Kirby Air Riders, Morsels, and The Game Awards Nominee Reactions

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody.
<v Speaker 2>Welcome to the Game and Former Show, a weekly podcast
<v Speaker 2>covering the video game industry. Join us each and every
<v Speaker 2>week for a discussion of the latest gaming news, reviews,
<v Speaker 2>and exclusive reveals with Game and Former staff and special
<v Speaker 2>guests from around the industry. I am your host Marcus Stewart,
<v Speaker 2>and I am presenting the Game Award for Most Tall
<v Speaker 2>in the Game Industry to Charles Hart.
<v Speaker 1>How are you?
<v Speaker 3>Wow, I'm so I'm so excited, I'm so honored. I'm
<v Speaker 3>so glad. Greg Rice of I don't know what he've
<v Speaker 3>worked for a day of the devs with the I
<v Speaker 3>m a bit. Maybe I gotta look it up. He's
<v Speaker 3>like he's got he's taller than me. So he was
<v Speaker 3>nominated this year, so I got to win.
<v Speaker 2>I guess the more see, he's not the most tall,
<v Speaker 2>though not tallest most tall.
<v Speaker 3>Sure I have the most tall in me. I understand, understand.
<v Speaker 3>Thank you getting to talk for six more minutes until
<v Speaker 3>the music plays.
<v Speaker 1>Me out.
<v Speaker 2>And also nominated for the Game Award for Sexiest Voice.
<v Speaker 2>It's Eric Van Allen.
<v Speaker 1>Hell, I thought you were going to say for fewest weeks,
<v Speaker 1>like alive or just a game of form. No, no,
<v Speaker 1>for for context. We almost started this podcast with me
<v Speaker 1>not recording my microphone, and that would have really just
<v Speaker 1>impacted me in a bad way. So gratefully we caught
<v Speaker 1>it and we are here podcasting and you can hear
<v Speaker 1>my sultry baritone the over the airwaves Centurius Baritone Award.
<v Speaker 2>Finally, I'm glad I had to recind the nomination for
<v Speaker 2>most mentally Distressed until you caught your mic misshap. But yes, everyone,
<v Speaker 2>if we'ren't aware, we are going to be talking about
<v Speaker 2>the Game Award nominations on this episode. We're going to
<v Speaker 2>be giving our thoughts on the nomination some of the
<v Speaker 2>big ones, you know, and talking about our predictions for
<v Speaker 2>who we think might walk away with that cool like
<v Speaker 2>Winged Lady trophy that Jeff Keey likes throwing at people
<v Speaker 2>every year. We're also going to be playing a new
<v Speaker 2>edition of gi Autuno related to the Game Awards that
<v Speaker 2>our lovely host Charles Hart has made up for us.
<v Speaker 2>Really excited for that. We're also going to be talking
<v Speaker 2>about Kirby Air Riders, which launched this week, as well
<v Speaker 2>as More Souls, a cool new indie game that I
<v Speaker 2>think all of us here have had our eye on
<v Speaker 2>that released this week, So yeah, pack show. But before
<v Speaker 2>we get into it, of course, as always, if you
<v Speaker 2>would like to support Game Informer, you can do it
<v Speaker 2>by getting yourself a Game Informer magazine subscription.
<v Speaker 1>Yes.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, as Charles Hart is holding up right now, he's
<v Speaker 2>got a copy of our new Dragon Quest seven reimagined issue.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my goodness, Charles or Eric Van Allen has one too, Charles, Eric,
<v Speaker 2>look at him opening up the magazine. Shiniest pages, we
<v Speaker 2>got the improved paper quality, We've got the hottest previews, features, reviews,
<v Speaker 2>all in there photos. Look at a photo of Eric playing,
<v Speaker 2>Eric pointing out himself playing Magic the gathering. We got
<v Speaker 2>it all in this magazine exactly. Yes, and you too
<v Speaker 2>can do that. You can get yourself a Game Informer
<v Speaker 2>Magazine subscription by going to Gaminformer dot com slash subscribe.
<v Speaker 2>It gets you ten issues a year, both physical and digital.
<v Speaker 2>You can also subscribe to a digital only version for
<v Speaker 2>a reduced price and exciting news if you miss it
<v Speaker 2>this week, Game and Former Magazine, starting next month December
<v Speaker 2>is coming to newsstands and bookstores finally for the first time,
<v Speaker 2>and ages right, I'm trying to remember eons like, I
<v Speaker 2>think in the nineties you could find Game Informer in
<v Speaker 2>like certain bookstores, but that may as well have not
<v Speaker 2>existed because you know, we weren't there.
<v Speaker 3>I wasn't there. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>They're really funny conversation because in some of the marketing
<v Speaker 1>copy that we used, I had used the phrase we're
<v Speaker 1>back on newsstands, and I had a moment where I
<v Speaker 1>was like, how long ago was it that we were
<v Speaker 1>on newsstands? Were we on newsstands? Did I like Berenstein
<v Speaker 1>Bears that? And no, it was. It was real. It
<v Speaker 1>was just like predates most of us here, I think, uh,
<v Speaker 1>and that's how long it's.
<v Speaker 3>Charles's life probably if it was in the nineties. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I was born in two thousand.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah I was wow, but a wee boy back then.
<v Speaker 2>But yes, we are going to be available in US
<v Speaker 2>bookstores such as Barnes and Nobles Books a million. We're
<v Speaker 2>going to be in Gelson's What is Gelson's Jelsons? I've
<v Speaker 2>never heard of that one, but we're gonna be there too.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I think it's British? Is it British?
<v Speaker 2>It says us. I'm looking at our our article post
<v Speaker 2>online and I just see jel sins. I need to
<v Speaker 2>look up Jelsons because I want to go there because
<v Speaker 2>I like that name, and I'm going to go.
<v Speaker 1>There to get us in format. Uh yeah, we'll call
<v Speaker 1>it that.
<v Speaker 3>That's a well there's that's a grocery store in southern California.
<v Speaker 1>Mmmmmm okay.
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know what, enthusiasts, while you're picking up your
<v Speaker 2>your produce and your in your boxed milk, as you
<v Speaker 2>do specifically boxed milk, you can also pair that with
<v Speaker 2>a fresh game in Former magazine.
<v Speaker 1>Isn't that right? Boxed milk? Oh man? I mean, I
<v Speaker 1>guess that makes sense. It's probably better for the earth.
<v Speaker 3>Well, like there's cartons of milk, right, yeah, a box
<v Speaker 3>it is just I'm picturing it like boxed wine, you
<v Speaker 3>know where it has like the spout and everything. It's
<v Speaker 3>really bagged, but the box hides the bag because just
<v Speaker 3>a bag of milk would be more disturbing.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, spout of milk would go kind of crazy
<v Speaker 1>for doing cereal and stuff in the morning. Like I
<v Speaker 1>I'm starting to come around on the idea of spouted
<v Speaker 1>wine or spouted milk.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if you know the game the magazine
<v Speaker 2>comes in bags We have not gotten into spout technology yet,
<v Speaker 2>so I don't know if that's something we need to
<v Speaker 2>work on. It's putting a spout on Game informers. You
<v Speaker 2>let us know, subscribers, if that's something you would enjoy,
<v Speaker 2>if it would improve your reading experience, we can we
<v Speaker 2>can get on that. But yes, in the United States,
<v Speaker 2>those are some of the stores that will begin. We're
<v Speaker 2>also excited to announce that this extends internationally. So we've
<v Speaker 2>heard you for months, international readers, how you want to
<v Speaker 2>get a Game Informer magazine subscription. We still have not
<v Speaker 2>worked out the kinks on like a proper subscription, but
<v Speaker 2>in the meantime, you can go to magazine merchants in
<v Speaker 2>the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, Turkey,
<v Speaker 2>the United Arab Emirates, Diiland and Japan magazine merchants and
<v Speaker 2>all the countries I just listened, we'll have Game Informer
<v Speaker 2>on their shelves that will begin in January.
<v Speaker 3>Oh.
<v Speaker 2>Also, I forgot to mention you can also get them
<v Speaker 2>in stands in Canada, all of our friends up there,
<v Speaker 2>France and Poland, all of those countries, basically just the world,
<v Speaker 2>the whole world.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, some will be right away, I think, in
<v Speaker 1>some or in December, i should say, and some will
<v Speaker 1>be in January. We have all the info on an
<v Speaker 1>article over on the website. You can go check it out.
<v Speaker 1>We've got tons of stuff out there. Chances are if
<v Speaker 1>you have a question, read the article first, it will
<v Speaker 1>have most of that info. And then if you read
<v Speaker 1>the article and you still have a question, you know,
<v Speaker 1>you can always email, comment whatever. But yeah, this is huge.
<v Speaker 1>I mean I have friends in Canada who have wanted
<v Speaker 1>to read Game Informer for a while and just haven't
<v Speaker 1>been able to. I mean, getting the access out there
<v Speaker 1>is awesome in terms of people just seeing us on newsstands,
<v Speaker 1>and also seeing gaming magazines on newsstands, which is something
<v Speaker 1>that I don't think we've had for a while. But
<v Speaker 1>it's it's fun to see come back. Especially I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>I'm in a physical mood lately, you know, I want
<v Speaker 1>to go buy physical books. I want to get vinyl
<v Speaker 1>and things like that. So having the magazines there too
<v Speaker 1>is all perfect. Oh yeah, yeah, I'm excited too.
<v Speaker 2>My girlfriend's already thread to embarrass me by going to
<v Speaker 2>Barnes and Nobles and making a scene about like I
<v Speaker 2>know someone that writes that. Go take a picture of it.
<v Speaker 3>Marcus. Did you ever add a game stop go up
<v Speaker 3>and like buy something and be like, oh, the game
<v Speaker 3>reformers here, huh what do you think of those? And
<v Speaker 3>never get them to get them to be like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>I'm in there, you know if you open it up.
<v Speaker 2>Not on purpose, but it did happen accident, probably in
<v Speaker 2>a funnier way where I went in there. This was
<v Speaker 2>probably within my first year of working here, and I
<v Speaker 2>was at the counter and a guy I used my
<v Speaker 2>then employee number and I had to explain, like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>I write for the magazine, and the guy was really excited.
<v Speaker 2>And then right when he asked my name. This was
<v Speaker 2>back when we used to have a game and former
<v Speaker 2>videos air in the stores, like our ngt's, And right
<v Speaker 2>when he asked my name, the big screen behind him
<v Speaker 2>started playing an NGT for TM and T Shredder's Revenge
<v Speaker 2>that I was on, and I just hear myself introducing
<v Speaker 2>my and I go and then he like hears it,
<v Speaker 2>and then he looks behind and then looks at me,
<v Speaker 2>and then looks behind. He goes Oh that's your voice,
<v Speaker 2>and it's like, yeah, that's I'm sick.
<v Speaker 1>That's awesome.
<v Speaker 3>Good.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it was very it was very funny. But yes,
<v Speaker 2>like I said, keep an eye out over the next
<v Speaker 2>couple of months, depending on what country you're in your area,
<v Speaker 2>you can start seeing game form a magazine pop up
<v Speaker 2>in bookstores and magazines, and like Eric said, we have
<v Speaker 2>an article on the website where you can read all
<v Speaker 2>the deats about that, and yeah, I appreciate your support
<v Speaker 2>in advance, but yes, let's get right into it. New
<v Speaker 2>games this week Kirby air Riders, the sequel to the
<v Speaker 2>GameCube cult classic Kirby air Ride masa Hero Sacrize Passion project.
<v Speaker 2>He squeezed out like five hundred directs about this game
<v Speaker 2>and talk about how excited he is to be making
<v Speaker 2>this once again. Charles, you have been playing yet? How
<v Speaker 2>has it paid off? First and foremost, I want to know,
<v Speaker 2>did you play air Ride back in the day?
<v Speaker 3>Okay, I was fully a toddler, and also like, I
<v Speaker 3>don't think it ever got re released, correct me if
<v Speaker 3>I'm wrong, but it was just it's a hard game
<v Speaker 3>to get your hands on. So even once I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>this seems like interesting to me. I never like sought
<v Speaker 3>it out, but no, I've been playing. I didn't played
<v Speaker 3>that much of it.
<v Speaker 1>We got.
<v Speaker 3>Our Nintendo relationship was kind of weird because we got
<v Speaker 3>taken off the list. We're now back on it, so
<v Speaker 3>you can start to expect Nintendo reviews for us more
<v Speaker 3>like closer to release date, hopefully starting with Metroid coming
<v Speaker 3>up soon.
<v Speaker 1>But we'll see.
<v Speaker 3>Uh but this one, I just got it on release day,
<v Speaker 3>which is the day that we're talking about it. So
<v Speaker 3>I played, you know, all of like an hour of
<v Speaker 3>the game. Never played Kirby Air Ride. But it's so
<v Speaker 3>funny how Sakarai has such a an identity when he
<v Speaker 3>makes his games, Like he found out if structure that
<v Speaker 3>worked for like Kirby Superstar, and that's how all the
<v Speaker 3>games feel. You started up, you got like a big
<v Speaker 3>musical sequence and then the menu is just kind of
<v Speaker 3>like a bunch of floating shapes. I just love that,
<v Speaker 3>and it feels like I would say, if obviously, if
<v Speaker 3>you're like really in the competitive scene of Smash Bros.
<v Speaker 3>This isn't gonna scratch the Smash Bros.
<v Speaker 1>Itch.
<v Speaker 3>But if you've been like, man, it's been really long
<v Speaker 3>times as I've played Smash Ultimate, I kind of miss
<v Speaker 3>that it has Smash Bros. Vibes, just like the energy
<v Speaker 3>of the menus and just like clicking on the stuff
<v Speaker 3>and it's very I think the thing that caught me
<v Speaker 3>off guard so much is that, like the appeal of
<v Speaker 3>Kirby Air Ride, right, is it's a cart racer game
<v Speaker 3>and there's like one button and this one there's a
<v Speaker 3>whole big thing that they added a second button so
<v Speaker 3>you can use special moves now, but it's pretty straightforward.
<v Speaker 3>The thing that I wasn't expecting is how despite the
<v Speaker 3>controls being simple, the races feel insane. There's so much
<v Speaker 3>going on on the screen. The first course is like
<v Speaker 3>a little flower garden that you kind of fly through
<v Speaker 3>and that's fine. And the second course is like this,
<v Speaker 3>You're like driving through a typhoon and like the sea
<v Speaker 3>splits Moses style and you're like weaving in between like
<v Speaker 3>these giant walls of the seafloor, and then you're grinding
<v Speaker 3>up in like a huge grind rail and then going
<v Speaker 3>down to whirlpool.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, is that what happened in Moses? It was
<v Speaker 1>in kir that that was how they got through yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that was.
<v Speaker 3>What That's what it says in Hebrew, and then in
<v Speaker 3>all the translations to English that the rail grinding part
<v Speaker 3>kind of got lost.
<v Speaker 1>Importantly, the bay blade was also involved. That was what
<v Speaker 1>parted the scene exactly. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Uh, but yeah, it's like it's just like visually like uh,
<v Speaker 3>for lack of a better term, feels expensive. There's like
<v Speaker 3>so much going on. You can tell there's a lot
<v Speaker 3>of like detail and intense like animations and stuff that
<v Speaker 3>went into it. And then also you're just like barraged
<v Speaker 3>with like you boot up the game and before you
<v Speaker 3>even get to see a menu, it's like burpur bar
<v Speaker 3>and you've got like the achievement for opening the game
<v Speaker 3>for the first time, and you complete a race is
<v Speaker 3>like proper Barre. You completed a race. Here's here's a
<v Speaker 3>new cart. You completed this course. Here's a new racer.
<v Speaker 3>You completed it in this number of laps. You got
<v Speaker 3>this new thing.
<v Speaker 1>Charles, you would notice because this is before your time, Eric,
<v Speaker 1>you might, but is it making the sound that face
<v Speaker 1>from Nick Junior used to make?
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god, remember I'm not doing super accurate.
<v Speaker 1>Is it mad? That's such a specific like I don't
<v Speaker 1>think I could have lifted that out of my subconscious
<v Speaker 1>without you leading me there. But now it is like surfaced,
<v Speaker 1>and it's all I can think about is that giant
<v Speaker 1>face on the screen and him doing the little like
<v Speaker 1>mouth noises and stuff like that.
<v Speaker 3>Oh man, it's more. It sounds better than the sound
<v Speaker 3>I'm making. I don't know. I'm definitely not getting the
<v Speaker 3>notes right anyways. Uh. It's also a thing I appreciate
<v Speaker 3>is I like unlocking stuff in my racing games. I
<v Speaker 3>don't know how you guys feel about it, but I
<v Speaker 3>don't like the feeling of booting up a game and
<v Speaker 3>being like, the fun I'm gonna have from this is
<v Speaker 3>just playing the content they have over and over again.
<v Speaker 3>I like feeling a sense of progression.
<v Speaker 1>That about Mario Kart.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yeah, you'll finish a race and to be like
<v Speaker 2>you got a new car and you're like.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, Mario Kart World. I feel like didn't. I
<v Speaker 3>wasn't like unlocking as much as I wanted to, Like,
<v Speaker 3>there's only really one big unlockable, but then there's the
<v Speaker 3>open world, et cetera, et cetera. But the yeah, we're
<v Speaker 3>gonna say, Eric, sorry.
<v Speaker 1>I'm just gonna say, like the difference for me, I
<v Speaker 1>think with Mario Kart World versus other KRT racers is
<v Speaker 1>that I like it when there's kind of a progression
<v Speaker 1>that pushes me through the courses. And I think that
<v Speaker 1>was maybe why I disconnected with World a little bit,
<v Speaker 1>is because it was trying to give me a more
<v Speaker 1>open experience. But for me, I a lot of my
<v Speaker 1>cart racers. When I was young, I played a lot
<v Speaker 1>of Mario Kart on the game Boy Advance, which was
<v Speaker 1>not a great Mario Kart, but it was a serviceable
<v Speaker 1>Mario Kart for a small child, and I would play
<v Speaker 1>those courses back to back to back to just kind
<v Speaker 1>of get better at them and get used to the
<v Speaker 1>krts and play the different characters. And because it was
<v Speaker 1>only one of like three games I had at the
<v Speaker 1>time on my game Boy Advance. But that's what can
<v Speaker 1>make a cart racer really engaging, is when it feels
<v Speaker 1>good to just run those courses over and over and
<v Speaker 1>over again, and then you always kind of have like
<v Speaker 1>a little bit of a carrot on the end of
<v Speaker 1>the stick where it's like, okay, if I beat this,
<v Speaker 1>you know, if I'm playing Chocobo racing, I can try
<v Speaker 1>and get squall unlocked and stuff like that. But really
<v Speaker 1>I'm just playing to enjoy the courses with maybe getting
<v Speaker 1>my times good enough, getting my completions fast enough to
<v Speaker 1>get the next thing that I need, And I feel
<v Speaker 1>like when you don't have that and more of the
<v Speaker 1>unlocks are based around explore the world race with other
<v Speaker 1>characters so you get their skins, it like doesn't do
<v Speaker 1>the same thing for me. I do feel like there
<v Speaker 1>needs to be a little bit of that, like complete
<v Speaker 1>eating courses gets you things.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I agree. I I really liked in Smash Ultimate
<v Speaker 3>where you start with so few characters you have to
<v Speaker 3>unlock like all of them. I think that's really fun.
<v Speaker 3>In this game, you start with four characters. You start
<v Speaker 3>with Kirby, Metait, King d d D, and Wattle D
<v Speaker 3>not Wattle. Do that's the one eye one right or
<v Speaker 3>is that something different?
<v Speaker 1>I think I think you're right.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, But it's like if you watched
<v Speaker 3>the direct for this game or any of them, you're like,
<v Speaker 3>oh my gosh, they pulled every Kirby and every random
<v Speaker 3>Kirby NPC you could possibly think of as making appearance
<v Speaker 3>in this game, so.
<v Speaker 2>They did, like Mark Carr World where that's like every
<v Speaker 2>Mario in PC that could pull.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah basically yeah, where it's like mostly characters. It's like
<v Speaker 3>I didn't know this had a name. I knew this
<v Speaker 3>little mushroom guy was a guy. Apparently his name is
<v Speaker 3>Kapy and he has abilities that I don't know about.
<v Speaker 3>And you start with four characters, and there's just me
<v Speaker 3>knowing that there's so many to unlock just by playing
<v Speaker 3>the game. It's just like very encouraging and I'm like, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>I'm gonna have a lot of fun doing this. And
<v Speaker 3>then also the warp Stars I can't remember if they're
<v Speaker 3>all called warp Stars or they have like a name
<v Speaker 3>for the vehicles that I'm not remembering properly. But those
<v Speaker 3>are also all very different, like very different play styles.
