Video Gamers Podcast - State Of Gaming – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are breaking down the current state of gaming and what’s working (and what’s not) in today’s ever-changing landscape. From there, they dive into the dark and punishing world of Mortal Shell, sharing their thoughts on how it stacks up among modern video games. Then it’s time to kick back, chat all things gaming, and tackle some absolutely wild listener questions that only this community could come up with. If you love video games and unpredictable conversations, this is one gaming episode you don’t want to miss from the Video Gamers Podcast!   Mortal Shell 2 Gameplay:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szvz55-oHCU   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, Dettmarp and Night Wizard63   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   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 X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The refined Tigwan, you deserve more style. Visit vw.ca to learn more. SUV, German engineered for all. and welcome to the video gamers podcast. Sometimes the best part of gaming is simply chatting the latest releases, coolest new trailers, and talking really dumb gaming topics. Well, on today's episode, we'll be doing just that as we dive into the sick-looking trailer for Mortal Shell 2, answering some listener questions, and chatting the general state of gaming in 2026.

before we get to the fun, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, he's the Dom to my Marcus Phoenix, the Kazui to my banjo, and the toe jam to my Earl. It's Ryan. If any of the two of us are Toe Jam, it's for sure you. All right, that's fair. That's fair. I love you, buddy. That's, but nothing about Kazui?

Come on, man. I brought up Dom? Come on. All right, Ryan's not Ryan's not impressed. Okay, well, fine then. No, no, I thought it was good. Next guy.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't cover everything you said. Okay. And joining us, he's the latest up-and-coming podcast superstar, the man that week after week keeps people in touch with the indie world and alive in rivals in Overwatch as the support master himself.

It's a. You're saying a lot of nice things about me, which makes me worried that, like, you're going to stab me at some point in this episode. I'm like, I don't know what's going on here. What is this? No, what is this? What's the horrible thing's going to happen to you? Dude, one of my favorite parts of the intros is you guys have no idea what they're going to be number one. And when I'm nice to you guys in the intros, you both are instantly like, okay, well, what's coming?

What's coming? I love you guys. You're my boys, man. Sometimes a guy can say nice things. things about his friends. Yeah. So let me know when that sometimes is. I apologize ahead of time, guys.

Oh, here we go. My God's coming down. Oh, well, listen, welcome in everybody. Guys, these episodes, I love these episodes. These are, you know, we just chat a bunch of different topics. Maybe a gameplay trailer that's, that's, you know, been something we didn't get to cover in our news episodes. We get listener questions, which are a lot.

of fun some behind the scenes stuff some industry questions some get to know us kind of questions you know what's the dumbest thing you've ever done that kind of stuff um so these are a lot of fun you know we cover a lot of variety of different kind of topics on gaming in these as well so this is going to be a really good time and a great episode before we get to some of that though guys we have some people to thank the the absolute overwhelming support from the listeners continues on my friends because we have multiple people to thank uh we're going to start off with tyler lehi and jibli bat who both signed up for rare status um thank you to both of you Tyler we're not sure if you're on our discord server or not i had to use your real name because it didn't let us know what your discord handle is jibly bat has

been around for a very long time, longtime member of the community. Thank you, Jibli Bat for your support. Tyler, thank you for your support for signing up for Rare. And then not to be outdone, but we had Alex Robinson sign up for epic status. So Tyler, or Alex gets to ask questions on the show.

Uh, gets epic perks. A huge shout out. His name and the credits at the end of the episode as well. We try to all. always say thank you to every single person that chooses to support this podcast in whatever way that you choose to do that. Listen, it doesn't always have to be signing up on Patreon. Some of the best ways you can support this podcast are telling a friend, tagging us,

leaving us a review, following the show. There's any number of things that you can do to help build this podcast and join this adventure with us. But we would not be here if it wasn't for the amazing support from our listeners and everybody out there. that has helped to spread the word, left a kind comment or review or something like that. So thank you to everybody out there. But on this episode, especially Tyler, Ghibli Bat, and Alex for the support.

Thank you. All right. Ryan, and then one other way, and I kind of mentioned it, is that people can leave a review for the show. We'd love to read these because, guys, people have stepped up the game on the reviews lately. We just made Ace read one from Ace's mom.

on the show for last week. From Ace's mom. Yeah, that was not from my mother. Thank you. It was about my mother. She said some really nice things about us, Ace. So, you know. So, Ryan, I think you've got a review for us.

No, no, no, I was, no, I wasn't. I wasn't. No, no. No, no. Dang it, dang it, dang it, dang it. I had the second I went, uh, and I looked down. and I saw that I was on mute. All right.

I saw the realization. I could see you scrambling for the mute button. That was awesome, dude. If you're not watching, we do have videos. So you're able to watch video. It's pretty good quality, along with our audio quality. And you could see the realization when I figured out my mute button was on. So check it out.

But I will read this review. It's a five-star review coming from Pinhead 1432, titled Awesome Show. And it reads, because of these lovable idiots, I have broadened my gaming horizon to try in roglights, RPGs, and home appliance dating sims. Gaming has become more fun because of this podcast. Thank you, Ryan, Josh, and Ace for being the way that you guys are. Yeah.

