Video Gamers Podcast - Total Rating Recall [REMASTERED] – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are putting their memories to the test in this nostalgia-fueled episode of the Video Gamers Podcast. Instead of replaying old favorites, they’re diving headfirst into gaming history and attempting to rate recent titles purely from memory. How accurate are their takes? Has time made these video games better than they actually were, or is nostalgia clouding their judgment? From unforgettable boss fights to mechanics they swear were revolutionary, the guys debate what still holds up in today’s gaming landscape and what might deserve a lower score on a modern scale. It’s a fun, chaotic look at how we remember video games versus how they might actually play today. If you love bold opinions, questionable recall, and passionate arguments about gaming, this is one episode you won’t want to miss! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, Dettmarp and NightWizard63   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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Hell Dimer's two took over the world, but over a year later, would you still rate it the same? Well, on today's episode, we're testing that theory out. We'll be rating games from memory and then seeing where we rated them fresh off of playing. How far off will we be and will some games get better or worse with time? Well, we're about to find out, but first, some introductions are in order. I am your host Josh. And joining me, I initially rated him a 7 out of 10, but years later, he's a perfect 7.5. It's Ryan.

I'm going up, baby. I'm going up. Up, up. Oh, God. We're going to get copyrighted now. Copyrighted. And joining us, he's only rated three AAA titles in his professional career, and he gave one a 10 out of 10. This guy loves AAA Studios, apparently.

It's ace. I gave one a 10 out of 10. When did I do that? Redd. Redemption too. Oh, okay. Well, that's the obvious. Okay. No, that's a 10-out-time. You forgot about it. Apparently not that obvious. Was it? Yeah, I know. Well, here's the thing. I'm kind of loosey-goosey sometimes, so I couldn't remember. Ace just throwing out tens to all the AAA studios out there. That's why I don't give them, man. Tends me nothing if you just get them out willy-nilly. That's fair.

Guys, this is going to be a really fun episode. I have a feeling that we may end up looking like idiots when we throw out a rating for a game that we played a while back. and then it's so far off what we were like, oh, those games amazing, man, like we just got off a plane. It's like, it's totally a nine.

And then now we're like, uh, like a seven eight. Like, you know, so that, that is what we're doing on this episode. You know,

this is something that all gamers do, right? And this is kind of why we're putting ourselves to the test on this to see when you first play a game and you are fresh off of that game. You know, do you rate it higher or lower? If a game is frustrating and it's like, dang it, man, this game really irked me. Do you, you know, do you slam it a little bit more on the rating?

But then over time, you go, you know, that wasn't that bad, you know, and then your rating goes up. Or is it recency bias where it's like, oh, we just had so much fun. But then in hindsight, it's like, yeah, the game was good. But it wasn't like everything. And so I am very curious to see how this goes. I'm going to give a huge shout out to Jigilpuff, who is one of our awesome community. members, longtime listener of the show, and now partial historian for the podcast. Our curator.

Jiggle Puff was like, bro, I got you. He found all of the ratings and put them together in this really awesome Google Doc, where I cannot see the answers until I actually click and change the color of the cells on this one. So this is going to be really cool. We are going to guess what our rating was or how we would rate it today. And then I will actually reveal the ratings and we'll do it. like that. Ace, there are a couple games where you did not give an actual full rating, but Jiggle even went so far as to pull up some comments that you had on this as well.

Oh, gosh. Yeah. And so this is this is going to be fun, man. I'm really, really looking forward to this. Going the extra mile. I love it. But Ryan, before we get started, I do believe you have a new review for us to read. I do. And as always, we love the reviews. They really mean a lot to us. every single one we read and we try to read them all on the show. This one is from Mr. Tusla titled Absolute Cinema Gents. Love it, five-star review. And it goes as, you guys are so funny.

And I love this pod. Five stars, star emoji, star emoji, star emoji, star emoji, star emoji, star-emogy. Also, Halo or COD, campaign-wise. Oh, that's an easy answer. absolutely. HALA's campaigns are legendary, man. Legendary. Call of Duty. I don't know that I've played a Call of Duty. Oh, no, I have. Actually, I have. I've played a couple of Call of Duty ones.

I take that back. Okay, so that right there tells you I had to think about whether I had played Call of Duty campaign. Less one. And Halo, that's an easy answer there. Yep. Absolutely. Thank you for the review. Hey, if you have not left us a review yet, we are only a few reviews away from 900 reviews. on Apple podcast, so please take a second to go over there and review the show.

There's a good chance we'll read it on an episode as well. And if you haven't rated us on Spotify, hey, we are darn close to 2,000 ratings on Spotify as well. So if you haven't done so, please take a second to tap that five-star rating there and help us get to that 2000 mark. Guys, are you all ready? I'm scared. I'm scared too. I'm with you, right? Okay.