<v Speaker 3>It'll change how fast you move in the air on
<v Speaker 3>the ground your drift, which is called like a boost dash.
<v Speaker 3>I want to say, I'm really this game is a
<v Speaker 3>lot of proper nouns I'm not remembering, but it's funny
<v Speaker 3>because it is one of those games that like has
<v Speaker 3>all the proper nouns but also like you could pick
<v Speaker 3>it up and understand it pretty quickly. But yeah, and
<v Speaker 3>there's there's a bunch of stuff in here. I haven't
<v Speaker 3>dug into yet, but my first impression is it's a lot,
<v Speaker 3>and I'm glad that it feels like a lot. It
<v Speaker 3>doesn't feel like this is a game that I'm gonna
<v Speaker 3>play for, you know, a few hours and get everything
<v Speaker 3>that there is out of it. It's something that is
<v Speaker 3>like encouraging me to go back and try it out
<v Speaker 3>more and more and even just yeah, the range of
<v Speaker 3>achievements of being like if you beat the stage fast enough,
<v Speaker 3>you get a thing. If you beat the stage without
<v Speaker 3>ever touching the spikes, you get a thing, and if
<v Speaker 3>you beat it without I don't know, xyz. There's a
<v Speaker 3>lot of there's like a huge grid of achievements for
<v Speaker 3>each mode of the game. So that's for like air Ride,
<v Speaker 3>that's for City Ride, which is kind of like the
<v Speaker 3>open world combat arena kind of thing. But yeah, I'll
<v Speaker 3>have my review up next week probably, but I am.
<v Speaker 3>I am enjoying my time so far, and I'm very Is.
<v Speaker 2>There anything besides just races, Like, is there like competitive
<v Speaker 2>or anything besides just stand up?
<v Speaker 3>You can do online, you can do time trials. City
<v Speaker 3>Ride is one that is like it drops you in
<v Speaker 3>a kind of like large map, and I believe this
<v Speaker 3>was in or City Trials. Sorry, that's that's what it's called.
<v Speaker 3>And this is I believe also in the original Kirby
<v Speaker 3>air Ryde. But you're kind of dropped in like it's
<v Speaker 3>a city and like an open meadow. You can explore
<v Speaker 3>around and find little stat boosts and essentially power up
<v Speaker 3>your cart with a bunch of different stats, and at
<v Speaker 3>the very end everyone will do like a race or something.
<v Speaker 3>There's like a few different things it can be. There's
<v Speaker 3>a race, there's like a target shooting kind of thing
<v Speaker 3>where you fly and you try to hit the thing
<v Speaker 3>with the most points, and depending on what your boosts
<v Speaker 3>and bonuses are, you'll be like, I want to do
<v Speaker 3>a race, or I want to do combat, or I
<v Speaker 3>want to do that target thing. And that's one that
<v Speaker 3>they really I mean, there's a lot of achievements there,
<v Speaker 3>but I think the idea is that it's one big
<v Speaker 3>map that you'd be playing that mode a lot.
<v Speaker 1>Is it comparable to the Free Rome and Mario Kart World, No.
<v Speaker 3>Cause it's like it's it's got like a five minute
<v Speaker 3>timer and it's it's not that big of a map,
<v Speaker 3>Like if you played a few times, I think you'll
<v Speaker 3>get like a sense of everything that's in there, but
<v Speaker 3>you're dropped in the map with like I want to say,
<v Speaker 3>it's like sixteen total players and you're all like competing
<v Speaker 3>and trying to get all the stat boosts you can
<v Speaker 3>to beat the others.
<v Speaker 1>It seems like it could be a really good, like
<v Speaker 1>couch co op type game, and that is what maybe
<v Speaker 1>most appeals to me about it, which is I've found
<v Speaker 1>that Mario Kart is really enjoyable for online multiplayer if
<v Speaker 1>you do a knockout race a few times. Now, I
<v Speaker 1>think the most fun I've had with Mario Kart World
<v Speaker 1>has been just getting as large of a lobby as
<v Speaker 1>I possibly can and everybody flooding into one discord call
<v Speaker 1>and just commencing absolute chaos. And that's really really good
<v Speaker 1>for that. But I think I haven't tried Crossworlds yet
<v Speaker 1>Sonic cross Worlds, but I've been wanting that kind of casual,
<v Speaker 1>couch like local co op type game. I didn't think
<v Speaker 1>Mario Kart World was going to be that from what
<v Speaker 1>I've played of it, in that sort of smaller co oprena.
<v Speaker 1>And this sounds like it could be that where it's
<v Speaker 1>easy to just hand a controller to somebody who maybe
<v Speaker 1>doesn't play a lot of games or who has only
<v Speaker 1>ever played you know, like regular Mario Kart and things
<v Speaker 1>like that, and just wants a real good like course
<v Speaker 1>racer or something that we can just kind of goof often.
<v Speaker 1>And Cairby aer Riders might be it. It's it's looking
<v Speaker 1>really good for that. Yeah, I was gonna.
<v Speaker 3>Say just the Mario Kart World that I was. I
<v Speaker 3>wanted something to scratch the Mario Kart itch that I
<v Speaker 3>had for a while, and I liked Mario Kart World
<v Speaker 3>but was finding it didn't really scratch that itch. And
<v Speaker 3>I'm hoping that Kirbyer writers the Mari play it kind
<v Speaker 3>of fills that.
<v Speaker 1>Role for me.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I guess for me, I got like, I like World,
<v Speaker 2>and I'm probably like it feels like we all like
<v Speaker 2>collectively turned on Mario Kart World as.
<v Speaker 3>Well as I feel like I thought it would. It was.
<v Speaker 1>It was really enjoyable for a few weeks, But I
<v Speaker 1>don't think I mean like, but Mario Kart has always
<v Speaker 1>existed as a constant in my life. Like it's it's
<v Speaker 1>something even the previous Mario Kart a Deluxe on the
<v Speaker 1>switch was like you had it because you owned a switch.
<v Speaker 1>Why would you own a switch and not own Mario Kart.
<v Speaker 1>But it is also like the app that you boot
<v Speaker 1>up to play games with friends. It's not necessarily something
<v Speaker 1>that I would sit down and be like, I want
<v Speaker 1>to play this specifically like I play other games that way,
<v Speaker 1>Mario Kart is the game I bust out when it's
<v Speaker 1>like friends are coming over or you know, we're having
<v Speaker 1>When I was younger, we'd do sleepovers and stuff like that,
<v Speaker 1>we'd play Mario Kart sixty four, we play Mario Kart
<v Speaker 1>Double Dash like it was never the like solo play
<v Speaker 1>or even kind of like thing I would get super
<v Speaker 1>invested in type game, and I think Mario Kart World
<v Speaker 1>slotted into that, and then its focus on kind of
<v Speaker 1>knockout races somewhat to the detriment of the normal flow
<v Speaker 1>of a Mario Kart ended up just further pushing it
<v Speaker 1>that way where it's like I'll break it out for
<v Speaker 1>the big, big sessions and fun playing online and doing
<v Speaker 1>silly stuff. But for a local co op, even for
<v Speaker 1>like two player, three player, four player, it hasn't been
<v Speaker 1>that game for me, Yeah, I was.
<v Speaker 2>I was gonna say, like I played it again recently
<v Speaker 2>for the first time in a while, like locally with
<v Speaker 2>two other people and had like still fun and was like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's still it's got the Mario kar charm. But also
<v Speaker 2>like I've been playing Sonic Racing Crossworlds recently, also locally,
<v Speaker 2>and that has that has scratched the itch of a
<v Speaker 2>more I guess traditional kart racer to where I'm wondering
<v Speaker 2>now what Kirby could give me since Sonic is kind
<v Speaker 2>of doing that really well now, and it's like, do
<v Speaker 2>I want like a simpler version of of what Sonic
<v Speaker 2>is giving me? And then also I still have Mario Kart,
<v Speaker 2>like I'm trying to figure out, like what what hole
<v Speaker 2>would Kirby fill for me?
<v Speaker 1>There is a Gerbil with a cowboy hat. That's like
<v Speaker 1>really important to know is that you can get Ricky
<v Speaker 1>the little Hamster Gerbil thing, and you can put a
<v Speaker 1>cowboy hat on him.
<v Speaker 3>Be important to mention you can put the cowboy hat
<v Speaker 3>on anyone in this entire freaking game, on anyone.
<v Speaker 1>If you want the cowboy hat on Meta Night, I
<v Speaker 1>assume you can do that. I assume he can be
<v Speaker 1>rootin and tootin so.
<v Speaker 3>Yeh medaits famous. Yes, there's also like a story mode
<v Speaker 3>this game. I'm excited to play, by the way, with
<v Speaker 3>like a new dark kind of metaonite esque character that
<v Speaker 3>is like the main like teased antagonist for the game.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, interesting. I saw you can also change the color
<v Speaker 1>schemes on so people were doing funny stuff with Kirby's
<v Speaker 1>Warp Star where they were putting like Minion overalls on
<v Speaker 1>it and things like that. You like tinker with that
<v Speaker 1>much or I have.
<v Speaker 3>Not yet, but I know, yeah, you can like customize
<v Speaker 3>your warp Stars or like the other vehicles, and I
<v Speaker 3>believe you can like put them up on a shop
<v Speaker 3>like you can browse other people's creations. I might be
<v Speaker 3>I might be misunderstanding that, but have you.
<v Speaker 1>Eric how moderated is that? Like how long before we
<v Speaker 1>see a problematic stars? I want this to be like
<v Speaker 1>pic do chat all right? Or I want this to
<v Speaker 1>be like just the open forums of the Weave, you know,
<v Speaker 1>like yeah, yeah, mevers type stuff I need to see
<v Speaker 1>like absolute just terrible posting because like I said, Minion
<v Speaker 1>overalls on the Warp Star is like the level of
<v Speaker 1>what I'm looking for. I need like a really bad
<v Speaker 1>sonic like scrawled on the side of one of my
<v Speaker 1>Like we just see a penis on a warp Star.
<v Speaker 3>Right, It says in my machines menu, this is Wikipedia's
<v Speaker 3>my source. The vehicles can be fully customized with items
<v Speaker 3>purchased by the player, which can be listed online for
<v Speaker 3>shal sale in other people's shops. Sick so you get
<v Speaker 3>like existing I think. I don't think you can just
<v Speaker 3>free draw. I think you get like existing stickers and items.
<v Speaker 3>But I think it's just the way people are smart about.
<v Speaker 1>People will transforms away.
<v Speaker 3>I already saw one that it was like the Warp Star,
<v Speaker 3>except that had a face and it was wearing a bikini,
<v Speaker 3>and it's just like, yeah, yes.
<v Speaker 2>As well, Yeah, I want to make the wrestling fan
<v Speaker 2>of me wants to just make edges rated R superstar
<v Speaker 2>art like logo on the star'.
<v Speaker 1>That'd be good. I think I want to make the
<v Speaker 1>More you Know star from from the CBS thing or whatever,
<v Speaker 1>like the More you Know.
<v Speaker 3>But there's there's like a lot here and it's a
<v Speaker 3>very it's I think. I think, Yeah, my main excited
<v Speaker 3>takeaway so far as I can very much feel the
<v Speaker 3>Sakkoai in this, and one of my favorite games of
<v Speaker 3>all time is Kiddicker's Uprising, which is another like weird
<v Speaker 3>Sakarai game that I think is very underrated, but it
<v Speaker 3>has that kind of vibe where he's like, he was
<v Speaker 3>a very simple seeming concept for a game, and you're
<v Speaker 3>gonna be surprised by how much game I can cram
<v Speaker 3>into this little guy, and I'm looking forward to it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm surprised he's not in the game for how
<v Speaker 2>much less clearly enjoyed making this, which he you know,
<v Speaker 2>more power to him. He's he's laid the way on
<v Speaker 2>Smash Brothers. He's he's earning this. But yeah, Kirby Air
<v Speaker 2>Riders out now on switch to and is it on
<v Speaker 2>regular switch or is it just switch to?
<v Speaker 1>Actually I believe it's just okay, switch switch to.
<v Speaker 3>Honestly, honestly, I need I'm gonna like send you guys
<v Speaker 3>recording of just one of the races after this. You
<v Speaker 3>can understand how like it's just like a real sensory overload,
<v Speaker 3>and I could I could feel a switch thinking about it.
<v Speaker 3>I can imagine the switch getting really hot in my
<v Speaker 3>hands if it was a switch one be sick though.
<v Speaker 1>Can you imagine switches exploding from the power of Kirby's
<v Speaker 1>air Riders, Like that'd be kind of awesome. You couldn't
<v Speaker 1>do it, But Kirby air Riders. What brought this?
<v Speaker 3>It's like that meme where the guy's playing piano and
<v Speaker 3>the piano's on fire. Yes, that's like this, but soccer
<v Speaker 3>I coding air Riders for the Switch one. It's soccer
<v Speaker 3>I like sitting at the desk with his joy Cons
<v Speaker 3>and there's like a kickstandd switch in front of him,
<v Speaker 3>like on fire, and he's like, the Switch one was
<v Speaker 3>not ready for Kirby air Riders.
<v Speaker 2>Alrighty well, moving on from one character that likes to
<v Speaker 2>eat a lot to a game that is seemingly all
<v Speaker 2>about food, at least based on the name. Charles, You're
<v Speaker 2>gonna have to tell us all about this. This is Morsels,
<v Speaker 2>a new indie game by Fercula and published by Anna
<v Speaker 2>Perna Interactive. I don't even know how you describe this
<v Speaker 2>as kind of like a creature collecting roguelike. It's got
<v Speaker 2>this really colorful and kind of cool, sort of like
<v Speaker 2>like pixel artish art style. I've been really looking forward
<v Speaker 2>to this I'm excited to try it. But uh, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>how is morsel so far?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's like it's like Pokemon meets the Binding of
<v Speaker 3>Isaac if it was a Cartoon network show in the
<v Speaker 3>year two thousand and three. So it's got it's got
<v Speaker 3>kind of like a like a gross quote unquote aesthetic.
<v Speaker 3>It's a but it's all like pixelated. There's like a
<v Speaker 3>I don't know what you call the uh the lines
<v Speaker 3>on the screen. What do the TVs call the legacy. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>it's got the crt sc yeah, like kind of filter
<v Speaker 3>over it. Yeah. It feels like an old game you
<v Speaker 3>found like at the bottom of a bargain minion, Like
<v Speaker 3>what is this thing? You plug it in?
<v Speaker 2>This is the game that Curgs the Cowardly Dog would
<v Speaker 2>play on his computer exactly.
<v Speaker 3>Uh. And so the way that works is you are
<v Speaker 3>a little mouse in a world that's been taken over
<v Speaker 3>by these these giant cat authority figures. I guess they're
<v Speaker 3>like evil cats. And as they're going along, you collect
<v Speaker 3>these little cards, uh, and they have morsels on them,
<v Speaker 3>which are just like little dudes, and each morsel has
<v Speaker 3>a different it's like a twin stick shooter. So each
<v Speaker 3>morsel has a different shooting mechanic and they have a
<v Speaker 3>different like special ability.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there's a lot of like bullet hell stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, yeah, and so like for example, one of them
<v Speaker 3>is like a gumzole, that's what his name is. He's
<v Speaker 3>like a little piece of chewing gum. He's got like
<v Speaker 3>a pretty standard fire and then a special ability blows
<v Speaker 3>a bubble around him that like protects you from stuff
<v Speaker 3>as long as you're staying still, so that's cool. Then
<v Speaker 3>there's one that's like a little flower dude, and his
<v Speaker 3>fire is like a kind of like a shotgun blast
<v Speaker 3>and his specifically, they all have different criteria for when
<v Speaker 3>they creit, So his crits if you're right next to someone,
<v Speaker 3>so he like really prioritizes like getting up close and
<v Speaker 3>trying to hit them without getting hit. There's another one
<v Speaker 3>that's a rock. I think his name is Pebsil and
<v Speaker 3>his ability is rock and then the description is just
<v Speaker 3>rocks And I had to figure this out with him,
<v Speaker 3>but you just run into him with that, like I
<v Speaker 3>don't know how he takes damage, but he only takes
<v Speaker 3>damage from projectiles but doesn't take damage from touching people.
<v Speaker 3>But he's one of you like fling yourself at enemies.
<v Speaker 3>And then the catch of this all is each of
<v Speaker 3>them has three hearts, and if it dies, it's like
<v Speaker 3>wiped out of your party and you only have three slots.
<v Speaker 3>But a lot of times you're just starting with the one,
<v Speaker 3>so you're collecting more of them to have more of
<v Speaker 3>like an arsenal, to be like more well rounded in
<v Speaker 3>a run. But also if one dies, that's like a
<v Speaker 3>life gone basically, and you have to find a new
<v Speaker 3>one to go. I've done a few runs of it
<v Speaker 3>so far. It's very fun, it's very like unique and quirky.
<v Speaker 3>I have not I've basically the one run where I
<v Speaker 3>made it to the first boss. I cleared the first
<v Speaker 3>boss without taking any damage, and then I made it
<v Speaker 3>through the next level and I cleared the second boss
<v Speaker 3>without taking any damage. For some reason, I find the
<v Speaker 3>boss is way easier than like the general rest of
<v Speaker 3>the game because there's a lot more elements like throwing
<v Speaker 3>stuff at you in like an average level versus like
<v Speaker 3>in a boss encounter.
<v Speaker 2>Does it feel good like combat and want of stuff?
<v Speaker 2>Because it looks super smooth just watching it.
<v Speaker 3>It does feel good. I kind of suck, but again,
<v Speaker 3>I keep doing I keep perfecting these bosses, so I'm
<v Speaker 3>like confused at my own skill level here. I think
<v Speaker 3>I think one thing that's a little challenging with it
<v Speaker 3>is and I think it might be frustrating for some people,
<v Speaker 3>but you kind of really have to embrace the roguelike
<v Speaker 3>of it. Of you'll get one that's like your favorite
<v Speaker 3>guy and then he'll die and then you'll be stuck
<v Speaker 3>with like a morsel you don't like using, or that
<v Speaker 3>it's not your favorite to use, and have to like
<v Speaker 3>go until you find a better guy. So I had
<v Speaker 3>one I really liked. I cannot remember what he looked like,
<v Speaker 3>but you would shoot enemies and it barely did any damage,
<v Speaker 3>but if you hit them enough times, they would like
<v Speaker 3>sprout on their head, and if you press the special button,
<v Speaker 3>they would like explode into a bunch of vines and
<v Speaker 3>damage everyone around.
<v Speaker 1>Though. Oh I love stuff like that where you kind
<v Speaker 1>of build up and then detonate to do a bunch
<v Speaker 1>of damage and then have like additional effects. That's that's
<v Speaker 1>so good.
<v Speaker 3>That was really cool. And I did it on one
<v Speaker 3>of the bosses and that was like extremely satisfying to
<v Speaker 3>blow the boss up into a bunch of vines and stuff.
<v Speaker 3>The other mechanic is all the morsels XP. If you
<v Speaker 3>get them on XP, they evolve okay, and they turn
<v Speaker 3>into a more powerful morsel, except if you evolve again,
<v Speaker 3>they die. So there's a limit basically to how much
<v Speaker 3>you can use a morsel. If one of them you
<v Speaker 3>really like and you really lock in and you're really
<v Speaker 3>committing to them, you have to be careful to swap
<v Speaker 3>out with your other ones, even though that one's more powerful,
<v Speaker 3>because if he gets too much XP, then he just
<v Speaker 3>dies and you got to get a new one. So
<v Speaker 3>there's kind of like a time limit on it too.
<v Speaker 3>It's really encouraging you to be like, try all themmorsals out,
<v Speaker 3>get used to it, don't get too comfortable, because that's
<v Speaker 3>not what it's about.
