Video Gamers Podcast - Publishers Best Games – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: October 22, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are putting four legendary publishers to the test! From EA and Capcom to Annapurna Interactive and Devolver Digital, we're picking our favorite video games from each. Whether it's massive AAA hits or unforgettable indie gems, these publishers have given us some of the best experiences in gaming. Which games deserve the spotlight, and which video games are criminally underrated? Plenty of gaming nostalgia on this episode of the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps, Bobby S, NorwegianGreaser, Dettmarp, DingusKhaaan and NightWizard63   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: Milkman, Drewsky, Jigglepuf and BadGam3rDad   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@videogamerspod Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod     Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the Video Gamers podcast. Larry & Studios, Santa Monica Studios, Hello Games. We all know some of the best and brightest studios and their games. But what about the publishers? The ones who put their money on the line to risk it all for the biscuit. What's the best game from EA or Capcom? How about the best indie from Annapurna or maybe devour? Well, on today's episode, we're doing just that, picking out a personal favorite and a game

we feel more people should know about from each of those publishers. But before we get to that, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, he's a company man who's been in talks with EA, asking them what games he'd like for him to show for, since everyone on the internet thinks that about him anyway. It's Ryan. No, I, yeah. No, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll tell them. Yeah, that's, that's the game we want to do. Yeah, yeah, I'll say it. I'll say it. It's the number one game. Okay. All right, oh, hey guys. Oh, sorry. Oh, sorry. I was, oh, sorry, I was on the phone. Who are you talking

to, right? No, it's not, it was definitely not EA. I was not being a paid chill for EA at all. Oh, okay. We will have to take your word for it. You would never do that, Ryan. Yeah. Who would ever think that? Yeah, not the internet, of course. Absolutely not. And joining us, he's truly conflicted, because while he does love Anapurna and Devolver, they might just be getting too big for him to continue to love.

Because where's the line between AAA and super successful indie publisher? It's A's. Golly, I don't want to start that conversation again. I was just in that conversation, Ace. What happens when an indie publisher, like your beloved Anna Perna, Ace, you're beloved. What happens? When do they become a AAA publisher? I don't know.

I don't know where the line is. I know. I know. I don't know. You see. You know, because like the things and the stuff and the place and, you know. They'll put out games I like so they'll never call them AAA ever. I bet you

Anapurna makes more money than some of the smaller Tribal-A published Oh, for sure. Are they privately owned? Apparently, they will remain independent. So as long as their stocks Are independently AAA?

Is that? Yeah, independently triple A. Yep, they're independently triple A. Bam! Coin that phrase, trademark. Bam, bam, bam. We just broke his brain. We call that triple I, Ryan.

All right. Yeah, we do call it triple I. You weren't there for that episode. for triple ignorant. That's what it should be. I always didn't wonder though. Like where is Ace at some point going to have to be like, yeah, I don't like Annapurna. They're too big.

They're too big now. It'll happen. I liked them back like when they were like, you know. I've got a bad habit of being like I liked it before it was cool. Yeah. Yeah. Like before they became mainstream, like everybody knew about it. I was playing Annapurna games like before people even knew what Aaron.

talks about mixed tape. And then they sold out and then they went and made a lot of money, made good games. And then I was like, nope, that's not for me. Not for me. That looks too good. All these mainstream people thinking mixtape was a cool game. Like, yeah. That was what it had a lot. I don't have to worry about that. Nobody thinks mixed tape is cool. Oh, you take that back.

Ah, yeah. Yeah. Hey, public opinion is not put on our side lately with mixtape. You rated mixtape quite highly. Oh, I like mixtape. Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying the public opinion is not in mixed tape's favor still. As we've learned, the public opinion is wrong. It's stupid and wrong and dumb.

It's so stupid. Oh, man. I have no close. Well, listen, welcome it. We're off the rails already. Let's go. Glam's behind the curtain. We have a pre-show. You've heard us talk about this before. Our pre-show, we don't know how to not do it like a freaking 20-minute pre-show.

And Ryan and Ace are blaming me for the length of our episode, because Because we basically... You're the driver. Listen, our episodes are supposed to be like 35 minutes, people. 35 minutes. That's like our goal. And I can't tell you the last time we had a 35 minute or even like a 40 minute episode.

They're like 45 to 55 minutes like most of the time. And so Ryan and A's are like, bro, you're the host. Like you're the one that's supposed to like keep the pacing and stuff like. And I'm like, I like to talk. I'm in the wrong business if you want me to keep things on track, man. Like, this is a problem. Drive, driver. Drive, Driver, what are you doing?

Shouldn't have asked me to cast the entire Star Wars as Muppets. Our off-ramp was like four exits ago. Oh, man. We spent the last four exits talking about Muppets. We did. That's not our fault. That's T. Foles's fault for asking that question. You let it carry on.

Although it was a good question. I was learning so much also for anybody out there. Ace has more. Muppet knowledge than any human being I have ever seen in my life. Muppet expert. I grew up with the Muppets and Ace would smoke me. I was having to Google Muppets that Ace was throwing out their first, last middle name, their ancestry, like where they were like born at?

And I'm just like, Ace, where is this Muppet knowledge coming from? Where the Muppet fiber originated from? Like all that. Yeah. He knows the type of yarn. Coming up episode, I will hug. most, Muppet trivia, like you guys can go out of it. Head to head of Muppet trivia, Josh gets smoked.

Oh, man, that would be pretty funny. This Muppet is, the ACE is just, like, okay. Yeah. Oh, boy. All right, well, listen, welcome in everybody to the video gamers podcast. If you are new here, that introduction is pretty standard. We can't use to it.

We're just a bunch of idiots that love talking video games. Ace, that's actually really good, Ace, dang it. Ace is still on the Muppets, the chickens for the Stormtroopers. That's perfect. That's perfect, Ace. All right, so now we've got to go to Disney and pitch a Muppet Star Wars movie. Oh, man, they would make so much money. Yeah, I mean, that's all Disney cares about.

