Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Side Quest: Game of Some Years 2
0 Playsin 4 hours
It's the end of the year, so Ben & Jess dig through their favorites they played.
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
Give us a review, they help people find this show! Unless you hated it, in which case, don't.
Talk with us on Discord!
https://discord.gg/ve9fqjgPp2
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Roles
00:00:16
Speaker
you know, we've never mentioned, but that is just on the keys. A sharp, B, flex, C, G, A, and I'm on the drums. Left drum. Right here's like a full milk turn set. It's wild. It's like a 19-piece drum go.
Pre-show Banter and Script Editing
00:00:46
Speaker
Folks, it's quite Quest Quest. The Adventure Game Podcast. Merry Questmas. Merry Questmas.
00:00:55
Speaker
Did you? All right. True to whenever we record this podcast, we spoke for 45 minutes before we started the episode.
00:01:08
Speaker
um Have you been sitting on that? the the whole time no you know it just felt like the thing to say it's not in the script i mean i've i sent you my my draft and i and i reviewed it and i hope i hope you you saw the the the edits yeah i mean they were extensive well you know punch your shit up and that's why i have you you're supposed to write in my jokes
00:01:37
Speaker
You know, i you know i'm i'm kind of I'm kind of mean to you, I think, sometimes on this podcast, but I think it's just because that that's the the the energy that I
Character Dynamics and Humor
00:01:48
Speaker
have. And mostly, like, my punching bag is Grayson, usually. Yeah.
00:01:54
Speaker
without gracing around, someone has to like take your anger. And I guess that's me in, in this case, but you know, i will say, I do understand that it's the character of Ben who is like going rough on the character of Jess. When you do that, like, I don't, I don't assume that is, i take, I don't take it personally at all. I guess that's what I'm saying.
00:02:13
Speaker
Um, uh, the here, Jess in, in, uh, like social circles,
00:02:24
Speaker
Have you been like, you know, like a ah group of friends? Have you been either or both? The, the, the, like the guy being picked on and like the group of friends, or have you been like the, the, the picker on or the the the bully?
00:02:42
Speaker
I'll say this, Ben, in any group of two or more people, by default, I'm not the alpha. Uh, So right away, like the, the setting in which I am, uh, I am the picker is, is pretty rare. I think when was younger, i had tendency do this. I think I was a little bit more of like an arrogant snot, like around like late high school time. Like, I think if you found like 16 year old Jess, he was a little bit more of a
Precious Moments vs Funko Pops
00:03:14
Speaker
prick.
00:03:15
Speaker
Um, whereas i think generally speaking, if anything, I don't do a lot picking on others. I don't usually end up being the picked on. I think I'm more of the self-deprecating guy in the group. I'm the guy who's going to like quick to make a joke at my own expense.
00:03:31
Speaker
i that I think the thing is, is that why I so adeptly fit into this, like that, that rubric is that like, I'm from a family of like five. There are like four siblings. Yeah.
00:03:44
Speaker
um and and you are a only child i'm an only child i'm a special precious baby you're a special precious baby and uh have you ever seen those precious moments figurines yes that's but yeah that's basically me uh i'm one of those i have big doe eyes uh like cherubic cheeks oh man yeah do they still make those I don't know. I mean, they still make and old people.
00:04:14
Speaker
So i should presumably they have to buy something with their money. ah Let's see here. Can you get custom ones like a Funko Pop? They still make, yeah, you know, precious moments are Funko Pops for grandmas.
00:04:30
Speaker
but Ben, we are on to something here. Precious moments, figurines are Funko Pops for grandmas. This is absolutely a truth that we may be the first people to stumble on. And we need to race right now to get on Blue Sky to see which one of us can go viral. This observation. precious moments figurines Funko pops for grandma oh no grandmas all right control enter done done precious momentre fiines mother
00:05:02
Speaker
mal unco pops for grandma oh no grandmas all right i control enter done di
00:05:14
Speaker
Oh, they're perfect. They're back to back. um yeah What I like about this is that I didn't, I went lowercase. Oh, That's why it's going to win you. Cause yours has more shit post energy with the lowercase. Like yours feels like mine feels too constructed. Like I've been like sitting on that for months and like, I was like, Oh, I think this will really do well on, on December 11th. I beat you by seven seconds.
00:05:40
Speaker
and And I invite, I invite the listeners with blue sky accounts, you know, to, ah to be like, to, to look this up and, and see, I guess,
00:05:52
Speaker
in, um you know, half a week when this episode goes up. Who got more likes? I think it will be Jess. Yeah, I mean, I've got- You have considerably more followers. And my network of bots that are going to really amplify this. Most of my followers are also bots. Yeah. I have- But you know, they're fighting hard for democracy.
00:06:15
Speaker
i Yeah, they are. there a lot of- ah people with several hashtags as their bio. ah that that like you know It feels like I'm joking when i or like making fun when it's like it's bios which are all just like hashtag resist, like hashtag never Trump. hashtag like and But it's like, no, that is like ah you you go through.
00:06:41
Speaker
i just do not believe ah that. I just don't believe it. you know I don't want to do like... real time metrics here but I have one like so far and I see that you're kind trailing behind at zero oh fuck off uh we'll check in throughout the episode to see how our tweets would do we'll check in ah and great is when people listen to this they can then go back and pinpoint the exact moment we were recording this is rare i actually have mine only four seconds behind you so oh man two yeah who likes two likes
00:07:19
Speaker
How sad would it be? Because I'm like, I had the thought. It's like, I could show Jess. I'm going to pop hop into my group chat, tell them to like my post.
00:07:30
Speaker
We should retweet each other's post too. just to make Yeah, dad that's the next step. Yeah, let's do this. Let's retweet each other's. Let them, you have three likes, fuck off. um Oh man, I mean, oh gosh, there's another one. Oh yeah, thank you to all my all my followers out there for appreciating this original thought I had four seconds after Ben.
00:07:54
Speaker
I'm the one that said it. And when people listen
Games Discussion: 'Light Up the Town' and Escape Rooms
00:07:56
Speaker
to this podcast, I'll be vindicated. and then But I set it up for you. Like I put those two words in proximity to one another. And i mean, it's like, yeah, congratulations. I put a delicious salad in front of you. don't know. I don't have a retweet right now. I don't have a reskeet. I'm not seeing it from you, but I up my hand. Oh, you did reskeet me? I reskeeted Oh, man. Well, let me, yeah, let me, I'll return the favor. There you go, Ben.
00:08:23
Speaker
You know what? I'm going to like yours, even though that actually hurts. me I'm not going to like yours. yeah ah See, that's the alpha energy. That's what you missed by not having siblings.
00:08:37
Speaker
Jess, what have you been playing? I've been playing a demo for a game I just actually purchased for realsies right before the stream. Have you heard of Light Up the Town?
00:08:51
Speaker
Light of the Town? Light Up the Town. Light Up the Town. No. Let me look this up. It is an adorable, cozy holiday game.
00:09:04
Speaker
So the premise is you are adorable, young, anthropomorphic ferret whose father every year strings up all the Christmas lights and decorations in your small Colorado town. And he's recently injured himself and can no longer perform this task.
00:09:23
Speaker
and it falls to you as his son to decorate this entire town for the holidays, stringing up lights, picking up candy canes and other decorations, then this game is so adorable.
00:09:38
Speaker
It's so cheery. It's so cozy. This looks very cute. Yeah. I am tempted. I might get this demo.
00:09:48
Speaker
Where did where did you hear about this I think that it it was either Polygon or Kotaku had an article about it, and i was like, oh, man, that sounds out my alley, because it kind of is a cozy game in that way, like a power washer simulator. It looks like that.
00:10:06
Speaker
i mean, and the controls are very nice. Like, literally, you just point somewhere on the screen, and your honor just throws one end of his light screen to it, and it automatically attaches to whatever you point it at. So it's very...
00:10:19
Speaker
low key and it's just beautiful I mean stringing up holiday lights and it has like a nice cozy glow to it all um just warm and friendly it is a very chill game I think for a holiday season if you want to just low key game now Grant I haven't played the whole game it could take a very dark narrative turn with ah with a father who's you know on crutches or something who knows I mean he tiny tens his way out of it yeah But yeah, I don't know.
00:10:51
Speaker
I can say from the demo, though, it was enough to like, yeah, I'll drop few dollars on that. Yeah, it's not that. It doesn't look that expensive. But no, it's super charming. It made me want to play more of it. And yeah, I would recommend it to anyone looking for that kind of cozy holiday holiday vibe. Very melancholy in a sweet way.
00:11:13
Speaker
Well, that sounds great. Yeah. Yeah. Ben, what have you been playing?
00:11:34
Speaker
Have you ever done an escape room? Ben, I am a big escape room guy. i How is it that I didn't know that? Yeah, I did one just, weirdly enough, on that cruise I was just on a couple of weeks ago. They had an escape room on the boat ah that I tackled. This was interesting because I did it with a bunch of strangers, which is a new experience. But tell me about yours. How was your first escape room? I can't believe you haven't done one before. i Well, so I've done...
00:12:02
Speaker
escape room video games. Yes. We've done one together. We played them. You and I. That was a stream some years ago.
00:12:12
Speaker
And so I've played like that was from, I think, escape simulator. I think escape simulator, escape room simulator.
00:12:25
Speaker
Escape simulator. Yeah. And which I believe It has a sequel coming out soon or might already be out. And that's a great game.
00:12:37
Speaker
And then there was another game called Escape Simulator 2 came out in October. So I'll have to check this out.
00:12:48
Speaker
Wow. Because that first game was quite good. But yeah, I played a lot of that. I played a lot of, i believe it was called Escape Academy.
00:13:02
Speaker
So, I, you know, I'm not unfamiliar.
00:13:06
Speaker
I've never done it in person. and It was also interesting because it was like, it was with like friends of mine, but not friends that like I play a lot of games with.
00:13:19
Speaker
To the lake, it was interesting. I was just like, oh, what in it? Like, oh, thank you for the in input. Like, oh, what a treat. And I was delighted. i had such a wonderful time.
00:13:31
Speaker
What was the theme of your room? It was called Legend of the Yeti. Oh! And I believe, yeah, so that's from like the the one that I went to is in downtown Chicago.
