Video Gamers Podcast - Most Anticipated Games of 2022 - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: January 10, 2022

Gaming hosts Paul and Josh have completed their 2021 year of gaming review, and this week we’re looking forward to the best games of 2022 and which video games we’re most excited to play. A weak year of gaming in 2021, hopefully means a great year of gaming in 2022. In this episode we break down all the big name releases, and some of the smaller ones that should be on your radar.    Thanks to our LEGENDARY supporters: Waynerman, TFolls, AceofShame, Jake, RangerMiller, and Ad    Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/multiplayerpodcast Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/multiplayerpod/ Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/MultiplayerPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q Visit us on the web: multiplayerpodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, it's Josh and I'm back with another Gaming Quick Takes bonus episode. Ha! Tricked ya! This is just an intro for our regular episodes. But, if you wanted to hear that sweet, sweet intro on those bonus episodes, head over to MultiplayerSquad.com where you can sign up to support the show. You get two bonus episodes every week, some killer Discord perks, and our eternal gratitude. We couldn't do the show without the support of our listeners, and you too can join those ranks over at MultiplayerSquad.com. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Multiplayer Gaming Podcast. We release two family-friendly

episodes every week about the subject of gaming. Last week, we released an hour-long episode about the year 2021 in gaming, which means this week we are due to talk about most anticipated games of 2022. Please rate our podcast five stars in your podcasting app, and we would especially like to ask you to do so on Spotify. We want to get in on that action early now that they have added ratings. That way we can grow the podcast on their medium as well. Most of you out there already know who we are, but if you are new, let's do some introductions. I am your host that likes cinnamon toast. My name is Paul, and joining me is my number two, and he likes barbecue. It's Josh.

I do like barbecue. I thought you were going to go another cereal reference, though. And in my brain, I was trying to be like, how is he going to rhyme Lucky Charms? Oh, yeah. You know, Josh, I went back and I was listening to some old episodes and i used to have really good introductions for you and now we're like hundreds of episodes in on this and i have just completely run out of ideas you've painted yourself into a corner paul yeah i've got i've got nothing left you can't stop at this point the the listeners expect a clever intro each

time but the mind's empty but i'm just swinging this pickaxe there's not there's nothing to hit got nothing left you can't stop at this point the listeners expect a clever intro each time but the mind's empty but i'm just swinging this pickaxe there's not there's nothing to hit so this is what we're getting we're just rhyming coast and uh our host i like it for what it's worth all right very nice uh before we jump into talking about 2022 and gaming you've got a couple of reviews to read for us i do have some more reviews to read they are rolling in uh if you have not left us a review yet please take the time to do so apple podcasts is the number one place where people can actually see a written review uh and so that is pretty critical to the show to leave a review there. That is where we pull these from as well.

As you mentioned, Spotify opened up being able to rate a podcast. So it's also very important that you do us a solid and go to Spotify and just leave us a five-star rating there. But as we do, we're going to read a couple of the actual written reviews. And this first one is titled Amazing. And it comes in from zenzeli uh from australia oh very nice thank you zenzeli from australia and the review is i love your podcast it is amazing and i love listening to it while i'm doing anything from walking to mowing the lawn can you do a deep dive on zelda breath of the wild oh so interesting i i mean a game that you and i both love i don't know that we'll deep dive it i feel like that game kind of ranks up there with like minecraft and some other games where it's

just so popular that people know it's a really good game yeah yeah yeah you know um but no thank you for that review zen zeli and then this next one comes in from MrHappyMedium, and it's titled Halo Infinite. It's actually really fun, is the title. And it says, I only just started listening, but it has been so much fun for me and actually inspired me to play Halo Infinite. I love the work you guys are doing, so keep it up. And maybe could you do another episode on Rust? It's my favorite. Rust is the only game that we have already covered

twice. That is true. We've covered that one twice. Rust is also the game that I am starting to miss playing and getting that little bit of an itch again. Dude, it's so bad, man. Not the game, but when that itch hits and you just start going like, Paul, Paul, we could play Rust again, man. I feel like a recovering addict when it comes to Rust. Because all I need is for you to say, I downloaded Rust and I just know my month is ruined.

My month is ruined. I am spending every second in Rust and I know that all of is ruined. My month is ruined. I am spending every second in Rust and I know that all of it is going to get rocketed to smithereens. Oh, yeah. But I can't help myself. Rust is just so much fun. It really is. It's funny too, because every time that we reinstall it and start playing it, my wife will come into the room and see me chopping a tree or pickaxing a rock and she'll be like, oh, are you guys playing Rust again again it's the only game other than rocket league that my wife like knows

by sight yeah yeah oh man rust we we might get back to it one of these days i did say at some point we should do it for like every milestone episode numbers 100 200 300 just always go back to rust oh man but oh man so thanks for the reviews guys it really does help the show if you haven't left one please uh take a few seconds and uh and leave us one we'll be grateful and there's a good chance we'll read it on the show as well yeah yeah thank you so much for those two reviews here today and also we want to say thank you to everyone who is currently supporting the podcast on Patreon. If you want to check that out, you can visit MultiplayerSquad.com. It'll get you access to additional Quick Take episodes that Josh and I release every week. So you'll actually get a

grand total of four episodes every week if you subscribe on Apple Podcasts or become a Patreon supporter. All right. So Josh, last Monday, we did our episode reviewing 2021 as a whole. And I had said in that episode that I felt like we had only half a year of games because of all the delays. And so 2021, we both kind of landed on being a bit of a disappointment. We had a lot of big games pushed back to the following year. We did say that there were some definite highlights. I mean, you and I absolutely treasured Valheim. We are huge fans of Halo Infinite. We still play it, I would say, three nights a week, maybe even more than that.

So we had some really high highs. But now that we're looking forward to 2022, now that we've done a little bit of prep work, we've looked at what games are on the docket, how do you feel about the prospects of this year in gaming as opposed to last year? I'm excited. There's some very big names coming up that I get really excited for. I think we're going to talk about some of those, obviously, in this show. But the beauty is that it's the unknown games too. Games like Hades that released out of nowhere that is just... It's beloved by almost everybody. There's a lot of these indie-type games Valheim, right? Like for last year, Valheim came out of nowhere. Nobody even heard of this game. Nobody heard of this game. All of a sudden it's getting hype. You're seeing it climbing up the steam charts. It rockets into

mass popularity. I'm really hoping for that in 2022 as well. Those surprise hits that just come out of nowhere and wind up being amazing video games. Obviously, the AAA titles are the ones that are getting a lot of hype right now because they have the budget to hype it up as well. But I know that there's a few on our list that are not just the AAA hot topic games. some of them obviously will be, but I'm hopeful that 2022 is going to make up for 2021 because number one, all these games that were supposed to release in 2021 and didn't hopefully we'll release it.

