, see through walls. You can, like I said, we have the spider bots that they go out and seek other enemies. Um, it was just a game that again kind of like uh hell divers is just dumb fun we were just laughing and throwing up shields and running around we quickly realized that we uh were not as good as we used to be at first person shooters very sure a little out of practice with that but we're old yeah exactly um sales boys whatever yeah it's that's one that i'm pretty excited for yeah this this is like just ubisoft's take on call of duty but i think what sets it apart because to me call of duty can get a little

boring because it just comes down to clicking on heads and i get that some people really love that to me that can sometimes feel too monotonous so the whole idea of saying hey let's make call of duty but you get to add an extra ability and it's almost like a like a magical ability if you will whether it's throwing out robotic spiders that jump on their faces like face huggers and alien or putting down those shields i feel like it lets you be a little bit more strategic and not because call of duty doesn't really feel like a team game you're all just kind of playing a game next to each other. X Defiant to me felt more like a team effort, and I'm very hyped for that one.

We said for a long time, like the finals, X Defiant, just get these games out. The finals is out. Josh loves that one a little bit more than I do. X Defiant, I'm a little more hyped about. The more multiplayer games, the better, right? Let's at least have a few to choose from. We don't know when it'll come out exactly, but it should be relatively soon. Yeah, I think it'll be first quarter, maybe second quarter of 2024. They have

delayed it a few times. I mean, it was getting real close to release. And then they kind of said, you know what? We're not quite there yet. We're discovering a few issues that we really want to polish and fix. What I love, like release it when it's ready. Put your best game out there because you only get that one chance to make that first impression. We saw that with Halo Infinite, with the multiplayer. They put it out. People liked it, but we soon discovered there's just a lot missing from this. And I know that Halo Infinite has had a little bit of a resurgence lately, but I'd much rather them just hold off on the release of this until it is good to go. I will say I did not get to play with you guys.

I did play a lot solo. X-Defiant to me is way better than Call of Duty, in my opinion, because of what you talked about, Paul. I do not like the just kill-death ratio. I'm a guy playing by myself with a team somewhere around. I love the abilities. I love that they add a little bit of that tactical nature to the game. I am very hyped for this one as well. I like the fact that both of you are because I know that the second it releases, we're all going to be jumping into this and playing it. It's free to play, which is great. And as much as we troll Ubisoft, from the betas that you know that we have played this game looks legit I've got nothing bad to say about X Defiant because it was made by Ubisoft

like honestly this is one of the better free-to-play shooters that I've seen in a while they can make polished games it's the open world Ubisoft that we're just kind of sick of and this is not that formula this is a totally different product so being Ubisoft we we're just kind of sick of. And this is not that formula. This is a totally different product. So being Ubisoft, we're not going to hold that against them at all in this case. Yeah. All right. Well,

let's go ahead and take our last break and then we'll cover the rest of our list. All right, Josh, we are back to you back to me. Yeah. Well, you talked about my love of the Asian souls-like kind of games.

We covered this game on one of our This Week in Gaming episodes. One of the more bananas trailers that we saw, it's a game called Where Winds Meet. And man, the first- Weird name. Weird game. Yeah. You're summoning goats. A little weird all all around you're summoning goats to run people over you're hitting giant bells to scare bears away you're fighting with a baby in your your kimono or whatever it is like you know this just really caught us off guard we all kind of went what is this you know what is this game and then we all it of went, what is this? What is this game? And then it caught our attention.

I'll tell you what, man, there's a lot of actual trailers out there for this game. They showed off 12 minutes of actual in-game gameplay footage. I don't know what to think about this game. It's so bananas and over the top in some ways. And then it's like this super beautiful, peaceful, like Ghost of Tsushima type setting at other times. And then it's just like, what is this, man? Sometimes I get Jade Empire vibes, like the old Jade Empire game. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's like, I don't know what this game actually is, to be honest with you. All I know is that all of the gameplay footage that I have seen looks incredible.

It is a beautiful game. It is very over the top with a lot of its action. You're stealing a knife off of a table and then fleeing through a city, but you're jumping off rooftops and then you're freezing guys in time and then just like ninja assassinating them and stuff. You have these epic, beautiful showdown fights with like other guys. And I mean, then you're blowing up boats in a harbor

with like slow down action. I don't know, man. I love this one because it's more action forward. It's not a Souls-like. And this one speaks to me a little bit more because it's a little more out there. It's a little more mystical. There's shots where you take a sword and just jump in the air and start flying. And I'm like, all right, I could get on board with this.