Which I so eloquently just, uh, proved with having my mute button on. Yeah, you sure did, bud. Hey, hey, we're not professionals, people. We're gamers just like you. This is what the secret sauce for this podcast is. We're not industry people. We're going to pick on each other when you start talking and leave your mute button on. You know, that's why we do this.

We do it because we love gaming, and we are very glad that you are here with us on this episode. Good review. Thank you. Yep, good review. Also, I love to see a date everything reference when we were like, One of the first people to talk about it before it got super popular. Dang, the lamp is looking pretty good. We're definitely not.

Ace is definitely not taking a victory lap on that one by any means. I'll tell you what, we haven't done this in a while, guys. But what have you guys been playing lately, man? Has any game captured your attention? Are you in your comfort gaming mode right now? I'll be honest, I'm going to throw it to Ryan first because for the last month, I feel like Ryan has been just, I don't want to say MIA

because that's got like a negative connotation to it, but Ryan has been working his booty off. And then when he's not working, he's been trying to take care of some house stuff and weddings to go to and just busy, busy, busy. Have you done any gaming lately, Ryan? A little bit. I've planned it, we'll get into this.

I've been playing a buttload of Crimson Desert still. I'll hop in whatever I can. and then I almost every morning I'll hop in with my son on Fortnite and we'll play a couple matches before school because him and I are early risers so we'll get up early we'll go hop on some Fortnite

play a few matches and then I take my daughter to school and then go to work usually so yeah I've been playing a whole whole mess of that I have not been playing marathon with you but I've been so jealous to see you and Matt on all the time and then a little bit of Overwatch

with you guys in the evenings which is always a good time yeah that's always fun and Ryan gets to see the the other side of Josh my favorite absolute favorite side of Josh and I can see it build up and I can see there like the crescendo and I could see the top and then it just goes to be fair I got a glimpse of ace starting to turn to the dark side last night because Overwatch will do it man it didn't go well and then A started DMing me and going like this game is the worst matchmaking ever and I was like I no brother preach

preach brother the difference is I send it in our DMs you send it in match chat a little difference just a teeny one no TPS or butt cheeks running out the level one running into a wall for half the match I just like to troll the match chat

personally that's my favorite oh you love to just get them all riled up man uh what about you ace what have you been playing well I mean obviously I've been playing a lot of Overwatch with you and cast late, usually pretty late at night for me, but I do it anyway because I freaking love Overwatch.

But on the side, I've also been playing the Binding Vizek because that was one of my indie blind spots for a while there. Oh, you're still playing that? Yeah, yeah, I still pick it up and play it. Is it as awesome as everybody makes it sound? It's pretty darn great. Is it, dang it, dude. Dude, the synergies are just so cool in the builds you can do, and it's really

difficult, too. It's like decently difficult, which I enjoy. But I've been enjoying that. I still play a bit of dead by daylight, still play a bit of rivals. And recently I've gotten into Super Battle Golf with a different group. Okay. I need to know if Super Battle Golf is all that it is people make it out to be. Oh, yeah.

Yes, it's a lot of fun, but it's probably fun for like four hours. No, you know, like the rage you get playing Mario Party with someone? Like when they screw you over? That's Super Battle Golf 24-7 while you're just trying to play. Like, I'll be like lining up a shot and someone will go behind me with an air horn and that makes me hit it at Max speed and then into the water. Oh, no. Dang, Ryan, we might have to play this because this is like a troll's

troll of a guy. That's, okay. I was literally about speaking of my language. I was about to sink a put like last second and they just freaking hit me with this remote that puts an aerial strike on you and it just vaporizes you in like

a minute. How many people? What's the max like party size? You can have eight people on one course. See where they were going to upgrade that to 16 at some point, though? It'll be 16, I believe also in June or like summer. It'll also be getting console ports with crossplay. So that's pretty cool. Oh, we might have to have a VGP. Oh, we definitely. I was going to say, if it's up to 16 people, this might be the next community. Yeah, but yeah, Super Battle Golf is pretty great thing. It's also like six bucks too. I think I saw

where it's like $5.4.49 or something right now. Yeah, it's super true. All right. I think you sold me, Ace. We might have to give this one a try. I have just been absolutely grinding marathon and Slay the Spire. Those two games have their hooks in me. I'm going to say actually had their hooks in me. I played, we checked, you guys made me look at my playtime on the pre-show. I'm 86 hours into Marathon and I am 84 hours into Slay the Spire too. Oh my God.

Now listen. Now, okay, I hear the giggles. I hear the gills. Every time I'm on. Spire. I'm on my computer all the time and I just see jolly old troll playing marathon or a falcon, whatever, playing, you know, I just see you guys. It's either Slate the Spire 2 or it's or it's marathon. I just see it pop up every time with my Steam thing. Every time. I have gotten my money's worth out of both of these games. I've enjoyed the heck out of both of them. I have told you

guys and I'm sorry for Matt because this is probably how you're going to hear about this. He's going to break his heart. I think I'm really close to being done with Marathon at this point. Slay the Spire has taken over as my comfort game. I don't play Harstown anymore because Slay the Spire 2 is just so good. It's fair. It's a long game to play, but it's like, again, half the time I'm distracted doing something else when I'm playing that. But yeah, those two games have been all I have been playing for the last couple weeks.

