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68. The Best Games of 2022
1 Playsin 1 day
Join us this week as we discuss 15 of our favorite games released in 2022!
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Podcast - http://www.x.com/gameoverplastic
Midnight- http://www.x.com/midnightdt
Sean- http://www.x.com/seanlikestobake
Hodge- http://www.x.com/hodgebaba57
Video and Audio edited by: Hodge
Intro and Graphics by: Hodge
Intro music created by: Hodge
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:39
Speaker
Welcome everyone to Games Over Plastic episode 68. Yes, okay. Just making sure I was correct there. I'm your host for this week, ah Hodge. I mean, we're just rotating it up, no big deal. Because who our normal host is, is here, and that is Midnight. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing all right, yeah. i think I don't know if I'm starting to get sick or what, but I got like, my throat feels kind of like weird, like mucusy. so But anyway, I am here, and I'm ready to talk about some video games.
00:01:07
Speaker
like Yeah, and also here to talk about some video games is Sean Mason coming from a bunker in West Idaho. How are you doing? Good. this is my Fallout shelter. I'm preparing for the end of the world. with i Iran's going to come and attack us.
00:01:24
Speaker
Oh, okay, cool. I thought that was over, but I guess every other day I say i see it's over. It's never over. see we're bombing someone, and then it's over, and then we're bombing. so i don't know what's going on. I saw a hilarious meme about that where it was like ah Trump announces that he's won the Iran war for a record 46 times this year.
00:01:43
Speaker
Yeah. Shattering the previous record of one. yeah Yeah. Anyway. Yeah.
Past Episodes and Future Segments
00:01:49
Speaker
Yeah. So we are here to talk. ah If anyone hasn't listened, we've done episodes on our favorite games of Basically going over entire decades, we did 90 to 99. We did 2000 to 2009, 10 to 19.
00:02:04
Speaker
And we started this podcast in 24. So we never were able to do our game. And obviously every year we do our game of the year, but we were so we were never able to do 2020 through 2023. twenty twenty through twenty twenty three And so if you if you guys want to go back and listen to us doing our favorites of 20 and 21. I think we were unanimous in 20 of Final Fantasy remake, if I remember right. yeah Spoilers for that episode. But yeah, so we ah wanted to do we figured screw it. Let's do 2022. It's been a while since we've done this. So. We're going to talk our five favorite games each from the year 2022.
00:02:39
Speaker
Also, before we get into that, I guess I should do some little admin. This is Games Over Plastic, agnostic gamers podcast, where we talk about the games, not console wars. We come to you basically every week. Sometimes we have take weeks off because, you know, life gets in the way. We just don't want to tell everyone it's weekly. And then every week someone's like, where's episode?
00:02:57
Speaker
So we're we're almost weekly, but we come to you every every Monday, asterisk most Mondays. Also, quick little shameless plug, month, if anyone knows, me and my girlfriend do a Pokemon polls YouTube channel, and we just started month two, which I think like the first three or four days will be out by the time this episode comes out. So if anyone wants to tune into that, it's a lot of fun. do We have a lot of fun. They're pretty good. Good production. Do it. I would highly suggest it.
00:03:24
Speaker
I appreciate that. Yeah, I have a lot of fun. as As everyone knows from watching this podcast, I enjoy editing and making fun videos is fun. so So, yeah. Anyway, let's hop into the topic, shall we, boys?
Discussion on 'Soul Hackers 2'
00:03:40
Speaker
Sure, yeah, we can do that. Let's do that. All right. ah Order will be Sean Midnight Me, because why not? right So, Sean, what's your number five? All right. So my number five is a game that I know Midnight does not like, but it's from one of his favorite developers, and that is from Atlas, and that is Soul Hackers 2.
00:04:04
Speaker
soul hackers too i know um this is a jrpg it is in the um same people who make persona and shimigami tensei um i really enjoyed soul hackers too i know a lot of people gave it a lot of crap a lot of people were like oh it's so boring the story stinks the combat's not fun i really enjoyed it i thought the story was very deep um Of course, the story is not nearly as deep as, we'll say, like a Persona or even like a Shin Megami Tensei, which the story isn't entirely crucial to those games. But I really enjoyed Soul Hackers 2.
00:04:36
Speaker
It came at a special time because, as some people don't know, 2022, I had some tragic event happen to me. I was hit by a car. And this game came, this was like the first game that came out like,
00:04:49
Speaker
The first game I played like right after that, and it was a nice long JRPG. I got to Platinum, and it took me like almost 200 hours to Platinum. um The gameplay, you know classic turn-based combat. I really enjoyed Ringo, who's the main character. like I thought she was um super compelling, and i just thought the story was overall super fun. It really captured me at a time where I was really upset and really sad. I couldn't run. I really couldn't do much. and It was just something that um really helped me get through a hard time. So yeah, Soul Hacker is two. Number five on my list.
00:05:25
Speaker
Highly underrated. Dude, I can't believe that was already four years ago. I remember that happening. That's insane. It's already been four years. That was August 2022. Wow.
00:05:38
Speaker
It was right before my birthday. It was like six days before my birthday. August 9th, 2022. Oh, wow. I didn't know that it was that close to your birthday also. It was two days after I came back from vacation. I remember. i It was two days after I came back from vacation. I just remember because i remember Ben making a joke because at the time he was collecting like everything Doom related. He wanted like all the games and everything and you were going to send him something and like right after your accident, you're like, sorry, I'm going to be able to send that to you. like,
00:06:06
Speaker
I don't care. Like you were the hospital. i don't care if you're not sending me a copy or not doom. ah Duke Nukem is what it was. Yeah. Yeah. and yeah I just found that funny. I was like, it's actually funny because like I had bought it the day before. Like I had got it from the local game store the day before and I was like going ship it that day.
00:06:24
Speaker
and then I went out running that morning and I got hit by the drunk driver. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. like Please don't drink it. Five in the morning. What are doing on the road? Don't drink and drive. Yeah.
00:06:35
Speaker
yeah Drinking and driving is lame. Soulhackers is a great game. Yeah, obviously I don't know anything about Soulhackers, but is this one that you've, because obviously you're an Atlas fan, midnight is this one you've played or didn't No, I never played Soulhackers one or two.
00:06:49
Speaker
um I remember i was so I was semi-interested when it came out because it was like a Persona-like kind of, same company. and Literally the same exact combat. Yeah, so but I don't know. I just never got into it for some reason. I was busy. I was doing other stuff. I know Sean likes it, obviously, as he just said. um Maybe one day I'll get to it, but it's it's low on the list. um I still need to finish Metaphor, and I need to beat Persona 5 Royals, so I got other Atlas games, you know?
00:07:18
Speaker
But good one, Sean. Good one, Sean. All right.
Exploration of 'The Quarry'
00:07:22
Speaker
At midnight, I'm up. You're up. Number five. All right. My number five is a game that we talked about last year during Halloween.
00:07:29
Speaker
ah played it a while ago, and that was actually the quarry. ah This was the game from Supermassive, you know, kind of like ah Until Dawn. where it is a cinematic story-based game where it's like these group of friends and they go to this ah this camp and that's at a quarry or whatever, old quarry, like old Indian stuff. And there's there's a killer. And you know you got to make all the right choices and try to survive and unravel the mystery of what's going on because, of course, it's deeper than just some dude with a killing. you know um So it's cool, man. It was pretty good. It's not as good as Until Dawn, of course.