There's scenes where you're doing parkour and running in the city, and the camera pans out and your character's running real fast. I love all that kind of stuff. It looks very cinematic. I feel like it has a really high ceiling. But at the same time, I would say this is also on the short list of games more likely to disappoint simply because when you make a really crazy game like that, it'll find its niche audience. And there's probably going to be other people who are like, it's a little too out there. It's not fine-tuned with combat or whatever it might be. But sign me up for this one as well. I'm very excited. It is Everstone Studios' first

game. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. If it's like a super passion project, maybe it's awesome. I don't know how experienced they are over there but i have this one on my list as well i'm very excited yeah i love i love the weird so uh yeah it's the weirder the better and i love games that give you that wow that that when you you know you blow up the ship or you do something crazy when you assassinated a guy and it just you just oh yeah and then you go to the next i've never seen that before yeah it's that kind of reaction yeah those weird things that just like what the what did i just do and oh man and you want to try to do it again or what else can i do so as long as it gets that and hits those marks i think i think i'll enjoy it the crazy thing that we've seen on this game too is amongst all of the insanely

flashy over-the-top stuff that they've showed off they also showed your character walking through a city and like talking to a vendor and like a chicken running around and like i i don't is it an rpg is it an action game like paul you kind of touched on it i'm a little worried because this game looks like it's trying to do about 20 different things yeah and so it's like if they nailed those 20 things this game is truly going to be incredible. But it also gives me a little bit of hesitation as in like, are five of these things really going to pan out? And then the other 15 are kind of like, maybe you shouldn't have tried to reach so far and just honed what you had. But you got to, again, I'm going to keep saying this because I mean, watch a trailer for it. It's so over the top.

It's so beautiful, too. It's on my list. I just, I really don't know what to expect from this game. I put it in that atomic heart category for how we felt leading up to that, where we saw footage and we're like, that's different. That's interesting. It's very weird. But then when the game came out, it's like, oh, the open world sucks. There's nothing to do in the open world. And the game was a little rinse and repeat, and there were only like six bosses. And then the game just

sort of ended. So that game was a little bit more of a disappointment for us, but it looked like it had all the potential in the world. And I think this kind of feels similarly in that regard. Yeah. All right. Next one here on my list and we still have a lot to cover maybe we should start uh making this go a little quicker avowed all right yes this this one i'm very hyped for basically long story short it's it's coming out by obsidian who i love they're one of my favorite developers and the closest comp is definitely skyrim i mean this is a fantasy setting, swords, weapons, magic. People have been saying this is like Obsidian's take if they were to make

Skyrim. Sign me up. Looks amazing. I love the graphics. You see all kinds of crazy monsters, like disease-plagued bears jumping on you, skeletons that you got to fight. You get to see some of the magic, like freezing enemies and shattering them. One leak also did say you can kill everything in this game. Like you could just run around, kill every single NPC. And I love when games let you do wacky stuff like that. So sign me up. I'm very hyped for Avowed.

You mean I'm not going to have to play Skyrim for my 27th run through if this is obsidian's take on skyrim and we know it's bigger than skyrim they've already said that yeah that gets me super hyped i mean i love fallout new vegas uh you know they also did the outer worlds i mean they've they've really knocked out some bangers i'm hoping that we can add this one to that list i'm with you bubs the the pedigree behind Avowed stands for a lot, in my opinion. When you watch the gameplay footage on this, that makes up the other part of my opinion because it looks really, really good. I love a good fantasy setting. I love good combat. I love just a fleshed out world. These are all

things that stand out to me in the gameplay footage that you see on this. It is a single player game. They did say initially that they were hoping to have it be co-op, but then they kind of scrapped that to just put their focus on the single player experience and all that, which not everything has to be co-op, to be honest with you. I'd much rather that better single experience if it actually means that this game is also near the top of my list because again it's obsidian it's everything we like they've shown off a bunch of different classes they've shown off like you know a magic user casting a fireball and you kind of like there's a cast time but then the payoff is huge they've shown off fighters and people were breaking down

some of the video and it's like it looks like at one point you see the sword glowing and it's like, well, is that a paladin's holy flame on the sword? So I think there's gonna be those really significant like RPG elements to this. And then obviously progression, which you guys know I love too. So this checks all the boxes and it looks like a modern game.