Cannot recommend them enough. But at the same time, I know my brain. And like the end is rapidly approaching for Marathon at least. but we have replaced and mouse PI and wind rows that are all out now that we can dive into with more games coming later this month and in May. I mean, it's just thankfully there's always something on the horizon to look forward to. So there you go. But yeah, that's what I've been planned. All right.

And I guess we're going to add Super Battle Golf to this rotation at some point. Yeah, I think you guys would enjoy it because you just get to mess with one another the entire time. Like, no one is ever at peace. You're speaking my language, man. I like that. I know. I like that. And then we can we, can we, can we form alliances?

Like, hey, Ryan, you want to just choice the whole time? All right. I'm sure we can figure that out. I can fight back, bud. But you can? Well, dang, and that's not any fun. I can put a landmine on the ground and just homing shot it at you. Oh, my God.

All right. You're starting to sell me on this game even more now. What kind of golf is this? I know. Battle golf. All right, guys, before we get into any further in this episode, there is a game that we have not had a chance to talk about that absolutely blew me away with this 11-minute gameplay trailer. I shared this on social media. We posted it in our Discord server, but we have not had an opportunity to talk about this.

And my goodness, do we need to talk about this. that is Mortal Shell 2. We got an announcement trailer for this. It looked great, but we didn't get to see a ton on this. And then we got an 11-minute showcase. I don't remember where we got this gameplay trailer from. Was this the Xbox partner preview? I think it was in the partner preview.

We're a couple weeks past on this one. Ryan's going to put a link in the episode description on this one. Now, like I said, this is an 11-minute trailer, but I actually really like that. as much as we complain about long trailers sometimes, if you're willing to show me 11 minutes of your gameplay, just pure gameplay, that tells me that you have confidence in what you are developing. I freaking love this game, dude.

I love the way this game looks. I love the way this game is, looks like it's going to play. I love the art style on this. It's a dark, fantasy, gritty. It's got like an Eldon Ring kind of vibe to it. I mean, dude, it looks like Eldon Ring was just, smashed together with Remnant 2.

Like genuinely. Thank you, Ace, because I was going to make the Remnant 2 comparison as well. That's what it looks like to me. It just looks so crisp and so detailed. And it's just like, how is this a real game? This looks like pre-done like cutscene footage. No, this is a real game. It just looks like that.

Like, oh my gosh. Yeah. It just looks good. I was thinking a little. I was thinking, yeah, the animations are amazing. I was thinking a little black myth Wukon. I could see that as well. Like a little bit of that.

Like the, with the environment for the most part. Like it's just, it it's so beautiful, man. And the combat looks, looks chef's kiss. Yeah. Dude, that's what I was starting to say is like one of the things that really kind of

blew me away with this trailer was the animations, dude. How many different times in this 11 minutes of gameplay do you see like this guy do some kind of crazy parry? or counter move or finishing like animation and they're all different. It kind of depends on the monster that you're fighting. Yeah.

Like if you are putting that much attention to detail in how the different enemies are dying to my blade, you know, like at that point, like at one point there's like a weird, it's like an architecture piece of like a castle or something, but it's a creature and it tries to drop down on the guy and you wind up grabbing both the tentacles and then like smashing it into the ground. And I'm like, that is very unique to that creature specifically. And like, that was one of those instances where I was like, okay, this looks freaking sick, dude. Ace, you hit the nail on the head. Yeah. I don't know how to describe this game to people other than it's Eldon Ring and Remnant 2 smashed into the most beautiful child you've ever seen. Yeah. I mean,

also, uh, you were talking about those animations, man. It's basically they took Doom, Glory kills and they bumped it up to 11. and they added so many unique animations. Yeah, it's insane. I can't, I can't believe it's a real game. I genuinely can't. There's, there's some monk looking dude in a robe that has like this long, like,

tentacle thing off his chin and he just grabs it. Just grabs it. He just keeps pulling the guy and then punching him in the face and pulling it and punch him in the face over and I was like, yeah. You're hitting yourself. Why are you hitting yourself? This is what I'm, this is what I need. I want it.

Yeah. The, so. we get we get this look that you're some kind of um like assassin character but then this is what this game is about and i'll be honest i never played mortal shell now that game you know this was mortal shell too i didn't play mortal shell it didn't seem to land very very well with a lot of people but the premise for for this game is that you get these shells which are these different characters or bodies that you can inhabit or or switch to and so So we see this like thief character for a little while.