<v Speaker 1>I think interesting. Yeah, I find that super interesting because
<v Speaker 1>we actually internally had a discussion not long ago about
<v Speaker 1>like the challenges that Rogue Light games put in front
<v Speaker 1>of you compared to say a more structured, linear story
<v Speaker 1>based game that isn't focused on runs. And this is
<v Speaker 1>kind of an interesting paradigm in design where it's like
<v Speaker 1>a lot of the challenge in these games does come
<v Speaker 1>from walking into a boss room and saying I have
<v Speaker 1>the tools that I have gained up to this point,
<v Speaker 1>how do I make this work here? And so that
<v Speaker 1>sounds really interesting to me because it almost does force
<v Speaker 1>you to say, Okay, I've got my best tool. Do
<v Speaker 1>I want to use it to get through the rooms
<v Speaker 1>to get to the boss fights? Maybe if you're in
<v Speaker 1>your situation and you're like, I have this boss down,
<v Speaker 1>I could beat them with anything, basically, then you maybe
<v Speaker 1>want to use some of the nicer stuff to make
<v Speaker 1>sure that you can get there and not lose anything
<v Speaker 1>the process, dump a morsel in the process or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>But vice versa. Maybe you do have those decisions where
<v Speaker 1>you have to kind of manage what your resources are.
<v Speaker 1>And I kind of like that. That's like an interesting
<v Speaker 1>little piece of friction to toss in there at a
<v Speaker 1>fun wrench to say, like, hey, don't lean on one thing,
<v Speaker 1>because I think when I play stuff like say Slay
<v Speaker 1>the Spire Binding of Isaac, it's so easy to just
<v Speaker 1>get the good stuff, especially if you're not playing on
<v Speaker 1>the higher escalations and things like that, to say, I
<v Speaker 1>just want the good stuff, and once I have the
<v Speaker 1>good stuff, I'm kind of on autopilot at that point,
<v Speaker 1>and it's user error if I don't succeed, and I
<v Speaker 1>like it more when there's kind of a little bit
<v Speaker 1>of pushback to say, like we're gonna make sure you
<v Speaker 1>can't just hit autopilot through some of this stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, there's also a structure where in between each main
<v Speaker 3>level there's like a little rest point, and you'll encounter
<v Speaker 3>like these odd like big creatures. So sometimes it would
<v Speaker 3>be like a big crow or like a dog or something,
<v Speaker 3>and in one of them it was like a crane,
<v Speaker 3>and you always you have to you have to talk
<v Speaker 3>to them before you can move on. You get one
<v Speaker 3>of two choices, and often the second choice requires a wish,
<v Speaker 3>which is like a currency you can find in the
<v Speaker 3>world by like completing challenges. There's like a little monkey toy.
<v Speaker 3>If you bring it to the end of the level,
<v Speaker 3>then that'll get you a wish usually, but it's hard
<v Speaker 3>because when you're carrying it, you can't attack, so you
<v Speaker 3>got to like put it down and shoot pick it
<v Speaker 3>back up. It's like a real challenge. Thing kind of
<v Speaker 3>reminds me of like Spelunky in that sense almost of
<v Speaker 3>like it's randomly generated. Your try to find items to
<v Speaker 3>bring it to the end, but sometimes you'll get to
<v Speaker 3>a scenario where you guys have the game episode like
<v Speaker 3>the mobile game No, It's like, this is a really
<v Speaker 3>weird sere. It's a it's like an adventure game. It's
<v Speaker 3>like marketed towards women. And it'll be like Sasha and
<v Speaker 3>Brad at high school high and you'll be playing a
<v Speaker 3>Sasha and it'll have you do decisions, but it has
<v Speaker 3>these really predatory micro transactions where it'll be like Brad's like,
<v Speaker 3>so do you want to go to dinner? And to
<v Speaker 3>say yes, it costs one hundred gems, but to say
<v Speaker 3>no is free yeah, and it's like trying to squeeze
<v Speaker 3>the money out of you. This is like that where
<v Speaker 3>it's like there was one where I found this giant
<v Speaker 3>crane and he's like, I'm hungry for a snack, and
<v Speaker 3>I can either say eat my pebsil or no for
<v Speaker 3>a wish, and I didn't have a wish, so I'm like, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>one of my guys just died. One of my three
<v Speaker 3>guys is just gone now, and I can't do anything about that.
<v Speaker 3>So it is it is kind of like I said, Splunky,
<v Speaker 3>I think that's honestly a good comparison sometimes because I
<v Speaker 3>think another part of it is going in and being like,
<v Speaker 3>some runs are just gonna suck. You're gonna get a
<v Speaker 3>guy you don't like to start out with and you're
<v Speaker 3>just not gonna vibe with him, or you're gonna take
<v Speaker 3>a lot of damage real quick. The like macro progression,
<v Speaker 3>at least what I've gotten so far has been more
<v Speaker 3>like I'm unlocking new upgrades that my morsels can have,
<v Speaker 3>but I myself am not getting like more health to
<v Speaker 3>start a run or doing more damage to start a run.
<v Speaker 3>So it's a little bit more dependent on like your
<v Speaker 3>skill growing over time versus like a Hades or a
<v Speaker 3>Hades two where you're like boosting your max health and
<v Speaker 3>getting death defiances, et cetera. So it's a very very
<v Speaker 3>classic feeling roguelike in that sense. The art is really good,
<v Speaker 3>the music is fantastic. It's the same composed as does Grindstone,
<v Speaker 3>which is a game I love and still play all
<v Speaker 3>the time. So yeah, definitely worth checking out. I'm enjoying it.
<v Speaker 3>I'm hoping I can kind of like get into the
<v Speaker 3>groove again for that one run I had that was
<v Speaker 3>really good, because other than that, I've been absolute garbage,
<v Speaker 3>but its fun.
<v Speaker 1>It's cool. Yeah, I'm excited to try it. A quick question.
<v Speaker 2>I've noticed then, like the videos, there's like points where
<v Speaker 2>lot's like the art style changes and it's a little
<v Speaker 2>more three D. Have you run into that yet or
<v Speaker 2>if Yeah, I'm wondering if that's just like a one
<v Speaker 2>off segment or if that's something that just when you say.
<v Speaker 3>Three D, do you mean like like CG three D
<v Speaker 3>or it has like a three D effect with the pixels.
<v Speaker 2>Like I guess closer to CG through like the perspective
<v Speaker 2>changed or something.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Oh, I have not had that yet. I don't think.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, I only remember seeing in the trailers and I
<v Speaker 2>was like, oh, what's going on there? And I wasn't
<v Speaker 2>sure if that was like a recurring thing or maybe
<v Speaker 2>like a one off level or boss or something.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, there's a lot of like there's like little mouseholes
<v Speaker 3>that have like minigames in them. There's a bunch of
<v Speaker 3>like weird secret stuff like that. So I wouldn't be
<v Speaker 3>surprised if there's just like randomly a part that like
<v Speaker 3>this is the game where you could enter a hole
<v Speaker 3>in the wall and it'd be like it's clamation now
<v Speaker 3>and you're like, that makes sense, that's how the game
<v Speaker 3>would work. The title screen, I will say, does like
<v Speaker 3>a crazy effect with like reds and blues, so it
<v Speaker 3>looks three D somehow. I don't really know how to
<v Speaker 3>explain it, but if you just look at the title screen,
<v Speaker 3>it'll it's like a vortex sucking you in.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, awesome, Yeah, that's uh, that's Morsels is out now.
<v Speaker 2>I'm excited to play it, but at the same time,
<v Speaker 2>I'm scared to get sucked into another roguelike when I'm
<v Speaker 2>still very much trying to beat eighty two.
<v Speaker 3>Oh yeah, how many? Do you have a sense of
<v Speaker 3>how close you are to finish it?
<v Speaker 2>I'm not close, just because I've had to focus on
<v Speaker 2>other games and like work games, so I I have
<v Speaker 2>I have finished one run on each path, so I know.
<v Speaker 3>I haven't to go yeah okay, but but doing it
<v Speaker 3>having beaten each one for the first time is like
<v Speaker 3>the biggest hurdle. I feel like, like, once you've broken
<v Speaker 3>the seal, it's.
<v Speaker 2>Like yeah, yeah, but I feel like I have to
<v Speaker 2>put all my like roguelike like energy into that and
<v Speaker 2>not get distracted by another road. Like as much as
<v Speaker 2>I want to play this, but we'll see if I
<v Speaker 2>keep that promise or not. If nothing else, maybe it'll
<v Speaker 2>have to be like a holiday game, something to play
<v Speaker 2>over to break. I think it's on Switch, I hope,
<v Speaker 2>So that's kind of where I'm eyeing.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, thank you for mentioning it. Actually I am playing
<v Speaker 3>it on Switch. I would probably recommend not playing it
<v Speaker 3>on Switch. Oh oh, there was a patch that came
<v Speaker 3>in today, so maybe it was running a little better.
<v Speaker 3>But I was noticing it would just kind of freeze
<v Speaker 3>up a little bit, like it would I'd have like
<v Speaker 3>big frame drops and it's like a twitchy enough game
<v Speaker 3>if that's not fun. The most frequently it happens is
<v Speaker 3>when I'm like loading into a new level, and then
<v Speaker 3>it's usually fine, but sometimes it would get kind of
<v Speaker 3>overwhelmed and stutter a little bit.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Is this a switch one game or is there
<v Speaker 1>a native.
<v Speaker 3>Switch switch one?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 3>Okay, so I'm playing Switch one version on a switch too.
<v Speaker 3>I believe it works well on steam Deck, or at
<v Speaker 3>least they told us it did. I've played it on
<v Speaker 3>steam Deck, so I can't say firsthand, but yeah, probably
<v Speaker 3>not a great Switch game unless they've patched it today
<v Speaker 3>and it works better.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, okay, well, yes that's Morsels. Everyone go check
<v Speaker 2>it out. Sounds super cool. And yeah, we're gonna take
<v Speaker 2>a quick break and when we come back, we're gonna
<v Speaker 2>be talking about the nominees for the Game Awards as
<v Speaker 2>well as our new quiz game g I ought to
<v Speaker 2>know all about the TGAs. We'll be right back, and
<v Speaker 2>we're back and we're going to be talking about the
<v Speaker 2>Game Awards. Yes, Jeff Keeley's annual award show the biggest
<v Speaker 2>award show of the year in video games, definitely the
<v Speaker 2>most mainstream. It's going to be taking place December eleventh,
<v Speaker 2>and you know what, for the first year ever, your
<v Speaker 2>boy is gonna be there live in person. Yeah, I'm
<v Speaker 2>gonna be all up in there. I've never been before.
<v Speaker 1>It's been good.
<v Speaker 3>You got to take all the all the pictures at
<v Speaker 3>the hotel afterwards. I'm just very excited for the people
<v Speaker 3>you'll run into that are just casually there. It is.
<v Speaker 1>It's an incredible experience for that, I think, even more
<v Speaker 1>so than other industry events, even back when I was
<v Speaker 1>going to E three and stuff like that. The concentration
<v Speaker 1>of people that are just in the lobby after the
<v Speaker 1>Game Awards and hanging out and talking is like you're
<v Speaker 1>gonna meet a lot of people that you will not
<v Speaker 1>expect to ever really run into anywhere else. It's pretty fun.
<v Speaker 1>So a lot of networking. Oh absolutely, yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I was gonna ask who's the most exciting person that
<v Speaker 2>you ran into the game Awards for you guys, if
<v Speaker 2>you have to pick one.
<v Speaker 3>I've never been, so I don't know. I'm hoping you
<v Speaker 3>get to see erka Ish because I'm just a big
<v Speaker 3>Erica ISHII fan and would love a picture of her
<v Speaker 3>with someone I know and to be like, ah, I'm
<v Speaker 3>one degree closer to meeting though.
<v Speaker 1>So you can put your face on my picture in
<v Speaker 1>a photoshop. It is that where you're Yes, I met
<v Speaker 1>I met the some of the cast of Immortality, including
<v Speaker 1>an own gauge. That was pretty fun because I love
<v Speaker 1>that game. I think that game is absolutely amazing. Also
<v Speaker 1>met like Samantha Barrett, who has been here on the
<v Speaker 1>show before, met like various different developers, the composer of
<v Speaker 1>Outer Wilds I think was one year that might've actually
<v Speaker 1>been SDF. But yeah, yeah, it's really fun because you
<v Speaker 1>get to just meet folks from all different parts of
<v Speaker 1>the industry and they're all just kind of mingling and
<v Speaker 1>talking and having a good time. I got into a
<v Speaker 1>really long discussion about Final Fantasy twelve and how good
<v Speaker 1>that game is with various different developers from different studios
<v Speaker 1>and stuff, and it was really fun to be like,
<v Speaker 1>good the sickos have congregated in one area. We're talking
<v Speaker 1>about Final Fantasy twelve. The world is healing. Oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I would be in her because I think Final Fantasy
<v Speaker 1>twelve is top tier. Oh it's really good. I need
<v Speaker 1>to get back to it. I think I'm like halfway
<v Speaker 1>through it, playing it for the first time, and it's wonderful.
<v Speaker 1>It's so good.
<v Speaker 2>But yes, we're just gonna run down not all the
<v Speaker 2>categories because there's a lot, but we're gonna be going
<v Speaker 2>through some of the big ones.
<v Speaker 1>Just listening.
<v Speaker 2>I'm giving our thoughts and maybe and some predictions on
<v Speaker 2>who thing is gonna win. A full disclosure. Game Informer
<v Speaker 2>as an outlet, we are part of the voting body
<v Speaker 2>for the Game Awards, and that we help select the
<v Speaker 2>nominees along with a bunch of other outlets and important people,
<v Speaker 2>whether they be influencers or journalists and other just from
<v Speaker 2>all different walks of media life.
<v Speaker 1>It does feel strange the way that that's I've said
<v Speaker 1>before on social media, that's a consensus of a consensus,
<v Speaker 1>because like, we get a vote, and there's obviously multiple
<v Speaker 1>people who work here at GI and then that goes
<v Speaker 1>into a pool of multiple different places that then put
<v Speaker 1>all their votes, and you can go on the website
<v Speaker 1>and see the voting juried stuff here before, and so
<v Speaker 1>I always find it really interesting to see what comes
<v Speaker 1>out the other side from that, because we have our
<v Speaker 1>own ballot and then seeing how that matches up or
<v Speaker 1>doesn't match up afterwards is always very interesting on the
<v Speaker 1>other side.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's also good. I this is for every outlet
<v Speaker 2>that has an end of year or discussion, but it's
<v Speaker 2>kind of like our dress rehearsal for our end of
<v Speaker 2>year considerations, because we're having the same discussions about like, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>what do we want to put on the ballot, what
<v Speaker 2>do we think are our top five games that should
<v Speaker 2>be nominated for Game of a Year, and see how
<v Speaker 2>many of them actually make it through, and doing the
<v Speaker 2>same for all the other directions. So it's kind of
<v Speaker 2>like for us, it's helpful to kind of get a
<v Speaker 2>temperature check on like what our discussions we're going to
<v Speaker 2>like kind of shape out to be and kind of
<v Speaker 2>see where everyone's at, and also like a reminder of
<v Speaker 2>what we still need to play before we get to
<v Speaker 2>our discussions. But yeah, I think that maybe one of
<v Speaker 2>the biggest sort of like themes of this year is
<v Speaker 2>just how many damn awards clear up Skier Expedition thirty three.
<v Speaker 2>It's probably or it could potentially walk out with I
<v Speaker 2>believe they have around twelve nominations, like they have a
<v Speaker 2>chance to return of the King this show and walk
<v Speaker 2>out with all of them potentially.
<v Speaker 3>And I don't think anyone was surprised by that now.
<v Speaker 3>I think it's an interesting case of uh, just consensus
<v Speaker 3>among the game industry that it's like, well, this game
<v Speaker 3>is great and we should all talk about it, and
<v Speaker 3>it's I think I think it's it's a fun game
<v Speaker 3>to like, well, and it's it's worth liking. It's a
<v Speaker 3>good game, but it's like a fun like underdog story.
<v Speaker 3>I feel like being like this study never made.
<v Speaker 1>A game before.
<v Speaker 3>It.
<v Speaker 2>Also, it also feels weirdly. I don't know how many
<v Speaker 2>games there are where it feels like the general public
<v Speaker 2>and sort of the critical community are kind of almost
<v Speaker 2>unified around this game, because I feel like sometimes there's
<v Speaker 2>like games that critics celebrate that the general public are like,
<v Speaker 2>it's overrated, it's dumb or something, it's not that great,
<v Speaker 2>it's only like an it's critical bait or whatever. But
<v Speaker 2>this is one where it just feels like everyone's like, yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Clear, Scar, we like that game. Come on, it deserves
<v Speaker 1>all its flowers. I'm not gonna rule out the bassility
<v Speaker 1>of there being some sort of ground swell like this
<v Speaker 1>is the real game of the year, surging up like that.
<v Speaker 1>That always happens. I mean, it's the nature of award shows.
<v Speaker 1>Award shows are meant to in some ways encourage discussion
<v Speaker 1>and debate, but also are really good at starring up
<v Speaker 1>fewer and zelotry over what you believe is the greatest
<v Speaker 1>Claar Obscurer. Maybe doesn't surprise me because I don't mean
<v Speaker 1>to say that this is awards bait, but it was
<v Speaker 1>the game that was best built to get awards, if
<v Speaker 1>that makes sense. It has a lot of really good
<v Speaker 1>performances and it has an incredible score. It's very cinematic
<v Speaker 1>in the way it approaches everything. It kind of has
<v Speaker 1>that that verve around it that when I was playing,
<v Speaker 1>and I remember thinking at the time, like, this is
<v Speaker 1>going to do well at the Game Awards if it
<v Speaker 1>ends up getting received well critically, and obviously it all
<v Speaker 1>panned out, so that one is both surprising but maybe
<v Speaker 1>more so on surprising that it was. It's doing the
<v Speaker 1>thing it was built to do, and it's clareb. Scier I.
<v Speaker 1>I really as we go through these categories, every single
<v Speaker 1>one I'm looking at and I'm like, well, Claire up
<v Speaker 1>sciar is probably the front runner for this category. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>It is one of those things that's interesting too, of
<v Speaker 3>like is it, like I think in a lot of
<v Speaker 3>categories that might win even if it's like like just
<v Speaker 3>by default, like when it's like when you have Game
<v Speaker 3>of the Year in a game that's gonna win Game
<v Speaker 3>of the Year, if that's the thing we have a
<v Speaker 3>discussion of sometimes too, of like, well, if this is
<v Speaker 3>our game of the Year, then it also wins best
<v Speaker 3>Indie Game because it's also an indie game. And that's
<v Speaker 3>the thing that with Clare Obscure is interesting that like,
<v Speaker 3>if it's gonna it's a game that has all these nominations,
<v Speaker 3>I would honestly be surprised if it didn't win Game
<v Speaker 3>of the Year. But does that mean that, like it
<v Speaker 3>doesn't automatically win Best Independent Game? Like probably right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, or and we'll get into that actually, because there's
<v Speaker 2>so controversy around that a bit, as there usually is
<v Speaker 2>every year. But yeah, we'll start with the big one
<v Speaker 2>game of the year. So the nominees are, as we mentioned,
<v Speaker 2>clariup Skier. There's also Death Stranding Two on the Beach,
<v Speaker 2>Donkey Kong, Bonanza, Haiti's Two, Hollow Night, Silk Song, and
<v Speaker 2>Kingdom Come Deliverance too. I've forgotten this might have changed
<v Speaker 2>a while ago, but I'd forgotten that there were more
<v Speaker 2>nominees than there used to be for Game of the Year.
<v Speaker 2>I was like, oh, there's like six six games, Like
<v Speaker 2>was that always six? I felt like it was always
<v Speaker 2>like four or five. But I think that might have
<v Speaker 2>changed maybe in the last year or more.
<v Speaker 1>It's fluctuated for sure, but depending on the air.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but overall, like a very strong lineup. There's like
<v Speaker 2>there's not too many I would poke holes at personally,
<v Speaker 2>Like maybe Donkey Kong for me, as much as I
<v Speaker 2>really liked that game, that might be the only one
<v Speaker 2>I would go, I could maybe put a Blueprints in
<v Speaker 2>there instead. I think for me, that is the biggest
<v Speaker 2>sort of snub. I guess we want to call it that,
<v Speaker 2>even more so than Ghost of Yote. I think I
<v Speaker 2>would say Blueprints not making it is a little surprising
<v Speaker 2>give and how kind of like nuts the like media
<v Speaker 2>went for that game when it came out. So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I'm a I'm a little like, ah, too bad it
<v Speaker 2>didn't make it.
<v Speaker 1>But there is a there's a time honored tradition of
<v Speaker 1>really really good indie games not making it into the
<v Speaker 1>goady category shout outs to Outer Wild, shout outs to
<v Speaker 1>slay the Spire. But I think that has happened again
<v Speaker 1>this year where Blueprints, which we will talk about in
<v Speaker 1>another category, did not make it here. And I mean,
<v Speaker 1>if I was gonna poke holes, I would start probably
<v Speaker 1>looking at Death Stranding too, a game that I think
<v Speaker 1>came out to very tepid reception. I think that's that's
<v Speaker 1>definitely Death Stranding again.