I mean, Skyrim, I know you can make it look modern with all the mods and stuff, but let's be honest. Skyrim is pretty old at this point. Yeah. So it gives me a current day Skyrim made by a studio that has a lot of trust. And,

and this one really jumps off the page to me. Yeah. I think this is one of the safer bets for being like a really solid game. If this one ends up being like a game of the year candidate, I wouldn be shocked at all all right ryan coming back to you what's next up um well people know some of my favorite games are those post-apocalyptic worlds um loved fallout loved last of us uh so i'm gonna go with one that i thought it really drew me in and i'm pretty excited for it stalker two hearts of chernobyl it's like your ukrainian accent i don't know what that was what do you mean that was good um i just it looked it looked gritty it looked immersive um i love the premise

where they're going through there There's these anomalies. The guy busts out his reader, and he's throwing stuff in to check and not get sucked into it and stuff. So they go into the zone where there's all, like I said, these anomalies, these void things, and they kind of got to navigate through there. And you're the stalker, and you have to go through and and accomplish these missions for these guys and you're you're going through these different areas that look it just looked so run down and so just dark and i just i thought it was something that hit the marks for me and something that i would genuinely enjoy so stalker 2 of course is the fourth in the series and uh i've never played any of them have you guys played any of these stock i have not i looked up some old trailers

and some old videos of gameplay on the old ones and stuff and and another thing i didn't mention too is there's these crazy creatures and monsters that can kind of blink in and out as you're battling them so there there's a lot of cool factors but yeah i haven't played the other ones i've just looked up some old gameplay stalker, they can't count, so I don't know if they can make games, but we'll find out. Stalker is one of those games that I just never played. It kind of got lost in that mix of like the Metro games, and then there was Stalker, and I feel like there was another one or two where they were all kind of these post-apocalyptic Russian environment type games. I'll be honest,

I never played any of them. And then Stalker 2 got announced. And I'm with you, Ryan, because from the trailers and the gameplay we have seen, and they have showed off a good bit of gameplay, looks incredible. I mean, the supernatural elements along with the shooter components, along with the world that you're living in, this post-apocalyptic survivor's world, you have all these NPCs that you're talking to around a campfire. You're finding guns and then adding attachments and loadouts and stuff like that to them. I mean, you're out in these fields that are creepy as anything. You're throwing bolts

because if you accidentally walk into one of these rifts or whatever they're calling them, things just die. Like at one point, you see like a pig gets sucked into one and just explodes, you know? And so like, I love the atmosphere.

I'll be honest. I don't know anything about stalker games, but I know I want to play this one. It definitely has a vibe and an atmosphere uh this is one that i wouldn't be shocked if it's one of the best games we talked about today or one of the worst it's got a high ceiling but a low floor yeah i agree yeah all right let's move on josh what do you got up next boy we probably shit okay um here's here's your other uh asian souls like well no not really so i mean shadow of the earth tree for which is the announced elden ring dlc i i'll be honest i mean i knew that it was announced i didn't know how big this was going

to be i started looking into it a little bit more and apparently this is going to be what we think is like a 30 to 40 hour DLC. Like legitimately, like FromSoft came out and said, listen, we had two expansions for Elden Ring planned. We're packaging them both together and we're calling it Shadow of the Erdtree at this point. Now, this is one of those ones that is not confirmed to release in 2024, but there have been some leaks that have come out. And so a lot of things point towards this releasing in February. I don't know if it's going to release in February or if they're just going to announce a lot more about it in February, but I miss Elden Ring. That is one of those games that I almost always end up wanting to go back to and playing a little bit more. I mean, Elden Ring is one of the best games to come out in the

last five years or so. It's very hard for me to find fault with that. The one fault is with my gamer ADD, it's hard for me to just want to reload Elden Ring and start kind of going through that again. But if you're giving me new content to satisfy my brain, I am in, man. I will play the heck out of this game. I love Elden Ring just like most of the world does. So Shadow of the Erdtree to me is a very good candidate for being just more Elden Ring, which is fantastic. Yeah, Elden Ring was such a smash success. The only thing is that so few people beat Elden Ring, but a smash success. The only thing is that so few people beat Elden Ring, but I wonder how many of them are in that boat like you, Josh, where

they'll get back in if it's new, whereas they don't necessarily want to jump back in, because I think only about 40% of people beat Elden Ring. I think this will go down as one of the best DLCs ever. I mean, it'll be better regarded than even like

phantom liberty from last year this one's definitely a sure bet for being a fantastic pick good job there's no risk all right next one here on my list let's see what do i have left uh okay all right let's talk a little bit about pacific drive Game of the year. All right. Game of the year, Paul. No, I'm not. Game of the year. Game of the year candidate. I don't know that I'd go that far. This is the one that we really hyped a long time ago with Michael. This is the one where you trick out your station wagon. You go driving around the Pacific Northwest.

