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47. Our Favorite Game Studios
44 Plays10 days ago
This week, join us as we name our 15 favorite game studios. Also, what are our favorite game genres?
00:00:00 - Show Start
00:08:12- Mario Party (Series)
00:18:12- Ghost of Yotei
00:29:10- Assassins Creed Syndicate
00:32:25- Trails of Arise
00:38:42- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
00:43:45- What are our favorite genres?
00:47:00- Sean’s Number 5
00:49:00 Midnight’s Number 5
00:52:03- Hodge’s Number 5
00:54:00- Sean’s Number 4
00:57:15- Midnight’s Number 4
01:00:20- Hodge’s Number 4
01:02:00- Sean’s Number 3
01:05:00- Midnight’s Number 3
01:08:23- Hodge’s Number 2
01:12:00- Sean’s Number 2
01:14:01- Midnight’s Number 2
01:19:34- Hodge’s Number 2
01:23:00- Sean’s Number 1
01:27:12- Midnight’s Number 1
01:30:40- Hodge’s Number 1
Follow us on X/Twitter
Podcast - http://www.x.com/gameoverplastic
Midnight- http://www.x.com/midnightdt
Sean- http://www.x.com/seanlikestobake
Hodge- http://www.x.com/hodgebaba57
Video and Audio edited by: Hodge OR Midnight (episode dependent)
Intro and Graphics by: Hodge
Intro music credits:
Epic Cinematic Trailer | ELITE by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Creative Commons CC BY 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Co-hosts
00:00:28
Speaker
And welcome everybody. This is Games Over Plastic, episode number 47. i am Midnight, as always, joined by the two most amazing co-hosts in the gaming podcast industry.
Sean's Health and Family Celebrations
00:00:42
Speaker
First and foremost, we have the man, the myth, the legend, Sean Mason, the Mets fan. How you doing, sir? Doing pretty good. I'm feeling much better than I was earlier this week. was in the hospital for a few days.
00:00:54
Speaker
big fever and I had to get IVs put in me. It was kind of a nightmare, but you know, I'm back. I'm strong. ready to go. that's it. That's it.
00:01:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad you're doing better. You were like 104 or something, right? Yeah. That's pretty scary. for Yeah. But, um, my mom's feeling all right. That's pretty good. Um, it was her birthday yesterday, which is good.
00:01:18
Speaker
and She had some ice cream. Yeah, we we went out. We got some ice cream. Me, my dad, Claire, and her. It was a good time. Nice. Awesome. Well, happy birthday,
Hodge's Fitness Journey and Audiobook Recommendations
00:01:30
Speaker
Mama Mason.
00:01:30
Speaker
Happy belated. Big 65. Belated now. Oh, nice. Damn. Very nice. um All right. Yeah. And then last but not least, I was going to say something, but as usual, I forgot and that's okay.
00:01:43
Speaker
But a master of graphics, Hodge, how you doing, sir? I'm doing good. I, uh, I am down as of this morning. All right. so I stepped on a scale about three, four weeks ago, about a month. Yeah. About a month ago.
00:01:58
Speaker
And it said 380 pounds. And I have never been that heavy in my life before. So I was so angry that I went to the gym for four hours that day and just and so and so I've been really on my workout and I've been eating a little better. I never ate horribly, but I would snack if I was bored. I'm like, I'm that kind of person, you know, the bored snacker.
00:02:22
Speaker
And so I cut that out. And as of today, i am now officially down 22 pounds and in a month. So I'm feeling pretty good. I went to the gym for about two hours this morning. and i so I biked and swam.
00:02:37
Speaker
While I've been on the bike, I've been listening to that Harry Potter full cast audio book. And it is incredible how good that audio book is. which Are you still on you still on the Philosopher's Stone? as the The real title?
00:02:50
Speaker
yeah they call it sorcerer's stone actually surprising i thought they would call it philosophers i was doing i was shocked that when they did the re-release of the books after the 20 year anniversary the first book came out they re-released all of them i'm shocked they just didn't change it to philosophers because that's now like a much more americanized word now yeah i it's i mean it was dumb that they changed it in the first place don't of course yeah of course it was it was the stupidest thing Yeah, but no, it's it's called Sorcerer's Stone. ah they're They're releasing them one book at a time. i think the next one out until next month.
00:03:21
Speaker
So I'm almost knit through the first book, but I suggest for anyone who likes audiobooks, it's incredible. There's music, the full cast, there's you know sound effects. and whatever it's It's so well done.
Video Games Discussion: Harry Potter and Mario Party
00:03:32
Speaker
I suggest anyone, if you're a Harry Potter fan, listen to it, even if you're not.
00:03:35
Speaker
Harry! Our buddy Meatball i said he only watched like the first three movies or read the first three books or something and get fell off. And he's like, I'm going to see it through. like i love this. This is incredible. i was like, i told you. but I read the books twice a year, every year. freaking love it.
00:03:50
Speaker
It's my yeah favorite book series. and Well, one of my my favorite childhood book series of all time. Yeah. yeah I've never read the books. ah I've only watched the movies one time. so I've said before that I want to go back and re-watch the movies I need to. Maybe I'll check out the maybe i'll check out these audiobooks that you're talking about. The books are freaking awesome. They're so good. When you when you get the books so that you realize how much they leave out of the movies, and each one they progressively leave more and more. like There's so much they leave out of the fourth one, and then it's so disappointing because the fourth one is my second favorite book.
00:04:24
Speaker
and It's like The stuff I love about the fourth one, it's all cut out of the movie. I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? Yeah, the fourth one was my favorite book and until Deathly Hallows came out. It was by far my favorite book. Half-Blood Prince is my favorite. I freaking love it. You know what stinks?
00:04:40
Speaker
My favorite book? Freaking worst movie. Which one? Order the Phoenix? Half-Blood Prince. Oh, Half-Blood Prince. It's the worst movie. I thought Order of the Phoenix is probably the worst movie. but Again, which is my second favorite book.
00:04:53
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, video games. Video games. Harry Potter podcast. yeah Oh, I'd be down. Harry Potter Puppet Pals. ah Dude, I saw that so long ago and introduced so many friends to it. So when it caught on, I felt so like so so hipster of being like, oh, I've been watching this forever.