00:08:05
Speaker
um I would say Until Dawn, you know that's like a 9 out of 10, right? This one's more like a 7 or 6.5 or 7, but it's still cool. On the pizza scale, this one's just like ah like a cheese and cheese and onion, maybe. Cheese and Cheese and like Maybe like cheese and onion or something. like It's good toppings, but you need some meat, you know what i mean?
00:08:30
Speaker
Pause. speaking know Speaking of condiments... Really funny. real Real quick, real quick. So you know have a World Cup's going on, obviously. Yeah. Well, down the street for me, about a half hour, we have Gillette Stadium, which is they call it Boston Stadium for the World Cup. But Scotland has like the Scottish people have kind of invaded like this area. Like there's a ton of Scottish people here because Team Scotland's here. And they have discovered like ranch dressing.
00:08:56
Speaker
Yeah. And they are trying to like, they have never like found it before, but I guess people are trying to like bring it back on their carry ons and people at TSA are like, you cannot have this as a carry on. It's going to explode. and like, they're like, for you know, but I guess like the Scottish people will have discovered like ranch dressing. Also fun fact. So many places are running out of beer.
00:09:18
Speaker
It is so funny. They're ordering so much beer. They're running out of it. It's like, you see people like walking down the street and like so Scottish skirts. It's crazy. Kilts. Yes. That's that so I love the ranch dressing thing because especially me being from the Midwest ranch dressing is basically we don't consider it a salad dressing. It's a condiment because you just dip things in ranch. So it's so funny that i never knew it was like an American thing. Like I just assumed everyone knew what ranch dressing was because it's like especially here. It's like the default dressing. It's basically like if you order it's like is ranch OK or else you can get, you know, a thousand out both. But yeah, like ranch is the default. So the ranch is that it's an American thing.
00:10:01
Speaker
Ranch, I'd say is is definitely the most popular dressing in America. um Yeah, it's great. do You dip everything in it. You could dip pizza in ranch. I've done that. Sometimes you get a pizza from like, say say you're in the mood for like a sloppy, like low tier pizza, like Little Caesars, right? You go to Little Caesars, you get your pizza. They have c cups of ranch. And if you ever dip their pizza in ranch, it's even better.
00:10:20
Speaker
Make it even less healthy. It's awesome. i like I like French dressing. French dressing is like my favorite. French dressing is not bad, but you can't really dip a bunch of stuff in French. It doesn't have that. I've mixed. i've mixed When I was a kid, actually used to mix rice with French dressing. mix mix oh my God, it was so good. I was i was a savage as a kid. I'd come home from school. That'd be my afternoon snack. Rice and French dressing mixed together.
00:10:41
Speaker
That'd be alright, probably. Dude, I've gotten really into... um They have like a garlic ranch dressing, and it basically tastes like the garlic stuff that you get at Papa John's, and I get that, and I dip pizza in that now, because that is so good. It's too bad. Pizza dippings all day.
00:11:02
Speaker
Papa John got canceled, but the restaurant is is thriving. so i love your I don't think I've ever seen Papa John's around here. Like not in Massachusetts. never seen one in Massachusetts. Dude, Papa. Yeah.
00:11:12
Speaker
Papa John's is great. I love their. ah Sorry. They have their their deal where you can get like each item's like $5.99 or whatever. And their papadillas are amazing. If you have if you never had those, it's basically a pizza that they just fold in half. um And like they like, you know, like a calzone kind of. um But it's delicious, dude.
00:11:31
Speaker
You get like a but a buffalo chicken one. And then they have a a Philly cheesesteak one. Oh, it's so good. And you, of course, dip it in ranch. What were you saying? honey cory Yes, the quarry, you know, food game.
00:11:43
Speaker
Yeah, this is a well, yeah, i don't even remember what I was gonna say. Oh, i was gonna say of like, in terms of fast food pizza, I do like Papa because I'm obviously I'm from Chicago where we have really good pizza. So anything like Papa John's Domino's pizza, that's all I call it fast food pizza because it's it's not like high quality, but it's good. face taste good so Yeah, it's a messy, you know, cheap, available everywhere a pizza. Yeah.
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah. I think Papa John's is my favorite to the mess of the sloppy ones. h Yeah, I think. ah But also back to the topic, the quarry, I do want to play this one, especially because I'm just i i it's a very it's very hard for me to get into spoopy games like when it's not spoopy season. So hopefully this fall, if there's not something that's more appealing to me, because I know I have this game, I think it was a PS Plus or Xbox Gold, whatever game. So our Game Pass game, I guess that's what they are.
00:12:35
Speaker
Gold hasn't existed what, three years? I'm still calling them games with gold. ah But yeah, I think I do want to play this, even though I know it's not. I mean, especially... and The fact that Until Dawn 2 exists, I'm still so hyped about that. yeah So I'm gonna have to get back. because i Also, I have those like Man of Dawn or whatever those games are called. Dark Pictures. Yeah, I never played those. ones Which I hear those aren't also, they're also not as great. but i mean the I've heard some of them are good. heard the quality is very long. The quality is very wide, the range. Yeah, so i'm i'm hoping I'm hoping to play this at some point soon, especially because this one has a really good cast, which is also the thing that was cool with Until Dawn and Until Dawn 2 is the cast are really cool. So I want to i want to get around to this. But yeah, I think you'll enjoy it. Like I said, don't expect like a 9 or a 10 out game. It's kind it's kind of weird, but it's fun, though. It's it's enjoyable.
00:13:29
Speaker
Yeah. All right. My number five.
Review of 'Trek to Yomi'
00:13:34
Speaker
This was tough because I did get my list down. I played that. I know it will finished. I should say eight games from this year.
00:13:40
Speaker
And so we're doing top five. And so my I was it's tough because I loved all eight games I played this year. So I'm sitting here. I'm thinking what I'm going to do at number five, because this is kind of a.
00:13:53
Speaker
It's a lesser known or not lesser known, but it people don't really talk about this one as much anymore. And that is Trek to Yomi. It was this gorgeous side scroller. ah You play as like a samurai. It's very, you know, kind of the typical samurai going out for revenge kind of of storyline. But the way the game was the the art style of this game, it was that Kurosawa. I'm making I'm saying that probably saying it wrong. of like that very old school nineteen forty s black and white ah art style. And it was such a and of course, as everyone knows, i am such a, you know,
00:14:32
Speaker
a whore for games that look like this or like have good art styles and stuff. So I remember just really enjoying this game. I remember it being kind of difficult. I don't know if that's just because I'm bad at gaming or if that was the point of the game. But yeah, this was one of those. It just kind of came and went.
00:14:47
Speaker
ah People didn't talk about it. I think it kind of had like okay scores. I actually don't remember how it was like received. um I'll look it up. Yeah. You know loved this game?
00:14:59
Speaker
Cog loved this game. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. This is up Cog's wheelhouse, like the the Japanese samurai stuff. That's definitely something Cog would like. But yeah, this game was it was I was torn between this and Somerville also came out there. Another awesome side scroller kind of artsy game. But that came from the same people or half of the same people who did ah like inside and.
00:15:23
Speaker
those kind of games. I can't blank on their names right now, but yeah, this one, it was just a really cool, interesting story. And it was obviously a little um like supernatural at times. Cause it's about the spiritualness of kind of the the Japanese cultures. And it was just a really, really good game. i' I'm guessing this game, if I had to guess probably was in the seventies on Metacritic, I'm not entirely sure, but yeah, I really enjoyed it.