And then halfway through the trailer, you switch into this armored like woman who has like, I'm going to be on. I'm going to make fun of the game a little bit here because this is the most form fitting full plate armor you have ever seen. And it's like, okay, well, this armor was definitely tailored for you. But then that leads itself to different style of gameplay and combat moves and things like that. And then in the latter like third of the trailer, it shows. I don't know if it's just you late game or again it's a different shell but now you're this gigantic hulking

warrior with a great hammer and a freaking like repeating crossbow Yeah So it's like here's your strength build where you're just smashing things There's ranged combat in this The melee looks incredible The boss fights look incredible

The visuals in this game are absolutely peak I could not be more interested in Mortal Shell 2 after watching this trailer, this game is an absolute must for me at this point. It's also funny that enemies can parry you back and also have unique animations to

Yeah. Dude. I see him run at this woman with a giant spear and like he swings at her and she just stabs him in the gun. Yeah. Yep. Yep. I, this one looks really neat to me. It has a full-fledged like they

showed an inventory screen. There are a multitude of different weapons. There's a multitude of different shells, like right at the end, they started kind of going through. At what point you're playing a goat? Like, are you like a sheep or a goat or something? Yeah, it's weird. And then you're doing like, kung fu? I'm like, wait, was that just a sheep? You never seen a kung fu goat? What are you talking about? Yeah, dude. Oh, man, Kung Fu goats kick butt, man. I wouldn't mess with one of those. I would not mess with a goat than that's kung. There, yeah, they're pretty bad. Oh, all right. That was also pretty bad. I'm going to give you, I'm going to, I'm going to prove that

one. Dad joke. All right. But there you go. Mortal Shell 2. Check out the gameplay trailer. It's going to be in the episode description. This one is a must-play. Guys,

Lords of the Fallen, the original. A's you and I jumped in for one session on that just to try it. Yeah. Another one who. Sorry. I didn't get it. I didn't get 80 hours like Matt did.

It was buggy, though. The multiplayer in that didn't. But now we had, and so Mortal Shell, I don't want to comment on the original Mortal Shell because I don't know what the reviews and the like the reception to that was, but it was good enough that they made too.

But we're getting Lords of the Fallen. to which looks freaking fantastic and now we're getting Mortal Shell too which looks freaking fantastic and it's like and I'm here for this style of game this gameplay looks great I'm really amped for both

of these games man Year of the Souls like sequels but I feel like these are instances where they almost hit on the originals and they went you know what we're pretty close to like a really really good game let's take what we learned and let's really

just turn it up a notch. I kind of feel like that's what they're doing with both of these. And that gets me really excited, man. Yeah, that works for me, man. I mean, not everyone can be Liza P and nail it the first time. It's true. It's true. But, ooh, they look like they've nailed these. So, all right, we're going to take a quick break,

and then we're going to get into some questions from listeners and some get-to-the-host-type questions here, which might be a little embarrassing for us. So we'll be right back after this break. Local news is in decline across Canada. And this is bad news for all of us. With less local news, noise, rumors, and misinformation fill the void. And it gets harder to separate truth from fiction.

That's why CBC News is putting more journalists in more places across Canada, reporting on the ground from where you live, telling the stories that matter to all of us. Because local news is big news. Choose news, not noise. CBC News. Amazon presents. versus taco truck salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one.

For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Haboniero? More like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. All right, we're back. All right, guys, I'll tell you what. So this is normally like a perk for our epic supporters where we say, hey, you get to ask a question for the show.

We usually answer these during the pre-show content that we do. But we thought it'd be fun to actually take a few of these, kind of like an AMA type thing and throw in a few on this episode as well. So let's start with this one from Beige, who says, or asks, I should say, do you think the hero shooter genre has peaked? So, man. That's a hard question because you want to say no, but then every time a new competition comes along, they die. And the closest we've gotten to like an actual competition is rivals and Overwatch. Yeah.

But if you told, if you asked me like what's the hero shooter genre right now, it's Overwatch. Overwatch is absolutely dominating again. So I. Yeah. Overwatch one or two. Which one? There's only one. It's just.

There's only one. There's only one. It can only be one. It can only be one. But yeah, I think it might have, man. It genuinely might have. So A says it's peaked. That's where I'm at, too.

I think it's definitely peaked because where are they going to go? I don't know where you go without copying one or another. What could they do from here with this genre to change anything or to make re-invented or, you know, make something? There's nothing new that they could do. If they make a new one that has new characters, like they already did rivals with comic books. Overwatch is just whatever they've created. You know, like, it would only be another one with just their own random characters and why wouldn't everybody just play Overwatch, you know, so.

I see, that's the hard part is if you're doing it and you don't have an IP and you're just trying to make characters people care about. Yeah. Overwatch was the last time I think I've seen that happen where they can just keep making characters. And that was the advantage that rivals had is they didn't have to come up with the characters. No, everyone already loved their care. And everybody knows them.

Yeah. Everybody knows those characters. Everyone already loved them. It's instant. You already know who you're playing and who you're seeing and who you're fighting against, which I think genuinely helped them within launching that game. And credit to them. They did- Oh, it absolutely helped them.

Yeah, they did so good with, like, the game development itself. It was, it was awesome. It's a fun game still. It's so fun. But having those recognizable, like, household-name characters that you can call out, and you already know you don't have to learn anything. You just have to play a hero shooter. Like, I think that was so cool.

but like so what could anyone else do? I think if you're talking pure hero shooters, I think then yes, it has peaked because I don't think you're going to get better than Overwatch and rivals, to be honest. And, you know, the industry seems resistant to any new entry into this, as we saw with like High Guard.