2022. I'm kind of hoping this is the catch up year, right? Like maybe everything that got pushed back gets released and maybe we'll also get the 2022 so maybe it'll be like one of those stacked years for games now we did do this last year and the funny thing is that so many games got pushed back i mean we talked about games like hogwarts legacy we talked about lord of the rings golem we talked about elden ring uh none of those games are released so you can actually scroll all the way back to our preview of 2021 and half of that

episode is still going to be perfectly valid because those games are still not released so hey still still looking forward to those we're still looking forward to it. So, all right. As we talk about 2022, I love the fact that you touched on the fact that we do have the big AAA titles that are going to be coming out. Everyone's kind of hyped about that. We will talk about some of those, but we're also going to talk about some of the smaller games that we are excited about. This is not an attempt to cover the industry's most anticipated games. These are you and my most anticipated games. These are the ones that we're looking forward to playing personally, regardless as to whether or not other people are.

Yeah. I mean, obviously, with the number of video games that come out, we cannot cover everything that is going to release in 2022. There are going to be games that I guarantee you that we're going to forget to mention or just run out of time to be able to talk about. It doesn't mean that, hey, we don't like them. It doesn't mean we're not excited about them. It just means, hey, we didn't get time to talk about them on this episode. So don't take that as us not being excited about a game that is releasing. Some of these games are also rumored to be releasing in 2022. Yeah.

We may do an episode in 2023 where we look back and say, hey, you remember those games we talked about? And they're still not out yet. Yeah, I was going to say, I can't wait for our annual talking about Lord of the Rings Gollum. Some of these games are inevitably going to get pushed back. Yeah. All right. So the way we're going to do this is you and I are just going to take turns picking a game.

We'll talk a little bit about it, talk about why we're looking forward to it, and then we'll just kind of bounce back and forth until we run out of time. That's how we did this last time. Now, normally when you and I make lists, we don't really share a whole lot. But in this case, we did send each other just a short list. Hey, here are some of the games I'm looking forward to. We did have a little bit of overlap. But we did also pick a couple of games that were unique.

But who do you want to go first? I'll go first. You or me? I'll go first you or me you i'll go first i mean i gotta start this show off because i'm one of the biggest fans of this game in this series and i mean if i did not start off with god of war ragnarok i think i think people would be like have you checked on josh paul is he okay yeah well you have grown the kratos beard, which was clearly inspired by Kratos. You were Kratos for Halloween.

Can you see the little guy that's now clinging to my microphone cord, Paul? I do. Look at that. Got a little Kratos hanging onto the microphone cable. Yeah, God of War Ragnarok. So we're going to get this. We are going to get it in 2022. Now, the release date has not been confirmed. There was recently some news about a leak on the release date that seems to be pretty accurate as far as it fits into the timeline. PlayStation database that somebody, I don't know how these data miners and these guys do it,

but somebody got this leak, looked into the PlayStation database, and found a release date of September 30th of 2022 for the God of War Ragnarok release date. Now, that is not confirmed. That is just rumor. Could just be a placeholder. It could, but we're fairly certain that this game is going to release this year. There's been no mention of delays into 2023. They're starting to get that hype train going even more. They showed off some gameplay footage. They were announcing the voice actors that are going to be playing and reprising these roles. We talked about how they delayed the game so that the voice actor for Kratos could recover from... I don't know. Didn't the guy have five surgeries or something? Yeah. He had a bunch of back problems. And yeah. He said it was one of the reasons it got delayed. Yeah. And hey, you know what? We hope you're better. Take your time, but release in 2022. Yeah. So you and I are immense fans of the God of War series. I love the original trilogy. I loved the release that came out in 2019.

I think it was 2018, I believe 2018. Yeah, I think so. So yeah, I, I mean, I think you and I both agreed that it was probably the biggest game on PlayStation four.

It was kind of one of those. This is why you buy a PlayStation. You got to have access to these exclusives. And of course, we have God of War being released on PC, which is really exciting here later this month. And then at some point, we'll have Ragnarok available. Do you plan on picking up God of War on PC or are you still kind of good? Absolutely. Oh, no, I'm playing it on PC. I haven't played it since it came out, and I cannot wait to play it again on the PC. I hear it's going to be a good port from what I'm hearing.

The graphics are going to be through the roof. Honestly, I can't wait to just play through that game again. So, yes, I'll be picking that up. That actually comes out on January 14th, so that is not that long from when this episode will release so i am hyped for that for sure um but yeah i it's with ragnarok we don't know a ton about this we do know like the synopsis of it uh you know it's gonna it's gonna have kratos and atreus uh they're they're on this quest to stop Ragnarok, right?

Which, obviously, that's the end of the world. They're trying to learn more about Atreus being Loki, which was the spoiler. But it's, hey, that's game release in 2018. If you don't know that by now, sorry. But so, you know, obviously, they're going to have conflict. The big thing with this sequel is that they're going to have conflict with Thor. Because in the first game, Balder and some of these lesser known guys like Magni, and I can't remember his brother's name and stuff. There was a lot of that combat there.

But then you saw Thor get involved. So, you know, who's stronger, Thor or Kratos? Spoiler alert, it's going to be Kratos. Yes, you know, who's stronger, Thor or Kratos? You know? Spoiler alert, it's going to be Kratos. Yes, of course. This is God of War, not God of Thunder. Now, didn't they say that this is going to close the chapter on Norse mythology

and Kratos? I think they've said that, right? I feel like that is, I have heard that. I don't want to say that I know that for 100% because I don't. But if they stop Ragnarok, I could see that, hey, they're done. They're going to agree to leave this Norse mythology. Maybe they go to another mythology. That would actually be super cool.

I would not be opposed to that at all. Well, yeah, I was going to say, at this point, they're burning through them pretty quick. Having gone through the Greek gods gods the norse gods uh yeah i mean i'm absolutely looking forward to it because they've always gotten combat right i mean the blades of chaos iconic weapons the leviathan axe iconic weapon i mean the combat's always been great i have no doubt the game's gonna be fantastic i feel like you can just automatically pencil this in for Game of the Year nominee. It's really hard to see them going wrong with this one. I think it's one of the safest bets for one of the heavy hitters in the

upcoming year. Yeah. I mean, unless this flops, which I do not see, I am very, very confident to say that God of War Ragnarok will be a major contender for Game of the Year for 2022, if not even the winner. Yeah. You know, it's just it was so well received for the original 2018 God of War. It's not the original, obviously, but for the, you know, the remake sequel, I guess it was a sequel. It's not a reboot. It's just a sequel. No, it was just like a really long, delayed, updated sequel, I guess. Josh, when you make four games and you call two of them just God of War, it's a bad idea. All right. Things start getting a little dicey there.

Yeah, I don't know why. But yeah, I mean, I know everybody in the world is probably hyped for this game. But I mean, this is what this episode is, right? And that is one of the top games I'm looking forward to. I've already joked that I'm going to need to borrow your PlayStation 5, Paul, so be prepared. It's fine. You can play it first. Just don't tell me anything about it. And also beat it in like two days.