00:15:48
Speaker
72 on OpenCritic. So, good guess. See, I feel like that's a little low. I mean, it wasn't like... I'm not saying this is like a perfect game, but 70s... I don't know. I would have gone high 70s probably, but... It's whatever. people People have their feelings about it. But yeah, it was just a it was a really...
00:16:03
Speaker
good experience because it's one of those games i've probably beaten a day or two because it's a very you know it's a short indie game but and so i haven't really thought much of it since but when i was looking over the list i' was like oh yeah i really enjoyed that it was a cool cool little experience and that's what i like i like those three four hour games that are just a really cool experience and that's what trek to yomi was so that's my number five yeah uh yeah unless you guys anything sean's up next I do. So I did play a little Trek to Yomi. I didn't beat the game, though. I don't remember why I quit.
00:16:34
Speaker
um it was I remember it was slightly difficult. I don't think that's why I quit. but um But yeah, I played it for a while, and I think I just wasn't completely feeling the actual gameplay itself. I love the art style, though.
00:16:45
Speaker
um The art style was beautiful. That side-scroller, black and white. um Awesome. So good pick. Sean?
Analysis of 'Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3'
00:16:53
Speaker
never played it. Looks interesting. i remember I remember when this came out, though. remember some people were really, really into it.
00:16:58
Speaker
Yeah. All right. All right, Sean, you're number five. All right. you before No, we're all, everyone, it's just five fives is what we're doing. five has i All right.
00:17:09
Speaker
All right, cue in the annual Nickelodeon slop right here. Here we go. We got Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3 Slime Speedway. All right, so I've played all the Nickelodeon Kart Racer games, going back to the the Game Boy Color one, which was horrendous. But these Nickelodeon Kart Racers, like the 1 through 3 series, all improved. Number 3, peak of the series, Slime Speedway. 172 hours into this game. Only because I went for the Platinum Trophy and it was a really annoying trophy. we it It just took a long time. But this game mechanically is better than any Mario Kart game I have ever played. It takes so much more skill. I don't care what anyone says. These games are better than Mario Kart. It has a 70 on Metacritic. I don't care. It's 100 in my heart. ah
00:17:56
Speaker
Going from um number two, what this improves on from the second game? More playable characters. We got Helga Pataki. We got Jenny wakecom from Wakeman from My Life as Teenage Robart, new character. We got Purple Reptar and the regular Reptar, even better. Susie Carmichael joins the show.
00:18:14
Speaker
ah We got Stimpy from Ren and Stimpy. Rocko, Gerald. yeah You got the whole cast this year. And... Making her debut in this game was April O'Neil, who was not in any of the other Nickelodeon Kart races, and she was pretty awesome.
00:18:29
Speaker
Power-ups were sweet. ah To to like actually win at this game, you had to be skilled. It wasn't in those Mario Kart luck-based crap. Nickelodeon Kart Races 3, Slime Speedway, number four on my list, better than any Mario Kart. Take it to the bank. Put that on the box. Sean Mason approved. Nice.
00:18:48
Speaker
So I'm looking at... pictures one i love the graphics in this game it like that alone makes me want to play this game but two i'm looking at the cast one garfield awesome i love garfield yep powdered toast man yep yes he that is hilarious and also in hindsight this is hilarious jojo siwa is a character if she's in the game it's so funny she's in the game yeah I don't know who some of these characters are. I don't know who Lincoln, Clyde, Lucy are. They're from The Loud House, which was a cartoon that came out like right at the end of my Nickelodeon watching.
00:19:25
Speaker
Okay. Looks like there's a... Must have been after my time. is this This is a character from Avatar, it looks like. Yeah, the have the Avatar characters. Dude, the Avatar maps in this game is the maps in this game are insane. got This game, I'm telling you, better than Mario Kart, I'm telling you. Slap Mario on the cover of this game, is a it's going to be 100 on Metacritic.
00:19:45
Speaker
Calling it right now. yeah Yeah, man, there's there's Ninja Turtles, all kinds of stuff. It looks cool, actually. It looks like a good time. Yeah, JoJo Siwa is in this game, though. Yeah, pretty cool. That is absolutely hilarious that – Especially just knowing what she's like, like her public persona ri as of late is – don't know who that is, but yeah. She's ah been through some things. But yeah, that's that's just – I mean basically i think of typical child actor becoming what they become is kind of tough. Gotcha. Gotcha. But that's that's absolutely hilarious. And honestly, I looked at the prices because I was like, if I could get this for like four bucks on PlayStation, I would maybe buy this game and play it just because it seems it seems like the exact kind of game I definitely would have played, especially as a kid.
00:20:31
Speaker
so So that is hilarious to me. so I got to have my Nickelodeon slot. I got to have his annual Nickelodeon slot. I love it. yeah Don't ever change, Sean. I love it. You know I don't. You saw what I've been playing. That's great, man.
00:20:46
Speaker
For the audience it doesn't know, I've been playing Nickelodeon Tennis, which came out like ah two weeks ago. And it's better than Mario Tennis, I'll say again. Well, mar Mario Tennis is like the one Mario sports game that I've played, and I'm like, this isn't that good. The only good Mario Tennis game, there's two of them, 64 and the GameCube 1. All the other ones are horrible. but They continue to make Mario Tennis games. Where's my Mario baseball?
00:21:10
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy. And would love a good Mario Golf game. That newer one was... Like, I've played the N64 one on NSO, and that's actually pretty fun. Oh, it's so much fun. That new one where it's like you battle to get to the holes. I'm like, I don't want to play that stuff. Maybe we'll get Nicktoons golfing soon.
00:21:28
Speaker
There you go. Wii Tennis was good, right?
Insights on 'Plague Tale Requiem'
00:21:31
Speaker
No. Wii Sports Tennis? I thought that was fun. Maybe it was fun just because you were using the the motion thing. We'll get Nickelodeon golfing, and I'll use Chucky Finster with his his golf club will bigger than him. All right.
00:21:46
Speaker
Well, you know what else was fun? What was fun? My number four game. My number four game was Plague Tale Requiem. That's exact opposite of Nickelodeon. yeah yeah Yeah, you can put Plague Tale. You could put the rats in Nickelodeon. yeah ah so So Plague Tale Requiem came out this year in 2022, and it was a great game. It was beautiful. The graphics were amazing. Still graphically stunning. It continues the story from Plague Tale Innocence, of course. yeah yeah You got the the sister and the brother. I'm trying to remember the names at this point. I think I want to say Joshua maybe was the boy.
00:22:21
Speaker
i don't remember the girl's name. I don't i don't even know. Don't quote me. it's been it Guys, it's been four years. But this game was great. I really enjoyed it. Great story. Awesome combat. Beautiful graphics. I really enjoyed it. I do always say that I like Innocence a little more. So don't skip Innocence, guys. Make sure you play that first.
00:22:38
Speaker
Great, yeah. Innocence is peak, yeah. Because Innocence is more stealthy, which I don't even usually like stealth. But the way they did it in that game, it was just fun. It was good. But anyway, it was great. Plague Tale, Requiem. I'm really excited for the new one that's coming out soon. Shout out to Asobo, man.
00:22:54
Speaker
Is that the right studio? I think so. and Yeah, Team Solo. Yeah, they're they're they're making great games, man. They're making Flight Sim. They're making Plague Tale games. They're doing God's work. But yeah, I do recommend both Plague Tale games. play i Play Innocence and then play Requiem and you'll have a good time. Requiem is more combat focused. She's leveled up. She's more powerful now. She's able to take people out. In the first game, she was just kind of hiding, you know, um all that stuff. um You guys play this game?