00:13:51
Speaker
And
00:13:56
Speaker
it's called ah the escape game. And I think they have like this, this is a franchise. They've got a bunch of them. Looking here. Yeah, they've got locations all over the country.
00:14:08
Speaker
And we are going to bleep out that name in case they choose not to pay us for this, this mansion. Please go ahead. Yeah. So, know, maybe like I'm sure that Escape of the Yeti is in multiple spots.
00:14:23
Speaker
But but yeah, I like it. It was very.
00:14:33
Speaker
Like it was it was a lot of fun. Like I, and doing it in person and not like on like my computer or like a skip simulator, at least the first one, I don't know about the sequel.
00:14:47
Speaker
Also you could play in VR and like it was kind of similar to that, but kind of not. Like it was, there was, it was it was just such a ah fun little treat.
00:15:01
Speaker
And it was also fun. Like when you got to go into like the next room with new puzzles. Yes, yes, yes. The discovery of it. Yeah. Like it's like, o oh, you could we get to go in here. Oh, oh, what about this? And then, um, and because it was like my first one and one of ah the people in our group Like she was an escape room veteran.
00:15:27
Speaker
She like has a Excel spreadsheet, which like she tracked all of the escape rooms that she had been in and like notes and how she rated them. And she had a great time with this one, but like everybody else had done a couple.
00:15:43
Speaker
Yeah. In real life, uh, escape rooms. So I was, like I feel that like if you scored by percentage of like helping out, I was probably like in our group of five, like maybe like, you know, 10, 15%, you know? i was going to ask like, what role did you take on? Cause I can say for me, like when I'm in an escape room, as much time as I've spent in my life solving puzzles and adventure games, I am usually not at the forefront of the puzzle solving. We're not puzzle boys. We're not puzzle boys. Yeah, i mean, if it's like you want me to like discuss the narrative or something like that, I mean, sure, yeah. um
00:16:23
Speaker
Or tell you like what I had for dinner. You know, that's more my speed when it comes to adventure games. But I am very much like the organizer traffic cop make sure people aren't working on something that's already been solved or using like ah taking a clue that's already been used somewhere else and trying to use it second place. Like that's very much my role is to try to keep everybody moving forward and making sure we aren't duplicating work and things like that.
00:16:51
Speaker
So I kind take on, you know, more of a managerial position the absence of any actual puzzle solving skills.
00:17:01
Speaker
Oh, that's very funny. You know, the great thing about escape rooms here is sometimes, you know, don't if yours had like a video element to it, maybe like a video to give you the background. There was a little, that was kind of cute. that It didn't do too much for me. but yeah i thought I mean, around here, a lot of our videos have McElroys in them. Because, you know, you need to hire a local. That's Virginia's lousy with McElroys. That's right. Yeah, i mean, like half of them have Clint McElroy in them, which I mean is, I mean, not the worst option.
00:17:41
Speaker
Continue? No, I mean, I love them. mean, I've doing them for several years now. I have my crew, my friends, Joni and Damian.
00:17:52
Speaker
My wife and I are usually the crew. We oftentimes take children with us, which creates an additional layer of difficulty of how do you keep... the children from contributing so much that you fail to complete the the escape room. So it's about somehow giving them something to distract them while at the same time you're solving puzzles. But we were successful on our cruise. You guys did win, I take it.
00:18:17
Speaker
i was We We won with, it was like, i think, like 28 seconds left. Oh, wow. one we One of our first ones, we had like a nail batter, and that's really fun. Like, that is a, like, it was literally like someone's fumbling with the lock at the end, and it was like, if I can't get this in, we're not going to get out of here. And that's, that's a pretty exciting. Did you take photos holding silly signs and stuff afterward? We took We took a triumphant photo of you. Good, good, good, good.
00:18:52
Speaker
Well, no, I'm glad you're into the Skype rooms there. boy it was It was an absolute treat. I wouldn't call myself an escape room skeptic. I just was kind of like, you know, like I played it on my computer and like, you know, I'm sure it's it's it's fine. But like, i don't know, like as always, in person, it is a very different experience. yeah And, you know, let me tell you, Ben, if you're looking for an even better experience, go back this weekend to the same escape room. You will wreck that shit.
00:19:20
Speaker
ah I o honestly, I would not be surprised if I forgot everything. that weird too It's like, ah I wasn't standing over here when they saw this one. What's this magnet do? Yeah.
00:19:32
Speaker
It's always just standing in the the lobby of the escape route place. Hey, does anyone want anyone? All right. Anyway, we got to we got to keep this moving because there's something really important.
Special Guests: Sandwich Talk with Francisco and Dominic
00:19:48
Speaker
There's some unfinished business. Last week we ended. We received a communique. from francisco gonzalez our sandwich correspondent which ended with a cliffhanger and in and and i i believe we said this on the podcast i certainly have said this on uh the discord the link to which is in the description um we do and and this is god's honest truth we have not listened
00:20:20
Speaker
these play live for us. You're getting a real reaction. And so I'm thrilled. I've been waiting all week to to hear what this is.
00:20:31
Speaker
Also, I want to note that ah I, ah he edited it and and sent it back. He's like, oh, wait, there's there's something else. And then like sent me like revisions. This is why he's the best in the business. This is why he's a sandwich correspondent.
00:20:48
Speaker
All right. So anyway, without further ado, let's hear from Francisco Gonzalez. Quest Quest sandwich correspondent from coming in from London, England.
00:21:00
Speaker
Foggy London. town Quest Quest. This is Francisco Gonzalez, your official sandwich correspondent. And today I'm reporting from sunny London. I would like to tell you about the sandwiches that were available at Adventure X. They had some nice sandwiches in the green room. They had fish platter or something or other. They were all right, but I have a special guest with me. None other than Dominic Armato, who you may know as the voice of Guybrush Threepwood if you're an adventure game nerd.
00:21:25
Speaker
I almost called you Guybrush. I mean, that's okay. don't answer to Guybrush. Dominic, what was your opinion on the sandwiches? You know, I got to try a couple of the sandwiches. and One of them was some sort of wrap, and I'm honestly not entirely sure what was in that wrap, except that it seemed as though it was seasoned with a little bit of a barbecue sauce, and I don't know that I'm a big fan of that. However, there was some sort of halal sandwich that I found.
00:21:48
Speaker
Honestly, kind of tasty. Some sort of salad going on. Again, not a whole lot of detail, but, you know, got a little bit of texture in the bread, got some nice seasoning, a little bit of fruit in there, and not so bad. Can I ask you what makes your perfect sandwich?
00:22:00
Speaker
My perfect sandwich, I think, you know, a wise person once said that the most important ingredient in sandwich is air because when you take those ingredients and you mush them all together, unless, of course, we're talking about a pressed sandwich, you know, something like a Cubano or a Panino or something like that, that's an entirely different beast. But if we're talking about some sort of sandwich where the the trick is getting that texture in, it's from the air, you know, fold those slices of meat, get some air in the vegetables, shred things thin, and then you actually get to appreciate all the textures rather than having them all mushed into one blob. So that, for me, is one of the most important things of a sandwich.
00:22:38
Speaker
And finally, since you brought it up, a very important question. Caramelized onions and mayonnaise on a Cubano, yay or nay? Oh, I don't know. I mean, you know, I don't want to... No, there's only one answer to this question. The the answer is nay. Thank you. i mean i know but But now know I'm going to get a little... may i May I ask you a question in return? Absolutely.
00:22:59
Speaker
Tampa or Miami Cubano? I will answer this off stream. That's what I thought. I think you know the answer. But thank you for your thank you for your input. We appreciate this. Goodbye. Thank you, Quest Quest. Goodbye. you next time. yes Holy shit.
00:23:22
Speaker
Ben, did that just happen? Did I just have a stroke? right. So a couple things. A couple things.
00:23:33
Speaker
Thank you so much, ah Francisco, for for reporting in and surprising us with ah ah the the beautiful voice of Dominic Carmato. Oh, my gosh. threewood Thank you.
00:23:48
Speaker
And perhaps we'll be talking about your game a little later. i won't plug it now. um But... um That's incredible. you're unfamiliar... if your unfamiliar So Dominic Armato, who voiced Guybrush, in addition to being this marvelous voice actor that has given so much, so many of us, like, enormous amounts of joy, um i has also critic.
00:24:24
Speaker
ben a food critic Yes. um And like if you if if you do or have followed him on social media, posts a lot about like food and his opinions and they're all really interesting. He's actually a good get just to talk about sandwiches and irrespective of being guy brush three foot.
00:24:48
Speaker
And so this is this is what this is this is what I'm building to is that Dominic Armato
00:24:57
Speaker
Would you please come on Quest Quest for food-only discussion? Yes. Will you please come on our Adventure Game podcast so we could talk about that the the other half of of your career that ah Adventure Game fans might not be as familiar about? Because we love talking about food.
00:25:24
Speaker
We are also the only adventure game podcast that when we say, you don't even have to mention Monkey Island, that we mean it. You'll get into all these other adventure game podcasts and they'll be like, oh, why is Guybrush afraid of porcelain in Curse of Monkey Island? What's up with that? And you'll have to answer questions. And, you know, I know you've answered those questions a million times.
00:25:47
Speaker
Forget that. Come on our podcast where we will respect that boundary. Now, I know he's a Chicago man. os From here. I don't think he doesn't live.
00:25:59
Speaker
So we could talk about Italian beef. Yeah. Which I love. Chicago dogs. We could talk about. Yeah. i You know, listen. this This is an open invite.
00:26:12
Speaker
Name the time. name name Name the sandwich. Name the food. It doesn't have to be sandwiches. It could be about any anything. could be about Chicago food. It could be about whatever you want.
00:26:24
Speaker
invite is open wouldn't be really interesting to like draw up the menu from the quest for glory games and have dominic armado comment on all the delicious food in quest for glory great we'll get to it um hey that's for a second appearance it's it's it's worth considering this is something we like when we streamed quest for glory for uh many years ago um Like there's the garlic avocado sandwiches that, yeah. And it's just, yeah. Like it it, and it's presented as like this bizarre, like concoction.
00:27:07
Speaker
Could you imagine? And yeah. but It's like, you know, and then and then certain small children that would grow up to be society-ruining millennials.