I was going to say, I'll play through it rather quickly and i'll get it to you because i have a feeling we might want to do a deep dive by the way we have never done a deep dive of a console exclusive so that's one of the reasons we've never done like breath of the wild we were very close to doing a deep dive on mario tennis that was going to be the first or mario and mario golf actually we and then Golf later. We bounced it back and forth, pun intended, about doing Mario Tennis or Mario Golf. Yeah, we just haven't yet. But maybe God of War Ragnarok will be the first. All right.

I want to talk about the game I am most hyped for this year. I'm going to call it now, Josh. I think it's going to be a classic. I think it's going to be the game of the year winner. I think it's going to be a classic. I think it's going to be the game of the year winner. I think it's going to be the best game of the year. I'm talking about Starfield. I am hyped for Starfield, dude. I'm so

hyped. I want this game to be amazing. I'm going to be a slight curmudgeon and say that they burned me so hard on Fallout 76 that I've lost a little bit of trust and favor with bethesda so here's the thing okay bethesda fantastic publisher right we we know this they're not all hits right but i feel like all of their games are at least playable except for Fallout 76,

although people tell us it's now a good game. You and I don't care what anyone says because we're never going to give it another try. But here's the thing. This is Bethesda's first new IP in 25 years, Josh. Can you believe that? Wait, it's been that long? That long. They have made... I guess they just keep making sequels, right? Elder Scrolls games. Elder Scrolls. This is their first brand new IP in 25 years. And they said, Elder Scrolls is obviously set in a fantasy world. They started making Fallout, which was kind of like an alternate history, but set modern day. And so they said the natural next progression is space. And so when you're telling me that you're making a space RPG, immediately, I'm excited. That is catnip for me. You guys know how much I love Mass Effect.

I think that this game is going to be fantastic. Every video that I watch, every little detail I hear, I went back and I've watched every video on Starfield that has come out from Bethesda, even the silly ones that just show sketches of ideas about the major cities. I could not be more hyped for this one. You tell me some of your general thoughts, and then I'm going to share a couple things I wrote down. I'll say this. I am very hopeful. I'm with you. I don't want to make it sound like I'm not extremely excited for this game because I am. I love anything that has to do with gaming in space. It's one reason that you and I are huge fans of the old school, like X-Wing versus TIE fighter games. It's one reason we love the mass effect series.

I don't know if you've ever heard of a game called star control, the slightly older gamers out there will know I star control. When I was growing up was one of my all time favorite games because it was space exploration. You meet all of these various alien species. You're trying to recruit some of them. Some of them are just evil and attack you. It had great space combat.

It was literally a completely just well-done game in every aspect. I loved it. They did a re-release called Star Control Origin. So if you're a fan, I played that and it's actually really good and true to the original. But my hope is that Starfield takes all of that exploration, which they are hyping the exploration aspect of this. Oh, yeah. Puts in some good combat because, I mean, let's be honest. I mean, no Bethesda game has not had combat as a flavor.

I mean, Fallout, Skyrim, all of these have these good combat to them. It's not the main focus of the game. But I'm so optimistic, dude. That's what I really... I want to just hop around planets. I want to meet new alien races. I want to be able to interact with them. I want to explore hop around planets. I want to meet new alien races. I want to be able to interact with them. I want to explore these different environments.

I want to have a super cool spaceship that I can do things with. And I'll be happy. All right. So here's some things for why I'm so excited about it. All right. The game takes place 300 years in the future. And Bethesda has said they want to answer the question, now that man is living amongst the stars, what does that mean? All right, so the game is clearly

trying to grasp at big things. They talk about the fact that they are creating a universe, not just a game, so they clearly have these really high set goals. They talk about this game including space pirates. It has religious zealots. So the fact that they clearly care about people groups and the cultures inside the game, that's why I love games like Dragon Age. I love the fact that you can meet all these people who are talking about the great prophet Andraste and they've got this entire religion that people in the city follow and it's just so much care and love when you build cities and environments and people groups it seems like they're definitely doing that in starfield they have been developing this game since 2015 and it has been playable since 2018 so they say this game will release on november

11th of 2022 and shockingly they have said multiple times we are very confident that is the release date that tells me that this game is probably already better than most of the other releases that we see this game is already playable. I have a feeling they really are just tinkering things, and I think this one's going to release very well. I know Bethesda does not have a great track record of releasing games that are ready and playable on day one, but I think this one might fit that bill. Yeah, I mean, their games have always been a little bit buggy, but nothing that's groundbreaking or immersion-breaking. And if there's one thing that Bethesda is absolutely excellent at, it's world-building. I mean, look at Morrowind,

look at Oblivion, look at Skyrim, look at Fallout. I mean, these games are classics because when I say Fallout, your brain pictures the Fallout universe. Oh, yeah. And if I say, hey, Elder Scrolls, again, you just instantly... It's comfort, right? It's like hot chocolate. Your body just goes like, oh, yeah, that's great. I want that. And so that's a lot of what Bethesda does. Now, yes, they had the tarnished flop of Fallout 76. I'm a little jaded, but I'm willing to forgive and forget because their history is so stinking good that I can't not be excited for this.

And I have a feeling, like you said, that they're going to take their time with it. They're going to release a good finished game, maybe some bugs. i'm okay with bugs you know as long as it's not cyberpunk level bugs you know but if this is a new ip that they are building then this is a cash cow for decades for them i mean look what they've done with elder scrolls and fallout they know how to build a world man oh yeah 100 yeah they they talk about the fact that you're going to be tempted to just sit back and watch the sunset in the game. They talk about the fact that you're going to be able to just sit back and watch the world function. That was some of my favorite things to do in games like Red Dead Redemption 2, where you could just sit back, watch all these characters interact. And depending on where you go and when,

and depending on a little bit of luck, you got to experience crazy stuff that happened in the open world. And you would talk to your friends about it, and your friend never experienced that, but they experienced something completely different. And the Starfield team said that that's exactly what they're aiming for. They said they want you to be able to run to your friends, talk about some really exciting thing that you did in the open world. And so it sounds like this game is going to be very immense. They have said there's the game that they intend for you to play, and then also handing the game off to the community. So it's still going to be mod friendly. I think this game is going to have one of those 10-year shelf-lifes. Now, a year from now, if I'm totally wrong, you can

all call me an idiot, replay these sound clips. Nobody wants that though. No one wants it. What I want is I want them to take the world-building that they're so good at and I want them to do that with multiple planets.