00:23:24
Speaker
uh no this is on my list for this year i remember it was i think it was one of my ah resolutions was to play this because i want because i'm excited i loved innocence and i just never played rec room because if i remember it when it came out it was very like buggy because of the like the amount of rats in this game i guess are like tenfold and so like it was much more demanding and so i think it came out a little more buggy So I just never got to it, but I know they've, they cleaned it up and, and everything. So I am going to play this before.
00:23:56
Speaker
Resonance comes out because I'm very excited as well for residents. The names, by the way, the girl is Amicia and the boys, they was not Joshua. It's Hugo. it's Hugo is the boy. So there you go. Amicia and Hugo, their adventures in 1500s, France.
00:24:12
Speaker
And a shout out to that game. Plague tale. Requiem. Yeah, I'm very, I'm very, very excited to get around to this game eventually, but I will probably sooner than later. i am still in the the depths of playing Hades 2, so I will definitely get to this soon. But ah my number four, moving on, unless Sean, did you anything to say about Plague Tale?
00:24:37
Speaker
No. Okay. My number four is a game I'm sure Sean Mason enjoyed, and that is Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion.
Impressions of 'Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion'
00:24:46
Speaker
Yes, sir, I did. ah This was my first time playing it, even though I owned a PSP back in the day. I'd never had this game because obviously when I had a PSP, I was still young and my parents were the ones who controlled what games I had because they bought them for me. And so I just never got around to getting this game and I never had it.
00:25:02
Speaker
So when they announced this reunion, I was so pumped because i was like, finally, I can play Crisis Core. And I will say it it didn't age perfectly. it is you can tell it is of its time as a PSP game, and it definitely has some PSP quirks to it. It's not a perfect game by any stretch, but I really love this story of Zack and Cloud, even though I found it funny that in Final Fantasy 7, they act like Cloud and Zack were like best friends, but they barely do each other in this game. like Their story together is so short that it's like, oh, I thought they were like Obi-Wan and Anakin. No, it's...
00:25:39
Speaker
they they just kind of knew each other. They weren't even really that tight. So I don't know why it acted like Zach is like his best friend from childhood. Almost it's, but, but overall it's a really cool story. Cause obviously Zach is such a cool character. So I was happy to, to see his story through. And obviously I love the remake games better and obviously based final fantasy seven. I love it better than this game, but it was still a fantastic game and I'm happy. I finally got to play it after all these years. So, yeah, Final Fantasy VII Reunion.
00:26:09
Speaker
Crisis Core. Great game. Yeah, it definitely, you can tell it was definitely ah ah made for a mobile game, PSP style game where it's like much more like just you, you know, you pick up and play it. Yeah. You know, short, like ah really small areas to travel to a lot of loading screens. But yeah, super fun game. But I totally agree with you about the the cloud and Zach's story. I actually picked up on that as like a kid in like 2006 when this game came out. I'm like, well, thought they were supposed to be like,
00:26:36
Speaker
you know, brothers in arms over here. Yeah, it's it's just, yeah, that was the one thing I had no idea going into this game. I'm like, yeah, they barely knew each other. So but that was funny. But yeah, fantastic
Appreciation for 'Xenoblade Chronicles 3'
00:26:49
Speaker
game. So Midnight, have you ever played this or do you plan on it? Or no, I haven't played it. I probably won't play it. I've thought about playing it before. I don't like Zach.
00:27:01
Speaker
Zach, Zach to me. Well, because Zach is, ah he took Aerith from me and I don't like that. Aerith is my waifu and Zach, you know, Zach took her. So I don't like that now. But Zach just seems like black haired cloud, you know?
00:27:15
Speaker
It is so funny that at the end of, I yeah guess actually they did know each other in that game, which was also kind of funny that like, Aerith just happened to be there for both of them. And it's just like, so she was, she like dated Zach and then moves on to cloud. Kind of funny, but. Yes. I don't like Zach. Aerith is mine. Okay. So yeah I won't acknowledge him or his game.
00:27:39
Speaker
I'm kidding. Of I'm kidding. Of course. But I did want to play this at one point, but I just, I never got to it. Yeah. Yeah. So Sean, number three. Alright, my number three is a JRPG, a very weird JRPG. I know, shocker right there. And that is Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Not my favorite Xenoblade game, but very high up there. The Xenoblade series is one of my favorite series of all time. Chronicles 3 is the final game of the trilogy. which they actually just announced, a new Xenoblade game, which I'm really excited for, Xenoblade Genesis. But Chronicles 3 is the ah end of the original Chronicles trilogy. um The DLC is what really kind of ties up, connects to the other two games. like You can play Chronicles 3 standalone. You get more out of it than playing two and one, but you can definitely play this one by itself. um I think this game is awesome. It takes the combat. It it it has... so
00:28:34
Speaker
the thing is this i think the story in two is phenomenal i think the combat in one is better than two this gives you basically this like the story um the story depth of two and gives you like that combat from one back so the comp because one of the big complaints about two was the combat being way too complicated i really loved it i thought i didn't think it was complicated i thought it was difficult to learn but once you learn it freaking awesome Three, very good game, very good combat. Story, super compelling. um You know, teary at some points. Basically, a story about two enemy kingdoms at war. The battle's been going on for thousands of years here, and you take on a party of characters from various different backgrounds. my favorite One of my favorite protagonists, Noah, in this game. He's awesome.
00:29:25
Speaker
yeahp Very similar to Xenoblade. have the blades and that's your party and you go through, you do various tasks. But the main story is, like i said, super compelling. Some light hardness as always with JRPGs.
00:29:36
Speaker
But the main juxtaposition is a it's a coming of age where your character kind of grows up as you are going along. And you eventually save the world, ah like most JRPGs. It's super fun though. I really, really like this game, and I'm so glad it's getting a Switch 2 upgrade, so I will be replaying it. Because of the Xenoblade Chronicles games, this is the game I've played the least, you know, I said I've played the least amount, but I've played through it twice, and it's 400 hours was right there. But I've played the least amount of the Xenoblade trilogy in this one, but this game is awesome.
00:30:10
Speaker
I was going to say, I thought I heard this game in the news recently, and that's why, because they have a remaster going on for it. I was so confused. it's like, i I thought this game was new. But yeah. ah Midnight, have you ever played Xenoblade or want to, or what's your number three?
00:30:27
Speaker
I haven't played any of the Xenoblade
Review of 'Ghostwire Tokyo'
00:30:30
Speaker
games. Kind of want to, but I mentioned this before that it was on the stinky Switch, so I didn't play it. But now that they're porting them over and updating them,
00:30:38
Speaker
Well, yeah, but it looks still looks stinky. um I don't want play 100 hours of stink. You know what i mean? But they're they're upgrading it, right? For the Switch 2, it looks better. Yeah, december though yeah I think I'm going to jump into Genesis, like I said before, Xenoblade Genesis, because that one is the modern game. That one looks good.
00:30:56
Speaker
So we'll see. We'll see. Maybe one day I will hop into Xenoblade. But my number three here, guys, is a game that Hodge, I don't know if you played this or not, but it's Ghostwire Tokyo.