So we're in, we're in, people. Dude, I love it. Welcome, welcome in everybody to the podcast. We thought it'd be fun. We don't do this. And honestly, we kind of trash a lot of publishers out there because, you know, they're the money behind the magic. It is a necessary evil in the video game industry.

But you need somebody to fund your game. You need somebody to take care of your employees while you're building a game. And this is where publishers come in. And we we thought, you know what? It would actually be kind of cool to go, hey, what are some of the best games from these publishers? And then we wanted to diversify that just a little bit. so it's not all AAA or all indie. So we split them down the middle.

And then we went, okay, who do we want to talk about? So we picked EA and Capcom, who has been at the height of the publisher game lately. So kudos to Capcom because they have just been having an incredible year. And then we also went, okay, we got to include some indies in here because, you know, these publishers are the ones that are responsible for making sure that we get some of these incredible indie games. So we went with one of our favorites, Anna Perna, and then Ryan and I basically went like, and who else?

And Ace, and then Ace started rattling off a whole bunch of indie publishers, kind of like he did with the Muppets. And then we decided to do Devolver, because that's a big one that makes a lot of games. And we were like, heck yeah, that works. Also, we did this while Ryan was on vacation and didn't consult Ryan.

And I don't know if Ryan has played any Devolver games or not, but I guess we'll figure that out as we get into this episode. You will find out, that's for sure. Oh, man. Oops. Whoops. Hope you enjoyed your vacation, Ryan. Sorry for not checking with you first on that.

But listen, before we get to these games, we do have a couple people to thank. As we do, anybody that signs up to support this podcast over on Patreon, we love to just say thank you. And one of the ways, on top of the incredible perks that we give to people, is to say thank you on the show. huge shout out to Jake Hildebrand and Belero Sama for both signing up for rare status and supporting this podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I appreciate it. And we probably have not fully announced things yet, but if you watched Monday's episode, you kind of got the teaser about the upcoming website. And so that is, if we have not announced the actual launching of the website, website yet. It is coming very soon. But all those perks that we talked about were expanding drastically for everybody that supports this podcast because a lot of those are going to give you really cool things to be able to interact with the website and to be able to do on the website. Just another way that we're trying to say thank you to everybody out there that supports

this podcast. We would not be here if it wasn't for the support of our listeners. And we try to just turn around and give that support back. That's how we were able to build this website and make get a place for gamers and to try to give you guys all kinds of amazing things to do there, to build this community, to have the community interact with each other and that website. So we're very excited for all this. All that to say, thank you, honestly, to everybody that supports this podcast. And to all the listeners, even if you're not supporting the podcast, thank you for tuning in. Honestly, like, thank you for helping us spread the word.

Thank you for leaving reviews. Everybody can do their part to help out. And it's why we are at where we are at. and we're continuing to grow, and we are just freaking excited, man. The, like, dude, it's incredible. So. Love it.

All right. Yeah. All right. Let's get, I'm getting teary out here, boys. Let's get to the games. Okay, so this is how we're going to do this. We've got our publishers.

We've got our favorite, it's a personal favorite game from the publisher. And then we get it. We picked a game that either we just really wanted to talk about, or that we thought was an underappreciated game or a game that just kind of caught us off guard. There's really not a whole lot of rhyme or reason for like the second game on this list.

Other than we just kind of went, hey, we want to talk about it. We feel like other people need to hear about it. What we tried to avoid doing on this one was just picking the most well-known game imaginable. Like, you know, it's one of those things where everybody gets tired of hearing us talk about the same games over and over.

And when we're talking about Capcom or EA especially or something like that, It's like, okay, let's dig a little bit deeper. Let's try to talk about some things that we haven't talked about. So that is part of our goal is to try to pivot a little bit. Now, you know, I'm just going to spoil things because we're going to jump into EA first. I got to talk about Battlefield 2, boys. But it's like, so we can't avoid talking about all games, but at the same time,

we are trying to branch out a little bit on this one. And I'm just kicking things off since I spilled the beans. EA, Battlefield 2, the best Battlefield game, in existence. Over three? I cannot... Over all of them, dude. Battlefield 2 is easily...

Dude, look it up. Google it. Google what the best Battlefield game is? Only tells me to Google it. I'm just telling you. It's... I'm just telling you. Battlefield 2 is widely considered by people

that are smart like me as the best Battlefield What are you 80? Google it. I was cussed because like a I'm just saying I'm also counting on Ryan's laziness to not Google this because it's probably not. But I put in more time in Battlefield 2 than I think any other battle, honestly, then all the other battlefields combined.

Like I was so enamored with Battlefield 2. You had the mode where you could be the actual like Battlefield Commander where you got to see the top down view and you could actually direct the squads. I thought that was a, I would love for them to bring that back. Battlefield 2 is also where I became like an ace helicopter pilot and could do like bear rolls and loop de loops and stuff like that and was terrorizing these maps. It was also when back when you had server browsers. And so you had those two or three servers that like you would know the same players because they'd always be on the servers and stuff like that. It was the heyday of Battlefield for me. We've always said we're fans of this franchise.

The franchise has had its ups and downs. But when I was looking through the list of like EA games and there's a lot of. really, really incredible games. Battlefield 2 was the one I was like, I, this is, this is easily like my favorite game of the bunch. So for me, that is my choice for personal favorite from this publisher. I'm going to toss it to Ryan because I want Ace to stew on having to pick a AAA title from EA of all things. I love it. You just sit there and your agony, Ace. You think about what you've done. You think about what you've done, Ace.

You think about this. I will say I can't fault you too much. I loved Battlefield, too. I played every single battlefield they've had. That was a universal acclaim on the Metacritic, and it's the 91. Yeah. For a battlefield game? No, it's solid.