I want to feel like instead of going to the city of Whiterun and being like, ooh, look at this, I want to fly to a new planet and be amazed at how crazy and lifelike and different that planet is versus these planets over here. The one thing I don't want, unless they're monstrous, is I don't want three planets. Mass Effect, they here the one thing i don't want unless they're monstrous is i don't want like three planets like mass effect that they did the good thing remember where you could fly around and you could scan all these planets and send your lander down and all that and they had what hundreds of them i feel like the first one they did yeah and i i mean i totally get that not every planet had lore to it necessarily but i want that variety like give me give me 20 planets man like i don't know

if that's even doable you know i i think you're absolutely gonna get that because here's one of the things that they said bethesda loves giving you those step out moments right like i think of playing fallout 4 when the first time you leave the vault right or you think about playing sky not skyrim um uh oblivion when you open up the sewers after you escape and you go into the open world right they said that starfield has two step out moments so you're gonna get an initial one which i'm guessing will be on the planet that you start out with. And the second step out moment has got to be something related to interstellar travel. People did notice in the teaser trailer that there are some blueprints

for something that looks like a portal. So some people have even questioned maybe the first part of the game might be something kind of like the movie Contact, where you're building this portal. And then maybe the second step out moment will be when you go through it. And now maybe you're interacting

with all these other alien races. What's amazing, Josh, is that this game's been in development since 2015. There are basically zero leaks. This is not like when Fallout games were coming out, you always got leaks. We really hardly know anything about Starfield, but everything I see is promising.

Has there been, other than a few snippets of approaching, I think, a Starbase or something, has there been any actual gameplay footage? Not really. I don't know what this game looks like. And that's exciting in a way because it's like, dude, what? We're talking, it's releasing this year. But I'm all for not hyping this for like four years. Six months beforehand, start, give me a little gameplay trailer and just say, hey, you guys want to know what the game looks like? Here you go. And that's fine.

But it's just, you're right in that we don't know a whole lot about this. There have not been a ton of trailers. There's not been that 30-minute demo. We don't know. We just don't know. Is there space combat? Is there ground combat? What is exploration like? What are character interactions like? All these things, we just don't have an idea. we know that they are building this phenomenal world. Like those are the videos that you can go and watch as them talking about how this is a labor of love and how their Bethesda is super hyped about building this game. And if we know anything about the desire to make money and what Bethesda is good at, I'm very excited because this could be one of the best new IPS that have come about in a long time.

Yeah, I completely agree. It's one of the reasons I was so excited about Outriders, because you gave me an action RPG shooter, but set in space. And this, I don't think, will be as action-forward as Outriders. I think this is going to be very akin to Mass Effect. I think it's going to be story-driven, a lot to discover in the open world. I think it's going to be a much bigger Mass Effect. At least that's kind of my hope. Maybe it's a pipe dream, but that's what I envision. All right, that's enough with Starfield. What do you have next on your list? So for me, I mean, this one's coming out very soon, but I am very hyped for this game. I know that you're actually excited about it as well, but Elden Ring. It releases February 25th.

I mean, that's a month and a couple weeks away. So this is rapidly approaching. I have always said that I'm a huge fan of the Dark Souls series. I also am a huge fan of George R.R. Martin. I read all of the Game of Thrones books before they were ever turned into the TV series on HBO. I don't know how much... They like to tout that. I don't know how much input he had. I know he helped with some of the lore and stuff like that, but I feel like it's more just a selling point on his name. But these games are all about

the gameplay. They're all about the combat. They're all about the monsters and the creatures that you come across and the boss fights that you have to do. It's about dying hundreds of times and wanting to throw your controller through the window. And I'm all for that. I love difficult games. I love combat. There's been a lot of news about Elden Ring. There's not really a whole lot that I think we can describe to people that they can't just go and watch videos on and stuff like that. But I'm just super hopeful for this game because it is open world. That's the big thing in the, you know, the,

the next progression of Elden Ring versus Dark Souls is that you now have this big open world that you can explore. How is that going to impact the series and the gameplay? We don't know. I'm super hopeful that it's going to enhance it just like it did with Halo Infinite, you know? Um, but yeah, I mean, we don't know. I'm super hopeful that it's going to enhance it just like it did with Halo Infinite. But yeah, I mean, this is one that I know I'm picking up. I know I'm going to play an awful lot. We don't know how hard it's going to be. That's another question because Dark Souls has

always been very difficult. Is it going to be easier? Is it going to be harder? That I don't know. I got to say, it looks beautiful. I mean, every time we've watched videos, it looks great. The giant bosses look amazing. You get to see really intricate mechanics that they all bring. So there's going to be that element of learning the boss fights, which is always exciting. If you can just run in and destroy these bosses, it doesn't feel like an accomplishment when you beat it. So hopefully it finds that sweet spot where it's not too punishing. It's just challenging. And you have to pay attention. That's the thing with Dark Souls,

right? When you die, it's because you made a mistake. And you know what you did wrong. And I'm sure Elden Ring is going to be very similar. No question, we will deep dive it this year. It's coming out next month. This is the first really big hyped game coming out this year, I think, for the masses. Yeah. Yes, that's true because it's going to be available on, I think, all the platforms. And so the only thing, too, is everybody that likes Dark Souls loves Dark Souls, right? You like the games, you like the series, you like stuff like Bloodborne and Naio and Sekiro and those types of games. Some of those are harder than others.

But most of the Dark Souls games are hot garbage when it comes to graphics. I mean, low resolutions, dull, dingy, all that stuff. I know as a fan of the series, a lot of people have always said, dude, I would love a Dark Souls game that has really good graphics. Because the gameplay is perfect where it's at. And I feel like that's what Elden Ring is trying to do is say, hey, you guys want Dark Souls, but where it looks really, really pretty? Well, here you go. And I know that's something stupid to get excited about, but I'm excited about it. And that one comes out when? February 25th. Yep. All right. So there's only one problem with that release date, Josh.

I know what the problem is, Paul. The problem is that you and I are already hyped to play an MMO that comes out two weeks before Elden Ring. We got to talk about Lost Ark because this comes out in just a few weeks. It does. And it's on your list and my list of games that we were both very excited for. So Lost Ark, we have talked about in the past, you and I both participated in the beta. This is a game if Diablo and an MMO had a baby, right? This is action RPG to the max. You get several abilities that run on cooldowns. There's lots of weapons.

It has pets. It's got economy. It's got everything you would want from an MMO. It's completely free. That's the best thing. You can play it free. And probably the thing that I'm most excited about this game's already several years old josh because it's been released in south korea for years they've had all the time in the world to tinker with it whatever they did

wrong in the very beginning it's already had all the wrinkles ironed out we normally are the guinea pigs on these kinds of games. I love the fact that we just get to jump in and play a polished MMO that already looks and feels great, and we can just jump right in. You mentioned you and I both played the beta. I was instantly impressed with this game. I don't remember who found out about this game. I remember you talking to me and being like, hey, there's this MMO coming out. I think it's right up your alley. It's called Lost Ark. And I was like, I've never heard of that before. So I do remember you and I chatting about it. And then at the time, you could pay $15 to get into the beta as an early founder or something like that. And so we were like, okay,

fine. And I jumped in and I'm like, number one, this game is beautiful. Number two, this game is smooth as butter. I, you know, I mean, responsive running around the, the abilities, you know, I was, I'm a little tarnished because we got hyped for new world. We got let down by new world. And one of my biggest complaints about new world was the fact that you only had three skills. Yeah.

