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A Look Back at Video Games in 2021 - Review
147 Plays4 years ago
We review the year 2021 for video games. We cover events, predictions, and talk about our favorite games from this year.
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Transcript
Christmas Eve Shopping with Emily
00:00:13
Speaker
What's up everybody welcome to the log on games podcast for friday december the 24th christmas eve christmas i'm gonna i'm gonna call something out matthew's fake tiger it's not a real tiger um we were meeting him we were doing christmas shopping yesterday that's also not a real tiger
00:00:39
Speaker
Me and Emily were doing Christmas shopping yesterday and there was a mannequin that was just showing off pants so it was just the bottom half of the mannequin. Why can't it be a womankin? Maybe it was, I don't know. But we were just walking past and she just goes past it. She goes like this.
00:00:54
Speaker
And just kept walking, like everything was normal. And I was just like, you just fake cut that person in half. That's when you look at her and you're like, I really appreciate you. I just quietly whispered, psycho piss. I've been making fun of her all day, every time I go piss on you. That's awesome. Since I know he's not listening to this, did you get dad's gift? I did get dad's gift. And they didn't have it in stock since to this every time.
00:01:21
Speaker
Yeah, we got one. Rebecca, this is Cameo. I assumed that during the middle of our podcast was the best time for me to ask you about that. It was. It absolutely was.
Review of 2021 Predictions
00:01:32
Speaker
Well, as you hear with me today, actually, let me say this is our 2021 kind of in review episode. Unfortunately, we're recording this on a Monday and people are all over the place. So we can't get everybody on that did the predictions, but we have all of our 2021 predictions that we did at the beginning of this year. So we're going to go over those.
00:01:57
Speaker
See how we did. And we're definitely going to do this for 2022. Did anyone get all of them right?
00:02:05
Speaker
No, nobody got all of them right. Did anybody get any of them right? We got some right. We got some right. I would assume it's a less less covid year. So we're going to we're going to go over those and then we're just going to kind of go over the year in gaming in 2021. Some of the best games that we've seen, some of the best games that we've played personally and some of the big news that dropped this year kind of recap what happened.
00:02:30
Speaker
Uh, for y'all, but with me on this episode, you can find him at X user eight X. We have Matthew with us on the podcast. How's it going? Once. Well, how are you going? Cold. It's very cold in here. It is 61 degrees currently in my room.
00:02:49
Speaker
It's like the opposite of Jason's closet. I, I would love, I would much prefer it to be 80 degrees in here than 60 all day long. Well, um, this may make you feel terrible, but it was like, it said it was like 71 in here and I was cold. So I asked Emily where, if we had a heater, I could put in this room. How does that make you feel?
00:03:14
Speaker
Nice. I did listen to you kind of, but I also had a lady that was in my ears telling me that my headphones are low battery. So there's that. Well, also with us on the podcast today, you can find him at Brown underscore berserker everywhere that matters. We have Andrew with us on podcast still using the wire, baby. Never.
00:03:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to the studio ones in a minute and they're pretty much falling apart. So going wired here in a minute. Well, I stole these from Emily's purse and charged up knowing that I would need them. Anybody that's out there that's looking for a last minute gift for somebody just saying these, these Sony headphones, I have 10% battery left now and it most likely will last the rest of the episode. We'll see. I hope it dies in like five minutes. I hope it dies.
00:04:07
Speaker
What is the actual listed battery life on these? It's a long time. Five minutes. Well, you check that. I want to welcome everybody to the Log On Games
Podcast Promotion and Audience Engagement
00:04:18
Speaker
podcast. This is a weekly show in which our hosts discuss a variety of gaming news topics from new games, big announcements, events, and more. New episodes upload every Friday on Apple podcast, Spotify, et cetera. You can watch this and you can see exactly when Matthew's headphones die over at YouTube.com.
00:04:36
Speaker
Hey, it says 30 hour battery life and 10 percent. That's like if you carry the four like three hours. So it's true. We'll see what happens. Andrew, you got really dark all of a sudden on my screen. You did. There you go. Just, you know, flipping through web pages and stuff. Oh, I didn't know if you had if you had a light or not. No, man. Um.
00:05:05
Speaker
New thing that I don't know if it's happening right now or not. I got an email today that said Spotify podcast ratings are like slowly rolling out to everybody. I don't know how it works. I believe it's the same as Apple. So some sort of five star rating system. All right. This is better. How many logs do we get?
00:05:27
Speaker
I wish you could put custom ratings and stuff. But no, I tried to check it on my phone. I couldn't figure it out. So maybe it's just like coming this week or something. I don't know what it is. But if you're listening to this and you know more about it, or you can head over to Spotify if that's where you listen to us.
00:05:46
Speaker
And try and figure out how to rate us the maximum we can get. Because guys, the bigger we get, the closer we are to getting Rebecca Black on the podcast. That's true. That's true. The bigger we get, the larger we are. That's it. But as well, you can always go over to Apple Podcasts and give us five stars over there as well. Helps us out a bunch. Or watch us on YouTube.com. Subscribe to us over there and comment. Right now, if you're listening to this comment, don't skip ahead.
00:06:14
Speaker
Comment if and when what and when in the time marker Matthew's headphones are gonna die If someone gets it right, you know, maybe Sure Also follow us at log on games on Twitter Facebook Instagram and tick-tock and twitch you can subscribe to us over on Twitch as we sometimes stream things
00:06:37
Speaker
And we also ought to host a little, all of our hosts here as well. Marty has been on, let me tell you, I swear every time I look on the Twitch app, Marty's Marty's he's he's on, he's on doing something. He's doing Back 4 Bud. He's doing Spiderman. That's what he's doing. He's doing Halo. He's doing something. He's doing, he's working out, getting, getting ripped, getting shredded. That's smart for him because he's not really big enough yet. No, I know.
00:07:05
Speaker
That's wise. Not big enough. There's one thing I think about when I think of Mario's like, listen, you need to get in shape. All right. We need to talk about your health. This is, this is no longer how you look. This is about, this is a health situation. Okay. You need to live a long time. So you need to get into it. It's about our health situation. If he beats us up. Exactly.
00:07:24
Speaker
I'm not going to do the fantasy critic update this week because we're going to do the final one next week. We talked a little bit about this last Thursday. I don't really think anything's changed since we've last recorded. But final one will be next week. We'll go over that and much more. Much more. Let us know.
00:07:48
Speaker
If you want to be a part of our fantasy critic That's coming up. We also have a discord channel that you can join and chat with us get your questions and stuff in like that but We have one myself Matthew fluffy Andrew robot giggles and Jason at the very beginning of this
Detailed Analysis of Gaming Predictions
00:08:12
Speaker
year. Holy moly
00:08:14
Speaker
did some 2021 predictions on what we would see, what we might see, what we thought we would see, what we predicted we will see in 2021 in the gaming world. And we're just going to kind of go down the list. How brilliant are we? We're about to find out. I've looked at this throughout the year, but I haven't looked at it in detail because I want to surprise myself. I don't remember this at all, to be real.
00:08:42
Speaker
Andrew's over there like, who are you guys? Exactly. Where am I? So, the first thing I had was, will we see a new switch model? 2021.
00:08:56
Speaker
I said, yes, it would be the switch pro. Matthew says, yes, it'll be the switch pro. Braylon says, yes, it'll be in the first Nintendo direct that we see. Andrew, you said, yes, it'll be the switch pro. Robot giggle said, no, just no explanation. Just no. And then Jason said, yes, new model will be $300. Wow. One person was right. Were they?
00:09:24
Speaker
Giggles, right? Giggles said no, right? Well, we got an OLED. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a new model. You're right, you're right, you're right, you're right. Was it in the first... Was it in the first direct? Definitely not in the first direct. I don't think so. To be fair, we were all around that one.