00:31:09
Speaker
Ghostwire Tokyo. This game was really fun. Okay, so this centers on like this young this young dude ah Akito. um in In Tokyo right some event happens and like 99% of the city vanishes. and Then you have like these ghosts these visitors right that are in in the city and a young Akito here he has these powers to like weave this magic and like take out the enemies which is freaking sweet. So you're going around the city it's kind Ubisoft life you're like you're collecting collectibles and you're uncovering the map. um You're taking out monsters and little, not not really bases, but like little little groups, right? um And it's f freaking sweet, collecting art pieces. The story is good.
00:31:49
Speaker
It's well voice acted. um You know, he's trying to come to terms, I believe, with ah like his parents' death and also trying to find his sister who was badly injured. um So it's really cool. Cool narrative. Beautiful graphics. I love like this take on Tokyo where it's like completely abandoned and like kind of nighttime with these weird ghosts. and the combat is super fun how you like you like pull up you do these attacks and then you pull out their soul and like you do big attacks and it's just it's just really fun i recommend this game this is a cool kind of spooky but not really that scary um game um that just has just immaculate vibes really like it i i would i wouldn't mind a sequel honestly um this was by tango gang works game works are they're not around anymore are they
00:32:33
Speaker
We got shut down. Yeah, that sucks. Unfortunately. That sucks. Good game, though. Ghostwire Tokyo. Did either of you guys play it? No, i was. This was a um one of those. It was exclusive to PlayStation, but it was like after the acquisition.
00:32:48
Speaker
um I was a Deathloop guy. m I didn't play that one. That was last. Yeah, I just know. Maddie infamously hates that game. It's it's hilarious.
00:32:59
Speaker
I like it. A lot of people like it. I haven't played. I haven't played either of them. Definitely for ghost wire. But I do really want to play ghost wire, especially because people who acted talked about how it had a little collectathon aspect to it as if it's a bad thing. I'm like, I love that game. So like I do. I do want to play this. it I do own it. This is when I actually did purchase. I don't.
00:33:22
Speaker
Obviously, it was on Game Pass because it was an Xbox game. And I think it was might have been a games with gold it or a PS Plus game at some point. i don't remember, but i do one game and I do want to play it. So I will. I actually, when I was looking through my library the other day, I saw it and I was just like, oh, I should play this. And so I might hopefully sooner than later because this game, it looked cool. I thought like you had like the Doctor Strange powers almost like you fought fought with. And yeah, I thought this game looked really cool. So will definitely be playing it at some point, hopefully sooner than later. But
00:33:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's very Ubisoft like it. You know, I love my Ubisoft games. i I like the map with lots of ah collectibles and icons that you clear. It's just fun checking the boxes, you know, like Spider-Man, Marvel Spider-Man, you know? Yeah, yeah. The good one. um But yeah, my ah number three is, oh, I closed my list. Why did i do that? Oh, is a game that I've talked about on this podcast many times because it is insanely addicting and I still go back to it here and there. And that is Vampire Survivors. This game is
00:34:30
Speaker
It's very simple, which is the greatest
Addiction to 'Vampire Survivors'
00:34:32
Speaker
thing about this game. Literally, you don't do anything. You just move in this game. But that's literally you can play this game one handed pause ah and literally because all you do is you move your joystick to move your character on because all the attacks are automatic. But you want to go around and obviously get to places and avoid enemies and stuff in it. It's remember seeing the trailers for this and I was like, there's no way this game is fun because the graphics are very 8 bit. They look so old like this game looks weird and dated. And so like there's no way this game is fun. And 30 hours later, I'm so addicted to this game because this game also has like 500 achievements. And so I'm sitting there getting every single one of them. I don't even know what my gamer score from this game alone is. It's insane. And I have the platinum on PlayStation because it's just that addicting. uh i unfortunately i did not like the the follow-up game that they put out this year of vampire crawlers that game just did not grab me people are saying it's just as addicting but it did not grab me at all of the way vampire survivors did but yeah this game a lot of people have called this their game of the year from this year because of how addicting this game like it's a very simple game it's and It's also nice because I think the game went what's in Game Pass, but I think to buy it, it's five dollars. This game launched at like five bucks and every few months he comes out with the DLC, which is just new skins, new weapons, new stuff and new levels. And each DLC is a dollar.
00:35:54
Speaker
And so I've i've spent $10 on this game, maybe. and it's And I've put so much time that it's worth every penny of it. I guess the guy who made the game used to work on like slot machines. So he knows how to make things addicting. And that's why this game is so insane. Thankfully, he's not also charging you because I'm sure he could make even more money if he was charging stuff in this game and making it that addicting that people wanting to throw money in it. But thankfully, it's just addicting and it takes your time, not your money. So, yeah, this game is is I love it. So, yeah, vampire survivors is my number three.
00:36:31
Speaker
hmm. Good pick. Good pick. I played this briefly. I gave it a shot. It it didn't hook me, but it it's cool. It's cool. um And then there's a new game recently from the same people. yeah What is it? Vampire Crawlers or whatever. I thought about trying that at some point, but who knows? Honestly, you might like that one better. That one's like a card game. So I don't... It's it's it's very different. It didn't grab me because it didn't seem difficult. it just...
00:36:56
Speaker
I don't know It felt boring to me because you kind of you pick your cards to attack the enemies in front of you and then you move to the next one and fight more. And so whereas Vampire Survivors, it's an ongoing timer that you're constantly going for 30 minutes. And I really like that. Whereas this one, it felt i don't know. The pacing just didn't grab me. So yeah you might like crawlers, but i I wasn't big on it. It's also on Game Pass. So if you want to try crawlers, it's on Game Pass.
00:37:20
Speaker
What about you, Sean? Did you play Vampire? I've never played this game, but I can get why people into it. taste to it it just never I missed a try it at some point, but just never never got around to it. sorry I know if I did, though, I would spend hours going for the Platinum.
00:37:36
Speaker
Oh, I'm sure. It's like legitimately I used to. So I used to have a when I had a smaller iPhone, I had the ah what's it called? The little controller that they you can hook up to your phone. I'm back on but the backbone. Yeah. And I would literally go to the gym, ride the bike for an hour and just play Vampire Survivors the entire time I had. Cause I had the game play game pass streaming thing. So I would just boot it up on my phone with the backbone on and just sit there play playing vampire survivors while i was on the bike at the gym. And it was so much fun. And that's how I got so much time into that game. But yeah, it's, it's a very, very fun game.
Love for 'Horizon Forbidden West'
00:38:11
Speaker
But Sean, number two, All right, number two, this is going to make some people angry. That is Horizon Forbidden West. Better than Zero Dawn, arguably one of the best games on PlayStation. I think this is a great game. I think it's the top 30 game of all time for me, actually. I love Forbidden West. I think the story is amazing. i know a lot of people complained about it. I think the angle they took that...
00:38:37
Speaker
gorilla took with the story making it so leaning so much more heavy heavily into the the sci-fi aspects was awesome i think the world is gorgeous so much to do side quests compelling really cool characters combat is just perfect nothing it's just like taking on these like dinosaur robots and chipping away taking out the uh yeah even your categories see Chipping away at each dinosaur robot. Side quest, really cool. Very varied environment. Map is huge. Really, really love ah this game. Yeah, Forbidden West. I know not a lot of people agree with me that they think it's better than Zero Dawn. I think it is. And I'm so excited to see where they go with the third game. I'm so highly anticipating it.
00:39:21
Speaker
See, i i like I thought the one the graphics obviously were a thousand times better than the first one just because it was a step up to the next generation. But and the gameplay, they improved it. They added, you know, you could glide. had the Breath of the Wild glider and like you could ride different animal. Even though i never got far enough to I guess it may be spoiled that you can fly. I never got to that far enough into the game. I had fallen off, but i liked the story of the first one better.
