Video Gamers Podcast - The 2024 VGP Game Awards - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

Gaming hosts Josh and Ryan are back with Paul to celebrate the 2024 year in gaming. We’re dishing out our very own video game awards, crowning the best of the best, (and the worst) in this incredible gaming packed episode. We crown the ultimate Game of the Year, Best Indie, Personal Favorites, Biggest Disappointment, The Smokeshow Award and more! This is the quintessential video game episode you can’t afford to miss! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Ol’ Jake, Disratory and Gaius Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's time for the Game of the Year Award! Yeah! Our very own special episode where we crown the best and worst games of the year. But first, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, he's the recipient of our very own Smoke Show Award. As long as you like the handsome, physically fit, athletic type, it's Ryan. I thought for sure you were going to say Paul, but it is good to be back. It is good to be here,

and I am excited. Wait, what? Well, you just spoiled it, Ryan. And joining us, he's like that old, beloved Nintendo cartridge that just doesn't want to work until you blow on it. It's Paul! I knew exactly where that intro was going as soon as you started. There you go. You know? Sometimes that's all it takes a little smack on on on the bottom blow on it gets back to working there you go

cartridges what are you guys talking about guys it's good to be back it's uh it's it's the most wonderful time of the year here in phoenix these are like the only three weeks of nice weather i think our high today was like 72 i mean i, I'm excited. I'm ready to give out some game awards. It is good to have you back, Paul. It hasn't been that long, but it also feels like it's been an eternity. I know. Absolutely love the love that you have been getting from the community. We're still getting comments, reviews, and stuff like that that mentioned Paul. So we are super pumped to have you for this episode. And you know what? You're a man of your word, Paul. You said, hey, I will be back when you guys do the end of the year episode. And here you are. And can you guys tell I'm excited? Yeah. When I said I was stepping

down, it was literally in the same sentence that I told you guys, I'm going to have to quit the pod. I'm really sorry, but I absolutely want to be back for end of year awards. So I knew I was going to be back for this one. Yeah. We love these awards. This is one of our favorite episodes of the year. We have done it since the inception of this podcast, I believe. Paul, you're more of the historian too. I don't remember if we did it like maybe year one, but I'm pretty sure we've done this every year. I think we missed it in 2020, but 2021 is when we started. Okay. Well, that's fair. And we've kept it going ever since. Part of the fun of this is the Game

Awards announced all their nominees and stuff like that. It caused some controversy and people said, I don't know about some of these games. And Shadow of the Erdtree shouldn't qualify because it's a DLC. And, you know, there was a lot of talk around that stuff, but man, we cover a lot of games. We are gamers. We play a lot of games and we also, the three of us have very different game opinions. And so it makes it, it kind of, I feel like it gives people like a broader perspective of like what resonates with people, maybe something that people forgot about. And then as we do, we just like to be stupid. We're going to give out our smoke show award. We've got a dog turd award, you know, so it's, it's, it's going to be a really good episode. So

you guys ready to get into it? Oh, I'm ready. Can I bring up one thing before we start the awards? Oh, absolutely. Can I just point out one thing about the length of some of your guys' episodes without me? Oh, come on. 45-minute This Week in Gaming episodes? Guys.

Paul, we have nobody to wrangle us in. We need a babysitter. Ryan and I are both talkers. Every time I hosted, Josh is like, guys, we got to cut these episodes. They got to be shorter. And then here I leave. And I'm like, well, that'll be no problem. You just cut at least like 30% of the talking.

And I listened to the whole episode from last Thursday. Full, I think, 47 minutes. Got to love it. We have no supervision anymore paul we really we blame you that's for this so we're lucky if i can even get josh to do ad breaks we'll be like 30 minutes in and like oh crap ad break i don't i don't know if anybody and i'm sure the listeners don't mind this but i don't know if anybody's noticed but like we used to take two ad breaks during an hour-long episode we haven't done that

in like a month because i keep forgetting to take the second one oh man just a little bit of foreshadowing here josh did forget to take the second ad break i'm gonna put one in anyway all right well yeah i mean so paul it's your fault um and you know what this episode guaranteed to be on point as far as we're keeping this to an hour we'll see we'll see you're still hosting so oh man we'll see i do have a son who is in a string band concert in uh one hour and 40 minutes so we are on a little bit of a timer. Oh boy. All right. No pressure then. All right, boys, let's get into our game awards. You know what? Man, this has been a crazy year. Let's start off. Let's just do this one, man.

I hinted at it at the top of the show during the intro. One of our favorite awards that we have always given out and is uh it's just it's stupid but it's fun boys we're starting with the smoke show award oh now we're talking yeah did you guys struggle with this one i felt like nope nope okay super easy i can't wait to hear i have absolutely no idea where you guys are going to go with this uh smoke show award being the hottest video game character in 2024 this one was a no-brainer for me I'm just gonna say it man it's eve from stellar blade oh my goodness listen listen anytime like nodding his head now he's like oh okay oh, okay. I see where you're going. Anytime you have a character's outfits that cause controversy in a video game, you know there's a Smoke Show Award coming for that character, man. Plain and simple.

You were also a big 2B fan in Nier Automata as well. Well, well, well, well, let's back it up, Paul. The word was is very harsh. I am a big 2B fan. You used to be and you still are. Yes, exactly. Yeah, this one was easy for me. I didn't have to think about this one very much.

I still really can't wait to play Stellar Blade because, man, that gameplay just looks incredible. The gameplay, huh? Yeah, yeah. Gameplay. We understand. Well, I guess we'll save the best for last and I'll go next. So this one may

just be a little bit of recency bias. I'm going with the game Marvel Rivals and the character is gonna be It's Hela. Tell me it's Hela. It is not Hela. What? No. No, no, no, no. Have you seen hella hell is good hell is good they got a lot of quality characters in that game but i'm gonna go with black widow okay that's

that's not bad either happy birthday because everybody's getting some cake oh man i was making this joke at work the other day because I was talking about how everybody has cake now. And I've been playing Overwatch. They released Juno. She's a recently released game. And it's like, everybody. These people do nothing but squats all day long. Well, even talking a little bit about the history of this award,

this came about because I made a joke about lost ark that every character in that game was a smoke show and yeah there are there's definitely been a trend lately you don't you're not seeing very many normal looking people anymore i i am behind it i am ready for this emphasis behind. What? I don't know what you're talking about. Well, let's see. Paul struggled with this one. So now I'm really curious. Yeah, I'm interested. Is Paul's Russ character?

Is that? Paul's Russ character is not eligible this year. Okay. So by the way, I did just bring up a picture of Black Widow and she's got red hair in Marvel Arrivals. Oh, yeah. Well, you should have known, Josh. There's no way he would have picked Hela.

I know. When there's a redhead. Redheads, yeah. Well, you know, when I was looking at this award, I did not see any real obvious winners. And I'm going back a bit with this. This is going back to a game that I think released back in March. I don't even think you guys are going to remember this character.

But I'm going to say Wilhelmina from dragon's dogma 2 and in case you don't remember i just pasted a picture in discord oh all right okay i don't remember anybody in dragon's dogma 2 so uh ryan goes for the redheads i go for the darker hair but this is a little more she's like yenne Yennefer, man. Oh, yeah. I was just going to say that. She looks like Yennefer for sure. Yep. Darker hair, paler skin. That's much more my speed.

Game version, not the TV show version. Yes. Yeah. Game version, untouchable. So, all right. So, those are some good winners, man. I don't know that Dragon's Dogma 2 is going to win too many awards here, but at least that's one. It deserves something.