00:09:46
Speaker
Even Giggle saying no was kind of close. Cause we only kind of got a new model. And then Jason was like, yes, new model. Didn't say switch pro, but he said $300 and it's 350 should have been $300, but it wasn't will be $300. So, so all I heard was Nintendo let us down. That's cool.
00:10:13
Speaker
That's it. That's it. That's what happened next on the list was
00:10:19
Speaker
New exclusive Nintendo game. Now, I think I need to say that word this a little bit differently for 2022, because for some of these, like we have new exclusive Nintendo game, no exclusive PlayStation, no exclusive Xbox game. I don't know if that meant just announced or actually coming out. I assume just announced. Probably we didn't know that now we do know new exclusive Nintendo game. I said Pokemon remake. Got that one.
00:10:49
Speaker
William Diamond and Shining Pearl. Yeah, you did. Matthew, you said the next 3D Mario game. Sorry. I was just guessing. Just guessing. Nintendo letting people down, see? I mean, I didn't particularly want that. This is where I'm confused. Braylon says Splatoon 3.
00:11:18
Speaker
We did get a Splatoon 3, but didn't we get out last year? Or was she saying that it was going to come out this year? We did not get that last year. I'm thinking come out this year. That's what I'm thinking. I don't think it was announced last year. Pretty sure that was a this year thing. See, that's what I'm thinking as well, to be honest. Maybe it was. Maybe it was. I'll research. Andrew, you cheated and gave me two games. I gave you two.
00:11:49
Speaker
You said a new Mario 3D game as well. You may have just agreed with Matthew and I just wrote it down. That's very possible. And you also said a Mario Kart. No Mario Kart. Hey, man. All I have time coming. All I have is that Splatoon 3 was first revealed to the gaming community at the start of 2021. Hmm. All right. Well, then I guess you got it. She nailed it. Yep. Yep. Yeah, I very much want a new Mario Kart game. That's probably the number one thing on my list for Nintendo. It's a new Mario Kart game.
00:12:21
Speaker
Well, we see one next year. Who knows? Who knows? My number one is give me all the Metroid Primes, the new one, the trilogy. I want all of it. Oh, one time. Giggle said a new Fire Emblem game, which was a good guess coming off of three houses. Did really, really well. They've been they were spitting out Fire Emblem games like crazy. So we had it. We had a year off this year. Yeah. I wonder if the success of that one
00:12:50
Speaker
gave them a little bit of chance to rethink and say, Oh snap. Okay. Let's go even bigger and harder. You know what I mean? And just try to try to do something. I don't know. You know what I'm saying? As opposed to just putting out another fire emblem game. It's just, yeah, like we now have a fan base. We can, we can go for it for house. That's crazy. That's crazy.
00:13:13
Speaker
Jason said he also cheated and gave me two. You said new RPG from Monolith, which I don't think we got that. I'm going to. I'm looking up. I look it up. Google. OK, I don't think we got that, but then he also said new Pokemon Gen. Now, here's the question. Does. Does.
00:13:44
Speaker
Pokemon legends, Arceus count. Nope. Cause they're not counting as a new gen close. There's something actually, if you were to ask him, he probably would prefer that. True. But, but that's not a new gen. We re we kind of danced around the game with Pokemon remakes and new Pokemon gen, but, uh, but it didn't. Oh, what did he say about monolith? He just said they were a new RPG for any system for anything.
00:14:15
Speaker
for Nintendo. Monolith is Wonder Woman. Well, that's coming to the switch then. I doubt it's RPG. I think it's coming to the switch. It's going to run at three frames a second on the switch. I'm pretty cloud only and run at three frames a second. OK, now we had we had a good one here. Will Halo Infinite get delayed?
00:14:41
Speaker
I said no. Matthew said yes. Braylon said yes. Andrew, you said no. Giggle said no. Jason said either multiplayer or campaign will. Funny thing about this, I didn't get delayed. It is now out. Shouldn't I get delayed to where it was out to? Did it not get delayed again this year? It can push back to when it actually released.
00:15:05
Speaker
No. Okay. No, they didn't, they didn't announce a release date until like freaking, I don't even remember like end of October or something ridiculous. Yeah. It was really late. Yeah. Yeah. Really late. Okay.
00:15:23
Speaker
Now the question was not will the game be finished and be released, which could have been a different thing because they basically launched the game with no co-op campaign and they didn't even have a slayer only playlist. So I don't think you can count that as being a finished game, but we have that now. We have to be fair. The beta was good and they should have just stayed in beta and just said, Hey, beta's out. It'll be out for three months or whatever. And then.
00:15:50
Speaker
Even the campaign getting reviews have played a good chunk of the campaign. It's it's pretty good But you know
00:16:02
Speaker
Andrew, how have you done on Halo? Have you been actively playing it or have you tried to campaign out? I haven't even landed on the planet yet. I'm still in the first mission. I played for an hour and I haven't played since. It's not that it's bad. For some reason, right now, I have no interest to play it yet. I'm doing some other stuff, but I am going to sit down and just dive into it. What about multiplayer?
00:16:31
Speaker
I've put I Don't know ten hours into multiplayer. I really really like the multiplayer for sure. It's good. It's good. Yeah, it's good As we're recording this last night was the halo championship series Finals and stuff. Let me tell you
00:16:50
Speaker
Entertainment if there ever was one if you're if you're not really in eSports whatever but you know Halo Just go watch the last match of the game last night. It's going YouTube or whatever. It was it was a doozy That's all you're gonna say just go watch the last of us. I was like, let's go watch the last of us Watch someone played this Part one. It's basically nothing Will God of War get delayed
00:17:14
Speaker
I said yes. Matthew said yes. Braylon said yes. Andrew, you said no. Giggle said no. Jason said no. Split right down the middle. It very much got delayed. Very much so. Yeah. It's the 2023 game.
2021 Game Delays Discussion
00:17:30
Speaker
Shame on me. There was a lot of big games that got delayed. Like God of War got delayed this year. That Harry Potter game was supposed to come out this year and didn't. There's another big one I got delayed. I don't remember.
00:17:44
Speaker
Breath of the wild. I think we all thought was going to come out this year and then didn't 2020. It's going to be big and it's going to be a big one or more of those games will be 2023.
00:17:57
Speaker
New exclusive PlayStation game. You guys might laugh at this one because it's the game awards theme. I said it was going to be Silent Hill. But they asked you if you wanted to be in it. And there were so many things pointing to Silent Hill being announced in the game awards, but I said we were going to get a Silent Hill announcement this year. It did not happen.
00:18:23
Speaker
Matthew said Naughty Dog, new IP. Didn't happen. Nope. Braylon. Chronic Dream IP happened at the Game Awards with that Star Wars game. It did. You nailed it. Andrew, you said Blue Point, a new Blue Point game, and then specifically Metal Gear Solid, if you could pick. Yeah. Maybe that's happening still. Still rumored. I hope so. I hope so. Still rumored. But not today.
00:18:52
Speaker
Giggle said insomniac game. I think she gets two points for that because we got the next spider-man and Wolverine game announced this year And then Jason said gravity rush team will have a new game again, I'm pretty sure that team got dissolved this year I'm being honest with you. I think that might have been a thing that happened Donna New exclusive Xbox game
00:19:19
Speaker
I said Rare would have a new IP. I don't believe they do. Who said it again? I said Rare would have a new IP. I don't believe that happened. But I will go on Wikipedia because Wikipedia will tell me all the things I need to know. Go back here.