I'm not saying it's not solid, but for me, three or four are totally the ones. Four is still the best battlefield. Even with six being out, I still think, I think it goes two. Four is the best. And then four. See, I don't think four is the best because I played so much too. Yeah. But four was the second best, in my opinion, before the whole franchise just fell apart.

So, all right. Ryan, what is your EA game that you are? Are we going to do it like that or should I talk? Should I just do both? I think you probably knock out both. Yeah, yeah, dude, do the other one. Just do both. Okay.

Yeah, knock out both. The game criminally, criminally, dude, I talk to so many people. And we see, especially with the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 that just released, right? People are talking about the campaign on that. And occasionally we get people in our community, they're like, hey, what's one of the best first person shooter campaigns? Because I'm not really interested in the sweaty aspect of playing a multiplayer shooter. The easy answer 100% of the time is Titanfall 2.

I cannot tell you what a crime. What a crime it is. Two first person shooter campaigns that not enough people understand how absolutely epic Titanfall 2's campaign is. BT 7274 is your Titan in that game. Anybody that's played it will understand Protocol 3, protect the pilot. You know, like, dude, Titanfall 2's campaign is one of the, if not the best. And I don't say that lightly, single player first person shooter campaigns in existence.

And it amazes me to this day that more people do not understand how absolutely epic that that, like that game was. the multiplayer, I know that's what everybody thinks about with Titanfall and Titanfall 2. Like, okay, it's basically dead. You know, there's probably five people to still play it and they're so sweaty you don't even want to join. But if nothing else, people, you can pick this game up for like $4 now. But buy it and play this campaign. I give you the Josh guarantee that you will not regret. And then you will go like, how did I not know this existed and it was this good?

So this is me telling everybody out there, Titanfall 2, you know, need to play this campaign. It is one of the best first person shooter campaigns in the world. Plain and simple. And there's there's 908 people in Titanfall 2 right now. 980. Don't play against those guys.

Those people, you know, you don't understand. They love this game. They love it so much. You don't want to go up against them at all. Don't join the multiplayer. No. Don't join the multiplayer. So, uh, dude, I got it as much as, you know, we trash EA,

Dude, you look at their list of games that they've published. There's some all-timers, man. I mean, all-timers. I'm curious if Ryan has... I have an honorable mention, but I'm not going to mention it until Ryan talks about his. So, Ryan, for you, what's your personal favorite and then the other game that you want to bring up for EA?

I would say this was actually a really hard one for me between my personal favorite and then what I think is really, really good. I'm going to go with the first one will be... Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. I love this game. Incredible. I love action RPGs. I love good stories and I love these open worlds and the ability to do stuff and unlock things. And it had all of it. Everything you would want in that type of game, it had. That's what it was.

And that's what was available to you to play. You had almost unlimited an amount of hours to look for things and do things and retry stuff. And there was just so much there. I thought they did such an amazing job at it. The second one wasn't as good, but it was still an amazing game. And that's just, it was, it was fantastic. And then my second game, we're going to, we're going to go way back in time. You guys ready?

Get in the time machine? All right, the year is 2005. and we have Star Wars Battlefront 2, baby. We're going way, way back. One of the best shooters ever. Star Wars Battlefront 2, I would do crazy things to get the feeling again that I had playing this game. It was amazing, unbelievable. Star Wars Battlefront 2 was.

You just made so many fans of Battlefront happy by bringing that up. So many people. I mean there's a huge huge group of people that are still big time on this and they want that game so yeah Star Wars Battlefront 2 is my secondary and I loved it dude I got into Battlefront way later

I don't remember what I was playing honestly actually I know what I was playing that was EverQuest That's all you were playing. That is 100% You said 2005 and then I went oh that's why I wasn't playing anything else Dude, Battlefront to, I mean, I just talked about my love of battlefield too, but like, take that and put it in the Star Wars universe. And it's like, dude, it's insane. And I tried to get into it.

I tried to get into it later on. I jumped into the heroes versus villains because I thought that would be fun. And then I just got wrecked by flying around Emperor Palpatines. And I was like, what? Like, these dudes are max level. Like, we just joked around about not going into Titanfall 2. That's like Battlefront 2 at this point where I'm just like, what is happening? But, dude, Battlefront 3, I cannot believe that they're not making this game right now.

You know, I just, as much as, like, EA wants to make money. And it sucked because they put so much pay to win stuff in it. People want Battlefront 3. What was that petition that came out? Didn't it get up to like 400,000 signatures or something like that? It got a good bit. Yeah, it got a lot. Those are both great picks, Ryan.

I'll say this. Jedi Fallen Order. Jedi Fallen Order is one of those games. that it is way better than your brain thinks it is if you've not played it. You know what I mean? Like people that go like, I'm not a Star Wars fan. I don't really get into Star Wars that much. So I don't know.

It does not matter. Fallen Order is an incredible video game. It has everything. Yeah. It's even like a little bit Souls Light generally with some of that. Souls Light. Yeah. The combat,

but all that to say, the combat's incredible in the game. It feels very Star Wars. So if you're a fan of Star Wars, you'll appreciate it. If you're not a fan of Star Wars, Star Wars. It doesn't matter because the game itself is so incredibly well done that it just stands on its own.

The combat is good. The world is beautiful. Like everything you can imagine. There's puzzles. There's like it has everything. It's like a uncharted Star Wars. Like it's, but it like better combat without all the repetition of climbing. Yeah, exactly.

No, there's just load screens. We have to squeeze in between holes instead. Yeah. You got a shoot. The loading screen. Those are two great picks, Ryan, honestly. And, yeah, play Fallen Order, people, if you haven't. That's another game you can pick up Dirt Cheap now because it's been out for a while.