<v Speaker 3>And I think it was it was warm, but not
<v Speaker 3>like yeah, like people, you know, like people liked it,
<v Speaker 3>but no one was like everyone has to drop what
<v Speaker 3>they're doing and play Death Stranding too. And I say, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>broadly speaking, it has like a decent Metacritics score, but
<v Speaker 3>it didn't set the world on fire.
<v Speaker 2>Sure, sure, it was definitely much more warmly received than
<v Speaker 2>the first game, like kind of a lot more of
<v Speaker 2>a more universal like positive reception to it. But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>even I was actually that might have surprised me even
<v Speaker 2>more than Donkey can now and I'm thinking about it
<v Speaker 2>when I saw that. But also, I mean, did you
<v Speaker 2>not think Kajima's new game was not gonna.
<v Speaker 1>Well, so that's the thing is again, like it is
<v Speaker 1>important to stress. I know sometimes people like want to
<v Speaker 1>hop on Kiley's chest over some of this stuff, but like,
<v Speaker 1>this is a voting jury. This is a nomination process,
<v Speaker 1>and it's not like like Kighley's walking in and just
<v Speaker 1>saying like, here's my list. This is what everybody in
<v Speaker 1>the world is voting on. And so that's as much
<v Speaker 1>as it's fun to make the Kojima jokes, I will
<v Speaker 1>say in this instance, I find it interesting that Destraining
<v Speaker 1>two on the Beach has such a wide reaching appeal
<v Speaker 1>and is like hitting across the board for so many places.
<v Speaker 1>I could see it as an outlier favorite for some
<v Speaker 1>places that really gelled with it, but I think the
<v Speaker 1>fact that it is such widespread appeals is kind of interesting.
<v Speaker 1>I think two Blueprints, there was some interesting discussion some
<v Speaker 1>articles going around the recommend looking into about how localization
<v Speaker 1>can sometimes play a part in this, because I mentioned
<v Speaker 1>that Blueprints is only in English right now, and so
<v Speaker 1>if you live in countries that don't speak English, or
<v Speaker 1>English is not your primary language that you want to
<v Speaker 1>play the game in, you may not have played that
<v Speaker 1>game this year, and that might have borne out in
<v Speaker 1>some of the votes. I could see that affecting some
<v Speaker 1>of the play here. And also there's just a billion
<v Speaker 1>fricking games to play this year.
<v Speaker 3>So the of the gaming outlets on this voting jury,
<v Speaker 3>there's like about half of them or from the US
<v Speaker 3>and the UK, and then a lot of the other
<v Speaker 3>ones are from just countries that don't speak English or
<v Speaker 3>English is in the primary language, Like obviously you've got Australia,
<v Speaker 3>which they speak English, but like if you're in Brazil
<v Speaker 3>and you don't speak English, than like the odds of
<v Speaker 3>enough of them playing Blueprints to nominate it, that to
<v Speaker 3>me makes the most sense, is why I didn't get nominated,
<v Speaker 3>Because there there's at least one puzzle I know off
<v Speaker 3>the top of my head that's like, I don't know
<v Speaker 3>how that would like it involves English homophones, where I'm like,
<v Speaker 3>I don't I don't know how you could translate that
<v Speaker 3>into a different language thinking.
<v Speaker 1>Of the same one. Yeah, it's it's a difficult one
<v Speaker 1>to manage. And I find that really interesting because I
<v Speaker 1>think localization, I would love to see some follow up data,
<v Speaker 1>follow up research on this to see, like I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I've always said I would love to know what some
<v Speaker 1>of the voting outcomes were, like how they spread out
<v Speaker 1>across different places, to get more data out of this,
<v Speaker 1>because I do think you could pull some really interesting
<v Speaker 1>insights into how localization, how regional launches, how platform launches
<v Speaker 1>end up playing into the way that we critically come
<v Speaker 1>to a consensus on video games. And I don't think
<v Speaker 1>that is the sole reason for anything here. I definitely
<v Speaker 1>do think, like, despite the fact that I'm saying distraining
<v Speaker 1>too is the one i'd poke hole and I don't
<v Speaker 1>think it's like completely unworthy of a Gody nomination it is,
<v Speaker 1>But Blueprints, I think is also a runaway. It's in
<v Speaker 1>my top three personally, So I always find it interesting
<v Speaker 1>to see how this stuff comes together. I know there's
<v Speaker 1>reasons why some games I love, like one hundred Line
<v Speaker 1>or not in the Godie category because not all y'all
<v Speaker 1>are ready for that conversation. But yeah, I would love
<v Speaker 1>to know how some external factors that we wouldn't normally
<v Speaker 1>think of applying to this stuff, especially because we come
<v Speaker 1>to it from a perspective, and we don't always have
<v Speaker 1>all the perspectives, right, so.
<v Speaker 2>We think and Claire wins it. If not Claire, what
<v Speaker 2>do you think could what do you think could beat
<v Speaker 2>a dark horse?
<v Speaker 1>I think k CD two is an interesting dark horse here, honestly,
<v Speaker 1>Like that's that's.
<v Speaker 3>The one that has the most like fervor behind it.
<v Speaker 3>Like people that like k CD two really like it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Kingdom condovers too, Yes, Yeah, I just like saying
<v Speaker 1>it that way.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, No, it does sound cool. But yeah, I would
<v Speaker 2>say Haiti's two. It feels like the one that feels
<v Speaker 2>like that would make the most sense of that that
<v Speaker 2>could sneak in and surprise everybody, and.
<v Speaker 3>As the highest metacritic I think out of all.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and maybe the one that could get away with
<v Speaker 2>it without people being like overly upset that Claire Obscier
<v Speaker 2>didn't win like people would be mad, but go like, well,
<v Speaker 2>I guess I get it.
<v Speaker 3>Even then, though there's there's I don't know how much
<v Speaker 3>we've talked about on the podcast. The Haities two ending
<v Speaker 3>is controversial. It is specifically among like super giant fans people.
<v Speaker 1>Really, you mean the old ending or the new one
<v Speaker 1>or whatever they did to it?
<v Speaker 3>Uh, the old original ending. I have not gotten to
<v Speaker 3>the new one yet, so I haven't looked into it
<v Speaker 3>to see how it's spoiled. But I think it just
<v Speaker 3>adds more context around it.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, they mass effect read it. Oh god, it's
<v Speaker 2>kind of what it sounded like when I saw the news.
<v Speaker 2>I was like a mass effect. Three.
<v Speaker 1>I think it's interesting we're not immediately surfacing Silk Song,
<v Speaker 1>which I don't think is incorrect. I think Silk Song
<v Speaker 1>is in a weird place because I do think a
<v Speaker 1>lot of people like it. But I also feel like
<v Speaker 1>it's maybe not the immediate goady that so many people
<v Speaker 1>thought it was going to be. And I'm not sure
<v Speaker 1>why that sentiment is. It's just something I feel in
<v Speaker 1>my gut.
<v Speaker 3>I think Silk Song is and I don't think this
<v Speaker 3>is a bad thing for a game to be. But
<v Speaker 3>I think it's a pretty inflexible game where it's like
<v Speaker 3>this is the way that it is to be played,
<v Speaker 3>and you kind of have to match it at that level,
<v Speaker 3>as opposed to like even like a Dark Soul's game
<v Speaker 3>or like an Elden Ring, like you can theoretically, if
<v Speaker 3>you're having a really hard time with the boss, you
<v Speaker 3>could like grind and level up a bunch and then
<v Speaker 3>make your life a little bit easier. Silk Song is
<v Speaker 3>a little bit harder to do that, And so I
<v Speaker 3>think that it's a game that, like, if it's your
<v Speaker 3>type of game, you'll get in it and you'll really
<v Speaker 3>like it. But I do think there's like a subset
<v Speaker 3>of journalists or other people in the voting party that
<v Speaker 3>like didn't really get into it. I didn't play that
<v Speaker 3>much of it. I got like ten twelve hours in,
<v Speaker 3>and I was.
<v Speaker 1>Like, it's just like much of it in twelve hours.
<v Speaker 3>It's a long game.
<v Speaker 1>It's a long game.
<v Speaker 3>There.
<v Speaker 2>I was gonna say the last time that there was
<v Speaker 2>a game that match that description, it was called Secoro
<v Speaker 2>Shadows Die Twice and then that wound up winning Gody
<v Speaker 2>that year and a bit of an upset from what
<v Speaker 2>I remember.
<v Speaker 1>That was a wild year. That's a really interesting year.
<v Speaker 2>Another game that you pretty much have to play it
<v Speaker 2>its way or very much. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Overall, strong,
<v Speaker 2>strong nominee list, maybe one of the stronger ones in
<v Speaker 2>recent years. So yeah, I'm excited to see how that
<v Speaker 2>shakes out. I'm gonna go down some of them and
<v Speaker 2>feel free to shout out any that you have any
<v Speaker 2>strong feelings that you'd like to discuss. We got best
<v Speaker 2>game destruct destruction.
<v Speaker 3>Direction, Eric had best game Direction, right.
<v Speaker 1>I The thing with game direction is I always feel
<v Speaker 1>like this is a weird category because it feels so
<v Speaker 1>direction lists. It's like, whoa, I forget they do give
<v Speaker 1>us a thing that says like this is what game
<v Speaker 1>direction is. And I do feel like some years there's
<v Speaker 1>games that really stick out to me, is like this
<v Speaker 1>was a direct a game. I would say Blueprints for
<v Speaker 1>me would fall under this category. I would say that
<v Speaker 1>here for me, Yeah, yeah, dest Ranting, Ghost Split Fiction. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>weird weird picks this year where it kind of felt
<v Speaker 1>like these were games that didn't make the goaty cut
<v Speaker 1>because like Yota Split Fiction are games that I immediately
<v Speaker 1>look at like did not make the Goady category and
<v Speaker 1>I I have not played split fiction yet. I've played
<v Speaker 1>a little bit of Yota, and I don't know what
<v Speaker 1>I would say in there, especially like jumps out at
<v Speaker 1>me as a direction versus some of the games I
<v Speaker 1>just said, like like alan Wick two or Blueprints where
<v Speaker 1>it feels like there's kind of a like like directorial
<v Speaker 1>intent being enacted. But even that is such a weird
<v Speaker 1>thing to express in a game versus the way that
<v Speaker 1>we would traditionally think of it on you know, in
<v Speaker 1>a movie or something like that. This feels like a
<v Speaker 1>movie category that is trying to be like put into
<v Speaker 1>a game sense. And I feel like sometimes we can
<v Speaker 1>kind of get like the verve of it right, and
<v Speaker 1>sometimes it just feels like we have a bonus goady category.
<v Speaker 1>And that's what it feels like this year to me,
<v Speaker 1>I was.
<v Speaker 3>Gonna say the destruction here real Quick is awarded for
<v Speaker 3>outstanding creative vision and Innovation in Game direction and design.
<v Speaker 3>So not super helpful.
<v Speaker 2>No, that feels to Eric's sort of like film analogy
<v Speaker 2>that feels like death Straining two would be lined up
<v Speaker 2>to take that.
<v Speaker 1>Is this the a Tour Award at the end of
<v Speaker 1>the day, maybe like what was the most directed game
<v Speaker 1>on this list, It probably be that I.
<v Speaker 3>Do feel like Yote like so so like a good
<v Speaker 3>game direction choice to me will be something like the
<v Speaker 3>God of War games. Having that like one shot style right,
<v Speaker 3>is a thing that's like that is like very much
<v Speaker 3>a movie thing, but there's a lot of coordination for
<v Speaker 3>that to happen and feel seamless and work out. That's
<v Speaker 3>one where I'm like, that was a good job that
<v Speaker 3>all these different categories are departments of a game developer
<v Speaker 3>could come together and make this like really cool choice.
<v Speaker 3>I do feel like Yota. I really like Yota, so
<v Speaker 3>I feel like it probably should have been in that category.
<v Speaker 3>But from what I understand of like Kanaan come Deliverance too,
<v Speaker 3>that's one I'm kind of surprised to not see here
<v Speaker 3>because people found it so immersive and that that feels
<v Speaker 3>to me to lend to this sort of thing.
<v Speaker 2>I guess like sort of like the delivered decision to
<v Speaker 2>make it as harsh and unforgiving, like like it is
<v Speaker 2>a role playing game in the purest sense, is what
<v Speaker 2>I hear about that game, or I still have not
<v Speaker 2>played it, but it is it is meant to be
<v Speaker 2>miserable for the first few hours because you are, like
<v Speaker 2>the character just kind of like trying to re actually
<v Speaker 2>get good and not like get good in a video
<v Speaker 2>game kind of way.
<v Speaker 1>To throw some wrenches here, I would almost say that
<v Speaker 1>games like Baby Steps then jump out at me as
<v Speaker 1>something that is like realizing a creative vision and trying
<v Speaker 1>to enact it, or one hundred Line again or clover Pit,
<v Speaker 1>stuff like that, Like something that has a real like
<v Speaker 1>creative concept and really just goes for it again Blueprints
<v Speaker 1>like that. I think that, But also some of these
<v Speaker 1>games on here, I think split fiction in that sense
<v Speaker 1>does line up for me. I think Desk Stranding would
<v Speaker 1>potentially line up for me, maybe not as strongly as
<v Speaker 1>the original Death Stranding did for me, for for complex
<v Speaker 1>reasons we need to get into. But yeah, it just
<v Speaker 1>continues to be kind of a strange category that I
<v Speaker 1>never quite know what it's going to end up looking like,
<v Speaker 1>and I think on paper always ends up looking a
<v Speaker 1>little bit too similar to the go Dey nominations, which, hey,
<v Speaker 1>if a game has a really strong creative vision and
<v Speaker 1>it's it's exceptional and a word worthy, that does then
<v Speaker 1>probably make it overall worthy of honors.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, yeah, so best narrative, We've got clairep Skier
<v Speaker 2>Death Stranding two, Ghost of Yote Kingdom comes over in two,
<v Speaker 2>and Silent Hill f creeping on in there. I seeing
<v Speaker 2>Silent Off just reminds me the like me being a
<v Speaker 2>little bit more down on the game than most of
<v Speaker 2>our peers are. And I'm upset because from what I've seen,
<v Speaker 2>understand to get the most out of that story you
<v Speaker 2>have to replay the game over and over because things change.
<v Speaker 2>But the game also does not communicate that that's what
<v Speaker 2>you're supposed to do at all, Like it is not
<v Speaker 2>a mere automative situation where that is clearly like built
<v Speaker 2>into its linear narrative, the like replaying the game over
<v Speaker 2>and over, Like you finish Silent Hill and you get
<v Speaker 2>full credits and then it's like, hey, your game plus
<v Speaker 2>if you want by so you think like, well, I'm done,
<v Speaker 2>I guess that was it.
<v Speaker 1>It doesn't.
<v Speaker 2>It doesn't really like there's nothing in the story that
<v Speaker 2>sort of even nudges you towards you might want to
<v Speaker 2>play this again for you know, plot reason. So I'm
<v Speaker 2>like I've been annoyed at it for that because it
<v Speaker 2>sounds like, oh yeah, when you get to like the
<v Speaker 2>second third place through, it really starts to cook, and
<v Speaker 2>it's like, I don't I don't have time for that.
<v Speaker 2>And also you didn't tell me that I should do that,
<v Speaker 2>so why would I think to do that unless you
<v Speaker 2>had something? So I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>That's my like personal peeve with Silent h'll lef.
<v Speaker 3>There's an interesting like paradox with game narratives too, where
<v Speaker 3>it's like it's like to beat a game is one thing,
<v Speaker 3>Like just to get credits on a game is like
<v Speaker 3>one achievement, but there's a lot more you can do
<v Speaker 3>in most games and just play it through one time.
<v Speaker 3>A narrative can comprise of so many different elements of
<v Speaker 3>a game that when you're voting on something like Best Narrative,
<v Speaker 3>it's like, well, what what are we counting as the narrative?
<v Speaker 3>And how much of that has everyone experienced? Where it's like,
<v Speaker 3>are we talking about multiple playthroughs? Is that what's gonna
<v Speaker 3>nominate for us? If it's something like a like a
<v Speaker 3>big open world game and has really good side quests,
<v Speaker 3>are we like, well, I hope everyone's done all the
<v Speaker 3>side quest so they know that this is worth nominating,
<v Speaker 3>like it's an interesting category like some of these where
<v Speaker 3>it's like depending on how much time you've actually invested
<v Speaker 3>is going to determine where you evaluate it. And it's
<v Speaker 3>not really like many of the categories of the Game
<v Speaker 3>Awards not concretely said this is what this is about,
<v Speaker 3>and this is what you have to do to nominate it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think again this is a place where specificity
<v Speaker 1>could help, and even narrowing the bounds of the category
<v Speaker 1>might assist in that way, because for context, I don't
<v Speaker 1>maybe one year I did. I haven't really participated in
<v Speaker 1>other awards for other mediums, but I have been on
<v Speaker 1>the distribution lists for them, so I've seen kind of
<v Speaker 1>what it looks like for when distribution happens for say
<v Speaker 1>film or music or things like that for their award
<v Speaker 1>shows and for their voting and things like that, and
<v Speaker 1>oftentimes you'll get you know, this has become more commony
<v Speaker 1>games recently, but a four year consideration mailer where they'll
<v Speaker 1>kind of reach out and say like, hey, we're being considered,
<v Speaker 1>you know, we want to go for these categories and
<v Speaker 1>things like that. And in film specifically, you will get
<v Speaker 1>scripts and they will say like we are going for
<v Speaker 1>a writing award. Here is the script, here is the
<v Speaker 1>like layout. And I think a lot of the awards
<v Speaker 1>there then end up pushing more towards like the very
<v Speaker 1>specific part of that craft that is being expressed. And
<v Speaker 1>I think best narrative becomes to all encompassing, because what
<v Speaker 1>does narrative mean in the sense is it the way
<v Speaker 1>that narrative ties into the interactivity? You know, again blueprints
<v Speaker 1>comes up again or things like that, or you go
<v Speaker 1>to Discolesium and things like that where the writing is
<v Speaker 1>really good, but also the way it ties into the
<v Speaker 1>interactivity saisant sleeper kind of falls in that category two?
<v Speaker 1>Or is it just about like you have really good
<v Speaker 1>words on the page, which I do think like a
<v Speaker 1>KCD two fits here, or even you know, like a
<v Speaker 1>clear obscure or death Spring shoot, a dispatch would would
<v Speaker 1>kind of fit interestingly here. You know That's that's yeah. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>dispatch just kind of suffers from like it wasn't done
<v Speaker 1>by the time, Yeah, voting happens.
<v Speaker 2>I think it would qualify if it had. So it's
<v Speaker 2>just more of a victim of circumstance than anything.
<v Speaker 1>Right, And and I think again that's why I think
<v Speaker 1>the specificity and maybe narrowing some of this criteria to
<v Speaker 1>be specifically about like this is for exceptional, Like this
<v Speaker 1>is not a best narrative, which feels a little broad.
<v Speaker 1>It's like best writing, best script. Something like that would
<v Speaker 1>would maybe help narrow and maybe in the process of narrowing,
<v Speaker 1>help widen the potential candidates in the categories as well,
<v Speaker 1>because they don't feel like they're so all encompassing that
<v Speaker 1>something like a Clare obscure is an auto include in
<v Speaker 1>every single thing. That's ali is a very good narrative,
<v Speaker 1>it's really good writing. That opening hours is spectacular. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's opening hour of the year. That should be a category.
<v Speaker 1>Oh that would be great.
<v Speaker 3>That would be great. That's that's like a big determining factor.
<v Speaker 1>For me of like, I mean, yeah, that's important.
<v Speaker 3>A lot of my favorite games have really good opening hours,
<v Speaker 3>and a lot of games that people say that are
<v Speaker 3>good that I've never actually played don't have very good
<v Speaker 3>opening hours.
<v Speaker 1>Balder's three previous award winner has like a spectacular opening
<v Speaker 1>one that like, I'd still cite is like one of
<v Speaker 1>the best ways to open an RPG.
<v Speaker 3>Ever, I also really love God of War twenty eighteen
<v Speaker 3>that has a really good opening hour.
<v Speaker 2>God three where you fight Poseidon right off the bat
<v Speaker 2>that incredible beseide.
<v Speaker 1>And fight good stuff, good stuff.
<v Speaker 2>All right, that's our direction. We got Claire Scarre Death Stranding,
<v Speaker 2>Ghost of Yota, Haites two, and Hollow Night Silk Song.