00:19:46
Speaker
Xbox exclusive, as you said, see if thieves too. They're still still rocking the OGC, but they're updating it like hotcakes. Yeah. Hey, I actually looked yesterday at a sea of thieves, a tabletop RPG. That didn't count. No, it does not. And I'm pretty sure it was out before this year, but I just found it yesterday. You're saying that sounds like it'd be fun.
00:20:13
Speaker
Um, Braylon just said nothing. There will be no new exclusive Xbox game, which if you're talking about the last five years, you know, she had been cracked. Unfortunately, this year was different. Yeah, but not much different. We had a bunch of stuff. There's been, there's been a bunch, but a bunch. Um, Andrew, you came out of the gate swinging. Let me tell you, do you have any idea what you predicted for this one?
00:20:38
Speaker
Unfortunately, I do not. I have goldfish memories. You said scale bound would make a comeback. Oh my God. Sounds about right. Well, I mean.
00:20:55
Speaker
You somewhat get it. You know, Phil Spencer's been, been, been, you know, nailing it with everything. And maybe he thought, you know, let, let's go back to the drawing board. Maybe they had some good ideas with scale bound. And they were just like, well, let's go back to the drawing board and just make it better. And then we'll announce it. Hey, it's back. It's coming back. It turned into a Pokemon legend of accuracy. That's exactly that was it. Um, giggles just said a Bethesda game.
00:21:24
Speaker
And boy, did we have some. Um, I know, I don't know if starfield necessarily counts cause I think it was already announced, but didn't they, they've been, they announced other new stuff. Did they not? I don't remember. I think so. Hmm.
00:21:44
Speaker
Did they? I can't, it, can I spell? That's the biggest new IP new IP up. Starfield's the only thing that like pops up, but, uh,
00:21:59
Speaker
But I mean, they released Deathloop this year. Ghostwire Tokyo got pushed 2022. All the games are coming to Game Pass. Redfall. New IP. Redfall. That was the one. That's the one. That's the one. And then Jason said, yes, lots. No, none in 2021.
00:22:24
Speaker
Um So I assuming that's him saying That a lot would be announced but none of all would be coming out in 2021. Maybe right, right? We did have a lot of them announced Um You think of all the games just xbox wise that came out this year like finally you had forces around horizon 5 which got
00:22:47
Speaker
Bunch of Game of the Year awards, sitting at a 92 on Metacritic right now. Flight Simulator made its Xbox debut, it came in there. Psychonauts 2, even though that was also on PlayStation, I feel like that was kind of a Xbox thing, because they own that studio now. But that game was already coming out before, but they own that studio now, so the next one. If they do a next one, would be exclusive, but...
00:23:16
Speaker
I wonder how well that game did. I know like scored well. I wonder how in sales and play time. Yeah. What's up there? That's like Halo come out this year, too, which is always a good one. But was that what's that game called? Hollow. It's hollow. Yeah, that's what I say. Hollow. I know Hollow Knight. I don't know that one. That's different to the same same game.
00:23:44
Speaker
Maybe that's the same team. We had, will there be an E3 2021? I said no. Straight up. Matthew said yes. Brether said yes, it'd be in fall of 2021. Andrew freaking nailed it. Yes, all digital. Giggles says yes, online only. Jason says yes, but nothing like in the past.
00:24:11
Speaker
So, I got it right, but Andrew got it more right. Correct. Okay. Andrew and Giggles both nailed it. Who thought you could tell the future, Andrew? How did you know? Tell us how you knew. You know, Andrew. You know how life's been, man. You just know how things are now. He knows all things. He knows all things, you know, ether, he's scale bound, you know?
00:24:39
Speaker
If Scalebound would have been announced in E3, man, you've been rolling in it. We had two unique predictions for 2021. I said two DualSense, new DualSense colors. We got like five of them. Yeah. So nailed it. I believe I'm a little bit early on this, but I said PS now will merge with PlayStation Plus. Rumored.
00:25:09
Speaker
Rumored to be happening in the spring, but nothing confirmed here. It's not announced. Yeah. Matthew, you said PlayStation will have a wireless or announced wireless VR headset. We still have one wire. One big old wire. One big old wire. You also said Resident Evil 4 Remake. It's on the Oculus. Does that count? It didn't VR. It didn't VR.
00:25:37
Speaker
It's not what I was thinking. I will take credit if you'll give it to me. Remade. Yeah. Kind of remade. Kind of remade. I guess you cheated and just said that we would get more. Tony Hawk Pro Skater. I said 22. Not announced. Maybe be happening. Not announced. I would assume it will. I think they're milking the money out of this one right now because they're important to everything that can be ported to. Braylon said a new console.
00:26:07
Speaker
Steam Deck. I think it counts. And then I think she gets both of these right. And then her second one was cyber punks will not be fixed this year. Cyberpunk will never be fixed. It's going to be free to play next year. And you still won't be able to make it.
00:26:33
Speaker
You know how a lot of games have multiple endings, you know, cyberpunk has multiple endings, whether you make it to the end or you can you make it to the end? Is it better than the survival game of this year? Yes. But I don't know if that would count that as being fixed. No.
00:26:50
Speaker
Like I bet my pillow tastes better with some salt sprinkled on it that's still not gonna make it That has to be like the biggest gaming flop in history like even more so than ET for the NES like seriously That's a big one. It's pretty bad. It's it's up there where you have like anthem that flop pretty hard You have it worked, but that was a good game, man
00:27:13
Speaker
Yeah, it felt so good to fly and shoot in that game. But then you had to load it to the loading screen for 18 hours. I know. Before you can fly and shoot some more. I bet people would say that more loading screens of Cyberpunk would work. Just saying. Could be. Andrew, you said we'll get a JoyCon 2.0. Unfortunately, I don't think that happened. OK, so there's nothing.
00:27:44
Speaker
The tech is the exact same in the OLED version. Yes, unfortunately. So technically, if somebody was selling the black and white pair online, I could get it and use it on my Switch because that's what I really want. I want the black and white Joy-Cons. Okay. Yes. I really want those. Same exact Joy-Cons. It's difficult. Same height. Same everything. The screen's bigger, so okay.
00:28:07
Speaker
That's what I was curious about. Because the screen was bigger, I didn't know if the Joy-Cons were slightly different. No. I think the screen's bigger, there's just a smaller bezel, right? Correct. The same sized screen, just a bezel is smaller. Yeah. So you get less bezel, more screen. And then again, you said Sony Game Pass as well. So, so close. So close. Maybe we'll have to go back. If it actually comes out in spring, we'll go back and reward ourselves half a point.
00:28:40
Speaker
Giggle said Elden ring gets a date Definitely got a date nailed it half-life 3 announced definitely did not happen One for two on that one Jason again Sony game pass
00:28:58
Speaker
mostly older games Is wait. So it's only game pass slash mostly older games Uh, his second one was apple will enter the enter gaming with a new apple tv and controller We got new apple tv, but definitely had nothing to do with gaming especially considering a new remote Yeah
00:29:21
Speaker
It's interesting
Apple's Potential Gaming Hardware
00:29:22
Speaker
though. I almost wonder how many people do play games on their Apple TV. Cause like when the new Apple TV came out, they're like 32 gig, 64 gig, 128 gig versions of whatever it is. And I'm sitting there going like, why would I need any more than 32 gig? I'm just like streaming stuff. But I guess I made people download games. You know, there's been, it's been controversy, you know, the last couple of days for those. It's fixed now. We're good. We're good now. We're good. We're good.
00:29:51
Speaker
We had the last thing for our 2021 predictions. Holy Grail announcements. Things that if we could pick anything, what would it be? I said a Pokemon MMO. Didn't get one. Pokemon open world. Close second. Tim Tim. Close second. As long as the game's good. I have an idea what I might have said, and I hope it's what I said. Matthew, you said a new Uncharted and or a turn based Final Fantasy.