Hold me. Here's what I'm going to... I'm going to just give the list of games right up front, okay? So people know what games we're going to be talking about, all right? So here's the games that we have to go back and rate, and then we're going to see what we rated them. We did deep dives on all of these games, by the way. Blackmuth Wukong, Space Marine 2.

Game of the Year runner-up, Death Loop, split fiction, blueprints, hot game for. from last year, Night Rain, Eldon Ring Night Rain, Minecraft, from our infamous Minecraft episode. I know there's a ton of people out there going, 10 out of 10, 10 out of 10, peak gaming, subnautica, Diablo 4, and Deep Rock Galactic guys. So we've got a mix of some indie games in here, some AAA titles,

kind of games of all genres as well. All right. Ace, let's start with you, Ace. Always in the hot seat. All right. So Black Miss Wukong, Ace. Very good Soulslike, really took the world by Storm. Everybody was super hyped for this game.

I don't think it disappointed. What do you think you rated Black Myth Wu Kong? Or I guess what a better question is, what would you rate it from memory? What would you rate this game looking back at it right now? From memory, I remember playing a lot. a Black Myth Wukong. In fact, I played like through every optional boss.

I beat the game like before anyone else in our server had. So I was like man, this game is great. Even then I did have my issues with it. So probably like a 9-4, I think, is what I would rate it. 9-4 for Blackmith Wukong? Yeah. Just to prove that I didn't cheat, you actually

didn't officially rate this because we covered this one with Paul. And so Paul-Lor-Rated this. Paul-L-Rated it a 9-7. So A's, you were very close to Paul's rating on this one. I am a little bit lower than that. Paul even said, I don't know about this one, but this is a little crazy talk in my opinion.

But Paul rated at 9-7, and his comment was this to me is so much better than even God of War Ragnarok. This is by far the best game I've played this year. Oh, wow. You gave it a 9-4 for memory. Paul rated a 9-7. All right, Ryan. Now, you did cover this game with us. And I remember, I remember that I know you're rating on this one.

and I want to see what you would rate it now. Yeah, I remember that I liked it, but I didn't think that it was, I was nowhere near as high as Paul was. I think you and I might have been kind of similar with our rating, but I'm going to go, oh my gosh, this is hard. I'm going to go with like an 8-5. 8-5?

Yeah. That's what you would rate it from memory? Yeah, from memory, yeah. Because I liked it, but I knew, I knew it was good. I think everything about it was, it was just, I just didn't really have that it factored. to like take it up the level, but I thought it was a really quality game. So, okay.

Well, here's your comment on the game before I reveal your score. Your comment was it's not really my style of game, but the combat and spells are what really tipped it over for me. And you rated it an 8.3. Oh. So you were darn close, Ryan. You are close on this one. You were close.

Darn close on that. I don't like this guy's like, I just realize it's my turn. It's scary, man. No. You're trying to try to. You're like. try to rewind your brain and like, wait, what did I say? What did I think? You know, and it's like, I do remember loving the graphics and loving the combat. I will say the one thing that I remember

standing out to me the most on this is that I felt like I had to hit like most of the like creatures like a thousand times to do damage. And so some of the fights felt a little bit more drawn out than they should have felt. I do remember really liking the game. I think I rated this like an 8.7. so that's my guess let's see oh my gosh I did it 8.7 oh wow

I promise you guys like I said like I said I didn't know A's didn't rate this game and then I was like well this is a weird start to this episode I'm not looking guys I swear I'm not looking at all I promise I'm not cheating because that would make this way more boring for me

just being right all the time and my comment on this was I'm starting to enjoy it more now at 24 hours in than I was at the beginning. I've got my head wrapped around the combat, but the game does have a few flaws for me as well, especially with boss fights requiring getting 30 hits in without, without getting hit more than four times. So that was, and that's why I say that still to my memory stands out to me,

that it's like, I have to hit these suckers a thousand times, and I can't take four hits before I'm dead, and that to me felt a little drawn out and kind of exaggerated. They were all so spongy, and even when you use their alts and your other stuff or whatever to like make special attacks, but yeah. That's what makes it worth it though

to persevere the fights. I'm very much looking forward to the sequel. I guarantee you I'm not going to get on these other ones. That's right. All right.

Well, I'll tell you what. We'll just do a little bit of a jump around here. I'll go next on this next one. Space Marine 2. Incredibly visual, visually impressive,

a really good like Warhammer 40K. This game we were super excited for. I don't remember saying a lot of bad things about Space Marine 2, other than that the weapons felt very same-ish. Like, I never felt like I got that weapon that I was just in love with. But I feel like overall this was a legit, like, really good game.

I am going to say an 8.8. Did I like Space Marine 2 more than Blackmouth Wook? This one, I have no idea what this is. I'm going to say 8.8. I think you're going to be pretty spot on, dude. I think it's, I'm locking it in. Okay. And my comment was, this.

is the range of game score where the games are fun but are just too shallow if you want to have a good time and have a couple of those draw-jopping moments this is it and i rated it in 8.6 oh okay so not bad but to be fair these are two of the more semi-recent games that we've covered as well on these so the memory is still fresh on those all right ryan what do you think you rated space marine two i'm trying to think if i was a little higher on it than you were back then because I know we played some, and I genuinely did enjoy my time. I loved the weight of the world in that game. And I loved the, what was it, the new dynamic that they had with like the swarm technology or whatever.