But also, one of the coolest moments in a video game, we've done some really epic moments in video games, and I'm not going to spoil it for people that haven't heard that. But Fallen Order has one of those moments that really helps make the game. So, yeah, I know. All right, Ace. I know this is going to pain you, buddy. It hurts. The agony.

EA. I actually had to do some thinking for EA. I don't really play that many EA games, I thought, until I looked at their list. It's like, oh, yeah. I love the list. Our orders are like reverse. DeKolver for Ryan is like EA for eight. It's like, right?

I'm just the guy in the middle going, I love all video games, people. Yeah, whatever. You hippie. Yeah. Peace on earth and goodwill. Where's your dreadlocks? AAA and AAA and Indies for all. But my standout, basically, favorite EA game is Dead Space.

iconic horror game Dead Space The atmosphere The atmosphere Did you ever play the remake? I did I love the remake Okay The remake is so good It's fantastic dude

Yes Yeah it gave a voice to our protagonist So he's not just a silent Shell of a man The entire time so that was fun Yeah Dude Dead Space is just There's nothing like it

There's nothing like There's really not Being this poor engineer Trapped on this ship full of zombies with nothing but a laser cutter. And you have one directive. Get out.

Yeah. Live. Survive. Live. Dead Space is a game that combines the tension and the, like, the psychological horror in a way for what you can't see with the actual, like, you get to fight these creatures and do like, and use this plasma cutter to cut off limbs and stuff. And it blends the two, like, very few games have ever done. Like most games either completely lean into the psychological side or like to just the horror shoot everything side.

But Dead Space is like one of the only games that's mastered being able to do both in the same game. It's the closest I felt to like being in the alien franchise while playing a video game. Yeah, honestly. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like especially when you go out and do the spacewalks and stuff to disable the turrets and things like that, it's just like, this is insane. I am not comfortable. That's good though when you don't feel safe at any. You never feel safe in DeadSever.

Like that's, that no, you know that they designed it properly to where like you're just uncomfortable at all times. And that's, you know, most of the time that's not a good thing. But in a game like that that's designed to be that way, that's a good thing. Yeah, sci-fi horror resource management and just satisfying combat makes just a killer horror game. Anybody that missed the original Dead Space, the remake is absolutely fantastic and is made for modern, like, play the Dead Space remake, it does not feel dated in the slightest, and it really preserves what the original game did.

It's one of the best remakes that I think has ever been made, in all honesty. It ranks up there with, like, Resonative 4 remake, as far as staying, like, true to the original game. It's pretty true to the original, yeah. Yeah, but also making it modern and look really good and the quality of life stuff and all that. So, great pick, Ace.

And now jumping to, I wouldn't say underrated, but not talked about enough on this show, the Sims 3, which I grew up with, as one of my very first games. Bad pick, Ace. It is not a bad pick. When Ace has not talked about,

we mean never, because I don't know that we can ever mention the Sims on this. Because nobody here cares about Life Sims, but the freedom you have in the Sims 3 is so cool. It's not just like your daily,

day-to-day life sim. You can have vampires or witches. There's magic. You can go to a magic school. You can go into the future where you can set up robots and stuff. It's just super cool, like how much you can do in this simulation.

And obviously, it's not for everyone. Also, this game almost made by like school computer explode once. Because you shouldn't be playing shoes. I wasn't supposed to download the Sims 3 to it. But I did. We played pinball at school. I just heard the disc drive just going, that thing's trying to load the data fast enough.

It's just trying to load so hard. The Sims franchise is one of the most iconic franchises out there. you're right like we just i don't like sim type games right doesn't really like sim type games that much you have to give it its credit it is one of the most iconic franchises out there i know it's made it's a dcillions of dollars and i know people love this being able to just have this freedom to watch these people

and affect their life and stuff like that um so that's a good pick i just it's not my kind of game but i also appreciate what the sims does for a lot of it was it was so good for its time i think Because, like, I, I love the Sims in the late 90s, early 2000s. Whenever it, like, came out, whenever that time frame was, was because I remember playing the original, you know, Rosebud 99 or whatever was the cheat code. You get unlimited money. You could get Mortimer Gauth, and you could, like, steal wives and husbands, and I would

steal my family, like, family members. We were all living in the same neighborhood, and I would, like, steal their companions and stuff. Like, it's, there's a lot there, and it was a cool game. but there's only so much you can do. I don't know, man. It was limitless if you kept buying the expansions. Because, like, I owned a beach house, which owned a resort,

and then I had a houseboat and I could go scuba diving. All right. We don't need to get into Aces's entire Simps history. There was so much cool stuff. All right. One of my Sims got killed by a Kraken. It was cool. Oh, man.

Moving on. All right. Is that, okay. So that was Ace's second game. Right? Yeah, because you just cut me off, so we're done. Yeah, but you told me to be the host and keep things moving. We're done talking about the Sims 3. When I try to host things, all of a sudden I'm like, Josh, you still beat.

Thank God we won't talk about the Sims 3 again. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. You'll never know about the love triangle of vampire ghost and werewolf. We don't need to know. I don't want to hear Love Triangle. All you need is, we're going to take a break. If you want to get rid of, if you want to get rid of someone, put them in a pool and then pull out the ladder.

Pull out the ladder, baby. Yeah. All right, listen, we're going to take a break. Then we'll come back. We're going to jump into Annapurna. We're going to go back and forth on the AAA indie here. And, man, people aren't from, yeah, well, people are going to remember because Anna Perna is pretty much at the top of their game.

We'll be right back after this break. All right. We're back people. I guess it's back to me on this one. Now, people have heard me mention this game, but I'll be honest. I can't not talk about the best game. that Anapurna has ever published. Wait, wait, wait, hold on. Hold on. I'm sorry. I got to interrupt.