There's all kinds of weird anomaly stuff going on, and you're just trying to escape. And I think why I feel so drawn to Pacific Drive is that the developer said, you're always worried about your HP meter, which is your body. Let's make it different where you have a car and your car is what keeps you safe. Yes, you can take damage and die if you get out of your car,

but you're primarily concerned about you get out of your car, but you're primarily concerned about the quote HP of your car. So this game's got like all kinds of wacky upgrades that you can strap onto that station wagon. When you're out and about, things are going to attack your car. You can like fix it on the go, but you can't do major repairs until you're at your shop. So all that stuff seemed really cool to me. I love the idea of exploration, figuring out this mystery, what's causing the anomalies while trying to escape from it all.

I don't know. This one just kind of calls out to me. This one also comes out pretty soon, February 22nd. What about you guys? Do you care at all about Pacific Drive? I'll tell you what. When we saw this game initially,

it resonated with us. It looked like just a fun game. And I know we got hyped for it. And then we didn't really hear anything about it. I recently played Dredge, which got a lot of hype as one of the better indie games of 2023. I remember everybody that played it was like, oh, this game's great. Having played Dredge, which I think shares a lot of similarities to Pacific Drive, where I think the gameplay is a lot of just progression. In Dredge, you're constantly upgrading your boat, you're catching, you know, bigger fish, you're getting new fishing rods, so you can fish new areas and things like that. And you can, you know, stay out longer and, you know, sail faster and that kind of stuff. There is just something fun to that progression loop, especially when you pair it with the creepy atmosphere like we're seeing in Pacific Drive and stuff like that. So if, and these games may not be anything like each other

in that regard, but if Pacific Drive is like dredge, but on land, I think this game is gonna resonate with a ton of people, to be honest with you. It's just fun. It's a fun gameplay loop of go explore, get progression, maybe die or be freaked out by something and get scared, and then just kind of rinse and repeat until you make it to the end of the game. I mean, with Dredge, it landed for a ton of people. It landed with me. And if Pacific Drive is anything like that, I think this game's going to be an absolute blast to play.

That's what you look for. Something that's just fun and just enjoyable. I love survival games. Like you said, the progression. I think getting to do all those weird advancements to your vehicle and attachments and everything, just making it look like it's a goofy

station wagon, but they're all great upgrades. I think it's just going to be one that's just going to hit as just a lot of fun well it seems like they have a good sense of humor about it too because they said that there's going to be weird quirks that can happen to your car so like if a monster hits a certain part of like your engine every time you turn your wheel your horn goes off and like things like that, which will attract nearby monsters. And I'm like, oh, that's so cool because there's games where if you fall, maybe you like break a leg like in Fallout and now you're like, you know, crippled and you can't walk as fast. So the idea of being able to do that with a car sounds very funny to

me. I can't wait to see what they come up with here. All right, coming back around to you, Ryan, these are our last picks each. So what do you have here for number five? Most anticipated? Um, PTSD. Cause we're going, uh,

with some arc to, uh, to, yeah. Diesel. Yeah, I know. Well,

we, we, I don't have friends. I have family guys. We're going to do this together. Maybe. I don't know, but, um, while're gonna do this together maybe i don't know but um while drinking coronas right drinking coronas and riding t-rexes yeah i the trailer looks great

um i think it was funny with vin diesel on there but i just aside from the few issues i did have with arc i i did enjoy my time i enjoy enjoy that style where survival and trying to build the bases and capture things and build up. It just is one of those that I think hopefully they can fix the few issues that I did have where you just get locked in your base and dumb stuff like that. But I think it's going to be something good. I think it'll be really, really good if we can all play together and check it out i know a few people on the discord that are going to be very excited for this so yeah i can't wait till we ride our hordes of t-rexes again oh that was awesome we ride boys we ride at dawn it's it's funny to me because you know everybody wanted us to play arc my kid absolutely loves this game i mean if it got chosen wanted us to play Ark. My kid absolutely loves this game. It got chosen for us to play, and we all enjoyed it. These games are right up our alley, honestly.

I think we kind of said, well, we prefer Rust a little bit, but the dinosaurs, they do add a neat little element. I know that Ark Survival Ascended released, which is just Ark and Unreal Engine 5. My daughter was playing it. She's like, this game's beautiful. It's just Ark with a new coat of paint on it. There's really not a lot new. Ark 2 should, if you believe the rumors, should improve on Ark 1. If it does that, and like you said, Ryan, it fixes some of the pain points. It adds some new stuff. I could see this being for us. I don't think anybody's not saying that ARK 2 isn't a huge release or a huge game, but I think this could be one of those games for us where if we dive into it, we are very pleasantly surprised by how much we actually enjoy playing that game.