00:05:14
Speaker
Oh, so right. Well, congratulations, Hodge, on your weight loss. Keep it going. um ah If I remember, I'll send you this video um after the podcast.
00:05:26
Speaker
It's from this world-renowned cardiologist and metabolic specialist. He's doing an interview, and he's talking about the absolute best way to get your body to eat the fat. And, of course, it's fasting. And I know you have done fasting before, but he kind of breaks it down in a really scientific way.
00:05:39
Speaker
And not only that, but I actually had my doctor's appointment yesterday, and I asked my doctor about this. um And if he thought that was a good idea for me, because I am also fat. And he said, yes, it absolutely does work. It is the best way to lose like that, that harmful belly fat and stuff. And he gave me some tips on like how to approach it, like intermittent fast. and And this guy's even more hardcore. He says, like, for his patients who are very overweight, I'll send you the video.
00:06:01
Speaker
He'll have them do like an intermittent fast where it's like 18 hours of fasting and like six hours of eating or whatever for like 12 days and then do a full blown like three day fast like where you don't eat anything.
00:06:12
Speaker
And then again, get back to the 12 hours, 18, six type thing. I'll send you this video if you want to check out. It's pretty cool So we all know I'm anti-AI. I'm also very anti-fasting. All right. Well, this guy is really smart. So I'll send the video.
00:06:25
Speaker
There's also many studies done that say that fasting is very counterproductive to the human body. Well, I mean, ah my doctor said that it was good. I just talked to him Yeah, I could also find a doctor that probably says heroin's good, too.
00:06:37
Speaker
Yeah, the way I heard about fasting is basically that, you know, before life was easy and we had all this technology, you have to scavenge for your food. So some people would only eat once a day, which is kind of where the idea of that you get your energy from food once a day. But I mean, I technically, I work out technically while I'm fasting because I work out before breakfast and work and everything. So I think that helps also working out on, you know, an empty stomach burning what, uh, what's already in my system rather than what I've eaten that day. So yeah, I, I tried it. It didn't really work. I'll, I'll check it out, but yeah, I don't know if I'll go back to intermittent fasting.
00:07:11
Speaker
Well, if I remember, I'll send you the video and then you can make up your own mind if you want. It's not very long. Um, But anyway, ah let's go ahead and get into the administrative stuff. So this is Games Over Plastic, episode number 47. As I said, this is the podcast for the agnostic gamers. No console wars.
00:07:28
Speaker
We just talk about games and have fun over here. You can find us every other Monday on YouTube in full 4K glory with amazing ah graphics and often edits by our one and only Hodge.
00:07:40
Speaker
at youtube.com slash at games over plastic this podcast is also available on all audio platforms out there spotify apple podcasts or apple music overcast pocketcast everywhere you can find us so check us out as always please leave us likes and subscriptions and leave us comments and stuff to help us with the algorithm if you're enjoying this podcast we would really appreciate that um But yeah, with all that said, um let's go ahead and I suppose jump into the what we are playing section. huh How about that?
00:08:12
Speaker
Yeah. And let's have a little bit of fun here. Sean, ah do you want to start us off
Family Fun with Mario Party
00:08:17
Speaker
here? I see you got some fun games. Yeah, because we're playing. we're We're having a party in the Mason household. We've been playing a lot of Mario Party. So reason why we've playing a lot of Mario Party is because...
00:08:30
Speaker
My mom is sick right now. for i mean, I think most of the audience probably knows that just because the people who listen to this like know us. But if you didn't know, yeah my mom is dealing with a lot of lot of stuff going on right now. So I've been over my parents' house a lot. And so growing up, we played a lot of Mario Party in our house.
00:08:46
Speaker
Mario Party 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, all those games. Not 6, 7. Not that crap. Yeah.
00:08:54
Speaker
that um ah but i just they I'm just sorry. I'm just thinking of like, and like there's like a gang fight out there of like, I'm Mario Party 6. And you're like, no. um So, yeah, we've been playing a lot of Mario Party. So specifically on the Switch, we have Mario Party 1, 2, and 3 the and NSL.
00:09:12
Speaker
So we're just planning to playing a bunch of it. Like, literally going through and playing through, like, every single map and just playing four-player mode. And it's, like, super fun. Mario Party 3 is my favorite, but we've literally played them all. And we've unlocked, like...
00:09:27
Speaker
and For those who don't know when you play Mario Party, like unless you play the minigame, it's like all question marks. And then when you get to that minigame, it's like, then the minigame will show up again. Like, oh, you know what this minigame is.
00:09:38
Speaker
We've unlocked every single minigame in those three core Mario Party games. We've unlocked all the additional boards. And it's just so much fun. It's such a great distraction from like real life. It's like, oh, you're playing. And it's like, i I'm going to steal star from you.
00:09:51
Speaker
Why would you steal a star from me? I'm not in first place. Yeah, well, I don't like you. right. I don't like you, Wario. It's super fun. and it just got me like super hyped for like, just like, I don't know, just games in general. And it's, it's brought me back to like a really fun time. So yeah, all the Mario party games in general are freaking blast.
00:10:10
Speaker
And I want to know listeners, um, What is your favorite Mario Party game? Because there are a plethora of games. i Like I said, I'm fond of three. Particularly three, two, four, and five are like my favorites.
00:10:23
Speaker
Mario Party 1 is really good. But then when you go back and play Mario Party 1 after playing the other ones, you realize how... like broken some of the minigames are in Mario Party 1 and how unfair it is. It's like like the one versus three games, the one player, like the person who's by themselves, has the advantage in almost every single original Mario Party game.
00:10:43
Speaker
Like, it's so super easy for the one person to win. And, Hodge, you probably remember this. ah Midnight, you're right, my too. In Mario Party, the the games where you would spin with your... ah And you'd have the blister on your hand, and nintendo had to Nintendo had to send out the glove.
00:10:58
Speaker
And they're like, yeah, sorry. So then in all the future Mario Party games, they had no minigames like that. They would not allow that. But it's funny, because on the Nintendo Switch Online, there's a warning. If you have to rotate the control when you play Mario Party 1, if you're rotating the controls, please use your thumb.