I don't think I did. Did we finish Capcom? Because I didn't do a Capcom game. Buddy, we even got there. We didn't talk about Capcom. We're jumping between. Yeah, we went from EA to Anna Perna. And then we're going to jump back to Capcom and back. Then we're going to go back to Capcom. We're jumping. All right. That break really messed up, right? Yeah, really messed up. I was. Hey, we could blame Ace. Okay, hold on. I was, I was surprised that we spent that long. We spent that long on.

We're gonna speed up. Don't worry. All right. All right. That's all. That's all. We got a lot of games to cover here. It's two each.

I'm just making sure we're covering all the bases is all. I know. We don't worry. We're going to give Capcom their due because they deserve it. All right. Anna Perna. My game, my pick on this one is Outer Wilds.

And anybody out there that gets tired of hearing me talk about Outer Wilds, here's why I talk about Outer Wilds. Anna Perna has released some absolutely incredible games. I mean incredible games. Do you know what their highest rating? game ever is. I bet it's Outer Wilds. You're darn right.

It's Outer Wild. It's literally their highest rated game ever. So that should tell you something. Okay. Now, listen, I'm the first to admit, Outer Wilds is not for everybody. But if it is for you, it lands like few other games out there, people.

If you like exploration, if you like solving mysteries, if you like a cute space world, it's unlike any other game. Honestly, it feels so unique in the way that this game is designed and played and laid out and stuff like that. There's a reason it's their highest rated game ever. I'm not going to sit here and sing its praises for the next 15, 20 minutes because we don't have

that kind of time. But if you have not at least tried Outer Wilds, you are missing out on one of the most unique and impressive video game experiences that exists. If you look up games people wish they could play for the first time all over again, Outer Wilds is usually in that list and there's a reason for that. It's all I'm going to say. It's incredible people. My other one on this one is a game that is lesser known and more people need to know about it is a game called neon white.

Yep. I have mentioned this before on the podcast, but not very often, especially with Galactic Racer releasing recently. I see all these people posting their times on the leaderboard for how fast they got through the levels and stuff like that. That is 100% the premise of neon white is to try to speed run these levels. you get cards and abilities that allow you to do things, whether it's triple jump or shoot a balloon because you have to clear targets

as you're running through the level and stuff like that. There is no game out there like neon white. It's masterfully done. It's addictive as anything. You're always trying to beat your fastest time. It's unique. The art style is incredible. The fun level is up there.

Try it. Again, you can probably pick it up very cheaply at this point, but neon white is very underappreciated for being another very unique. unique video game. All right, Ryan. Are you ready for Annapurna, Ryan? I was born ready.

Oh, okay. Well, hit us. What are your two games for them? That would mean that I played two Anapurna games. You've not played two Anapurna games? I have not, and that won't be the first time you hear that today. I have not played two Anapurna game. You've played mixtape? I have played mixtape. So that's, you know, you've taken the league.

there. So my first game we're going to go through is Mix-Save. You know? I just ruined Ryan. I thought you were saying you haven't played any of these. Of course I played Mix tape. Obviously, we played together. That is the one and only in a Perna game I've played.

But I will say that I absolutely loved it. mixtape is one of the best. I guess how would you even like a cinematic? Interactive experience. Yeah. Experience games. Annapurna is known for these. Yeah, these which you see like what is another one like was Taylor's principal is another

one or Talos principle? No, that's the Talos principle. No, that's like more puzzled. That's like more puzzled. Which we're getting to, but that's puzzle. But they've done, Annapern has done like what remains of Edith Finch. Oh, that's the other one. That's the one.

Yeah, they've done straying. I haven't played it, but Lorelie and the Laser Eye Stray's the Cat one, right? Yeah, Stray's the Cat one. Journey. Journey is another one where it's that kind of just emotional experience kind of game. Yeah, so Anapurna is known for this.

And Mixape, obviously, is the most recent one. That's, and that's the only one I've played, which I absolutely loved. So I am enticed to play more. Absolutely. This was an awesome experience. It was something that, I think even if you weren't born, like it was before my time.

It was much more Josh's time. But I still got the vibes and the feeling. And like they did such a good job of setting the stage and making you live that experience that anyone can probably relate to it. And anyone can have that feeling. And just coming of youth and loving life and figuring out where you want to go and what you want to do. Like they did all that. And so I loved it. Um, I don't know what else, you know, I haven't played a lot of other stuff with

them. I, I've realized going through this. Play some of these. I, I've realized going through this that I have not. I, I usually like would like get a game and then I play it for like 500 hours. And then I go to another game. So I have a big gap in a lot of these other areas or genres. We're fixing that.

So yeah, we've been, since I joined the podcast, it's, it's been going. All right. Well, there you go. Mix tape for both of Ryan's there. Yeah, double mixed tape. The one that everybody should know about and play. All right. I'm curious about Aces on this one because I don't know what Ace is picking on this time.

Yeah. Yeah, so Ace, all right, what are you two Anapurna games? First, the obvious standout is Stray. Stray is a fantastic game. I never played Stray. I know you haven't. It's probably not a type of game, but it's a short game. Yeah, probably not.

I love cats. You would like it. Yeah, I know. It's just about a cat that falls into this underground during, you know, this dystopian world where all the humans are gone and all that's left of the robots. And you kind of go through this story of figuring out what happened to all the humans, why they all disappeared. And while also trying to get the cat back above ground with its, presumably its family. It's such a sad moment, though, when the cat falls. Like, it just, like, looks, looks at the camera and claws at the dirt as it falls into the abyss.

It's spoilers, ace. That's the opening. Ace is the mega spoiler. Well, I know what happens now. I guess I'm not going to play straight now. Oh, I'm sorry. You can't get past the opening cutscene. And then, of course, what remains of Edith Finch is my underrated in my opinion pick.