<v Speaker 2>I am shocked that neither South of Midnight nor Keeper
<v Speaker 2>cracked the list.
<v Speaker 1>I was.
<v Speaker 2>I was very surprised to see both of those absent.
<v Speaker 2>I think those are two of the strongest art directions
<v Speaker 2>of the year. That's that's my sour grapes.
<v Speaker 1>I guess, I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>I'm curious how something like South of Midnight did overseas
<v Speaker 3>also where if we're I know, we're also pretty warm
<v Speaker 3>on it. The GI staff at least, like me, Marcus
<v Speaker 3>and Wes, we all have like a soft spot for it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, as the game as a whole, mean yeah, the
<v Speaker 1>art direction, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, also the art direction. But yeah, I just
<v Speaker 3>I just wonder.
<v Speaker 1>I yeah, I also just look at this and I
<v Speaker 1>see a bunch of games that I do agree have
<v Speaker 1>really good art styles, but not entirely new art styles,
<v Speaker 1>like Destrainding to Hades two, Ghosts of Vota, Hollow Night,
<v Speaker 1>Silk Song, is all are all sequels that very much
<v Speaker 1>take after their predecessors, and I'm like, yeah, like Hades Won,
<v Speaker 1>Hollow Night, Ghost of Sushima, on dest Stranding all had
<v Speaker 1>incredible art and they did more of it and in
<v Speaker 1>some cases better of it in their sequels. But this
<v Speaker 1>is again I think another thing we suffer from in
<v Speaker 1>awarding video games is sequel litis, where we're like, it
<v Speaker 1>did thing good again, And I would love to see
<v Speaker 1>some more like Keeper, like something that's a little bit
<v Speaker 1>newer tossed into this bunch.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, do you want to see We're kind of in
<v Speaker 2>best scoring music, we got Holla Night, Haites, Claire Goes, Tote,
<v Speaker 2>Debt Stranding. A lot of overlap in a lot of
<v Speaker 2>these categories for usual contenders.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, a lot of music is an interesting category with
<v Speaker 3>games every year for me because I'm like, good games
<v Speaker 3>often do have good music. But also I contend that
<v Speaker 3>it is easier is not the right word, but it's
<v Speaker 3>it's more common to find a good soundtrack on a
<v Speaker 3>game than to have a good game. Does that make
<v Speaker 3>any sense? Like the the work and effort goes into
<v Speaker 3>making a game good, there's a lot more moving parts.
<v Speaker 3>It's harder to hit versus like there's a lot of
<v Speaker 3>people that like went to school to be composers that
<v Speaker 3>wrote really good scores, and the quality of that music
<v Speaker 3>and the quality of a game don't necessarily always match up.
<v Speaker 3>So I think that, like there's instances of games that
<v Speaker 3>are like probably not great that do have banger soundtracks,
<v Speaker 3>but I I think people don't play them and they
<v Speaker 3>don't get nominated. Here, Oh, I see what you're saying,
<v Speaker 3>but I'm just saying the way that this lines up
<v Speaker 3>with like all the best Games of the Year and
<v Speaker 3>the Game of the Year awards, where it's like those
<v Speaker 3>are the games everyone played and we remember liking them,
<v Speaker 3>so we remember their soundtracks being good. But something like
<v Speaker 3>South of Midnight, where I'm like that score really stood
<v Speaker 3>out to me, people might not have played so they
<v Speaker 3>didn't get it.
<v Speaker 1>As an example, I do think there is often, again
<v Speaker 1>with all of these awards, a congruity of these used
<v Speaker 1>music like very very well Claire Obscurer used music really potently.
<v Speaker 1>Eighties of course use music really really well. Hollow Night,
<v Speaker 1>Silk Song, expressive, fantastic songs that hit at just the
<v Speaker 1>right moment, Like there's there's a part in Silk Song
<v Speaker 1>where you're running through that field and everything kind of
<v Speaker 1>flutters up and there's like incredible music and swells and
<v Speaker 1>stuff in that moment that was like, oh, this is
<v Speaker 1>really really good. And I do think there is just
<v Speaker 1>kind of a congruity there that when game good and
<v Speaker 1>you're really in the moment and then the music hits
<v Speaker 1>just right, it does elevate it just that little bit,
<v Speaker 1>whereas if game bad but music is still banging like,
<v Speaker 1>it can kind of get over sometimes, but usually those
<v Speaker 1>two need to be in concert for it to ultimately
<v Speaker 1>stand up in this category. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it.
<v Speaker 2>Hurts my heart that South of mid Night again incredible soundtrack.
<v Speaker 1>Also, Delta Rune is one that's playing Delta Rune. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it was never gonna make it because the weird chapter
<v Speaker 1>situation and all that, but Third Sanctuary is a straight
<v Speaker 1>up banger.
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to jump to Best Performance as presented by
<v Speaker 2>Claire Obscure Expedition thirty three.
<v Speaker 1>The nominees are.
<v Speaker 2>From that game, but we have a Ben stars Verso
<v Speaker 2>and Claire. We got Charlie Cox as Gustav from Claire.
<v Speaker 2>He got Jennifer English as may L from Claire, and
<v Speaker 2>then we got Rikahi as Atsu from Gozi Yote. We
<v Speaker 2>got Kanatsu Kato as a shimizu shmizu hiniko from Silent
<v Speaker 2>Hill and then coming in from from from running from
<v Speaker 2>the crowd because they saw they grow, they hit his music.
<v Speaker 2>Troy Baker as Indiana Joe and Indiana Jones in a
<v Speaker 2>Great Circle, which I'd forgotten that game technically qualifies for
<v Speaker 2>this game for this year, and it's it's unfortunate because
<v Speaker 2>I reviewed Anian Jones and I think it's great, and
<v Speaker 2>he definitely deserves it because his Harrison Ford. He might
<v Speaker 2>deserve to win because he had the tallest task of
<v Speaker 2>anyone on this list of trying to sound not only
<v Speaker 2>like Harrison Ford, but prime Harrison Ford. And my god,
<v Speaker 2>does he pull it off? Because I said in my review,
<v Speaker 2>if you did not tell me that was Troy Baker,
<v Speaker 2>I might have assumed some AI trickery on his performance.
<v Speaker 1>Is that good? I think? I think er Kayeshi is
<v Speaker 1>probably my front runner for this category, with possibly Kanatsu
<v Speaker 1>Kato as the runner up. But and I know that's
<v Speaker 1>gonna sound weird that I'm not saying any Claire names,
<v Speaker 1>but I do think that maybe Jennifer English is my
<v Speaker 1>l is maybe my standout from Claire. I do think
<v Speaker 1>everybody put in incredible work on that cast. But I
<v Speaker 1>think if I'm talking about like a singular performance, I
<v Speaker 1>lean more towards especially the experiences that really focused on
<v Speaker 1>those characters and put them front forward. So I could
<v Speaker 1>see Troy Baker taking it because that was a very
<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's an indie game. It's all about Indian
<v Speaker 1>So if he nails it, then it's going to like
<v Speaker 1>emphasize it that much more.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, like his performance makes or breaks that game, because
<v Speaker 2>if you do not, if I cannot buy him as
<v Speaker 2>Indiana Jones and that like that creole experience.
<v Speaker 3>Right. I do also want to say that this is
<v Speaker 3>an interesting case of six nominees.
<v Speaker 2>Again, Oh yeah, I don't be a three from player,
<v Speaker 2>so we have to fill it out a bit.
<v Speaker 1>You know.
<v Speaker 3>I'm just looking at these past years because I have
<v Speaker 3>a whole tab group of all the past best performances. Okay,
<v Speaker 3>twenty twenty three had six.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, but other categories in here, like when we get
<v Speaker 1>to Best Day.
<v Speaker 3>Twenty twenty four had five five nominees, Like it's like
<v Speaker 3>a flexible category. I wonder why if.
<v Speaker 2>He just like I mean, I guess it varies, like
<v Speaker 2>maybe some years are stronger for performances.
<v Speaker 1>Than others, or there's there's like I don't know. I
<v Speaker 1>would love to ask Jeff about this, but I could
<v Speaker 1>see a situation where maybe like some are so close
<v Speaker 1>together that they say, like, well, okay, we'll just expand
<v Speaker 1>it by one to a comedy rather than having to
<v Speaker 1>go through the Yeah. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>And I think it's tricky too, like we're saying McClair,
<v Speaker 2>where some games are just so like, are chock full
<v Speaker 2>of great performances that it's it's hard to just pick one,
<v Speaker 2>like it would be hard to just pick one from Claire.
<v Speaker 1>No nomination for Lune or Cil though, who I do
<v Speaker 1>think jump out at me more than Charlie Cox does here,
<v Speaker 1>And that's that's kind of a bummer. You just don't
<v Speaker 1>like Daredevil, is what I'm hearing. Yeah, yeah, start calling
<v Speaker 1>you Wilson Fisk. Wow, shave in my head right now.
<v Speaker 1>It's about the Mets. Let's go Mets, all.
<v Speaker 2>Right, best indie game. We've got absolute ballpit blueprints Claire
<v Speaker 2>Upscare Expedition thirty three eighties two, Hall of Night, Silk Song.
<v Speaker 2>Do we want to address the Claire the Claire Elephant.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean there's every year we go through the
<v Speaker 1>same discourse, which is what is an indie and we
<v Speaker 1>talk about whether being published by a publisher with X
<v Speaker 1>number of dollars backing or why number of developers involved
<v Speaker 1>in the development and how they're involved in the development
<v Speaker 1>versus not, And we go through it all the time,
<v Speaker 1>and you could really go through here and nitpick every
<v Speaker 1>single one of them, like is this Does a Devolver
<v Speaker 1>published game count as an indie game? Does a Kepler
<v Speaker 1>published game count as an indie game? Is Hades two
<v Speaker 1>an indie game? Because Haities one was too successful? And
<v Speaker 1>like that, Like, I've seen arguments for that, and it's
<v Speaker 1>it's weird, it makes less sense. I agree with my
<v Speaker 1>super Giants. No, I agree. I think Haities fits here.
<v Speaker 1>But I've seen some people be like, well, Haites one
<v Speaker 1>was like everybody knows super Giant. I'm like, that's not
<v Speaker 1>what that's about. But okay, I use the example to
<v Speaker 1>stress how silly this gets.
<v Speaker 3>Every year.
<v Speaker 1>I would nitpick Claire Obscure specifically, which would probably then
<v Speaker 1>nitpick some of the other ones here as well. In
<v Speaker 1>just that there is like a decent amount of funding
<v Speaker 1>that maybe other games did not see here. But I
<v Speaker 1>think I think the rot runs deeper in that. I
<v Speaker 1>think there's just kind of, as we go through these categories,
<v Speaker 1>a repetition of the same game names and not enough
<v Speaker 1>ways to kind of highlight stuff. And I know we've
<v Speaker 1>introduced you know, are we? I say, like the Game
<v Speaker 1>Awards has introduced stuff like Games for Impact to try
<v Speaker 1>and surface stuff, but then ultimately ends up feeling like
<v Speaker 1>a category that is like, well, here are the here's
<v Speaker 1>the indie game category. Here's here's the one where we
<v Speaker 1>bar Claire obscure theoretically but not this year, but where
<v Speaker 1>we bar like a God of War from competing so
<v Speaker 1>that we can let some other indies in. And I
<v Speaker 1>think that feels kind of defeating because I think the
<v Speaker 1>subtext there is like, is an indie not able to
<v Speaker 1>compete in Game of the Year? Is an indie not
<v Speaker 1>seen as viable by the broader consensus as a potential
<v Speaker 1>competitor for a Game of the Year. And that's where
<v Speaker 1>I get frustrated, because again, like, there are games like
<v Speaker 1>Outer Wilds that have been beloved ever since they came out,
<v Speaker 1>but we're not in the running at the time, and
<v Speaker 1>I wonder how much perception affects that.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, yeah, so we have Best Debut and d
<v Speaker 2>currently has Blueprints claiub Skier, Dispelote, and Dispatch. The story
<v Speaker 2>with this one is that it also included Megabonk, which
<v Speaker 2>is one of the kind of like new sort of
<v Speaker 2>like viral hits, the three D kind of Vampire Survivors. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>game that came out back in September, but not too
<v Speaker 2>like A day after the nominations came out, the solo
<v Speaker 2>developer behind megabalk went on Twitter and withdrew themselves from
<v Speaker 2>the nomination because they said, well, it's actually not my debut.
<v Speaker 2>I've I've released other games under different developer names, so
<v Speaker 2>this doesn't feel right for me to be here basically.
<v Speaker 1>Which is weird because well, first of all, Dispatch, we
<v Speaker 1>should mention is here. But also like that Team Claire
<v Speaker 1>Obscure have developers on I think Blueprints. Those developers might
<v Speaker 1>have made other games previously too. I can't think of
<v Speaker 1>them offhand, but I want to say that Blueprints might
<v Speaker 1>not be their first first game.
<v Speaker 2>That's the thing is like, when you look at the
<v Speaker 2>definition of this award, it's like nobody you almost would
<v Speaker 2>for the.
<v Speaker 1>Most part, like it's local, thunk and concerned ape and
<v Speaker 1>that's about it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's like what is I always assume best debut
<v Speaker 2>ND was the first game put out by a developer team,
<v Speaker 2>regardless of the experience of the developers.
<v Speaker 1>If this is your first.
<v Speaker 2>Game as a team as this specific collection of developers,
<v Speaker 2>then that is your debut. Technically, I always read it.
<v Speaker 1>The way it's seen in music is that it's your debut,
<v Speaker 1>it's you hitting the scene. It's like you broke Like
<v Speaker 1>a breakthrough award might be a better expression of that,
<v Speaker 1>because I think it was a few years ago that
<v Speaker 1>Bonavere was nominated for like a Best Debut Album under
<v Speaker 1>the self titled for Bonaver, but like Bonaver had done
<v Speaker 1>music before that. It's just like that was the thing
<v Speaker 1>that broke through. This was like the debut onto the
<v Speaker 1>grander stage. And I know that's like kind of a
<v Speaker 1>weird way to acknowledge it, but it also does acknowledge
<v Speaker 1>that a lot of people do make games that don't
<v Speaker 1>get critical awards and they're not part of like the
<v Speaker 1>the mainstream consciousness yet, and this does open a spot
<v Speaker 1>for them to be like, oh, you broke through. You've
<v Speaker 1>you've kind of, you know, garnered the public's perception, and
<v Speaker 1>we want to like acknowledge that. But yeah, I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>It's another funky category. Yeah, it's weird.
<v Speaker 2>Alright, I'm going to speed through. Somebody, feel free to
<v Speaker 2>shout out any that you'd like to comment on. We
<v Speaker 2>got games for Impact, Consume Me, Dispelote, Lost Records, Bloom
<v Speaker 2>and Rage and I just realized I put three o's
<v Speaker 2>and Blooms. I need to fix that. South of Midnight
<v Speaker 2>and Wander Stop. We got Best Action Battlefield six, Doomed,
<v Speaker 2>the Dark Ages, Hadis two, Ninja Guy In four and
<v Speaker 2>Ghenobys Art of Vengeance, Best Action slash adventure game. We
<v Speaker 2>got des Stranding two, Ghost of Yote, Hollinight, Indiana, Jones
<v Speaker 2>In a Great Circle, and Split Fiction. Your category Eric,
<v Speaker 2>Best RPG, avowed Claire up Skier Kingdom, Come Deliverance to
<v Speaker 2>Monster Hunter Wilds and the Outer Worlds too. You're making
<v Speaker 2>a face.
<v Speaker 1>Why why why do we have to do this every year? Like,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not saying that any of these games are not RPGs.
<v Speaker 1>I would even argue that Monster Hunter Wild's does fit
<v Speaker 1>into the category definition of an RPG in a loose sense,
<v Speaker 1>but like Trails in This Guy first chapter came out
<v Speaker 1>this year, the hundred line came out this year, Like
<v Speaker 1>why why do we have to do it like this?
<v Speaker 1>We really don't need to do this. If you listening
<v Speaker 1>to this are like I didn't play a lot of
<v Speaker 1>RPGs this year or whatever. Go go play Trails in
<v Speaker 1>the Sky first chapter and have a really good times.
<v Speaker 1>It's a wonderful time. You're going to really enjoy. It's
<v Speaker 1>a cozy story about a coming of age tail and
<v Speaker 1>with some surprising twists and turns along the way. It's
<v Speaker 1>very silly, but it's it's fun. It's like Hunter Hunters.
<v Speaker 1>It's like the closest thing I can imagine do a
<v Speaker 1>Hunter Hunter RPG where you're following like Gone or in
<v Speaker 1>this case Estelle right through adventures and stuff. It's great.
<v Speaker 1>It's a really good time. Like I I think it's weird,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm not just trying to dump specifically on like
<v Speaker 1>Monster Hunter Wilds, but I do think it's weird to say, Like,
<v Speaker 1>if I asked you right now, this was the best
<v Speaker 1>RPG of the year, how many games would you get
<v Speaker 1>through before you got to Monster Hunter Wilds because I
<v Speaker 1>think it's more than five.
<v Speaker 3>It's also like, uh yeah, how the categories like action game,
<v Speaker 3>action adventure, and role playing game, Like some of these,
<v Speaker 3>like Monster Hunter Wild's like I feel like you could
<v Speaker 3>argue was action or action adventure. Like I feel like
<v Speaker 3>there's a lot of these could fit in different slots
<v Speaker 3>if we're trying to be really flexible about them, versus
<v Speaker 3>like there are games where it's like the purpose of
<v Speaker 3>a category word like this. What I'm getting at is
<v Speaker 3>like get the game that only fits in that category
<v Speaker 3>because we wanted to be recognized outside of other things.
<v Speaker 3>And it is interesting that all of these RPGs outside
<v Speaker 3>of like Claire obs Gear are all like more or
<v Speaker 3>less action y type games, and we don't have a
<v Speaker 3>lot of like slower stuff.
<v Speaker 1>I will I will say that action game does seem
<v Speaker 1>to kind of exist to put a place there for
<v Speaker 1>shooters because there is no best shooter category.
<v Speaker 3>Which is also interesting that it's like what's better Hades
<v Speaker 3>two or Battlefield six?
<v Speaker 1>You know, like if I could sit down, I don't
<v Speaker 1>know if Kiley's ever spoken to that, but I would
<v Speaker 1>be really curious why, like we have gone this long
<v Speaker 1>like saying that like shooters go into action and they
<v Speaker 1>don't have their own Because I do think it's then
<v Speaker 1>really hard to say, like, yeah, is Battlefield six a
<v Speaker 1>better action game than Ninja Guide in four? Like how
<v Speaker 1>do you begin to gauge that? I don't know?
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, well I was let down by Nicha Ku
<v Speaker 2>and for shooting mechanics, so I don't think it should win.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, the reload animations just weren't there.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, best best sim strategy we got the Altars Final
<v Speaker 2>Fantasy Tactics, the Evilies Chronicles, Jurassic World Evolution three, Sid
<v Speaker 2>Meier's Civilization seven, Tempest Rising, and two Point Museum another sixer. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it feels like ourputa should have gotten a sixer, just
<v Speaker 2>kind of for the reasons we just outlined, just to
<v Speaker 2>at least get one more in there, like one hundred line.
<v Speaker 1>Perhaps I don't think realistically that either of the games
<v Speaker 1>I mentioned would have made it, because getting people to
<v Speaker 1>play those games has been like pulling teeth. Even giving
<v Speaker 1>you the pity six slot and wouldn't be enough.
<v Speaker 3>Eric I did play.
<v Speaker 1>I tried a hundred line.
<v Speaker 3>I tried line I, oh no.
<v Speaker 1>No, bye did Yeah? He got three lines in he
<v Speaker 1>didn't make it fluttered.
<v Speaker 3>I was like, on, I didn't make it till like
<v Speaker 3>day twenty, when I was on like day fifteen or sixteen.
<v Speaker 3>And the part, the part that I was like, I
<v Speaker 3>can't do this anymore. Is there a character that's like,
<v Speaker 3>every time I go into battle, I just want to
<v Speaker 3>throw up And you're like, oh no, yeah, I'll build
<v Speaker 3>her a bag that she can throw up in, and
<v Speaker 3>then she won't feel so bad about throwing up because
<v Speaker 3>you'll have a bag for it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, she'll be puking in her car. It's fine.
<v Speaker 3>Like it was truly enough that I'm like, what what
<v Speaker 3>is the I like.
<v Speaker 1>The response to her plight.