00:11:13
Speaker
Did not do that. I still don't like this. like Freaking out, because have the tug-of-war game, and you have the... You have like the um one where you're on like a stationary bike, and you have to like light up a light bulb or boo will get you. It's just super fun.
00:11:27
Speaker
You got to use your hand. Oh, yeah, you have to. You got a lot more control and power and what and just versus just your thumb. Yeah. I'll never forget playing the original Mario Party and my sister's like having this giant blister like in the center of her hand.
00:11:40
Speaker
And she had to like go to like dance class. And like she was like doing like the, you know, like the poles, like it's like hold yourself up. And she like couldn't do because she had this giant blister. And her dance teacher got so mad at her.
00:11:51
Speaker
never forget that but yeah my go-to when i play mario party is yoshi i'm always yoshi if yoshi but of course i let everyone else pick first um if yoshi is taken i usually go with luigi and then if luigi's taken i go with my boy wario but um hi true do you like to play as in mario party um it depends i mean obviously it depends on which one it's we're playing uh because they have different characters these one but i'm usually a yoshi person i can't remember are there any that you can play a shy guy yeah mario party so mario party 6 they introduce shy guy and he's in like all the rest of them okay i always loved playing a shy guy um obviously toad is the leader so i never i played as toad in some mario karts but not
00:12:36
Speaker
party but he becomes yeah he becomes a playable character in mario party 5 so okay see mario party 5 was really cool because i had like so they had um like this they had um not bowser jr but it was like the last appearance of baby bowser like the last ever appearance because like like baby bowser and bowser jr different baby bowser is like bowser as a kid and bowser jr is like his son so you could actually play it it's a final ever appearance of baby bowser and i used to play as him all the time I freaking loved it in Mario Party 5.
00:13:07
Speaker
Oh, um speaking of Mario really quick, did you watch the trailer for the Mario Galaxy? Yeah. yeah Bowser Jr.'s voice is awesome. Yeah, it's great. i'm i don't I'm not a big fan of Brie Larson, but i like her her as Rosalina seems like a pretty good choice. But it yeah, it looks I'm excited for that movie. It looks awesome. i hope I really hope that they so they get rid of like the pop culture music in this one and just stick with like Mario soundtracks because...
00:13:34
Speaker
That was the worst part of the Mario movie. It was like when they get to DK country and fucking like take on me by Heya or whatever is playing. I'm like, what? Why are we? Or Aha, whatever their band's name. can't remember. Yeah, I was just like, what does this have to do with Mario? Just play Donkey Kong country music. Why? I hated that.
00:13:54
Speaker
But oh yeah, I'm excited for that movie. I am really excited to see Yoshi in the Mario movie, though, because like like I'm a huge Yoshi guy. So like I'm really excited for that. I hope he's voiced by Seth Rogen also.
00:14:09
Speaker
I don't even... Luckily, with Bonanza, they didn't put like Seth Rogen's voice on Donkey Kong, and Donkey Kong can't talk in the game, so I'm so glad they didn't do that, because that would have been an absolute nightmare.
Anticipation for the Mario Movie
00:14:20
Speaker
That would have been an absolute nightmare for me. I'm not watching Neighbors, I'm sorry. This is not Neighbors, this is Donkey Kong. Great movie. oh Neighbors is a great... oh they oh I remember seeing that movie in theaters with this girl i went on a date with, is the first date, and I'm like, this is a really awkward first date.
00:14:37
Speaker
Neighbors. but That's funny. no All right. And now I've been playing some ah great Mario Party. Midnight. I know you're not. yeah I don't even know. Have you ever played Mario Party? No.
00:14:47
Speaker
All right. full If you had to pick a Mario character you'd play as in Mario Party, who would you be? ah I don't know. I'd probably just be basic a pick like Luigi or something.
00:14:59
Speaker
you know Or maybe ah who's the purple one? Mario? Waluigi. Waluigi. Yeah, you know you know I like purple, so maybe Waluigi. yeah Yeah, fun fact about Waluigi's debut appearance is Mario Tennis, and then he appeared in Mario Party 3. He's only ever appeared in sports games and Mario Party games.
00:15:17
Speaker
Let's get a Waluigi game! Come on! Let's do it, man. I wonder if he'll get him in the movie eventually, like as a joke. No, they'll have like a silhouette of him and then it will be like, they'll reveal it and it won't be him.
00:15:29
Speaker
It'll be like a but like a practice yeah cactus. Yeah. um But yeah, so that's it. I'm playing Mario Party. Pretty good. I also, i mean, i I continue to play in the Outer Worlds and... Did you beat it?
00:15:44
Speaker
Pokemon. Yeah, i beat it, but I'm replaying it again because I want to get through all the trophies. But I'll talk about that. um i think I do. I think I do want to do a spoiler cast for the Outer Worlds, too. I think I do.
00:15:55
Speaker
Okay. I haven't started it yet. Yeah, if anyone's interested, you know, just let me know. And I definitely want to. And um I will be starting a replay of the entire Kingdom Hearts series over the month of December.
00:16:07
Speaker
I'm sorry to hear that What do you mean sorry? It's like peak, peak fiction. I'm just kidding. You know, I enjoy it's a joke. I enjoy making fun of Kingdom Hearts because it makes Australian Chris angry.
00:16:18
Speaker
But I love Austin Chris, though. Farts. One day I'll but I keep telling him he's like, he's like, man, play the game. I'm like, no, I keep telling him if they ever do a remake, like if they do a remake, you know, if the game doesn't need a remake.
00:16:31
Speaker
Well, I don't want to play the old one. I don't want to play it at all. The remake would just give me an excuse to finally break down that wall and try it. least i try well At least I tried Skyrim and hated it. I mean, you barely tried Skyrim. But look, Bucky's.
00:16:45
Speaker
The most wrinkled shirt. This shirt, I swear to God, is just permanently wrinkled. like I literally pull it right out of the dryer and it's wrinkled. I don't know what's up. I need an iron, I guess. This shirt hates me. But shout out. I'm still going to wear it even if it's wrinkled because it's Bucky's.