This is... Dude, that game's so good. It's so good. And it's perfect time for it. It's not a horror game, but it's got a spooky vibe to it. It's about this family that has, like, a curse. It's weird. Where all of them die in, like, a horrible way.

or by a tragic accident. It's an oddly dark game. It's very dark. As I was looking up Anna Perney games and I saw that they were what remains of Edith Finch and I've mentioned this game before. Like somebody just played it recently in our community and was like, what the heck?

And they were like, all I know is this was incredible, but that's a dark game. Yeah. And it's a game that'll make you feel things that like you're not comfortable with. It leads a lasting impression. That's for sure. It really does.

Yeah. Like it really does. So I actually have that as a, my honorable mention is what remains of Edith Finch on mine, because that's another one that not enough people have experienced. And is a very short, I think it's like four or five hours. Yeah, it's a short like experience.

Story first game. But it it'll leave you kind of reeling a little bit. Like it really does, man. And that's honestly, to me, that's what Anapurna excels at on this. So yeah, those are great. All right. Let's move back to Capcom.

Capcom's easy in my opinion. They do. I was looking through the whole Capra. They do, but it's like, but they just, they have their like three or four franchises and they just stick with them. Like I'm looking at Annapurne. I'm looking at EA and they have like a gazillion different kinds of games. And then there's Capcom with like Monster Hunter World like Street Fighter, Onomusha, Resident Evil. And like, and that's it. You know what I mean?

And then they're just like, there's every iteration of those games. So it's kind of like at least they stay in their lane. But also their lane is freaking incredible lately. So I just talked about Street Fighter 2. That is my number one game for Capcom. I'm not going to rehash Street Fighter 2 for everybody. It's just it's an all-time favorite of mine. You know what it is.

It's iconic. That is my personal favorite game. And then I know there's going to be people that say recency bias on this one. I'm telling you, I'm telling you people. And Ace is nodding. But since we did the episode on this game, we have had probably eight to ten people in our community. It's been a good bit of people.

Pick up this game and I have not seen a single person that does not agree with us. Not a single complaint. And even, and I'm, listen, we have some pretty opinionated people in our community, which is great. Like, we all have opinions. Ryan's laughing. I'm not calling anybody out. But I was even asking some of the more opinionated ones like, what do you think about this game? And they were like, loving it.

And I was like, okay, this is, this is telling me everything. The game is Onamusha. We just did a deep dive on it. This game is freaking incredible. And it's not just Ace and I because we like Dark Souls-ish type games. Like I said, we have so many people that are playing this game that absolutely love it. I mean, multiple people in our community have rated Onamusha 10 out of 10. People that generally don't like this kind of game are saying it's incredible.

Onomusha is incredible. And so more people need to know about this game. And that's why it's my one that I'm picking for that. so yeah that's a good one man how are you know what I'm like unforgettable Ryan's missing out so I know he's not and I feel it like I'm I feel so jealous oh man I'm telling you

all right what are you what are your two for Capcom Ryan uh so I have uh I know we talked about um you know kind of going deep and in like games that that you know are not just the main ones we talk about over and over and over and stuff So I'm going way way, way, in the way way back machine to 1997, to a little game called Mega Man Legends. So this was, this was an old Mega Man game. It was like 3D with a little bit of kind of open world, semi open world with quests and other stuff. And I just remember renting it from old school gamers, you know, around town here.

That's what they called it for game rental. and it was one of the coolest games ever that I had played at the time. This is an actual 3D Mega game? Yeah. Yeah. I've never played this. I just Googled this because I'm like, which one was Legends?

Yeah. I've never seen this. Dude, it was sick. It was such a cool game. It was definitely janky. It was not super well optimized and it was not like the best game ever. What is this game?

I was nine years old and I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. So to me, it was fantastic. So when you said go deep, I went deep, man. Oh my goodness. This is, I didn't even know this existed, dude. Yeah.

Josh, are you a fake Mega Man fan? He's a fake Mega Man. I loved Mega Man. I loved Meg, but I, maybe I'm a traditional. I like the actual, like, it was tough. Like, even that one was tough. Like, I know all of them, like, especially the old school ones. But yeah, this was one that, that took me back.

And, and it just, I was, I was just thinking about what, what games could I, could could I pick from this that aren't like, normal standard ones. But yeah, this was the one Mega Man Legends, for sure. I just blows my mind. I had no idea this game existed. All right, what's your other one for Capcom? And then has, has Ace done Capcom yet? No, you're up,

but it's part two. I just don't want to steal his other ones. So, well, I'll take this one that I know he won't have. And I'm going to go with Pragata. Yeah, Pragana is a good one. That is this year. It is, it is a game that you guys, I think, I don't know if Ace did, but I know Josh.

played it. Neither one of us to play this one. You played the demo, right, Josh? Josh, I did play the demo, which is why I did not want to play.

Which is why he didn't play the full game. Which is why he didn't play the full game. But I think you're genuinely missing out. You did not like the, the hacking and the way you have to do that with where it interrupts the combat. To me, I loved that. I loved the,

the, in the moment, oh, I got to do this, this, this to access that. So, um, I thought there was a, a lot there. It was beautifully

crafted. The graphics were absolutely amazing. The story was cool. I think they did a really, really good job making this game. And I think it's kind of slept on it. It's rated well, but I think not a lot of people have given it a chance. It's another one of those. Most people that try it

really come away from Pragmata going like that game was awesome. Yeah. But then you have stubborn people like me that just don't want to try it because... Which is fair. No, dude. If you didn't like it, you didn't like it at all. Yeah. So, all right. Ace,

Capcom. This one, I feel like, listen, if there's ever a AAA, like publisher that Ace is going to love by a Capcom. Like, I know.

He's like, right. I forgive Capcom for pretty much anything. Like, it's, and it's like it deserves it. Ubisoft doesn't deserve my forgiveness every time. At least Capcom does.