Yeah, the swarm tech, which we're going to see in Toxic Commando. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was so cool. And it was really neat thing to see in a video game. So I'm going to say, I don't think I was on the nine. So I'm going to go with you with the 8-8. 8? 8? Yeah, I think I was got to be somewhere.

around there. Your comment on Space Marine 2 was graphically beautiful, breathtaking. The combat was great and playing co-op or in a group was what really saved it for me. And you rated it in 8.9. Oh! We're not far off, guys. So far so good.

Ace, you did not play Space Marine 2. Not with y'all. No. Too much. Did you play it? I did play it. Oh, I didn't know you played Space Marine 2. Okay. So what, we don't... I found it to be in the nicest words, bare bones and shallow,

because the campaign was very short. There wasn't very much weapon variety. There wasn't a lot of game modes outside of that when I played it. Now they've added a ton of stuff. For the emperor! Yeah, I'm also not super in the space Marines. I'd probably give it a 7-4, honestly. 7-4?

Ooh, ace. Okay. Hey, clip that. Ace can't be bought with flashy graphics like Ryan and I can, man. Oh, yeah. You know, like Ryan and I are like, I can't eat. Pretty old. Yeah, you guys are too bought by like metallic metal and reflective surfaces.

Hey, I like shiny things, okay. All right. All right. Now, here's one I know all three of us played. And I feel like this one's going to be, this one is a divisive game. Divisive, divisive? I think both count. Yeah, there you go.

Because there are a lot of people that thought this game deserved all of the nominations that it got for game of the year. And then there were other people that played it and went, this game's kind of duky, man. and that is death loop so ace we're gonna start with you on this one of course we are of course we're gonna start with you what would you rate death loop now you didn't officially deep dive this because this was before you were on the show ages ago oh gosh i know you played it so what would

what would in your mind what is your rating for death loop death loop came from arcane which was the studio that brought us dishonored so i had high hopes for it however however comma I found Death Loop incredibly repetitive and boring. I'd give it like a four. That's the word, dude. A four? Boring.

I hated Death Loop. I hated it. A four. Okay. All right. Ryan. What do you think you rated Death Loop? Ace hit the head, the nail on the head there with the boring.

Like, that's exactly what I remember it being. I was very excited for that game. I thought it was going to be a cool premise and a good kind of setup. And I just was so. let down and I was just like, why? And I just kept waiting for it to get good and it just didn't get good. So, um, uh, trying to think back. Man, I think I was a little down. So it wasn't, you know, it played well. It just wasn't a good game. So I would say probably in the low sixes. Let's say six three. That's six three. Okay. Uh, now, Ryan, you did rate this game, but you were not

officially on the episode. So I think you were playing it in the background with us or something like that. I had played it before. Yeah, your rating was a 5.9. So you're not that far off. And you even said low sixes. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Ryan's got some love for Death Loop apparently.

Apparently. He went up. I mean, a five, a five nine is pretty darn low, guys. That is not a good game score. I know, here's what I remember about Death Loop. I remember being like you, A super duper excited for this game thinking this is going to be the most amazing play it how you want, approach the situations how you want, like the, like the, like,

like Arcane Studios does. But then I just remember being massively disappointed with this game, dude. It presents well, but I just remember not liking it. I am, I don't know that I slammed it, though, because I appreciated that there was a good game there. I'm going to say from, I would rate Death Loop like a, like a 6-8. I almost wanted to give it a 7, but I'm going to say 6-8. That's so high.

Yeah, is it? So high. This game is a chore. Like, genuinely. Here's my comment. I said, I think it's fine. I think it's fun. But I would only recommend it near the $30 to $40 price point.

And I rated it a $7.2. So in my memory, Death Loop is worse than what I actually rated it fresh off of playing. And this is why I love this episode. Because in my mind, Death Loop is garbage, right? Like, Death Loop, like, it's all I remember. We played this game. What year was that? Was this 2020?

That was 2020, I believe, for 2021. I think it was 2020 because that's the year that it takes to one instead, right? So I think it was 2020, somewhere right around there. And so six years later, my opinion of Death Loop has gotten worse over time where it's like, no, no, that's like a 6-8, you know. But at the time, I guess I was trying to be nice to it. And I said 7-2. So.

20-1. Paid streamer for sure. I will say this. Paul did rate this one. And since Jiggles got this in here, Paul said the biggest thing. I grew tired of was the same parts of town a little bit too repetitive. The first few hours were really exciting and pulled me in, but it got old quick

and Paul rated it a 6-4. So, I mean, across the board, none of the four, you know, including Paul of us gamers, really thought Death Loop was that good, man. They definitely didn't deserve those nominations. Yeah, that loved it. So,

all right, we'll do one more and then we'll take a quick break here. This one's a little bit more recent. I'm just going to jump around, Ryan. We're going to start with you on this one. And that is split fiction. Oh, okay. So I know we all thought favorably of split fiction in my mind. I think about this game fondly.