00:30:22
Speaker
Well, he got that basically, because when I say turn based Final Fantasy, turn based Final Fantasy, not tactics, just kidding. I was thinking Final Fantasy tactics, which is basically triangle strategy, the same thing. Sure. But no surprise here. Brailin said Sims 5 didn't happen. Andrew, what did you guess you were going to say? Bloodborne 2 or Bloodborne Remake. You said you also had two.
00:30:49
Speaker
Chrono Trigger, new Chrono Trigger. Okay. And then you agreed with Matthew, there needs to be a Final Fantasy Tactics. That's what you said though. Okay. You said that. That is fair. That is fair. That's fair. Yeah. I'm super pumped for that game because it's, I mean, it's, it's not Final Fantasy, but it is. I literally just want them to port the PSP one to the Switch.
00:31:11
Speaker
And I'll sling money at them. From the Game Boy Advance version, is there a big difference to the PSP version? Is it a completely different game? Yeah, the one on PSP was War of the Lions, I think. It's got cutscenes, it had some new story missions, I think, and the pixels were...
00:31:33
Speaker
Redon or something. Yeah, it could be coming. It's on a game pass. They're going to PSP games on there. Cool. Could be happens. True. But I would love. I mean, I'd love for them to brand it back with the with the Final Fantasy branding on it. Like the triangle strategy art style would be so. Giggle said Elden Ring gameplay. Definitely got a whole bunch of that.
00:31:56
Speaker
and Overwatch 2. And boy, did she have no idea what was coming in the world of Overwatch. Probably the worst year Overwatch has ever had. Probably the worst year Blizzard in general has ever had. That was not your prediction, unfortunately.
00:32:11
Speaker
I did see where somebody, I don't even, I don't, I'm sorry. I'm not big in the esports world of things, but somebody is switching back to watch one of the, one of the larger players is switching back to overwatch from whatever game Valorant maybe as he was playing. Yeah. Sounds right. I think I know you're talking about, um, supposedly still. Overwatch two is going to be used for this year's overwatch league, which starts in April.
00:32:40
Speaker
do with that, which you will. I find it really weird that they would just have this whole season play out on Overwatch 2 and not let anybody but the pros play it. That kind of seems like a step in the wrong direction. Maybe it's to build hype, you know, like as a as a viewer, you're watching it and you're like, I want this so bad. You know, imagine that with any other game. Imagine Halo was like, listen, so I ran to delay the game, but we're going to have all the players be playing Halo. I wouldn't be watching. And I would just be like,
00:33:12
Speaker
No! Or any game for that matter. Imagine the next Call of Duty, the next Madden, the next anything esports. Rocket League was like, listen, we got a new Rocket League game coming out this season. All of the pros are going to be playing it, but you can't. Yeah. You know, esports are super, I don't know, it's just very interesting world because there's not a lot of games in esports world that do great.
00:33:36
Speaker
Hmm. It's really difficult to pick up everything. It does pick up. It's true, but there's a lot of games that try to go in the e-sports world. They just don't make it or don't do what they thought kind of thing, but things like league of legend are just massive and they're going to be massive. So it's just interesting world. Jason said, uh, his only real announcement would be a new golden son of any kind remake new game. He didn't care. Didn't happen.
00:34:06
Speaker
Nope. And that was all the predictions that we did. For, for this. Pretty much right on everything.
00:34:18
Speaker
Pretty much, there's some things in there. That's a good percentage on there, yeah. Yeah, I like that. Of correct. Things being correct. But yeah, we'll definitely do this again for 2022. That'll probably happen, I don't know, in two weeks, three weeks, and I will figure it all out, you know what I mean? But I want to go back now and look at
00:34:39
Speaker
Some of the things that happened in 2021 gaming was obviously we just had the game awards. It takes to one game of the year for that. The.
Gaming Awards Announcement
00:34:50
Speaker
Unfortunately, we don't have any special award for the 25th Japan Game Awards. At least it's not on Wikipedia, but they did have theirs on October. The second game of the year was go to Tsushima and Monster Hunter Rise. I guess I got to. Wow. You guys really liked. I couldn't make up their mind. You know, we pick both of them.
00:35:09
Speaker
Mm.
00:35:12
Speaker
Okay, I'm just gonna kind of go down this list and see things that stick out to me I don't if you guys see anything you guys want to touch on from everything that's happened in 2021 Very beginning of this year Lucasfilm revived Lucasfilm games brand and announced a new Star Wars game from Ubisoft and massive entertainment Terminating the exclusive license held by EA. Thank God. No, that's I'm not a Star Wars person, but anytime you can
00:35:39
Speaker
Terminate your exclusive license with EA. I think that's a good move We're looking at you NFL We're looking at you football American football and say not European football because they tried that remember What's the game called? We used to be Pez a football. Oh boy. That was a disaster
00:36:04
Speaker
Um, e-football cyberpunk of soccer games. February 1st, Google shuttered it. It's internal Stadia games and entertainment division was plans to refocus the service as publisher for third party games. They keep emailing me though. They email me all the time. If, you know, they try my last email from them.
00:36:37
Speaker
Um, EA completed its $1.2 billion acquisition of code masters. Mm-hmm. Good masters of British video game developer from grid. That's, that's what they made the grid. Yeah. Which isn't a phenomenal racing game. Yep. Yep. Um,
00:37:06
Speaker
Microsoft completed acquisition of Cinemax Media. I mean, there's probably a bunch of Microsoft completed things. That's like the big thing now, right? You have these huge companies just taking in all these little companies and we're going to end up with, I don't know, five main companies that just own everything. Yep.
00:37:31
Speaker
But I will tell you though, that's not the worst thing in the world. If run correctly, if you buy a company and say, Hey, you make awesome games, keep doing that. Here's some more money. We just get a cut. You know what I mean? Like just, if you can just fund them and, and, and not be super controlling, that's not necessarily a bad.
00:37:49
Speaker
Yeah. May the 3rd through the 24th, the trial for the Epic Games versus Apple lawsuit was held. What a time. What a time that was this year. I forgot this year. For those of you that don't remember, I believe no one really won. Epic had to pay Apple a whole bunch of money.
00:38:08
Speaker
but Apple now has to let developers, uh, like you can microtransactions or any sort of payment you can, you don't have to do it from the Apple store. They have to let developers kind of go with it. Yep. And that has, they can now do whatever they want to kind of basically.
00:38:25
Speaker
That came from video games and obviously video games like Fortnite. That's a huge deal, but that has affected literally everything. I work at a church and we're switching apps and putting our giving and stuff through the app and you don't have to go through it.
Epic Games vs. Apple Lawsuit Impact
00:38:41
Speaker
It affects everything.
00:38:46
Speaker
Got some weird streaks on the TV screen here. Yeah. Epic kind of was like, the Epic basically went into that. Like they won. Sure. We paid them a bunch of money, but in the long run, we helped everyone. Now you got dark. Yeah. I had to reset my TV. He was being weird. Oh, alrighty. But yeah, so yeah, it's good. It's good news. So I mean, basically you, I don't even know this Fortnite even back on the Apple store now.
00:39:14
Speaker
Or are they still something like that? I have no idea, honestly. I don't have an Apple phone. June the 12th through the 15th E3 2021 was held.
00:39:29
Speaker
It definitely happened. Most of the big boys were there and it worked. And then a lot of the small boys were there and it didn't work. We had some of the worst conferences I think we've ever had, ever. Some of the best though. That developer digital was one of the greatest things I've ever watched in my life.
00:39:51
Speaker
It was, and then we had, um, people that make border lands. What's, what's their faces? Oh, the one with Kevin Hart, that one was bad. That was that one. Probably the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. It wasn't Kevin Hart's fault. It was just like, it was just dumb.