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard is my first pick. Absolutely. Like, my favorite Resident Evil game is still Resident Evil 2 remake. Don't get me wrong. But, seven biohazard is just so freaking good dude the atmosphere that horror aspect that perspective of being put in the first person for the first time in the resin evil franchise that was a cool thing to do yeah yeah and then just the overall setting being a swamp house in louisiana with a bunch of crazy hillbillies i've lived there it's terrifying yeah try you try play the dad pretty easy i'll say you You could do it.

I might have to. You could definitely do it. Yeah. They'd be kind of fun, actually. Yeah, that'd be pretty funny. Just carry around a bowl of intestines with me. Yeah. Yeah, that game is so good.

And the trailer for that game, I posted it recently. It's just iconic where they play that, like, haunting version of Go Tell Aunt Rody over the entire game opening. So good. And then the other game, you guys were never going to heard this game. Oh, Kami. Okay. what the heck is this game dude

what is Okami because it's on the list for like it's so highly rated and it's known as like one of Capcom's like best games and I've no idea what the heck Okami is so give me the explain like I'm five what this game is Okami is a story about basically

reincarnation of these characters where a samurai's bloodline leaves only a drunk to defend the village the sun goddess comes down and possesses a white dog who becomes her new vessel. I said they explain like I'm five,

A, fine. Okay, fine. Like, what the... A white dog becomes the sun god and must save the world from darkness. So you play as a dog? Yeah, you play as the dog. You play as the dog, Okami, and you're going to help guide this idiot, this bumbling idiot into being the hero while also saving the world. But it has this unique thing about it where you use this celestial paintbrush to affect

things. So you pause the game, basically. paint what you need and it'll like either cause fire or water or make plants bloom. You could also use it to use slash attacks that break armor. It's super good. Dude, all I know is if you look up Capcom games and you go by like which ones are like the most highly regarded, Okami is really high up that list on like every list. And I just, I had no idea what this game was.

I mean, the art style alone is worth. I was going to say the art style, I'm looking at all the pictures now and like the art style so cool. Yeah, the art style alone is totally It's like a cell shading, but like it's like, it's like It's like Japanese like ink wash. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's got a name. Oh, that's good. The name is sui. So it's like specifically like Japanese cell shading. This is a pretty looking game. Yeah. It's so cool looking. It's got a great story. It's got great combat. Overall, it's just got great vibes. It's such a good game. The best part far and away is that you're a dog. Yeah, you're the dog.

Instead of a cat. You're the dog. Instead of cat. Yeah. instead of a cat. Like you're not a little lame cat. Strays catching strays. It's a stray. His cats are strays. All right. Okay.

I'm curious about this. If you love Japanese mythology and good looking games and exploration, this is great. It's basically Zelda as a dog. This is a great shout-out because I didn't know what this was and I saw it on a lot of list, but it's a beautiful looking game. And it's getting a sequel soon. You've got my curiosity on that one. All right.

Last up and then we're getting out of here, boys. Devolver. This one I struggled with. I actually have played a decent bit of these games. There's not too many games that stand out like, oh my gosh, that's like the best one. Like Outer Wilds with Annapurna for me was easy. Yeah. I would, I'm just going to mention it.

It's not my pick, but Talos Principle, I just got done talking about this game recently. So I'm not going to go back into Talas Principle again. So then I went, okay, well, what? So I'm going to mention inscription. Great big. Because for me, this is one of the. coolest games that I have played in a while. Now, I'm going to say that with a caveat. There's a little bit of a spoil. I'm going to try not to spoil it too much. But inscription

kind of comes in parts or chapters almost. And I really, really love the first part of the game. And then I completely put it down and walked away and never touched it again after that. And I know there's people who are like, but you missed the best part. And no, I loved the part that they showcase in the trailer. That was amazing. I loved it. And then the game did something weird. And I went, what the heck is this? and I don't want to do this anymore. And so I walked away. But inscription to me is masterful in what it does. So that is probably my favorite game.

And then the one that not enough people have heard about, Monster Train 2. And I have to say too because Devolver did not publish the original Monster Train, because I looked this up. If you like Slay the Spire, if you like hard-based strategy games like Slay the Spire, there is a very high chance that you will really, like Monster Train.

And so that's why I'm bringing it up, because these are my kind of just chill and play these games in downtime, feet up on the desk, can play it with one hand on the mouse while you're snacking on barbecue ribs with the other hand, you know,

or, you know, something like that. But Monster Train 2, if you like Slate Aspire, you'll probably love it. Give it a try, but not nearly enough people have heard of it, especially ones that like that kind of card-based strategy type of game.

And so that's my, pick for the other one from devolver. I do have an honorable mention. I don't want to mention it yet because I don't know what you guys have on that one. Ryan? Ryan? You haven't played any devolver games, right? I think I have one. Oh, you do?

I have one. Devolver adjacent. Yeah, devolver adjacent. It's the one and the only bean game, uh, fall guys. They did. They were involved with foggoy. They were involved with fall. They were involved with fall guys.

I was looking at it. I went through like, right. I went through like hundreds of devolver games. I look through everything. I'm like, I'm looking and I'm looking at it. I don't think I've played any of these guys.

I'm trying. I'm looking. What's a devolver? What is this? You know, so it's what me and my buddy's called. The Bean game, Fall Guys.

One of the best like kind of cool co-op party games. Loved it. It's super duper fun. We've done it for community nights. It's been an absolute blast. I don't know there's not much more to say about it like it's just it's just a fun time you just do stupid stuff challenges um it's it's a lot of fun yeah that's a good that's actually that's kind of a deep pick honestly so they were yeah they were involved with fall guys early on so all right ace

so ace is like let me let me just warm up and stretch here since i know like every one of these games I did like, when we were doing this, I was like, man, Devolver has so many games I played that I really enjoyed. What would you say percentage of like the top 200 of Devolver games like you've played? Probably only 25%, man. There's so many games. Really? Yeah, but they get weird. Dude, that's crazy.