I don't actually remember when I rated it. So Ryan, I mean, from memory, how do you rate split fiction? Knowing that I got a little neighborhood kid that's playing with my son. He's nine. And I think his buddy, Dean, is also around nine. And they're playing. he's a fantasy token heads. They love fantasy worlds.

And then my son loves space and all this thing. So melding it together, I'm like, buddy, you got to play split fiction. And I sat them down together and watching them play reminded me just how awesome this game is and how much I loved it. I want to say that I thought it was really, really good. There were some things that would change. But it was definitely in the low to mid-nines for me. So I'm going to say nine three. Nine three?

Yeah. Okay. Your comment on this was... Which is a high score for me. That is high. You are a little tight with your scores. You kind of... I will say, like, you tend to like games a little bit more when they're not as good.

Like, you know, you're a little bit more generous to, like, bad games, but you're tougher on the really good games. So, like, you have this, like, narrow window to me of, like, how Ryan would rate things. Here's your comment on split fiction, though. You said there's not too much to pick on for this game. It was just so dang good. Yeah. And you rated it in 9-5. Oh.

So you actually, your memory has gotten a little bit more sour on split fiction. I guess. Yeah. I don't know. I'm too generous. In the moment. Point two. Point two.

I think it's just that you're easily entertained, Ryan. This is true. It's like, Ryan's like, I was entertained. It's a seven or an eight. Oh, you're not entertained? Yes. Yes, I am. I am.

Yes. Ooh, pretty. Ace. What? Yeah. How would you rate split? fiction. I know you played it. You played it after we did the deep dive. You played it with your spouse. So you don't have an official rating, but from memory, how would you rate split fiction?

I remember really enjoying split fiction. I'd played most of the games that come from this developer with my spouse on the couch. I think that's the best way, honestly to play it. It's just right next to someone else. If they throw you off a cliff, you could just hit a throw pole. Yep, yep. But I think it's a eight nine for me, honestly. Eight nine? Yeah, I really enjoy that. honestly a good and fair rating. Yeah. I really enjoyed split fiction. My memory of split fiction is nothing but fun and good gameplay and amazing levels and stuff like that.

I am going to say from memory, if I had to rate it right now, I'm going to rate it a 9-5 as well. Like there's just not much to not like about split fiction. The star level. That was cool. That was cool. The fun. The co-op nature of it and all the fun and relying on your your teammate and all

that was incredible. I like the pig level. I don't have a rating on this one, apparently. I have a comment. Wait, what? What's going on here? Josh, did you forget to rate to the game? No.

Whoops. Okay. Well, all we have is my comment on this one. It is the end level on this game is truly one of the best end levels I've ever seen in a video game. In my opinion, this is an absolute must-play game, which means it's got to be a 9-5, guys. That sounds like a 9-5, yeah.

We'll take it at 9.5. Well done, Josh. Well done. Yeah. Nailed it, boys. All the money. All the money. Also, this is proof that I didn't cheat and look at these because otherwise I'd

have been like, wait, I'm missing a score on this one. So there you go. All right, listen, we've got a bunch more games. We're going to have to speed this up a little bit. We're going to do that right after this break. All right. We're back, guys. Next game up.

This one. Man, this one, I know. This one. hit on different levels. Blueprints. Ace, I'm just going to start with you because I know you hated this game. I know you hated Blue Prince. I did not like me. You hated this game

so much. I did not. I did not like blueprints. Part of that's like just my own impatience with it and it felt like it was mocking me a lot of the time. I was like I hate you game. I hate you. Why do I have to keep opening you and playing you? When I joined this podcast?

Puzzles. Wee! I, and they If I rated blueprints higher than a six, eight, I would be surprised. Okay, so that's your rating from memory. Yeah, yeah. Well, Ace, you apparently like blueprints more than you think. Oh, you rated it a lot higher now than you did back then.

You rated it a six on the top. Oh, okay. So I've got it higher on blueprints. You have. And you said, I felt like it wasn't getting enough progression, even though I was getting permanent progression rooms. And so, you know, before you know, it, Ace is going to be like, blueprints?

Yeah, that's an eight, man. That's an eight for me. I think I was just bullied into liking it more than I do. Because people are like, how can you not like Blueprint? Okay, okay, yeah, it's pretty good. All right. It's pretty good. Okay, I'll give you back your points.

Okay, so I'm going to go next on this one, guys. And here's the thing. At the time, I remember going like, I can appreciate what this game is. I like puzzle games. It's presented well. The Internet's losing its mind over it. I remember being very excited when we found out about this game. but my memory is not so nice about the game in hindsight on this one.