00:40:09
Speaker
Um, but it is back. It happened. I'm wondering, you know, 2022, if they do, they go back to doing an in-person event or see what happens there. But, uh, um, June 29th, Sony acquired house Mark, which became part of PlayStation studios. House Mark made Returnal, which I am currently playing through now to the third biome, I think.
00:40:35
Speaker
Oh, dang, you're past me. Wow. Am I? I haven't played it in like a few weeks or so. I started, I got a really, really good start and it was like four o'clock in the morning and I was like, I just got to spend the cycle right now because I'm about to fall asleep and I don't want to lose all the good things that I've started out with. Right. Um.
00:41:00
Speaker
Sony acquired Nix's software, became part of PlayStation Studios. I think that's the people that do a lot of PC ports if I remember correctly. Camera, I don't really recall. I think that's right there. NixS. What? NixS. N-I-X-X-E-S. NixS. Thank you.
00:41:29
Speaker
July 20th California Department of Fair Employment and Housing initiated the lawsuit against the Activation Blizzard. That was when it started. It started July 20th and it's still happening. It's like every month it's like something new. What a year for Blizzard, you know what I mean? Seriously? A lot of these things on Wikipedia are Blizzard related. Just like Blizzard Entertainment President left the company. Sonzo left the company. Sonzo left the company.
00:41:59
Speaker
I wonder if all that affected the sales of a Diablo II resurrection, to be honest. I'm sure it did in some capacity. It affected everything else.
00:42:14
Speaker
Mm hmm. Let's see. Let's see. We had QuickCon online. Basically, all the events, PAX, QuickCon, Gamescom, all went to do online stuff this year. Sony acquired Firesprite, part of PlayStation Studios. I believe that is that. So that team that like everybody worked on, like Call of Duty and stuff. Or is that something different? Don't remember.
00:42:47
Speaker
Sony acquired Bluepoint Games, Tokyo Game Show Online, Netflix launched its video game service via its mobile app for subscribers. They do. It happened. It's true.
00:43:04
Speaker
Uh, November 16th, G4, the gaming focus TV network that shut down in 2014 was relaunched on various linear TV and streaming services. It's back. It's back guys. It's happening. Attack of the show is back. November 23rd, Epic games acquired harmonics. I hope they utilize them to the best of their ability.
00:43:33
Speaker
Agreed. You hear, so you hear a lot of stories about like teams being picked up, but then they're using their talents for like things that, yeah, for like basically bull crap. Yeah. It's like, you know, you know what their strength, you know, where their strengths are, but you're using them for like just completely other, other things. And like you said, you know, it should, they should be dumping money into them and, uh, supporting them for what they're good at. And they're going to get quality out of that, you know?
00:44:02
Speaker
So I just finished watching all six episodes of the Microsoft Xbox documentary thing that they came out with on YouTube and they talked exactly about that Talked exactly about that.
Microsoft Xbox Documentary Insights
00:44:16
Speaker
It's basically from the start of how Xbox got started all the way to like now Okay, and they talked about when they bought Lionsgate people that made the fable games and how you know, they they basically forced them to do a
00:44:31
Speaker
all those really crappy ideas for Fable and none of them worked out and then they ended up making no money and getting shut down. And so that's what we're talking about. Phil and all the other team talking about all the studios they've acquired over the last like two years, learning from that mistake and just being like, no, we just need to give them exactly what you're saying. Just give them our research. Yeah, trust them. Keep letting them do what they do.
00:44:53
Speaker
Yeah, sure. I mean, there's some direction that's okay. I mean, it's fine. Like if, um, I don't even know. I'm just going to pull out something. If Sony, obviously not Sony acquired naughty dog a long time ago, but just say naughty dog, right? We know what they make. We know they're really good at that. If they went to him and said, Hey, we want, uh, Indiana Jones game.
00:45:16
Speaker
Well, you haven't charted, but you want Star Wars, most Star Wars game, but in this style. Cool. Take it and run with it instead of, you know, like, like we know what you're good at. Here's a good IP. This should work for your stuff. Like, you know what I'm saying? Let them do their thing. Just makes sense to me.
00:45:33
Speaker
Um, Game Awards was held at Microsoft theater in Los Angeles, December the 9th. You can watch our reactions and all that kind of stuff over on our YouTube channel.
Tencent Acquires Turtle Rock Studios
00:45:42
Speaker
Um, Sony acquired Valkyrie entertainment. Uh, Tencent acquire, or Turtle Rock studios who did Beck for blood. And that was just a couple of days ago that happened.
00:45:53
Speaker
And that's pretty much all I see for these things that have happened this past year. The last thing I kind of want to do for this episode is just go over some of the games that came out this past year specifically. Things that we've been playing. Andrew, I'll start with you. You look at look at your 2021 gaming life. What stood out to you? OK, so I actually took notes on this. Oh,
00:46:22
Speaker
I'd say, so this is like my standout list for this year. I would say it was Monster Hunter Rise, Inscription, Returnal, Kenna, Voice of Cards, and New World.
00:46:39
Speaker
I beat Voice of Cards in the first two days it was released. I only played it for a few hours, but it's super cool. Yeah. I really liked it. They just need to add a difficulty to it. It's too easy. And then I am not playing New World anymore and it's not because of a lack of interest. It's just I give 150% into a game and then something else comes out and that gets my attention and then I move on. Sure. Yeah.
00:47:11
Speaker
Um, no destiny in there. Oh, no. I mean, I mean, come on. He didn't play all year. Come on. Every, every, every, every new event or seasonal event or expansion with destiny. I'm there. I'm there. So I'm not, but I want to be. Yeah. You're going to have to just text me every day and say, get on display right now. What's the, uh, they bungee 30th anniversary, uh, thing came out like what? Two, three weeks ago, I've been going ham straight ham.
00:47:40
Speaker
Straight ham. Christmas baked honey ham. Got me that gala horn again. Straight ham. Wow. There's another game. It's obviously Kana. I played that as well. Great game. That was my COVID game. I got COVID, even though it was really just a runny nose, as you all know, if you watch the podcast. One of my favorite moments on the podcast.
00:48:07
Speaker
So basically just, I was in this room on an air mattress for 10 days, just playing that game. And it was a great time. Great time. Beautiful world. Absolutely. I don't remember any of it. I was wasted the whole time. Lacked out, woke up. I was like, I think I beat Cana. Can't wait to see what their next game is going to be.
00:48:31
Speaker
Oh, for sure. One other game, you said one other game that I wanted to touch on. I don't remember what it was. From my list? From your list. Monster Hunter Rise Inscription, Returnal, Kanna, Voice of Cards, and New World.
00:48:46
Speaker
Those are my standouts. Are you still playing Monster Hunter Rise? Are you excited about the, are you going to replay it on PC? Okay. So Monster Hunter Rise came out. I went ham like I usually do and I haven't played since. Um, I did. I mean, I, I beat the game. I got all the armor I want and everything. I haven't played any of the free content, but I will be returning for the, uh, big expansion next year for sure. On switch or on PC? Uh, I think I'm going to stick with switch.
00:49:18
Speaker
Which is a weird choice because I have a PC. I just, I just don't know if I want to buy it again and just restart and all that jazz. Even though I did that on a world, I went from a PS4 to PC, which was a huge jump. I know the frame rate is going to be better on rise on PC, but I don't know if it's enough for me to repurchase and start over on, to be honest. You got to get that cross progression. You know what I mean? Nintendo needs to get on it. You got to do what you got to do.
00:49:43
Speaker
Alright, Matthew, what about you? 2021 game-age. I was looking at- I was looking at- I'm...