What I think needs to happen is what we're seeing with like deadlock, right? So you're taking a hero shooter, but then you're mixing it with another genre like the Mobas, right and I've tried deadlock and there's a very good game there but I'm just not a fan of mobas and that like going to purchase abilities in between each death and I don't know the builds and the rounds and it's just a higher learning curve and I don't love the third person perspective in deadlock and I don't like the lanes and the grunts or the little mobs that you have to kill and stuff like that like I just don't like mobas but I like the heroes in deadlock I'll tell you and this is this is free idea for somebody in the industry. Why do we not have hero shooters like, I'm just going to bring up Remnant 2, okay, or Outriders, where you have character-based classes that are on a much more massive scale. Like, can you, and I don't want to say like an MMO necessarily because that, that implies a lot. But like, what if there was a game that was like hero shooters, pick your character,

pick your, you know, that has abilities and your healers and your tanks and stuff like that. and then throw me into World of Warcraft type raids or dungeons and things like that where people have to work together. Like if you start mixing the hero shooters and that action with like an in-depth mechanic system, think like Destiny Rades, right? Like, I mean, that was one of the best parts of Destiny 2 was the raids, but they were three-man raids. Right? Like, I think they went up to like, how big did the big raids go up to, like 12? It was Destiny. We always rated at 6.

Oh, all right. Was it six? Yeah, that's what I was doing. But why not lean into that more? You know what I mean? Like, that's where I could see, like, you will take over the world. If you can give people a game where you have to work together in this, like, deep mechanics, raid-style thing, where it's a shooter, where people have their classes and their heroes and things like that that they're playing. Like, I would buy that.

So you're thinking, like, like, hero style, but, um, but kind of raid-centric. Cooperative, yeah, like, a cooperative. Operative raid type mechanics. Yeah, PVEE. So you're just doing mostly like raid stuff, PVEE stuff to, okay. Yeah, I actually kind of like the idea of that. Think borderlands, right? Take a hero shooter like a looter shooter.

Like take borderlands, take Remnant 2. I mean, Remnant 2 goes up to three people and it's a blast with three people. Remnant 2. But then imagine that with like eight to 10 people. Yeah. Like, you know, that would be something special. Coordinating attacks and doing all that. Yeah.

You got your healers trying to keep your tanks. live, you got your DPS doing different things. Like, get out of that. Yeah, I could see it. I could see it working. That to me is where the hero shooter genre needs to evolve. So it's like the raids. Don't think you're getting.

The raids of MMO, but as like a hero shooter basically. Yeah. And this is partly what, what, so Overwatch was birthed from Project Titan, where in Project Titan, we kind of got some glimpses from, from Papa Jeff about what Project Titan was supposed to be. And that was part of it. Like, part of it was you were supposed to have these groups, these, these, these heroes coming together to do these missions on like a massive scale and nobody's done this

dude and I was like dude this would be incredible to me I feel like no one succeeded at the like full melee hero shooter either like uh because we like what do you mean like a melee hero shoot wouldn't because you mean like hood outlaws and legends like oh okay yeah kind of like that I mean that's kind of like valor mortis that we were talking about last week you know where it's like like this looks like a first person Dark Souls game, where if you made that co-op, I could see that being freaking super good, too, man. I could see that too, yeah.

Like, one of my favorite things about Marathon and one of the reasons that I've been so cracked on it is the shells. The fact that you can play this, like, unique character in this game with these abilities and stuff makes it a ton of fun to me. So, um, but otherwise, yes, I do think it's peaked with overwatch and rivals. And I think it's going to be hard to outdo those two games unless you're,

unless you're bringing in something new for sure. So, all right. All right, let's do another question here. This one's from Lucy Moon. And she says, choose one artist or band that you would go back in time to see live. Oh, man. I had this answer the moment I saw this question.

It's Avichy. I would want to see Avichy, the legend of EDM. Ooh, I didn't know you were a fan of EDM, A's? Mm-hmm. Specifically. I'm a huge fan of EDM. Specifically, Evichi. I love.

Avichi, isn't that a food? No, he's dead, Ryan. It's a type of pasta, Ryan. I was kidding. Give me the Avichi, Alfredo. I think he's a Mavichi. He's a legendary DJ in the EDM scene, and he wrote some really banger songs. I really enjoy, so.

Oh, yeah. My family makes fun of me because I love EDM. It's like what I listen to in the car, and then they're like, you listen to the weirdest music. Yeah. Oh, no, Ryan. All right. I'll be a new.

No, no. So my brother, so when you say wrote, like, he just mixed them or what? No, his have lyrics. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, a lot of EDM artists get vocal artists and write lyrics and then right lyrics. You probably heard some Avichi songs and you don't even realize it.

Oh, you've absolutely heard of Vici. Avichi's very powerful. Well, my brother, he's getting back into it. He used to DJ all these big raves and stuff back when I was getting. I remember because he, uh, came to live. with us and we shared a room and then him and his friend would come over and then they would mix tracks and like twirl glow sticks and I would just be like oh my gosh is this my life right now see those that's that's my kind of people I know I was that was me in my younger years

yeah been in many a been in many a rave in my day and those are fantastic dude I for me the answer is easy it's tool um tools one of my favorite bands I saw them live in Lollapalooza in Texas many many years ago. It was one of the best experiences ever. Their visuals are incredible. The music live is incredible. It's like I said, that's the easy hands down answer for me is I would go back and

see Tool Live in a heartbeat. So, alright, let's get into some industry questions. Okay. Okay. Ryan, we know you don't like music. Ryan doesn't get to say anything. At all. I'm just kidding. Tell us which audiobook you would go back and listen to live. I actually, I am the weird guy that