00:27:18
Speaker
Oh, God, you guys and your avocado toast and your participation trophies. Try Olga's sandwich. Yeah, no. Ben's constantly he just has like a big pile of avocado toast, and he just dips his participation trophies in it and licks the avocado off of that. The whole time we're recording, it's just sickening.
00:27:37
Speaker
I want to say thank you for like what is essentially the most narrow casted amazing cameo that
Regional Food Rivalries and Favorite Games
00:27:47
Speaker
we could have asked for. Thank you, Francisco and Dominic for an amazing gift. That was not what I expected. ah ah god Aren't you glad you didn't listen to it ahead of time? I like...
00:28:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I, of course, like I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm speechless. Uh, a, what a lovely thing.
00:28:12
Speaker
That was, that was just great. Um, and, uh, it's gonna be hard to top that. I, and I love a good regional, uh, uh, food, uh, variety, ah rivalry because I, I,
00:28:31
Speaker
You know, I, I, uh, I've only been to Florida once. Um, and, uh, and it wasn't to Miami or Tampa.
00:28:43
Speaker
And so I'm utterly unfamiliar with that. There is a, you know, Cubano rivalry between these two cities, but you know, that, that, that seems like the sort of like, I love, you know, or it's like a New Jersey, a Taylor ham or pork roll, like that kind of thing. Like, I love that shit.
00:29:01
Speaker
So absolutely. I mean, Ben, what do you think it would take for us to manifest for the year 2026 somehow to, somehow getting jane jensen's opinion on like mufaletta like what how feasible i don't want to turn this into like adventure games celebrities getting sandwiches and cars but if that's where it ends up that's a pretty good concept for a podcast yeah you know i'm trying to think
00:29:36
Speaker
I wonder if I've had Mufaleta. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities, and i love the food of New Orleans. Yes. And I've had
00:29:49
Speaker
more po'boys than I can count. Yes. It's hard to pass up a po'boy for Mufaleta, but the risk versus reward, man, it can pay off if you get good Mufaleta. Yeah. Do you want say something the blasphemous, though?
00:30:03
Speaker
Go for it. I'm guessing you guys probably around Chicago have the chain Jason's Deli. Is that something that exists there? familiar with Jason's Deli. It's like a salad bar sandwichy kind of place. Kind of Panera-esque with a salad bar added into the mix. It's a very just like chainy chain, but they serve a half decent Mufaleta. Like it's not bad for outside of New Orleans, but new orleans but
00:30:36
Speaker
you gotta find, i can't remember the name. There's like one drugstore in New Orleans. I think Francisco mentioned it when he talked about his mufilleta experiences, but you gotta try mufilleta. If you like an olive tapenade, you're going to enjoy a mufilleta.
00:30:49
Speaker
You like a tapenade. I, you know, olives. i think I've had my, I love olives. I'm a, I'm a olive man. Um, all right. can't believe that happened. Yeah. That's the podcast folks. Um, that's all there is.
00:31:07
Speaker
Anyway. All right. So ah returning, this is now an annual ah an annual thing. It is ah game, games, games. I think last year it was game of, but like we named several games.
00:31:27
Speaker
Games of some years, which is to say, Jess and I are not ah we're We're not playing everything that comes out all the time.
00:31:38
Speaker
ah ah You know, we're we're we're playing games as we get them. And so we're going to just ah run through some of our favorite games ah of this year. We're going to go back and forth. We each have five and then each have some runner ups.
00:31:57
Speaker
Yeah. um I mean, i think both of us have guesses as to what each other's lists contain. But I don't know what Jess's list has. i'm i've I would put a significant amount of money down on what his favorite game of the year is because he's set it.
00:32:15
Speaker
I've said it several times, which is a big hat. Jess, i I'll have you go first. do you want to start with that game? And can I name it? or Yeah, go ahead and take your guess. What's what's my game of the year, Ben?
00:32:26
Speaker
Jess, your game of the year is obviously Dispatch. My game of the year is ad hoc studios dispatch. And I've talked about this on the stream before. I think the last time I talked about I had not completed the game yet. All the episodes are now out and have been for a few weeks. I've completed my playthrough of dispatch. And let me just tell you,
00:32:49
Speaker
ah first of all, I can't imagine a game more made for me. It's a superhero workplace comedy by a group of former telltale, uh, developers who worked on games like tells from the borderlands, uh, who worked on, uh, uh,
00:33:05
Speaker
Wolf Among Us, some of Telltale's other titles that i really enjoy. And it is just an incredibly charming game with a really beautifully told story and does the telltale magic of giving you that impression that the choices you make are having an impact on the story.
00:33:26
Speaker
in a really neat way. And I know this because apparently i messed up so badly. i got such a bad ending that it's hard to find other people online who got as bad of an ending as I did. So funny yeah, I managed to end like, did it ruin your enjoyment getting, or or did it ah detract? I mean, obviously this is your game of the year.
00:33:49
Speaker
um ah So no, ah but like, did did you feel like, Any, like, that you lost something by, you know, getting this, that's you know, bummer ending.
00:34:02
Speaker
I kind of liked it. Like, like i without going too far into spoilers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I haven't played this. I didn't even watch you stream it. I don't know. Yeah. I know very, like, I know about it, but I don't know a ton about it. Yeah, you play as a former superhero who is now working at basically a private superhero security company as a dispatcher. So your job is to send out their team of superheroes to people ah who've paid for your service so you can you know save them from various superhero type threats. So and the team you're in charge of is a group of former villains who are all trying to redeem themselves and become heroes.
00:34:41
Speaker
um which is kind of a charming would i be uh is there a little bit of like a like a venture brothers flavor uh to to that kind of thing would you say you know i haven't watched venture brothers i think this is so uh yeah no so someone someone let me know yeah you know on the discord or whatever it doesn't have like kind of a venture brothers flavor yeah that might might pull me to it But my ending, basically, I spent a lot of game trying to like pour mentorship into a character and like really try to set them on the straight and narrow and help them like overcome their past. And ultimately, it didn't.
00:35:24
Speaker
They didn't redeem themselves. And there was a betrayal. And it was sort of shocking and unexpected because I really thought I'd made headway in this direction. And in a way,
00:35:35
Speaker
I was kind of like, that's weird that I got that duration because I really felt like, and it's possible to make this a successful redemption. But for me, I think what I kind of liked about was it's like, oh man, that's kind of interesting narratively the ending I got because it's just like, yeah, poured everything into trying to help this person and still you know, for some reason it failed, which feels like it sets up an interesting opportunity. If there's a sequel and it's able to follow up directly on that in some way, I don't know. But for me, that weird ending didn't really take away much from it It's beautifully written. It has an amazing voice cast. yeah It has Aaron Paul and a bunch of what the the critical role people. Yeah. It has rapper Thought Squad. Yeah.
00:36:22
Speaker
putting in a really good performance um as uh as a character who herself is a pop singer in the game uh it's really good it's a fantastic game i really recommend dispatch ben i think you might enjoy it uh but then again i thought you might enjoy tales from the borderlands too and uh you hated it so what do i know well my problem was is i played tales from the borderlands too wow Oh, there yeah that's different. Yeah, I've scanned my list and that is not on there. um So and in one thing I'm going to note here also is that um this list of ah games is yeah we're going to include adventure games and um
00:37:05
Speaker
ah but ah This isn't limited strictly to adventure games. Here's a question I have about dispatch for you. Is that like, like I know that it has like these, like I, because I've, I've seen people talk about it.
00:37:24
Speaker
Um, especially like on our discord, uh, like it has like these mini games, which, you know, I, I know some people have like kind of a ah mixed opinion of, um, Does it do much?
00:37:36
Speaker
Do you feel like it is a meaningful evolution of like the the telltale formula? Or is it just a really good version of what they did?
00:37:53
Speaker
You know, like I think back to like Walking Dead where you would have like the bulk of the game seemed to be the dialogue interaction. Right. But then like it would cut away. And it's like a little scene where you're like walking around in a small area. This is the the first one.
00:38:06
Speaker
Yeah, and I think I'll of do a little bit this, like where you might be like like walking around the farm in the first game in season one of Walking Dead. like You move a plank and you find an item and you do some like really simple, like I'm in an adventure game.
00:38:20
Speaker
All those elements are gone from ah from dispatch. But what replaces them are these mini games, the the most maxi of which is this game by which you have to dispatch or deploy heroes. the dispatch yeah Yeah. And I mean, it's pretty elaborate. There's you level up characters, you have, um you know, bonuses for pairing certain characters together. Some characters are better fits for some missions than others. Some reveal specific story beats, stuff like that. So honestly, i mean, as much as maybe this is the wrong answer for someone who's an adventure game fan.
00:38:57
Speaker
I feel like it keeps all the good dialogue stuff I loved about Telltale games. But honestly, rather than kind of half-assed adventure game elements, I think that the the mini games in Dispatch actually probably work better as a gameplay element. So for me, it's it's a departure. But in a lot of ways, it's I think it's the same in the sense that the reason you're playing it is you want to see the cut scenes and interact in the dialogue and and move that narrative forward. And that's very much the same in dispatch as well.
00:39:29
Speaker
Cool. Well, and and dispatch was a massive hit. Yes. A shockingly massive hit. Yeah. I wonder if they they had any clue. Like, they probably thought they had something. Yeah. but I don't know. Like, did they know that they had something i would sell, like, what, 3 million? Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, and I have to say, it's a gorgeous game, which helps sell it, I i would think. You know, it's, I mean, it's like,
00:39:55
Speaker
Saturday morning cartoon quality animation, which is nothing to sneeze at in the realm of video games. So it's good looking, good playing game. I i would recommend it to anyone.
00:40:07
Speaker
All right. Tell me about your first game. i'll I'll start with one of one of the best games, one that has really stuck with me, ah is ah and a almost all of the ones, as I said, ah i've I've discussed at some length on this podcast, mostly in the what have you been playing.
00:40:27
Speaker
um But The Drifter. Yes. I'm going to name off first The Drifter, ah ah ah which ah also came out this year.
00:40:38
Speaker
Um, and also came out and, and got some pretty good notice. I would say, right. I would say so too. Yeah. I mean, uh, yeah, it, it got some press, i would argue and, and some really positive, uh, positive reviews.
00:40:54
Speaker
Yeah, like it seemed like the the Drifter... Like I'm looking at it on... um ah I'm looking at it on Steam and it has like, you know, over like 2,000 reviews, which it seems like a pretty good number for an indie adventure game. So good for you guys over at PowerHoof.