So I, if I'm rating it truthfully today on what I think the game is, I'm going to say I think it's like a 7.8. I have a feeling I rated it a lot higher at the time. So let's see. I did. Yeah. So I said 7.8. Here's my comment.

I said all the negative things. I do think this game is unique. It is a very good puzzle game. And if you're in the mood for a puzzle game, then blueprints will definitely scratch that itch. You just have to be willing to put up with the frustration of it. And even with that, I rated it in 8.5. Wow.

It is souring to me over time, which, you know, that's telling, man. Yeah. Some games we remember the frustration. Other games, we remember the joy. And apparently to me, I remember more of the frustration of blueprints than I do the good times on that one. Well, I mean, just look back at what, when we were looking at the nominees for indie game of the year. Blue Prince was up there.

We were just like, yeah. Yeah, that's true. All right, Ryan, what do you think you rated Blueprints? Oh, man. This is a hard one because I have different memories of it, like between good interactions and bad.

I have a feeling at the time I might have been like you where I rated it a little bit higher. I might have been in a low eights. But what I would, I would rate it now is probably the high seven. So like a high, like a high dimension. let's just say like a 7-5.

7-5? Yeah, 7-5. Your comment on blueprints was, I do like that there was a little bit of story to guide you along. The story, music, and setting were good at keeping you in the mindset, but the RNG was a little frustrating.

That's what I hated. You rated it in 8.3. Really? Okay. Both of us have soured on blueprints. Ace-love blue prints. I probably like it slightly more. Ace love is a very strong word, sir. Definitely not.

love. All right. Well, here's the game I know all three of us played together a lot. And that is Eldon Ring Night Rain. And this is a different style game. Co-op. It's Eldon Ring. It was combat. We had a lot of fun with this. Ryan, I'm going to go straight back to you on this one. Your first foray into the Eldon Ring lands. What do you think you rated Night Rain? I had so much fun with this game, especially because we got to play together. We got to stream it. It was just overall an awesome experience. I think it's instantly an 8-5 plus, but I'm just trying to think of where I put it, because I don't think it was way up there in the nines or anything like that. But I'm going to say like an 8-9.

8-9 for you? 8-9. 8-9. It may be a 9-1 that's what I did in the moment, but like I'm going to go with 8-9 right now. Okay. So your comment on this was right off the bat, I freaking loved this game. It's the first game in a long time that I've thought I need to make time for this game. I was very upset with how detrimental the RNG could be to a run, though.

And you rated it in 8.7. Oh, that's close. Very close. Okay. But again, more favorable in hindsight from memory than you were at the time of playing the game. It's a fun game, man. It's fun. They have a DLC now.

Yeah, there's DLC now. Yeah, they do. All right, Ace, what do you think, or how would you rate Night Rain? I remember having an absolute blast with Night Rain. And as someone who already loved Eldon Ring in general and all of from me, soft like it was easy sell for me uh i remember our streams were a ton of fun yep yep i'm gonna say i rated it a nine three nine three oh that's up there man i think into the low to mid nines your comment was as a man who loves rog likes elden ring night rain was just a blast that being

said it's not going to beat the original elden ring experience and you rated it an eight point nine Oh, okay. So we're both a little more favorable on it. Memory of Night Rain than you did from fresh off of playing it at the time. That's insane. Isn't that crazy how that happens? This is so cool. This is so neat to say.

It is really, it is fun, man, because it's neat to see, like, and again, I think we're really close on a lot of these, which is good.

I like seeing that we're not just all over the place. Because it means we do have some consistency in how we rate games and how we think about them later on. But it is neat to see that, like, in your mind, Eldon Ring is more favorable from memory than it was, right off of playing it, you know?

All right, for me, I remember liking Night Rain. I do not think it's like the best co-op game, but I do remember having a lot of fun with you guys on it. I do remember having some frustrations with the, I hate R&G in games. My belief is that I probably rated this. Like I'm, I kind of like what Ryan said.

Like, it's got to be over an 8-5. I'm going to jump in and just say 8-8. it might be my brain wants to say 8.5, but I'm going to say 8.8 just because Night Rain is a good game. Dang it. Dang it. I rated it in 85. I should have left with my right now, man. No, why? Three points away. Dang it's so close. Dang it. Okay, so I did officially rated in 8.5. I was the lowest out of the three of us on this.

And I said this game epitomizes the one more round idea. I would like better progression. That's not to take anything away from the game. It's fantastic, but you're better off just playing elder ring with your buddies. So I still want to do that too. I was, I'm just, look, my brain kept telling me 8.5. And so I think I nailed it. Even though I gave it an 8.8, I guess I think about Night Rain a little bit higher from memory than I did right off of playing it. It's good to see we all do though. Yeah. That's kind of nice. Yeah. All right, guys, I'm scared on this one, dude. This is the one that I'm most scared of. the internet's going to rip us apart on this one.