listen to audio books for like I lift and stuff at the gym. But no, I would go back as much of a, I don't listen to much music anymore because I do listen audiobooks kind of nonstop. But I love blues and in that type of music, but I'm also a big alternative guy. I am a 90s kid and I grew up in the early 2000s. So audio slave, if I could go back and see Chris Cornell just rock out with all. audio slave one more time, that would be, that would be super, super sick. I love all of their albums. I love all their music. It's what I put on in the kitchen when I'm doing dishes or or helping

clean or do whatever around the house. Like it's, it's my go-to just kind of chill music to vibe out to. So audio slave would be mine for sure. It's funny you mentioned alternative because I was thinking about Kurt Cobain. Oh, yeah. I was thinking of him too. I was like, I'm honestly not a big Kurt Kurt Cobain fan. I think he was highly overrated. I think the only reason he's popular is because he died. Oh, boy. Yeah.

All right. Oh, boy. Expedition 33 and now Kurt Cobain. Who else is buying trying to hang? Kurt Cobain, overrated guy who's friends? Yeah. There's a reason weird Al, there's a reason weird Al spoofed his song about marbles in his mouth. All right, all right.

Let's move on here. So industry question here. I like this one. How do you feel about 2026 so far as a whole? And what is the standout game for you so far? I think 2026 is going pretty darn great so far. There's not been many stinkers yet, which is great to see. I think Samson had a rough launch, but that's the only one I know of it.

Samson did the rough launch. They're struggling. But we didn't play that one. So it doesn't affect me. Yeah, there you go. As for standouts, I think Karen is still a really big standout of this year. genuinely. I mean, I love Resident Evil 9, don't get me wrong.

But Karen is something that was just super special to me, and I really enjoy it. I love hearing that. I love, you gotta love when a game just, I mean, you guys were excited for Karen, but I think that game caught you guys both off guard with how much you actually want to enjoy it. It blew me away, surpassed my own expectations,

which I was already really high up on that game. Well, yeah, and I'm sure we'll mention it again, but like, you go through the, the little kind of training montage in the beginning where you get kind of figured out. And then you see the actual mountain and you're like, oh, this is when the game starts. And then it, yeah, and then it changes. And there's, there's so much more to it than just the climbing. There's so much more.

And there's a in-depth story and there's like a motion and there's, you know, Marco. And like, there's just, there's a ton there. So that's, no, that's a good pick for sure. What about you, Ryan? I think 2026 is going pretty dang good so far. We've been very busy with games, as seems to be the way of things all the time. But I'm going to go with the Crimson D. Crimson D, baby.

It is, it is cool. I wish I had more time. I wish I was 18 and had no responsibilities or 17 and no responsibilities. and I can just play this game to the depths of all that it holds, but there's so much more that I haven't even been able to glimpse at all with this game. And I want to explore it. I want to see it. I want to experience it.

It is not Skyroom to me, but it's getting close. The more I play, it's getting close. I love it so much. I knew this game would be so. This is like Taylor made for Ryan's type of gamer brain. Hard to know. I'm with you guys. I think 2026 has been really good.

I think we have gotten a lot of rock solid games. If I'm trying to give any kind of criticism at all, I don't, there's not been a game that's been magic to me. You know what I mean? Like last year we had Hades 2. We had Expedition 33. Like there were those games where I was like,

oh my gosh, this game is absolutely blowing me away with how good this is. It's what I think about at work. like, I can't wait to come home and play it, like that kind of thing. Now, I know I sound like an idiot because I just got done talking about putting 86 hours into marathon and 86 hours into Slay the Spire 2, which I love. And that's kind of like the thing is like there have been these games that are just absolutely rock solid. Reanimal was another one that I thought was really, really good. Ace, you said Resident Evil Requiem.

I think that game is fantastic. Solid. Yeah. So good. But for me, there's not been. the absolute magic in a bottle yet. You know what I mean? Like to where it's like really, really good games,

but nothing that I'm like, that is the game of the year. You're banking on replaced. Right. And I'll be honest, I'm hopeful for replaced, but I don't know. You know, I mean, I guess by the time this episode comes out, like we'll know a little bit more.

There's still a lot to look forward to. But if I had to compare 2026 to 2025, which isn't really fair, because we're only four months into the year. Yeah. But so far my criticism would be I haven't had that like absolutely blow me out of the water like magic game yet. And that doesn't mean I'm not cracking out on these games, but that's the difference so far for me at least is I want that like just obsession of a game. And I personally haven't had that yet.

But like I said, there's a lot more coming this year too. I wish you could have enjoyed Karen. Josh, I think it would have scratched that. Yeah, and honestly, dude, hearing you say that gives me FOMO, and then it's at the same time, like, inside of my head, I'm like, I'm like, brain, why are you so stupid? Why can't you like a good climbing game? Like, why do you have to let this get in the way of, like, your enjoyment,

but then my brain's like, I don't like climbing. I don't want to go up. Yeah, exactly. And there's so much more in this year, too. Like, like, Arc Raiders came out in October. The end of October 30th of last year. So like there's so much coming.