00:41:17
Speaker
um But, ah you know... ah the The Drifter is exactly kind of as it presents itself in the sense that it's like this, you know, the the tagline, like right here, I have the the Steam page open right now, a pulp adventure thriller.
00:41:35
Speaker
Yep. It is a game where it kind of throws you from like one really tense set piece to the next one, to the next one, to the next one, to the next one. And ah it is ah like the level of tension never quite lets up.
00:42:04
Speaker
ah It has this really ah great pixel art look. I think I mentioned this when I discussed it a couple months ago.
00:42:17
Speaker
They made, so this is made by a group called Power Hoof. They made this game that I played many years ago, this local ah ah like local multiplayer game called Crawl.
00:42:33
Speaker
ah that that I have that is a lot of fun and it has a very um striking pixel art style.
00:42:47
Speaker
um And it always like kind of like it stuck out in my head. i was just like, oh man, this looks really cool. And then when I played the Drifter, ah like, you know, so many years later, i was like, huh, you know, like the way that the shadows in this game kind of look like that game crawl that I played like six years ago. Oh, wow. And then like I look and I'm like, huh.
00:43:16
Speaker
It's the same people. And I want to call special notice, too. It has some just really remarkably good...
00:43:30
Speaker
ah voice acting. Yeah. The performances in the Drifter ah are all really solid and entertaining. And, you know, this is and I think I've subjected certainly you, Jess, but I'm absolutely sure the the listeners as well.
00:43:51
Speaker
It's like the, um In like, uh, with, with voice acting, uh, for my enjoyment of it, uh, because I get, I get really impatient with, uh, voice acting in a lot of point click games. I can too. Yeah. And, uh, and part of that is, is because the heaviest, like my formative time playing point and click games as a kid
00:44:24
Speaker
ah we didn't get like a CD-ROM and therefore the ability to play games with voice dialogue until ah kind of like later and almost by the, like by like 96.
00:44:37
Speaker
And by then you're already starting like, not getting as many adventure games. Yeah. i um And so it's like, i ah like adventure, like voice acting was always like kind of a, just kind of a nice to have for me.
00:44:59
Speaker
And um I get impatient with voice acting in a bunch of adventure games when it's like, yeah, if there's a performance and it's fine.
00:45:13
Speaker
um And like, you know, like I'm not saying it's bad, but like sometimes like I'm like, yeah, I could have read that. you know? Yeah.
00:45:25
Speaker
And, and quick, more quickly. yeah too Yeah. It's, it's, it's just like, I i could have read that. But I do feel like today we are in such a golden era of voice acting adventure games and really video games in general. I mean, I feel like more and more, it's hard to find like those sorts of performances where it's just like, oh gosh, should I just click through this and be done with it? But no, I mean, mean I've heard the drifter in particular. Yeah. And the, the, the drifter, like,
00:45:53
Speaker
and So what i listen to when I like when I'm playing like a game that has really good voice acting is it's like the the performer brings something to the text that isn't there if you read it.
00:46:06
Speaker
And that's in some of the best like voice performances in adventure games. Like, uh, like the drifter has a lot of performances like that.
00:46:18
Speaker
Um, like locomotive, uh, has like, uh, voice performances like that. Um, like, uh, Freddie Farkas has voice performances, ah like, like that. Uh, yeah. Who's a really good voice actor.
00:46:37
Speaker
gary owens because he brings it uh to it uh oh that's true i was for which we'll never talk about what's up i was gonna say friend of the pod uh dominic armado and yes all right ah we talked about this a little bit and and maybe we talked about this in uh the lucas arts like ranking but i remember playing gruesomunkey like i'm sure i've said this said this before on the the the ah When I played Curse of Monkey Island for the first time and I heard Guybrush having played Monkey Island's one two without voices, obviously, um and like he started to talk, I was like, wow, that's exactly how Guybrush three put sounds. Yes. And you can almost hear like all of the iconic lines from Monkey Island 1 and 2 already. And that voice, even though he had yet to voice those lines, he eventually would buy the special editions. But yeah, no, I mean, absolutely. And that was the reviews at the time too. Like magazines were saying, like, this guy they found is Guybrush 3-put. This is wild. yeah Yeah, it was just a very... it's and And so, yeah, like just special notice. Like the music overall, like it's it's a very...
00:47:54
Speaker
Like it's, it's, it's just such a, like, you know, it's such a total package of a game. Um, like, uh, and, uh, so yeah. Uh, the, the drifter, um,
00:48:07
Speaker
they gave us there you have it thank you thanks guys like i really enjoyed it it was yeah like as i said a months ago i played it when i had covid and uh when i was done with covid i was done with the game it was perfect last so basically i legally said it cured his covid because there's only one legally recognized cure for covid that would be zoop um uh but uh uh jess okay what else you got on your okay I'm going to go back in time for a retro game I played this year that I really had a blast
Nostalgic Game Chat: 'Muppet Treasure Island'
00:48:40
Speaker
with. I think little bit of a... Red Adventure.
00:48:42
Speaker
Big Red Adventure. The post-Soviet. No. Oh, my gosh. Ben, we may eventually have to do an episode about Big Red Adventure. I don't want you to play it because no one else should ever have to play it. I want there to be an episode about Big Red Adventure for exactly... like Because I want you to talk about the political implications of it. But yeah for real, it's Simon the Sorcerer, obviously. It's Simon the Sorcerer, no. An undiscovered gem, I feel like, from 1996. Muppet Treasure Island, the adventure game. I played that at the time.
00:49:15
Speaker
Yeah, you did. I didn't realize you played at the I played that at the time. I had i bought that at at the electronics boutique at the mall. Oh, man. Did you enjoy it as a kid? How old were you? Gosh. That's not good.
00:49:30
Speaker
We, because that was like, I think it was actually Mark, my little brother's ah game, like, but obviously we played it. Yeah. um I mean, we really enjoyed it. Like it was, you know, I think ah ah ah for us playing, so I would have been what year did that come out?
00:49:50
Speaker
ninety That was 96. 96. Okay. So I would have been 10. um Yeah. and Which I imagine in is a good Muppet age. And, and yeah, I mean, you know, loved it. I saw that in theaters. Did you see that in theaters?
00:50:05
Speaker
No, you know, here's the, so here's the silly part of the story. i haven't seen the film. You know what? It's fine. It's, it's not, I mean, um there are people who love it. There are people out there, you're making a lot of listeners angry right now. No, I mean, the the listeners that disagree are incorrect. Like, it's fine. It's not bad it's it's not a like it's It's not like a terrible film or anything like that. But it is um like, you know, especially the thing is, is that there are much better Muppet movies. What's the best Muppet movie?
00:50:38
Speaker
The best Muppet movie is the titular Muppet movie, I think. Correct. Yeah, I think that's the right answer. I don't... That it seems beyond question to me. um Yeah. like There are people who love Muppet Christmas Carol. And and well and and I would put it
00:51:00
Speaker
Christmas Carol I would put up there. I don't know if I'd put it at second or third, but I would put up there because Christmas Carol is great. um Have you seen that? ah Yes. I also saw that in theaters.
00:51:11
Speaker
i saw i saw the the the post I saw the three immediate post-gym movies, which were um Carol,
00:51:22
Speaker
ah uh, uh, treasure Island and from space, um, in, in theaters. And I would say that kind of diminishing returns yeah on each one.
00:51:39
Speaker
But I, I, I, you know, and and I'm not saying that a treasure Island is a bad movie, uh, because it's, it's not, it's a, it's very entertaining. And of course, Tim Curry, you know, Yeah. I mean, Tim Curry. Yeah. I mean, the way talk about this game. The game's super charming. I, I streamed this for the first time earlier this year. um and it is ah sort of a delightful mix between like Baby's first adventure game, which is appropriate since it's an all ages title and sort of that glorious era of here's a multimedia toy. yeah Like if if I click on this drawer, it pops open and something springs out of it for a sec, you know, just like, except it's Muppets, which is even, it's Muppets this time now, which is great. Cause yeah, you click on something, maybe just like Gonzo wanders on screen and says something about how he wants to make love to a chicken or whatever. Yeah.
00:52:35
Speaker
Yeah, he's always saying that, like, oh, I'd love to make love to a chicken. Yeah. I'm gonzo. I think he has a song about that in the Muppet movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. um But, I mean, it's got that sort of vibe going for which I find immensely charming. The Muppets, as, like, adventure game characters,
00:52:59
Speaker
characters work really well i mean it it can be nonsensical it can be silly it can be meta it can be all the sorts of things you want there tim curry is and it of course is long john silver it's not maybe not his most famous video game performance but he is tim currying it up and that is all you need i mean man what a resume that guy has in video games though Gabriel Knights, one in three.
00:53:25
Speaker
Muppet, Treasure Island. What else? Red Alert. Oh, fuck. Yeah. Frankenstein through the eyes of the monster. Isn't that his also? Command and Conqueror. That feels criminal.
00:53:39
Speaker
ah feel i mean, that's iconic. Yeah. yeah and That's iconic. Very iconic ah performance. Yeah, but no, I mean, it's just like ah really fun game and pirate games are fun. You know, I mean, it's it may be the best non-Monkey Island pirate adventure game ever made.
00:53:57
Speaker
Well, well, Jess, I think you should watch muppet treasure island i'm gonna where are you at on the jason siegel muppet movie i i saw i saw that in theaters as well yeah and me too i remember walking i actually oddly enough i had this conversation earlier this week uh like what sort of adult lives are we living bad um uh but I remember I saw it, like, you know, there was a lot of, like, trepidation around it, right? Like, in and i the the early reviews were positive. So, like, I very cautiously going in, but, you know, with with good, like, it's like, you know, kind of, and I remember seeing it and being like,
00:54:46
Speaker
Yeah, that was that was not bad. And what I could tell you now is that I've never felt the urge to watch it again.
00:54:59
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree. i thought it was fine at the time and haven't. I mean, I will say Man or Muppet. Wonderful song. There's a couple of good songs. bra mcenzie Like, yeah, it's not, you know, I certainly wouldn't.