My only concern is I'm not sure I trust the developer a ton on this with just how they handled the, we're shutting down arc. Oh, now you have to pay for arc ascended, which is 20 or $40 if you want to play arc anymore, but you get new shiny graphics. I just don't know how much they're going to do with arc too. I'm a little hesitant on the trust level of saying, is this going to just be Ark all over again, but sold under like a sequel or, you know, a la Overwatch 2, you know, or is this going to actually improve on the original game? If it improves on the original, again, I think this could be one of the more surprising games

for us this year. As long as they keep Ark AIDS, I'm in. Yes. Oh no, swamp fever. Yeah. Yeah. I think that arc really nailed exploration spectacularly i i don't think they have to add a whole lot for that right just give me interesting environments to run initially and then fly later and discover i think what i would like to see them add is maybe like some kind of quest system or something

because they call like the PVE servers. I don't know that there's not a whole lot there other than go out to discover new mats, which is fun, but also maybe add some kind of storytelling throughout other than just try to ascend your way out of here by you know getting to this end point in the game so i don't know if they can add something like that i feel like that would take it up a level i think that's like my one thing on the wish list no man's sky is a good example of what i would like in that regard paul like there are quests there are things that just point you in the right direction it's just a little carrot and that's sometimes all you need to just say, like, I at least feel like I know what I'm doing. I'm progressing down a path. And so I think No Man's Sky did that really well, where they just kind of dangled that little bit

to keep you going. And I'm with you. If ARK 2 can add that little bit in there, I think it gives you a little bit of direction, a little bit of focus instead of just, I guess we're making a bigger base now and trying to get that dinosaur over there. Yeah, maybe have like little outposts that are run by other humans. So that way, not everything in the game is just a dodo bird or a dinosaur. And then maybe you could like talk to them. They give you a quest. I don't know. Something like that is what I'd love to see added. All right, Josh, coming to you. What's your last one for me, boy, you know, I did my homework for this episode. I watched all these games, all these trailers.

I was watching this one. This was not forgotten about by me, but then I even posted it in, in our discord and then our private server as well. Senua's saga, which is the sequel to a Senua's sacrifice, which was hell blade. Basically,

Paul, I know you played this. I know you didn't hate it, but I know you kind of just went like, I can appreciate some of the aspects, but it didn't really grab me. This trailer is incredible to me. It's one of the better trailers that I've seen in a while. I've watched the development of this game. I've seen some of the behind the scenes like motion capture and action and stuff that they've done with this too there is a grittiness and a well you know to use your word earlier a vibe to this game that just sucks me in man i don't know that the gameplay is going to be super riveting the gameplay in the first one wasn't super riveting

like i fully admit to that and agree with that, but there is some gameplay. Yeah, honestly, but there is something that draws me into this. And it's like the Paul, you mentioned the Alan Wake too, was like the Oscar winning version of like resident evil.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like with Senua saga, this is the oscar version of video game storytelling or something in that regard like you feel what senua is is experiencing you feel that psychosis that she struggles with there's so much visceral stuff in this trailer

it just i i could watch it six times honestly because the way it goes is it shows the world and then it shows like some of the darkness and then it shows some of the fighting and that ferocity. I don't know. It's just got these really neat moments in it. And so I've been hyped for this game for a while. So this is the last one on my list. I think they're just going to expand on it. Ninja Theory has been putting a ton of effort into this sequel. I expect to truly be blown away by this game, not from a, oh, it's the best gameplay I've ever seen, but just from the, like I said, that story and this character and the world and the glimpse that you get into her struggles and being able to kind of feel and in some way relate to that. I think it's going to be absolutely top-notch storytelling. My biggest beef with Senua's Sacrifice is that I did not follow the development or anything. I

didn't see any trailers. The game was on a shoestring budget. It was made for less than $10 million. I looked that part up. And when that game became such a big hit, it had a high Steam rating. You said you loved it and then i just bought it no one prepped me i thought this was going to be some kind of game with god of war light or something maybe like yeah like most games have combat right and senua's sacrifice has very minimal combat it's essentially a walking simulator while they slowly tell you a story with light puzzles. Like if you walk through this arch of vines, if you walk in it one way, it'll change the map. And then if you walk in it the other way, it changes the map differently. It's more

stuff like that. And you're walking very slowly through the game. So my expectations were in a completely wrong place. I think if I were to play it again now, I don't think I would feel as let down by it. Now, I will say, all that being said, this trailer that they showed during the Game Awards highlights a lot of combat, Josh. The first game was such a hit, they have thrown a lot of money at it.