00:49:50
Speaker
getting pretty close, I think. I don't know. We'll find out. I'm at least I would say over halfway done with Deathloop. Deathloop is phenomenal. Would recommend Back for Blood played that a lot. I would say my personal game of the year this year was between Deathloop and Eastward. Eastward is really good. You mentioned that a lot. Yeah, it's it's a good one. I'm looking back through just to see if there's anything that.
00:50:17
Speaker
Newer than I grabbed this resident evil very very good this year as well And then I can't believe myself and play that played all the sports things to The the FIFA's and the the show and NBA a little bit
00:50:35
Speaker
actually been playing the Madden trial on my 10 hours that I have recently, because I'm assuming it's going to go on sale for probably like half price in the next week or so. Probably just come on Game Pass pretty soon, to be honest. Yeah, maybe so. Maybe so. A packed day and a free, you know, you get just a bunch of packs when you start and then you play like four games and you get a bunch of stuff. And I got a 140,000 coin card and.
00:51:03
Speaker
There's like a whatever winter thing they have going on right now I got Justin Fields mm-hmm Justin Fields 93 and so I sold him and then I bought Derek Henry's 92 or whatever it is. Yeah, cuz we're like this basically the same price and I like running the ball
00:51:20
Speaker
Fun fact, an ultimate team for Madden, for all of you that play that, you do have Derek Henry, who was probably the best running back. And then EA was like, you know what? What if we made an even, like Derek Henry is an unstoppable running back in this game. Like this card, you just, it's unfair. What if we made it an even better one? And then they put in the Bo Jackson one, like the next week. And I was like, well, now there's two of them. Well, there's an 85 Bo Jackson that it gives you. And I was using that.
00:51:47
Speaker
Uh, because I just, it gives me and stuff and he, yeah, it was not great. And then I used the Derek Henry for whatever challenges I did. And I was like, you know what? I want this card. It's real good. Cause you just run and it takes like four people to tackle. Correct. So big fan. Anyways. So I played 10 hours of that this year. That's why the MLB thing was a big deal this year though. Cause y'all remember it, it released on, on X-Box. It was just out of nowhere. MLB was. Yep.
00:52:15
Speaker
Right. Right. MLB out of nowhere was like, Hey, it goes on everything or it goes nowhere. So, um, that was, that was a big deal. And I wonder if more companies will do similar type things that own those IPs. Hey, it goes everywhere or it goes nowhere. Um, I don't know. It'll be interesting, but trying to think if there's anything else I really put time in still a decent amount of animal crossing, especially first half of the year. Um,
00:52:44
Speaker
Yeah, we're crossing those animals. I've been, there's a lot of games that I would, I was hoping for this year that I will put a bunch of hours into. I mean, we talked about, um, Mel Gran Turismo a lot and it just never came out. I'm still, I would love for that to come out, put lots of hours into it. I've, I've played some of the fours of horizon. I probably put 10 or 15 hours into that and it's fine. Like if you play my only big, my issue with it is if you played the last one, it's the same thing.
00:53:12
Speaker
So, um, it feels like it to me, at least maybe, maybe there's more stuff that I hadn't gotten to or whatever. It's just, you know, it's a, it's the call to call a duty model on that one. It seems like at least, uh, you, we had Tony Hawk's prosecutor one and two earlier this year too, dropped in March. That was this year. I swore that was last year. Wow. I played that a lot as well. It seems like over a year ago.
00:53:38
Speaker
It's saying actually, you know what? Let me go to fantasy critic because we're all going to have these games. No, maybe it was last year. It says series. I think series X and PS five was this year. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. No, that makes sense. That makes sense. I'm looking, looking through some scores and some stuff. See, um, I know Andrew is going to say life is strange was up there for you as well.
00:54:01
Speaker
I have yet to play. I have yet to play Metroid, but I assume that will be up there for me. I will play it. I will play it shortly. I think I mentioned it last week. I have a friend of mine that's just going to let me borrow his cartridge. So I'm going to do that and spend the money on it because I'm cheap. Garden of the Galaxy is another one I really would like to play and have not yet. I'm looking through that seems to be that's probably that's probably the main list for my year.
00:54:32
Speaker
I'm trying to look back just on the apps, things that I've played. Matthew hadn't played it yet, but Phantasy Star, New Genesis. I know. It's very similar to how I enjoyed those games. I played the crap out of it for the first month it was out and then I haven't really gone back since, but I want to.
00:54:50
Speaker
I've, I adore those games, you know, the episode one and two is one of my favorite things I've ever played in my life. And so I just know that once I start, once I start, I'll be in. And so that's kind of what I'm waiting. That was part of the problem at launch was, you know, there was just a lack of content. It was like, you get to a certain point and then you're just kind of stuck because it's kind of brand new, but they've definitely added a lot of stuff this year. So, um, I'm in the grind phase right now where I have to get to a certain power level before I can get. Sure.
00:55:19
Speaker
Other stuff. So that's currently what I'm doing. Fair enough. I played, you know, always be playing Apex off and on up until Halo came out for the most part. But Apex still real good. Apex solid game. Halo right now played probably a little over half of the campaign. It's good. I like it.
00:55:41
Speaker
Um, it's very eight out of 10 campaign for me because it is it's got an open world light kind of stuff, which is really fun. Um, but once you've done it, you've done it. You know what I mean?
00:55:55
Speaker
Yep. The open world stuff is like, all right, go to the space, clear everybody out, do the little things, punch the thing. See, that's what I was asking my friends. And they said that the missions weren't repetitive. And then the other thing I've heard is people talking about, yes, it's open world, but there's no variety to the environments. You know, there's no snow, desert, forests, et cetera. It all almost looks the same. Is that how you feel? Yes. OK.
00:56:20
Speaker
I'm saying like it's not breaking any boundaries or anything like that. But yeah, I think everybody us Halo fans were just so worried that it was gonna suck. So the fact that it's good basically just means it's great. Yeah, I just like I just feel like that's not suck and it doesn't suck. I just feel like the open world thing for Halo was an unnecessary choice and not that it's not a good idea or whatever, but that
00:56:44
Speaker
The Halo Halo campaigns are what they are because people love that so just make a Really awesome that instead of trying to you know go outside the box I guess I don't know it really playing the campaign just makes me upset that co-op is not a part of it, though
00:57:00
Speaker
Cause like going in and clearing out these bases by yourself is very far cry ish, which is just like, all right, I did it. Yeah. And it's kind of, but if I was doing that with multiple friends, it would be, it'd be a lot more fun to go in there. But I listened, it's just getting a freaking war hog. Let's go in there and do it. Can't really do that myself. Would you say that it's a far cry from what you want it to be?
00:57:24
Speaker
Sure. But yeah, multiplayer is top notch. I love multiplayer. I don't, as far as a first person shooter multiplayer goes, like it's going to be my first choice for a long time. So it is, I'm really excited for this for 2022 and seeing what they do with the seasons.
00:57:45
Speaker
And I know there's a Christmas event that's either, I think it's starting, I mean, by the time you're listening to this, it'll be going on. So the events, the new season passes, then all that kind of stuff, ready for all that stuff to hit, ready for us to get new maps throughout the year, battle passes, skins, all that kind of stuff. You just kind of get all that stuff rolling. I'm ready for that. Yeah. Yep. See if they, if they switch up what they're doing on, uh, some of the event stuff from that last one they did.
00:58:15
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Well, they're still going to be doing that. Oh, I can't wait because like I was on vacation, so I need those samurai ornaments. So I need I'm ready for that event to come back so I can grind it. Yeah. Yeah. I did play Life is Strange really, really good. Love it. If that's. If you've never played a Life is Strange game before, this is not necessarily where I would start. But if you're if you're into those types of games, it's really good.