00:55:13
Speaker
I think Treasure Island's better because it's more ridiculous. um Of course, the Muppet movie well is the best. here's yeah I think, and and this is kind of hard for me to to fully say because i haven't rewatched this movie, so I haven't seen it since it came out in what, like 2011?
00:55:30
Speaker
twenty eleven When that came out? That sounds-ish. Yeah. Yeah.
00:55:36
Speaker
i the, um, I, I think it's a really interesting object lesson in um, like the different types of latter day revivals.
00:55:52
Speaker
Um, because is it is the, the type of like, when you're looking at like, uh, uh, like a entertainment property being revived by like hardcore fans.
00:56:11
Speaker
Uh, there's a type of revival where the, ah like the plot of it is that and all of the characters were the coolest thing in the world is the person making it loved us as a child. Yes. And there's like a lot of revivals where that's the idea, like where it's like, I grew up and like Captain Kirk was my absolute hero.
00:56:38
Speaker
And, so like he has no flaws and then you go back and you rewatch, you know, TOS and he's like kind of a schmo, you know, like, yeah.
00:56:48
Speaker
Um, yeah. And, and so i think that, to me, that's what I think about when I think about the Muppets, is I'm like, it is a really good, it's, it's almost like, kind of like your best example of a movie made by a super fan who is going to make a movie about how all the characters are the coolest.
00:57:16
Speaker
Yes. Yes. No, I think that's fair. Have you heard about this new Miss Piggy film that's in the works? Uh, Cole School is amazing. So I have high hopes. I, feel okay i'm I think, uh, I think,
00:57:28
Speaker
you know listen you know i'm i'm in the bag a for miss piggy and b for uh like i'm i'm gay like you know i like cola scola okay you know i think they're really like just a really cool person yeah um i i would love to see oh mary but i don't have i'm not made out of that fucking money and um mean oh mary sounds incredible and then uh i think jinx is coming back to it too you know about this show right I don't think so. This is Kola Skola, who is, ah they are a ah ah comedian, and they have this Broadway show called Oh, Mary, which is a very funny title, about barr ah Mary Todd Lincoln on Broadway, and it's like this like ridiculous comedy, i guess. like i I've purposely kept myself from it because I've heard it's incredible,
00:58:23
Speaker
one of like i think it won some big tonies um big tonies yeah big tonies uh but um since so they came up with the show and then they start as mary in it and then um since they've left it's been kind of a revolving door cast of like ah very dramatic campy actors filling in. So you have Jinx Monsoon and you have Jane Krakowski you have like all of these like act like actors coming in who are like known to play like big and brassy and ridiculous. And so it's like, oh man, I'd love to see it with Cola Scola, but it's like, I'd also like to see it with Jinx Monsoon, who's hilarious. Like Jinx Monsoon is amazing. And so it's like, uh, uh, yeah. So, um, this, um, this piggy, uh, movie is in, uh, their, their quite talented hands. Uh, so,
00:59:31
Speaker
like you know being in the hands of like a like a a queer person who made like a really ridiculous kind of campy uh piece of theater art seems like the perfect uh like this a massive smash broadway hit called oh mary is now writing a miss piggy movie yes obviously that's going to be good like yeah i mean i feel like camp is a better tone than super fan for something like that like i mean if had to choose between the two for muppets particularly i would rather have like i mean the muppets were already pretty camp in their original form it's like just re-embrace that they're the show like the joke is that the show sucks there's like yeah the the the like there's like two people actively heckling like
01:00:21
Speaker
you know it's and and the guests usually don't want to be there like yeah you know it's not their comedian isn't funny their stunt guys stunts don't work yeah kermit has all kinds of he's riddled with anxiety anyway uh so uh my next uh favorite game of the year
01:00:45
Speaker
uh treasure island it's a fun little distraction sit down play it for a couple hours if you love the muppet you'll love muppet treasure island it was a real treat for me this year just one i had a lot of fun with um so my my next one um i'm not i don't know if i'm gonna give a ton of talk about because i talked about it a lot in the last episode and i'm also trying to convince you to play it so could do a whole episode about it is a paradise killer This might be my favorite game of the year that I played, honestly.
Game Highlights: 'Paradise Killer', 'Sektory', and 'Overwatch 2'
01:01:15
Speaker
Wow, Ben. Which is crazy. You're escalating from last week in a serious way. It might be. It might be. i have to I have to think about it. I have to think about it because it's still fresh, you know? Well, recap for our listeners if they didn't listen to last week, which, first of all, shame on you. But we get thousands of new listeners every episode. So every episode is someone's first. Yeah. um
01:01:36
Speaker
Paradise Killer is a ah a ah whodunit mystery set on a ah island i and it is a game i in like full 3D space.
01:01:54
Speaker
They're ah like where... you just kind of like, it's an open world where you wander around and find clues and relics and you talk to, to people on the Island and they all ah give, you know, like a,
01:02:15
Speaker
You know, they all give a variety of contradictory answers and then you find more clues hidden on the island or like, you know, a secret passage or something and, you know, find something to confront them with.
01:02:27
Speaker
And then once you've ah found everything, you go to a trial, of very dramatic and very, very entertaining trial segment at the end where...
01:02:39
Speaker
ah you ah have to ah resolve all of like ah the threads that you've gathered over your quest.
01:02:51
Speaker
And it is not only very satisfying in the way that I just described, but it's also in um this like just absolutely bizarre and strange ah world that they they created um like you play a character called lady love dies like it's it's and everybody's name is all like co kooky crap and um and and as i went into like elaborate detail uh last week um which i you know i won't fully recount but it's like it nearly bounced me um early on because of
01:03:32
Speaker
the, ah like the intense, uh, strangeness of it. I was just like, I don't know if this is my kind of game. Um, and then as I played it I was like, oh no, this is very much my kind of game.
01:03:48
Speaker
I love this kind of game. Who is this game for? Like, who do you recommend this for? Like what, what games did this, does this possible player, you know, like I don't honestly know, but I think it's like, if you're someone like me, and this is why I think you'll like this jazz is that it's like, there aren't really that many puzzles in it. There's like a handful of like tiny little, like there's like a turning the valve thing.
01:04:14
Speaker
puzzle it's very easy where we stand on puzzles yeah yeah there's like not fan you you get achievements for the the the puzzles you solve and like i think there's like three of them nice you know like there's not there's not they're not very like there's a little like nothing of a mini game that you have to do to solve something and that kind of feels like they were like well we have to have something Yes. You know, but if you're, if you're an adventure game fan, that really just gets a thrill out of like exploring and exploring a strange world and learning like, and like experience, like out of the, the experience part of it.
01:05:04
Speaker
out of ah the poking around part of it because it's just it's so much fun that it's like almost all of it is like of course there's parts that are gated to you that you have to kind of find your way into um but a lot of it is pretty much just straight up open to you from the very start of the game I'm kind of intrigued I haven't looked into the speed running for it but I bet there's some very interesting sequence breaks in the game um But ah like
01:05:35
Speaker
it Like, I just loved this idea of being in this big open space and just kind of wandering around and being like, seeing something on the ground being like, wait a minute, like, that's a, that's a thing of blood. Like, and then being like, oh, that oh, and then like, you know, you look at it and then it's like, you know, you look at your little thing and you, you see that now you have new conversation possibilities with like this character and this character and this character. Yeah. And it's like, aha, I've got to go over there. And so like, then you sprint all the way over to the other side of the island.
01:06:11
Speaker
There's like some like so ah fast travel in it, but they kind of make it a pain in the ass, which is fine because the game is wandering around. Yes.
01:06:22
Speaker
Yeah. Sometimes that's welcome. Like the the game makes it kind of a pain in the ass to fast travel and you can fast travel, but it makes it a pain in the ass to fast travel because it wants you to walk around and like just hoover up all the shit lying around.
01:06:42
Speaker
And like a lot of it is just like little world like little world trinkets like that kind of fill in like this, this bizarre, strange, uh, uh, you know, like plant, like, I, I, I don't even know what to call it. Like just the, the strange world that they've created for this game.
01:07:02
Speaker
like uh it's just a lot of flavor text but even that is interesting and so it's like I i found myself beguile I found myself pulled in because I I just had to not only was I interested in the mystery of the game I was interested in the mystery of this world uh and I found it like because it's it's it's pretty well fleshed out and so it's like You know, at at what at first seems like a bunch of like, you know, kooky language, all kind of coheres into like a whole of of i like very smart ideas.
01:07:40
Speaker
And so, yeah, a Paradise Killer. I really enjoyed it. Just just a thrill. What's it? my year I don't know. You're convincing me. I mean, you speak very passionately about it and i do enjoy a good whodunit. Now, I would like to call timeout right now. Okay. ah ah To see what the what the situation is.
01:08:06
Speaker
um on engagement for precious moments figurines or Funko Pops for grandmas as posted by ah yourself and myself one hour ago.
01:08:17
Speaker
I'm seeing it. I'm seeing it. You have three comments, one retweet, which is me, and nine likes. I have one retweet that's you, no comments, and seven likes. so So not too bad at this point.
01:08:31
Speaker
Honestly, I would say adjusted for followers. Follower inflation. you are yeah You are far outperforming me right now. Yeah. um I'm going to note that Snake Grayson has liked both of them.
01:08:47
Speaker
he just Yeah, I mean, that's classic Grayson. Pick a side. You know what I always say? If you stand for nothing, Grayson, what will you fall for?
01:08:59
Speaker
Yeah, you know, pick a side. Exactly. but anyway, yeah, Paradise Killer. Your dear friend for several years, Ben or me? ah All right.
01:09:12
Speaker
Oh, gets my turn. Yeah, it's your turn. ah Let me share another game that I played this year. It actually came out late last year, around October of 2024. But one that i really enjoyed this year, um i just want to spend a few minutes talking about Life is Strange Double Exposure.
01:09:30
Speaker
um I've been on the record here on Quest Quest being a a liker of Life is Strange, right? we We had a whole episode about the first Life is Strange game. i Really, really loved that one. And Double Exposure is the most most recent installment in the series. It also brings back Max Caulfield, who was the protagonist of the original Life is Strange. After uh life is strange 2 and true colors uh started out with some different stories and different characters uh there was a prequel to life is strange with max and chloe and max is back in life is strange double exposure and uh it's uh it's just a charming game you know i mean the same way that life is strange uh creates this real sense of place uh you know i think that double exposure manages to do the same that sort of you know now you're dealing instead with sort of teenage angst we have max as a young adult who's sort of trying to get our life together now that her dear friend uh chloe is
01:10:37
Speaker
no longer around depending on how you chose to end the first game. It actually accommodates both endings. I'll try not to spoil that too much here But yeah, I mean, it's it changes up her powers. In the original game, she could rewind time. In this one, she can now step between two parallel timelines. so you have the interesting twist. That kind of explains how they they might resolve the a what ending...