There's so much more that we can get, you know, this year. Oh, absolutely. And then we were just talking about games that we haven't even seen yet or forgot about. Like, well, I'm just going to mention this one because like mixtape is coming out May 7th. Yeah. And it's like we've been really excited for that game. We've got like Winbrose that's that's coming out or is out now in early access. So there's all these games that like we didn't know about at the start of the year that are releasing, Lords of the Fallen.

too, Mortal Shell 2, both slated come out in 2026. Like, there's all these games that are coming that might be absolute bangers, alcahast that we just talked about. Like, there's so much on the horizon. And it's like we get so hopeful for these games. But it's like, I want that

10 out of 10, dude. I want that, like, just, I want that, like, I want to play this game again for the first time feeling. And that's not to take away anything because we've had some absolutely incredible games, but it's like, that's the feeling that we always or hunting for as gamers, right?

Is like, I want to be able to play this game again for the first time, right? Exactly. So, all right. Okay. We'll do, let's do, we're going to do a funny question here and then we'll do one more industry question. All right. What embarrassing moment gave you the most trauma in your high school years?

I have an answer for this. Okay. So I'll share. When I was in high school, I had a great group of friends, you know, had my boys. And I had a good friend of mine who dated the same girl for like two years, which in high school, that's a long time. And I was good friends with her. We talked a lot. And one day she came up to me during lunch and she handed me a note.

And she goes, she just looks at me very seriously. She said, read that later. And I went, oh, okay. And I read this note. And this note was her professing her love for me. For me in like, and I'm like, wait a minute, you are like one of my best friends girl, like long time girlfriends, dude. Like, and we are friends. And you just like gave me this very heartfelt note about how you really love me.

And I did what any idiot teenager boy would do. And I instantly went to my friend and I told him what his girlfriend had just given to me. And I showed him the note. and she got really, really mad because she was like, I gave you this note and trusted you. And then I was like, well, he's my boy. You know what I mean?

Like he's my boy. Like, yeah. Bro's before, uh, I saw you going to say it right. Never mind. Never mind. And then she'd never talk to me again. She hated me after that.

They broke up like instantly. And it was just traumatic. And then I still feel like, even though I told me, my boy, like, I think he kind of was like, what the heck? Like, why does she like you? Because we've been together for two years. Oh, yeah. The seeds of jealousy have been planted at that point.

Yeah. And so that friendship, even though I told him right away was never quite the same after that either. But yeah, I still remember that to this day because I was like, what the heck am I supposed to do here? She's for the streets, man. Emotional damage. Damage. What about you, Ace? You got anything the traumatic? I'm trying to thing, man. I did not get to attend high school as a normal individual. So a lot of my interaction with people my age was somewhat stunted.

Particularly though, I think the most embarrassing thing was when I went to a Renfair dressed as a plague doctor and I didn't have my glasses. I couldn't see anything. Nothing at all. And people kept walking up to me asking me things and I was just like trying my best to in imitate a plague doctor he's like he's like doctor what are you think of this is like I think I'm

confused I don't know what you're holding and I was just like the embarrassment like this plague doctor sucks dude the embarrassment that was just flunning over me because I could not role play with these people because I couldn't see them is your home school field trip oh gosh it was awful like I couldn't tell what anyone was

What about you, Ryan? You got any embarrassing moments? Honestly, dude, in high school, I didn't do much. I was the coolest guy in school. No, no, it wasn't. This is funny because I talked to my wife and I was asking her. I'm like, can you think of anything like that I've told you? And she's like, not really.

And she's like, they're going to just make fun of you thinking you're just perfect. I'm not. I just, I would always, you know, I'd go skateboard. I'd go play hockey and I hung out with my friends. I really didn't do anything. So, like, a short one real quick was my current wife now. I've gone to school with her since third grade. We grew up pretty close to each other.

In sophomore year of high school, my buddy told her that I, you know, I liked her, and I thought she was cute. And in the cafeteria, she came in and she comes and just pats me on the top of the head and, like, smiles like, like, yeah, that's cute. and then walks away. And then we didn't talk again until we reconnected and then eventually got married, so I won that

one. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to go outside of high school. I'm going to go to elementary school. So a little third grade Ryan in Ms. Powers class at Ironwood Elementary in Phoenix, Arizona, I raised my

hand and I said, Mrs. Powers, I have to go to the bathroom. And she said, no Ryan you can't go to the bathroom and I said I really got to go to the bathroom and she said no you can't and within within about a minute or two I'm like hey I really got to go and she told me no again and well you know what happens when you have to go to the bathroom and you're not loud out I peed my pants in my seat in third grade and I remember standing up like yeah that's what happens when you don't get somebody go to the bathroom and there was

There was just a puddle of piss in the seat. I sit up and I'm like, I need to go to the nurse. I peed my pants. And then she was just kind of like. That teacher probably felt bad after that. Well, we'll say, I don't know. She wasn't my favorite teacher. So I don't know how bad she felt.

But I definitely peed my pants. There was nothing else like I do. I'm like, I'm going to go. She won't let me go to the bathroom. And so I peed my pants in third grade. Oh, man. Yeah. All right.

So that's, that's my, forever known as Pee Pants Ryan after that. Pee Pants Ryan. You'd have to torture me to get that information out of me. Oh, man. Oh, I don't care. Well, that's a good one. Yeah. I don't care.