Back 4 Blood Co-op Campaign Plans
00:58:41
Speaker
We played a lot of Back 4 Blood.
00:58:44
Speaker
And still are really looking forward to starting a higher difficulty campaign. We're going to do it soon. Yep. I've downloaded aliens fire team on game pass because they just hit similar thing to back for blood, but I need some more people in there to do that. Probably my most played game this year is Pokemon unite on the switch. Really, really like it. I forgot on there again last week because they've put in like three new characters in the last month and a half.
00:59:11
Speaker
So I got on there and I purchased dragonite because I had so many coins and then also gave me somebody I forgot who it gave me but It's just it's a solid game. It's the game that the switch definitely needed getting Nintendo needed Not the fact that it's Pokemon, but just that multiplayer Game like free to play multiplayer game where people can keep coming back throughout the year
00:59:34
Speaker
Um, I hope it just gets bigger and bigger, honestly, cause it's really, it's really good. We just need, they need more maps. I think that's the first thing they need. They'd have the one map and that's it. Yeah. So they need some more variety of playlist and they need some more maps and that kind of stuff. But other than that, it's, I agree. I agree. So here's my question for you both to hear two questions for you both. Okay. What is your game of the year and scale of one to 10?
01:00:03
Speaker
How good was 2021? Is it for games? Oh, I'm trying to go to my PlayStation recently played stuff. So because it was my biggest surprise, it was actually recommended to me by a friend and I'd never heard of it before.
01:00:21
Speaker
Inscription is probably one of the most insane gaming experiences of my life. Like I'm not even over exaggerating that. What that game is doing as a card game is far beyond what you could process.
01:00:37
Speaker
It's an experience like if you like card games, play that and the journey that game takes you on is absolutely insane. Cool. It's incredible. Yeah. People that play it have nobody says anything bad about it. It's insane. Cool. Kooloo my mind. What about 2021 for games for you? I was question. Scale of one to 10. How was 2021 for games? What do you think?
01:01:09
Speaker
I'd say eight. I thought it was a solid year for games. There's actually a lot of games that came out this year that I still haven't played. Once again, I keep bringing up Resident Evil Village blasphemy. But yeah, no, there's a lot of games that haven't played and games that have got
01:01:27
Speaker
praised and praised and praised. So I think I'm actually missing out on a lot of experiences from this year. So it would probably be higher than eight out of 10 if I actually played all those games. So yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. I'm in a similar boat because there's a lot of Andrew games that came out this year back for blood. And like I said, aliens, all these for the play PVE four player shoot them up, kill them all games and my type stuff.
01:01:52
Speaker
And we had like life is strangers my type of game stuff like that i'm looking at my playstation games that i've played this year and it's really not much There like I played cana And I played i've been playing returnal Back for blood. Well, you didn't play it on there. That's right. Yeah, I mean the story for me 2021 is
01:02:13
Speaker
Almost like, I don't know if this can continue, but it's almost like the 360 days where I use my Xbox for almost all third-party stuff. And then if PlayStation has a good game that comes out, I'll hop over there and play it.
Xbox as Primary Gaming Platform
01:02:26
Speaker
But like, I've played more Rocket League on Xbox than I have on PlayStation this year. I've played more sports games on Xbox.
01:02:36
Speaker
Obviously back for blood game path any game that had came on game passes. Come on there. It's kind of been my My machine which it's not something I expected at the beginning of this year to spend more time on the Xbox I do it on PlayStation and that's because of game pass correct mainly Kind of and then it's just I have a I have a
01:02:56
Speaker
You know, it used to be like myself, Matthew, and then our group of friends are all on PlayStation. But I have a lot of group of friends that have switched to Xbox, either for Game Pass or whatever reason. And then I have another, like a whole subset of friends that were on Xbox that are still on there or are on PC, like playing Destiny, like you're on PC, playing Destiny with all your clan people that are on PC. And then like,
01:03:22
Speaker
Our cousin Ron and people like that are playing on pc. So i've been playing Anything that's cross play i've been on xbox playing With them even apex. We played some apex this year with people on pc and I switched over
01:03:37
Speaker
to to uh apex on xbox because i like the controller better and i have my back paddles and i could be so sweaty gamer over there a lot easier you know i vehemently oppose your stance of that's a better controller but hey those stick the stick placement on an xbox is so much better than a playstation boy do i not agree much better
01:04:01
Speaker
It's really funny because just controller wise and obviously I'm not I don't think we've had a bad controller and That's your last generation. We didn't have a bad controller Honestly, I think the last bad controller Was a fat Xbox controller. I mean, it's been a long time. It's just been one. Yeah, the fat fat boy That was the last bad one. I think
01:04:21
Speaker
Probably the PlayStation 3 controller is the last controller that I was just like I'm not a huge fan of that but it's not a bad controller but it's probably the worst out of like between 360 had a great controller and then xbox one had a good controller and ps4 had a great controller and then now
01:04:40
Speaker
These are probably my two favorite controllers that have ever existed but the dual sense and the elite series two I probably like my one and my number one and number two but as far as like being competitive and Mainly first-person shooters and stuff like that or just like rocket league. I enjoy Elite series two because I can I can be wrong one. I can do it. I want to be wrong All right. Here's gaming one to ten
01:05:05
Speaker
I'm gonna say like I said, it's probably eight for me too. There wasn't like a Last of Us part two or like a God of War something that was like I thought was Was gonna make my top 10 all-time list or whatever But there's a lot of really fun stuff and then I haven't played Ratchet and Clink yet, which I want to play Yeah, see you like another game. That's another huge game. I haven't even touched. Yeah, it's crazy, man I just now got Returnal simply because I went and Andrew you may have this people at home You may have this you have
01:05:31
Speaker
By the time you're listening, it's like five days because I think it stops January 1st. But I got an email from Sony that was like, your rewards points are going to go away at the end of this year. I was like, I didn't even know I had rewards points. So you can download the Sony rewards app and just use your PlayStation sign in. And I had like 5,000 points from, I don't even know what, which translates to $50 on the PSN.
01:05:56
Speaker
That's how I got return. Oh, thank you, sir. I did a similar thing except for I spent it on FIFA points. So that was and it was not the plan, you know, you know, it happens. If I'm surprised, I think it was not a game or the game awards like sale going on, but return was and it was twenty dollars. It's like, I'm just going to get return. I've been playing it really, really fun game.
01:06:22
Speaker
Really, really hard. I'm not good enough to play Returnal. I'm just not a good enough game to play it, but I'm playing. That's all I can say. So what is your game of the year? Back 4 Blood? I want to say Halo. It's really funny. Pokemon Unite would be in that conversation too.
01:06:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's fair i'm gonna say halo simply because the gameplay is really really good The multiplayer gameplay of halo is exactly what it needs to be exactly what it should be And it's really really fun. My problem with halo is that it's not finished and it's out um It's better. It's a little better now because we have the free for all playlist and the slayer we have slayer free for all swat
01:07:11
Speaker
big team and Fiesta, I think are also a playlist, but the ranked playlist are still, you know, just all thrown in together. You know, if you, if you want to play ranks, you get everything together. So it's just not a finished thing. We don't have any Griff ball. We don't even have the ability to do forge right now, which is we would have all these modes one way or another.
01:07:33
Speaker
If Forge was on there, somebody would have already made Grifball or a Rocket Race or a 2v2, four teams of two, whatever it was, like the fun stuff like that. And then I'm really waiting on still there's achievements for elimination mode. And that's not even in the game at all yet.