01:11:09
Speaker
of yeah to some actually surprisingly they they dispense with that without multiple timelines it's literally just like a character early in the game asks you know what happened to this blue haired girl in the photo and how you answer that question determines how she is treated for the remainder of the game i gave her ice cream or i gave her frozen yogurt which is that's right if you gave her frozen yogurt you're now in the darkest timelines everything has gone horribly wrong no but we went to tcby yeah you essentially have like a murder mystery that you have to solve where in one timeline a person's been murdered and the other timeline they're still alive uh so you are kind of hopping back and forth trying to piece together the narrative of what those motives might be and at the same time you have like just basic fun parallel dimension stuff like yeah oh, this door is locked in this timeline. But if I hop over to this timeline, there's a reason why it would be open. To get around stuff, you can hop back and forth once you're on the other side. It does some neat things. If anything, I think the parallel timeline actually offers some more interesting options than the original Rewind. But mostly, i just like it because, you know, I like Max and I like Life is Strange. and i would to I know there are a lot of people that said like,
01:12:27
Speaker
This series needs to let Max and Chloe's story rest, especially if you don't have Chloe back ah for this one. But I will take more. Give me more Max Caulfield. Give me more Life is Strange. Just a yeah a really, really enjoyable game from Deck Nine. ah highly Highly recommend. If you enjoyed the original Life is Strange, you can jump straight to Double Exposure and I think really appreciate it.
01:12:54
Speaker
All right. So ah what I have next is a game that I haven't talked at all ah on on here about, which is the game Sectory.
01:13:11
Speaker
Sectory? Jez, have you heard of Sectory? S-E-K-T-O-R-I, Sectory. Oh, man, that name sounds familiar, but know nothing about it. Sektory is a game. It came out ah very recently. came out this year.
01:13:30
Speaker
um It is ah a new Geometry Wars. Oh. It is ah what if we made a Geometry Wars in 2025? It is, um and i believe that it it is done by...
01:13:49
Speaker
uh, uh, like folks who, who worked on it. Uh, or it's like neon punk. It looks like I'm digging the look of it. And, uh, it is um, like i I, really enjoy geometry wars, uh, because I'm also like, I love,
01:14:14
Speaker
uh you know ah if if if folks know anything about me i also love arcades and i love arcade games yeah and um you know and while my arcade game will always be pinball and that will always be like where i go and i'll only spend a little bit of time on the cabs um the uh i i do if i'm going to play something else i am i am
01:14:45
Speaker
um Like, I love your twin sticks game, starting with Robotron, which I believe was designed by the the great Eugene Jarvis. um And then, ah of course, the, ah you know, forever classic Smash TV. Yes, that's one that's one of mine for me.
01:15:08
Speaker
Big money, big prizes. I love it. Yeah. Like I, you know, and so the original Geometry Wars is really great. Like I've said on here, I really like, jokingly, is a Sierra game. It does have the Sierra label on it. Geometry Wars 3. Sektori is...
01:15:32
Speaker
secretary tori is um uh first off it is hard as shit it is unbelievably difficult uh it is it does not let up um and i'm still just playing on the the baby difficulty i'm playing on the difficulty for for small children uh ah I probably could only aspire to that.
01:16:04
Speaker
e Here's the other thing with like this type of game is I'm generally not great at them, but I still love them. i What...
01:16:15
Speaker
Anyway, what they they do is, i so in, i think starting in Geometry Wars 2, definitely in 3, they i started to add like, that you could add upgrades to your like little, you know, geometry triangle shooting around.
01:16:40
Speaker
And, ah but that was in like, you would pick up little things and then you would buy them and then that would apply to like the next level that you went to. Um, what Saktori does is that, uh, you, you pick up the same little, little things. It is very obviously, it makes no bones about being similar to, yeah, Geometry Wars.
01:17:02
Speaker
Um, like it, it has very, very, like there are some enemies that are just like, yeah, I remember this fucking thing that, one that runs away from all of your bullets oh that fucking guy in in geometry wars they were the green pinwheels and this there's something else anyway um in this it trades uh buying in between each level and replaces it with do you know uh uh gradius the yeah shoot shoot them up uh gradius period yes yes i know gradius and in gradius it has that you pick up power-ups and you can either immediately cash them in or you can pick up more power-ups and the longer you hold you get a better power-up like you can bank them and then and so it it it goes for that instead
01:17:59
Speaker
And so it's like you're constantly hoovering up little pellets that can upgrade your ship. And it's like, well, do you, like, I think the first thing that you could do and ah and they they stack up. Like, I think each you can add, like, five to. yeah It's like, do you want to upgrade your speed?
01:18:21
Speaker
Like, ah how you get score? And then, like, you know, there's all sorts of it You can also, it gives you this ability to have like this, ah ah like this physical attack. Like I think you can like slam into stuff. I forget what the game calls it. um But you can rack up combos in doing that by like, there's a certain way to like hit like certain things that charge one to the next, to the next, to the next.
01:18:51
Speaker
It's just such a, like, such a like a really well realized it has as they say good game feel like it it just feels like it's a very well put together thought out version of of this particular hard as nails twin stick shooter and it also has like you know that that crazy you know ah techno music that that you want for this kind of game
01:19:25
Speaker
So yeah, Sektori, I'm really, really enjoying it. And it will never be, like, I doubt I'll ever beat it. um But that doesn't matter. You should believe in yourself. You should believe in yourself. Okay, well then I do.
01:19:40
Speaker
I will be, but, but listeners, if you think Ben can't beat this, send words of discouragement to quest quest podcast at gmail.com. If you think he can beat it, leave a review on Apple's iTunes store or elsewhere.
01:20:00
Speaker
But just what else do you got? What else do I got? I am going to talk about a game. I've probably played more than any other, uh, this year. And, uh, Ben, you'd like to give me shit for this. Uh, but the fact is here in the year 2025, I'm still hooked on overwatch. Oh, wait, what? Overwatch too. i mean, I'm literally wearing an overwatch t-shirt right now. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's probably a good clue. Um, is it overwatch two or is it just overwatch?
01:20:31
Speaker
It's Overwatch 2 now. They had the like very controversial thing where they sunset Overwatch 1 promising a sequel that would have a extensive PVE mode that then wasn't ready at launch. So they basically just relaunched Overwatch 1 as Overwatch 2 and then eventually canceled all the PVE content. So there was never any need really to make a sequel in the first place.
01:20:58
Speaker
But... You might ask yourself, why am I still playing this game? ah You know, nine and a half years after it came out. And I mean, I went through a phase at launch for like a good three or four years where I was deeply addicted to Overwatch. And that took a break from it. I'd kind of played all I felt like i needed to play.
01:21:18
Speaker
And enough new content it finally came out that I revisited it last year. And i think what I love about it is what makes any good Blizzard game so good.
01:21:32
Speaker
and it's simply that the mechanics have been refined to a point that the game runs well just smoothly and predictably that it feels like it takes a lot of the luck out of the game. And for me, it almost drills down to like, it feels closer to a contest of actual skill and teamwork. It's a rare game where I feel like if a team is all playing to the best of their ability, yeah you really do get like a synergy that emerges where everyone is better than the sum of the parts there. And
01:22:13
Speaker
that I think it takes a really well designed game for that to emerge. Like I feel like that's the blizzard thing, right? Like, that's that's right. That's the blizzard thing. I mean, in a sloppier game, i think that it comes down to some players are really good at it. And they s stop players who are less good at it.
01:22:31
Speaker
Here, I feel like it's so well made that you can really just create a different level of play that is very rewarding to me. Like when I met with a team that's clicking, it is without a doubt in an overwatch match, the most satisfying video game experience I've ever had in my life. Do do you have people that you play with anymore? Is it just you?
01:22:54
Speaker
These days I'm mostly just solo queuing, doing ranked matches, building up my rank. I'm about to hit platinum Ben. i don't know if that's, uh, you know, like the premium lounge or some shit.
01:23:08
Speaker
No, that' that's really... That's like the best of the bad ranks. um So even I'm one of the best shitty players in Overwatch these days is what he'll say. um But no, I mean, I'm mostly solo queue. I don't really have a a crowd of people who I who i play with. anymore I have a few randos the occasion I'll run a a match or two with. But, you know, that's kind of part of the fun too is having to adjust to different team dynamics. And for me, that's satisfying. Like a lot of people couldn't care less about working with a team. I kind of like, you know, if I see a team's not working, figuring out what I can do on my end to improve.
01:23:45
Speaker
that teamwork by switching characters or strategies or reprioritizing targets and things like that for me it's really rewarding it's a level of sort of uh gameplay depth again when it's clicking uh there's not a whole lot better also i mean they're adding a lot of new content the game big new modes this year three new characters they have a waterbender guy now they have a gladiator lady um all kinds of fun things With a giant sword, like one of those big anime swords she has to drag behind her. It's so big. Cloud or whatever. Yeah, like a cloud sword, like what of those spatula swords. Oh, spatula city.
01:24:24
Speaker
Spatula city. Ben, did I tell you that I have tickets to see Weird Al next year?
01:24:32
Speaker
and Either you or someone else did because, I mean, obviously he's got a big tour coming up. Yeah. And I know many people, including ah Weird Al, my little brother, who I've brought up multiple times, like, seeing Weird Al is, like, kind of a religious experience for him.
01:24:49
Speaker
Like... Yeah, this will be my first time. I've never seen him. I'm taking my daughter. She's very excited. I think I've mentioned before, you know, for softball, her walk-up music is Dare to be Stupid. Oh, that's one of my favorites.
01:25:03
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. And it plays great in the stadium as all the other parents are like, what's that? What this kid like coming up to the plate with? And then she turns to him and goes, it's a rather expert style parody of Devo. Yeah.