You can tell just watching the trailer. I actually think that that's probably where a lot of the money went. I think that they are adding more combat. I think that'll be more fleshed out. And if that's the case, sign me up 110%. So this is one that I want to see more down the road of what they did. But I have a suspicion this one, it's not necessarily going to be like the action game of the year i don't think it's gonna be doom eternal but i do think that they're going to

incorporate more which has me more hyped yeah yeah for sure this this this year is going to be it's just going to be weird like last year you knew you're getting diablo balder's gate you know all of those starfield all you knew you were getting all those games this year i think it's going to be one of those where we really do follow the development follow how things are progressing and and we're gonna know you know we may pick this up we may not until we see how things get there you know and so we kind of are gonna keep our eyes on everything gonna cast a wide net to see and so this one does that again if i bought games on trailers i would have every game pretty much because we all know how i am about that so uh yeah i i'm i'm with you guys it's definitely

i think it's one that's going to be a lot of fun very promising trailer yeah for sure and uh i'll still say at to send you a sacrifice as credit one of the best games i've played in vr the scale and the sense of that game it plays very well in vr so if you're gonna play the first one i think vr is the way to do it all right last one here on my list warhammer 40k space marine 2 we gotta bring this one up we do uh squads of three yeah which kind of works out perfect when you're a three-person podcast obviously obviously a great universe you know i mean who doesn't love warhammer first game's beloved it's a third-person shooter very action forward you are fighting massive waves of enemies

i mean when i watch trailers and footage from this it just seems like a lot of hectic chaos but in a good way um anything in particular you guys want to say about space marine 2 it looks freaking awesome man it's gonna be sweet i the trailers for this game really really get you hyped i mean seeing the hordes and hordes of creatures flying around in the sky and then coming down and you have to like survive those. I did not play Space Marine 1. I'll be honest. I enjoy 40K, but I don't really get into the lore and that kind of stuff. I mean, we've played Vermintide and things like that. So it's like we have dabbled in that universe. I know a lot of people get super into it with all the lore and the different factions and stuff like that. I don't have that like draw

going into it. But what I see is a video game that you mentioned, Paul, give me that chaos, baby. Give me the chaos with friends. You know, you're seeing various abilities. You feel like this space Marine who is just a badass. I mean, I, there's so much on this game that looks really, really good to me. If you are a fan of 40K, I can only imagine that it even adds to that excitement. But this game, I'm super hyped for. You just have to, again, have to watch the trailer because it really shows you the scale of these battles. It shows you the the atmosphere you feel like you are fighting for your survival um this is one i've actually been following for a while and is again at the top of my list for a game that i'm really really excited for in 2024 i am stoked as well and you know who is into the

lore henry cavill superman himself henry cavill and a fellow gamer so this I'm just shooting this out to you Henry uh I'm willing to boot one of these guys off and we can squad up in the trio so just reach out to the pod hit me up I'm happy to take care of you oh yeah I will gladly step aside as long as I can you know collect from the added profits of having Henry Cavill on the show uh this one is scheduled for release on September 9th. It's one of the only games that has a release date in the latter half of the year. I will say Darktide didn't really do it for many people. So I'm a little concerned because this does share a little bit of that DNA, but the first Space Marine is so beloved that I do have more

confidence in this one here. I will say the scale seems very massive. It looks like there's a lot going on at all times. My one concern would be when you have that kind of gameplay, sometimes it can start to feel a little mindless. So that's my only concern here. If there's enough variety in combat to keep it interesting that's that's my my only concern here all right so to swing back to some of the predictions that i mentioned from last year we're gonna do this again uh well actually before we do that do you guys want to mention any honorable mentions just to like kind of list them i i have to. We didn't bring these up because they are not 100% confirmed for 2024 or it's an early access release. Hades 2, I mean, if we didn't mention it in the show,

I feel like we'd be failing in our duties. Hades, absolutely one of the best roguelike indie developed games that exists. Hades 2 has been announced. They've confirmed it's releasing in early access in 2024. I think we all know it's going to be great. So that's one. The other one that might be more hope for me than anything is Light No Fire. Hello Games, this trailer dropped out of nowhere. I mean, I think we all said this is one of our most looked forward to games next to like GTA six kind of thing. There are a few, few rumors that maybe this game drops in the back quarter, back half of 2024. Hello Games has said we've been working on it for five years. They've already got the technology and everything else. The trailer looked pretty complete for a game because it was all in game footage and all that. So maybe it's wishful thinking,

but if that game releases in 2024, add it to the very top of my list. I'm going to call it. It's not coming out this year. I will be shocked. Stop it! Ruining is fun. Yeah.