00:16:58
Speaker
Just for you. Oh, perfect. Thank you but One last thing, Hodge. Yeah. large favorite mario party mini game do you have one or you have like a memorable one well the one i always think of is the one where you stretch the mario oh facelift yeah i love fun fact i took a picture of that last night and sent it to my sister because that's her favorite game look what i'm playing um mine very unpopular opinion in Mario Party 2, Mario Party 5, and Mario Party Superstars, which is like the one where they released like all the old boards and everything.
00:17:28
Speaker
It you might remember this, Hodge, it's the game, it's completely chance-based game, where there's a giant Bowser bomb in the background, you have to and you pick which lever to push down, and it will either go, will either save, or of the levers will make it explode.
00:17:46
Speaker
I freaking love that game. I love that. That just reminded me of the one where you have to pump it without blowing a balloon. Oh, yeah, Mario. Yeah, I know. Yeah. I love that one, too. Rotate the A and Z on the N64 controller for that. Yeah.
00:17:59
Speaker
Yeah, that one is great. All right. Sean, you're satisfied there with your Mario parties? Yeah, my Mario parties. Of course I am.
00:18:10
Speaker
All right. ah Hodge, let's go ahead and go to you next. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the game that you're playing. What's been up with you?
Gaming Highlights: Ghost of Yote and Assassin's Creed
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm just playing. I mean, I. I was playing the, I'm not going to, don't even talk about too much, but the Simpsons Fortnite thing came out, which is awesome. But um other than that, I've been just playing through Ghost of Yote.
00:18:28
Speaker
I'm not, I will actually, I'm decently far, but I'm just so obsessed with doing side content that I'm not that far in the story. Like I've, I've opened up four of the five areas.
00:18:41
Speaker
So I've gotten, I've opened up four, but I haven't killed any of the OTA six other than obviously it's not a spoiler. The opening, you get one of them. And so I haven't killed any of the other ones yet, but I've just been doing so much side content, like upgrading my weapons and everything, finding out, you know, the altars and pillars and everything. And, um, the, the side stories of this game are much more interesting than the main story. I think like doing the, um,
00:19:08
Speaker
I don't know if you guys did the story of, ah what's it called? The, the crimson, whatever it's where you find the clothing of the, of the lady who like yeah murdered her abusive husband. Like, yeah, that one it's, that was such a cool story. And then finding it, the, the kimono. And now I've been wearing that ever since and doing side content like that has been much more interesting than the story. But again, this game is beautiful and the gameplay is so much fun. It just, especially playing this thing. Yeah. Like I said, last week,
00:19:39
Speaker
on On a Pro, on an OLED, the PS5 Pro on an OLED, this game is breathtaking to look at. So I'm really loving it. I still currently, obviously, I i haven't beaten it yet, so I can't make the complete judgment call, but I'm still more into the first one. I like Shuckler.
00:19:58
Speaker
ah Yeah, I know. I just thought this i thought the world and the characters were more interesting in the first one. ah And it made more sense in the first one of depending on what enemy you end up against, you change your stance and fighting style, whereas in this one you change your weapon. So you're like instantly switching between weapons. I'm like, that's a little less realistic, but yeah.
00:20:17
Speaker
I also preferred like the ghost power versus like the wolf power in this one. But yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll see when it's, when it's done. I've definitely, I'm loving it and I'm excited to platinum this one. Cause this is one of those where it's an unmissable platinum. So I will be ah just clearing the entire map to get it.
00:20:36
Speaker
And yeah, I'm loving it. So I'll have more to say by next time. I should have it finished. We'll see. But yeah, I'm loving it so far. Nice.
00:20:47
Speaker
Yeah, every game should have platinum design like this. like because This is the way to do a game. um I don't want to have to play the game ah a second time on New Game Plus on Nightmare Difficulty. And I don't want to have to go through and and and collect 137 very easy to miss little collectibles throughout the map. Like, no.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yeah, let's just give everyone a trophy. Let's do it. And you still have to earn it. You 100% the game. You clear the entire map. Yeah. you know Okay, i showed up I showed up to school every single day. I should get trophy.
00:21:17
Speaker
Yeah, you should. no and is a Perfect attendance is good. It's a freaking joke. That should be the standard. Yeah. it Should be the standard, Sean. What if they get 104 degree fever and they have to miss a day?
00:21:30
Speaker
Okay. that's That's called excused absence. When you have a doctor's note, you know it's called the excused absence. Yeah, it's true. It doesn't count against your attendance. That's true. um All right. So, yeah, Sean, do you have any thoughts on ghosts there?
00:21:43
Speaker
Game's awesome. I really like it. I actually do like the first one a little bit better, but the side content freaking awesome and the game is gorgeous. yeah Yeah, it's a work of art. as As the freaking annoying kids say, it's cinema.
00:21:56
Speaker
ah I hate Gen Z and their stupid phrases like that, but that game is cinema. I'm telling you, they don't say that. ah Maybe the maybe the the younger, younger kids your age no longer say that.
00:22:08
Speaker
No, they all say it's Sigma. Sigma? say Sigma? They Sigma. what else and Oh my god, they say Sigma. oh I don't even want to get into it.
00:22:19
Speaker
Did they used to say Cinema couple years ago? or No. Alright, well i'm watching ah I'm watching Survivor and it's like a bunch of these Gen Z. They're like 20 year olds. And they're all like, it's Cinema, man. Your vibes, man. Your energy. It's just so annoying.
00:22:32
Speaker
You're also watching Survivor, which is like those guys are like not the typical um that's true people, I think. I should go on Survivor. That's what I should do. You should, Sean. You could win a million dollars.
00:22:44
Speaker
and sweet yeah I'd be the guy who like goes there and gets voted off first. Sean's already won million dollars. Sean, everyone love you. I'd be trying to make fire. be sitting there trying to make fire the whole time. be like...
00:22:57
Speaker
ah I'm telling anyone who is a Survivor fan or wants to get into Survivor, you need to check out the greatest season of all time, and it's Australian Survivor. Which season? Heroes versus villains. Okay, that's a great season. Okay, I watched Survivor up until...
00:23:12
Speaker
The pandemic year, the final, the the winners, winners at war. was the last one I watched. You saw the Australian one? Yeah, I've seen them. I've seen season one, two winners at war. King George.
00:23:22
Speaker
So the first time i watched Survivor was like, like i was it was season three. Mm-hmm. um I was like, and it used to be appointment television for our family every Thursday night. It was because it used to be on on Thursdays. It was appointment television.