Like an MMO. world was the fact that you only had three skills yeah like an mmo i don't need the world of warcraft 40 skills on my toolbars and i'm only going to use three of them you know like but i want a selection of skills i want to be able to pop you know eight different or ten different abilities in combat and boy does lost ark give you that man i feel like there's eight skills that you can have equipped at any given moment, and that's plenty. I don't really honestly need more than that. But dude, the combat in this game is so good. You feel like you are just wrecking house. I remember talking to you and some other people. I think I even went on Reddit and was asking questions

because I'm like, look, I feel like a juggernaut in this. Does this game get harder? Because I absolutely love the combat, but I want some challenge. And people were like, oh, they were like, dude, you're a noob. They're easing you into this. But absolutely. And they were like, wait till you get to the raids. Why do people play MMOs? Well, I don't. People play for different reasons, right? But I love MMOs because I want to raid. I want that challenge of fighting that super hard boss. I want the need for teamwork. I want to have my role and rely on my friends to do their roles. I want it to where if somebody messes up, guess what? We're going to wipe. That's the way it should be. And everybody's saying that is Lost Ark 2 AT. They were like, if you want raiding and you want difficult boss fights and

you want action, you have to dodge out of the way. You have to position yourself. You can't get hit with this. And your warriors have to break armor, or I forget what the term for it is in Lost Ark, but resilience or something. It's just, I'm so hyped for this MMO because you and I have wanted to play an MMO for a very long time and New World did not do it for us. And I really feel like Lost Ark is going to be where it's at. Yeah, I jotted down in my notes, this is, I feel like the final test. Are MMOs dead or not? Because if this game doesn't do it, I don't think anyone will. Because this is really well made, extraordinarily polished. Learning the new abilities and then popping them and playing around with it, I have not had so

much fun since experimenting with new abilities in Outriders. That's how it felt to me. It feels somehow very comfortable because it's so much like Diablo, but it still feels entirely new. So it's very comforting, but also revolutionary at the same time. I could not be more hyped. February 11th is, again, right around the corner. We're going to have plenty to do in February and March. That's for sure. Last thing I had jotted down, Lost Ark cost $85 million to develop. This was not a cheap game. Yeah, that's why it looks and feels so good, Josh.

They've poured a lot of money into this one. Yeah. The other thing that bears mentioning, because I know not everybody is into the MMO thing, or maybe it's a little bit intimidating or people think that genre is dead. It's free to play. It is worth your while to check this game out. It's an MMO. Come play with us. Like that's the beauty of an MMO is you can have any number of people playing together. Now, maybe you can only have, I don't know what, I don't know what the party size is, but then there's raids and stuff like that. But one of the things that this game does immensely well that we actually talked about on the episode when we played the beta was quality of life stuff, dude.

Oh, being able to teleport from anywhere. You can teleport from anywhere. You can fast travel to so many places uh they they have done so many things to make this game easy to play without dumbing it down that's the thing like it's fun but anything where it's like this would be a grind or this would be inconvenient to have to spend 10 minutes running back to this town because my inventory is full you can like you know what you can give your inventory to your pet yep and it's like your pet loots for you on the battlefield and that's such a great idea it's like they they have just looked at this and gone how do we make this fun like how do we take the chore out of it how do we take the inconvenience out of it and they did all of that

stuff and i i mean i i want to play i don't know how they're going to monetize this game. That's the only question I have is like, is it going to be skins? Is it going to be characters? It doesn't seem like it's going to be pay to win, which would completely ruin this game in my opinion. But I am super hyped for it. It's funny because Michael Butler, who has guest hosted a few times with us, saw that we were talking about it, started looking into it, and he got instantly hyped and was like, I cannot wait to play this with you guys. And yeah, I'm with you, man. And the fact that this is a month away is super exciting. Yeah. The last thing I'll say about it, because I know we were kind of spending a lot of time on a short number of games, you actually have to do, you had mentioned

a lot of dodging. And it feels a little bit like when Wildstar came out. You are not standing still and just casting abilities. You are actively running all over this battlefield, charging back and forth between enemies, popping abilities that move you all around the map it has tons of action lots of clicks per minute it's going to be action pumping adrenaline filled mmo fun and i feel like we haven't had that in really a long time so i'm i'm hyped this one's published by amazon but they had nothing to do with the development so i am fine i am fine with that they they've been do with the development. So I am fine. I am fine with that. They've been nowhere near the code, Josh. They're just publishing it here in America.

All right. What you got next on your list? Okay. I'll try to pick this up a little bit because I know we're getting chatty on these. But it's hard not to talk about games that you're excited about. So this one is not on your list and was on my list. That is Baldur's Gate 3. Okay. Okay.

Now, Baldur's Gate, if you're familiar with the Baldur's Gate series, it's one of the best series ever made. Turn-based RPG. Right. Turn-based RPG. Baldur's Gate 3. I think Baldur's Gate 2 has been a very long time ago. I don't know what year that came out, but I feel like it's been at least a decade, if not more. So it's been a very long time ago. I don't know what year that came out, but I feel like it's been at least a decade, if not more.

So it's been a very long time. They announced Baldur's Gate 3, and here's where the kicker comes in. The studio that is making Baldur's Gate 3 is Larian Studios. Good reputation. Phenomenal reputation, because these are the guys that made

Divinity Original sin and divinity divinity original sin 2 which is in the top 10 of our leaderboard and is honestly one of the best rpgs i have ever played in my life um fantastic game the fact that larian studios is is developing this game has me super pumped it also is going to to use the D&D 5th edition rule set, and I'm a huge fan of D&D. So you're taking a studio that I absolutely love that makes one of the best RPGs and turn-based combat games. You're meshing that with Dungeons and Dragons rules in the Baldur's Gate universe. I don't know what more I could say, man. Yes, this game is made for you. Yes, 100%. Now, this game has been out in early access for, I feel like, a year or two now.

Since October 2020. 2020. So that's when it was released in early access. And I think they have the first two, maybe three chapters. There are 20 hours, if not more, of content in this early access of this game. And they said, that's just a slice of the pie. And so just like their other games, I feel like this is going to be 80 to 100 hours easy of content. I'm very, very hyped for this game. I love the whole premise is that Mind Flayers. So if you're a Dungeons and Dragons nerd like me, Mind Flayers are very scary. That's kind of like the main enemy or so we think. There's going to be an amazing plot. I'm sure that's going to be great. That's one thing that Larian Studios is very good at. The character development is going to be great. The combat is going to be great. I am so hyped for this game.