No, that's a good one. I never peeped my pants in school. Oh, look at you. I would have just gone into corner. Oh, Mr. Nott don't pee my pants. Look at you. All right.

One final question here, guys. I like this one, too. What game release this year? so it could be something that's already released or upcoming release. Do you think people are sleeping on? I know my answer on this one. Once people are sleeping. Yeah, I'm going to say my answer while you guys think about this.

Hold on real quick. One that's already released or just like totally this year or not yet. Or just this year. It could be upcoming or already released that you're like people are totally sleeping on this. This game's going to be great. I'm going to say esoteric ebb. Yeah, that's a good point, man. We've talked about this game a few times.

It looks incredible. and if there's any reason that people need to wonder why, this game out of 3,900 reviews is sitting at a 96% positive rating on Steam. And it's $24, people. This game looks incredible. This is a disco-elisium-style type game, but it focuses on D&D.

You are the world's worst cleric. You have choices. I'm going to play this game. I've told myself this, even though I have to read it because it's not voiced over. That's fine. But I think people are sleeping on this game, myself included on this one, because this is the kind of game that absolutely blows people away.

And I have not heard anybody but us talk about it. And none of us have played it. And it's like, I need to fix that, man. So to me, I think the game people are sleeping on the most right now is esoteric ab. Ironically, I think the game people are sleeping on the most right now is Mr. Sleeping Man. I don't think it's getting near enough love for how good of a platformer it is. Like, it is a solid 3D platformer made by one dude.

Yeah. That was the best. Um, and if people wanted to know for Mr. Sleepy Man right now, he's up to 378 reviews. Nice. Again, this is an indie game. 99% rating. Um, and so good.

So there's something there. Something special there. Something special there. Yeah. 300 something people don't all agree on something. That doesn't happen. Exactly. Not that much, not where it's a 99.

That doesn't happen. Yeah, put them in a room and then see if they all agree. No way. No chance. What about you, Ryan? Is there a game that you think people are sleeping on? I am. And actually, Ace mentioned it earlier, which I was happy for.

I'm going to go with Karen. Yeah. I think it genuinely, like, it's sold a lot of copies. It's got a good rating. But I really think people don't understand the depth of this game and what it offers. It's not just a climbing game. It is not just get up this mountain. There's so much survival and story and just these little details and cuts to it.

There's so much more there than people realize. I think it's being slept on. It is genuinely a really, really solid, emotionally impacting awesome game that people should really check out. Heck yeah, dude. I definitely agree with that. since I did it for the other ones. We're just going to call it 8,000 reviews, 94% on Steam. Heck, yeah.

Cairn might wind up being, like, a very strong nominee for Indi Year. You might, you're going to see Karen for the NDC. And they're dropping some free DLC. Yeah, they are. It's free. So I have FOMO on that one, but I just know it's not. He doesn't have enough FOMO. Not quite enough FOMO.

I know. All right, well, listen, that's going to do it for this episode. episode, everybody. Thanks for hanging out with us. Thanks for chatting games. Let us know what game you think people are sleeping on. So go ahead and leave a comment on this episode on Spotify. We see all the comments that everybody leaves. But we want to know what you think gamers are sleeping on for a game this year that either has come out already that you don't hear enough about or an upcoming release that you're like, why are more people not talking about this game? Hey, we don't catch every game release out there either. So sometimes this is good for us because it's like, hey, what is this game you're talking? about and then we get to check it out and then you get to put it on our radar as well which we absolutely love so leave us a comment let us know what game you think people are sleeping on um or what the standout game of 2026 has been for you so far this year if you are not doing so already please make sure you click that follow button that plus button that we get our episodes the day that they release but that also helps the algorithm a lot for bumping us up the rankings and the charts

and things like that and helping other gamers to find this podcast so that they have have a good gaming podcast to listen to. And as we always do, come join our community. It is the best gaming community on the planet. Don't take our word for it. Join our Discord server and see for yourself, you're more than welcome to lurk. It's very active. There's over 1,300 gamers in there. Conversations happening all day, every day. So this is not your ghost yard of a awkward discord server that we've all been a part of and then gone. I wish I hadn't joined this place. I'm out of weird. And now I have to leave and make it look weird. Yeah, been there. not fun.

Yeah, absolutely. And if you would like to support this podcast like the awesome people at the top of the show, once again, shout out to Tyler, Jibli Bat, and Alex Robinson for supporting this podcast. You can do that over on Patreon. There's a link in the episode description. It takes just a couple minutes to sign up. And it goes a very long way to helping us keep producing the best content we can for all of you out there. That's going to do it for this one, boys.

Until next time, happy gaming. It's an audio podcast, Ryan. You have to actually say something. Me, me. Call on me, please. Ryan? Yeah, I have to pee. Oh, never mind.

No, sorry, Ryan. Never mind. Oh, this episode's over. Oh, no, never mind. That's where you just got to go like, oh. Gets a little shiver afterwards, right? Like, ugh.

Oh, no, what? Oh, this is the worst ending in one episode. This is the worst. This guy, though. Get it out of here, Ace. This guy. guys beat his pants before you peace out get out of here run run for the hills