00:23:36
Speaker
And I remember season three, they had this, the final four, well, the final four or final five. that They had this Seppi who ended up winning. They had this guy named Sean. I was rooting for him. I really wanted him to win.
00:23:47
Speaker
He screwed up in the end though. He really screwed up. And then they had and the next season they had fireman Tom. i remember him fireman Tom. And they had this guy who fricking blew, I forget his name, but in the final three challenge, he got off the thing and said, Oh, take the other guy.
00:24:02
Speaker
You don't need to take me to the finals. What is wrong with you? What a loser. Who does that? I would screw so many people over in that game. I'd be lying to everyone. I'd be the anti me in real life. I'd be like, I wouldn't tell anyone anything about me. I I'd lie, but I'd like to lie about everyone.
00:24:18
Speaker
And then, Here's the perfect – so I really side-changing about Survivor. I also do a bought a basketball podcast, and they're like big Survivor fans too. Like they're huge Survivor guys, and they have like their own – they have like a side Survivor podcast. I used to listen to that too.
00:24:32
Speaker
They said the best strategy for Survivor is to be like, oh, when someone comes up to you and goes, oh, who we voting for? You just go, we're voting for you, obviously. And then you're like, oh, yeah, we're not really – and then you really vote him off.
00:24:45
Speaker
What are your thoughts about King George? you like King George? No. I love King George. Me and Locke love him. Is he too evil for you? Yeah. two who's your favorite hey really Who's your favorite? Is that your favorite Star Trek character of all time?
00:24:56
Speaker
Yes. ah I'm not as big of a Survivor fan as you, it sounds like, because I haven't seen every season at all. I've seen one through 40. That's it. I've only seen, that I think, I've seen two episodes, or two seasons, rather, of Australian Survivor.
00:25:08
Speaker
I saw Heroes vs. Villains, and then I saw the one that they just did, which was Australia vs. World, which was pretty cool. um And then on you know, normal American Survivor, I've probably only seen maybe like eight, 8 to 10, like, random seasons throughout.
00:25:21
Speaker
But I do enjoy it. Winners at War, season 40. Okay. Unbelievable. And what was crazy about that is they were filming it. They were filming it, and then COVID happened.
00:25:33
Speaker
And it was, like, so weird watching it, like, during co like during that March 2020. It was so weird because, like, they were it was like it was like real life. for them Everything was normal for them.
00:25:44
Speaker
And then, like, we're just, like, cooped up. Yeah, that was awesome. I'm going watch it. It was freaking good. Shout out to Boston Rob. Freaking love that guy. Yeah, one of the all-time greats from your stomping grounds. yeah Yeah.
00:25:57
Speaker
Shout out to him. You should go on a Survivor or Big Brother. i Okay, so I used to be ah really weird. I watched Big Brother too. Used to be a huge Big Brother guy. like i watched That was another appointment. telling like Season one, up until I went to college, i used to watch Big Brother all the time.
00:26:13
Speaker
um And I'll never forget one of the one of the last seasons I watched it was Asian woman named Helen on it. and she used to like get up at like 3 a.m and like walk the treadmill at like 3 a.m i'll never forget that they just show her she'd be like walking the treadmill i would love to go on big brother the last season i watched though there was so much controversy because it was like those two like girls who are making like extremely racist comments like it was so bad and like they had do people not realize like the live feeds are going 24 7 like it was like really bad and't I don't think I remember that on those shows. there was a yeah
00:26:50
Speaker
There was one challenge where they had to like, ah like they had to like eat ice cream out of like, like, it was who could eat like the most ice cream? And this one girl was like, I was like a soft serve dispenser thing. and she was like, had her like, she put like her mouth on it. She was shoving ice cream. I remember that. Yeah.
00:27:04
Speaker
God, I would love to go on one of those shows. Just like go. Do it. Do it. um All right. Well, there you go. Games over plastic, a reality TV podcast. There you go.
00:27:16
Speaker
i like reality TV. um I only really watch Survivor and Big Brother, though. used to Those used to be in my I used to freaking love it. I don't watch anything anymore. i just watch yeah and What I like about reality TV is it's just completely dumb, mindless entertainment. Like it requires no brainpower at all from you.
00:27:32
Speaker
So if you're burnt out from a really long, hard day at work or whatever, you just, you know, you don't want even focus on playing a video game. You can just turn that on, completely shut your brain off and just have fun for like an hour, you know, and that's it. It fills a nice niche in that way.
00:27:45
Speaker
It's good. Yeah, but that's why i watch that's why i just like re-watch Parks and Rec and The Office and The League and Community and stuff like that. That's what I do to turn my brain off. I don't watch reality TV. That's very other similar, you know great, mindless entertainment. I need to watch Parks and Rec still because I've only seen The Office, of course, but I haven't seen Parks and Rec. so I need to.
00:28:05
Speaker
You guys keep seeing a flash. occur you God damn it. still doing No, don't see it. Your camera's not picking it up. I don't see it. Oh, okay. Because I keep seeing like a flash on my thing. So that's my little Christmas decoration. I keep seeing a flash. It must just be on my.
00:28:17
Speaker
Yeah, i don't I don't see it. Okay. So before we move on last thing. So when I make my audition tape or whatever the heck they do now, we got to do something with like, i need i need I need some superior editing skills here. And I need it large to do something.
00:28:32
Speaker
Hodge is your man. he You know how my job title will be? young You know how then when they do they do like the you know they talk to them individually? Instead of saying teacher below my name, I'll say Sean Mason, Games Over Plastic. That's all we'll say.
00:28:44
Speaker
No context whatsoever, though. ah that's all no got People won't even know it's a podcast. They'll just say Games Over were Plastic and be like, what? I love it.
00:28:54
Speaker
Dude, I'm so serious. You should apply because it would be amazing seeing villain Sean on TV, dude. You might even win. You never know. All right, let's ah let's bring it back to games here.
00:29:04
Speaker
ah So Ghost of Yote, Hodge, and a little bit of Fortnite. That's for you. Anything else you wanted to mention? Or... No, I'm good. All right. Let me get into my games here. So I did finally finish ah Assassin's Creed Syndicate.