And it releases in 2022. Now, they have not set a date. I would imagine that just seeing where the game is at in development, it will probably be later in 2022 with a small chance because Larian Studios will make sure that this game is right before they release it. Maybe it gets pushed back to 2023. I hope not. But if they need the extra time, they will certainly take it because they don't release games that aren't finished. Now, this is kind of a weird one because I remember seeing Baldur's Gate 3 when it came out for early access, and I immediately went to go check it out and to buy it. And the reviews were very negative at the time. Basically,

everyone kind of said the same thing. It's littered with bugs. You can only access the very first act. So the story doesn't really go anywhere. None of it makes any sense. And so everyone said, it's not that it's a don't buy. It's just a wait because it's just so incomplete. So it's kind of weird to release it in such bad early shape, and they knew it wasn't ready. I don't know why you don't just wait until it's fully done, but I will say one thing that really got me hyped is that they showed some statistics where they compared Divinity Original Sin 2, how many enemy types, how many lines of dialogue how many spells and next to that you got to see the numbers for baldur's gate 3 and all of them are multiplied by a factor of four so this game

is massive i mean we touted any mission in divinity original sin 2 you could resolve in 20 different ways so the fact that baldur's gate 3 is even way bigger than DOS 2, I think this is the kind of game that's going to require several playthroughs. It's going to be very replayable. It'll be great as long as it's a finished product. And that's the thing. They even came out and said, listen, we get that this is early access. And it was. It was bug-filled. The character, the dialogue wasn't even in the game yet. So people were like, hey, this is not what we expect. They went, guys, it's early access.

I think part of the problem is they were charging like $40 for the early access version. And I think people were just assuming for $40 for an early access, this game should be somewhat finished. And it was not. I think it was all $60. $60? It might have been. I'm pretty sure. I remember it was very expensive for an Early Access game. Now, what they've done, though, is they've taken a lot of the feedback. And they've actually used that from the players and said, hey, look, everything's going to be fully voiced. Don't worry about it.

It's just not in yet. And people went, well, the content's not there. And they went, look, we get it. We're working on that, too. They have just repeatedly reassured everybody that it's early access. I did check on this a few months ago. And the overall thought was that the game has progressed a lot since then. That's a good sign. Right. And people have said they added a new class or two. I can't remember what it was.

They were actually showcasing some of the combat and the choices and the D&D rules and how those interact and stuff like that. It's a massive, massive undertaking. And that's why I say it is supposed to release in 2022. But if it's not ready, I do not think that they're going to push this out. I think they will just easily delay it and say, look, this game needs more time. I'm okay with that at that point, because I love this studio for the games that they make and and I don't want to be disappointed by Baldur's Gate 3 but Baldur's Gate series is beloved you can't mess it up and so I don't think that they will it's a really good foundation good backbone it's got good bones no

matter what all right the next game that I want to talk about here is a little bit of a smaller title that I'm guessing a lot of people out here have not heard of, and that is the Callisto Protocol. Now, I believe you don't know very much about this game either, right, Josh? I don't know. I have heard the name, and unfortunately, I wanted to watch some content about this just so I knew what the heck you were talking about, and I didn't get a chance. So, explain to me why you're hyped for this, Paul. well let me ask you a question josh how do you feel about dead space uh phenomenal you and i love the first dead space in particular yes one of the all-time greatest right yeah pioneer pioneer in regards to ui to sound horror in space games yeah i mean all that now the lead guy who created dead space his name is glenn scofield

and he spent a whole decade making call of duty games which is a little bit of a bummer i feel like this guy's more of a visionary than call of duty but he went to the pub g people and said i'll build you a game studio and i want to make this game called Callisto Protocol. I want to make the scariest sci-fi game of all time. And they said, go for it. And he says that they have left him alone for 18 months. He just hired his own people. They wrote their own storylines.

They've been developing this game without feedback from the top brass, which is what you love to hear. You love hearing that nowadays. Business people should not be getting into the nitty gritty of how to create art, right? Let the artists create the art. A hundred percent. Yep. That's exactly the words I was going to use is let artists do the artwork. Yes. So in this game, you play an inmate of a prison on Callisto, which is the second largest moon of Jupiter. And we don't know a whole lot

about the game, but they do say that you are going to slowly unravel weird, evil, crazy mysteries behind the prison and the people who run it. Now, the teaser trailer that you get to watch, there's not a whole lot that you see, but you do see an inmate that basically gets attacked and killed by some kind of monster. And then it kind of zooms out and you see that there's a prison worker. I don't know if it's supposed to be like the warden, but someone's watching that happen on a security camera. So they know that these inmates are being killed by some kind of monster. We don't know a whole lot beyond that. But when you tell me that this is made by the guy who did Dead Space,

and he said that almost everyone he brought on board are people who worked on Dead Space with him, that's going to get me hyped. Because you're talking about people who love video games, making video games, and they know how to do it well. So this one's definitely on my radar. Is it exclusive? Is it PS5 is it pc consoles do you know if it's i didn't jot it down but i seem to remember it being pc and consoles except switch but maybe i'm wrong about that yeah i mean everything you just said is right it's like

the stuff i want to hear right keep? Keep the publisher CEOs out of game development. We're looking at you, EA and Activision and these companies. This guy obviously created one of the coolest video games to come out and is still beloved to this day because it was so new and revolutionary. A lot of games have copied a lot of what Dead Space did and not to the same degree. Most failed in that regard. So this guy knows what he's doing. Yeah. You know, at that point, I have not seen anything about this game. Is there gameplay footage? No, it's just like the cinematic teaser type stuff.

Okay, so we don't know a whole lot. But you give a guy that knows how to do a horror game, knows how to do suspense, you give him people that he knows how to work with, and a publisher that's going to stay the heck out of his way? It's kind of a dream. Yeah. Do we know when this is releasing? Is it still just 2022? It is just 2022. The one thing I will say, by the way, the way fact checked i i did look it up it is coming out for xbox playstation and pc okay so a lot of people

will have access if you want a really good youtube video to look up just go search for how dead space's scariest scene almost killed the game. It's a 19-minute interview with Glenn Schofield, who talks about the scene in the middle of Dead Space when the monster grabs Isaac by the feet, yanks him to the ground, and drags him. And Glenn said, there's no way that Isaac wouldn't pull out his gun and try to shoot the alien over and over. And the limitations of the engine and the programming, they couldn't do it. And he's like, I don't care. This breaks the whole game if we don't figure out how to let Isaac shoot while being dragged on the ground. And so he's a fantastic storyteller.

You get a real sense of his expertise and what he brings to the table. Yeah. And I love that video. And that, to me, really sold... I'll play anything that this guy makes. And maybe they're not all going to be classics, but he clearly understands what gamers want. Sci-fi horror is such a good combo, though. It really, really is. mean i know there's just

scary horror and stuff like that but sci-fi horror just clicks so well it's a good genre all right well after this i'm gonna have to go watch a little bit of that because i'm not familiar with it but now you've got me excited too yeah yeah yeah all right hit me with your next one josh okay this one i'm i'm i'm not like super hyped because i don't know what my expectations are for this game but that is warhammer dark tide okay this was on my list too so we loved playing vermentide vermentide is an absolute blast when you're playing it with friends it is four player-player, horde-based melee combat. You are just slaughtering hordes of rats. It's so fun.