00:39:50
Speaker
ah And I, the biggest reason I fell off for Pitten West is because I did the dumb thing of I platinum zero Dawn remastered or not remastered to zero Dawn on PS five right before. Cause they up, they ported to PS five. And so I went through and I played it again because I had platinum for ah the original way back when, And so I went back or no, maybe I did just didn't. Maybe I beat it the first time and then i went back for the play. don't know Either the way, I platinum it right before for Ben West came out. So when like maybe a month before and so right when for Ben West came out, I was I started playing. i was so burnt out on open world horizon that I was just like that. I just kind I got like 10 hours and I'm like, I'm just I don't want to do this anymore. So I fell off of it. Like I definitely don't dislike the game, even though I do dislike Aloy. I think she's a horrible character. i
00:40:40
Speaker
other But the game in the world, it's such a cool concept. I love the fact that it's like prehistoric, but it's because it's after the world has ended prehistoric. So there's still old technology in the world, which is really cool. I love that concept ah in games. And so, yeah, I definitely don't hate this game. like a lot I feel like for Ben West gets unnecessary hate. And I'm like, it's not a bad game, guys. Stop. Like, that's not over...
00:41:08
Speaker
Like, let's not overreach a little bit. It's a good game, if even if you don't like it. But yeah, I don't think it's like amazing. i don't see Horizon as like the PlayStation franchise, like, how you know, Master Chief to Xbox or Mario to Nintendo. I don't see Aloy as that for PlayStation, which some people try and do.
00:41:25
Speaker
But yeah, it's a good game. And I'll go back to Forbidden West one day and finish it because i I was enjoying it for the most part. But yeah, Aloy is just I think she's such a tiring character because every time it's like hey aloy can you can you do this for us she goes okay it's like it's like her attitude to every quest she gets i'm just like all right i you're you're a grump shout out to katalo katalo is my favorite character in this game yeah uh but midnight you got any thoughts on horizon otherwise you are up with your number two
00:41:57
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to keep it positive here because i'm I'm not a fan of that game. So I'm not going to it. I don't want to piss on the things that Sean loves. so um I just think the first game was much better than the second one. That's all I'll say. um My number two. Here we go. This is a game that I love. This is a game that I highly recommend to everybody.
Praise for 'Pentiment'
00:42:20
Speaker
I almost put it at number one. I was so close to putting it number one, but I just couldn't justify it. Pentiment. Pentiment from Obsidian. That's right. that little That small little game that looks like it takes place in a storybook where you're playing in, like I don't know, like 1100s, like the Holy Roman Empire or something. It's freaking awesome, dude. You play as ah Andreas Mahler, an artist. He's in this town.
00:42:44
Speaker
And then all of a sudden there's a murder and then you have to somehow you're in charge of solving the murder. So you have to go around and question people and then you accuse someone and you know then that person dies. Did you get it right? Who knows?
00:42:56
Speaker
And then it goes on to act two. Act two is the best. Act two is insane. Like the stakes in this game, it ratchets up ratchets up like insanely. Like it gets crazy intense by the end of act two. like stuff is going down and it's based on your choices so there's a lot of pressure and stress on you the player to get it right to try to stop like this big event from happening and save people's lives and it's just it's freaking peak dude um like they give you like So like, you know, like certain facts from the the case, right? But you only have so much time in the day. So maybe you can only question two or three people, but you got like six people you want to get to. So you got to really think like, who do I think really did it? Who's going to really support this and tell me what I need? And you like go visit and have meal with them or whatever and question them.
00:43:40
Speaker
um It's pretty cool, dude. And then Act 3 is good as well. It's awesome. I highly recommend this game. It's a lot of fun. It's just it's a lot of reading and choices. You know what I mean? So you got to be into that.
00:43:53
Speaker
Get yourself in a a reading mood. um But it's freaking awesome. I really enjoyed this game. Great artwork. Great story. Great choices. And like I said, dude, the tension, especially in Act 2, super peak, man. Like, you really feel the pressure. I did. And in a good way. It's great.
00:44:10
Speaker
So Pentiment from Obsidian is my number Yeah, it's great game. I really enjoyed my time with Pentiment. It was one of the games that I actually did play when it came out on Xbox because I thought the whole concept was really cool. I would love like another game just like like set just like it's the same art style, just like a different story. Unfortunately, probably will never get that. But Pentiment was awesome.
00:44:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And do you you remember Act 2 being like super tense as well, man? Yeah, that's when it really ratchets up. Mm-hmm. Great game. Everyone needs to play this game. Hodge, you would like this game. You love artwork and stuff.
00:44:42
Speaker
I tried it. wasn't a fan. Oh, boo. The story and everything, the world grabbed me. I did not like the gameplay, though. I just, I couldn't, I couldn't do it. Okay.
00:44:54
Speaker
Well, everyone else should play because it's freaking awesome. So good. Yeah, I understand why people like it and I'm not poo-pooing that. It's just I tried it. I really I wanted to love it so badly because of all how much I heard about it. But I don't know, maybe I could try it again one day and maybe it'll get me. Do it! what When I when i tried it, I was just like, this is not doing it for me. So but yeah, I mean, I do love that the the art style bit of it, of it like looking like the old Renaissance paintings kind of thing, like the the Renaissance drawings. So that was a very cool.
00:45:28
Speaker
ah our artistic choice. ah hosh How's this? and You can either try Pentamit again or you can play Nickelodeon Kart Racer Slime 3.
00:45:38
Speaker
You choose which one. got to do one of them. Kart racers. You have to play it today. today Yeah. yeah that's cool. i'm I'm happy. I'm also happy that because that was a smaller game. That was like the the head of the camera. Josh Sawyer. Yeah, this came this was it was this and grounded. They both came out this year.
00:46:02
Speaker
Yeah, so he I like that it was kind of a passion project and that Microsoft allowed him to make it and that people did love Obviously, didn't sell billions of copies because it was ah a narrative side-scrolling game, but ah I'm happy that people loved it and that he got to make a game that he was passionate about. so And it obviously showed through because people you know loved it, so it's good that it showed through. but ah My number two, though, is a game...
00:46:32
Speaker
that I feel like ironic from the name has been forgotten, and that is Kirby in the Forgotten Land, ah a rare switch game on ah one of my game of your lists.
Delight in 'Kirby in the Forgotten Land'
00:46:44
Speaker
But as people know, I love Kirby. He is one of my favorite that Kirby's Adventure Land from and NES is one of my favorite games of all time. So I've and Kirby is my go to and smash, even though I know he's like the default character that people make fun of people for liking. But this game, when everyone was announced, was like, oh, hell like everyone made fun of him, like sucking up the car and driving around as a car and all that. Like it was weird looking, but.