00:29:19
Speaker
I beat this game. I thought it was pretty good. I did enjoy it. It does rank near the bottom of my Assassin's Creed games, though. It's in like the bottom three or four. um i just don't think it's as good as some of the other ones.
00:29:30
Speaker
um The setting, I wasn't a massive fan of the setting and the traversal. and Also, I thought it was the worst traversal. um in the game. Now, a lot of people probably like because they gave you basically like a grappling hook so you can grappling hook from roof to roof and kind of quickly get around and that's cool and I do like that but for some reason when they implemented that they broke the normal free flow like traversal like they made it needlessly more complicated like instead of just holding down like the right trigger or two or whatever to run through the roof.
00:29:58
Speaker
Like you have to literally like press a different button if you want to go down or press a different but button if you want to go up. And if you don't press the button or press it quick enough, like your character will just stop. And it kind of like breaks the free throw flow and the fun of the traversal.
00:30:11
Speaker
um But it was still fine. I mean, it was good. You could climb and get around. um You could actually like steal buggies like GTA style and and drive them around, which I did a fair amount since the traversal itself wasn't as good.
00:30:23
Speaker
um So that was cool. But overall, i mean, this was a good game. I like the characters. Jacob and Evie were both awesome. um And, you know, good good good story, good characters. Just the setting wasn't quite as good for me. You know, it's this industrial revolution London. Everything's real smoky and dirty. And yes, that is authentic and grounded.
00:30:43
Speaker
um But I personally would prefer to see like a bright, vibrant thing like, you know, the Greek islands and Odyssey or or even Japan and shadows, like just kind kind of like a cooler setting, cleaner setting.
00:30:54
Speaker
But it was still a good game, even though I sound like i'm hating on. I still had fun. Like I like almost all Assassin's Creed. This is just one of the lower tier ones for me. To me, I feel like the setting, because it takes place in like the late 1800s in London, right? by the way yeah That feels like it's like too late for an Assassin's Creed game to me.
00:31:13
Speaker
like I feel like it needs to be like at the latest, Assassin's Creed 3 was like the Revolutionary War, right? like That to me is like the latest it could be. And I love 3. I think 3 is a sleeper hit.
00:31:25
Speaker
sleeperhead But also, I'm a huge Revolutionary War fan, so I love that setting. George Cornwall, right? Cornwallis? Yeah, Cornwallis was a great general. The Battle of Trenton?
00:31:38
Speaker
Cornwallis, of course, was the British general who surrendered to end, well, to essentially end the war. um was But it was yeah yeah it wasn't completely his fault, though, because he was pleading to um the other general who was the commander in chief, who I'm forgetting his name right now. Howe, I think, right? General Howe.
00:31:56
Speaker
um He was pleading to General Howe, like, yo they're coming here. You need to send me aid. You need to send me aid. You need to send me aid. And the dude never sent him any aid. So it's like, what do you want them to He eventually had to surrender. um But anyway. Shout out to the Battle of Trenton. Did a project on it in fifth grade with this kid. He did absolutely nothing. And during the presentation, I told him exactly what to say and what to do. And he freaking screwed it up.
00:32:18
Speaker
Awesome. Battle of Trenton. Shout out to Assassin's Creed. I love Assassin's Creed. you know All right, Sean, after I beat Syndicate, I decided that it was time for some Weebery because I had not played Weebery in a
Tales of Arise and Other Game Opinions
00:32:34
Speaker
while. I've been playing quite a Western games back to back to back to back.
00:32:38
Speaker
And I thought, you know, we need to get some Weebery in here for Sean. um So I picked up on a nice little sale. Tales of Arise. Of course, this is the newest Tales game, not to be confused with Trails.
00:32:49
Speaker
I'm not talking about Trails. I'm talking about Tales of Arise. This game came out, what, like three years ago or something, Sean? um And it is pretty good. i finally I got the Beyond the Dawn edition, which has the cool-looking DLC in it as well It was like $19. I was like a great deal lowest price I had seen on that edition in a long time because I had it in my wish list on both Steam and PlayStation So I picked it up and I got to say this game is awesome I really like this game dude like this is the first JRPG that has thoroughly grabbed me in quite a while
00:33:21
Speaker
um I love the characters. I love the voice acting. I love the setting. I love the story. The combat is also very fun. Like there's just nothing really wrong with this game. I'm having a lot of fun. um I'm immersed.
00:33:33
Speaker
um I'm invested in the story. Every single character is awesome. Like all of them. I love them. I'm also excited to play the DLC later because from the trailers and stuff of that, it seems like this new DLC character seems pretty cool and there's some cool drama going on with that.
00:33:47
Speaker
um So I'm looking forward. I'm going to play this game fully. I'm not going to platinum it because not going that. ah But, you know, I'm going to beat this game and I'm going to beat the DLC and I really like it. I think this is great. This is the first Tales game that I've really played, and I'm excited to maybe play ah ah different Tales game later in the future.
00:34:07
Speaker
ah Sean, did you played this one, right? Yeah, highly I like Tales of Rye. It's not in like my top of the Tales games, but i think it I think it's good. I think it gets a little too much hate. A lot of people are like, oh, it's not there it's not anywhere close to the good Tales games. I think it's much closer to the good Tales games than the bad ones.
00:34:23
Speaker
i think the I think the combat is freaking awesome in Tales of Rye. Um, and I think the setting is awesome. I think, I think the whole world is just gorgeous. i haven't played it since it came out. It's 2021.
00:34:34
Speaker
But I, I remember, um, like loving it when I played it. It was what I remember. It was one of the, um, like first games that I really like freaking loved when I like, after buying my house, like I remember playing it like right after i bought my house and be like, this game is freaking awesome.
00:34:50
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it it is awesome. The characters are great. Like, I love the main character. um iron I'm just going call him Iron Mask because that's ah that's his name at the start. um And Shion, of course, is is an awesome an awesome waifu, if you will, as they like to say. She's great. But all of the characters that you meet later are also great. Like, there's not one that I'm like, oh, this character sucks. They're all interesting. They're all cool.
00:35:13
Speaker
um Like them a lot. The combat is very Final Fantasy 16-esque. So if you're a Final Fantasy 16 fan, Tales of Arise might be something you're into. Most of the Tales games are like that. But I think Arise ah rise is closer to 16, but Tales games are much like that, the combat-wise.