It's got phenomenal graphics. It's got great atmosphere. It's just really, really a fun game to play. You can get all kinds of different weapons, and you can level up your characters and the progression and stuff like that. Now, when you hit the wall with Vermintide, you hit that wall and you just kind of go, okay, we're done with this. I don't want to play it anymore. We've had our fun and that's it. And that's okay. Because it is repetitive by nature. It is very repetitive. Yes. Once you play each level a few times and you play each character in those levels a few times, you've kind of done it all before. The game does get repetitive. We have acknowledged that. We have said, hey, it's great

fun up until that point. So just go into it knowing what's going to happen, right? And if you approach it that way, you'll know exactly what you're getting. Now, what they've done with Darktide is they've added one little aspect that I think is going to change it dramatically. And that's that they've added guns. Yeah, so it's not just like rinky-dink crossbows or some of the goofier. Yeah, I guess you did have technically your range stuff a little bit for some characters. But this is like you actually have machine guns and stuff like that now. Well, because it takes place in the future.

So this has a little bit more of that sci-fi bend to it. Yeah, because this is I think Warhammer 40K. I'm not a huge Warhammer guy. I mean, I love the games and the universe looks really cool, but I'm just not a Warhammer expert. But I believe this is Warhammer 40K Darktide. So it is further in the future, different planet, different timeframe? I don't know. Somebody out there knows. Sorry, we're butchering this. But the game looks great. It takes the bones of Vermintide and that horde-based combat,

four-player co-op with different characters. There's some giant dude that stands out. And they actually have shown some gameplay on this and what i think is hilarious is if you play as the giant all of the enemies you're looking down on them because you're so big yeah because you're so tall and they did that in vermintide when you were the dwarf and you were so short running through the wheat field and you couldn't see you'd have to jump you'd have to be like you'd have to jump and be like and be like, hey, where you guys at, man? Where'd everybody go? And so it's little things like that that they do very well. But it's just this game looks like it's a ton of fun. I can't wait to pick it up and play it. I know we'll play it and then we'll just hit that wall. And it's fine. Once we had our fun, I'm fine just never playing it again. But

it's going to be a wild ride up until until then my only concern is that i feel like everything that we have just said we said about back for blood and we played it in the beta and we liked it we both liked it i was planning on keeping the full version and you were the first one that was kind of like you know what i kind of feel like i got my fill and it's 60 bucks let's just cancel the pre-order and cut it loose now uh so i don't know what would make dark tide different than back for blood because let's be honest these are basically the same games so maybe it'll come down to pricing and who all is gonna pick it up it's the universe in the graphics to be honest like they do vermin tide was so good at making you feel like you were in that world.

The rats were taking over. With rat people. Yeah, with the rat people. I guess these enemies are the poxwalkers, are the main enemies. So again, somebody out there will know what that is. But I think it just looks like a lot of fun. There is a mix of melee. That's kind of the thing too, is that they show everybody fighting with melee, but then they switch to guns and then everybody's shooting rocket launchers and grenade launchers and stuff like that. I think maybe this is just another horde shooter. Maybe this genre is starting to just become so diluted that if you've played one, you've played them all. But there's something about this that just looks good to me

when did the first left for dead come out i want to say it's like pretty close to 20 years ago left for dead is an old game man um it's it's a phenomenal game 2008 so we're talking about now 14 years into this kind of genre. We'll see. Yeah. I want to play it. I hope it has. I'm the same way. It depends on like the characters, the skills.

There's a lot more that goes on than just slaughtering rats or pox walkers in this. Like, you know, Vermintide had the hub and you could get all these different weapons and armor and, and, and that,

you know, abilities that you could customize and skill trees and stuff like that. And I think that's a lot of what can change how the game feels. So we'll see. Like I said, I'm moderately hyped for this one. I feel like we'll pick it up. Maybe it'll just look like it's more of the same, but I am a little bit excited about it.

Me too. I definitely want to play it. I mean, these games, the formula works for a reason. I guess we'll just see if there's any gas left in the tank. Yeah. All right. What about you? Got any others?

All right. I was going to say, I don't know if we should just quickly mention some honorable mentions or should we break down any more? I feel like there's one game that I have to mention that's more than just an honorable mention, and that's Horizon Forbidden West. Forbidden West, yeah. This game looks incredible. It's a AAA title to the max.

It looks like it's been developed really well. Horizon Zero Dawn is a phenomenal game. I played that game for probably a solid 15 to 20 hours and loved every bit of it. And then I just petered out because my game ADD kicked in. I didn't play it for a few weeks. But there's something about Horizon Forbidden West that I know that this game is going to be incredible, but I can't seem to get myself hyped up about it. And it's maybe just because I didn't finish Horizon Zero Dawn. And so my brain has told me, yeah, you've played that,

so we don't want to play it anymore. I don't know, man. I feel bad that I'm not more hyped about it. But it comes out February 18th. Yeah. And it's like, so here's another game in February that is probably going to be phenomenal.

I just don't know that I'll ever play it. And I know that that's a shame. I feel like it's mostly because of what else is coming out if there was nothing coming out for the next four months then maybe you and i would be a little more hyped about it but when we have all our attention toward elden ring and lost ark it's kind of like all right it's there a lot of people are gonna love it i don't have any plans to buy it i talked about how i just have a weird thing where i don't like games that take place in the future

and civilizations like broken down so the people live as if they were in the past around ruins it's just something weird about that aesthetic i don't like like you have all this technology why aren't you using it like why are you living primitively if there's obviously like something more advanced out there yes if there was like you know if if if nuclear warfare destroyed like all the major cities but we still had thousands and thousands of people alive i feel like within 100 years we would probably get everything back to where it was. So there's something about it that I'm not crazy about. It's also a PS4, PS5 exclusive. And maybe that's part of it. I do have a PS4 again. We got one for my daughter for Christmas.

So I have access to a PS4 now. But I'm not slandering this game. I think it's going to be great. I know that's going to be great. I know that there's a lot of people that are super hyped for it, and they've been waiting a very long time. So I don't want to leave it. I don't want people to yell at us and be like, hey, how could you guys not talk about this? I'm acknowledging that this game is probably going to be great. It's just not on my radar, necessarily. Yeah, I totally hear you.

