Video Gamers Podcast - Game Of The Year 2025: The Video Gamers Podcast Awards Show – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are back for our biggest episode of the year: the Video Gamers Podcast GAME AWARDS! This is where we celebrate the highs, call out the surprises, and argue over the moments that defined gaming in 2025. From Best Indie to Biggest Disappointment, we break down the nominees, the winners, and the debates that got heated behind the scenes. Which video games truly earned their praise, and which ones rode hype a little too far? We look at the trends that shaped the year, the studios that overdelivered, and the releases that had everyone talking across the gaming community. Whether you agree with our picks or not, this awards show is all about passion for video games and what made this year unforgettable for fans everywhere.   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S. and Dettmarp   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/dXdp8MJR Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides, and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindest community, celebrating acts of kindness nationwide with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at canadaswunderland.com. When you're flying Emirates business class, sampling our range of vintage wines from the largest selection in the skies, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the VIII.

Video Gamer's Podcast. 2025 has been one of the best years in gaming that we can remember, and it's finally time for the official Video Gamers Podcasts award show. Which games will receive our most prestigious awards? Which game will take home the Dog Turn Trophy? Will the Smoke Show Award be back this year? We've got an incredible episode for you, but first some introductions are in order

I am your master of ceremonies Josh and joining me he's my brother from another mother my gaming buddy and he's been nominated for the video gamers podcast content creator of the year award it's Ryan oh dude I so once you went to the content creator of the year

I thought you were going to just juke me with ace a hundred percent no I have Thank you, everybody. Thank you for your voting. Thank you. I love it. I appreciate it.

Bravo me. I heard the burnt peanut voted for you. Yeah. Yeah. He's a big fan. Oh, my, blah, blah, blah. And joining us, he's been nominated for best new host of the year, the indie master extraordinaire, the guy who rose through the ranks from listener to host,

but we're just glad we get the joy of calling him our friend it's an honor to be here I'd like to thank all of my friends in the Discord for pushing me this way hold on why didn't Ace get two nice ones in a row I don't like this

Ryan it's Christmas it's like the joyful time of year fine fine look at ACE's got a Santa hat on his background's all jolly And also your intro was nice, Ryan. Yeah, you had a nice intro as well. Okay. How nice do I have to be for you to notice, Ryan?

Consistently. That's the how nice you have to be. You saw how I instantly thought you were going to just juke me with like Ace, but thank you. Thank you. Did Ryan not realize that his intro was nice to? Yeah, I think you missed it. He's like, how dare you call me a content creator?

I mean, that is kind of what I'm from. It's kind of an insult. I didn't call you a streamer, Ryan, okay? Oh, God. Or an influencer. Even though Ryan does stream. He is a streamer. Like, he's the guy that, like, that does our Twitch.

Oh, man. I just go live as all. That's all I do. Guys, I am so excited for this episode, man. This is a tradition. It is a yearly tradition. It is like, hey, Christmas is coming. Yeah, you know, it's the end of the year of gaming.

We've got a whole new year of games coming up. Like, you know, we've had people asking, like, are you guys going to do your, like, end of the year show? Of course, we're going to do the end of the year show. And we have a show for you. So, guys, we have a lot to cover in this episode. But you know what? We're just, we're going to do what we love to do.

And we're going to thank somebody to start this show off the right way. So we need to send a shout out to Larko, who signed up for rare status to support the show. Larko, thank you so much. Thank you very much. And everybody else out there that supports this show, we love you all. Like all of you, yes, you listening in your car on the way to work right now, you support the show, we love you. And you know what? If you don't support the show, we love you too.

Maybe just a little bit less, but we still love you. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking here. Oh, man. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your support. And everyone else that supports, you know, in any facet, like, uh, it really means a lot to us. We've seen so much, uh, over the, over the year of, of what people, you know, I have, have, you know, taken from this podcast, what we've, uh, contributed to their lives. And it, in, really genuinely means a lot for us and when you tell us that it means even more so please leave a review tell us what we mean to you like it really we read every single one we talk about them amongst ourselves um it's it's cool so thank you everybody thank you for all your support uh that you're that you give to us but uh but yeah thank you for everybody else as well yeah yeah we wouldn't be here without the support of people but also we know that there are a lot of people that

listen out there that say, hey, guys, I love what you do. I just don't have the means to financially support the show. Leaving us a review, honestly spreading the word, telling a friend, tagging us on social media, just helping people know that this podcast is out there is honestly one of the best things you can do. So, you know, you can absolutely help in your own way. You know, and just to kind of summarize things for people, since we are at the end of the year, this podcast has grown year over year, but this year might be one of the best years of of growth that we have had for three just dumb doofuses that love talking about video games. Like, you know, we, we are at a point now where we are in the top, like, I think it's like

three percent of podcasts in the world, which is crazy. You know, there's a lot of podcasts out there, but, you know, so that's, you know, it's impressive that we're at where we're at, but we're going to keep doing this. Who gave us microphones? Who gave us microphones, dude? I know, right? Yeah, that's still one of my favorite. like mean comments that we got on social media is like, you know, just like they need to raise the cost of podcasting equipment. Yeah. That was a solid burn. Solid burn. It was. I appreciate a good, like a good burn man. Yeah. Like, yeah, absolutely. So all right, guys, let's get into this here. So we're going to go. We have how many categories do we have, man? We've got a good bit.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. We're We have 10 categories to get three boys. That is a lot. I will tease this. We are going to have some drama because I've already told Ryan that we're going to fight and we are going to fight on this show because Ryan's a stupid doodoo head and has some really bad takes. So I'm sure that's coming up.

So you got that to look forward to as the internet agrees with you. Of course the internet's going to because you're an idiot, Ryan. What are you talking about? Nice time is over All right, all right, yeah Here goes my nice intro You know I love you You know I love you so I can call you that

That's also why I gave you a nice intro So that I can just troll you the rest of this episode Perfect, that makes sense, I love it Perfectly balanced as all things should be Exactly All right Oh and one thing that we tried to do this year That's a little bit different

Is normally when we do these categories We just give who we think is the best But we have like nominees this year As well in most of these categories. There's a few where we kind of went, well, there's not really like nominees for this one, but we do have some nominees

to kind of keep things interesting as well. All right, guys, a category that is very unique to this show. I don't know that anybody else does this. This is just for fun, you know, but we've done it year over year. You know, artists, the artists in games put a lot of work

into making their characters attractive for the most part. And, you know, if you didn't get recognized for all that hard work to make very attractive characters in video games, we feel like that's a crime, you know? And so we have the Smoke Show Award that is an award to nominate those rather attractive characters that we come across in video games. And our nominees for the Smoke Show Award in Visigal. From Dispatch. Woo! Blonde Blazer!

Also from dispatch. Woo! Loon? I do, I cannot say this name. Lune, Luna, Lune. I thought it was Lune, but I've heard Lune as well. Lune. I'm just going to...

I think it's Loon. She sounds like she's like the bird, like so. Is it Luna? Lunei? No. Parleu-Fonsech, right? No. Lune.

Pardééééééé. Is it French? So Lune. Expedition 33. Gemma from Monster Hunter Wilds and Ace's favorite. We know who nominated this one, Luna Snow from Rivals. Oh, I have such a question. Is it on your arm? Where is it?

All right. Oh, Ace, yeah, Ace has Luna Snow tattooed. There it is. Yeah, that's actually, that's a cool tattoo also. That's my favorite one I got in this year. I love the abyss this one, but man, I love my girl. Yeah. All right.

So guys, and just so people know, we have these nominees, but we each pick our own winner for each category here. So, Ryan, let's start with you. Who is your winner for the Smoke Show Award? Well, for my Smok Show Award of 2025, this is Casey. No, I'm just kidding. I got to go. There's like five people that knew that reference. That's probably true, honestly. Like, dang it. I dated myself again. I got it. I got it. I was like, well, that's pretty good. But everybody else is like, Oh, no. He got it though, Ryan.

I know. He's older than me and he understood. I got to go with my girl, Vizzi and Vizza girl. I can change her. I can fix her. Even though she betrayed me, even though she did not save me and stick with me in my playthru on dispatch, I like a bad girl.

So I got to go with Vizzi. That's valid. I nominated it in Vizigel as well. yeah you got you yeah oh oh mr mute mr mute no no no no no no no no that was just no no no no no no no on the award show dude i was trying to type show show of the year listen i was trying to type something i didn't want to be noisy because i'm trying to copy this list over to my pc from my laptop so i'm not pulling a riot and looking off the screen the whole time while i'm reading my laptop over here. And I was like, people don't want to hear me type it on this keyboard. Don't put it on me.

And then Ryan wrapped up too fast. And I was like, dang it. Like, it's my job to transition here. And then maybe for like a half a second. I was on mute guys. If you're not watching video, please watch video because Josh was muted and it was very satisfying. There's, there's, you have no proof. I'm pretty sure I just said we have proof. All the proof. We have video evidence. Yeah, whatever, whatever. All right. So Invisigal, for you guys so much man it's all fun with somebody else does it i know you gave me a lot of gruff with that you know that's uh vizzi that's uh there's the one like i can fix her man that's the thing is i can fix her you sure you sure need to try again that's for sure i did it the first time

but i can try again that's what it is you did not fix her i did ruin her right i regret my decision immediately. Oh, man. All right. Well, Ace, I hinted, I think I know your answer for this one. Yeah. Who is your official smoke show, uh, winner? Anyone who knows me, I have a thing for, for two very particular things.

And that's rats and Luna Snow. I have a stupid crush on Luna Snow. Genuinely. Rats and Luna Snow. Luna Snow is so upset right now. I know. She's like, you rats and me? I have two obsessions, rats and lunas.

Okay, that's fair. I mean, I understand one of those exceptions. She's fine, all right? She is fine. All right, well, my official winner on this one, I will say this. I had a very, I was really torn between two, blonde blazer. I am a gentleman that prefers blondes. My wife is blonde, so, you know, maybe there is that.

And then, of course, my girl, Luna, Luna from Expedition 33. Those were the two finalists for me. I'm a little disappointed in Blonde Blazers' role in dispatch for reasons that I won't go into here. So I'm going with Luna from Expedition 33. I know what you like, Lunet. Listen, listen. We know we have listeners from all over the world. If anybody, if any of our French speakers can, can clarify how to say this stupid name for a dumb American like me.

Because it's like, I think it's loon. I think it's loon. It's, no, I don't think it's just loon. That seems, I don't know. Anyway, that's my winner. You know, she's, she was one of the few that stayed in my party the whole game. Is it because you like seeing her food all the time? No coincidence whatsoever, guys.

No reason at all. She was good. No, reason, for sure. Did I grind for the, uh, for the, for the, uh, for the Swiss. swimsuit cosmetic? No, I did not, because I don't, I don't do accomplishments, guys, but I thought about it. Josh Angoonen. Very nice. All right. Okay. Now that we got the silliness out of the way, guys, it's time to get serious, boys. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We're professional podcasts. We can tell by how we're dressed, right? Yeah, clearly. Those that didn't remember

this, we are professionals. Um, next category, guys, most promising game reveal, you know. Now, here's the thing. I actually think it's kind of crazy that in 2025, we got so many incredible games, but like, I actually had to think about this category and actually do some research because I was like, bro, who cares? Like, we were swimming in games in 2025. Like, yeah, genuinely. There's some really incredible games that have been announced and revealed in 2025. Now, these are, you know, they're coming out in 2026 or maybe 2027. but here are our nominees guys so we have replaced a very new entry into this category this is the pixel art we've been talking about replace this game looks incredible to all of us we have clockwork revolution

we have atomic heart too we have 007 first light we have tides of annihilation fate keeper and then somebody Thick as Thieves that was thrown in there also as possibly just a distraction or a misdirection for people. Just misdirection. You know. All right, guys.

So, Ace, I'm going to throw it to you first. What is your most promising game reveal winner for you, buddy? It was thick as thieves till I remembered Clockwork Revolution. Was it? Was that you to put that in there? Yeah, I'm the one who put the multiplayer dishonored game in there.

Surprise, surprise. I thought for sure it had to been Josh that suggested that. I do think Think of Steves looks awesome, by the way. I think it's going to be great. But once I remembered that Clockwork Revolution was shown off this year, instantly, I was like, that's what I really want to play. I still really want to play that steampunk, bioshock, dishonored world of Clockwork Revolution.

Yeah, yeah. Clockwork Revolution looks incredible. looks so good, man. Yeah. Again, I have a tough time deciding. I will say that my two were replaced or Clockwork Revolution on this one. I am, I was leaning towards going replaced, but I'll be honest, clockwork revolution hits all the right notes for me. And you summarized it perfectly. It's like Bioshock meets dishonored. Pretty much. Oh my goodness. And it's one of those games and we troll games that, you know, we always say combine two awesome, amazing games. but Clockwork Revolution looks like it's actually like the child of those two games and that gets me really excited as well. So I am going to double up on that ace and say Clockwork Revolution for the most promising game reveal this year. That's a good one.

It's definitely that one again is I am highly anticipating that game. All the markers that we always look for and expect on quality good games, especially like following you know like uh you know like we said bioshop and these other ones like you know we see kind of parts of it that makes sense you know with that so those are good picks for sure and that that's one of mine it's up there for sure but i'm going to go with uh the double seven first light i uh i am i am itching for a really good just action spy just fun game a re kind of vitalization of the 007 series. I don't know why.

Like, it's, the ability to design these games now is a lot easier than it used to be. So I think they really should be able to create a quality game with quality mechanics. And they have the 007 brand and the 007 name. And it's a secret agent spy movie. Like, you can't, there's not too much that you can't do in those types of things. So, yeah, man, that's going to be mine. I'm very excited for that. and I hope, you know, quarter one, it releases and it does well.

Yeah, I'm excited for that one. Yeah, 007 is the kind of game where I try to temper my expectations because I think it looks way, it almost looks like too good. It looks so good. Right. To where it's like every video I see I go like, they're not going to pull this off, man. They're not, you know, they're not going to pull off like the car driving or the stealth or the combat. Like there's no way they can do all of it. but there's probably a really good chance they're going to do all of it,

and this game is going to be absolutely incredible. So it's like I'm trying to temper, but I actually think that they might do it. And if they do, that is going to be an absolutely phenomenal game. At least that's the way it looks. Yeah. Oh, man.

All right, guys, let's do one more, and then we're going to have to take a quick break here. These are always tough, man. You know, the saddest game delay. you know this is just by nature something that happens in the video game industry i i will say that over the years we have kind of had a change of heart in this it used to be that we were very upset when a game got delayed after talking to enough developers and uh studios and stuff like that we it's just better right it's just you yes we have to wait longer but you get a better game in the end and

that's really what we want as gamers so you know we've we've kind of turned the corner and said listen take the time you need make your game good don't release it in a broken state. That will come back to bite you and you can't, like, you can't shake that off unless you're Hello Games and you spend the next decade trying to make amends, you know, for a poor launch, which very few companies have done. I'll go ahead and read the nominees on this one. The very obvious one is Grand Theft Auto 6. It was supposed to release in November. Now I got pushed back to, and then it was supposed to release, I think it was March of 2026 and now it's pushed back to like a November of 2020 26 yeah yeah so uh that's the easy one

king makers bro that you know everybody like I think this game was on our like game of the year like list of like hey you know these are the games when we when we drafted those um king makers was right up there and then it just kind of fell into silence and then they finally came out and said yeah we're we're delaying this um Cairn the indie climbing game uh Um, so that got delayed. Mina the hollower, uh, got delayed last minute. We talked with our friends over at Yacht Club games. Celia, uh, talked about that delay.

Uh, and, you know, they have to get it right, uh, which, you know, is understandable. They got to save Josh's eyes. Yeah. And then, uh, and. And then mouse PI, uh, you know, I don't know what to make a mouse PI, to be honest. Um, well, that's one. where we're going to have to just see but it did that was a highly anticipated game and then it did get delayed um i will lead this one off the grand theft auto six one is just two that's the easy

answer so i'm going to say king makers for mine um it is a co-op game it looks crazy it looks stupid fun they have come out and said that every building you see you can go in every tree everything is destructible like we're trying to make this the best game we can because initially we said this is just going to be like a Twitch streamer game for like two weeks and then it's going to fall off. And I think they're actually like, I think they're taking that to heart, not us necessarily, but the like, hey, we have something special that is drawing attention. Let's make sure that this is a fully fledged game that's going to have a lifespan to it. I can't wait to get my hand on Kingmakers and just plow through hordes of knights with a pickup truck and a machine gun. I think this game's

going to be stupid fun. So it was a little sad to see this one get delayed. Ryan, What do you have on this? Oh, no. Oh, my goodness. Did you guys buy it? Ryan did it too? Did you buy it? The panic on his face?

No, no, no, that was good, right? Oh, yeah, no. No, there's no way you can sell it. There's no way you can sell it. What are you talking about? We don't know if you were muted or not, Ryan. No, A's bought it. No.

No. Uh-uh. Oh, boy. I was trying to follow up. join me in the pits of embarrassment and unprofessionalism Ryan my man Ryan's like the guy where he's like bro if you have to shave your head I'm going to shave my head too I would do that for you boy I'm here for you brother Ryan that's what I'm here for thank you but I am but I am going to be the basic B and I'm going to do GTA 6 yeah I just

man this this is uh there's been a few delays on it and I thought we were finally going to get it it was it was you know a while from when we kind of got that that previous delay and we thought end of the year quarter four we're going to get this game and it's finally going to be something that you know it's been how long since gta five you know so it's a long it's like 10 years an entire generation yeah it's like yeah i love all the stuff online always is like oh yeah we got this before gta six you know there's a reason that that is going on but you know make it right because this is going to be, I think something that's revolutionary. I think there's

going to be honestly a legitimate economy within this game. It is going to mean a lot to a lot of people. It is going to bring value to a lot of people. It is going to be a really, really good game. And there's just a lot there. So it was really sad

that it got delayed, but it is what it is. Do it right. We've already waited 10 plus years. Like, what's another six months? You know, so. with them with them delaying it an entire year yeah 12 months actually sorry do you think that do you think that do you think that it wasn't actually ready like do you think if they had tried to push it out in November that it would have caused problems or do you think like

that this year is literally going to just make it even great what what could though like what if you like a whole year of development with how much money rock star has and a studio the size of Rockstar. This is not like 10 people trying to make something happen. You know, like a lot of developers are just crunching away every day on this game and the chance to work at Rockstar, you're going to be grinding away. You're going to work over 40 hours for sure. So like these people are putting a lot of time in this game.

And to need a whole year, that to me is mind boggling. It's hard to understand what would need fixed that much for that much of a delay. but man, I don't know. Yeah, it's, I don't get it. I don't get the forecast. That's my biggest thing is like, you should know your forecast dates and like within a range. If you got a delay a little bit, that's fine. Oh, we got to find two some things.

A whole year? Like, that seems crazy. What was the amount that it cost them? Wasn't it something like 250 million? Like something ridiculous, like where this delay actually is costing them. It was hundreds of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars. It was like 500 million or something. It was it was something. I think it actually might have been $500 million. I think that's what it was.

They're going to lose this much money. It was some ridiculous astronomical amount where it was like they, you know they didn't delay this all willy dilly. Yeah. Yeah. It's for a reason for sure. Yeah. All right, Ace, saddest game delay for you. What do you got, buddy? It's between the last three for me with Karen, Mina, and mouse PI. And I think it's still Karen. I'm really excited to see that one and how it's going to all work out. Is it like survival climbing game? with the narrative story and things like that. Plus, you know, we talked to someone from that game and she hyped me up on it and then we didn't get it. Sophie, the voice actress. Yeah, Sophia hyped us up and I was like, oh boy, here we go. It was supposed to be like November, right? Yeah, November 5th.

It was supposed to be November 5th. I'm excited for that one though. I am too. I think it's going to be a good time. I know Josh hates climbing games, but. Yeah, I do. I was excited until I realized I hate climbing games. Sorry, sorry he cares.

All right, guys. Listen, we got to take a break and then we're going to come back with the Dog Turn Award. This one's going to be fun. And, oh, boy, there might be a little bit of controversy on some of our picks on this one as well. But we'll be right back. All right, Rocket League players. Today's episode sponsor is for you. If you're serious about ranking up, stop grinding in the dark.

Start learning smarter with trophy.aI. Trophy AI gives you real-time feedback that actually adapts to your place. style. No more generic, hit the ball better advice. It breaks down exactly what you're doing right and more importantly what you're doing wrong with real-time overlays that allow you to fix your mistakes on the fly. Need to sharpen your mechanics. Trophy AI has a massive library of training packs complete with live demos from pro players. You can watch, you can practice, and maybe even learn some of their moves. Plus, there are many games that make training fun instead of a chore. And after every match, you'll get a personalized analysis showing exactly what you can

improve on. It's like having your own Rocky League coach 24-7. You'll see faster improvement, play with more confidence, and actually understand why you miss that crucial save or lost that kickoff. Try it risk-free for seven days at trophy.a-I using the code V-G-P. That's t-R-O-P-H-I.A-I. train smarter climb faster all right we are back guys you know not all games work out

man sometimes you get overhyped for a game sometimes a game just fails to meet expectations sometimes the game just comes out it's broken you know and you go what the heck man how'd you put this out into the world so we have a list of nominees for this one some people are going to gas, but get ready, listeners, get ready,

because there's a little bit of personal bias in some of these picks for sure. We'll see if you can pick out who threw out some of these nominees here. All right, so up for nomination for the Dog Turd Award. We have a vowed. We have Peek. We have the altars. We have Assassin's Creed Shadows. We have Minds Eye.

and we have FBC Firebreak. Now, if you're listening and you're like, wait, what? What game is that? Yeah, that's exactly why they're on this list, people. Now, if you're like, wait a minute, how the heck is Peek on the Dog Turn Award list? Well, it was me. It was me, everybody. I'm the one that nominated because this game sucks.

I freaking hate Pete. It's the worst game. I don't know that I have ever played a game. For 20 minutes and they've gone this game It's the worst game I've ever played in my life But that's peak You know, they talk about the whole point of peak Is falling off the mountain

Well, I fell off a peak faster than any other game I think I've ever played in my life, man The whole point is the fall And get right back up You didn't do that part Josh did not Josh play it so hard This is so dumb

This is and you guys were like Bro, you're only 30 minutes and I was like I don't care This game's stupid I just keep falling there's no progression there's no nothing why is there this stupid bing bong doll that you're trying toad up the mountain like oh i'm running out of stamina again grab me grab me don't i'm done now i get to just sit there and watch you guys play for 15 minutes and twiddle my thumbs because this game's

stupid we shouldn't have fallen like also i'm very happy for everybody that really loves peak and i know we have some people that really love peak in our community foals uh shout out to you buddy we love you but man if I could give a dog turd award twice to this game I would and yes I know that's a controversial take but hey we like what we like and we hate what we hate

and I hate this game so it's my dog turn award so you would rather play any other game on that list over peak I would rather play any of these other games over Peak and that is I'm not exaggerating that is not an exaggeration man I think is so fun that's so crazy to me it's the dumbest game ever It's boring. It's dumb. It's frustrating. There's no progression. It's repetitive.

Yeah. It's just terrible. As you progress up the mountain. You can progress up a mountain. No, that's dumb progression, man. Where's my climbing boots? Where's my grapple hook? You know what I mean? Where's my hot air balloon? Where's that kind of stuff, man? Bro wants a hot air balloon. He doesn't want to climb anyone. I don't want to climb. I just want to go up to the top. I just want to be at the top already. I play long enough. I should be able to just float to the top, boys. That would be a way to get more time on there. I appreciate.

I, Ryan, who's your winner for the Dog Turn Award? Oh, for me, I'm going to go with the one the only are super hyped and horrible, horrible outcome avowed. I was...

Yeah, you're pretty down on. I'm really down on a vowed. I, um, it's it's probably because I've I mean, Skyroom is one of my favorite games. I love the Elder Scrolls series. I want something more. Like, I want that feeling again so bad. And I thought Avowed was going to be close to it.

Give me something like that. And it was the most hyped and the most mid game ever. Like, it was so hyped and we were so excited. And then when I played it, I'm like, this isn't horrible, but this just is not great. It's just bleh. it was just there didn't care if i played it or if i didn't it were there was nothing more to it other than it was just bland um i'm just bummed man i i thought it's probably more personal than most but i just i thought it i thought there was going to be more there and there wasn't that's

yeah we sometimes it's tough because a game that shows glimpses of being good but winds up just average is actually more frustrating than just a bad game yeah like honestly like sometimes it's like you almost had it I could see I could see the path to greatness and then you just missed it and you fell off that path and I I understand that with a valid I kind of feel that way about Starfield like you know yes this is the definition of like a six and a half seven out of ten game where it's like it's very mid like all the way through but sometimes that's worse man yeah so yeah yeah all right ace one of these games is not like the other on this list and I got to wonder if that's if that's your nomination

buddy. Yeah, it is. Unfortunately, I'm nominating Assassin's Creed Shadows because I think I fell asleep playing that game about four separate times just because I got so bored in that game. It's just so basic. Now, remind me, because I hate all Ubisoft at this point. This is the one where you had the two characters. Yes, you play as either Nowe or Yaske. You can play as, you know, the stealth gameplay or the samurai gameplay. That part's fun. This was going to save the franchise. What you're talking about, man? This was, Ubisoft came out and said this is a return to our roots. This is the Assassin's Creed game that everybody has been clamoring for. This is a love letter to all fans of Assassin's Creed. What are you talking about, Ace? Like, surely Ubisoft did lie to us. And surely I didn't fall for it again and by the deluxe edition.

But, uh, you did, you did buy the deluxe edition. And we picked on you for that, Ace. And we were like, oh, you sucker. It's just like every time it looks so good And it does play good for the first like 10 hours or something like that And then it just slows to a crawl The story stops making sense The story ends here on a cliffhanger that continues in a DLC

Oh, that's bad That's a no no That's not good You can't even finish the story with the main game And then they did the collabs with dead by daylight And then freaking attack on Titan What does that have to do with Assassin's Creed? I call me ignorant, but I didn't know they did a collab with

Attack on Titan and Dead by Daylight. Are you serious? Yes. How did you collab those with Assassin's cream? Yeah, where's the collab? How does that even work? No, what they're saying is we need money and take it anyway we can possibly take it. Look up how cheaply done this collab was with the attack on Titan.

It's just like a untextured giant model of a Japanese man as their Titan. it's the worst thing I have ever seen okay listen in defense of Ubisoft and I can't believe I'm saying this okay but they did come out and say the gamers are playing less games guys and that's why their stocks and their profits

are falling I think gamers are playing more than ever like I don't have time to get into trolling Ubisoft because they actually came out and said that I like aspects of shadows but overall shadows is just a zero for me I could barely even finish it. And I know this is going to upset a long time listener, Disritory.

We love you, buddy. But mine's eye released to an absolute disaster of press release. That is, I know, up there for a lot of people for the Dog Turd Award for this year because that game looked like it was going to be great. I'll be honest. I didn't play it. And I know Distratory is going to be like, did you play it? No.

But sometimes there's enough hubbub out there and broken stuff to say, hey, this game probably shouldn't have released when it released. I do think that there were some good, like, foundation for Mind's Eye from what I saw. But, man, that studio dropped the ball on that one. Should have followed the GTA pattern. Delay. Yeah, right? Just delay it, man.

Because, again, you can't make up for it. Like, think about it. Minds Eye can put two years into development at this point and make it amazing and nobody will care at this point. Because you have ruined your launch and everybody has already forgotten about it. You know what I mean? What's it? I mean, a big one. the space exploration one

on the man's world. No Man Sky. Yeah. No Man Sky. Like, they've spent a lot of years, you know, almost a decade like they did it. Trying to repair. But how hard did they have to work to do that? That's a lot of free content updates. And still, people like me are like, I'm not trying that again. Exactly. They've been burned. Yeah, I've been burned. So like, yeah, that just shows what that does to, you know, consumers. Yeah. All right, guys. I love this category because this is the one

that like if you're a listener of this show, which you are because you're listening to this show, you know, this is the one where this is like your kind of reminder to say, hey, there's some incredible games that came out that you might have forgotten about. So this is our best under the radar game. And so this is, you know, these are all games that we think are fantastic that might be flying under the radar just a little bit and you should probably play. So our nominees are, abiotic factor, abysis, Absalom, doom the dark ages, and constants.

Yeah. Man, one of these is not like... Oh, come on. What's going on here? All right, Ace, we're going to start with you on this one. First of all, I would have point out a lot of these are starting with A, which, uh... Yeah, we just got lazy and we didn't make it to the B. Yeah, we just stopped here.

We went out the last. trying to make it sound like this category That's a work. Those will work. We actually do our homework people. You know, there's a lot of games out there. So, you know, there is a chance that we forgot about something, but you play as many games as we do and talk about as many games we do.

They start to blur together a little bit. Yeah, it all starts to be, oh. But also, there's only one game on this list that's not an indie game. Like, what the heck? Yeah, dude. That's how big indies have been this. here they even take over the underrated games there you go all right ace what's your winner for this category my winner for this category is abysus i still feel like abysus is completely underrated

and nobody was talking about it until we were talking about it and then even then it's very minimal but it does have you know good reviews and a good player count so people are still playing it that's good i i will say i remember being very interested in abysus this is a rogue like first person shooter you squat up uh they do very i mean we we did a deep dive on this so if anybody's curious listen to that deep dive we had very favorable things to say about abysis i know personally i had a ton of fun in this game it gave me that build variety and just broken builds that we wanted ace got a tattoo of the fish need he loves this game so much did you tattoo artist be like what the heck is this man you know like no i sent him the picture and he said okay

yeah sounds about right probably a good tattoo just don't question what people want man just put it on their skin give it to him he and i are pretty tight so he'll just do whatever no regerts man no regerts uh abysis is a game that a lot of people should play i agree with you this is drastically under the radar it is a lot of fun it is a it's not a game you're going to play for 50 hours although i probably i think i might have 50 hours 40 hours yeah to 100% it um they're still coming out with content and updates and things like that uh a phenomenal game a lot of fun especially if you have a friend or two to play it with uh that's a that's a very good pick ace ryan yep 40 hours is your winner for best

under the radar game for 2025 okay hear me out and i know it's going to be crazy because this game is uh nominated for game of the year for indie game of the year um but i think with all the time i've got in with you josh and then uh recently at the time with ace abalom is so slept on dude it is like the re-invigoration of just like what gaming started out as these side-scrolling crazy games but it's got the art uh the kind of uh the roguelike element to it and and the graphics are great the music is great the the you know everything about it screams polish and perfection and i have fallen absolutely in love with this game and everyone i tell about it everyone i talk to them and I say, you need to get this, you have to buy this. And they play it and they

tell me the same thing. Wow, that's pretty fun. That's great. I'm excited to dive in more. Like, dude, I freaking love it. I think it's super slept on. I have to agree. Yeah. I think even though it is in the category, not enough people are talking about it. Well, we even joked about it in our Absalom deep dive, which just came out, by the way. Yeah. I mean, that was that released just last week. So make sure you check on that. But one of the things we kind of joked about was we read through the nominations for best indie and it's like you've heard of this one you've heard of this one and then it's like and then there's absalom and people were like what's like what is this game so you know listen to that deep dive again spoiler it's an incredible game and and ryan i you know

there's people are going to be like how can you say it's under the radar if it's literally nominated for best indie but i i have to agree with you a little bit because even though it's in that category and it's nominated there are not a lot of people out there that we talk to that know what this game is or have actually heard of this game at that point. Or if they've heard of it, it's only like, yeah, I know the name, but I know nothing about this game or what it is or how good it is. And it is really good. It's so good, dude. So this is a neat category because we all have different winners on this one. I am going to go with a biotic factor. I am a huge fan of survival crafting games. They are a dime a dozen.

it is hard to stand out in this genre. Ace, you and I played the beta for Abiotic Factor or the early access. You know, we both purchased the game and played through every single bit of content that they had at the time. It fully released this year. Abiotic Factor is fantastic, man. I mean, you and I had a blast playing that. There were so many surprises in the game. It kept you going.

It didn't overstay its welcome. It wasn't frustrating. It is just an all-around phenomenal. nominal survival crafting game and like we just had somebody that jumped in our discord server and said hey can somebody recommend me I've been playing satisfactory can somebody recommend me a survival crafting game and dude like instantly a biotic factor I got one for you yeah I got right here like these are the all time greats for these for this genre and a biotic factor is up there dude like it is that that good and I don't hear anybody talking about a biotic factor man we definitely need to hop back into the full release sometime i think we'd have a good time that's like drag lying in yeah yeah but but like here's the problem right like i absolutely love a biotic factor i absolutely love enshrouded like we didn't we we had to bail on in shrouded not because we weren't having a blast but it's like bro we got to go play this other game yeah you

know and enshrouded is great too these are games that will just keep you playing for like just dozens of hours and you love every second of it and it's like I how man it's they're just so good dude I love the genre I am a fan of the genre but trust me people a biotic factor is incredible and that is my my winner for under the best under the radar game because it's incredible dude good product factor is great yep good pick yeah all right guys oh here we go oh here we go here we go here's the next 45 minutes of the episode everybody Ryan I listen dude listen you know we one of the guiding principles of this podcast is we say hey don't opinion shame people right like you know every gamer is different right every gamer is different

we all have different tastes on games i've said it a gazillion times i think star do valley is a dumb game i know people love it it's just not my kind of game right and so i go hey this game isn't for me now here's where ryan and i differ because i am smart and ryan is dumb and i can at least go, Star Do Valley is a good video game. It is a very good game. I can understand it. It's just not for me, but I can respect

what it is, man. And then there's Ryan. So before we get too far into this, we're going to talk about the most overrated game category. And listen, we only have a couple nominees on this one. We have

Silk Song, which is going to shock a lot of people. I think there's going to be a lot of people that agree with that though we have a vowed uh which i think a lot of people can agree with this nomination and then ryan i'm going to let you just because i can't even say it dude i i'm not i'm i refuse to say it so i'm going to let you say what your winner because this is your winner of the most overrated game category why i sit here and and try not to throw up over this so so should i let you guys announce your two winners first and then i'll announce mine i think me and Josh share one, don't we?

We do share one. Yeah. Well, I've already built it up, Ryan. You're going to have to just go because, yeah. Mine is far and away. Far and away. And Josh's buildup sells it even more. Overrated is the antithesis of Expedition 33.

Ooh. It is, it is. Okay, wait, wait. Everybody that's listening, I want you to repeat after me, Ryan is stupid. Go ahead. Bill three. say what you want to say but I have my opinion

and I'm sure there's people there we all know it we all agree it is nobody is saying oh but the music the music's amazing yeah the music's great yeah oh the you know the graphics the graphics the graphics are great oh the character design oh the story yeah you know what it's fine all of those things are good

I think it's an awesome game I think that it was well designed I think that they did an amazing job and they created an awesome game that's not to say that it's not overrated though that game is so stinking boring dude it is so

my brain is short-circuiting right now no okay listen to me listen to me listen to me listen to me listen listen to chippole is good chippole is good is it overrated 10,000 percent yes chikotle is your coli chiquelay is amazing

is it overrated yes it's got chicken but you know what it's okay it's pretty mid it's all right you know there's there's a lot of places that you can go to that people tout as the best restaurant ever but it's just kind of me expedition 33 is an is a good game it is it is very well made it is very well crafted it is polished fine but that doesn't take away from the status of it is it is here and the way people that love it it's up here just the same as a lot of other games like that that that people people just go hard hardcore to the paint for like it it is a good game it is it is awesome

but it is well below what what people uh say it is yeah do you say what you want go ahead bring it come on let's go is is ryan done i muted him i'm just watching his lips to see if he's oh i muted myself i was i was trying to be like you that's all i yeah there go what do you got nothing to say because you know it's true okay it's a good game it is absolutely not true and there's a difference between this game is not for me because i don't like turn based combat versus i think this game is overrated expedition 33 might be one of the most celebrated games in history dude like like legitimately it is up for almost every category for a nomination it might sweep the game awards and you mentioned music the soundtrack for expedition 33 is one of the best

soundtracks that i've ever heard in my life that is that is a universal take i'd agree okay yeah the voice acting in expedition 33 is some of the best voice acting that i have ever heard in my life the graphics are some of the most impressive the animations the art style the characters like the story is one of the best stories that i have ever in characters what oh no dude these characters are like they're so memorable dude people will be like they're instantly memorable so i can understand the take that i don't like turn-based combat i get it ryan's brain needs you know constant stimulation i understand that because i like chaos too so i'm not trying to troll you there but i get the turn-based combat for you is not necessarily your jam

but to say that one of the best games that have come out in like a decade, one of the most celebrated games, one of the most nominated games for awards is overrated. It's insanity to me, dude. It is perfectly fine to say this game ain't for me, but at some point you have to go,

I can appreciate what this game is. That's what I'm saying. It's not for me. It's not overrated. It's literally rated the way it should be. Nope, nope, don't because the guys like you. Because the guys like you. No, it is, it is good.

It is amazing. It's literally in every category in the game award. So you're saying that, oh, like, 99% of gamers are wrong? You know what's going to happen when you or somebody else brings up Silk Song? They're going to be like, what are you talking about? It's rated this and that. And everybody in the chat and everybody on the internet is going to say all these things about how amazing this is. I'm not saying that it's not a good game.

I'm not saying that they didn't do revolutionary things. I am saying that it's here and the praise is up here. It's down here. It is a good game. It is not an all-timer. It is not something that should be a... Let me ask you a question. Okay.

Let me ask you a question. For Silk Song. We covered this, but we said, hey, Silk Song has some glaring flaws in its gameplay and its difficulty and its frustration levels. There are numerous things that we can mention in Silk Song that we go, this is why we think Silk Song is overrated. You have one complaint and one complaint only about Expedition 33. And that's that you don't like turn-based combat. Like, you're not saying the voice acting's bad, the music's bad, the gameplay's bad,

the characters are bad, it's unmemorable. You're not saying any of that stuff. You're saying it's not my kind of game. The one thing that you can mention about Expedition 33 is simply, that you don't like turn-based combat. If you could have the best... So we can give a laundry list of things to say, this is why we think this game is overrated.

That's my point. You can't say it's overrated because you don't like that style of game. You can have the best sardine pizza in the world, but if people don't like sardines, that's what it is, man. That's my point. You don't like sardines,

but you can't say that the best sardine pizza in the world's overrated when it's literally the best sardine pizza in the world. If the four people that like, sardine pizza are like, this is the best pizza ever. It's like, nah, it's, it's, I'm sure it's good for sarding pizza, but it's not the best. No, listen, dude, it's a good game. I said, I said it. It's, it's good. It's such an idiot, Ryan. No, no, I just, my whole thing is that the praise is too high from what it deserves. It is, it is, it is awesome.

It is a good game, but it is, it is far and above what it should be recognized as. Yeah, Say it. Come out me, bro. All right, well, next category for us is worst take ever on this podcast. And the winner is Ryan saying that Expedition 33 is overrated. Overrated. Oh, man. All right.

Well, listen, we, we, one of the things we always say is we are always honest with our opinions on the show. And Ryan is going to be eviscerated on the internet. Bring it. I mean I and I love it but hey I you know they can all wait their turn to make their comments they can all wait as much as I love to troll you as much as I love to troll you there are people that comment on our episodes and this again just goes to that you know not every game is for every person but there are people out there that are like Ryan that are like bro I can't stand the talk about Expedition 33 now I'm gonna be nice I'm not gonna say anything about those people like I won't

say anything bad about Ryan moving forward other than that he's an idiot. That's it. I got it out of my system. We're good. I said it's a good game. I said it's a really good game. But the praise is too high. It's not fitting. That's all. That's what overrated means. You know what? Good on you, Ryan, for sticking to your guns and being willing to say it. Yeah, you ain't going to pressure me. There's three other people in the world that are agreeing with you, Ryan. And I'm sure we're paid by all these developers. We're paid by all these developers. It doesn't matter.

I'll tell them. I'll give them the what for. Well, that's sure to soften a blow when I want to say that Silk Song is completely Ryan just made this so much easier for us but also also for us to nominate Silk Song in Expedition 33 in the most overrated game category might rub a few people the wrong way boys

we're going to get lit up for sure yeah we're all in trouble for this one that's all right let's tell us why your winner is Silk Song oh yeah it's Silk Song I mean that's my winner too the difficulty the runbacks the inconsistency of it all it was just besides the pretty art

get good and it was also incredibly just overhyped by the fact it was a game we waited 13 years for yeah yeah I am with you on this one and look I know there's a lot of people that absolutely love Silk Song I will say this we have a community of over 1,200 gamers

very active lots of conversations going on at any given moment our take on Silk Song is not as crazy is like you would think. It's not like Ryan's take on Expedition 33. We have heard this from a lot of people that have said, look, I actually kind of agree with you guys. It is a very good video game. It is masterfully crafted. That is one thing that we can admit or, you know, Ace and I can admit when a game is masterfully crafted. We can kind of say, hey, look, we understand that. But at the same

time, this game has some glaring flaws that really hold it back. And that is why we feel like Silk Song is overrated. It's like, yes, it was hyped to the ends of the earth. It was the most anticipated, the most wishlisted game on Steam. There was all of this buildup. And then we played it. All three of us played it. And we all independently of each other, because as people can see, we do not agree on this

podcast all the time. We all agree that Silk Song was not the game that we were hoping for. And it was overrated in that case. So. I was bummed, man. But not that it was a bad game. I know. We never said it was bad.

It's not a bad game. It's not a bad game. It's just overrated. Yes, just overrated. But it's overrated for good reasons, not just some arbitrary reason whatsoever. So, all right, we got. You guys got to move on from that. Moving on. All right, moving on boys. All right, we're getting into the, we're getting into the needy-gritty here, guys. Let's go with most memorable moments of 2025. This could be in a game. This could be about the show. This could be, you know, whatever. As long as it's related to gaming in some way. What is your most memorable moment of 2025? I'm actually going to read some nominations on this one because we have a few. We are biased, so these might have to do with the podcast, too, guys. We have Ryan's maid costume as Ryan's punishment being nominated for most memorable moment. We have Ace and his internet issues and Ace becoming a rat on several episodes of this podcast.

And then we also have everybody as Josh when you two turkeys dressed up like me with your bald caps and your glorious beards. And I had no idea what was going on there. And so those are some of the memorable show moments, not counting, you know, the inadvertent muting and some of the other shenanigans that happen on this show as well. my winner for this one is Ryan's maid costume, you know. I bet it is. I never knew you could look so good, buddy.

That's all because he lost Jeopardy too, mind you. Yeah, this was, yeah, this came about from Ryan losing our gaming Jeopardy episode and this was his punishment. And the listeners actually get to pick the punishment, but they turned it over to me. And I said, I got you. and we got Ryan a French maid outfit that was that was quite revealing. Ryan being a good sport took it like a champ and really rocked that outfit as well and then made me feel a little uncomfortable about. Yeah, how did you feel about that, man?

Are you questioning your feelings after that? I don't know. I'm not going to know. No, no, no. So, all right, Ace, what's your winner for this category? I had a few nominations for this as well. I did take over hosting the indie episodes early on And there was a moment in our Kickstarter episode

Where I may have flubbed the amount of money That was That was raised A billion cajillion dollars? What? And I've never been more embarrassed in my life And I never listen to that episode because of that I listened to that episode Because I was not on that episode

And then I'm like, and Ryan and John were basically like, bro, are you sure? And he was like, yeah. I was in the zone. Wait, what? All right. That's my only excuse. I was like in the zone just trying to get through this. Such a good.

You were in the wrong zone, honey. I was in the wrong zone. I was in the wrong zone. My other ones, you know, we've met tons of great developers this year. Like I mentioned we met the Tales of Iron Developers. We've met, you know, Devin Santee of Mr. Sleepy Man. Warhorse Studios. Warhorse Studios.

those like we had a ton of great interviews and great people we got to meet uh talking to devon was a real treat but for me number one was uh our our phasmophobia stream uh oh my goodness when i got locked out of the closet when the ghost started haunting and i just started cursing you too like say i love that reel so much dude i i've personally watched that reel probably 50 times dude and i've laughed all 50 times yeah and it's one of the those like i get you kind of had to understand like the context and stuff but ryan and ace had never played phasmophobia ace gets hunted by the ghost Ryan and I are hiding in a closet and lock him out and ace had the most choice words i have ever heard from ace directed directly to right and

like i was dying dude that was it was so good the best part is we were streaming and then like he came he got in but he was already dead And so, like, he was like, and he dies right in front of us. He's like, you're son of them. Yeah, and Ryan and I were just giggling, dude. We were cackling like hiatus, dude. We were laughing so hard. That's a good one, dude.

Any of our streaming moments are highlights for me. I've enjoyed our streaming, that's for sure. Yeah, I, yeah, that's, oh, man, that's a good one. All right, Ryan, what do you got for yours? Man, Josh, you took a lot of the ones that I remember kind of fondly and then Ace with that one. That's a good reminder, too. I'm going to go with recency bias. Dude, the, playing Absalom with Ace recently on the stream

and us just grinding out to beat the boss and getting the most epic res I've ever gotten my life to where we had nothing else and I had to circle around and the boss is like zigzagging in front of Ace like guarding him. He's like a goalkeeper and I got to like kind of juke him out and I was able to bait him down low and circle around and then we ended up beating

the main boss on stream and unlocked a bunch of stuff like it was just such a cool. I was supposed to be working that day and then like I didn't get material so I'm like I'm just going to stream with Ace and it just turned out to be a really cool day and a really cool thing happened

so that one for me was like it was pretty awesome. That was one of those top of the world moments for like everyone we could tell everyone in the chat's cheering us on as we're trying to beat Absalom and it's like you pull off the res of the century and from then we're up and we're in the fight the whole time it was such a cool thing dude and you had the crazy build out dude oh yeah all of it all of it lined up and

worked out perfectly it was it was awesome yeah cool yeah unfortunately josh was a part of it yeah that sounds that sounds like a lot of fun hey you went out of your family you weren't even home don't even i know how ryan now i know how ryan felt every time ace and i were playing and he jumped into the voice jett you were guys yeah i'd be at work and i'd see ace and josh and you guys are in the gaming one and I'm like, oh, you're right, Ryan,

it stinks a little bit. It does. I wanted to be part of the fun too. All right, guys, we're getting, all right, we're getting down to the,

the, the, the, uh, the big categories here. Um, we have, what do we have left?

We have best game that you played this year. This is not necessarily a game that released this year. It's just the best game you played this year. And then we have our game of the year winner, uh, for each of us. So we'll start off with best game you play. you played this year.

Again, this does not have to be a game that released in 2025. It's just a game that you experienced this year. Ryan, let's start with you, buddy. What is the best game that you played in 2025? Raiders roll out. Oh, yeah. Dude, I'm going arc Raiders, man. Yeah, absolutely.

We got to do something in the end of the year for our graders, man. This one is, uh, it was something different it is not because here's the deal with arc raiders it is not only just the game which is amazing it has amazing mechanics and gunplay and movement and all the things that you look for within a game but the community to be part of what developed and and it's hard to explain to people that don't really understand or really aren't of that mindset but you see a lot of people that are pvp orientated and they're like i just shoot everybody on site and it's like No, no, no. You don't know what developed. The solo world of Arc Raiders became something that it didn't have to be. And that's what blew my mind is that everyone was able to kill each other and they didn't. And they just quested and they worked together and we played together and we destroyed the arc and sometimes you would get bad guys occasionally. And that's what kind of kept you on your toes, which was cool. That was a cool part of it. And so to me, it was one of the most amazing.

experiences I've ever had in gaming and it is far and away my my favorite game that I've played this year it is it is something that I still I mean I got a hundred something hours in it already I mean we had like 80 hours in like the first like two weeks three weeks we put a lot of time in but yeah I was I was yeah I checked my hours playing I was like already like what oh no yeah it's it's just it's something that uh Man, it's a generational type experience, and you had to be there in the moment. To be part of that, it's still an amazing game, even if you jump in right now. But that first few weeks was something that I will remember absolutely for the rest of my life.

Yeah, yeah. It's hard to quantify just how good Arc Raiders really is to people that have played it. And dude, I'm seeing to this day, I mean, the game's been out what, like a month now? and I'm seeing to this day people jumping in and being like oh my gosh like I can't get enough of this and it's like yeah that's that's kind of a general consensus man for people that start playing um hey Ryan how would you feel if I said that arc raiders not overrated how would you I mean if I know you were going how would you were going the second I'm just asking you how would you feel if I said that why would you probably feel like really why would it be overrated why would it be

overrated. It has already been voted out. It's not awarded for anything. It's getting no worse. I don't think it's overrated. It can't be overrated. It already got voted out of players' voice choice. Yes, it's out of everything. It's getting no love at all.

Oh, man. All right, Ace, best game you played this year. Best game I played this year was all thanks to our listeners. Nothing else could have made me do this, but Hand of God. I played Red Dead Redemption option two for the very first time this year.

I love it. And it raised all my expectations of those kind of games going forward to a ridiculous degree. I had no idea what I was missing out on because I just felt it, it felt it was overrated perhaps. Yeah. And, you know, maybe I was very wrong. That's good.

Honestly, like, it's, we had no idea what to expect, dude. Like, legitimately. Like, we had no idea where, like, is Ace going to like this? like what if he doesn't like it that kind of thing but it is like it's kind of like heartwarming to be like oh dude the fact that you got to experience that the fact that you felt the same way that so many other people feel is just awesome dude you know we see this all the time where we talk about the mount rush more of games you know and and it's one of those things where if you haven't played these games you are doing yourself as a gamer like a disservice you know even if you don't

and i know your fear ace was like well what if i don't think it's the best game ever made. You know, then I feel weird or I have some weird take like Ryan has with Expedition 33 or something like that. But, but, you know, but also at the same time, like, even if you don't think the game is one of the best games ever made, you're still going to have the memory of playing through that game for the first time and that experience that we, as gamers, try to capture so often with games. Like, you know, this is one reason, like, Arc Raiders is all the rage because it's making people feel that feeling of like, I can't wait to get home from work. I can't wait to

have time to play. Like, I'm thinking about this game when I'm not playing this game. And there are few games, few and far between that we get that feeling from a game. And I think as gamers were always searching for that feeling and to have that and to have you experience Red Dead Redemption

2 is incredible. This is why we do the hijack a host perk for people that support the show. It doesn't always pan out this way. That's for sure. But when it does, it's really something awesome because it forces us to play games that we wouldn't normally experience at the same time. So that's a great. That's a great choice. I'm going to shorten this one up. Best game that I played this year is Expedition 33. Oh, wow. I have said Expedition 33 is a top 10 game of all time for me. This is a game that I feel like was crafted for me. I love the turn base combat. I love the parrying. I love how they turn turn base combat active. I love build variety. I love progression. I love memorable characters, the music, the story. It literally hits on every single cylinder for me.

That is hands down the best game that I have played this year. And honestly, it's the best game that I've played in multiple years. What do you mean term-based combat active? What makes it active? Yeah, what do you mean term-based combat active? The dodging and the parrying system that Expedition 33 has where you actually have to time and pay attention to when they're hitting you and what their attacks are and the timing of dodging those

or trying to parry those and the risk-reward of that system. and all of the depth and builds that can go into that, Ryan? Because, you know, you can build your character to where if they actually parry something, they do a lot more damage or they get, you know, effects or things like that from it, too. But you wouldn't know that because you think the game's overrated. No, I do know, I do know what you can do. I just didn't think that it was very good is all. I was that.

I don't think Ryan made it past the title screen. He just saw it. That is not true. That is not true. He said, he made it like three hours in and four hours of just leaving the game. I made way more than three hours. That's not, you know. No, no, you know what?

I am, hold up. No, he's pulling it up right now. Oh, no, he's pulling it up his game time. All right, we got to move on. We got to move on. All right. The final category of the show, the one, the game of the year category. Now, listen, you all out there have heard all of these nominees before.

So there's really not like the nominees here. you know we have talked about hey we would replace you know we did this in our gaming uh game nominees like the snubs and dubs so we're not going to rehash all of that i just want to hear what your winner is for these uh so ace let's start with you your game this is it this is the big one this is you saying this is the winner of the game of the year you personally for the video gamers podcast awards ace it's haydys two headies two is game of the year for me oh my My goodness, Hades 2 is so freaking good. It's so freaking good.

It's everything you're looking for, not only a sequel, but a rogue leg in general. The story's great. They've actually, they went back and adjusted the parts of the story. People didn't like to include more Melanoi and less Zagrius, because it's her story. So these are devs that listen to their fan base as well. So it's like, well, how much work do you ask for than devs who are still actively making the game better for you? It was over for me, man. when I got the cross save.

That was that's it. I could play on my computer and then I could just play in bed with my switch. Like that was, I was done, dude. It's such a good game. That's a really, really good pick. We literally could not find fault in Hades 2. And did we,

did the three of us unanimously give it 10 out of 10? Nope. You and I did. I don't know if Ryan did. Yeah, I think it was like a 9-5 or something like. 9-5 or something like that. I mean, it's way up.

It is amazing. Masterpiece of a game, man. Like I could. absolutely see Hades 2 winning game of the year, like at the, you know, the official game awards, which let's be honest, aren't as cool as this, you know, this episode. But that's true. Yeah, I could see that. I think it would shock people, but there's very few games that are like Hades 2 that are just almost perfection when it comes to a video game. Yeah. So, all right. Ryan, I'm guessing Expedition 33 is not your game of the year. So I'm very curious what

your winner for the game of the year category, the best game of 2025, which was a banger of a year for video games. How do you pick a winner when you're just flooded with absolute, just incredible video games? What do you got, Ryan? Man, this one, this one is really, really difficult. Because like you said, what, what a year of games. Like, I remember, Josh, I know you know this. Like, last year we're, like, man, next year doesn't look too good. There's no way it'll be as good as this year. And then what did we get, dude?

We're so stupid. We're so stupid. We are so dumb. We got blown away by all these games. And a lot of them, you know, being indie, that like really blew us away too that we had a lot of fun with. So there's so much that we played this year that really kind of, you know, knocked our socks off.

for me though the overall game of the year has to be kingdom come deliverance to um i think it is it is like it is something that i i am going to absolutely on our break we always take a kind of the end of the year a couple week break i am going to dive back into this game hopefully i can come out of uh and resurface you know from this world once i get in but it is there's more than i ever thought would be in a video game like that. This, like, blows Skybram and are these others kind of out of the water, honestly, with, like, the detail and what you can do within this game. So, yeah, it is, it is something that I never expected, and I am extremely excited to dive back in

and play even more. We have, you know, 40, 50, 60 hours in it, and I'm excited to do another 60 more. And I know people that have done 140 hours and they're barely past the wedding, you know, so it's like it there's so much you can play in this game uh that that i'm excited to dive in and kind of really see where it goes there are i'll be honest i don't know that i can think of a game that is like kingdom come deliverance too like like legitimately it is it is one of the most impressive games that i think i've ever seen um and not only is it impressive from like a visual standpoint and a world standpoint and a character standpoint and a gameplay standpoint. Like,

you know, I've said this many times. Like, you know, widely regarded Witcher 3 has some of the best side quests in a video game ever, right? Like, that's a pretty, pretty common take for a lot of people. Like, King Become Deliverance 2 has some of the best side quests I think I've ever seen. Like, it ranks up there with like Witcher 3 in that regard. And that is some of the highest praise that you can give a game. I'm actually with you, Ryan. Like, I have had the craving to, because I didn't beat it. I mean, I think, you know, like you said, I think I'm 40, 50 hours in and I feel like I'm just scratching the surface of this game. But like, I kind of want to return to that world at the same time and experience it again, which is super rare for me. It does not happen

for you. Yeah. If you have not experienced Kingdom Come Deliverance to, you are missing out, like big time. This game is insanely impressive in almost every aspect, like honestly. You know, if I was going to say like there was some like negative you know it's it is a little bit slower pacing because it's like a grand adventure though it's not meant to be a fast pace game and so if it was like if there was going to be something that would put people off it's just the fact that this game takes its time to craft that world and that experience and you know not everything in the 1400s when this game takes place was go go go go yeah you know like people were just living their lives and doing things man and it

it took a while to go from point A to point B, but there were things that could happen along the way and stuff like that. Absolutely a phenomenal game. I really hope that it gets the credit it deserves at the game awards because this game deserves credit, man. My winner,

I'm just going to, Expedition 33. I've made no, I've hinted, I've straight up told people for weeks now. That's it. I've talked about it enough. I know people don't need to hear it for the 30th time. Expedition 33. It's a flawless game for me. I have not had a game experience like this in like honestly like a

decade. God of War 2018, which is one of my favorite games ever, might be my favorite game ever. Like the Expedition 33 gave me that vibe where it's like I instantly knew this game was going to be an all-timer for me. So if I had to put money down. There you go people. If I had to put money down on one, it's Expedition 33. Oh, I would be shocked. Honestly, and I think a lot of people will be if it doesn't win game of the year. The only question is, is it going to sweep? Like, that's the, to me, that is the question. Is it going to sweep all the categories?

Are they going to just be nice to other games and get them? It'll probably do really well, honestly. Those artsy-fartsy games always do. Same within, like, the movie world or the, you know, music world. Like, I think it'll do very, very well in the awards. Yeah. All right. Well, listen, everybody, there you go.

We're done. We're done for 2025, people. You know, that's it. this is the last brand new episode that you're going to get. Now listen, don't worry. You're going to get to hear our voices because we're going to take some of our favorite episodes. We're going to re-release those over the holiday break.

We will return in the new year with a very, very highly anticipated episode where we will draft our most anticipated games of 2026. I absolutely crushed this for 2025 for anybody that's curious.

But we'll have Ace. So Ace will have to kind of give familiar with some AAA titles that are going to release and get excited about. Oh, boy. We will be back with, don't tell him. Don't tell him he'll draft all, all indie and we'll make, we'll kill it. You're right. That's a competition, Ryan.

Well, you kill it because based on this year, I wouldn't have killed it. Yeah. That's actually true. You didn't be me. You didn't be me. My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, first week of the new year with our most anticipated games of 2026 and our game of the year draft that we do way too early in the year to just kind of get the year started off

right listen everybody thank you for every single one of you that has ever tuned into an episode of this podcast we really can't thank you enough we absolutely love doing this podcast we love the response that you all have to us talking about video games it really does mean the world to us we're going to come out in 2026 swinging we've got some big plans some great ideas on how to improve the show. That is our promise to you out there is that we're always going to strive to get better and better until we rule the world as the best gaming podcast ever. You just call us Thanos. But we love everybody. We'll make half the of you disappear. So listen, reminders, support us on Patreon. There's a link in the episode description. We need that to keep doing this.

It goes a long way. We give you a ton of awesome perks. Join our Discord community. If you are like, no guys don't leave me that's where we live we're on our discord server all the time all three of us are super active there we're playing games with people we're talking all the time so if you need a gaming community that is awesome make sure you join the discord server make sure you rate and follow the show that is also super important to this podcast so take the time to do that thank you to everybody that has done that already and if you haven't done it take a second to do that now guys what a year 2025 has been amazing i'm super excited for 20s 26 because there's some bangers already

that's going to do it for this episode that's going to do it for this year until next time happy gaming now Ryan's pretend but the listeners have no idea

they're like why was there this silence everybody I love you thank you so much you mean more than you can possibly imagine and as always see ya thank you all so much happy holidays and peace out