Maybe GTA 6 will drop this year too. Wouldn't that be great? My honorable mentions, Wolf Among among us two i've mentioned several times on this pod john carpenter's toxic commando i can't wait to see more that one's kind of been weird because we got the initial trailer and it's been crickets ever since earth blade i definitely have my eye on it's basically celeste too it's the same oh i saw that one okay yeah forgot the name yeah yep same same game director so that one. Okay. Yeah. Forgot the name of that one. Yep. Same game director. So that one should be good.

And I think we just have to mention, it's not necessarily my personal anticipated, but for a lot of people, Suicide Squad, Kill the Justice League is up there. I will say I enjoyed the beta, but I could already see the DNA of this is going to be really fun for about 10 hours and then i it's going to get monotonous yeah but i i do think that that one is very high on a lot of people's list and of course skull and bones is somehow still anticipated by a lot of people but we know it's going to be garbage you're looking forward to skull and bones power to you man i i never want to slander anybody's video game

choices. I just know what to expect. Like, honestly, that's the thing skull and bones. We have been saying it for a while and I'd love to be proven wrong on this, but I just don't think we are. It's going to be great for six to eight hours. And then you're going to feel like it is just an empty fluffed up game at that point. Again, would love to be wrong. If you're hyped for it, I love it for you but that's game that i just don't see being really good in the long run agree they've had like four game directors i think now three or four like all things that make you very worried about a project like this when you get delayed this many times and this many people touch it i can't imagine it's

going to be good yeah ryan you got about you ryan's gonna say you got any honorable mentions no i think for this this come up here this year we've uh pretty much covered anything that i'm that i'm looking at so nothing the fact that i'm bring the fact that i'm bringing up like toxic commando where all we have is like a 40 second trailer is kind of telling for the upcoming year. Normally that's not getting mentioned for most anticipated. All right. So prediction for 2024 game of the year. I think this is very hard because there's no, there's no clear cut heavy hitters, right?

Like what are you guys going to predict? And don't say Pacific drive. Cause you're going to be wrong. I'm going to go with mine. I'm going to go with black myth. Wukong. If Elden ring can do it, black myth, Wukong can do it black myth wukong

can do it that okay that's almost exactly what i was gonna say i was gonna say uh black myth wukong because it's already won twice in the last five years with sakiro and elden ring it's kind of a proven format that we know critics love people love i think that's like the safe bet uh yeah i'm gonna pick the same one what about you ryan uh do we have to go all through the same one that's kind of what i was thinking too i will i will say this one's maybe since we were talking about hope a little more out of hope uh i'm just gonna go with star wars outlaws i hope i hope that it's so amazing and so good that it does kind of get over on these other games that will probably end up being better. All right.

I will say. What about your. Oh, I was going to say, I do think Senua's Saga is going to be nominated for some game of the year thing, whether it's storytelling or something. I'm very confident that it will get nominated and win some type of award. I don't know that it would be game of the year, but I would bet money that it will be up for nomination in something.

And best performance will be up there for sure. What about your guys' prediction for biggest letdown? And you can't say Skull and Bones because that's too easy of an answer. You got to pick something else. Biggest letdown and you can't say skull and bones because that's too easy of an answer you gotta pick something else biggest letdown yeah i'm gonna go with where wins meet i think okay i think we kind of touched on that this game is either going to hit on so many levels or it's going to miss on so many levels i could see it yeah yeah that's about you

ryan that's where i'm gonna go with too yeah i think it it's like you said it's either gonna be so crazy that it's gonna be awesome or it's just gonna be like this is just wild i'm gonna feel disjointed at that yeah that's my concern is that they tried too much and it's not gonna mesh at all so you're just gonna feel like you're pulled in a bunch of different directions and none of it's going to work yeah i i totally see that my pick for this um sorry ryan i'm gonna say star wars out i was actually gonna say i may pick both for both yeah yeah i i i feel like because the hype is already high, Biggest Letdown implies that you're anticipated for it, but then it's just not as good. And so I'm basing this on the fact that it is Ubisoft, the fact that Star Wars, the games, as much as we all love the movies,