<v Speaker 3>I was waiting too too much for the I really
<v Speaker 3>love a murder mystery, and I was really waiting for
<v Speaker 3>a thing of it's like what what happened here? And
<v Speaker 3>I felt like I'm just getting like, uh, teased too
<v Speaker 3>much with like a greater mystery, and then it's pulling
<v Speaker 3>back and making me do all this like nonsense as
<v Speaker 3>it's leading up. And it was like one too many
<v Speaker 3>times that like one night, instead of booting up hundred Line,
<v Speaker 3>I booted up Haites two.
<v Speaker 1>Again and then I just like did not go back.
<v Speaker 1>I love one hundred line. It is absolutely for those
<v Speaker 1>who don't know. Very brief explanation is that it is
<v Speaker 1>Kadaka who made the Donkan Rampa series and Uchkoshi, who
<v Speaker 1>made the Notnery Games Zero Escape series like came together
<v Speaker 1>to work on what is kind of like their ultimate
<v Speaker 1>just Swing for the Fence's game, and it is half
<v Speaker 1>adventure game with branching timelines and different paths, and half
<v Speaker 1>tactics game. It is expressly made for people who hear
<v Speaker 1>that and go yeah, But it has a lot of
<v Speaker 1>the writing tendencies good and bad of both those writers.
<v Speaker 1>And I think, especially with some of Kadaka's writing, loves
<v Speaker 1>like a real messy character that's just like I don't
<v Speaker 1>use this word lightly, will make you cringe. Well, like,
<v Speaker 1>there are a few characters like like one of my
<v Speaker 1>favorites of the year, like literally my favorite character. One
<v Speaker 1>of my favorite characters of the year is Darumy from
<v Speaker 1>that game, and she is like the hot topic girl
<v Speaker 1>who will not shut up about the edgy anime that
<v Speaker 1>she just watched. And I love her for that. She's
<v Speaker 1>great for that. But you have to like be okay
<v Speaker 1>with getting like thirty hours of all those characters and
<v Speaker 1>they're kind of like trope fields before they start to
<v Speaker 1>do interesting things and take them interesting places and do
<v Speaker 1>interesting stuff with them. And so I knew, like I
<v Speaker 1>said going in, that's selling that games as one of
<v Speaker 1>the goaty contenders, even though I personally think it is.
<v Speaker 1>It's a hard cell because you got to get through
<v Speaker 1>a lot to really start to see what is there.
<v Speaker 1>And so I was like, I'll find my battles where
<v Speaker 1>I got to find my battles. But I don't think
<v Speaker 1>this is the one where I'm going to draw a
<v Speaker 1>line in the sand.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna jump to just a couple more before we
<v Speaker 2>get to our next segment. But we got best multiplayer.
<v Speaker 2>You got Arc Raiders, Battlefield six, Eledon Ring, Night Rain, Peak,
<v Speaker 2>and Split Fiction Ply See More Peak.
<v Speaker 1>Oh ye in general. Yeah, and Went is the thing.
<v Speaker 1>I think the best multiplayer is the best spot for it,
<v Speaker 1>even though it's going to have some stiff competition there.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you got best Family game, got DK Bonanza, Lego Party,
<v Speaker 2>Lego Voyagers, Mario Kart World, Sonic Raising, Cross Worlds and
<v Speaker 2>Split Fiction.
<v Speaker 1>Lego Party in that category.
<v Speaker 2>Great game, Best adaptation a Minecraft movie, Double May Cry
<v Speaker 2>Splinter Cell Death Watch, which, by the way, I had
<v Speaker 2>no idea that existed until I saw It's like show
<v Speaker 2>The Last of Us season two and until Dawn.
<v Speaker 1>It's crazy that Minecraft movie is probably going to win this.
<v Speaker 2>And it should it like people like it kind of right,
<v Speaker 2>like people don't like.
<v Speaker 1>Hate that movie from what Chicken Jockey I've never seen.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, ja Jackie. Yeah, I there's going to
<v Speaker 1>be a chicken Jockey bit at the awards shows.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god, is Jack Black?
<v Speaker 1>They're going to bring Jack Black out. He's gonna like,
<v Speaker 1>look out over the crowd. He's gonna pause for a
<v Speaker 1>dramatic fact and be like chicken Jockey and then everyone's
<v Speaker 1>going to be like, yeah he said the thing, and
<v Speaker 1>uh and then he might as well just say six
<v Speaker 1>seven after it And yeah, which out.
<v Speaker 3>Of pocket celebrity you guys think is going to show
<v Speaker 3>up this year?
<v Speaker 2>So Jack Black's not out of pocket? He would go
<v Speaker 2>for no he al Pacina was last year?
<v Speaker 1>Right? Oh no, al Pacino was last year. Yeah, it'd
<v Speaker 1>be crazy they brought him back.
<v Speaker 3>Dog performed last year because his album came out, but
<v Speaker 3>also he like founded a game company with his son.
<v Speaker 2>Oh god, it sounds vaguely familiar, feel like should remember
<v Speaker 2>that because that's such a weird.
<v Speaker 3>I remember I wasn't I wasn't working. I remember not
<v Speaker 3>writing it up, So I think it was last year
<v Speaker 3>during like the Blipbear game informer wasn't around maybe like.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe not out of pocket, but in terms of somebody,
<v Speaker 2>you kind of tilt your head and go, I don't
<v Speaker 2>know why he's on my mind, but Powell just walks out, Hey,
<v Speaker 2>I did a Running Man remake recently, show up with that,
<v Speaker 2>like Cheshire Grant of his.
<v Speaker 1>I would be into that. I'm a Glenn Powell fan.
<v Speaker 1>That man makes dad movies and i'd support him in
<v Speaker 1>his endeavors. Yeah, I like a Walton Goggins probably shows
<v Speaker 1>up here, or an El Parnell like someone would make sense, though,
<v Speaker 1>like you wouldn't you wouldn't like bat an eyelid at
<v Speaker 1>that at this point, Well.
<v Speaker 3>If it would be like, uh, Jason Statham is going
<v Speaker 3>to appear in Fallout season two and like we didn't
<v Speaker 3>know and then he'll come up on stage, that'd be sick. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>to present best debut indie game.
<v Speaker 1>That's what That's a really good ben star is Clive
<v Speaker 1>that you did for Jason Stum.
<v Speaker 3>What is what is the what is the tagline of
<v Speaker 3>that game? Like the crystals will no longer have power
<v Speaker 3>over us or something like that.
<v Speaker 1>Oh for sixteen Final Fantasy sixteen. Yeah, that's probably something
<v Speaker 1>like that.
<v Speaker 3>This is the end of the crystals.
<v Speaker 1>The age of crystals. I need, I need to keep
<v Speaker 1>swinging my sword on my heart will explode.
<v Speaker 2>I think get Ryan Kugler appears on stage to say,
<v Speaker 2>me and Michael B. Jordan are working with Kajima on
<v Speaker 2>a game because that's what he does now. He works
<v Speaker 2>with famous filmmakers that are doing really well. So he's
<v Speaker 2>adding to it still.
<v Speaker 3>And Ryan Kugler separately.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he's already got Queermo del Toro, so he's just
<v Speaker 2>getting He's now collecting successful directors.
<v Speaker 1>That's not a bad called shot. I could see that. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's that's a good one.
<v Speaker 3>I like that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, just Ryan. The Center's Train, which I saw finally recently.
<v Speaker 3>By the way, Oh yeah, good movie. Right.
<v Speaker 2>Actually I waited till I saw it on the flight
<v Speaker 2>back for the three trip. I just went so I
<v Speaker 2>watched them on the plane. But it was great.
<v Speaker 1>Love it.
<v Speaker 2>Last category most anticipated, uh, the one we care about
<v Speaker 2>then always wonder why it's here and what anyone gets.
<v Speaker 1>Out of it. You don't want to talk about best
<v Speaker 1>e sports game. Say you're discussed that.
<v Speaker 2>So most anticipated, We've got Double seven, First Light, Grand
<v Speaker 2>the Battles six, Marvel's Wolverine, Resident Evil Requiem, and The
<v Speaker 2>Witcher for It's really kind of them to include four
<v Speaker 2>other games and pretend Grand Theft Otto six is like
<v Speaker 2>in any danger of losing this but it But you know,
<v Speaker 2>it's nice to acknowledge that there are other games happening.
<v Speaker 2>Has it won that only won it every year since
<v Speaker 2>it's been announced.
<v Speaker 1>I thought Witcher for one last year, but maybe I'm
<v Speaker 1>misremembering that was announced last year, wasn't it. I was like,
<v Speaker 1>until the game comes out, it will always win. I yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, Like I'm I'm sure Grand Theft Auto
<v Speaker 1>six will be a video game, but I it's one
<v Speaker 1>of those games that I look at it and I'm
<v Speaker 1>like it was Cyberpunk was the same way, where I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>people are imagining what the video game is for so
<v Speaker 1>long that it can't do anything but at least slightly
<v Speaker 1>disappoint them. Once it's like tangible and you can put
<v Speaker 1>bounds around it, and it can't be the like limitless
<v Speaker 1>everything that you imagine in your mind. It's I don't know, man.
<v Speaker 2>Guys, it's not the candy Land you think it is, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>my whole life.
<v Speaker 3>I'm not even like anticipating it in like I can't
<v Speaker 3>wait to play it. I'm anticipating in like I can't
<v Speaker 3>wait to see what happens. I can't wait to see
<v Speaker 3>what happens.
<v Speaker 4>To Yeah, just the way that like every every gaming
<v Speaker 4>site is gonna like quietly shut down and be like,
<v Speaker 4>oh god, we have like all we can do is
<v Speaker 4>play g t A six because.
<v Speaker 3>We've got to get this up by embargo.
<v Speaker 1>Which is just going to be six websites.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's gonna be the discourse is going to be insufferable,
<v Speaker 3>and it's just gonna be like it's the only thing
<v Speaker 3>that's gonna matter for two weeks minimum, and then just
<v Speaker 3>for the rest of the year, just random GTA six
<v Speaker 3>controversies and stuff. That's the recent thing. I'm anticipated GTA
<v Speaker 3>six the way I anticipate a presidential election. Yeah, It's
<v Speaker 3>like I'm not even that I'm excited for it. I
<v Speaker 3>just know it's gonna be a huge deal and I
<v Speaker 3>want to see what happens when that clock strikes is.
<v Speaker 1>Terrible for.
<v Speaker 2>I'm excited for how much is gonna sucks after Cramba
<v Speaker 2>game because it comes out so close to the end
<v Speaker 2>of your discussions. It's gonna hold up everything because we
<v Speaker 2>have to consider it.
<v Speaker 1>Everyone.
<v Speaker 2>That is the game of more nominee. You're gonna visit
<v Speaker 2>a game Informer dot com if you want to see
<v Speaker 2>the full list of nominees. Like I said, it's airing
<v Speaker 2>December eleventh. Uh, we will see how it shakes out.
<v Speaker 2>But Charles, before we get out of here, you have
<v Speaker 2>prepared a special game for us.
<v Speaker 3>I have and that game is called well Gee, I
<v Speaker 3>auta know, g I know there you go and all
<v Speaker 3>right that you can you can get that time stamp area.
<v Speaker 1>Oh I'm not don't worry. I got my own net
<v Speaker 1>that we're good.
<v Speaker 3>Goo go cool. Uh, yes, ge I outna know. A
<v Speaker 3>new game show I invented and it's Trivia for this time,
<v Speaker 3>Marcus suggested we should do one about the game Award.
<v Speaker 3>So I've got that pulled up here. I'm gonna tally
<v Speaker 3>both of your scores.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I guess it's just Eric and I facing it
<v Speaker 1>off a one v one once again, gentlemen's hands. Now, Marcus,
<v Speaker 1>you should know I'm really stupid. So this is why
<v Speaker 1>this This might be a tea up for you or
<v Speaker 1>a crushing defeat if you lose to me. That's an
<v Speaker 1>interesting threat to say something.
<v Speaker 3>We're gonna start out pretty light and easy. We've we've
<v Speaker 3>discussed some of these answers. You already know them. I
<v Speaker 3>also say, like you can, you can talk your thought
<v Speaker 3>process out out loud. You're allowed to have the same answer.
<v Speaker 3>You're just compete with each other. Kyle. Last time was like,
<v Speaker 3>well Marcus did this, so I'm going to do something else.
<v Speaker 3>Or maybe Marcus did it. I don't know, okay, because
<v Speaker 3>like it seemed weird where he's like, I'll do something
<v Speaker 3>else just for fun. It's like, well, you've lost that point,
<v Speaker 3>even though I think you knew what the answer was.
<v Speaker 1>No, No, we're playing. This is a competition here. I'm
<v Speaker 1>a competitive gamer, a stupid competitive gamer, all right.
<v Speaker 3>So starting off, this is just me about the game
<v Speaker 3>boards in general. This year. What is the game that
<v Speaker 3>set a record for the most nominations for a single.
<v Speaker 1>Game, Claire Obscure Expedition thirty three yes, I'll say Clairebsker
<v Speaker 1>three nominations.
<v Speaker 3>That's truly be nice. Oh, yes, you're both correct. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Next question, which game held that title beforehand? So, Claire
<v Speaker 3>Obscure had twelve nominations for different game awards. There is
<v Speaker 3>a game that had eleven nominations.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna say Red Dead Redemption two. I'm gonna say
<v Speaker 1>God of War Ragnarok.
<v Speaker 3>Are these both of your final answers? Yes, yes, Eric
<v Speaker 3>is correct, had eleven nominations. I have a I have
<v Speaker 3>a huge Google Chrome window with just all of the
<v Speaker 3>different years. I'm going to see how many nominations Red
<v Speaker 3>Dead got red They got eight, Okay, had just just
<v Speaker 3>a few more categories. Next up, which of the following
<v Speaker 3>games was not nominated for a Game of the Year
<v Speaker 3>this year? Got Death Straining two on the Beach, Ghost
<v Speaker 3>of Yote Hades two or Claire Obscure Expedition thirty three?
<v Speaker 3>Question is which of these games was not nominated for
<v Speaker 3>the Game or for Game of the.
<v Speaker 1>Year this year? Say that that Yote Mm hmmm.
<v Speaker 3>You are both correct. Being nomine from many things was
<v Speaker 3>not known. In Fear Curious, we were talking about the
<v Speaker 3>number of nominations games had in the past. Uh, and
<v Speaker 3>it was interesting. I think Red Dead might have competed
<v Speaker 3>because there used to be fewer categories. You had more
<v Speaker 3>categories of the years have gone on. First little quiz.
<v Speaker 3>This isn't like a full question, but do you guys
<v Speaker 3>know the first year that the Game.
<v Speaker 1>Awards was held?
<v Speaker 2>So this is tricky because are we talking about the
<v Speaker 2>Game Awards and it's current? It is because there were
<v Speaker 2>the Spike Video Game Awards.
<v Speaker 3>We're talking about then Jeff Keeley's Game Awards.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I believe twenty fourteen. I think twenty eleven was
<v Speaker 1>was the lat was the first one.
<v Speaker 3>You guys have different answers here. I'm gonna I'm gonna
<v Speaker 3>ask you guys who come to a consensus. Do you
<v Speaker 3>want this to be worth a point? One of you
<v Speaker 3>will got a point, one of you will not get Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>It should be a rest point because I'm losing.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, Marcus is correct. It was twenty fourteen.
<v Speaker 2>You know I remember that because twenty thirteen was the
<v Speaker 2>year of the ill fated vg X that weird like
<v Speaker 2>studio show he did that everyone hated.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, we need to go back to that. I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>like there's probably some bad baggage with it, but like
<v Speaker 1>there is something about the tense, like the tension in the.
<v Speaker 2>Studio that was really watched it with men Max when
<v Speaker 2>they watch of it. That had been the first time
<v Speaker 2>I watched it since it aired live, And it feels
<v Speaker 2>it's weird how much it feels like it it happened
<v Speaker 2>in the Pandemic because of how empty sparse everything is,
<v Speaker 2>Like it feels like something that was slapped together as
<v Speaker 2>an emergency of like, oh crap, we we can't do
<v Speaker 2>an arena. We got to do this somewhere. Get Joel
<v Speaker 2>McHale in here.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, get somebody who will accept a check for
<v Speaker 1>this and in the studio.
<v Speaker 2>To laugh at Joel's often like missed jokes. It is
<v Speaker 2>just Keeley, Yeah, and he has selections.
<v Speaker 3>Joel has such like a mean spirited vibe through that
<v Speaker 3>whole presentation. That's like like he's Therefore, if your your
<v Speaker 3>boyfriend made you watch the show with him, you can
<v Speaker 3>laugh at Joel McHale's jokes. You're like, yeah, these freaking nerds,
<v Speaker 3>I don't know what they're talking about.
<v Speaker 1>I'm glad there's so yeah. Yeah, I joked that that
<v Speaker 1>was like he was from my like for my dad,
<v Speaker 1>like who has to sit there and watch is like
<v Speaker 1>me and my siblings were watching that at the time,
<v Speaker 1>and it's like he's making a bunch of just jokes.
<v Speaker 1>My dad, who was also a video game player, was like, ah,
<v Speaker 1>that's funny, and I'm like, yeah, it is kind of funny.
<v Speaker 2>Lit's rent free in my head, and I know we're
<v Speaker 2>going on a tangent. But the interaction he has with
<v Speaker 2>Tim Shaeffer where he asked if Tim Shaffer's on drugs
<v Speaker 2>because of like he's pitching broken age and he's just
<v Speaker 2>talking about how trippy individuals are and he's like, how
<v Speaker 2>many drugs were you on? And poor Tim Shaffer, who's
<v Speaker 2>like a funny guy himself, he does like the kind
<v Speaker 2>of like uncomfortable laugh where he's just like but no, seriously,
<v Speaker 2>and he just gets back to trying to explain the game,
<v Speaker 2>and it is so like it hurts me to watch it.
<v Speaker 1>Well.
<v Speaker 3>In twenty fourteen, Jeff Killer's Game Awards had twenty one categories.
<v Speaker 3>We currently have thirty categories, which of the following categories
<v Speaker 3>did not exist in twenty fourteen, so one of these
<v Speaker 3>is made up. The other three are real. A Best
<v Speaker 3>Online Experience, B Trending Gamer, C, Best epic Moment or
<v Speaker 3>D Best Fan Creation. M. You go through these again,
<v Speaker 3>one of these is fake. We've got best online Experience,
<v Speaker 3>trending Gamer, best epic Moment, and best fan Creation.
<v Speaker 1>What didn't exist in twenty fourteen.
<v Speaker 3>Is the question.
<v Speaker 1>I must say C. My answer is C. What was C?
<v Speaker 3>C was best epic Moment?
<v Speaker 2>No, that sounds like a twenty thirteen thing. That sounds
<v Speaker 2>like that would have happened back then. I'm gonna say
<v Speaker 2>trending Gamer.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if we were there yet at like
<v Speaker 1>using that as a metric yet, I'm gonna say trending.
<v Speaker 3>Final answer is yes, okay, I was assume. Finally, Eric
<v Speaker 3>is correct, best epic Moment I made that up.
<v Speaker 2>Good jobs. That sounds like in early twenty tens, like
<v Speaker 2>that's when it was a thing of like epic movement.
<v Speaker 1>No, trending Gamer I knew was was real because that's
<v Speaker 1>the cursed category that has never not been a curse category.
<v Speaker 3>Pretty cursed. The nominees for Trending Gamer in twenty fourteen
<v Speaker 3>were Stampy Longhead, Pewdie Pie, Jeff Gershman, Vanos Gaming, and
<v Speaker 3>Total Biscuit Total Biscuit took the award, so just.
<v Speaker 1>Like Jeff Gershman by himself as part of the Yeah yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 1>interesting it was the first one.
<v Speaker 3>Stampy stamp Stampy Lampy, Yeah, Stampy long head.
<v Speaker 1>Sure great, great, me watching Jurassic Park for the first time,
<v Speaker 1>getting really excited when the Brad gets sores, which that
<v Speaker 1>was my least favorite land before time character Stampy Yeah, yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, coming back to uh or this is this is
<v Speaker 3>just of all the game awards. Best performance is a
<v Speaker 3>category given to an actor doing a performance in a game.
<v Speaker 3>There are many there's a video games kind of the
<v Speaker 3>notorious for having like a cluster of video game actors
<v Speaker 3>that appear a lot of times in a lot of
<v Speaker 3>different games. So some actors have multiple nominations for best
<v Speaker 3>Performance over the year, including twenty twenty five, which actor
<v Speaker 3>has the most nominations for best Performance. Ooh so like
<v Speaker 3>cumulative mm hmm across all the years.