We're talking Minecraft that everybody in the world wanted us to review Minecraft. We finally did it. We got ripped apart on social media. One of our highest performing reels ever of us trashing the Minecraft movie. I got my first death threat. Oh, Ace, yeah. Ace may have gotten a death threat out of that. So, Ace, let's start with you on this.

No, you know what, I'll be brave. You want to be the brave one. I'm going to be the brave one. I'm going to be the brave one, dang it. I think I, we're always honest. We're always honest. And it's, it's one of those where it's like, I think we were trying to be fair to Minecraft. I think we probably went, hey, you know, we know how iconic this game is.

But if we're rating it from, you know, a gameplay, just a game perspective, I'm going to say I rated this game like an eighth two. So that's my official answer. Oh, okay. Well, this is the Minecraft effect here, boys. Here was my, oh, my gosh. Oh, no. Oh, no, here we go. Oh, no.

Okay. Well, here's my comment. There's just no surprises in Minecraft. Valheim has new biomes, things you can craft start popping up on your screen. Minecraft has this massive world, but where's the surprise? That was the quote that got us in the most trouble. I rated Minecraft at seven? Yeah.

Oh. I did. I did. That's fair. That's very surprising. I think that's fair, though. But here's the thing, from memory, from going, how would I rate it? My brain tells me Minecraft is beloved.

It's a beloved game. And I gave it a full one point, two points higher than I felt after playing it right off the deep dive. And I think that's why I say. That's the Minecraft effect, man. I think you hear Minecraft and people go, ooh. And apparently my brain goes, ooh. And then it's like, no, because when I was playing it, it's just a, It's just, it's a seven.

Don't hate me, people. I'm sorry. But also, I really hope you guys screw this one up, too. Ace, we're going to you. Oh, no. Okay. I feel like the longer I'm away from Minecraft, the less fond I am of it. But when I am playing it, I do have some nostalgia and stuff like that.

I'm going to say 7.5. I think I read it as 7.5. 7. 5? I was already getting ripped apart on the internet, so what could I lose? Your comment on this was, this game encourages. creativity and has a massive modding community. It's just always been a massive game

that I pick up for every console I own. Uh-oh. Well, that sounds like somebody that loves Minecraft. That does sound like somebody that loves Minecraft. You know who hasn't played Minecraft since the horrible experience? Yeah, me. I'm playing with us? Yeah, so nice. You rated it in an eight.

So you also... Okay, not that far off. Yeah, but it's funny to me that you have a harder, a harsher memory of Minecraft than you did at the time of playing it. I guess I've just built up my gaming repertoire to be a little more sophisticated at this point. His palette is a little better now. Yeah.

Well, hey, and that's true. There's better games than Minecraft out there, people. All right. All right, Ryan. All right, Ryan. Okay. Do you would, how would you rate Minecraft today? Oh, my gosh.

I don't want to. I'll get. Ryan's like, I don't want to anger the internet again. He's got a death threat. I'm about to get a freaking hundred of them. No, I'm thinking probably something like, I mean, it's, it's, there's, there's a lot to be said for what it did for gaming and what it did for the, you know, kind of gaming world. And then for, for the youth to be able to play something cool like that and innovative and creative to get their juices flowing in their big old brains. But I'm going to say that it, it's around a six, five.

Six five. Wow. Ryan's really dangerous. rating for threats. Ryan's going to get swatted on his next stream. It's dumb colored blocks. Oh, man. All right. Well, your comment was, I'm kind of in the same vein as Josh.

It's a little bit of a turnoff of something I'd want to play long term. And you rated it exactly like I did, Ryan. You gave it a seven as well. Oh, okay. Ryan remembers it worse than at the time. Okay. The microch effect

affects Ryan differently. A seven, a seven, and a seven. eight for Minecraft. I got a nine-year-old, so I got to deal with Minecraft. I was going to say, legitimately, and this is not shade to Minecraft, but I think that people that grew up playing Minecraft have that nostalgia

and that fondness for it because it's what you grew up playing. It's that buffer. As like gamers that have been playing games for a really, really long time, I think we view Minecraft as it's a good game. I get that it appeals to a massive selection of the population,

but as a game, it's it's just kind of mid man and I'm sorry to all the Minecraft people out there but apparently that's how we feel about it so I will say I grew up with Minecraft but I also grew up with Terraria I'd much rather play Terraria right now than Minecraft I feel like most people would think that

clip that clip it clip it oh I'll have them fighting for me in the comments there's so many Torari's hands yeah Taria is beloved man Torari is loved I think my kids would say the same thing and they've played the heck out of both of these so all right I'm curious on my rating on this one, guys.

Subnautica. Ooh. Everybody knows I love subnautica, dude. Yep, yep, yep, yep. I mean, I recommend this game. You know, we, Ryan was forced to play this game. I made him play it. I made hell of it play it.

I'm trying not to just make everybody play it because it's like, hey, you have to play. You have to play it. And you play subnautica and you play subnodica. Right, I know. So, Ace, you've never played subnodica. I have. You've played some noticca? I've never, I've never beat you.

You just secretly played all these games is what it is. You've sat in VC and watched me play Subnotica before. Oh, I did. That's right. See, but I watch a lot of people play Subnotica. Josh, you say it like if you haven't beaten it, like it's not a thing. Josh hasn't beaten more than like four games ever. I've beaten Subnotica.

Yeah, you beat Somenottica, but that's like one of the four ever. Well, Ace, we don't have a comparative rating for you. So just off of memory right now, you know, how would you rate Subnotica? probably an 8-8 off-memory. That's what I was going to guess you would say 8-8 on that. I'm also terrified of like open ocean. So like Subnotica is a nightmare for me. Leviathan.

Yeah, like that's the worst. You also like to be scared too, so that makes sense. Yeah. Okay. 8-8 from A's. Scare me, baby. Ryan, what do you, what did you, how would you rate subnotica from memory? Oh, man.

I feel like here's what I'm going to say, I'm going to preface this by saying, when you played subnautica, we were really busy with. the podcast. We were. We were. We felt like it was one of those games that you had to kind of rush through to play. Um, and so I wonder if that affected your, like, rating or your opinion of this game and that it was like the, like, I, I'm obligated to play this game.

I'm not playing it because I like, I want to. It doesn't mean that you didn't enjoy it, but I do feel like it was more of that, like, you're playing this for the podcast, not as like a gamer for a game that you would want to play. So how do you, how would you rate Subnotica in hindsight? Oh, I would, man, I was trying to throw them off. No, I know. No, I'm just, no, because you're not, you're not wrong.

Like, there is, there is games that we like, you know, once we get going and we start playing and stuff. And it's like, oh, I got to check these markers off. I have to get enough hours into this. And I have to, you know, so you start to press and you start to do things you wouldn't do otherwise when you're just naturally playing the game. But I absolutely love this game. I would recommend it to anybody just as you do. so I would say I almost want to say 8-8 again

but I'm going to go I'm going to go like a let's just do 8-9 well you should have listened to your intuition Ryan because you rated it in 8-8 dang it no way yeah no way yep and you said I feel like I genuinely enjoyed this but I would have loved this so much more playing with others

the tidbit of story here and there did pull me in I just wish it was a little easier to take the steps to continue that story charge your batteries folks charge your batteries that's what I'm looking forward to with Subnotica 2 is the multiplayer Yeah

All right here's my thinking With my rating for Subnotica I love this game I know people would be like Well wouldn't you give it like a 10 out of 10 No I wouldn't give it a 10 out of 10 I would try to be fair on my rating With Subnotica to tell people

So I'm going to rate it from memory as a 9-2 To me I don't think it's a flawless game But I think it is one of the more memorable experiences out there I rated it a 9-4, so I was doing it. Oh, all right. Why do you hate some Nautica, bro? Yeah, well, why do you hate some Nautica, man?

Why did I rate it lower? Am I trying to just? I think it's trying to temper expectations. Like, if I say, hey, guys, it's a 9-2. Yeah. I think that tempers it a little bit, but my comment was, this is honestly in my top 20 games, to be honest. It's almost like I want to go back into the ocean for a little bit and just take it in for a moment.

Not a full playthrough of collecting everything again, but just opening up the game again. you know getting that vibe dude the vibes of synodica yeah yeah yeah yeah it really is all right we got two left boys let's we got to speed this up we got to speed run this Diablo four uh we all played Diablo four right ace yeah we did yeah we did yeah we played for one night best cinematics in gaming in my opinion gameplay i do remember being slightly disappointed with diablo i'm gonna say i'm going to give diablo an eight six it presents well the game plays crisp but they could have done

done so much more with this game in my opinion. And lo and behold, I rated it in an 8-6. Oh, wow. And it says, my comment was, there's nothing that this game does wrong and I had a blast playing it. Is it perfect? No, this isn't the best Diablo, though. There's a lot of faults, but I really did have a blast playing this.

So, all right, Ryan. Oh, this one for me, I, I'm a big, big, big Diablo fan. Diablo 2, Diablo 2, Diablo 2R. but this one, I know we had a lot of fun. I agree the cinematics. Blizzard is just second to none when they really put their, you know, money where their mouth is and create something crazy. But I would say this is between the 8-9 and a 9-1 for me off of memory. But I'm going to go, I'm going to go 8-9 because it's not, it's just not D2.

You nailed it, buddy. Yeah? Did I? Yeah. And you said, I was always on this game way more than I needed to for the deep dive for my hot takes the end game. I'm not as drawn as I thought I would be to play through it. Yeah, that's, yeah, kind of similar. That's how I feel. That's crazy. Yeah. How would you rate Diablo four? I didn't really like Diablo four that much. So I would give it probably an 8-1.

8-1. It was okay. It was, it was not my style. One day the three of us are going to hop in a path of exile too. I wouldn't mind that. I'm just going to call it right now. We're going to deep-dive Path of Exile too when it when it fully releases. Okay. I'm very curious to see how you guys feel about that game. All right, boys. Last one. A beloved game.

I mean, we talk about this game all the time. I mean, all I got to do is just say, Rock and Stone. Rock and Stone. I'm convinced you could yell that in an airport and you would know who the gamers were like instantly because the call must be answered, you know? Deep Rock Galact.

A ton of fun with your friends. A beloved indie game, a great community. I am very curious to see how we rate this one from memory. Ace, let's start with you. How would you rate Deep Rock Galactic? Deep Rock's always been a good time. Like, genuinely. Anyone you hop in with, you have a great time.

You could figure out the game pretty quick with anyone. I absolutely love Deep Rock. I'm going to say I would give it a 9-7. 9-7. I think Deepak's fantastic. Wow, that's super praise. That's big thing. I think it's fantastic.

I love Deepak. Yeah. That's higher than I think. thought you would you would rate it to be honest yeah um okay Ryan uh I'm trying to remember this is this was this was I think early on in my uh what yep a while ago yeah it was it was very early on when I when I started with you guys and stuff so uh I don't know uh my ability to rate games was as crisp as it is now but I would say from from just the amount of fun you can have with that with people without people and in just playing the overall world I'm going to

give it a 8-7? 8-7? 8-7? Okay. Your comment was, for someone who came in fresh without knowledge of the original deep dive, because we deeped over this game a couple times,

I found myself looking forward to what my or your characters were going to say in the different situations. There were so many different side parts of the game that I just loved, and you rated it in 8-5. Oh, okay. So, close on your rating, a little bit more prominent in your memory. I really like Deep Rock Galactic. I don't think it's a perfect game. I do think it can get a little repetitive after a while,

but it is absolutely a blast with friends. It has the worst map in a game that I've ever seen. This game is incredible. This game is incredible. We recommend it to anybody that's like, hey, what's a fun co-op game? I'm going to say an 8-8 for me. And I rated it in 8-5 as well.

So Wyatt and I were both. You guys are really low on Deep Rock. I'm surprised. This goes way back to the Make Love Mary murder rating. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I said this is an easy Mary for me. It's not a different game. It's just such a vastly improved experience.

I love the humor, the camaraderie, the community. I really just love everything about this game and recommend it as a co-op experience for everyone. So apparently I remember it just a tad more fondly from memory than I did after playing it as well. All right. Well, there you go. That is our rating recall. Listen, my takeaway is that we know what we're talking about when we rate these games. And in memory, we might vary just a little bit, but we're pretty accurate as far as like how we actually rate these games and how we think about them later on as well.

It's a fun exercise. So here's the thing. Here's what I want everybody to do, you know, that was listening and playing along with us. I want you to leave a comment on this episode with a game that you remember whether it's fondly or you have negative opinion on. And then just comment with that game and why you think about that game the way that you do. Because it's always really neat for gamers to go right off the rip. I just played this game. I think it's great.

Six months later, you kind of go, yeah, you know, like, okay. I used Hell Divers too in our intro as an example. I wait to pull the ratings on that one, but it's like at the time, I bet we all rated Hell Divers too, like in the high nines. That's in the high nine. That's a hundred percent of high nines. I will say in like now I don't have a lot of desire to play Hell Divers too because we've kind of exhausted the content. So it's like, do I, am I harsher on it now than I was back in the heyday, right? That game release, that FOMO, are we going to see this with like Arc Raiders, right?

We're two years down the road, you know, will we, look back at our graders and be a little bit more harsh on it in our memory because we haven't played it in a while. I don't know. I just think it's really neat to do. So, you know, let us know in the comments, what's a game that you have a hard time kind of remembering from memory or what your thoughts on it were that you haven't played in a while. We want to see those. Thank you for hanging out with us, everybody. You know, we don't take it lightly that all of you tune in, you know, during your days and your commutes and your gym sessions and your chores and all that stuff to hang out with us three goofballs to do this. We love this podcast. We love our community. We love gaming with people.

It's something that we're super passionate about. And we are very thankful that all of you that are listening are on this journey with us. So thank you from all of us to all of you out there. And again, just a quick reminder. If you haven't rated the podcast, it really does help us out. It helps other gamers out to find the show when people are looking for a podcast and they look and they see good reviews. They're going to give us a chance. And that's all we ask people to do. if you would like to support this podcast because we do need the support of our listeners. You can do that on Patreon.

There's a link in the episode description. We try to give you a bunch of thank yous and perks for doing that. But we need your support. And so if you get enjoyment and entertainment out of us doing this, then think about giving back a little bit if it's on your heart to do so. Guys, this was fun, man. It's neat to look back. We might have to do this again at some point and just pick another round of games.

too. All right. Well, guys, let's go play some Overwatch. Let's go play some eugenics. The hotness right now. Until next time, happy gaming.

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