01:07:51
Speaker
So it's just like, and we don't have co-op for the campaign, which I really wish we did because I want to play co-op campaigns so bad. I think I'm probably just going to finish the campaign on normal. And then when co-op comes out, just go legendary. Cause so apparently there's a different ending if you beat it on legendary. Oh, wow. So my, my thing would just be when, when co-op comes out, we just start from legendary and we just freaking go.
01:08:16
Speaker
And then I'm not really looking, I look around a little bit in the campaign now for skulls and stuff like that. But I think that's probably just going to be a more of a co-op campaign thing to do. We'll just be like, listen, we're all in this world right now. Let's just look for skulls.
01:08:29
Speaker
Go. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of thing. It'd be fun, but bad to give it anything right now. I'd say Halo, but Pokemon Unite close second. Okay. And, um, I don't know about Returnal Arachne. That's fair. I think my top three in this order would be death loop one eastward and then back for blood. I think would probably be my three for the year that we're.
01:08:55
Speaker
It's funny because you're playing death loop, which is a loop of death. It's not playing Returnal, which I'm eternally returning from death.
01:09:05
Speaker
It's really not that different. Honestly, it's not that concept. It's just not. But I will if anybody is out there that has played the Bioshock games, if you have seen all of the death loop, the 330 trailers that they released before the game came out and all those different things, it's just imagine that mixed with Bioshock and that is the game. It's there's significantly more Bioshock in the game than I was expecting. And I love Bioshock. So it's it's been phenomenal.
01:09:34
Speaker
But I I'm a little different than you guys. I think it was a down year for gaming. I think there was a lot of solid games, but I think there was no like.
01:09:43
Speaker
Like when they were showing all of the, like the game awards, like here's the games we're choosing from from game of the year. I'm like, well, those are all eight. Oh, good games. But to me, they're all eight. And, um, yeah, whereas there wasn't that, like, I think you, I think you can pretty safely say, or at least in my mind, I can say that, uh, the 2020, uh, Last of Us 2 and Animal Crossing are both better than anything that came out this year.
01:10:10
Speaker
And it's just like to me, those, like if either one of those came out this year, if they win game of the year, pretty head and shoulders in my opinion. So I don't think it was a bad year for gaming. Cause I think there was a really high number of solid games. Um, but I don't think that there was a home run hitter this year.
01:10:27
Speaker
So going on going along what you just said, if I think about the Final Fantasy 7 remaster and Ghost of Tsushima versus any game this year, I think I agree with you because I actually like those two games better than most of the stuff I played this year.
01:10:43
Speaker
So yeah, I don't think it was a bad year because of the the the quantity of good games. I just don't think the quality of a great game was there. So that's it. Yeah. So I don't know. I'd probably go more like a like in my head. I want to say six. I'm like, there's too many good games for it to go down. So I'll say seven. Yeah. Next week.
01:11:08
Speaker
We'll probably do our 2022 look outlook or whatever. Gotcha. Let me tell you little tease here. Elden ring horizon dying light to starfield. Pokemon legends. God of war. Zelda breath of the wild to suicide squad. Gotham nights. Splatoon three. Redfall.
01:11:31
Speaker
I mean, too much going on. There's so much. There's so much in 2022. It's ridiculous. As Mace has on the end of the album, the list goes on and on.
01:11:44
Speaker
Um, Last of Us, Animal Crossing, like all, I agree. All those games for me would have beaten anything that happened this year, for sure. Yeah. Um, the man next year is going to be, uh, that's going to be crazy. It's going to be a crazy year. Yeah. I think that the, I think what you're seeing is that we thought 2021 would be massive because all the stuff that got delayed from 2020.
Exciting 2022 Game Releases
01:12:07
Speaker
But I think what ended up actually happening was a lot of that stuff that was in development in 2020.
01:12:12
Speaker
Because of the delay, I think a lot of people rethought some parts of their game and maybe reworking some things. And it's, it's, it makes it an extra year out instead of, instead of just, Oh, put the six months behind and we'll keep going like normal. You know, plus this usually happens when new consoles come out is there's an influx of games. People just, they want to get their games on there as quickly as possible. True. And then it's the next year is kind of down. And then the next year after that is when the games that are actually being developed for the consoles start rolling out and stuff like that.
01:12:41
Speaker
And I think that you're about to see the next two years, some games that come out that are just going to be jaw dropping visually. We get that unreal five engine and circulation and all these games. I think it's going to make some really cool, really cool stuff happen. Well, anything else that you guys want to add before we close this out for 2021? Video games.
01:13:07
Speaker
Video games. You don't have a system. Get a system. Get a system. Why are you listening to us? What is wrong with you? Just go, go work and then get a vicarious vicarious. Yeah. So we want to wish everybody a happy holiday. Happy Hanukkah mom. Also we talked about that. We hadn't talked about mom on our podcast yet.
01:13:31
Speaker
True, but mom actually might listen. There's
Unconventional Family Christmas Tradition
01:13:36
Speaker
no way dad could figure it out. That's true. That's true.
01:13:41
Speaker
For those of you who don't know, we do this every year to our mom. We celebrate Christmas as a family, but we never buy my mother a Christmas card of any kind. It's always something completely unrelated. Whether it's another holiday, like this year I went Hanukkah, got her some candles, Hanukkah candles. Sometimes it's just like, I remember one Christmas, we just got her like a happy Christmas.
01:14:03
Speaker
8th birthday little girl. It was like all pink Every time we give her a card she takes the card from us before she opens it she's like, okay What's going on this time? Definitely this makes it Emily got her the Hanukkah cards just says happy Hanukkah on the front It's got a dove on it and then we got her some Hanukkah candles
01:14:28
Speaker
Did that tradition start from us not buying a Christmas card until Christmas Eve? Maybe, but I think the only thing we could find was a Hanukkah or a Kwanza card or something. We're like, you know what? That's what we're getting. Yep. A hundred percent. That's been like a, that's been like eight or 10 years going now.
01:14:47
Speaker
Yeah, it'll you know, we're on fire. We're on fire. Oh, yeah, it won't it won't stop But yeah, that's gonna do it for us in this week. We weren't you guys the Merry Christmas Hanukkah Kanzaka anything I Would say happy holidays, but we will have another episode on New Year's Eve. So I'll just say that then I know last year was the year of Mary Chrysler and happy Honda days No
01:15:17
Speaker
If you celebrate a Toyota thon, then we're sorry. That's good. Go get your one. Is it? I don't know anymore. I don't know. I feel like there's a Toyota thon in a something Palooza that's got to happen. Still could happen.
Fantasy Critic League Prize Debate
01:15:31
Speaker
But we will be back with you guys on on New Year's Eve to go over our.
01:15:39
Speaker
winners for the fantasy critic league as well as give the 2022 predictions extravaganza explosion because there's so much happening in gaming in 2022. It's ridiculous. I got a job for all you logs out there, right? Oh no.
01:15:59
Speaker
So we're going to do this fantasy league, this fantasy critic league, and we got to figure out what the award, what's the prize going to be that you get to keep for the whole year? And then when somebody else wins, you send it to them. Interesting. What should that award be? There's a golden log.
01:16:15
Speaker
I think it should be a life-size cardboard cutout of Rebecca Black. That just makes sense. Oh, dude. No, shipping that would suck, though. It would, but like- They got a Rebecca Black action figure? Let me check.
01:16:32
Speaker
that would be perfect the cardboard cutout to me would be awesome i mean like i'm a i'm a worship i'm a worship pastor at a church i would love for someone to come over be like what is that like why like what is the relation would be just trying to ship it back and forth and showing up
01:16:47
Speaker
at UPS and be like, I need to get this. We need Rebecca Black in the MCU so we can get it. I live in Boston. The only way to do that for me or the best way to do that would be to walk to the UPS store. We will figure all that out. We will be with you all again.