Weird really off the wall games too. You played 50, 60 Devolver games? Probably, yeah. I believe it. Oh my gosh. Across platforms? Yeah, probably. I have.

So take this man's word for what he's about to tell you. Go ahead. If you want to know a devolver game, now's the time to listen. This game I'm about to mention is one of the biggest standouts possibly ever in gaming for me, which is The Messenger. It is such a cool game. I want to play this at some point. Yeah.

It's an absolute blast. If you love tight platforming, combat similar to the original like Ninja Guiden games. And stuff like that and just tough, tough fights, tough, bosses. absolutely for you because halfway through the game you time travel and it adds pixels to the game and it goes from an 8 oh I've heard of this it goes from a 8 big into a 16 pick game and it looks like look how much you love these 16 bits now people

after having to feast your eyes on 8 bit I think that's how many it goes it looks waiting out of my art style in my you know like I've heard this and I remember this about the messenger now yeah no the messenger is so good dude Yeah, it goes from 8 bit to 16 bit. And like you get new abilities and new things you can do and the way you can infect the environment

because there's more to interact with. And you get to like go into the same areas again that you went through before and time has passed. So things have changed. And more bits. Yeah. And then like once you get to the end of the game, it becomes basically a Metroidvania as well,

which is cool. It opens up into an open world. Now we know why. Now we know why. It opens up into a massive open world that you can do and go get like all the things you need. to beat the final boss. It's totally worth it.

And it's humor. It's humor is really funny. It's a really funny game. And then my personal, personal pick there is Death Store. Death Store. Yeah, see, I'm curious about this one too, man. It is like one of those indie games

that gets like almost everything right for me. The combat is good. The story is good. Like art style. The characters are all really good. It's just like a really hard Zelda game. You play as like the Grim Reaper on this one, right? Yeah, you play as like a little Grim Reaper who's like a little crow.

Yeah, he's a cute little guy, cute little Grim Reaper. Yeah, the story is about accepting mortality. I'll just say that now. That's like the whole plot. It's thrown in your face pretty obviously. Like if you miss it, like I'm sorry. But you're a crow. You go out and you collect souls for the soul master or whatever he's called in this game.

And if you lose the soul, you lose your immortality until you get that soul back. You lose your soul on a mission. and now you're on a quest to open the door, the death's door to retrieve the soul. And there's a secret that I'm not going to give away because it's really good. But I recently put Ben Corvus currently Scribdune onto Death's Door and he loved it.

Oh, there you go. I love when we get to do that, man. When we get to just say, hey, play this and then somebody actually plays a game that they never would have played before. And then they come back and they're like, yo, this is actually a really good game that I did not know of.

about, you know. Dest Door is like, it's got like a weird thing to it. It's like, it looks very bright and happy and it's dark. Kind of like a studio jibbley film. Like it's got the same line as that. Yeah, it's got those light like effects and everything. Everything's light and like pretty and everything's nice

looking, but like deep down it's really dark and sad. Yeah. Yeah. I love too that like we can we can play so many games and I think that I've played a lot and Josh I know you've played a lot and then Aces played 50 games that we probably have never even, like, touched or heard of. You know, and, like, he has opinions on all of them.

And that's what, like, is so cool about all of this is, like, in so many things of gaming and why we do this stuff. And there's just, there's so much out there that nobody's touched. And people should really check it out. So if you're interested, please look into these games because, like, you know, you may, it may hit what you want. of them. This is, that's honestly a really good reminder, Ryan, is challenge yourself occasionally, people. Like, honestly, like, challenge yourself.

I know we all get comfortable in the genres that we like and the games that we like. And I mean, Lord knows, I'm guilty of that. You know what I mean? But then, but then every now and then you play a game like dokey, dokey literature club, right? Or something or, or like re-story. I mean, I recently played re-story, you know? And it's like, challenge yourself as a gamer, get out of your comfort zone because you would be amazed at what happens and also how much sometimes it just makes you appreciate the genres that you do love

and makes that kind of feel fresh and new again. But like there is so much to experience in out there in these games. And I know that we get stubborn and we see it all the time. And we see it in our community where people are like, no, these are the kind of games alike. They're the only kind of games I play. And then it's like, okay. But like sometimes that just completely different experience will blow your mind. You know what I mean? And really will help kind of refresh. your love of gaming sometimes or just remind you why you like the genre that you like at the same

like there's benefits to it all around the worst thing that happens is maybe you're out a little bit of money and you don't love the game but maybe just maybe you find a game that you never would have played before that winds up being something truly special to you at the same time. So it's one of the reasons that we talk about

so many different kinds of games on this podcast is to try to encourage that because as gamers we get to experience that. I mean dude every single one of us has been blown away by a game that we would go, I never would have thought I would have enjoyed this. And then we wind up just completely blown away by it at the same time. So don't be afraid to branch out. It really is. And it's like, and we want you to have that because

we get that. I mean, yes, we play a lot of games. But we try to, we try to make it less risky for everybody out there by like trying to say, hey, some of these games have a higher chance of you liking or not. So, all right, well, listen, there you go, people. You know, some of the best games from some of the biggest publishers out there. Give these a try. If nothing else, like I said, you know, look some of them up, see if it peaks your curiosity. There's just some really incredible games out there. And I know that we give publishers a bunch of crap, but they are a necessary thing in this industry. And this is kind of proof. We would not have these games that we just talked about if it wasn't for these publishers. So, you know,

it doesn't mean they get a free pass, but at least you have that. So yeah, well, yeah, maybe unless you're Calcom in 2026. All right, well, listen, that's going to do it for this episode, everybody. Thank you for hanging out with us. Remember to follow the podcast. Hit that plus button, that follow button. That way you get all our episodes a day that they release. It really helps the algorithm for us as well and other gamers to find us.

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See ya. Peace out.