01:25:18
Speaker
Yeah. Well, to appreciate this first, you'd have to know a little bit about the work of one Mark Mothersbaugh. And then we can begin to talk about why this is a brilliant. Yeah. They, they, they go, no, I don't think I'm that familiar. And then you go, so contraire, actually he's done an enormous amount of soundtrack work. So you've definitely heard his work.
01:25:37
Speaker
You've absolutely heard it. And they're like, no, no, no, no. And then yeah are you a fan of Wes Anderson's films? per like Have you ever seen the television program rug rats? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. do do do Yeah. And like, yeah. And then, then the umpire is like, get in the batter's box or you're out. And she has to go back to the game. But yeah, no, i mean, it's yeah, we're very excited. I've always wanted to see Weird Al. yeah This is going to be like 12 year old me's dream come true as yeah like 12 year old kid also gets to experience. Here's my, my, my Weird Al thought that I've been holding on to lately, which is that.
01:26:17
Speaker
I just think it's just so great that it seems like the only thing that people have to say about Weird Al is, what a nice guy. Yeah. Like, and I mean, perhaps it sucks that ah that's like a rare thing to say about someone who's been around for so long yeah and is so beloved, but it's like, I'm not even saying that in the, it's like, thank God he didn't say something like really shitty about, you know, like my friends essentially. Did you watch the Daniel Radcliffe? I didn't. I i heard that was pretty good. i think you might enjoy it.
01:26:54
Speaker
But yeah, ah like i Like, not even that, but it's also, it's just like, it always feels to me that everyone is always excited. ah Like, those who know about Weird Al are always excited that he's going to come.
01:27:14
Speaker
And I think it's because he's a really good, I think a big part on top of him, by all accounts, being a mensch, is also that um that he's a good judge of exactly how long it takes for you to go, it's been a while since I've heard Weird Al.
01:27:35
Speaker
He really has been. he's that really He's got a very canny sense. He waits exactly as long as it is before you're like yeah too much. Like, because yeah, I mean, a parody artist should not have, i mean, honestly, beyond a one song career shouldn't have more than a one year career. Definitely shouldn't make it past five.
01:27:55
Speaker
ah The fact that, yeah, he's still around and kicking. uh is is truly a testament to is yeah but you know nothing gets me thinking about weird ally talking about overwatch 2 uh which is a game i continue to play and you know what yeah i'll be playing it next year too ben great I'll never stop. My, uh, my next one, I promise I'm going to go short on this one because I've already like talked to at length about this
Deep Dive: 'Norco' and 'Immortality'
01:28:20
Speaker
Norco. This is my game of the year. Yeah.
01:28:23
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Norco is the first time I played this year. ah and I think it is one of the best games I've played in this century. I think It is a ah like, a incredibly written work of art.
01:28:45
Speaker
and i Marvelous. And to the music from it constantly, and I think about it. Like, it is it is a ah game that ah has stuck to me in the way that the games, like, that are, like, this type of um kind of theme heavy and writing heavy um uh that touched me uh you know have have stuck in my mind i think about norco like it just kind of comes up like i just think about it like and i just think about what it had to say about the world and how it how it done it uh how it done it
01:29:24
Speaker
and how it did it and who done it who yeah and the who done it section of it um and ah like i think about like how funny that detective character uh in it who takes like kind of center stage and the latter parts of the game how yeah how entertaining that that character is um and how how sad the game is i just think it you know some of uh, as, as like, you know, as I've said again and again and again, like, uh, uh, the, like, it is for, for the, like, when we talk about games for grownups, like immortality, which was almost on this list because i was also a finish of this year. And it was also incredible. And I also think about it all the time. Um, like, uh,
01:30:21
Speaker
Honestly, these two are hand in hand in the same way for me. It's funny. And by far that's because I've linked them together based on our discussions here on Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. But because they're games for grownups and they they treat the the person playing it like you're an adult and that you can put together your own independent thoughts and it doesn't lead you into like, ah you know, it it doesn't say this means this and this means this. ah it It lets you make your own conclusions.
01:30:50
Speaker
and uh like and i just think that's neat just think it's neat i'm glad you include norco because it honestly would have been on my list and i was like you know what we've talked about norco so much that's why immortality isn't on my list but i still put norco on here i think yeah norco is a head by a hair which is strange because i'm such a movie dork oh man yeah no i mean it i might put immortality by a hair but just barely Yeah. And that's fun. Like, and isn't that funny? Because it's like, uh, when we did the the episode, like, uh, like I, I was more of the, like, that, Ooh, I get that reference guy. Absolutely. Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, you're definitely more of the film buff by about a, a country mile, but, uh, no, I mean, and that is the break down it's, I i think amazing. And I
01:31:43
Speaker
think And they're both haunting. They are both like kind of, they're, you know, i what if I said Norco slash immortality? Like, it's like, they're both really haunting and kind of upsetting games, but upsetting in a good way.
01:31:57
Speaker
They would be great in a humble bundle together, like with a few, like a handful of other games. Yeah. like yeah call it like The quest quest game for adult games for adults. yeah Games for grownups. yeah And not just because you see boobs in one of them. All right. Yeah.
Exploring 'Rosewater'
01:32:13
Speaker
just but your ex help um Perhaps the last, is this your fifth?
01:32:18
Speaker
This is, I think is this one on both of our lists? ah I mean, we teased mentioning it earlier, but you know, my fifth on the list is by our very own sandwich correspondent, Francisco Gonzalez.
01:32:34
Speaker
folks we're talk about rosewater yeah one more time this was i had it as a honorable mention but i i really enjoyed i'm i'm happy to to talk about rosewater i really enjoyed it no mean what a charming game and what a interesting spin on the adventure game in general like i feel like getting that like companion driven, like sort of the story is shaped by the relationship bonds that you form with these other characters in your, in your traveling party. Of course, you aren't familiar with it, Rosewater is a ah wild West adventure with some steampunk influences. Yeah.
01:33:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's a follow-up to Francisco's earlier game, Lamplight City. But it's not like a straight sequel. It's just... No, I haven't played Lamplight City. So for me, I was jumping into it, at which I really need to go back and play Lamplight City, which I will go ahead and say I'll stream in 2026. What? Stay tuned. You heard it here first.
01:33:39
Speaker
um But yeah, i mean... It's easy to jump into if you aren't familiar with that with the previous game. But yeah, so much of is built around this idea of you know of forming these relationships, of getting to know these companions you're traveling with. It's very much a road trip kind of game. In fact, the whole second act which is a road trip. Which is the bulk of the game.
01:34:01
Speaker
That's right. With some randomized segments, some of which it's like literally just a random, whether you get certain segments or not, others of which are shaped by the relationships you have with those characters.
01:34:12
Speaker
It's such a clever way to get to get like this. and I mean, part of what makes it work in this, I've been, these, these are the exact words we use to describe And we've talked about Rosewater in the past, but I would say it again.
01:34:26
Speaker
it's a cast of characters and a setting and a story that just makes it a really good hang. Yeah. it Yeah. It's a, it's a great much more game. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be much more than a little vignette where you solve a quick puzzle or two and just enjoy spending some time with these characters and spend the time in this world.
01:34:45
Speaker
I, you know, um, And we last week we talked about 80 Days. And I think in some ways, ah you know, this conversation it's kind of making me think about how some of the like some of the the things I like about 80 Days are some of the things I like about Rosewater.
01:35:07
Speaker
Because I think what I really enjoy, what what was the most kind of... novel as a point and click to me, or at least like, you know, I hadn't seen a ton of other games do this, is that road game, like that road trip segment of ah of the game, which is essentially there's ah like...
01:35:33
Speaker
I don't know what, four or five, like larger, meatier pieces that are all about, let's say 90 minutes to two hours, maybe three each.
01:35:44
Speaker
um ah yeah but About two hours, right? like and And then in between each of those set pieces that you encounter on this road section...
01:35:58
Speaker
there are ah like tiny little, as you said, like the little vignettes where it's like, Oh, there's a bear, you know? like Yeah. How are you going build that bear? And, and stuff like that.
01:36:10
Speaker
And I really had a great time um, with that section of the game because i kind of love road movies and that's kind of what I like about 80 days too is it's like moving from one little episodic like little vignette and the next to the next to the next it's like well if you know if you're kind of bored by this like character in this situation like you're never going to see this guy again like you know so don't worry about it like it kind makes that second act for me. I think what I liked most about Rosewater was just, you know, and also I like little self-contained short adventures. Like I kind of love being plopped down into a three screen area with a limited number of NPCs and maybe an inventory item or two. And, and i feel like that self-contained element of some of those shorter segments, just, you know,
01:37:04
Speaker
it it makes for a good little quickie adventure experience and there's a lot of game here I mean there is letter there's an enormous amount of game it's a yeah like and with replayability yeah it is yeah it is a game that has replayability because you're not going to see all the vignettes you're not going to like puzzles have multiple solutions and uh like they're if you farm bonds with one character you won't have time to do it with necessarily every character so that's going to shape how it goes yeah i mean all those sorts of things yeah add to it and of course great looking game we were talking actually before the stream about how uh how we we love the look of it and particularly again how good the voice acting is uh it's got a i think a full uh voice acting union like uh uh like
01:37:54
Speaker
uh cast so it's like all ringers like yeah no and i mean it it shines through these are already characters that are written in a very likable way um and the performances just add to that further yeah i mean i've i've really enjoyed my time with rosewater and i'm gonna give it a few more months and i think i'll probably go back and i play it to see some of those segments i think that might be a next summer thing for me yeah maybe i'll come back to it next summer which will be about a year since i played it yeah uh but no terrific game rosewater we've talked about before if you haven't played it yet go out there and get a hold of it uh support a uh a hard-working sandwich correspondent because we can only pay him so much for this gig yeah we gotta we we gotta to keep him
01:38:43
Speaker
you know, Dominic Armadas don't grow on trees, you know, that's right. Um, and he can only be found that is, yeah. Of all places to find
Unique Games: 'Xeno Tilt' and 'LA Law'
01:38:54
Speaker
God brush three foot.
01:38:56
Speaker
Uh, so my, my final the, the, the year is another one I've talked about is, uh, the game Zeno tilt. Xeno tilt. I'm going to go back to the arcade.
01:39:09
Speaker
you know, this is a good follow after Sictori. ah I'm not sure actually when this technically hit 1.0. I think it might've been last year. Like it was an early access for a little bit.