A couple other things that are coming out ghostwire tokyo that game looks bananas by the way yeah ghostwire tokyo we we don't need to spend a whole lot of time about it but the same people that made the evil within one and two are making this game tokyo by the way might be the best setting for video games i tokyo is fantastic right put any game there it's immediately better and basically almost all the people in tokyo suddenly in a snap they all vanish and all of these ghosts and spirits have invaded the city you run around and somehow can control certain elements like fire, and you're fighting ghosts. It looks a little bananas, but it's very fast-paced,

very unique-looking enemies. This one is going to be on PC and a one-year exclusive on PS5. And this is one that I'm not saying right now I'm going to buy, but I'm saying it looks so out there that it kind of demands attention because I just want to know what it's about. I watched the video once and I went, what the heck is this? And then I watched the video again and I went, I kind of like this. It's kind of cool. There's something about it, right? It's all the guy doing like, he's putting his hands together and doing like the hadoken thing or whatever but then not magic necessarily i don't know it it really does look bananas it's it you know there's definitely like combat and fighting in it and spell casting but it doesn't

look like spells and it's all fast paced and there's demons everywhere i don't know man it's very hard to explain you got to watch the video watch it twice because it took me the second time around but that's when i kind of went yeah yeah it's definitely not like an old formula this is something that's a little bit new and different which i always like yeah so a couple quick hits for me redfall was a game that we talked about this is a four-person co-op almost like the division but, but against vampires, I feel like. There was a cool little demo that really caught our attention. Very scripted. Yeah, we don't know what it's going to be.

But it looked like maybe it could be fun. But that was one that's coming out this year that I do remember. Is it Dying Light 2 that's coming out? That game looks like it's going to be pretty darn good. I never played the first Dying Light, but that one is coming out. That looks like it's going to be very well done. There's Stalker 2 that's coming out. I played the Stalker a long time ago. But yeah, I think that's it as far as the quick hits and the games that are kind of out there, I guess. You know, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention Breath of the Wild 2. Because there is rumor that it's coming out in 2022. But I feel like these rumors are not very justified. I'm not buying it.

I'm not optimistic that Breath of the Wild 2 is coming out this year. So there's a reason we didn't really hype it and talk about it. Because neither one of us really think it's going to release this year i would love to be wrong on that yes yes i i would love nothing more than for it to come out this year uh but i feel like we'd know a little bit more about it if it was but who knows a couple other things that are coming out. Gotham Knights. I was a little bit excited, but I was still a little leery about it. But once I was able to see more footage, I got to tell you, the pre-alpha footage looks great. It looks real good. Yes.

What do you call the bat motorcycle? The bat bike? Sure. Whatever it's called. I don't know. cycle the bat bike sure whatever it's called the bat bike just looks really responsive and can turn corners really tightly so you get to see them driving in the city which looks awesome it looks so much like the arkham games and i know that this is made by the people who made i think arkham origins but technically this takes place in a different

universe. But it looks so well done. The graphics look incredible. Having a co-op game that your friend can just drop in and play with you, you and I love being able to play couch co-op games like that. So that one's definitely on my radar. Also, Saints saints row and just to tell you what a big year we're in for here's others that are probably coming out this year for spoken hogwarts legacy legacy lord of the rings golem marvel's midnight suns multiverses pokemon legends arceus that comes out this month uh you already mentioned redfall slime Slime Rancher 2, Splatoon 3, Stray. That's the one where you play as a cat. Oh, that's the cat one.

Yep. Yeah. Suicide Squad, Kill the Justice League, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Shredder's Revenge, Tiny Tina's Wonderland. Oh, I forgot about that game. There's so many. I forgot about Tiny Tina's, dude. That game looks great.

2022 is going rule yes this is a great slate of games it really is uh i i completely forgot about tiny tina's wonderland that is it looks very very fun uh that's one that slipped my mind man yeah if you're if you're an older gamer like me and you remember the original system shock, that game was phenomenal. They're remaking it and the remake is supposed to release this year as well. There's just a lot to be excited about, man. Hollow Knight Silk Song, where you and I are likely gonna deep dive Hollow Knight

because neither one of us have played it. We know it's a very well-beloved game, but the Silk Song is coming out, which I know a lot of people are hyped for. There's just a lot out there. And what's great, like I mentioned earlier, is there's going to be games that release that isn't on anybody's radar. And so along with all of these games we've talked about, oh, Rainbow Six Extraction. That game looks like it's going to be fun.

But yeah, it's just funny because the longer you think about it, the more you go like, oh yeah to be fun. But yeah, it's just funny because it's like, the longer you think about it, the more you go like, oh yeah, that game. Oh yeah, this game. And obviously not all of them are going to hit. We're going to have some flops, I'm sure. But yeah, I'm excited, man. I feel like this year will hopefully make up for last year. I think it will. And I think we we're gonna have more heavy hitters at the top that's the one thing that i lamented the most about 2021 is when you're giving it takes two best game of the year that tells me the whole tide of boats is pretty low yeah right uh halo infinite kind of came in and saved the year in a lot of ways

from being a complete disappointment but i think for 2022 even if just a third of these games hit it's better than last year so i'm excited i think there's a lot to look forward to uh i i love that we're getting like three amazing releases in February as well. I really do. It's not that far away. I mean, it's a month, you know, and maybe a couple weeks. Like, fine. We've got games to play until then.

We're not in that drought like you said. So I'm very excited to be able to try out some of these. You know, here's to 2022, man. Yeah. So if you had to guess right now, what do you think is going to win game of the year? When we review 2022 at the end of it, it could be Starfield.

It really calling Starfield. I think if they, if they hit it, they're going to hit it out of the park, dude. You know, I'd be so sad if they don't. That's the thing is like,

if they don't hit it, I don't, I'm, I don't know at the thing is like if they don't hit it i don't i'm i don't know at that point it's going to be god of war hands down in my opinion god of war is the safe bet i don't see god of war flopping you know like is it going to be as good as the 2018 one i mean even if it's equal that's still really amazing yeah absolutely it's the safest bet yeah all right well we got a lot of games to look forward to. That's a great problem to have. Great, great problem.

The best problem to have. So thanks to everyone out there for joining us. As a reminder, please leave us a review. Please rate us five stars, especially on Spotify. If you want access to the Quick Take episodes, you can subscribe in Apple Podcasts or go to MultiplayerSquad.com. That starts off at $5 a month, although you can always pledge more if you would like to do that. We do rely on our listeners for funding the podcast, so it really is very important. Thank you to all of you out there who already support it, and just go tell someone else about the show. We would love

to see it grow, so try to recruit at least a friend to come listen as well. And that's it for today. We'll see you guys on Thursday for This Week in Gaming. We've been playing through a whole lot of games. We're going to have plenty to talk about. Yeah, we are. So we'll see you guys in just a couple of days on Thursday. I am also super hyped about everything now, Paul.

So thanks a lot. I'm not taking off of work for any of these by the way i know people have been asking i have not requested off of work for any of these games so don't blame any delays on me either good no no cyberpunk delays like last year all right well thanks everyone we'll see you on thursday All right. See you, everybody.