00:47:11
Speaker
When I saw it, i was like, oh, sweet, a platformer Kirby game. Two of my favorite things in this world. Sign me up. And then it came out and it was actually really good. And I was kind of honestly, I expected it to come out be like, oh, it's a 65 on Metacritic because it's a Kirby platformer. Who wants that? But no, it was actually an amazing game. I still need to get the Switch to upgrade with the the added content, the added content and play that. but I haven't gotten around to that, but Yeah, I put I put so much time in this game. I loved it. It was one of the few few games I actually really that I would dust my switch off to play. And yeah, I i loved every moment of this game. don't even remember what it's about. I just remember it was such a fun world to to to go through as an open world Kirby finding you stuff and all the secrets that were in the world to find hidden stuff and just because stuff like that. it's it's my favorite thing to do in games of platformers with hidden you know easter egg type collectibles and stuff and so this game was it was as if it was made for me and so kirby in the forgotten land is my number two i remember when this was coming out everyone was joking around it was like oh it's kirby in a post-apocalyptic world yeah it was like the kirby last of us because it was like yeah like a a run down post-apocalyptic world that he was in Um, I need to play this game. Like, like I said, Kirby's like a huge, like as big as I'm a huge Nintendo guys, you guys know. And Kirby's like the biggest blind spot for me. It's Kirby and star Fox are the two blind spots for me. Um,
00:48:39
Speaker
The only Kirby games that I've played again, Air Rider and Air Riders, which are phenomenal games. The the two Kirby spinoff games, I freaking love them. it Huge blind spot for me. My sister really loves this game, though. She liked it a lot. This is like her game of the year from 2022. So I'm going to get around to it. And I'll probably just get the Switch 2 version.
00:48:58
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, i never I never got into or played any Kirby games. I was just like, who is this guy? Fat Mario? like i I don't need to play him. Piece of bubblegum. We got Mario. But that's what I always thought. of like what is a Piece of bubblegum. That's what we used to call him.
00:49:14
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, bubblegum's good. But yeah, awesome, man. Sean. you're up man number one all right my number one we're going back to the well legend of heroes trail series we're going trails from zero one of my favorite games of all time arguably my third favorite game of all time uh my favorite trails game this game's freaking amazing it's the first game of the cross belt duology i've talked about this game so many times uh it's amazing um
00:49:46
Speaker
Introduced the character Lloyd. ah You get to go to Crossbell for the first time, which is like outstanding. This game was released a long time ago in Japan, 2010, but we didn't get it in the States until 2022, which is phenomenal. um Super awesome story. It starts out very lighthearted, like most of the Trails games. you' just doing, like, you know, you're working ah basically the police, and you're just doing, like, normal little tasks. And then as you get further in the game, ramps up, and also you're freaking destroying creatures and saving the world from yeah destruction, ultimate disaster. um You cannot play this game without playing the previous Trails games. I don't care what anyone says. You got to go to the Crossbell games. Don't start don't start with Cold Steel and go from... Meatball. No, shut up, Meatball. You can't start at Cold Steel. But Trails struck trail from Zero is awesome. Again, you get to go to Crossbell.
00:50:34
Speaker
um You play as Lloyd and the SSS crew. Yeah. It's great. has that great SNES art style too. Like the 16-bit top-down JRPG style. I love it. um The Mafia. and it like there's a whole the whole like There's a whole Mafia storyline in this game. And i love Mafia stuff. So that was really cool. you know Taking down the Mafia. And then taking down like these... like Doctors who are you you think are helping people who in reality are infecting people and making them like evil and crazy. It's super awesome. I love it. And Lloyd is my favorite MC from the Trails car game. So shout out to Lloyd.
00:51:11
Speaker
Lloyd's our boy. Shout out to Lloyd. Okay. Yeah, i'm looking at the screenshots, man. This game looks old. It looks like the old style of games. I thought it was like modern. I guess not. No, it's I mean, it is. it is i I mean, it's it's like the it's it looks like Trails from the Sky, like the original Trails from the Sky games.
00:51:30
Speaker
But I love Trails from Zero. it's like It's my favorite one. Yeah. Is it fully voice acting? No, I'm kidding me. Come on, man. I don't want to read what in silence, man. what is Up to me, no video game. Moving forward, if I had to choose between voice acting and no voice acting, one or the other, i choose no voice acting. Get out. Get out, dude. Then again, the the last game that I just gushed about, Pentamint, did not have any voice acting. It was just reading, and I loved it. Voice acting's for chumps.
00:51:55
Speaker
I love voice acting. Come on now. School's for chumps. Oh, that's from SpongeBob. School's for chumps. That's Hodge in the back of the Mrs. Puss Bowdoin School written on the written on the desk. yeah Hodge, give us give us two minutes about how much you love Trails.
00:52:11
Speaker
Alright, start the clock because I have to be... you guys are holding me back by holding me to only two minutes. Yeah. No, I mean, I just actually did look at screenshots. I do love that art style, but I'm not going to promise that I'm ever going get to these games, obviously. But I do. I love that art style. So that is that's the only thing that is tickled my fancy about this this series. But I'm happy you enjoy it.
00:52:36
Speaker
All right. All right. i turn Midnight. All right. why is your number one ah Trails from Zero? It's not. so So number one, I actually had a really hard time. I was torn between two games.
00:52:51
Speaker
This game, two amazing games. And those were Crossfire X and Babylon's Fall. Now, both of these games were 2022. were phenomenal.
00:53:02
Speaker
I played both, hundreds of hours put in both games. Ultimately, I had to go with Babylon's Fall. i figured Now, Babylon's Fall was a game on PlayStation, and it was from Platinum Games. You guys know Platinum Games. Now, I really love this. Okay, I'm kidding, of course. I didn't play either of those crappy-ass games. But what I did play...
Admiration for 'Elden Ring'
00:53:23
Speaker
was the game of the year from 2022. Elden Ring, of course. Now this Elden Ring was my very first time ever playing a Dark Souls game, a Souls-like game, because I never really wanted, I never never had any interest in playing those games. I'm like, I'm not a masochist, dude. I'm not trying to get my ass beat over and over and like struggle. Like life is hard enough, right?
00:53:44
Speaker
So I had no interest in these types of games. My brother was hyping up Elden Ring. Everyone was hyping up Elden Ring. Like, oh, it's going to be the best game ever. And I really wasn't interested, but I saw a lot of gameplay. you know, I saw people playing it. The graphics were beautiful. It's open world. The combat actually looked fun with a lot of variety. Like, you know, you could use different weapons. You could use magic. Dudes were doing like the Kamehameha blast on enemies and stuff. Like there was a lot of options and it looks sweet. What really got me on this game,
00:54:11
Speaker
was that it was open world. You know, I love a nice open world RPG, right? So it's not linear. If you're getting your ass beat by a boss, you can just go somewhere else and kill some other enemies and get stronger and then come back and whoop that boss's ass. So that was cool. um I really got hooked on this game. It was phenomenal. The combat was really fun. My character was a mage with a sword.
00:54:31
Speaker
Of course, like I always do a mage, but with a one handed sword and I beat the game. I am very proud of myself. I beat the game and I also beat the optional boss, um which what is her name?
00:54:46
Speaker
Melania. Yeah, Melania. uh melania is is hard optional boss so that's like uh in octopath i didn't beat the optional super boss sean but in this game i did i beat melania and uh yeah awesome game highly recommended anyone who wants to go out there and suffer a little bit it's not i don't feel like it's even that hard you just gotta you gotta level um And there was actually there was an exploit to get levels to, which I did take advantage of later in the endgame as well. like Get XP faster. There was like ah a thing where like if you fell off the map in a certain part, you would give you like a bunch of XP. So me and my brother boosted our characters a little bit.
00:55:25
Speaker
A lot of people did. It was on YouTube and stuff. And that's one thing that was cool about this game was was the whole YouTube thing, because the game doesn't tell you what to do. Like it's famously like, uh, just go to the place by, and you're like, what, where do I go?