<v Speaker 1>Troy Baker sounds safe. I think Troy Baker sounds too safe.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm gonna say, Laura Bailey, m that's I think
<v Speaker 1>that's pretty safe too. That's safe ish, but not as
<v Speaker 1>like like I feel like Troy Baker in my head
<v Speaker 1>is like screaming like that's the guy. That's the guy.
<v Speaker 1>But I'm like, I'm worried that that's me, just you know,
<v Speaker 1>seeing Troy Baker every year a Game Awards and being like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>he's here again, So I'm gonna take Flora Bailey. Sometimes
<v Speaker 1>the the simplest answer is the right one that comes
<v Speaker 1>a razor. I'm gonna say Troy Baker.
<v Speaker 3>Final answers, Yes, yes, yeah, you're both incorrect. Unfortunately, Troy
<v Speaker 3>Baker does have three nominations for Best Performance. He's tied.
<v Speaker 3>He's tied with Laura Bailey for three. Oh, but the
<v Speaker 3>winner in terms of nominations is Ashley Birch.
<v Speaker 1>Good for Ashley Birch.
<v Speaker 3>We got uh alloy twice trying to find the other ones.
<v Speaker 1>Tiny Tino in there? Did tiny That'd be wild? Not
<v Speaker 1>that tiny Tina.
<v Speaker 3>One.
<v Speaker 5>Oh yeah yeah, okay, I totally forgot about. Yeah, I'm
<v Speaker 5>trying to find the other one. But it's gotta be tiny,
<v Speaker 5>tiny Tina.
<v Speaker 1>It's really funny that we both picked one that was
<v Speaker 1>like tied for like we canceled each other out. Incredible.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I can't find it. I want to say, you're right.
<v Speaker 3>I want to say it was Tiny Tina.
<v Speaker 1>In like Wonderlands or something like that. There's too many
<v Speaker 1>Borderlands games.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, no, it was it was Parvadi from Outer worlds.
<v Speaker 1>Oh I didn't know she played Parvadi. That's cool. Yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 1>that's better.
<v Speaker 3>Now. It's funny because I I had Troy Baker and
<v Speaker 3>Laura Bailey written down because I assumed it was one
<v Speaker 3>of those Ashley Birch end up taking it. Despite having
<v Speaker 3>ten nominations between the three of them, only one of
<v Speaker 3>them has one the award one time. So of those
<v Speaker 3>ten nominations, only one resulted in a win.
<v Speaker 1>Who won it?
<v Speaker 3>And when? And when? Do we have to get both?
<v Speaker 1>Right?
<v Speaker 3>You got to give me the role that they won
<v Speaker 3>for just so it doesn't.
<v Speaker 2>Even matter if it's the game, the right game it fits.
<v Speaker 2>Oh man, Okay, I'm gonna say.
<v Speaker 1>Again this. This might be the safe answer, but I
<v Speaker 1>want to say Troy for Joel, that that was that's
<v Speaker 1>my Yeah, yeah, Troy, Troy Baker for Joel in the
<v Speaker 1>Last of Us won. Do I have to guess the game?
<v Speaker 1>Can I just say the character?
<v Speaker 3>You can just say the character, though I will say
<v Speaker 3>Last of US won thirteen. Right, Yeah, so that was
<v Speaker 3>before Jeff Kiel's game awards. Sure, shoot, okay.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe that changes my I don't know if that matters.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe it doesn't. I don't know, but I I am
<v Speaker 1>like because I'm thinking through my head, like what roles?
<v Speaker 1>Because I have roles that I associate with these actors,
<v Speaker 1>and I don't know that they would have been award
<v Speaker 1>winning roles is the problem because Laura Bailey was kinde
<v Speaker 1>in near right, That's that's the one I think of.
<v Speaker 1>Laura Bailey has so many I can't even I can't
<v Speaker 1>even pluck one. I not But I am going back
<v Speaker 1>on my Jolley. I'm gonna say Ashley Birch as Parvati.
<v Speaker 1>I think twenty nineteen because twenty nineteen was Outer Worlds.
<v Speaker 1>That might have been a weaker year for performances and ever,
<v Speaker 1>and she's great at Pravadi. That might have been enough
<v Speaker 1>to to clinch it. That's that's my hail Mary. I'm
<v Speaker 1>going to say I'm going to really throw I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to say Ashley Burch. I'm going to say Ashley Birch
<v Speaker 1>for Horizon zero down because I'm trying to think of
<v Speaker 1>performances from that year that I would have put forward,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm coming up short. Twenty seventeen famously stacked year,
<v Speaker 1>but was stack stacked performances games, but not necessarily for
<v Speaker 1>lately like legend Zelda ankle to take any performance awards
<v Speaker 1>unless like you know, Zelda got in there, but like
<v Speaker 1>link Ink in an award.
<v Speaker 3>So so we got from Eric, we've got uh who
<v Speaker 3>did you say, Eric? Sorry?
<v Speaker 1>I said, I said Ashley Birch for Aloy for Horizon zero,
<v Speaker 1>and then I said Ashley Birch for Parvadi from the
<v Speaker 1>Outer World.
<v Speaker 3>Awesome, both incorrect? It was a Bailey.
<v Speaker 1>In Last of Us Part two, right, we.
<v Speaker 3>Were really close and then swerved out of the way. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>oh my gosh, in both those years you mentioned. So
<v Speaker 3>twenty seventeen, uh, Senua help Son with Sacrifice came out.
<v Speaker 1>Oh okay, yeah, yeah, yeah sure, and double.
<v Speaker 3>Mads Michelson won for Death Stranding.
<v Speaker 1>Question. Oh yeah, he was pretty bad. I mean he is,
<v Speaker 1>but he's not a game a ton but you okay,
<v Speaker 1>Laura Bailey was kind of I thought I was right
<v Speaker 1>about that, all right.
<v Speaker 3>Next up, which game got the most best performance nominations
<v Speaker 3>in a single.
<v Speaker 1>Year, including this year? Are we including this year. It's
<v Speaker 1>the most that I can think of them, while maybe
<v Speaker 1>Balder's Gate that was I was just thinking about Balder's Gate.
<v Speaker 1>I I am going to say the Last of Us
<v Speaker 1>Part two? Oh that's yeah, that's those are three power houses.
<v Speaker 1>Last of Us Claire, I think there might be I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna say, Claire, I think there might be enough for that. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna stick with Claire.
<v Speaker 3>Eric, where are you going?
<v Speaker 1>Last of Us? Part two?
<v Speaker 3>Finally, answering Marcus is correct. It is a tie between
<v Speaker 3>Clare obscure and uncharted four?
<v Speaker 1>Interestingly enough, okay, all right, two markets.
<v Speaker 3>You guys are tied four to four.
<v Speaker 1>This this is good. I thought you said you were dumb. Eric, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I only have four points.
<v Speaker 3>All right? Next one, we've got interesting things of correlations
<v Speaker 3>between games winning multiple categories? How many times across the
<v Speaker 3>what there's been ten eleven Game Awards that have finished
<v Speaker 3>because we had twenty fourteen to twenty twenty four That
<v Speaker 3>eleven is that crazy?
<v Speaker 1>Was there a year where it didn't finish? I want
<v Speaker 1>to watch that one? It was interrupted?
<v Speaker 3>Okay, yeah, eleven we've got we've had eleven Game Awards
<v Speaker 3>so far. How many times has the Game of the
<v Speaker 3>Year also won Best Narrative.
<v Speaker 1>Times?
<v Speaker 3>Hmm, you don't have to game the game. If you can,
<v Speaker 3>I'll give you a bonus point. But how many times it.
<v Speaker 1>Is it one in the years where it did win
<v Speaker 1>Best Narrative as well as Okay.
<v Speaker 3>I'm saying you do. You can guess a number. However
<v Speaker 3>many it is we.
<v Speaker 1>Will that affect whether we were correct in the first
<v Speaker 1>place or not. Like like if I if I say
<v Speaker 1>three and then I named two years where I think
<v Speaker 1>it happened, can that just be like bonus points on
<v Speaker 1>top of it.
<v Speaker 3>Every Yeah, every everyone correct that you name, I'll give
<v Speaker 3>you a bonus point for I'm.
<v Speaker 1>Gonna say I'm not supposed to say it again. I'm
<v Speaker 1>just gonna guess the number of times. Yeah, I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>guess the number first, and I will say, out of
<v Speaker 1>the eleven years, I think a game one, Game of
<v Speaker 1>the Year and Best Narrative five times. Wow. That's okay,
<v Speaker 1>not the majority, But I do think it's happened pretty often.
<v Speaker 2>I'm going through all the trying to remember the previous
<v Speaker 2>goties as best as I can. I'm gonna say it's happened.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna say it's happened four times.
<v Speaker 1>Price has right in me.
<v Speaker 3>Do you guys have any guesses for years that it happened.
<v Speaker 1>I think it happened in the balders Gate three year.
<v Speaker 1>I think it happened. Yeah, I think it happened in
<v Speaker 1>was Balder's. Yeah, that was twenty three.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna say twenty three. I'm gonna say twenty twenty,
<v Speaker 2>the Last of US year, Last of Us Part two year, and.
<v Speaker 1>That's all I got. I'm gonna guess those two years.
<v Speaker 2>Out of the four that I named, I'm gonna say
<v Speaker 2>two of them was twenty twenty and twenty twenty three.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna randomly guess twenty sixteen as well.
<v Speaker 3>Do you have a game?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know what game it was, but I gotta
<v Speaker 1>put a nyer out there. I do, so I got
<v Speaker 1>an even two guess. I'm gonna say I know what
<v Speaker 1>game it was.
<v Speaker 3>Well, uh, you guys. Out of all of those guesses,
<v Speaker 3>Marcus is going to get one point because this has
<v Speaker 3>only happened one time. With the Last of Us Part two?
<v Speaker 1>Oh wait, do I get the does the bonus?
<v Speaker 3>You get the Last of Us two bonus?
<v Speaker 1>Point?
<v Speaker 3>Okay, Yeah, you get surprising incongruency between those two categories.
<v Speaker 3>I was going through to try to see so twenty
<v Speaker 3>twenty three Balls Kate three did not win Best Narrative
<v Speaker 3>Alan Wake two.
<v Speaker 1>Did you know, well, we all know that the best
<v Speaker 1>stories are in bad games. We've always wow.
<v Speaker 3>Wow. Okay, twenty sixteen Uncharted four to one Best Narrative,
<v Speaker 3>but Overwatch.
<v Speaker 1>One Game of the Year. Wow, we didn't give it
<v Speaker 1>to the stunning narrative of overall. That's why I was like,
<v Speaker 1>that's the Overwatch year. I don't think you're gonna like that. Okay, okay,
<v Speaker 1>Quote me a line from Uncharted four, all right, yeah, now,
<v Speaker 1>quote me a line from Original Base Overwatch.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, yeah, somebody say peanut butter cheers.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I liked Uncharted four. I could not name a line
<v Speaker 3>from it.
<v Speaker 1>I a specific line, there's I'm.
<v Speaker 3>Don't know, yeah yeah, all right. Another another version of
<v Speaker 3>this question, how many times has the Game of the
<v Speaker 3>Year also won Best Music?
<v Speaker 1>That one I think is actually pretty high. I think
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna say I'm gonna stick to four. I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to six. I'm bumping it up. Give me, give me six.
<v Speaker 1>Oh you know what, I'm gonna change mine to five. Wow. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>I'm just.
<v Speaker 3>Gonna check my work real quick to make one dollar.
<v Speaker 1>One more dollar, please LEGITIM believe though, that if you
<v Speaker 1>were ever on the Prices right, that's how you should play. Listen.
<v Speaker 1>I I was a Price is right kid, I I
<v Speaker 1>know again. I want to Yeah. I wanted to spind
<v Speaker 1>that big wheel so bad. It looked like so much fun.
<v Speaker 1>I wanted to watch that yodling guy go off the
<v Speaker 1>cliff like. I just wanted to never stop him. Send
<v Speaker 1>him hurdling right off, Drew, Care, are you getting more distressed?
<v Speaker 3>Is?
<v Speaker 1>He's like, you're gonna make him stop? Right? And I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>I didn't watched the years.
<v Speaker 2>I've seen clips, but I've ember seeing a full episode
<v Speaker 2>of his run he did all right?
<v Speaker 1>Is he still there? Have they replaced him yet? I
<v Speaker 1>don't know. Actually, I haven't watched The Prices Right in
<v Speaker 1>probably about like four or five years at least, so
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if he's still running it. I think
<v Speaker 1>around I say four or five years specifically, because I
<v Speaker 1>think there was a stretch during the pandemic where I
<v Speaker 1>started watching old game shows and stuff just to feel
<v Speaker 1>something again and I think price is right was in
<v Speaker 1>the rotation for that. I think you missed the prime
<v Speaker 1>opportunity to rewatch the VGX. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, I should
<v Speaker 1>have stopped watching old reruns of Jeopardy and just gone
<v Speaker 1>to Spike Video Game Awards.
<v Speaker 3>Give me your number guesses again?
<v Speaker 1>Six?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, five or six? Do you guys have any guesses
<v Speaker 3>for specific years?
<v Speaker 1>I'm saying the last of us to twenty twenty. I'm
<v Speaker 1>in shame. Why I'm saying it like this.
<v Speaker 2>Mark Sneethos assessing that bald skate three. I'm gonna guess
<v Speaker 2>that year two. I'm gonna guess twenty seventeen with zeldas
<v Speaker 2>I think Zelda won eight.
<v Speaker 1>I was going to guess twenty seventeen as well. I'm
<v Speaker 1>also going to guess twenty eighteen. Personally was twenty eighteen
<v Speaker 1>I have I have a gut feeling that it was
<v Speaker 1>probably the first God of War reboot, which had a
<v Speaker 1>very good soundtrack. Yeah, bar McCree, Yeah that sounds yeah. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'll co sign on and I'll throw in a random
<v Speaker 1>twenty fifteen Okay, uh yeah, never happened zero times, so
<v Speaker 1>that means I won. So I'm close to zero.
<v Speaker 3>Well, that's not how I was scoring. Yeah, surprising, never happened.
<v Speaker 3>I another one where I was like shocked. It's yeah,
<v Speaker 3>so uh, let's see going through them. You threw out
<v Speaker 3>a twenty fifteen metal Gear Solid five one. Best Soundtrack
<v Speaker 3>Game the year was Witcher three.
<v Speaker 1>Soundtracks.
<v Speaker 3>Red Dead two got best Music, God of War one.
<v Speaker 1>Game of the Year. I would say Medal Gear was
<v Speaker 1>every song you played on your helicopter. I was gonna
<v Speaker 1>say in twenty fifteen, if they were doing best Soundtrack,
<v Speaker 1>then that makes sense because I mean you just put
<v Speaker 1>man eater on the entire time and then you're having
<v Speaker 1>a good time. But yeah, not the people on the
<v Speaker 1>ground when they hear it.
<v Speaker 3>Oh here comes yeah, So yeah, that's fun. With three
<v Speaker 3>awards one which game series has the most best music wins?
<v Speaker 3>So one game series has one best music three separate years.
<v Speaker 1>Zelda shoots at the top of my mind. Yeah that
<v Speaker 1>makes me think it's not right. Oh, don't go down.
<v Speaker 3>Like that the way you think I like the way
<v Speaker 3>like that's too easy.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I can't take It's got the opposite of Aukham's razor.
<v Speaker 1>It's Aukham's sledgehammer. Can't be that simple. I'm gonna go Zelda.
<v Speaker 1>I can't think of a better answer right now, I'm
<v Speaker 1>trying to. I'm also trying to think of games that
<v Speaker 1>have had three entries over the course of the years
<v Speaker 1>that the Game Awards have been happening.
<v Speaker 2>I'm going like the soundtracks where that flute guy is
<v Speaker 2>most like he's going to go to town, like I
<v Speaker 2>can't think of a better series than.
<v Speaker 1>Zelda for like a good flute solo for him. I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna say Mario. Maybe a Mario game one three years,
<v Speaker 1>because Mario has always got a good soundtrack. I think
<v Speaker 1>he got Odyssey in there, maybe Wonder snuck out a
<v Speaker 1>win somewhere, and there's probably some other Mario games that
<v Speaker 1>maybe got recognition. I don't know. I'm just throwing stuff
<v Speaker 1>at the wall. I'm probably gonna lose this one, but
<v Speaker 1>I also preface this by saying I'm stupid.
<v Speaker 3>So final answer is you guys, yeah, both incorrect Fantasy.
<v Speaker 1>Oh that makes sense? Wait?
<v Speaker 3>Wait, which we make Rebirth in sixteen?
<v Speaker 1>Oh damn it.
<v Speaker 2>I do feel a shamed as a Final Fantasy fan
<v Speaker 2>like that. If there's one thing that series is most
<v Speaker 2>reliable for, it's the music. Is going to be really good.
<v Speaker 3>I thought of a Fantasy.
<v Speaker 1>No, I thought of Final Fantasy, and in my head,
<v Speaker 1>I was like, well, it's only fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. I
<v Speaker 1>think only two of those ones, and I don't think
<v Speaker 1>it would have been fourteen would have been considered in
<v Speaker 1>you know, contention.
<v Speaker 3>So I think best Music. I'm double checking here. Best
<v Speaker 3>Music is the only game award that Rebirth won that
<v Speaker 3>was on Everyone was like, we agree, that's that's the
<v Speaker 3>one I got. You got a lot of nominations, that's
<v Speaker 3>the only one it won.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm not gonna find that one.
<v Speaker 3>The Best Family Game is a category notoriously dominated by Nintena.
<v Speaker 3>In fact, there have only been three times it didn't
<v Speaker 3>win the category. Name the years it happened. You'll get
<v Speaker 3>a point for each of them.
<v Speaker 1>Twenty nineteen, twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. My god, just rattle
<v Speaker 1>those off. Okay. I tried to pick years that didn't
<v Speaker 1>have notable Nintendo games in them.
<v Speaker 2>No fair, fair, Okay, I'm gonna say best Family Game.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna say twenty twenty.
<v Speaker 1>Two. I'm gonna say.
<v Speaker 2>Twenty I'm also gonna say twenty nineteen, and then i'm
<v Speaker 2>gonna say twenty uh la la, Actually i'm gonna say twenty.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna say twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, and twenty sixteen.
<v Speaker 2>Those three years A yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I also because I said twenty nineteen, twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen,
<v Speaker 1>I also went to what's a year where a Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>game didn't come out or like a notable Nintendo game
<v Speaker 1>didn't come out, and then pre switch year, yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>went years of like yeah, yeah, like.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, all right, final answers locked in. Are you guys
<v Speaker 3>the same?
<v Speaker 1>Are you different? We're different? Oh yeah, I said joined
<v Speaker 1>twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, and I had twenty fourteen, twenty nineteen,
<v Speaker 1>and I just said fourteen fifteen sixteen, like three year streak. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>And I said fifteen sixteen nineteen cool.
<v Speaker 3>Both completely wrong, no points, none of those correct. I'm
<v Speaker 3>going to give you another shot. I expected this to happen.
<v Speaker 3>My hint now is that for two of the three years,
<v Speaker 3>the best family game also won Game of the Year.
<v Speaker 1>Twenty twenty No wait wait, wait wait wait, I am
<v Speaker 1>the game my head. I'm doing math. I'm doing the
<v Speaker 1>the mentat thing from doing where I'm doing the head math.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna say twenty seventeen. Wait you said, wait, hold.
<v Speaker 3>On, no, actually the years, yeah, these are years with
<v Speaker 3>the years. The also one game of the year, right,
<v Speaker 3>it wasn't a Nintendo game that won Best Family Game,
<v Speaker 3>and the game that won Best Family Game also won
<v Speaker 3>Game of the Year and.
<v Speaker 2>Also one game of the year. Okay, I'm gonna say
<v Speaker 2>twenty sixteen because for some reason Aaron like overwatches a
<v Speaker 2>family game.
<v Speaker 3>I want to say, I think you already guessed.
<v Speaker 1>Twenty sixteen was already guessed. Yeah, oh wait I did.
<v Speaker 1>That was part of my last I was going to
<v Speaker 1>let by the way till you corrected him.
<v Speaker 3>Pokemon Go was twenty sixteen a family game?
<v Speaker 2>Hm, Okay, I say twenty eighteen, twenty twenty four, and
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty two.
<v Speaker 1>I want to say twenty twenty, twenty two, twenty one,
<v Speaker 1>and twenty eighteen.
<v Speaker 3>Marcus, you're gonna get three points three of them. Eric,
<v Speaker 3>you're gonna get one point.