Sure. All right. Let's move on to, you know, this is the end of the year review. But one of the things that really gets us going is game reveals that are coming up. And a lot of times it says, hey, this game's been announced and we get very excited, but it's not announced until 2025 or 2026. So one of the awards that we have is the most promising game reveal. So this is the game trailer, the game reveal, whatever you want to call it, that got you the most hyped or you felt like was the most promising reveal that we have seen this year. So, Paul, why don't you lead us off on this one?

All right. One of you two might have this as the same answer. My initial reaction was GTA 6, but that reveal was in December of last year, so it's not eligible. I am going with The Altars for this one. Oh, Josh seemed a little surprised on that timeline. I went with The Altars. So we saw the first gameplay reveals. It was all stuff that is 100% up my alley. I mean, I'm always looking for games that do something a little bit different. Like Marvel Rivals, I played one match. I'm sure it's a great game. I know I would love it if I hopped in with you guys, but it's a lot like Overwatch, right? It's not trying to reinvent the wheel. The Alters, to me, looked like something that was custom made for what I love with video games. I loved the whole idea of having your own person cloned several times and having

them all interact with each other, but making different decisions, getting back and looking at that timeline. I know that we all played the demo, and that for me is what really solidified it. The reveals looked amazing, and then once we actually got to play the demos, it's got a little bit of satisfactory DNA as far as building your base, but then it's also a little bit of like satisfactory dna as far as building your base but then it's also got like fallout shelter style base management and a little bit of like rim world the way all your clones interact and that's one for me that i cannot wait to play i was so bummed that it got pushed out of this year uh but the alters for me was one of the most promising reveals. That's the innovation I'm looking for in gaming. Well,

it's no secret that I have terrible time memory on this show. I was going to say GTA 6, which is why when Paul was like, well, that happened in December. I was like, oh no, was that December? I could have sworn it was this year. I fact checked myself ahead of time. Oh, we should probably do that sometimes i'm glad he needs to do that because it's not like i

had the same answer yeah um so i just listen to not to not just copy paul i really am hyped for the altars like i think and it's weird because that's not a game that I would normally like. And that game drew me in almost instantly. So I, I, that tells me something in, in regards to that game. Here's, I'm going to go with one. And I think this was actually revealed last year as well, but I didn't find out about this reveal until this year. And so I'm going to bring it up anyway. That is John Carpenter's Toxic Commando. Oh, nice. We should get more information soon. I know that they have a beta coming up, but this trailer that they released for this game

looks like Helldivers, but with zombie hordes and vehicles, and it's a first-person game, and it looks incredible to me. I scoured the internet for any other information about toxic commando. Once I finally saw this trailer and there's just nothing, man, they went like radio silent on this until finally I found a site that said, yeah, there is some closed beta stuff going on. Um, but you talk about a game that gets me

really, really excited. Give me Helldivers with friends with big armored vehicles and hordes of zombies. And it just sounds like an absolute blast to me. So forgive me for the date that the trailer came out, but I'm pivoting at the last second. But this game looks incredible to me. And I think it could wind up being fantastic if they ever show anything else about it. It's like that in Star Wars Eclipse. There's just like no info out there on those games. You're like, more, give me more.

So Ryan, did you pick GTA 6 as well? I'm not the only one, right? I did. Yeah, so our brains work a little differently than most. As I said before we started recording when I was late, time is a man-made construct. Wait, you were late to recording, right? No. What?

No. No. I was picking up my son from school, to be fair. But anyways, I'm going to go with one that I may try to get into tonight after recording. I don't know. We may play some rivals. But if not, it's a game that I've been pretty high on. I think I was a little higher than you guys for quite a while.

I know it has probably one of the best names, Paul's favorite video game name ever, but I'm going to go with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The reviews have been fantastic, dude dude everybody that i know that has tried this is just blown away so far i have yet to see somebody be like i tried it it's mid yeah yeah is this where i say that i actually think it looks pretty decent in all the footage i haven't played any of it but i will say it looks so much better than i thought it was going to turn out paul was so upset about the name the name is so bad the mediocre circle the mediocre circle i did see some gameplay footage where they synced it next to the actual film with the opening scene and there was like a one for one it looked it looked so awesome. So I'm pretty excited to dive into it.

Yeah. It makes me sad. I actually commented that today. To somebody in our Discord server. But I said I won't wind up playing this game. But everybody talking about it. And seemingly loving it. And saying that it feels like the movies of old.

And you're actually getting to play them. And the soundtrack that goes with it. And everything else. I was like you guys are giving me serious FOMO right now, man. So, all right, well, let's do one more and then we will take a quick break. You know what? Looking into next year again, you know, we've kind of come to terms when games get delayed. I know personally, I used to rage at that. Maybe it's Cyberpunk that got delayed like six different times that really did it to me. And then it released in a terrible state and I went, Ooh, maybe they should have delayed that even more.

But we do have an award for the saddest game delay. And this one is easy for me, but this is a game that got delayed to 2025, even 2026 maybe. But Ryan, let's start with you on this one. What game delay made you the saddest? Well, mine's going to be one that Paul just mentioned. I don't know if I'm going to snake that from him, but I'm going to go with Alters. Yeah. with alters yeah i was just so hooked after that demo where it's this deep dark gritty world that you're you're walking your path and you're setting up your uh power and you're mining for things and you're doing all this cool stuff to extend the life and basically survive. I just thought it was such a cool effect on a game,

and I was hooked into it. Hopefully, it is for good reason, and they're going to polish it up. It's going to look awesome. And if that's the case, then I'm okay with it. Yeah, I think we're all okay with the delay if they're going to wrap a bow on everything, make it come out even better.

Yeah. I did not put this for my saddest delay although this would have been my runner up for this one you know you guys might remember earlier this year we might have done an auction draft and half of the games that i bought for most anticipated 2024 all got pushed so i'm gonna go with one of those selections. Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater. Way too long of a title, but that's my pick. Can you believe now? Now this Josh never played Metal Gear Solid until just recently. Ryan, it has almost been 10 full years since the Phantom Pain came out. Like I just to relive Metal Gear Solid 3 3 i'm cool with like i am just dying for any metal

gear solid content i cannot wait to be eating poisonous frogs crawling around in the swamps hearing all the hysterical voice lines uh i absolutely love games that blend stealth with action and no one does it better than metal Gear Solid. So getting to replay it, I just can't wait. And I'm so sad it got pushed. Talk about a smoke show. You ready to see some vamp? It's a good one.

Yeah, man. This one is an all-timer for me. I love this series, obviously. You guys all know that. I actually saw some footage the other day that I'd never seen before where Kojima, for the first metal gear solid was actually setting up uh layouts in legos and so he could get the camera angles right for the game the way he wanted to design it so

he's just one of those above and beyond developers um This game was like a masterpiece in this stealth action genre. And I'm so, I'm so ready. I'm excited to play it for the first time. Like you guys are going back, but like you guys have me hyped. Like, I don't even know what I'm to expect, man. At this point, like I'm sure I played Metal Gear Solid 5. Is it going to be like that? Is it different? Is it kind of its own thing? It's being completely remade from the ground up. So it looks very current and modern. So I am very hyped for that one. I just have no idea what to expect. So the delay didn't really bother me because it's like, I don't know what's coming. Like, you don't know what you're missing if you don't know what you're missing kind of thing. So, um, so for me, this one, I was, I'm still insanely hyped for this game, but it's a vowed.

Yeah. I knew you were going to say that. The thing that gets me and why it's the saddest delay to me is the only reason that they delayed a vowed is because they just said there's too many games coming out at the end of the year. We could be playing Avowed right now. I know, man. And then the worst part about it is, so they moved it to February,

and then three other games moved right next to Avowed. I was like, what are you doing? Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, probably very smartly like was right next to avowed in its release date and then they said you know what we're releasing a week earlier so that they can leapfrog avowed's release and it's just like this makes me sad man like it's the end of the year thankfully i have path of exile 2 and marvel rivals that i'm playing but like i'd be playing avowed right now if i could so you talk about a game that makes you sad because it was delayed like the only reason they delayed it got just thrown in the garbage because all these other games that decided they

wanted to release in february as well well and mentioning earlier our most anticipated draft a certain someone blew a quarter of his entire budget on Avowed, and that was me as well. Yeah. Yeah. You got hit by the delay bug hard. Really did. All right. Listen, we're going to take a short break, and then we're going to come back with our personal favorite game of the year when we get back from this break. All right. We've been waiting for this one, boys. This is your personal favorite game of the year. Not the one that you think deserves the game of the year award, not the best indie game or any of that stuff. This is your gaming tastes. It doesn't even have to be

a game that actually released this year. It's just what has been your personal favorite game that you have played in 2024. I'll go first on this one. This one is easy for me. It's Helldivers 2. There's no qualms about it. Helldivers 2, we were insanely hyped for. I mean, all of us were just completely enamored with all of the footage we saw for this game. It was one of those things where is it going to be as good as the trailers and the footage and the previews make it look? I honestly believe it was way better in person, like playing that game than anything actually made it look. I cannot think of another game that I have played this year that I enjoyed from just a sheer fun

gameplay with friends standpoint than Helldivers 2. So for me, I'm giving it its dues. It is my personal favorite game of the year. Solid, solid pick. I coincidentally enough have the same pick. It was just such a good game. it was one of those games that you know we're all we're married we have kids we have lives we have careers it's one of those where you make time to play this game you schedule out and set hey when are we getting on tonight we are playing hell divers you know we got to dispense liberty amongst the cosmos. So it's just one of those that you think about all day, every day, and you want to get that time in. And it was one of the best experiences I've had in online gaming specifically in a long time.

And it was just, it was absolutely awesome. There's only been a handful of games that have been like that for our friend group where everybody's playing it. We had it with PUBG. We had it with Overwatch. We had it with Valheim. And I think Helldivers 2 is the only one that's really been that way. So many people played, and it was so much fun and so memorable. A lot of my favorite moments from this year are remembering our times in Helldivers, for sure.

Yeah. It's rare when a game brings out your extended friend group. You know, you've always got your buddy, your two that you play games with. But when a game comes out and all of a sudden there's eight people in a voice channel, and it's like, hey, we're going to have to break into groups on this. That's something special because that does not happen very often anymore. And it almost gives you that like nostalgia or like that reminiscing of playing,

you know, for us like golden eye back in the day or perfect dark or the original halos and stuff like that, where it was like, there was something special about that. Not only the game, but just the experience of playing that game with friends and hell divers to like was, it's honestly the only thing in recent memory. I mean, there's been some good ones. but just the experience of playing that game with friends and hell divers too.

Like was, it's honestly the only thing in recent memory. I mean, there's been some good ones like you just mentioned them, Paul, but it's like, there's something special about that experience, not just the game itself, but when it brings out enough people that want to play it together,

it's hard to capture that, you know? And I don't, I don't know what the magic formula is, but hell divers to nailed that. They definitely did. And I want to say one other thing about hell divers to ryan the mortar sentries were not worth it no they were not they were not all you have to do is just not run into the middle of the club of enemies no because one hell divers life is worth more than a thousand terminates cannon fodder. All of you.

Cannon fodder. Ryan always acted like we wouldn't have killed those bugs if his mortars weren't there. It's like, we would have killed them. Ryan's defense was, I killed 500 bugs, man. And I'm like, yeah, and you killed three of us. And three of us is worth way more than 500 bugs. 100%. What about you, Paul?

What do you got? So for this one, I decided to go with Astro Bot. And this is a game that is very much in contention for best game of the year. But when I am looking at the most fun, it was unquestionably either Astro Bot or Helldivers 2. Now, I've talked about this in our Discord, but when I'm thinking best game of the year, I want a game that touches a little bit of everything. It's got story, it's got the gameplay, it's got the graphics, it's got a little bit of everything. And you don't really have story when you're looking at Helldivers 2 or Astro Bot, but man, did those games just nail gameplay. 100%. So for me, I'm generally thinking what game has the best gameplay for most favorite. And since you guys both went hell divers, for me, it's like 1A and 1B, but I'll just go ahead and say Astro Bot. It is the best platformer I have played in such a long

time. The secrets that you get to uncover, the audio design, the use of the PS5 controller, there is so much you can gush about the PS5 controller. There is so much you can gush about with Astro Bot. It is so much better than it has business being. And I honestly think moving forward, it very well could be better than the 3D Mario games at this point. I would not be shocked. Mario is really going to have to up the ante if they want to keep pace here with Sony's new favorite IP. I agree wholeheartedly, dude. It's like Astro Bot kind of raised the bar. And I really wonder if Nintendo is going to respond with their Mario games, because it's kind of like Nintendo doesn't innovate with their games very often. They just kind of went, hey, we know how to refresh it. We know how to make it a little bit more fun than the last game that we sold a gajillion copies of. But Astro Bot really

was something special. And I really hope, if nothing else, that it influences Nintendo to say, okay, we have to get a little bit more modern with Mario and we have to up the ante there. Bowser's Fury did innovate and do that, but it was so short. Right, yeah, exactly. either Bowser's Fury did innovate and do that but it was so short and I still yeah it was like three hours or maybe even two hours so I'd really like to see them blow that concept out into a full-fledged Mario game and maybe that'll do it I can't wait to find out yeah that's where I was too man it was 1a 1b um it's absolutely amazing but just kind of the online gameplay with friends is what usually trumps everything for me. All right, boys, let's make a complete 180 and stop talking about great games. And let's talk about a game that is just the stinkiest pile of dog dookie game that you could imagine. It's time for the Dog Turd Award.

Excellent. dookie game that you could imagine it's time for the dog turd award excellent so i mean this is not which game you it's you might say which game disappointed you the most but this is again just the worst i stepped in it get it off my shoe gross it just ruined my day this is the award that we're giving out ryan let's start with you on this one i'm gonna go with a game that i was hyped for uh i love the look i love the environment i thought that the gameplay everything was gonna sync up and it was gonna just be awesome probably a little more than i should have been hyped for this, but I'm going to go with Pacific drive. I am so with you, brother.

This is my pick. Freaking turd, dude. Oh yeah. Let's just go, uh, spawn 50 things out of the trash can. And then,

uh, let me, uh, I'm going to get out of my car. Oh wait. Oh no, hold on. Oh,

I didn't, oh, I didn't turn it off. Oh, I got to put it in gear. Oh, I got to open the door. Oh,

it, it just, it was, it was something that I expected so much of and I wanted it to be so good, so bad. And it was just such a letdown. And talk about a freaking turd, dude. This was the turd of turds. Well, Josh is one of those guys.

I want to hear Josh defend Pacific Drive. I'm not defending Pacific Drive. I don't think it's a dog turds. Well, Josh is one of those guys. I want to hear Josh defend Pacific Drive. I'm not defending Pacific Drive. I don't think it's a dog turd. I will say that. It had some serious design flaw choices, development choices, like making you re-drive through every zone all over again. But I cannot think of a game that I know of that has hurt Ryan more than Pacific Drive has. Because it is always right there at the top of his mind where it's just like, what did they do to you, Ryan? That and humanity. Oh, I love humanity. Pacific Drive, I think, Ryan, you and I just felt exactly the same.

Did you ever find any part of that game interesting? Like at all? No, I didn't. I didn't have a drive to explore, to go around and check out the world. It was just, I found myself more frustrated at playing the game than engaged. Well, and not only that, it was one of the worst uses of roguelike mechanics I've ever seen. Because normally, if you're playing something like Hades, you're getting power-ups. And even though you're retreading old stuff, at least you're building your actual character build along the way, and you see yourself getting stronger. And that's kind of fun, and you can tinker with that and whatnot.

But in Pacific Drive, you're just driving through the same zones again and again and again. And it's just boring. It's not interesting. There's nothing to find off the beaten path. It's just boring and lame and buggy. I found that game to have almost no redeeming qualities. I thought someone might bring up Dragon Age,

the fail guard. Dragon Age is like completely neutered. To to me it was just so meh that i i almost can't give it the dog turd award because i was expecting it to be pretty bad at the end but man pacific drive seemed like it could offer some fun and it just failed in every single way to me is that your pick as well paul yes it was immediately i had to think for half a second yeah yeah really smart guy smart guy i mean i i was actually gonna pick uh fail guard but you know i expected that to be bad with everything you guys have said about it and everything so um yeah well i'm picking Veil Guard boys. Nice. I mean, Pacific Drive was okay.

Like I said, it definitely was a disappointment overall, but man, look, I know we're fresh off our Dragon Age Veil Guard episode. And, you know, I think I ranked it somewhere in the fives or sixes, but it's like, you know, sometimes the longer you're away from something, you get to kind of stew on it a little bit. And it's like, you know, now I'm playing Path of Exile 2, which I think is fantastic. Marvel Rivals, which kind of came out of nowhere. It's just an Overwatch clone, but darn it, if we ain't having a lot of fun playing that game right now. And so it's like, when you see these other games, you know, and it just kind of makes you realize like Ryan, we just mentioned it when we did the stalker two episode where it's like

stalker two doesn't hold your hand. They'd let you just discover the game by the natural discovery that happens while you're playing the game. And, and, and so I'm given Veil Guard this award because it's just so disappointing to me that it's like the longer I'm away from it, I look back and I just get more and more upset by it. And I'm sure, to be fair, if I jumped back in, I'd probably be like, this game's fine. No. It's fine. No, you wouldn't. It's not great, but it's not.

But no. No. No. Forget that. That game sucks game sucks man they ruined it you know all these stupid choices and and the combat is lame and the the storytelling sucks and the weird cartoony characters don't feel like anything that they don't even match when they're talking when it's all serious and i'm like oh i'm watching this guy's cartoony face trying to tell me that the world is ending, you know, and it's just like the longer I'm away, the more that like the rage just builds and I just, ah, why? It was Dragon Age, man. And Paul, you're the biggest Dragon Age fan and you're like, you're not even that upset because you're like, I didn't expect it, but it doesn't fix it. It doesn't change it, man. That game sucked. They ruined one of the best series of all time. I wish everyone could see the vein on Josh's forehead right now. Yeah, because, oh man, dude, how do you mess up? This is like saying the

Witcher 4 is going to come out and be an absolute hot disaster of the game. Yeah. Like, how do you screw that up, man? It's so hard. You have to almost actively try. See, that's the problem. You seem more mad about it. I am just more sad. Like, there is nothing worse than losing one of your favorite franchises. It's awful. There's only so many good RPG series that are out there.

And Dragon Age for me was right at the top of the list. And like, I don't even know if they're gonna make any more dragon ages but at this point would you even buy it if it looks similar to veil guard not a chance nope not no no unless that studio got bought out by other people the ip sold to a competent studio or something i never again yeah never yeah i was like i was telling just earlier trying to figure out what a comparison would be where what it would mean for me where uh you know what they would do to to that type of series and for metal gear if they were to do that to metal gear make it look like a

nintendo game yeah yeah cartoon it like fortnite effect um i would just i would be the same i would just be more sad and distraught than anything you know i'd probably be a little mad too let's be honest but yeah it's just i get it i get why you're sad yep yeah no paul's the guy that steps in dog poop and goes oh man yeah i'm the guy that steps in dog poop and it's like oh come on who let their dog poop right here? Okay. You know, I feel better, guys. I'm glad I got that out. I've been saving that up for this category in particular.

And yeah, feeling kind of good now. Very nice. All right. Let's get into best. You know, we're going back to the good stuff, boys. Best indie game or under the radar? Now, this has been a weird year for indie games so this could also be a game that you feel like is flying under the radar and not enough people know about um so paul let's start with you on this one and i i kind of have a feeling i know what this one is for you i think you know

for sure so first of all all apologies to bellatro It's a great game. I bought it. I played it. It is very fun. It is nowhere near the top of the list for me when you have Animal, oh my goodness, Animal Well sitting right there. Animal Well is by far the best indie game that I played this year. It's one of those games that I talked a lot about on the show. And at first glance, it doesn't seem like it has all that much to offer. It's got some minor platforming elements. It's a little bit like a Metroidvania. But the longer you play it, the deeper and deeper and deeper it gets and the more secrets you uncover. It is so incredibly clever in how they made that game and all the items you use. When's the last time you fired up a game and your only items are a slinky, a bubble wand,

a yo-yo, and those are your only items? And yet this game finds such clever ways to build all of those together into puzzles. Like, okay, I got to drop the slinky on this side of this hill at this time. Then I got to run here, hit this with my yo-yo, and time all of these things out. It is such a clever game. It's almost too clever for its own good that I think a lot of people jumped in, played a little bit, maybe even thought they beat the game and finished it,

and did not realize how much more there is to do in animal. Well, this to me, landslide victory it's it's animal. Well, no doubt. I've seen this. I've seen this a lot, like from a lot of people in a lot of places. And I think the only thing that's holding this game back from really being in like the game of the year contention, like mainstream is just not enough. People played it. You know? So I think that's, yeah. I mean,

if you look at the, the like reviews for animal well, and some of the people that have played it and talked about it, it's there's like magic there. And it's weird because I know I say this all the time and like Celeste proved me wrong on this too, but like the graphics put me off a little bit. Sure.

I get it. And I hate that because it's like i don't i know that there's an incredible game there under the surface but sometimes i just kind of look at it and i kind of go like it's a it's a hurdle it's an unnecessary hurdle in order to get into the game yeah i get it yeah all right ryan what about you best indie or under the radar game you played this year so i'm not the biggest indie guy in the world um if it was just what we played this year i would be going lethal company because that's still just an all-timer for me as far as indie games go it's so much fun um but what we're looking at is for this year and i'm gonna go with a game that's probably on josh's list as well i'm gonna go with dave the diver it's just so much fun didn't that come out last year it did come out last year that's the one thing i checked right before the episode yeah i'm not the only dummy yes i think josh gave this award to dave the diver last year i might be wrong on that

no look just so that ryan doesn't feel too embarrassed by this i legitimately had this on my list i figured five minutes before we started recording and then i went let me just double check it's the only thing i double checked i should i should have checked the gta6 trailer but i didn't do that one either last year josh gave dave the diver the most surprising game award oh yeah okay yeah that one's all right well i'll tell you what i'll give you a minute or two to figure out if there's something else that you can think of i know it's i don't even know if i've even played another indie all i've played lethal company that's it so all right well i'll just jump in here then i will say you know what it's interesting to me because normally i play at least

a few indie games every year and this year for some reason i don't know if it's that we had so many mainstream releases that just that really kept kept us busy. And so as I started looking through like the indie games, I kind of went, I haven't played any of these. And that's not normal. Cause normally, like I said, I jumped into a few, at least there was one that I jumped into you guys. I didn't play this with either of you, but I did play this game with our good buddy Ace of Shame. And that is a game called Abiotic Factor. And I remember actually mentioning it to you too, because we were having an absolute blast. And the thing with Abiotic Factor is it kind of, it's just another survival crafting game, right? And it's like, how many dozens of those have we played at this point?

You know, I mean, you know, Satisfactory doesn't have a ton of survival elements, but crafting games. And then we had the Enshrouded that came out, Abiotic Factor. I mean, these games, what's the Nightingale that failed? Yeah. Remember, Paul, you tried that one. We got real hyped from the trailer, and then that thing was a colossal failure. So it's kind of like, I mean, there's a million of these, but I jumped into abiotic factor with Ace of Shame and man, did we crack out on this game? And I can tell you that

this game is an easy choice for me because it's still not fully released yet, but there is something there. It is like playing Half-Life as if you you if you're the person that was in the facility when all heck broke loose you know and it's like now you're just stuck i remember you guys playing this i remember yeah dude we played we played this a lot like we really got into it man and we beat all of the early access content we made it as far as you could go in this game until they released some new content for it. But man, what an enjoyable game. And I get it. There's going to be people that are saying, yeah, I've played a dozen of these. They're all the same. There is something different and something special about Abiotic Factor.

I can't even really vocalize what it is, but it just stands out in such a good way. It was so much fun. The progression was great. The environment was great. Don't let the kind of graphics put you off on this because it does look kind of old school. It almost looks like Half-Life 1 would look, you know? But man, what an enjoyable game. Dude, so I was just looking.

Dave the Diver came out January 28th of 2023. So I wasn't even close. That's why I didn't ask, Ryan, because I literally had it on. Diver came out January 28th of 2023. That's why I didn't ask Ryan because I literally had it on. I don't know what I'm saying. Paul and I were talking right before we recorded too about how this year just seems so

long. So I don't know. I guess the years just melded together for me. One thing we should probably mention about best indie, because I'm sure a lot of our listeners are shouting. Why is no one talking about another crab's treasure? I know, I know that was,

I didn't play it. I didn't play it either. Yeah, that was, I almost went with that. And I almost went with echo point Nova, which is the first person shooter on like a Tony Hawk mix that we talked about that people were saying is an absolute blast,

but I play that one either. And it's feel, I felt really weird like mentioning a game that we haven't actually played. It's like, I know that probably deserves it, but we haven't played them. So it's like, how can I nominate that at the same time?

So, all right, let's, uh, I'll tell you what. So that was best indie. Let's get into, let's, let's go, let's go back the other direction. I kind of like this pendulum swing that we're doing right here. Okay. Most overrated game of the year. So this is a game that you felt like,

Hey, you know what? Everybody else seemed to love this game or this game got really good reviews or maybe even just mediocre reviews, but you felt like it deserved way worse. So most overrated game of the year. I have an easy answer for this one. I'll just actually, I'll let you go first, Paul, because I just gave my answer for Abiotic Factor. So to me, this was so easy. It's a game that did not get great reviews they were sort of mid to slightly better than mid but i think it is vastly overrated by josh in particular a little bit ryan and i'm upset already paul a little bit by our discord community too uh we love you all on discord but for me dude senua saga hellblade 2 man this game has five minutes of fun spread out over like this eight hour game dude i know we said it on the deep dive

i found the puzzles to be so insulting that you can't even call them puzzles. It's just place this orb and it flips the room and then you walk forward. There were so many issues I had with the game. Some of the graphics were great and the voice acting was great. I'll give them credit for that. And it had a couple really high moments, but it's a lot of slowly walking. There were a lot of times that I didn't know, am I supposed to press a button or am i watching a cut scene like i think we all talked about like in the one scene where uh senua's like crawling up the mountain at one point and i was just staring at my monitor like and all of a sudden i realized oh i have to press forward i just found the game to be like super boring for the most part i i gotta give it to Hellblade 2. Sorry, Josh.

I will say I understand it, dude. I joke around, but I get that that game is not everybody's cup of tea. It's funny because I can look at it as a whole and go, yeah, this probably disappointed a lot of people. I almost, I'll say this since it's not my most memorable moment of the year, because that's a category that we're going to go to next after this one but that that scene in hellblade 2 when you are creeping around the fire uh like seance ceremony thing dude that is one of the most

memorable scenes i've seen in a video game that 30 seconds was incredible i i but but that 30 seconds still stands out in my brain. So it's one of those things. But that's fair, Paul. I get it. All right, Ryan. Actually, I'm going to jump in on this one. Buckle up, people. Put your pitchforks away. I am going to rock the world on this one. I've tried, guys. I have tried twice now to pick up this game and play this game. I picked it up when it released

and I literally picked it up last week and I have refunded it both times. It's not even an expensive game, man. It's not like I need to refund it, but I just can't get into it and the world has lost their minds over this game. I apologize up front

because I know this game has a cult following. The most overrated game for this year is Bellatro. Paul's mouthing it. Yeah, I was mouthing it. And I, dude, I don't get it. I love, I love roguelike card games, man. I probably have 15 of them in my Steam library right now. I play at least a few of them every single year. This is absolutely like my peak genre of games. Bellatro comes out. It's just poker, man. It's just, it's poker with

the world's most annoying soundtrack. You get some modifiers. I get that. There's like this super in-depth like strategy and math and all this stuff. I watched. I think it was Alex. Yeah. Play this game for like an hour one night.

And I'm like, he's getting into this deep, deep strategy. And like, if I can just get this modifier, dude, I can make it to like the infinite level and all that. I'm like, oh, that's really cool. I don't even know what Bellatro is on Steam. I think it's like a 97%. It's ridiculously high. The world loves Bellatro. It's up for game of the year.

That's insane. That is insane to me. That's crazy. I don't like this game dude it's a 98 positive rating on steam what what it's poker people the game already exists it's existed for decades maybe centuries it's like yeah i i think it was ace ace theist in our uh discord was talking about how if if i want to play poker i'll just play poker like i don't even play this card game i'm not big on these types of card games i'm the same way if i'm gonna play poker i'll just play real poker for real

money even if it's online i'd much much rather do that than playing a game. I want to like it. I feel like there's something wrong with me. You know what I mean? It's like I look in the mirror sometimes. I'll be taking a shower, and I go, Josh, what's wrong with you? Why don't you like Bellatro? And I'm like, I don't know, but I don't like it.

I think that game sucks. I've tried it twice now, and I can't get into it, man. I'm sorry, everybody, but it's the most overrated game of 2024. Nice. I like it. It's a good take. I will say it is definitely overrated. I would not say it's bad.

I like the game. I think it's quite good, but game of the year, I was very shocked when I saw that. I would expect that more from Animal Well as opposed to Bellatro. Yeah. Sorry, everybody.

Don't lynch me i'm sorry i apologize all right ryan what do you got what's your uh most overrated game i'm gonna go with a game that was not in contention for game of the year or is not in contention for game of the year rightfully so in my opinion um this one just fell so flat for me. I expected a lot. It just did not deliver. And it's a little game called Dragon's Dogma. Yeah. Boo. It's an 86 right now.

It should be a 65. Oh, man. Get this, man. It didn't give it to me. What a bad take. Everything I wanted, and I was so excited, it just didn't give it to me what a bad take everything i wanted and i was so excited it just didn't give it to me so it's it's overrated uh it's like chipotle it's fine it's serviceable it's okay but way too many are hyped up for something just mediocre i'm i'm

actually with you ryan now and and i i have said this multiple times. It's not a bad video game. I'm not saying that this game is bad. But what we were hoping it was going to be and what it wound up being are two very different things. And I'm with you. I do think it's kind of overrated. I saw so much hype on social media from people that were like, Dragon Dogma 2 is like the greatest game. I haven't had this much fun in combat, in a world, and forever. And then I'm kind of like,

I mean, it's a good game, but it's not like an epic game. To play Devil's Advocate, I played this way more than you guys did. I was very frustrated in the beginning. I will say the more I played it, the more I appreciated it. And I think the game does morph into what I was hoping it would be. It just doesn't start there. So once you add the additional waypoints and you unlock more of the classes and you get to see how more of the quests end. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I know that you guys weren't able to get past that hurdle,

and you guys especially hated the fast travel system and the save system and all that. I didn't like it in the beginning, but I grew to like it. I actually have Dragon's Dogma 2 third on my list for best game of the year. Really? And the more time goes on on the more fondly i remember the game it's it's i get it though this is like this is why that game is kind of polarizing because it's like i'm in the middle saying like i think it's a perfectly fine video game i didn't

find it exceptional but i didn't find it bad. I just was a little disappointed. And that's my own hype level for like going into that game. Cause I mean, this is a game that I bid an awful lot of money on in our game auction to, cause I thought it was going to be the next Witcher. Yeah. You know, it's not that Ryan. Yeah, it's not. And then Ryan, I feel like is even lower than me on this. And then Paul is higher and it's like, I get all three viewpoints on that game. yeah i mean that's a good one ryan i i see both sides to be honest with you so all right um let's swing back the other direction guys we've only got a couple categories left here let's go with the best game that you played

this year so and i know people are going to say well wait how is this different than your personal favorite game of the year? This is just the best game that you have played this year. It doesn't necessarily have to be your favorite. It's just the best overall. The total package of a game that you have played this year, it doesn't mean it necessarily had to release this year either. So you do kind of have a little bit of leeway there. But that's kind of the difference as far as like what your personal favorite was versus what is the best game that you played this year? I love this category because it's fun. You get to talk about something

from another year. There's always games like in the backlog that you don't get to play. And sometimes this is like a great category for that i know last year i gave this to uncharted 2 ryan gave it to red dead 2 josh you gave it to balder's gate 3 um now you guys might remember for our force a friend format that i made ryan play heavy rain and then very shortly after i left ryan made a comment on the show about what he would have picked for me if I was still on the pod. And do you remember? Did you play it? Oh, I played it, buddy.

Was this Ghost of Tsushima? Ghost of Tsushima. What? Yes! You played this? Yeah! It is so freaking good. Oh, I told you.

Oh, my God. You played Ghost of Tsushima and you didn't tell us? You've been holding out on us for all this time you little snake now oh my goodness now let me tell you the worst play the worst way to play dragon age the fail guard is when you have to stop at the end of act two in ghost of tsushima and go load up dragon age and let me tell you it was so hard for me to play Dragon Age. That's the worst way to do it. Ghost of Tsushima, I knew it was going to be amazing. I knew.

Same as The Witcher. Like, I didn't play The Witcher 3 until five years later. Yeah! I'm so pumped right now, man! Yeah! It's so good. I will say, it plays like a 10-year-old game. There are a lot of elements in there where it plays exactly like Dragon Age Inquisition.

It's like, okay, here's the new zone. Oh, here's the hub. I talked to them. They unlock all these points on my map. Here's all the things I can clear. But man, if that game doesn't nail the culture of the world, all the side quests, the side quests to me were better than the main story. They really made that game feel alive. And I loved every second of it. The combat's fun. I mean, it's not the most challenging combat. That was my question, though, because you initially said you're generally not a fan of melee combat.

And there's a, I mean, obviously you get the bow and you can do archery in that. But so you enjoy the combat in it? Absolutely. Yeah. Great game. And I really loved the chain assassinations. Yeah. See, I pumped all these points into where I would yell for the standoffs. Like, I don't know if you guys did that. Every time I walked up to a stronghold, I'm not sneaking my way in. I'm just shouting

from the rooftops. Come meet me, you cowards. And then, you know, I'd have my hand on my sword and then you'd kill the first guy. Here comes the second. I'd kill him. Here comes the third guy. I'd kill him. Oh, it was a blast. It's a fantastic game. And I'm not shocked. I knew I was going to love it.

I just, I finally got around to it. I can't believe you kept that from us this whole time, Paul. I have been logged out of Steam for like three months or however long. I don't know how long ago I left the show. Time makes no sense to me anymore these days, but whenever that was, I have not been online in steam since then.

Cause I was hoping you guys wouldn't see that I was playing. Oh my goodness. I don't even know what to say right now. I don't either. so Josh has what I was going to give to you. I had like 30 printed this mask, this Japanese, like samurai mask.

I primed it. I painted it. I did all these effects on it and gold teeth. And I was going to give it to you in like a package like, oh, this is the game I'm picking. There it is. Yep, yep. Oh, that's so cool. No, man.

I have an extra one. I'll paint it and I'll give it to you but that's how i was gonna present the game to you i was gonna kind of hand it to you and like here you here you go this is what you're gonna have to play so i was bummed out when you left but oh man i i'm so glad you were able to experience that it's so good he gave me the mask so you're not getting the mask paul that's fine it's on my shelf i have more than one i printed like five so you had to take your headset off there josh but yeah ryan ryan's got another one but not getting the mask paul that's fine it's on my shelf i have more than one i printed like five so obviously you had to take your headset off there josh but yeah ryan ryan's got another one but

yeah what a fantastic game awesome it would have been a fun deep dive so happy oh absolutely i don't even know what we were talking about i'm just so excited that you've played this year i'll jump in on this one i i have to give it its due because there was controversy around this game. Shadow of the Erdtree is the best game that I have played this year. I absolutely love Elden Ring. It's one of my top five games. Honestly, there is no other video game in the world like Elden Ring to me. And Shadow of the Erdtree gave me more of exactly what I wanted, which was more Elden Ring, more boss fights, more world to explore, more secrets than you could shake a stick at. It was just absolute perfection of what I wanted a DLC or expansion to Elden Ring to be. And I know that people said, oh, well, it shouldn't qualify as a game of the year and that stuff. So I'm giving it.

It's due right here for the best game that I played this year. I absolutely lost myself in that game. I beat the final boss. So I actually completed all the content. I'm kind of proud of myself there. Not only is it an achievement, but also I beat a game, guys. Surprise. I finished one.

That's very rare. So I'll just leave it at that. Shadow of the earth tree oh my goodness it was everything i wanted it to be all right ryan what about you what is the best game that you played this year so this one should not come as a surprise to anyone who's listened to me on the discord or anywhere else for liberty what oh for. No, you're wrong. You're usually right, Paul. But in this one, you're wrong. I'm going with Diablo 2 Resurrected.

Oh, I should have known. I just got completely absorbed back into the world of Diablo 2. It does have that bit of nostalgia factor for me. Obviously, that's a huge part of it, but it is just one of those kind of perfect games that the difficulty on some of the enemies, if you're doing things a certain way, is really tough. The builds are awesome. Searching for gear is awesome. Finding those certain drops in those loots um it just there's there's something about it that really clicks with me that i don't mind doing the grind i don't mind running bail runs i don't mind running uh you know mephisto or or any of these just kind of grindy things that that a lot of other games just make you feel like meh and you don't want to do it it's a chore to this it seems fun for whatever reason it always just resonates back with me so it's just there's there's

nothing like it to me and it's just always right on the top there's this game that just came out ryan that you should be super hyped for it's called path of exile 2 ever heard of it this is this ever heard of it okay listen this is i know this is how i know ryan is so in love with diablo that it's like he won't even try path of exile 2 you and it's like a million people actually it's way more than a million at this point people are loving it it's a lot of the conversation on our discord server and everybody's like whoa path of exile 2 and ryan is just like nah i'll just play this 20 like, nah. I'll just play this 20-year-old game. Yeah, I'll just play this game that's 20 years old

because I love it. They're like grandparents, Ryan. You can love them both equally. Loving a second one doesn't take anything away from the first. You would love Path of Exile 2. I am so convinced. I'm sure I'd like it. I'm sure I'll check it out right when Josh quits. Yeah, right when I quit

playing it, Ryan will be like, hey dude, I'm ready to play Path of Exile 2. And I'll be like, I'm done with that, man. Yeah. All right, guys. Well, we've got one more category until we get to the best game of the year. That is most memorable moment of 2024. Now, we have

generally we tend to think of like a game moment, but we have also said it could be a podcast moment, something that happened either during the show or while we were playing a game together or something like that. I'll start this one off. Actually, Paul, I did consider the Hellblade 2 scene as one of that because it was very memorable for this one. But I am going with Paul sneakily playing ghost of Tsushima without telling us. Just kidding.

As great as that was. Um, I'm going to go with the first time dropping into hell divers two together. This is what I put. Is it really? It's I put three way tie the first day of playing hell divers and I have three different moments, but I want to hear you talk first.

It's funny because I actually have three different moments. Oh my goodness, this is too funny. So the first time dropping into Helldivers 2 together, our excitement was through the roof. We land from our pods. I turn around. I instantly shoot Paul. I mean, within a half a second, Paul is just dead. We all crack up. It was hilarious. And then Paul tries to smush me with his drop pod on the

way back down, which was hilarious as well. I mean, that one, I still just chuckle thinking about that one. Seeing a bile titan for the first time in Helldivers 2 was another one of like the, oh my goodness, what are we supposed to do against that thing? And then the other one for me was the first time that you see the automatons because you got so used to fighting the Terminans and then you go to this automaton planet and all of a sudden these things

just, these Terminator robot things come out and they're shooting at you and you're like, they're shooting at us! What do we do now? So Helldivers 2 just had so many memorable moments. The main one for me is just the dropping together and then just instantly turning around and killing Paul. I put that moment, I wrote down the first time we landed. The second one, if you remember, it was the first time I ever picked up an explosive barrel. And do you remember what you did, Josh?

You immediately turned and shot it, but it didn't explode right away. It was like shooting out sparks and it was lit on fire. And I immediately knew like throw this barrel or it's going to explode. And it just cracked me up because I never, it would have never crossed my mind to shoot that barrel while someone's holding it.

And then the last one was how much we all loved the dive mechanic and the second time we opened the nuclear silo i dove straight in and i just thought it was the funniest thing i had ever done and of course i died but uh man that first day of hell divers just goofing around where you had just as much fun losing a mission as you did winning and that's when you knew the game had something special yeah yeah that's true but my mortars were the problem the mortars were the problem you know but my mortars were the problem oh my goodness that's so funny paul that is awesome man too funny what about what about you

ryan tell us what what uh what your favorite moment is that doesn't involve us uh well it kind of involves us it involves uh what we did i guess you would say um got a little hyper focused on this situation my one-tracked mind uh took me over for a day or two but but I'm going to go with when we went viral for our Pal World video. Yeah. Oh, that was so much fun, man. Yeah, so it's at like 1.7 million views,

which is crazy. There was a wild reaction to it. There was reaction videos where people were reacting actually to our video which is always crazy to see um when it's your own and then uh shout out to ace for recording it but it was it was one of those things where i was yelling at my wife like honey honey it's at 800 000 oh we just hit 950 and it just kept going going yeah with the devs retweeting us i was just like we we made it we did it it really was man you know everybody talks about wanting to

go viral and then it's like it actually happened and it is it is just a wild ride like it was for for a day or two yeah i mean you know and we didn't get fame out of it we're not like the hawk to a girl or anything like that you know what i mean but it's like so but it was just it really was a very memorable moment it was a wild ride i was exactly like you ryan where you know it was refreshing every couple minutes and then shouting to my wife look baby look we broke a million you know and she's like well what does that mean and i'm like i don't know probably nothing nothing nothing ultimately but it was fun but it was cool yeah and kudos to paul because it really was paul's idea that i mean he's the one that said what if we just put a whole bunch of campfires down yeah and then drag them over that too so it actually Yeah. Oh my goodness. All right, boys. Are you ready for the official game of the year?

Now this is, we've covered our personal favorite game of the year. We have covered the best game that we've played this year. This is the game that we think deserves to be the 2024 game of the year. Put it all together, gameplay, presentation, story, whatever. This is the game that you think is actually the most deserving of the game of the year. Paul, let's start with you on this one. Sure. For me, this was very obvious. It is a game that a deep dive was done on this show and this is a game that just hit on every cylinder for me i know you guys did not like it as much i was so glad to see the golden joy stick awards give best game of the year to blacksmith wukong because that game 100% deserves it, in my opinion. I know it did not click quite the same with you guys, but man, just the graphics I still think are the best I've seen the entire year.

Space Marine 2 looks fantastic, but for me, I don't know. It's just something about the different biomes and especially the plants and all the ambient stuff in Black Mith Wukong just looks so good. I loved the secret areas, the little secret items you could make that would help you defeat the final boss in each chapter. I mean, everything about this game I thought was so well done. I still can't believe that, Josh, you in particular felt like it was too many bosses, because to me, that was the best part of the game. You had to learn these new fights constantly, but probably half of them you would beat the first or second time. So to me, it was really fun where you were constantly probably had to fight him 100 times until I finally beat him. So there were really hard fights in that game too. But to me, it just, the graphics, the sound, the story, the gameplay, the difficulty, the innovation, all the different bosses.

To me, it's Black Mith Wukong. I gave it a 9.7 on our deep dive. So it probably shouldn't be all that surprising it is it for a studio because this was their first game insane i mean for them to come out and do what they did with that game and how good it was is is super impressive now it's funny because i looked at all of my games that we've talked about so far and Black Myth Wukong is not on there. And there's a part of me that kind of went, why, dude? Like, why did you not like this game more? And I think it, for the record, I think it's a fantastic

video game. Part of my problem is there is some almost, and I think I'm pretty sure I said this during our deep dive on it, that there's some almost intangible thing that I can't quite put my finger on that holds me back just a little bit. And it's weird because even now, comparing Black Myth Wukong with Shadow of the Erdtree, which I just mentioned, Shadow of the Erdtree is so far beyond Black Myth Wukong to me, and I don't know why. You know what I mean? Sometimes it's like, beyond Black Myth Wukong to me. And I don't know why. You know what I mean? Like it's sometimes it's like, I can't, there's a lot of people that would make the argument that they're the same game.

You know, they're Dark Souls, it's combat, it's boss fights and blah, blah, blah. And it's like the presentation of Black Myth Wukong is second to none. Like I am with you a hundred percent. I wish I knew what it was that like held me back from thinking that that this is one of the great games of all time for that. But I just don't quite know what it is, man. Three years of really high expectations, maybe? Maybe. But I mean, I had high expectations for Elden Ring and then Shadow of the Urge Tree when they announced that.

And I didn't feel let down by those at all either. And that's not to say that Black Myth Wukong let me down either. It's one of those, I really enjoyed my time with it. It just, for some reason, it didn't have that magic to me. It was very enjoyable. It was very fun. It just was missing a spice or a flavor where my brain kind of went like, shouldn't it have this? And I wish I could tell you what it was, but it just, and again, that's not to slander the game at all, but I think it's why for me, it's not a nomination for me for some reason. It's like tears of the kingdom all over again. Maybe. Honestly, I don't know. But okay. so to be fair, it also makes me wonder, Paul,

because you don't like fighting a boss 100 times. No, I don't. You've always said that. You don't like melee combat. You don't like slamming your head against a wall against a boss over and over and over again. And so it makes me wonder if this weird, mystical thing that I can't put my finger on, I feel like is missing. Is that the same thing that made it resonate even more with you? Just a personal preference thing, I think. Yeah.

I've always said the ideal number of boss attempts is seven to eight. That to me is perfect. When you start getting into the 20 plus, I just get mad and it stops being fun and enjoyable. And to me, Elden Ring is just too much dying. And I find it frustrating where Black Mithwukong I found to be pitch perfect in that regard. So just a different strokes,

I guess. It was, it was a good game. I just don't think for Josh, it had Elden Ring on the box. I don't know, man. I wanted it. I wanted it to be Elden Ring on the box. I don't know, man. I wanted it. I wanted it to be Elden Ring, but with Asian mythology.

And it kind of was, but it kind of wasn't. All right, Ryan. I have a feeling I know what your choice for this one is. But best game of the year for you. Diablo 2. Oh. Oh. So this one is going to be one that talk about hitting on all cylinders

um graphics gameplay level design uh audio everything you can imagine and want within a game um just even performance wise like it was just so crisp no issues ever i'm going with astrobot it is it is next level um it is something that i have probably never experienced in gaming and also in a platformer i have all 312 bots i got all the puzzle pieces i have maybe four or five little trophies to go to platy the whole game. I do not platy games. It's not something I do. I'm not a trophy hunter.

It's not something that I aspire to be or strive to be. But I just cannot put this game down. I am wholeheartedly addicted. I absolutely love it. It is one of the best games as well as platformers i've ever played um and it's just by far absolutely amazing and i'm obsessed the one one issue that there is with this game is because of how amazing it is all the effects uh with rumble and sound on your controller is that that bad boy is toast within like an hour your your batteries are not lasting very long at all

or your recharge you got to have it plugged in while you play because it just nukes the controller battery i had it number two and i will say i sometimes catch myself singing the astrobot song all the time it's so good oh and then all the nostalgia too you get all of these franchise like sony platform characters over all of these years. They got Helldivers. They got Final Fantasy. They have Crash Bandicoot. They have everything over decades worth of gaming to just hit on everybody that's played a PlayStation over all the years. And it's just so awesome. So my best game of the year is also Astro Bot.

It really is. And I thought about Helldivers 2 here, but this is the game that we think is most deserving of game of the year. And Ryan, you said basically everything there is to say. It is a perfect video game, in my opinion. It made me feel like a kid again. It gave me that feeling

of playing the old school Nintendo as a child and trying to make it through a level or the discovery of a level or just the cool little things that you saw. So it gave me that feeling again. And I haven't had that feeling in a really long time. There was never a moment where I felt like the game was dragging, where I was kind of like, oh, I wish they just kind of progressed this or something like that. It rewarded you for everything. It rewarded you for being mechanically sound, for exploring, for paying attention to things. The presentation was second to none. I mean, it's literally like a perfect video game, in my opinion. I cannot think of another game in recent memory

that made me feel like a kid again. And Astro Bot made me feel like a kid. Like playing a console game, I couldn't wait to get home from work. I mean, literally I'd get home, I'd kiss my wife and I'm like, I'm gonna go play Astro Bot. And while I was at work, I was thinking about playing Astro Bot and stuff like that.

It just, there's very few games like it. There's very few game releases that come out and do what astro bot has done and so i'm with you i think it is absolutely the game of the year for 2024 yeah and you only had like two or three weeks with it with uh my playstation i ground through it i will say that the one the one downside is like i would i'd like to do what you're doing where i could just literally like take my time and, and really go through it. I ground through this game. Not that I minded that because it's incredible, but it is, it's an, it's a phenomenal video game, like in all aspects. I know we have to shut down shop, but, um, kind of a wild question. Do you think it's the best platformer ever? Yes, I do. I think so too. It's better than Mario 64. I think it's the best platformer ever yes i think so too i legitimately it's better than

like mario 64 i think it's better than celeste i think it's better than mario 3 and those are all such good games and i think astrobots better than all of them just alone from the gameplay and innovation on the levels like the design of them and and the abilities like you you have your your mouse ability where you shrink down to the size of a mouse you can go through these areas you have to go small go big you're not able to get through other spots unless you do either either you know and and then you have this the the vacuum ability with the the elephant on your back where you can suck up water and you can turn it into ice sheets that you can go across or you suck up leaves and then you can use them as platforms that's only two of all of the features within the game that

that make it just stand out among all the other platformers and it was just awesome i i like that they gave you the difficult levels as well because i remember playing the game and going like man this game's not super hard like it's not challenge and then they gave you exactly what I wanted. They said, dude, you want some hard levels where you're going to attempt these 30 times, like, here you go. And so they just, I think they gave people exactly what they wanted. They covered everything, you know, and there wasn't, it wasn't a phenomenal game, but the graphics sucked, you know, or the audio was terrible or something like that. So, all right. Two Astrobots, one Black Myth Wukong for game of the year from the Video Gamers Podcast. Guys, 2024, what a year. I mean, maybe we didn't get Red Dead

Redemption 2 and God of War this year, but we got a lot of solid video games. I'll say for the podcast, what a fantastic year. I mean, we saw huge growth with the podcast. We had a lot of very good things happen. We had Paul leaving the show, which was a very tough thing for both him and us. But we have seen our community grow. We have seen this podcast grow. We've seen the support from people just all over, people supporting Paul and his decision and supporting Ryan and I with keeping this going as well. It's really just been an incredible year. We are so thankful for the listeners and the community and all of you out there that share your days with us and share your commutes to work with us. We are humbled by it.

Like, honestly, Ryan and I and Paul still talk about it, that it's like, we can't believe there's people out there that want to just tune in and listen to us talk video games and that you make us a part of your daily lives and stuff like that. We've had people reach out privately. I won't name names, but we had a very, very generous person reach out to us through the podcast and then make a donation to, uh, you know, Paul's business, uh, his faith and family's charity that he does, um, which was incredible to see. So thank you for that. You know who you are and just everybody that has sent DMS to us and messages to just let us know what the podcast means to you and how that

affects your days and stuff, you know, ditto, like, honestly, it affects us as well. Um, I, you know, I'm constantly showing my wife like reviews that people leave and I go, baby, can you believe that people are saying this about us? You know? And, and, and it's just, it's, it's heartwarming, it's humbling. And so thank you from all of us, um, for the support. It really does mean the world to us. So we hope you enjoyed this episode. Paul, it's good to have you back, buddy. Yeah, thanks for having me back.

I said at some point I'll make a Jeopardy board. I'll come back and I'll let you guys play for points. We'll have daily doubles, all that jazz. This is not the last time you'll hear Paul. We can promise you that as well. But it was really awesome to have you back for this one, Paul. So thank you for taking time.

We know you got to go. So we're going to wrap this one up again. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Thank you for supporting the show. Thank you for an amazing 2024. We will be back in 2025 with our most anticipated gaze of 2025. And boy, let me tell you,

there's a lot that I'm anticipating. But until then, and until next time, happy gaming. Home Alone is the best Christmas movie ever. Ooh, I'm with you, Ryan. Happy holidays, everyone. We'll see you next year.

See ya!