00:35:29
Speaker
and um yeah Shout out to... You said you like Shion. Wait till you play Kingdom Hearts and you meet Shion in Kingdom Hearts. There's a Shion in Kingdom Hearts too. Oh, she's one of the most crucial characters.
00:35:41
Speaker
ah Yeah. Yeah. ah the The Shion in Arise is awesome, though. I love her character. I'm in love with her. No, just kidding. She's fake, but she is awesome. Now, ah Sean,
00:35:52
Speaker
Since I'm liking these Tales, what is the best Tales game for me to play in the future? are You said it before, but you know forget. Exilia, which just came out. The remasters came out. Ooh, okay. All right. And hopefully they release Exilia 2 because think usually the Tales games don't have direct sequels. Exilia 2 is actually a direct sequel to it, um and it's freaking awesome. Those two games are freaking unbelievable.
00:36:14
Speaker
I feel bad because Exilia 2 kind of got like – kind of forgotten because it came out after the PS4 came out, and put it was on PS3. So it's like, ugh.
00:36:25
Speaker
But it's they're both so good. I like, Exilia is my favorite one. It's a top 10 game for me um when we did our top 10 games. um But yeah, I would say definitely play Exilia. yeah I don't know what it is about Weebery, but Weeb games lately have not been grabbing me. Like one thing I didn't really mention on this show is I actually tried multiple Weeb games and dropped them.
00:36:46
Speaker
Like I tried ah Metaphor Re-Fantasia, got bored and dropped it. um I tried the Rune Factory Guardians of Asma, got bored, dropped it. I told you weren't like it. I told you weren't going like that one. Yeah, you did. um And also I tried, of course, I did the demo of ah Trails in the Sky and I did kind of like that, but not enough for me to keep playing it.
00:37:04
Speaker
So like all these games, I've kind of bounced off a little bit, like there's been something about them that hasn't gripped me. But Tales of Arise has fully gripped me. Like, I love everything about it. Like, this is a great game. um And Sean, just for you, I am going to play at Tales of Azealia or whatever, the remake.
00:37:19
Speaker
Azealia. I'll put that down in my list. That will be the next Tales game I play at some point in the future. So. It's great. All right. ah Hodge, I know you love the Tales series. You got any thoughts on that? Oh, yeah. I can can't say enough about the series. I don't.
00:37:33
Speaker
I'm happy you're enjoying it. I don't know anything about it, though. All right. I haven't beaten the game yet. um I am at I have ah just finished the third area ah where you meet a a lord who is a bit nicer.
00:37:48
Speaker
Hodge, I will tell you this. Tales of Arise, 17th mainline game of the Tales series. 17th. Jesus Christ. That's crazy. I want to play Braceria at one point, even though, Sean, I know you're not a huge fan. now not at um But I think it looks cool, and I've heard good things about the dark themes.
00:38:07
Speaker
I think the Tales games, I think you would like most of the Tales games, because to me, like they're JRPGs, but to me, the way they play, I feel like they play a lot more like not They don't play like other JRPGs.
00:38:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. um It has more of a Western feel, but with a JRPG setting. Which is why I think you might like Ys. Like the Ys series, like the other non-trills. I beat Ys VIII, which is supposed to be one of the best ones, and I just thought it was alright. Play Ys X. Play Ys X. I'm waiting for Ys X Proud Nordics, like the definitive edition.
00:38:40
Speaker
Yeah, the proud one, yeah. um Okay. Any other thoughts on Tails before I move on to my next game, Sean? No, because you're going to I'm going to talk about a game here. so um I did last night, after I got done running my mom all around the world, um I got on with my boy Debo, ah Notorious DLB, who was featured on our Call of Duty spoiler cast, joined myself and Hodge.
00:39:06
Speaker
um Check that out if you haven't yet. hodgen Hodge, Debo, and I... We all got together and we ranked all of the Call of Duty games from worst to best from COD 4. So 18 games up.
00:39:18
Speaker
And it was pretty interesting. So if you're a COD fan, check out our DLC.
Disappointment with Call of Duty Black Ops 7
00:39:22
Speaker
um But yeah, I got on with DLB last night and played a little bit of the brand new Call of Duty Black Ops 7.
00:39:29
Speaker
We got on. I played for a couple hours. And I got to say... Not a huge fan. So ah neither of us were super feeling it. We were like, first of all, ah you know, the the frickin Trojan horse that they used to get me even interested in this was their talk about no skill based matchmaking or greatly reduced skill based matchmaking.
00:39:48
Speaker
I couldn't tell a difference. It felt extremely sweaty. I was getting I was getting shit on in a lot of these lobbies. um It just it felt really tough. The real problem with this game is the same problem with the last game. It's the damn movement.
00:40:00
Speaker
That omnidirectional movement that they have is back in this, and it's even worse because people can now bounce off walls. So people can like get super high in the air and move really fast. And anytime you have a shooter where the movement is not predictable, that makes for a not fun experience, in my opinion, because it makes it too difficult to kind of pre-aim and keep up with the action. And it's just I don't enjoy that.
00:40:21
Speaker
So... I'm not going to drop black ops seven yet. Um, but it's probably not going to stick around for very long and I didn't buy it. Um, I checked it out on game pass because I thought that this would happen. Like I thought that I wouldn't like it.
00:40:35
Speaker
Um, so I said like, if the game is good, if I actually really liked the game, then I would spend $70 and pick it up on PlayStation. Um, just so i could play it on the pro and natively with my friends cause they're on PlayStation. Um, but yeah,
00:40:48
Speaker
I don't, neither of us are super feeling it so far. um Have either of you tried it at all? yeah
00:40:56
Speaker
ah No, I am not going to touch this game. And after seeing that, clip that short clip from the campaign yesterday that someone shared on discord, I am very happy in my decision to not fucking ever come near this game. It looks terrible. I didn't, so I didn't see the clip.
00:41:10
Speaker
Oh God. I was so busy yesterday. I'll, I'll, I'll send it to you. It, Oof. Oof. I'm going to, the only thing I'll say about Call of Duty is I'm really disappointed that you guys didn't have Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified. The Vita game is your number one Call of Duty game.