01:39:22
Speaker
um It is... So it is the follow-up to the game Demon's Tilt. These are both... Demon's Tilt. Yeah, Demon's... Demon's Tilt, right. um ah They're they're based on I think it was on like ah ah like Devil's Crush, which is a TurboGrafx-16,
01:39:50
Speaker
i like heavy metal flavored ah like pinball video game with like you know gruesome eyeballs and like gnarly like effects and stuff.
01:40:04
Speaker
it Was Bonk in it? I wouldn't be surprised if Bonk made a ah cameo, honestly. I mean, Bonk was pretty big at the time. Bonk was huge. Let's not put, I mean, Bonk was like, we all loved Bonk. We all had put some respect on Bonk's name. We all had Bonk lunchboxes. Yeah.
01:40:22
Speaker
yeah I actually saw like, I was reading back a year or so ago through an old gaming magazine that ranked like the top 100 players. video game characters of all time and it was like from the late 90s and bonk was like number six and i was just thinking it's like do you think you could find a gamer born after the year 2005 that could out of a lineup i don't think you could find a gamer born after 1995 could pick bonk out of a lineup
01:40:57
Speaker
Yeah. Where's the bonk revival? If we got Bubsy, where's bonk? Yeah, we got to bring bonk. Where's bonk? Get bonk on the phone. Who's bonk's guy? Who's bonk's guy?
01:41:08
Speaker
Anyway, Xenotill is so Demon's Till ah was like kind of dark fantasy. This is dark sci-fi. um It is a there there are two flavors of pinball video game that I like the ones that are like hyper realistic simulations And ones with sexy robot ladies. Yeah, ones with sexy robot ladies. Actually, the hyper-realistic simulations will have that too. Bride of Pinbot.
01:41:42
Speaker
Or ones that like really lean into like a pinball machine could never do this. We're going to have all sorts of kooky crap happening all over the place. It's going to look like you know it's gonna epilepsy warnings all over.
01:41:56
Speaker
And that is like Xeno Tilt, which I think is even better than Demon's Tilt, which I love. Xeno Tilt, I think, is just like this kaleidoscope of vaporwave colors, ah sci-fi synth music, and incoherent.
01:42:16
Speaker
ah like particle effects flying around your screen while you do not know what's happening. It is an absolute blast. I have so much fun playing Xenotill.
01:42:30
Speaker
It's just a thrill every time I play it. Xenotill hostile. I love this. This is its tagline. Hostile pinball action.
01:42:43
Speaker
Which is a great, I think that's a really good tagline for this type of game. um So, so yeah, I mean, that takes us out of our top fives. I could just quickly run down my, my honorable mentions.
01:42:59
Speaker
Sure. Actually, they only have one. okay name Name your one. You know, i wanted to give a shout out to a game that played for the first time this year that i really enjoyed.
01:43:11
Speaker
LA law, the computer game. Mostly because first of all, kes and not terrible it's a capstone game. It's not terrible. and i think we need to recognize that. i think it's worth stopping to say that the makers of Beverly Hillbillies and Wayne's world put together somehow improbably a video game adaptation of a law, the television series.
01:43:36
Speaker
And it's pretty okay. It's actually kind of charming in some ways. And in a lot of ways, It's a courtroom simulator that's not that dissimilar from the Phoenix Wright games. It even has an objection button.
01:43:50
Speaker
um it It sort of, i think, um I'm sure it wasn't the first courtroom simulator of this sort, but it's an early one. And you know what? It is half-baked, but at least it's an original idea that doesn't make you want to jump out of you a top story window when you try to play it like the average capstone game. So i'm going to say shout out to LA law, the computer game that I played for the first time earlier this year. Uh, here, here,
Fun with 'Jackbox 11'
01:44:20
Speaker
here are my honorable mentions.
01:44:23
Speaker
Pizza Tower, which is a a platformer that i takes the kind of weirdness and exploration and that ah you have to complete a level. And then when you make it to the end of the level, you have to do a mad dash all the way back to the start of the level from Wario Land 4.
01:44:51
Speaker
yeah which if you play those wario land platformers my personal favorite wario land is wario land 3 i know you've been revisiting all the game boy games only i've only barely played any of the wario games uh Well, and and I mean the um i mean the the micro mini game, like the mini games are ah outstanding as well.
01:45:15
Speaker
But I'm a ah major, i really enjoyed, i thought for the Game Boy Color, Wario Land 3 was just a ah really spectacular game. But this is this is more based on its sequel for, which is still pretty good. um it was That was a Game Boy Advance game.
01:45:33
Speaker
um And, but then it also adds ah a massive amount of speed and running through the levels that feels like it owes just a little something to Sonic.
01:45:47
Speaker
And has a really lovely tightness to the controls. it it It just feels good. And it looks great. And it's goofy. And then my next honorable mention is Jackbox 11, which I think...
01:46:05
Speaker
is a grand return to form. um i played this for the first time over the weekend. I had had been sitting on it and hadn't had a chance to play it. I got into the Jackbox 11 games and you know what?
01:46:18
Speaker
Pretty strong lineup. I... they They took a year off, like they did the survey scramble last year, which is a little off form. And the naughty gang. Yeah, which was like kind of remixes of existing. Yeah. like and then um And then this one broke their ah pattern of reviving a new, like one from the the last pack, which is all originals.
01:46:44
Speaker
And, and there's one i haven't played yet. It has like a social deduction type, like werewolf type game, which I have not played yet. That's the one I haven't played yet. Which you have to find the right. group doesn't care for this. Yeah. My, my group doesn't care for those either. They, they want the funny games that, uh, it, it doesn't contain that many. it It contains one surprise of a game.
01:47:08
Speaker
um I would say because it, I, there's ah like a really fun, right? Like, you know, funny prompts game, like your, your quiplash family of games, that game's great.
01:47:22
Speaker
Uh, then it has a, like this trivia game, which is, uh, very clever and and well done. Like this co-op RPG themed one, which is,
01:47:33
Speaker
And let me tell you, that worked great to play with a mixture of kids and adults. Oh, Because normally there's just no way to play trivia yeah with young kids. But a co-op team trivia game really allows you to incorporate kids in a pretty fun way. It was actually the biggest smash oh interesting with the kids we played with. which I'm surprised because...
01:47:53
Speaker
the The one that I'm going to say was the surprise. and The big winner with the groups I've played with is the sound game. and Yes, that's what hit with the adults. Big for us. The kids didn' it didn't do... Because I just think that the kids would go nuts. So...
01:48:11
Speaker
Uh, there's this thing's crazy. It sounds so gimmicky. You're like, that's gonna be the worst game in the pack. the And it's so good. it It has one flaw, which is that the mini games in between each round stink. Um, and they don't work on some phones that, yeah, they didn't work on mine, which is weird. I have played with multiple groups and half of each group has had people go like, oh, it's not working on mine. And then they like, and it just sucks. It takes you out of the game. But the the The core of the game is so good. It's essentially, ah a it just gives you a prompt.
01:48:45
Speaker
It says, make this sound, and you make that sound on your phone, and then it plays all of them, and you you vote for the best sound. Yeah. And then it yeah go ahead does this brilliant thing where it then combines these sounds with video clips that use them in unexpected ways. With sounds, which is yeah really, really fun.
01:49:07
Speaker
They are pretty hilarious. Most of the time, it's really wonderful. What is really fun about the game is I've played it over like discord with like friends across, but I've also played it, uh, in a room with other people. And it's like the nice thing. If you play it in discord, if you're making the sounds, you know, there's not a lot of sound bleed, but I think it's a lot of fun to play in a,
01:49:34
Speaker
full group in a crowded room because it's just fucking chaos. It's hilarious. What's funny is like for us, people started like getting up and running to a corner and into the room so they could make their sound without other people hearing it. yeah And like people were up right around laughing. I mean, it was yeah just a super engaging yeah game yeah on several levels. Yeah. um Yeah. I let me know. Of course it's called I don't know the names of any of them. I can't remember any of What I will say is that I'm generally high, even on like the kind of mid-Jackbox games, because it's like, I live here in Chicago, and i like and I know people that work there. So it's like, I'm always going to be up on it. But this one felt special, and Jess, you don't know anyone that works there. Hearsay. So, like...
01:50:29
Speaker
um like uh you know i i i think that this one you know you could you could take a a pinch of salt with with mine but you know look at the reviews that i i'm seeing a lot of people say that this is one where like after a couple off years uh they they they yeah came back with a really they have a fun drawing game cookie hoss where you decorate cookies love that one too Yeah, I mean, and it, like, I think in terms of graphically, in some ways, it's one of their most impressive ones in the sense that you can actually decorate cookies that look like they have real frosting and sprinkles and things like that. I mean, it it really pulls off what it's trying to do and in a funny way. But no, great, great party pack. I'm glad
Teasers and Farewell
01:51:15
Speaker
you mentioned that because that should have been my list. It's also now one of my honorable mentions.
01:51:20
Speaker
All right. Well, Ben, can I have an honorable mention for a game you're playing this year? What? Man, I've been enjoying watching you play Blue Force.
01:51:33
Speaker
It's been a couple of years since I played it. I mean, there will eventually... Obviously, that's going to be an episode. That may be a two-part episode. We can't talk too much about it right now. Yeah, that I don't think we can do in like an hour or two everything we have to say about Blue Force. It is such...
01:51:51
Speaker
a like such a fun um you know it's such a fun sign off uh to jim wall's cop games yeah but you know i don't want to be this is this is absolutely getting its own episode so i don't you know yes jim jim is you know he holds a very special place in my heart uh as a game designer ah So I can't, I, I, you know, my lawyers are telling me that, that I can't say too much more on this matter.
01:52:23
Speaker
Yeah, no, absolutely. but What a game, what a game. It gets an honorable mention for me. All right. Well, thank you so much. This has been a game games of some years, game of some years, the games of some years to some years games. Yeah. Uh, uh, you know, if you enjoyed this, tell your friends, um, we have some really exciting episodes coming up. the the Oh man, we really do. and Yeah.
01:52:48
Speaker
Um, ah You can send us an email at questquestpodcasts at gmail.com. Please rate and review. That helps people find this show. And join us ah next week when we talk about Space Quest 4.