00:55:38
Speaker
So like, you have to kind of figure it out. And there's a lot of YouTube guides that showed you exactly what to do. So that was fun. I don't know. I just enjoyed it. was a whole moment. Everyone's sharing their, their seat, their fights, their characters, their deaths, whole vibe during that time.
00:55:52
Speaker
Elden Ring. Yeah, I do remember that it was like a huge YouTube game that people loved. Like it had its it was like it's rare that a game obviously has like a cultural moment like that where it completely overtake like Among Us or Fall Guys or stuff like that where Fortnite obviously where it's like takes over and especially like a rated m souls like game doing that was insane this this game was huge uh i i want to play it or try it one day just to just to try it but after i got filtered by liza p i'm like i don't think there's any point in me trying because Liza P got me and i was playing that on baby mode. So and it's but then again, i didn't quit Liza because it was hard. I just didn't like the controls. And so I just don't think I like Souls like games. And so i don't know. I want to try it one day, but I have a feeling i I'm not going to enjoy it. well ah i mean I haven't played one since. like I haven't gotten into another one since. like This is just a moment in time in a special game. like I tried to play Wu Chang Fallen Feathers that came out recently and I was like, I'm not feeling i was getting my ass beat and I just quit. and i'm just I'm not usually into these games, but this one was this one was special. yeah
00:57:10
Speaker
Cool. You were talking about RuneScape, right? Yeah, RuneScape. RuneScape and Crossfire X, my two favorite games of all time. uh sean do you have anything about elden ring otherwise i will go into my number one no i'm not dark souls better that's all i guess so all right my number one kid this will come as a surprise to no one yes it is tiny did a remedy game come out this year uh no okay unfortunately not well alan wake 2 remastered came out for switch or alan wake remastered came out for switch i think but that You said surprise to no one. So immediately I was like remedy. Yeah. Yeah. If it yeah if it was a remedy, it would have be number one, of course, but no tiny kin. i
00:57:52
Speaker
love. love love Love, love, love, love, love this game. It's it's a just a fun little platformer where you you have a little Pikmin who help you achieve your goals. But not only is I love the gameplay, I love the collect-a-thon-ness of it because you had to collect everything and every level to like get the platinum. And it and I platinumed it. I also got the 100% on Xbox. I played through this game incomplete twice. And it's only...
00:58:19
Speaker
eight hours to get every literally everything in the game. It took less than probably eight to or less hours to do it all. And I loved every moment of it. But even more so than the gameplay, it's another one of those games where the art style, I absolutely love it. It's this 3D cartoon world of you're basically in a house. and But all the characters are these 2D cartoon you know creatures. And just that mix of the 2D to 3D is just, I love that so much. And I love how it looks. The Tinykin are adorable. I think they're way cuter than Pikmin. And like they and now all have a little personalities and stuff. And yeah, I just I absolutely love this game. I hope there's a sequel or that this company makes or this studio makes something that's just as fun. Or, you know, it just I had a big, dumb smile. on This is one of those games where I had a big, dumb smile on my face the entire time I was playing it because it was just such an enjoy
Top Game of 2022: 'Tinykin'
00:59:15
Speaker
enjoy. ah
00:59:16
Speaker
Just a joy to play through it. So I, yes, I've talked about this game on this podcast many times, but yes, one more time I'll say Tinykin absolutely love this game. So that is my number one game of 2022.
00:59:33
Speaker
Yeah, i obviously I didn't play Tiny Ken. I don't know if this is a midnight game, but ah yeah it's interesting. This game only has a 78 on Metacritic, but mean Metacritic sucks, though, because if you go to a real platform like Steam for chads, this game has a 97% positive rating of with 1,300 plus reviews. So there you go. that Real platforms respect good games.
01:00:00
Speaker
Yeah, that that that is more because, yeah, I get critically, whatever. i don't give a shit what critics have to say. But the fact that 97 percent of people enjoy it, that tells me everything that I need to know about. yeah But that's yeah, that's very impressive. Ninety seven people out of 100 said they recommend it. So, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Love that game. So that is my number one.
01:00:18
Speaker
So, fellas, for the audio listeners, shall we go over our five favorite games of 2022?
Recap of Top Games of 2022
01:00:25
Speaker
We shall. was sean All right. Number five, Soul Hackers 2. Number four, Nickelodeon Slop. Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3. Number three, Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Number two, Horizon Forbidden West. And number one, Legend of Heroes Trails from Zero.
01:00:39
Speaker
all right my number five was the quarry number four plague tale requiem number three ghost wire tokyo two was pentiment everyone play it number one elden ring how about you hodge my number five trek to yomi uh four crisis core final fantasy 7 reunion three vampire survivors two kirby in the fer forgotten land and number one tiny kin Fat Mario.
01:01:05
Speaker
Fat Mario. Sucking down all the enemies. Yep. you are He gives meaning to the phrase, you are what you eat. There you go.
01:01:15
Speaker
ah But yeah. So i it's funny. I'm looking at my list, and it's it's hilarious that three of my five games are indie games, which... I guess not surprising, but the fact that 60% of my gaming from this this year was basically indie games is is hilarious to me. Well, I guess not, because I've played more than that. but yeah i lot of And I love this one, because we could have... like What barely missed my list was God of War Ragnarok. I just think it's worse than 2018. It was number six on my list. yeah
01:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, I had that, and then, like I said, Somerville and Lego Skywalker, or Lego Star Wars and Skywalker, so you're like... This game this year was pretty good. i didn't play, though, as many as I thought I did when we were i was looking to the list. I think I'd only played like nine or 10 games from this year. And there was a lot of good games that came out. So, I mean, you can see because we had 15 different games. Usually we have some overlap when we're talking about our favorite games of the year. But we had 15 unique games, which is which is awesome. It just goes to show how awesome video games are.
01:02:16
Speaker
but yeah Yeah, that's all that's all I got, fellas. Unless you got anything else, we can just have a nice short episode and get up on out of here. I'm down with that. go play some games, man. Hell yeah. All right.
01:02:28
Speaker
Let's do some... ah Do what? Los videos. wiles ah there yeah Videos, Wacos. So yeah, ah let's get out of here. i didn't want to say real quick. yeah I guess my final thought. Shout out to the USA men's national team in the World Cup for beating Australia's ass. Suck it, Chris. Your team sucks.
01:02:50
Speaker
But no, it's great. I'm rooting for the USA. you know I don't care about soccer normally. But you know once every four years, right especially with it being in America this time, makes it more exciting.
01:03:01
Speaker
And I'm loving those videos, like you said, Sean, of the Europeans just having the best time ever in America. Dude, I've seen videos of them going to Buc-ee's. They love it. Everyone loves Buc-ee's. Sean, we're going to kidnap you one day, take you to a Buc-ee's, and you're going to be like, this was the best kidnapping I ever had.
01:03:17
Speaker
yeah That's my final thoughts. Thank you, guys. At least top five kidnappings. Yeah, at least top five. Top two, probably. Yeah. Sean, what you got? ah Some great video games here. fifty Like you said, 50 and unique games. Love talking games to you guys. Yeah, this is fun.
01:03:35
Speaker
Yeah. Me like video game. So, uh, although ah also I saw toy story five better than four. Not great though. Yeah. I was better than four. i saw yesterday better than four, but still not.
01:03:48
Speaker
Yeah. Not a little long too, but, uh, all right, let's get on up out of here. i am your host for the week's Hodge saying for midnight and Sean, goodbye.
01:04:00
Speaker
I do. You are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity. Farewell.