<v Speaker 1>I got all three? Irish which one was it takes
<v Speaker 1>two is one of them?
<v Speaker 3>Right?
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, was last year?
<v Speaker 3>Astrobot was last year astrobot. It takes two is twenty
<v Speaker 3>twenty two, and then twenty eighteen that was twenty eighteen
<v Speaker 3>Overcooked two one. I was just firing, great, great pull Marcus.
<v Speaker 3>All right, my favorite question, Jeff likes muppets, like really
<v Speaker 3>likes muppets. Which of the following muppets has not appeared
<v Speaker 3>at the Game Awards? Ay, Animal, b Bunchen, honeydew ce
<v Speaker 3>Waldorf or d Pepe the King Prawn B.
<v Speaker 1>You're saying doctor Honey Doe has not appeared, Doctor Honeydewe
<v Speaker 1>has not appeared. That can't be.
<v Speaker 3>There was a Beaker bit, he Animal, doctor honeymoet Waldorf,
<v Speaker 3>and d Pepe the King Prawn, which is not.
<v Speaker 2>I don't remember Pepe being there. I don't like how
<v Speaker 2>confident Eric is. He has a smug look on his face,
<v Speaker 2>like he knows that I might. I don't remember the
<v Speaker 2>Pepe year. I want to say, listeners, Kyle or Kyle God.
<v Speaker 2>Eric has a smile that is sinister. Almost I could.
<v Speaker 1>Know, or I could know that we're like getting down
<v Speaker 1>there in points and I really got to make a comeback.
<v Speaker 2>Right now, I'm gonna say, Pepe, I almost want to
<v Speaker 2>get on the boat with you, but I think it
<v Speaker 2>might be a trap.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, you're both wrong. All of these muppets have appeared
<v Speaker 3>at the game wards.
<v Speaker 1>That was an option. Honey, dude, was he there in
<v Speaker 1>the Beaker year?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, he was there with the Beaker.
<v Speaker 1>Doesn't anywhere animal? We're all there?
<v Speaker 3>Next question, it was just Beaker that year.
<v Speaker 1>None of the above like an.
<v Speaker 3>E funny joke. Which of these muppets have not appeared
<v Speaker 3>at the Game awards? Beaker, Sweetish Chef, Camilla the Chicken,
<v Speaker 3>and Statler b it's the Sweetish Chef.
<v Speaker 1>No, I remember, Swedish Chef was there. I'm pretty sure.
<v Speaker 3>Wait, what was Camilla the chicken?
<v Speaker 2>No, the chicken was the chicken usually goes with the chef,
<v Speaker 2>and then Statler definitely was there. And then what was
<v Speaker 2>the first one? Again, the chef Beaker, I'm gonna say
<v Speaker 2>it's e. They were all there.
<v Speaker 3>Wait correct?
<v Speaker 1>Damn? Also, you don't do chickens? Got the hall problem?
<v Speaker 1>And then be like the goats behind the fourth door.
<v Speaker 3>Now here's what gonna do. I'm actually gonna give you
<v Speaker 3>both a point here because technically the Sweetish Chef was
<v Speaker 3>a zoom call announcing that he was a playable character
<v Speaker 3>and overcooked during the Game Awards.
<v Speaker 1>And also Carmila the Chicken is not a Swedish Chef
<v Speaker 1>associated character. That's a Gonzo associated character because Gonzo has
<v Speaker 1>a weird thing for chicken. I mean true, but I
<v Speaker 1>think I think they're skits where the chicken is with
<v Speaker 1>the chef enough times to worry that I think she split.
<v Speaker 1>She's got only different allegiances.
<v Speaker 3>My final questions related to muppets, there's more questions. Which
<v Speaker 3>muppets have appeared at the Game Awards A Kermit, b Fozzy, Ce,
<v Speaker 3>Miss Piggy, D, Gonzo.
<v Speaker 1>All of the above. Well, I think actually Gonzo might
<v Speaker 1>not have been it was it was Kermit, Fozzy, Miss Piggy,
<v Speaker 1>and Gonzo. Yeah, actually, what's Gonzo there?
<v Speaker 3>I think.
<v Speaker 1>I think AC and D have appeared. I don't think
<v Speaker 1>Fozzy has been there. It's Fozzy. I'm like struggling to
<v Speaker 1>remember a Fozzy at the Game Awards. M hm, I
<v Speaker 1>feel like I'm struggling to remember a Gonzo. Now I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna say Gonzo. I'm actually suddenly thunderstruck by the amount
<v Speaker 1>of muppets that have been I know it's like a
<v Speaker 1>very strange thing to say, but like to have it
<v Speaker 1>listed out is kind of crazy. I mean, that's one
<v Speaker 1>of the it's on the bingo card of the game wards.
<v Speaker 1>It's where it's like, which a Muppet at the free
<v Speaker 1>space at this point? And he was in that Muppet
<v Speaker 1>movie too. Wait, Jeff Keey was in the Muppet movie
<v Speaker 1>and he was in the Haunted Mansion movie. Oh wait
<v Speaker 1>he was. Yeah, I haven't seen it, the new one,
<v Speaker 1>I guess. I think I think there was, like I
<v Speaker 1>don't remember if it was the Game Awards or the
<v Speaker 1>europe and the European one, the games Com one where
<v Speaker 1>he like, one of his announcements was that he was
<v Speaker 1>in the Haunted Mansion.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, refreshed me. I wanted to double check my work.
<v Speaker 3>Which were you guys saying did not appear?
<v Speaker 1>I'm saying Fozzy didn't appear. I think Kermit, Miss Piggy,
<v Speaker 1>and Gonzo have all been there. I'm saying Gonzo did
<v Speaker 1>not appear.
<v Speaker 3>Uh sorry, I'm I might have asked that question wrong
<v Speaker 3>or whatever. It is one of these muppets has appeared,
<v Speaker 3>the other three have not appeared.
<v Speaker 1>Oh oh, then I'm changing it to Gonzo have appeared. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>Gonzo Gonzo appeared, is my answer. I'm gonna say Fozzi's appeared.
<v Speaker 3>Eric is correct, Gonzo appeared because Gonzo and Camilla the
<v Speaker 3>Chicken are associated, is what I'm telling you.
<v Speaker 1>Muppets, I did guess Gonzo for the other version of
<v Speaker 1>that question, isn't.
<v Speaker 3>That isn't that so funny? There's so many Muppets, and
<v Speaker 3>it's like they're like.
<v Speaker 1>I think he's trying to work his way up the
<v Speaker 1>ladder to get to Kermit. Like that's because once, once
<v Speaker 1>you do Kermit, like you've kind of like that's you've
<v Speaker 1>hit the peak of Muppet. I personally would like to
<v Speaker 1>see Sam the Eagle there. But can we get Rolf
<v Speaker 1>playing in the band? Maybe? I don't know. If I
<v Speaker 1>like the disrespect for Scooter, I think Scooter we need
<v Speaker 1>doctor Teeth and the electric mayhem.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, we gotta do bets on which muppet will appear
<v Speaker 3>this next one.
<v Speaker 1>That'd be sick.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, all right, two questions left. One of them PlayStation
<v Speaker 3>published game. Oh just also to be clear, current score
<v Speaker 3>Marcus nine, Eric seven.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, still still we still get a game. I could
<v Speaker 1>still catch up. Theoretically you could tie. I love playing
<v Speaker 1>to tie.
<v Speaker 3>No, there's there's three questions left. This one is a
<v Speaker 3>sub question. So if Eric gets always right, Marcus gets
<v Speaker 3>all of them wrong. Eric could come through, but we'll
<v Speaker 3>see what's happens. PlayStation published games have an incredible track
<v Speaker 3>record when it comes to Game Awards nominations. How many
<v Speaker 3>years since the first Game Awards have the nominees for
<v Speaker 3>Game of the Year not included a PlayStation published title.
<v Speaker 1>How many years has that happened?
<v Speaker 3>How many years has there not been any Sony Interactive
<v Speaker 3>Entertainment published titles. In the Game of Work nominees lineup. Three,
<v Speaker 3>I'm gonna say, and I'll let you we can do
<v Speaker 3>We can do bonus points again if you can guess
<v Speaker 3>the exact years.
<v Speaker 1>Don't do it, Eric, I mean, they're just bonus points.
<v Speaker 1>I don't lose, right, don't even tints. Yeah, I'm saying.
<v Speaker 1>I'm saying three.
<v Speaker 2>You can do your year, and then I'll guess some
<v Speaker 2>years a Sony published game was not That's okay, uh,
<v Speaker 2>Sony published first party ex saluting third party get him
<v Speaker 2>out of there. So remake would not count because that
<v Speaker 2>is not their game. Final Fantasy seven remake, is what
<v Speaker 2>I'm saying.
<v Speaker 1>So all be excluded. I'm gonna say four. I don't
<v Speaker 1>think I could guess the year, so I'm gonna I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna all right, I'm gonna say twenty nineteen, twenty twenty two,
<v Speaker 1>and twenty fifteen. Wait, ilight, I'm gonna guess. What are
<v Speaker 1>you gonna guess? Marcus, I'll do twenty nineteen, twenty sixty Actually, no,
<v Speaker 1>scratch twenty sixteen. I just remember one. It was like
<v Speaker 1>with twenty nineteen. I'm gonna do twenty twenty one one. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty one, and I'm gonna stop there.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, no points. Unfortunately, there's only one year that a
<v Speaker 3>Sony not published game has not made it, and that's
<v Speaker 3>twenty fourteen.
<v Speaker 1>Oh god, oh wait? Was that that was the rough year?
<v Speaker 1>Dang it? I was thinking in my head. I was like,
<v Speaker 1>it is the Dragon Age year, wasn't It wasn't the
<v Speaker 1>Dragon Age year? Twenty fourteen? That was when it came
<v Speaker 1>down buying Large to Dragon Agent and Middle Earth The
<v Speaker 1>Shadow of Mordor. Yeah, yeah, I was thinking that was
<v Speaker 1>twenty fifteen in my head.
<v Speaker 3>Damn of the remaining ten years had at least one
<v Speaker 3>PlayStation published game nominated for a Game of the Year
<v Speaker 3>every single one of those years. How many of those
<v Speaker 3>games won.
<v Speaker 1>Game of the Year? Wait say it again?
<v Speaker 3>So of these plays, there's ten years remaining, so twenty
<v Speaker 3>fourteen there was no PlayStation published game. Every year since then,
<v Speaker 3>a big first party Sony game has been nominated for
<v Speaker 3>Game of the Year. Three of those have won.
<v Speaker 1>Which ones I've won? Is the question, like, which what
<v Speaker 1>three games I've won? I'm gonna say, yeah, I was
<v Speaker 1>cutting my three in my head. So we're saying the
<v Speaker 1>names of the games, right, Yeah, I'm also saying the
<v Speaker 1>Last of Us part two. Yeah, I'm saying Last of
<v Speaker 1>Us Part two. I'm gonna say God of War Ragnarok.
<v Speaker 1>I'm also saying God of War Ragnarok. And then I'm
<v Speaker 1>also gonna say, no, that didn't win. I don't. I
<v Speaker 1>feel like you're just waiting for me.
<v Speaker 3>I am.
<v Speaker 1>I'm waiting for you to lock your because I know
<v Speaker 1>what the third one is, one hundred. So you want
<v Speaker 1>to see what I'm going to say. Oh, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>we're competing. Oh that's okay. Oh Astrobot, Yes, Astrobot it,
<v Speaker 1>because I was going to say, we literally said that
<v Speaker 1>earlier in this episode that Astrobot won. So yeah, you.
<v Speaker 3>Guys each are going to get two points.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, which one did we miss? Oh did Ragnarok not
<v Speaker 1>elden Ring one that year, right, that was? What was
<v Speaker 1>the third one?
<v Speaker 3>The one you missed was Original.
<v Speaker 1>God of War twenty eighteen. Oh, I thought something else
<v Speaker 1>beat Oh you.
<v Speaker 2>Know what I met twenty eighteen? And I said, Arector,
<v Speaker 2>I remember twenty eighteen Upset, red Dead Redemption?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, yeah, if I remember right like that? Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that was elden Ring's year. All right, damn it.
<v Speaker 3>Final score, Eric nine marks eleven. One question left just
<v Speaker 3>for funzies. This is the hardest one or this is
<v Speaker 3>what the one most involved? I guess one game series
<v Speaker 3>to fight. Having eighteen nomination across three games released since
<v Speaker 3>the first Game Awards, has never won a single game award?
<v Speaker 1>What game series like any award?
<v Speaker 3>It got nominated eighteen times and has not won anything.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, wow, eighteen times? Yeah, but for the longest time,
<v Speaker 1>the best to never win it. Basically, Yeah, I'm trying
<v Speaker 1>to think of what has had that many entries that
<v Speaker 1>could have been nominated that still didn't win anything. Although
<v Speaker 1>maybe that's not the way to look at it, because
<v Speaker 1>if there were like two or three games but they
<v Speaker 1>each got nominated like six five, six times something like that,
<v Speaker 1>that that could do it to be clear, this is
<v Speaker 1>this is three games, right, Okay? Okay, Three Games has.
<v Speaker 3>Three games that have released and have all total received
<v Speaker 3>eighteen nominations in this series, never.
<v Speaker 1>Received an award, So wait, is it three games or
<v Speaker 1>three series?
<v Speaker 3>It's it's one series games, three games in that series, correct,
<v Speaker 3>and series of these games.
<v Speaker 1>So we're naming the games or the series.
<v Speaker 3>So for example, I've mentioned this one already, so it
<v Speaker 3>won't be a thing. Final Fantasy has won for music
<v Speaker 3>three times, but a Final Fantasy all those games, if
<v Speaker 3>it had been nominated for sixteen, Rebirth and remake and
<v Speaker 3>none of those had won, you'd say Final Fantasies or
<v Speaker 3>guess right, right.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, I'm gonna say series my series, and I'm gonna
<v Speaker 2>go with I'm gonna say Resident Evil.
<v Speaker 1>I can't recall a Resident Evil. That's not bad guess.
<v Speaker 1>That's not a bad guess.
<v Speaker 2>And they put out enough games to have racked up
<v Speaker 2>the nominations, like their their release cadence, it's pretty frequent
<v Speaker 2>or frequent enough. So do I have to name the
<v Speaker 2>Resident Evil games specifically?
<v Speaker 5>Uh?
<v Speaker 3>No, Once you've guessed the category, I think it's okay.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm saying Resident Evil as a serious Yeah. See,
<v Speaker 1>I I don't think it's Resident Evil because I think
<v Speaker 1>there are too mini games that have come out in
<v Speaker 1>that span of time that would have picked up other
<v Speaker 1>nominations in there that I think more than three have
<v Speaker 1>been nominated, not win, they haven't won anything, right, but
<v Speaker 1>it's only three games have counted for the nominations, right,
<v Speaker 1>that's correct? Yes, yeah, I shoot, oh shoot, I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>really just throw one at the wall here. I don't
<v Speaker 1>think this is the answer, but it's the best thing
<v Speaker 1>I can come up with right now that won't leave
<v Speaker 1>us just sitting here for like ten minutes. Metroid, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know, because like Dread came out, I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>that's the best answer I can think of right now,
<v Speaker 1>cause I don't think it's anything else.
<v Speaker 3>Final answers yep, uh.
<v Speaker 1>Wait Monster Hunter? Oh? Monster Hunter? Is my answer? Not bad?
<v Speaker 3>You are both incorrect. Do you like another chance or
<v Speaker 3>do you want to we want to call it a game?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if I've got a second Do you
<v Speaker 1>want to go back to your original guess with Metroid?
<v Speaker 1>I don't I know. I literally don't think it's Metroid.
<v Speaker 1>I will be stunned if it's Metroid. Yeah, I don't.
<v Speaker 2>I don't have a second guess at me. I must
<v Speaker 2>say Dragon Age Inquisition was twenty fourteen, and then we
<v Speaker 2>got the new one. They might have been enough to
<v Speaker 2>actually scratch.
<v Speaker 1>Oh waitanging my mind, I have I have a guess
<v Speaker 1>after all. No, I don't, never mind, it's like counting
<v Speaker 1>games in my head. I was like, no, that doesn't
<v Speaker 1>make sense, street Fighter.
<v Speaker 2>You know what my guess gonna be. I'm gonna say Horizon,
<v Speaker 2>like zero don Slash Forbidden West, I feel like, I
<v Speaker 2>feel like that.
<v Speaker 1>Can't be that. I think. So it's a plus.
<v Speaker 2>There's only been two of them, but they those those
<v Speaker 2>games seem like games that get a lot of nominations,
<v Speaker 2>but they'll always get overshaped.
<v Speaker 1>I'm guessing Horizon too, because I think I know why
<v Speaker 1>it is the right one. So I'm also guessing Horizon.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, incorrect one.
<v Speaker 1>Damn damn. I thought the VR game counted.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if Horizon has never won. Actually, I'm
<v Speaker 3>curious because that's not the one I was thinking of.
<v Speaker 3>The one I specifically pulled up that was really surprised
<v Speaker 3>by Spider Man.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, Spider Spider Man one two and Miles Morales has.
<v Speaker 3>Never it was nominated for basically all the big categories,
<v Speaker 3>all the best performances every year. Was there never picked
<v Speaker 3>up a single one. Huh, let's see if Horizon won anything.
<v Speaker 3>I don't actually know because maybe that's maybe that's a
<v Speaker 3>backdoor answer. I don't know if the VR game was nominated.
<v Speaker 1>Honestly, I thought it would have because there's a VR
<v Speaker 1>thing every year, right. I think it got probably a
<v Speaker 1>nomination for that. I would imagine did it come out
<v Speaker 1>next to another really big VR game over.
<v Speaker 3>In the three, so that does make three?
<v Speaker 1>But doesn't would that have put it in contention with
<v Speaker 1>Half Life Alex One was Half Life Alex. No, that was.
<v Speaker 3>Resident Evil Village interestingly.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, okay, that's kind of funny. I was gonna say,
<v Speaker 1>there's too many Resident Evil games that have come out
<v Speaker 1>because there was seven Village remake to remake the remix
<v Speaker 1>through that that number, Yeah, I think that was going
<v Speaker 1>to push it over Monster Hunter. I was like there
<v Speaker 1>there was World Rise and then Wild but then also
<v Speaker 1>like Ice Borne, I think was in contention as like
<v Speaker 1>an entry one year. Charles just checking the rules about
<v Speaker 1>inclusion are always kind of running the calculations there are
<v Speaker 1>numbers and equations flying in his room right now, getting
<v Speaker 1>the committee to verify.
<v Speaker 3>I think, did you guys both guess Horizon or just
<v Speaker 3>one of you guess Horizon?
<v Speaker 1>We both guessed, we both guess said it first.
<v Speaker 3>Marcus did say I'll give you each a point for
<v Speaker 3>that because that did have three games, it does have
<v Speaker 3>a lot of nominations, and it never won.
<v Speaker 1>It's never won.
<v Speaker 2>Time gorilla person went on stage and said, thank you
<v Speaker 2>for like a best Audio or like something like one
<v Speaker 2>of the technical categories.
<v Speaker 1>That's why.
<v Speaker 3>Now technically my specific question was one series that had
<v Speaker 3>eighteen nominations didn't get it and they didn't have that
<v Speaker 3>many nominations. OK, but I think it's still we'll give
<v Speaker 3>each point.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so like nominations is wild.
<v Speaker 3>So many final scores. Eric with ten points, Marcus with
<v Speaker 3>twelve points. Congratulations Marcus. Really the one that you really
<v Speaker 3>came in clutch with was that Best Family Game. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>just sniping all three of those was very very good.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, family guys, and that has been gi auto know,
<v Speaker 3>gi Auta know. Awesome.
<v Speaker 2>Alrighty, let's get out of here. We got a jumbo
<v Speaker 2>size episode this week.
<v Speaker 1>But thank you so much. For watching and listening.
<v Speaker 2>Be sure it's a like, Share and subscribe if you
<v Speaker 2>enjoyed this episode, and of course you can find us
<v Speaker 2>on social media. I am at Marcus Stewart seven online,
<v Speaker 2>you can find Charles at Chuck Duck three sixty five,
<v Speaker 2>and you can find Eric at c Moussey. Be sure
<v Speaker 2>to support the magazine. Go to GameInformer dot com slash
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<v Speaker 2>full posting about that for all the hot details there.
<v Speaker 2>But thank you guys so much for joining me and
<v Speaker 2>we will see y'all next time.
<v Speaker 1>Bye.