the games are really hit or miss. And of them are actually like kind of bad so i feel like this one has a lot of potential to be amazing i think it also has probably the best odds for most disappointing simply because expectations are high so that's what i gotta say what about your guys guess for most surprising hit oh man i'm gonna say hell divers too i think it's actually going to be i think it's gonna be a big success i think this is one that's gonna surprise people when you start getting those updates hey we've sold two million copies three million four million i don't think it's gonna be like 20 million like hogwarts legacy or anything but i think this one will sell a few million. I think it'll be very beloved. I think for a surprising hit for just fun factor that gamers love, I agree 100%. I don't think Helldivers 2 is going to be nominated by any critics. I don't think it's going to be game of the year. But again, I think for gamers,

people are going to play this game and they're just going to be like, this is the most fun game I've played in a long time. And it lends well to streaming when you accidentally kill your partners and people are going crazy. I think you're going to see a lot of fun footage and that's going to drive a lot of people to want to play it. I agree. Yeah, I'm there with you guys, too. I think, like you said, with the streaming, I mean, look how far Lethal Company took off because it's just one of those things

where when you can capture that enjoyment and that fun in those crazy situations, it just lends itself to that type of game. I dropped a ladder on my friend. Let's all laugh and let's all play this game even though there's like nothing to it. God, why do you hate it so much, man? It's such a simple game.

No, I'm not saying that in a bad way. It's such a pared down game that there's not a whole lot to do. That dropping a ladder on someone's head is like the funniest thing that you've seen this year. You uninstalled it like the split second we finished recording that episode. Yeah, I stand by it's incredibly fun for a few hours

and then I felt like I hit my limit personally, but I still loved playing it. But yeah, I mean that just shows right if you have funny interactions with friends those games can really take off and i think that's why hell divers 2 might do it having having friendly fire i hated when i was younger and that's also because like my wife's older brother timmy would always kill us during halo he'd get bored two minutes in and you get shot in the back and i'd start yelling and get mad but i think in in gaming today it's a very fun element i don't think friendly fire isn't enough games i'm gonna say that too agreed yep all right any other thoughts about 2024 as a year i think we're gonna be pretty

let down overall but i think there's gonna be really fun hits. I wouldn't be shocked if our three out of our five favorite games of the year weren't even mentioned at all. There's probably going to be surprises out there that we just have no clue. That's the thing I love. I can't wait for that surprise game drop, that surprise indie release that just catches the world by storm, winds up being way better than it had any right to be came out with no hype no hoopla and just blows everybody away it's one of my favorite things in gaming is just that surprise i mean the other thing is we've talked about 15 games i mean if you played one of these games a month that sounds like a pretty good year like i know we're spoiled from 2023 but i am

legitimately hyped for every single game on this list and i mean like i know we're spoiled from 2023 but i am legitimately hyped for every single game on this list and i mean like i said that's more than one game a month to me so i think 2024 everybody's kind of looking at it as like the down year but i think that's only because of what 2023 was i'm really excited about a lot of these yeah i don't know that we're gonna have any games like balder skate 3 where it's a 96 on metacritic i don't that we're gonna have any games like balder's gate 3 where it's a 96 on metacritic i don't think we're gonna have stuff like that but i think it's gonna be a constant stream of good maybe even great games just not necessarily all timers and if we have a long string of all a minus b plus games i'm fine with that i don't need i mean 2023 we were so

incredibly spoiled we're not going to see a year like that maybe ever again you know covid kind of like pushed everything back and all these great games came out at once so i don't think it'll be a bad year per se it's just gonna be missing those heavy hitters yeah i agree yeah getting getting that little kind of drip of just constant good gaming for a whole year is almost preferred than, you know, two, three months of just the bangers. It can be daunting having too many insane games because then you feel like, number one, you're missing out. And then number two, like, I got to play all these. Like, now I've got FOMO because it's like, well, I didn't play, you know, Armored Core 6 and I didn't play Lies of P.

And it's like, oh, my goodness. And now I've got this and I didn't play Lies of P, and it's like, oh my goodness, and now I've got this kind of bad feeling, like am I missing something really great or not? So 2024 should be a little bit better paced in that regard. Yeah, the constant drip I like. It's not going to be like a couple years ago where you had Elden Ring, which I think released in February, and then you had to wait all the way until the end of the year for God of War Ragnarok. yeah give me those those good games all in between i don't want to have to wait you know months on end yeah all right well that wraps everything up for most anticipated titles of 2024 as a reminder please go check out patreon support options which we

talked about earlier you can see that at multiplayer squad.. Also make sure to leave us a five-star rating. You can join our free discord community. There's a link in the episode description and follow us on socials everywhere at video gamers pod. All right, guys, it's fun. I'm glad we're back recording new year,

new recordings to do. I'm so hyped. Very excited. So happy new year to everyone out there and until next time happy gaming we're back see ya all right see everybody Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok