Video Gamers Podcast - Moments We Couldn’t Predict: A Year of Video Game Surprises – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are diving into the biggest twists, shocks, and “no way that just happened” moments that have hit the gaming world—and even our own podcast. From unexpected breakout hits to wild industry shakeups, we’re breaking down the surprises that had us rewinding trailers, double-checking headlines, and questioning everything we thought we knew about video games. Whether it was a sleeper indie that stole the spotlight, a major studio making the boldest move of the year, or a moment on the show none of us saw coming, we’re covering it all. If you love video games that keep you guessing and a podcast crew that’s always ready for a good plot twist, this is the episode for you. Don’t miss this jam-packed, unpredictably fun celebration of the year’s most shocking stories in gaming—only on the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder and Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/vgp 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

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Shop now at ca.pandora.net or visit your closest Pandora store. Get no frills delivered. Shop the same in-store prices online and enjoy unlimited delivery with PC Express Pass. Get your first year for $2.50 a month. Learn more at pceexpress.ca. podcast. One of the best parts of gaming is the surprises we get each and every year, from surprise releases to epic failures to console announcements and more. And 2025 had all of these plus some. On today's episode, we're going to be breaking down our biggest surprises of 2025. But first,

some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me quite possibly the biggest of the year was that one time that he was on time for recording or maybe it was that he loved dispatch or that Arc Raiders made him feel like a little kid again or maybe it was him actually fixing up his room

so his background looks good finally it's Ryan you didn't like the you didn't like the tent I had to put myself in every time dude oh man I'm so happy I don't have to set that up anymore I feel happy too and all it took was

some closet doors people that's all it took was some closet doors you don't know you don't know the battle i had to go through to get closet doors on this this room i for whatever reason my wife's like i like the open look and it was uh it was my married men you know out there like it's a battle so uh yeah it was a lot of work well we all thank you ryan because you actually have a good background now you know so and you have closet doors so there you go win win and joining us the biggest surprise of the year was just how good he's become at being a host on this podcast and leading the indie episodes we pick on them but this man has crushed his role as a host and I suppose we should give him his well-deserved kudos.

It's A's. I don't know what to say. I'm starstruck now. Why is it so good? I was just dumbfounded, man. Ryan's like, wait a minute. We don't talk nice about AIS. We don't get compliments.

And A's just staring into the camera like, where's the catch? Where's the insult? Where's like the teasing? What, dad? Well, I'm happy. I'm happy I've gotten to host the indie episodes and I've gotten better at it because some of those were rough. And you're killing it, homie.

Like I said, I mean, Ace, we pick on you, but we love you, buddy. And you have crushed it, dude. You have come such a long way, man. It is, it's pretty. awesome to see, to be honest. And I know that we are very glad to have you as part of this podcast. I know the listeners are. And we know the indie devs are because they tell us, they're like, that ace guy getting exposure for all these indie games is pretty awesome. So you got to stand up for little guy. And then I give them your home address and telephone number. So, yeah, sorry. Oh, no,

not again. Guys, I love these. I mean, we're approaching the end of the year. Fear not everybody that's out there. Our game awards show is coming next week. So, wait, do we record it next week? No, it's coming the week after. Sorry, we record it next week. And then it's coming the week after that. Sorry, it's time is, it is. And people want you to like be there at a certain time. Be there at a certain time and stuff like really hard. I know. But don't worry. Our, our, the video gamers podcast, game awards episode is coming. It will be a big episode. We are going to have all of the fun categories that we have and all that.

So that is coming. But it is fun to look back at the year as a whole and kind of say, hey, what were some of the biggest surprises this year? It doesn't always mean it's a good thing. It could be a bad thing because, let's be honest. Sometimes, you know, in gaming, it's those bad surprises that stand out to us as well.

So we're going to be talking about all that. We have each come up with a list of, I think, five or six surprises this year that we'll get to. But guys, got to thank somebody man it's time to thank another person christmas is here early for us because a long time listener of the show an awesome member of our community um somebody that we absolutely just love and adore they're they watch all the twitch streams they're commenting they're active in the community they're just an awesome person so a huge shout out to the one and only lucy moon who upped their pledge from rare to epic status what lucy

see you rock you're awesome and that's all we can say because we don't need to give you a big head or anything since we hyped you up a little bit on the pre show as well so there you go but we really do appreciate you honestly listen you know we don't get to thank everybody that continues to support this show um in every episode but you all absolutely mean the world to us our community and the supporters of this show and everybody that went out of their way to actually you know support us on patreon and tell a friend and leave a review it means the world to us. It is the reason we are at where we are at with this podcast as one of the top independent gaming podcasts in the world, believe it or not. So thank you to everybody out

there that supports that and made that happen. Because it's pretty incredible, to be honest. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. All right, guys, we got a lot to talk about. So I want to just jump into this. The biggest surprises this year, we each came up with an individual list because what might surprise me, might not surprise Ace, you know, surprisingly, Ace not finishing Expedition 33, you could say is like one of those big surprises. See, I was too nice in the beginning, Ace. It was too good to be true. I knew it was coming. I am going to finish Expedition 33 over our holiday break, all right? Hold me to that. Hold me to that. I will hold you to that, I will hold you to that, ace. And if you don't hold to that, I will troll you like you've never been

to start 2026. To that, I will not finish Expedition 30. Yeah, well, yeah. So, I mean, let's be honest, Ryan. Our expectations for you are much lower than they are for Ace. It's just the way I like it, baby. I feel it's spicy today.

Right where I want? By the way, Josh hopped in, like, early in the pre-show right away, and he was just right, he's just like, attack dog immediately. Yeah. I'm digging it, man. He's ready for our craters. He's just, like, getting his, he's getting him up. I'm having a good time, boys. All right.

I'll tell you what. Ace, we'll start with you, buddy. We did, like I said, there really weren't any rules on this other than something that surprised you. It could be anything to do with gaming, anything to do with a game. You know, it could be a disappointment because, like I said, those can be surprising results as well. But let's start with you, Ace. And my list is in no particular order. We're not going like the biggest surprise.

of this year and then down through five or six or whatever but what do you got for us ace so i have my list in front of me here i'm just going to jump around it but i think probably the biggest surprise for me this year was our we uh we introduced the hijack a host where legendary supporters can hijack you know or vote or sorry legendary epic supporters can vote to hijack one of us each month to play a game they all basically unanimously made me play one of the greatest games of all time red dead Redemption 2 when I was thrown into the host pool. Yep. And I felt

so much like this game was so overhyped and everyone was always talking about it. It was, you know, too mainstream as we like to say. And boy, oh boy, did I get humbled because that is possibly the best game ever made. I mean,

yeah. It's, I remember like before you got hijacked to play this ace, like talking to you about this game because you have played some of the greats like you've played cyberpunk you've played god of war like you've played some of these like all timers elden ring you know you love elden ring dude like yeah absolutely yeah and so it was always this really weird thing for us to be like wait a minute you're not like

opposed to triple a titles so why have you not played like what is widely regarded is one of the best video games ever made and your response to that was like i'm worried i'm just going to be disappointed like how can it possibly live up to the hype at this point you know i mean we are very familiar with the fact that people over hype things and then that gets you we would never well may me not us i wasn't saying us look anybody out there that's been listening for a while knows i do not get caught up in hype on video games guys so ever ever you mean i don't know if you're playing at ryan or what on this one a spin i get so i was very worried that this game would not reach what i expected from it, but it absolutely does.

It clears, quite frankly. That made me so happy. I was going to be so upset if you didn't like it, too. It's like you want people to play these games, man. You know, like, anybody out, and it amazes, like, I'm guilty, right? Like, I have been saying over the break, like, I'm probably going to play Spider-Man for the first time ever, you know? And everybody goes, like, bro, Spider-Man's incredible.

And I go, yeah, it's what I keep hearing. I've just never played it. And so, you know, it's funny. that we're kind of all going like here's some of the games that i want to play and i want to finish or experience and stuff like that but i think we take for granted sometimes because we have people in our community all the time that are like yeah i've never played cyberpunk i've never played god of war never played elder ring i've never played the witcher i've never you know all these these all-timer mount rushmore type video games and people go yeah just never played them

and it's like wait a minute why shouldn't you play these like why is the hard Stop what you're doing. Go pick them up and play them and see why everybody talks about these games the way that they do. So I'll be honest, A's, I wasn't sure how Red Dead 2 was going to, like, how you were going to respond to that because not every game is for everybody. At the same time. Red Dead's for everybody, dude. It didn't have me at first. It had to win me over.

But, yeah. No, I definitely. I agree with you. I was terrified. I was terrified. I was terrified. I would hate it. I was so terrified.

find I would hate it. And then everyone would just dogpile me. I would come all the way over to the East Coast and get you, boy. Yeah. Yeah. So A's loving Red Dead Red Dead Redemption and agreeing that it is one of the best games ever made is was one of the biggest surprises. I think for all of us, honestly. Like I think we thought you would like it, but you just, you never quite know. Yep. Yep. All right. Ryan, let's move over to you, buddy. What's your first surprise? Um, well, we mentioned, uh, I don't know if it was pre-show or before or whatever, but, uh, Expedition 33, like turn-based combat, not my style. Lack of gameplay, like, action-orientated gameplay, stuff like that, not my style. I was extremely surprised at how much I genuinely fell in love head over heels with dispatch.

I am surprised by this as well, dude. It totally caught me off guard. Like I've said before in our deep dive and, in uh you know through our discord and stuff i almost did it in one sitting i did seven episodes of the eight in one sitting and then it was like one in the morning and i'm trying to stay awake and i just couldn't and i did the next one the next day in the morning um well maybe afternoon i don't remember when i woke up but uh it um it was it was i i don't like things that are you know choose your own adventure like not a lot of gameplay not a lot of action like forward stuff like that like and and I was so surprised on how much I just got completely sucked into

this world in this in this story uh dude I I love that game so much and that that shocked the crap out of me I was not expecting to like it as much as I did had you ever played like a purely narrative game like this before maybe a long time ago like when I was a kid or something you know back back in the like but nothing of like recent memory no no nothing that I kind of like a new genre almost for you at the same time. Pretty much. Yeah, yeah, which is, I mean, it's set a high bar. So, I don't know

if I want to play another one. It's funny with when we made you play dispatch is we were pulling you away from Arc Raiders to do it. Yeah, that's true, too. So, like, I thought there was going to be some sour, some sour thoughts going into dispatch. Why do you think I did it all in one sitting,

dude? It is funny when Ace and I were like, hey, we think we need to cover this game. And Ryan was just like, bro, like, but I'm playing Arc Raiders. We weren't supposed to cover this game. And we were like, yeah, dude, but it's pretty popular. And we could probably knock it out pretty quick. And Ace and I were like, let's do it.

And then Ryan was like, what the heck, guys? Like, you're like, what the heck, man? You guys move on too fast. You guys don't stick with games long enough. I'm pretty sure that is like the exact statement that he said. Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I said, which is true with Josh, for sure. Ace is still playing Marvel rivals for some reason. Condition guys, okay.

I have a condition. Go talk about my condition. I will say for Dispatch, like, I assume that I would like this. As much as I love chaos and action in my video games, I have played games like this before. I have played like what remains of Edith Finch, Firewatch and some of these like narrative games. And they can, they can hit really, really well at the right time because they are so different. And man, dispatch is just the cream of the crop of some of these, man. Like, you can tell the love and passion that went into it.

I want more. Same. I do think that one kind of surprised us too. Ryan did try to hide his thoughts on that, but I don't know. We know you a little too well, I guess. All right, guys, for me, one of the biggest surprises of 2025

is simply the fact that this was, without a doubt, the year of the indie, dude. 100%. I mean, God, what the heck happened, man? you know like I've I've liked indie games like Ace you know you're the indie guy but I have you know I have branched out into indie games before I quite enjoy them you know it's I wouldn't say it's like they're my go-toes necessarily but I you know I've dabbled in the indie world and 2025 hits and it is like almost every game up for nomination is an indie game this year and it is like and that's not even talking about some of the other indies that will not. get shouted out at the game awards that we absolutely love, dude, like Abysus. Yeah. We don't talk about Abyssus a whole lot anymore, but that game was a ton of fun.

You know, we have our deep dive on Absalom that is coming out on Monday, so a week from, or less than a week from when this episode airs, that's thankfully in the game of the year nominations for the indie category, but it's like, I think there's a gazillion people out there that are like, Absalom, what the heck is this game, man? Yeah. You know, there's so many others that we played this year where it's like they're not going to be talked about, but they're incredible, dude, you know? And so I think for me, one of the absolute biggest surprises of 2025 was how the indie games just absolutely smashed, smashed the AAA titles this year and have just come out swinging and been like, this is how good a game can be. you do not need to dump $200 million into making a game that is incredible, you know?

I mean, I joke around about hating peak, which it's not joking. I hate peak. But let's be honest, like, the world loves peak. The world loves it. You know, and it's like, and like that's a game that took over the world for a little while, man. You know, RV there yet had its moment in the sun. Repro. I feel like there's a dozen of these that we could talk about where it's just like,

you know, you want to talk about a game that broke the game. world for a few weeks or a month or something, I feel like there's so many in 2025 and that's not counting the absolute bangers like Expedition 33, Kingdom Come Deliverance to, Hades to, Silk Song, you know, for other people, you know, those kind of things. But yeah, the fact that 2025 was the year of the indie, I think we'll have ramifications for the future as well. But to me, that's one of the absolute biggest surprises that I think we encountered this year. I don't think we had a single. The warm and fuzzies for sure. I was like, I don't think we had a single month this year where there wasn't some

indie game that was trending or really taking over. Like, it just felt like the indies were running this year and there was no competition. Like, that's the other thing. They're just fun games, man. And affordable. They don't cost you everything. And to me, it's, I find it really interesting too. Like, what do you guys think is the, do you think it's just that technology has gotten better so it's easier for smaller groups of development? a group of one or or you know group of one but one person or or a group of five or 10 to really develop a quality game where before it was so much harder like when you think of it you think of like you know like you said peak or lethal company or these kind of eh games but but they're just

getting better more refined more polished and indie of today doesn't mean what indie used to mean you know so it's just they're they're way better than what they used to be even like two three years ago. So I find it really surprisingly. I don't know if it's just like tech that's advancing so it's easier for them to develop or what, but it's, I'm here for it, man. Yeah. I don't know what it is, dude. I don't know if it's like Unreal Engine 5 is, you know, like I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's COVID. Maybe it's that people had a lot of free time during COVID and they went, hey, we're going to start developing this game. And here we are, you know, three, four years later, where it's like, okay, well, now it's time for me to release this game that I had all this time to

put in. I don't know, man. That's a good theory. Listen, indie developers out there, you know, drop us a line. Let us know why are we seeing such an increase in the quality of indie titles now. You know, it could just be that it's a little bit easier to get a publisher, you know, to get that money to be able to actually publish your game and to pay people to make these games. You know, the indie title, you know, we tend to think, well, that means they're not funded at all. That's not true.

like indie companies can absolutely get funding from publishers that helps them out. That's not a bad thing by any means. And it doesn't mean that they're not indie studios at that point either. So maybe it's just easier to get funds to be able to do this now. I don't know. There's a lot more money there. Yeah. I mean, it may be like kind of like the rise of Hollywood with like cinema like where

where a lot of movies were made once that was kind of happening. And now kind of the rise of video games where all of us, you know, born in the 80s and 90s and stuff in early 2000s are all gamers. And so the mass of people are playing these games. So it's, you know, there's a lot of funds out there. Yeah, that's a good point. All right, boys, we've got to take a quick break. And then we'll hear about Ace's next biggest surprise of 2025.

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Head on over to Trophy.aI and enter code VGP at checkout to get that free trial started. Again, that is TROP-H-I dot AI to up your game. All right, we're back, Ace, back to you talking about 2025's biggest surprises. What's up next for you, buddy? Ryan, you kind of hinted at this one, but I am still on the rivals roller coaster. I am still playing Marvel Rifles. Good on you, Ace. It's officially been a whole year.

This is the one year anniversary was today. We're recording the- China number one. China number one. No, that's PubG, Ryan. That's PubG. You're confusing your games. And I am still playing despite, you know, the massive player losses, the poor decisions,

the content creator drama. was I'm still here playing Marvel rivals and I love it man I have such a great time do you do you feel that kind of drop in player base and some of the like not great decisions do you like do you feel any of that is somebody that's still playing a year later or is it like I'm still having as much fun as I had day one kind of thing I usually group up with Alexi so I barely notice like me and Alexi always just messing around having fun yeah like doesn't matter there was there was a time where I absolutely despised Overwatch like I loved Overwatch for the longest time, but then I really, really, really hated Overwatch, and that's when I

moved to rivals. And then I kind of started hating rivals a little bit, and I moved back to Overwatch, and I'm loving Overwatch again. I'm not, I'm in that, that nice phase right now, but it's like, I could, I remember why I hated this game. And it's like, I'm just curious if you've had, like, any inklings of that inner hatred, you know, or if it's still just all sunshine and rainbows for you. I mean, every time that they buff dive and my life becomes miserable. I do get a little salty about it. Like when Black Panther was like peaked

Oh yeah. He was just you dashed into me. I'd be gone and like I hate this game I can't even survive outside the door and then I had to stop playing for like a few weeks But I've stopped playing like Pretty much every live service thing except rivals So oh wow Yeah I'm actually I'm back in Overwatch

And like you said having a person To play with like I only play overwatch with my daughter but I have a ton of fun just playing with her even if we don't win the matches and stuff I think that helps a lot to just have a kind of automatic squad mate to be able to hop in with and play with as well.

Especially when you leave me from playing Arc Raiders to go play Overwatch with your daughter like I'm sorry for trying to be a good dad Ryan. Okay, I'm going to play video games with my daughter. There's also a tank shortage in Overwatch and I'm a pretty decent tank. I'm trying to do my part there for

people. Oh, is there? All right, Ryan. Oh, what, what? Oh, me? Me? Yeah. Hey, welcome to the show, right? Welcome to the show. Hello, everybody.

Yeah. Do you play tank? It's right. It's right. So this one is kind of along the lines of my last one with the surprise that out of how much I love dispatch. This was, this was Josh's ultimate troll this year that he got us very, very good on. Like Ace described. I did.

We have the hijack a host for Epic and legendary supporters where they get to vote on a game for one of us to play. Josh was selected to play dokey dokey, and I thought there is no way anyone would like this. Let alone Josh would like this. To make me play this. I want to give you a commendation and bravo, sir, for your acting. Well done. well done. You shocked the crap out of me, dude. I still, we'll have to pull the clip of like our faces. Stunned silence. Because we were just like, what? You know, we were so shocked.

You know, like, I loved it. I was, I was blown away, dude. Well done, just on your acting ability. So good on you. That was the biggest surprise. I will say this. I genuinely, genuinely really enjoyed my time with dokey dokey. Like, I love that shock factor, the surprise twist, you know, that kind of thing. So I don't have it in my list of biggest surprises, but it was shocking that I actually wound up liking that game as much as I did. But I will say, watching you two respond to me saying that I loved it and then waiting for me to be like, no, I'm just kidding, even though that never came. We waited so long. What the heck? I made it eight minutes. I made it eight minutes and I'm like, oh yeah, Josh hates this too for sure. And I was like, yeah, this is

ridiculous. And I got off. And I'm like, we're going to trash this game. And Josh is like, oh, it's freaking amazing. I love it. You got me, man. It's free. Play it. People. Go experience it. It's unique. We talk all the time about uniqueness. And there you go. There's a unique game for you, people. So, all right, I'm going to keep this one short because, I mean, I don't know how much I can say about this one. My second biggest surprise of 2025 was the fact that Hades 2 was actually so much better than Hades 1. I remember saying this way back in the day. I talked. I don't want to say I talked trash,

but I definitely, like said, I don't know that I'm hyped for Hades 2 because how can you really be so much better than Hades 1? What are they going to do? You know, it's just going to be a rehash of what they already did in Hades. And, oh my goodness, guys. Like, I did not expect Hades 2 to be anywhere near how good it actually was. This is like, this is a perfect example of like, I could not actually imagine a world where

Hades 2 was as good as it actually is. Yeah. Like, because you're comparing it to Hades 1 and then you go, well, Hades 1's almost perfection. So how can you get better than that? Mm-hmm. I mean, Super Giant Games, you figured it out because it's incredible, dude. Like, it is absolutely incredible. And it shocked me so much that I loved Hades 2 and how they pulled that off because I remember us talking about this and going, well, there's really nowhere to go. you know like i mean it was so good we couldn't think of anything they could have improved like when we were legitimate when we were rang it we were like oh i can't think of anything we do and even like dude once i got the cross save and i got it on my switch and i was just

playing in bed i just would walk around with the switch and do stuff and then i'd get pull it back up and i'd be playing it i played so much of that on this on the switch and doing the cross save that's a good one do you think that's one of the the better like sequels to ever be like from a good game. Yeah, that's up there with best sequels of all time. And that's, that's the kicker is Hades 1 is incredible.

So you go, there's really nowhere to go from here, guys. Like, you can't go up when you're already at the top. And then they were like, hold my beer. You know? And then it was like, okay, well, they did it. And I mean, like I said, I did not expect this at all. I was absolutely shocked by how good

Hades 2 actually was when it released. I did not play the early access so I don't have that comparison to see like how did it come along in its development and stuff like that but that it really really caught me off guard guys and that's one that stands out for me

as just being like wow I did not expect it to be this good the only ones I can think of is like as far as sequels goes maybe like Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Redemption I was gonna say Red Dead 2 and then like maybe Diablo to Diablo 2 is a good one. Eldon Ring if you count

even though I know it's kind of different than the dark souls but it is kind of the spiritual successor to like from soft so i i don't know like that one you could say maybe is like the the evolution of like putting it all together so to speak gotcha gotcha gotcha yeah i don't say ragner rock to uh the original god of war but i don't agree i like the original i said i don't agree i i like the acting in ragnarok but i don't the combat in ragnarok was better but almost every the story in the the i think i for me being that god of war is one of my favorite series like 2018 stands a little bit above ragged rock whiny freaking oh no go go through the meadows ryan go through the meadows and pick

apples and stuff all right ace we're back to you buddy what else you got for us all right one of the biggest surprises which was kind of sprung on me when i joined this podcast was our first i think this was our first interview we got to talk to jack bennett at odd bug studio the people behind Tails of Iron and Tails of Iron 2. Yep. We got such a freaking awesome peak behind the curtain of just how complicated and beautiful indie games can be. Like when he turned that artwork to the side and we saw like a hundred layers of different

pieces, I was starstruck. I don't know what you guys. Yeah. Also what goes into it. Like there's so much that you think like, oh, it's designed in a game. But like even that level of a game with that size of a staff, like what they have. have to do to create what what you see on your screen is just it's mind-blowing so it was such a cool thing that was that was that was that was that was we were we were I remember during the interview

we're like we're all we're all just you know oh we were just stunned we all just sat there with their mouths over while he explained to us all of these art pieces and how it all goes together and I'm just like this is insane it's also how yeah all getting labeled with rats for the rest of my life but you know you did that yourself that was already that's not that wasn't that wasn't any one episode buddy yeah honestly that that was mind-blowing i mean kudos to them jack is awesome to show off that stuff man and kind of give that glimpse behind the curtain because as gamers we don't see that very often and if we do see it we definitely don't get it with like an explanation of like what's happening at the same time so that was really really cool to see all right ryan what's up next

for you buddy um this one uh i may upset some people but uh this was surprising for me because of my anticipation and how long I was waiting for this but I'm going to say on how disappointed I was in Silk Song I uh I this is actually one of mine Ryan so we share this one okay I wanted this game

to be so good I expected this game to be so good and to be fair a lot of people are going to say it was I just think there was so much that wasn't necessary and so much I wanted out of that game and so for me I was just so disappointed in what it could have been versus what I got or what I, you know, felt I got.

And that just was, was very surprising. I didn't think it existed for 10 years, you know, and then all of a sudden it comes out and it's just not what I dreamed it would be. So that was a surprise for me. If I didn't get Hades 2 immediately after Salk Song, I think I'd still be like a little heartbroken over what I experienced. Isn't that funny, dude? I'm with you, Ace.

Like, thank goodness Hades 2 kind of came along and like redeemed things. Yeah. It made me feel way better. Like, I was like, okay, I don't suck in games. That game just was really hard. What's weird about Silk Song is I thoroughly loved, like, the first six to eight hours in that game. Oh, yeah. Like, honestly, like, third.

And then it just became a slog, dude. And it was this, like, slow level of building disappointment to where I was like, why am I not enjoying this more than I am? Like, why is this? Oh, now I'm just, now I'm frustrated every time I play. Now I hate this game every time. I'm playing. Now I hate the studio for making it this way. You know, it really was. To me, like you hit the nail on the head, Ryan, to wait as long as we waited for Silk Song, to finally have it, I don't want to say surprised announced, but it, you know, we got the announcement and

then the release of Silk Song within a few months of each other. And then to be so excited to dive in and then to just feel that disappointment grow in this game was one of the biggest surprises for me, but not in the good way. It sucks that it's there, but it is there, man. So that was on my list as well, Ryan. So you said it perfectly. All right. My next one, and I'm just going to go quick on this one too,

because we're going to get the people that go, you guys just glaze this game nonstop. And everybody's glazing it because it's the game of the year awards, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But Expedition 33, one of my favorite games of all time. Like, it's in my top 10 games of all time. list. Like, it's that good and that absolutely caught me off guard. Like, I knew I was the one that was hyping this game from the very beginning. I drafted it in our draft. We did not know a whole

lot about it. I, you know, I just, I love the art style, the turn-based combat. I loved what I saw, got completely caught up in that hype, was pushing it on you guys and basically everybody else in the world. Then the game comes out and it's better than I ever imagined. And like I said, in my top 10 of all time games. It's actually become like the Roman Empire for me where I don't know that I go a day without thinking of Expedition 33 in some fashion,

whether it's the music or, you know, or like thinking about another play through or something like that. But that is one of the biggest surprises to me. I knew the game was going to be good. I did not know that it would secure itself in like my top 10 games of all time list. Easily the biggest game this year,

success-wise. if I had to guess like genuinely I mean it's gonna we talked about this it's either gonna sweep or it's gonna get its its dues either way and if it doesn't sweep it's gonna be because they feel bad for games like Hades too and you know some of these other ones throw them a bone throw him a bone

right yeah this will be our last round back to what's your last one here Ace all right this is my last one it's a bad surprise unfortunately but I am surprised how good Nintendo is it making a fool of themselves this

year. I mean, with the suit, with the lawsuit against Power World, the price of the switch too, bricking your system fully for like the smallest things. Yeah. What in the world? Virtual Boy Library, must I say more? Oh my goodness. Yeah. Upcoming titles that might release. That might release. The only like a regional game I think they put out this year that wasn't Mario.

cart was the Donkey Kong. Yeah. Which people are telling us is great. And they're like, hey, y'all need to back up off donkey. Yeah, I'm backing away. Hey. I've been threatened already. I'm good.

I'm sorry. I said anything mean. Bring it on. Game of the year. My butt for sure. I'm just amazed that this company that I loved, that was my childhood and I cherished. I love the Switch one. I love Breath of Wild and all those games.

It's just made an absolute fool of themselves this year. Nintendo going to Nintendo. I'm with you on this one I I like there's a part of me that goes like is this really a surprise but I do feel like 2025 was the year that like Nintendo just went yeah this is this is a leap forward so you know we always say like if you love your Nintendo games like we love that for you it's more just the trend of this corporate mindset versus gamer mindset and yes we know that they're a business and they're entitled to this and we know that Sony and Microsoft are really not any better. It's just the, we've seen the transition with Nintendo, which I think sucks.

You know what I mean? Because Nintendo kind of always stood apart from Sony and Microsoft, and now it's like they've just embraced them. And they're like, yes, let me have a seat at this table of corporate greed and all this stuff. And so it's just sad to see. It is. All right, Ryan, last one for you, buddy. What do you got? Oh, man. For me, this is my game of the year, I think, like, in that hierarchy of it. And this is one that, um, it's not about the, the game as a whole or, or kind of where it should be ranked. This is just the community within the game. I'm going with the community in Arc Raiders, um, not squads, but solos. To be launched into a PVP game, uh, PVPVE, you know, whatever you wanted to classify it, like, and then have

the opportunity to kill people. And then within those first few weeks to see, that everyone just chose not to, and they were all helping each other out. Oh, hey, I got this. Oh, hey, I got that. Oh, let's go kill this guy. You need these parts. And seeing people that could kill each other work together was something that really, I thought was really unique and really cool.

It was something that you don't see too often, especially on multiplayer online shooter games. Like, you never see something like that. So to see the people and what happened organically. and everyone would always spend, but it's a PVP, I don't understand, what you mean? I just shoot on site. And it's like, no, that's not, that's not what solos is a- Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. You have to, yeah, exactly.

And that's what happened in solos, is it became something different, and that's because of the people, not what the designers did or the developers or anybody else other than the people playing the game. And that was super surprising to me, and it was something that was so cool. And I felt like crazy, like protective of it. Like, I was, I was going to fight anyone that tried to go against it. And I would get so mad, but, um, it's changing a little bit, unfortunately. But it was, it was something very unique to see, uh, of a generational game.

Paradise lost. Yeah. Yep. It's, it's funny. I mean, that's really the kicker, right? Is there's people that argue what's a PVP game. I'm supposed to PVP. But there's like, like I said, there's the thought that it exists, but it doesn't mean you have to, man.

You know, like, rust, right? Famously, one of the most toxic games in existence, like, easily. it's it's just a sandbox right people are the ones that chose to turn rust into this toxic like kill everybody still all their stuff thing the creator of the game just went I just made the world it's like y'all are the ones that have decided to be toxic to each other you know it's like it didn't have to be this way and I think we get that glimpse with arc raiders where it is like people actually can get along and work together and like not just murder each other and it is refreshing to see we'll see how long that keeps up I mean, we had a story in our Discord server the other day where it was like, I'm joining the dark side, a guy betrayed me, and now I'm going to betray everybody. And it's like, yeah, and this is how civilizations fall, people. The fall of society. All right, my last one, and then we'll get out of here, guys. My last biggest surprise for 2025 was that Battlefield actually corrected its course and made one of the best entries to the series. since 2013, guys. So for all the people out there, you guys are Battlefield people,

and we've said this forever, Battlefield 4, I had to look this up, dude, because I was like, there's no way Battlefield 4 is this old. Battlefield 4 released in 2013. Guys, it has been 12 years

since we got a good battlefield, man, and we finally got it this year. I've had the itch. I will be jumping back into Battlefield soon, but I mean to see that this beloved series can actually steer the ship now it's not perfect nobody's saying this is the best battlefield ever but what we're saying is I feel like they've course corrected a little bit and they're on the right path now and it doesn't mean that they're not going to monetize and all that stuff but just to see that we got a good battlefield and

finally go like okay maybe they actually can do this was amazing to see I know we were very excited for this still pleasantly excited for it but yeah that one to me was i think we had so much like riding on that it was like one more disappointment and we're out like we're done forever man especially with how bad 2042 was man like you they had to do something good and not only just good but like great and i think they did there's like you said it's not perfect there's a lot to be desired but also it is a step in the right direction and now we're headed somewhere that can be good you know for this series and this franchise and for what the players want and yeah i've had a lot of fun i had a lot of fun driving a jeep over a mine and jumping out early and you dying like it's it's

yeah it was an accident i swear so yeah i'm stoked this is a good one i mean think about battlefield but this one uh definitely you were like optimistic but also you know you just saw how bad the last entry was yeah yeah yeah all right real quick do you guys have any honorable mentions we won't have time to dive into them, but do you have anything else on your list as far as surprises? I guess big surprise. I guess no big surprise here. Ender Magnolia remained my favorite

game I played from the start of this year to the end. That's not a surprise at all. Overtaking my other favorite game, Ender Lillies. So, you know, it was that. Also, I guess the surprise I have was starting hosting the indie shows, we actually saw quite a bit of interaction from

indie devs. I was not expecting that. And that was a great surprise to have. I've gotten to talk to tons of cool people from it, so thank you for that. Dude, we got to interview Yacht Club games on the show, which is one of, I mean, shovel nights, one of your favorite, like, gaming characters, man. So that was really cool, too. So, yeah, that's awesome. And we love our indie doves, man, and the passion shows on those, too, which is a lot of fun.

And we'll keep doing that, too, man, because they do reach out. Yeah, they reach out. And shout out to our good friends at Eat Pant Games for Tito. People are going to be hearing a lot more about Tito in the future. Oh, yes, you'll have some news there as well when we can talk about that. Ryan, you got any others? I think the announcement of the Gabe slash Steam Cube is pretty cool. The Gabe Cube.

The idea of playing like Steam games on just like a little cube console like in my living room would be sweet. We've talked about how we're going to play Absalom or we're going to deep dive it. Like the thought of just popping. it up on my big screen, you know, out in the living room would be sweet. So I think that's really cool and it was surprising that they would come up with something like that. Hopefully it's priced accordingly. And then another one was just the diversity of the games we got this year. I thought was very surprising. There was just every kind of side of everything all put out a really good quality game. So, you know, you have your turn base, your action RPGs, your, you know,

everything was awesome. Rogue likes. Like there was always, there was something from every genre. that did really, really well, which I love to see. You know, high tide rides all boats and whatnot, blah, blah, blah, whatever you want to put in there. So it's cool to see. It's good for gamers, good for everybody. Love it. That's actually, I'm really glad you mentioned that

because a new competitor to the consoles is unheard of. And Steam is about the only company in the world that could pull that off somehow. And it's really cool to see them kind of going like, okay, it's not just Sony, Xbox, and Nintendo anymore. You know, and so I hope they price it right to make it affordable for people so that they can get in there and actually compete with these guys. So last one for me was simply the biggest shocker slash surprise is the end of exclusivity. We've got Halo on the PlayStation. We had Helldivers 2 on the Xbox and we're seeing some of these iconic franchises actually being able to be played by people with the console that they couldn't play them on before. I love this trend. I hope it continues. But to see. Halo on coming to PlayStation is like yeah that's weird what world do we live in people like what but it's happening man and so that's that's a good surprise there too so all right well listen that is going to do it for this episode everybody you know one of the biggest surprises is every time we get a new review

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