00:41:30
Speaker
yeah. Wait, I forgot that game even existed. That wasn't even in our list. We just did the mainline. Yeah, I know that. I know that. I know. It was just funny. I never played it, so. oh you didn't play it? Oh, God, no. Yeah, I know. It could have been good.
00:41:42
Speaker
Could have been good. I think that Call of Duty mobile game is actually pretty good, but I don't play it because it's on mobile. ah But it's I think that is kind of like it's got all the classic maps and stuff. So that's cool. um All right. Well, that is what I've been playing. So Syndicate was beaten. Tales of Arise, not beaten, but loving it.
00:41:59
Speaker
Black Ops 7, kind of trash so far. um Hodge, Ghost of Yotei, and Sean, Mario Parties. So are we all satisfied with our what we're playing here? For sure. Indeed. All right. Now we have a write-in. Sean. And before we do that, we're going pause it because i have to go to the bathroom.
00:42:14
Speaker
We're going to pause it. All right. We're back. So we have a write-in. And of course, Sean, you are the write-in master.
Favorite Game Genres - Listener Question
00:42:21
Speaker
All right. this is I rewrote it a little bit because no offense to whoever wrote this in. I don't know if it was autocorrect or whatever. It didn't really make a lot of sense. So I kind of wrote it to sound better.
00:42:31
Speaker
David Hutchinson. All right, this is from David Hutchinson, and this he says... Was it Hutchinson or Hutchins? Hutchins. Oh, Hutchins, sorry. Sorry, I apologize.
00:42:42
Speaker
What are your top game genres? hodro i think um All right, so our top game genre. I think mine's pretty obvious. I think we can all say but can all say mine on the count of three.
00:42:53
Speaker
One, two, three. Party games. JRPGs. JRPGs, yes, JRPGs. Yeah, JRPGs are my favorite. was going to joke through saying something else, but couldn't think of anything. No, JRPGs are my favorite. I followed by like, I don't know, like 3D platformers, 2D platformers.
00:43:11
Speaker
Those are like probably my my bread and butter right there. Those three.
00:43:16
Speaker
ah What's mine, guys? Can you guess? Western RPGs. Well, yeah, but I was just going to First person shooters. but Yeah, Western. So, yeah, I love RPGs as everybody who listens to this podcast knows by far and away like 80% my game.
00:43:31
Speaker
loves is RPGs and then the other 20% is filled up with, you know, some sports games, some shooters and some random stuff. um But I absolutely love an RPG as you know, Hodge Indies.
00:43:43
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, if I had to say what my like number one is, it would probably just be like action adventure, just kind of the back genre, but obviously platformers and Indies are huge to me. But I think if I had to choose like the number one, would probably be action adventure.
00:43:59
Speaker
like i would I wouldn't consider indie genre. I think i think the games, all indie games, they'd be like saying like, oh, well, you know, like Shovel Knight is the same as um that AI slot game. What remains of Edith Finch. Yeah, exactly. It's completely different.
00:44:12
Speaker
Indies is not a genre. As soon as I said that, I was like, oh. Yeah, like people know i like I love walking sims. That's kind of what I think of when I think of indie. Obviously, there's way more to it, but walking sims and like storytelling ones, those are kind of what I think of when I think indie.
00:44:25
Speaker
But yeah, I love I love obviously that kind of i love storytelling in games. ah Honestly, we should do an episode just like straight up gameplay versus storytelling, like kind of what we prefer in games or something like that someday. But Yeah, I kind of...
All-Time Favorite Game Studios
00:44:41
Speaker
I like that. but as everyone yeah If you listen to the shows, you you can tell what what games that ah the three of us and today's topic will help us, people understand the types of games that we're obsessed with. so Yeah, and I want you to... If you want to write in, you can leave a comment on YouTube. You can direct message me on...
00:45:03
Speaker
Discord, Instagram, Twitter, whatever wherever you can find me. Just let me know and i will we will um we'll figure it out. We'll put it in. Thanks for thanks for the writing. end now Also, tell us your favorite genres. Everyone tell us your favorite genres.
00:45:16
Speaker
um If you were to ask me this 20 years ago, it still would be JRPGs and 2D and platformers, but I would throw that and that's sports games in there used play a lot of sports games, not including Mario Baseball. I consider that.
00:45:28
Speaker
that's just That's not sports. That's just like Pete Gaiman. Yoshi. Second baseman, Yoshi. I thought Yoshi was in the outfield. No, Yoshi's second base, Diddy Kong shortstop. That's my my dynamic. Who's in the outfield?
00:45:42
Speaker
for For my team and my outfield? Well, it depends. you got you know if you If you want a strong arm in the outfield, you throw DK in right field because he's got a cannon for an arm. And he's like kind of like, for my baseball fans, are he's kind of like Joey Gallo. He either hits a home run or he strikes out.
00:45:56
Speaker
ah Yeah. Circa Adam Dunn 2010. Yeah. All right. All right. Cool. So that was the write-in. Thank you, David Hutchins, for your write-in. And as Sean said, give us write-ins, please, people.
00:46:09
Speaker
um Let's go ahead and transition to our main topic of discussion. ah For this episode, we are going to be discussing our favorite game studios. And I think we agreed that we were doing all-time, right?
00:46:20
Speaker
Yes. All right. So our all-time favorite game studios, we're going to five studios each. The order is going to go Sean, Midnight, Hodge. So, Sean, why don't you take us away with your number five, I guess.
00:46:32
Speaker
All right. So my number five favorite gaming studio. Now, this is going to be a throwback studio here. So that kind of I kind of organized it as like I have like a throwback studio. I have like a current studio.
00:46:48
Speaker
I have a current couple of current studios I have. One that um I like love a lot of their older games. I really don't like a lot of their games now. But for my throwback studio, we're going with the original THQ.
00:47:01
Speaker
That's where we're going with the original THQ. As many, ah many people know who listen to this show and just people in general in my life, you know I am a sucker for those... um You know, early 2000s to late 2000s, licensed Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, all those licensed games.
00:47:20
Speaker
And TSQ had their, like, they had their name all over these games. um You know, all those Nickelodeon games that brought up, like Rock Power Beach Bandits, those Scooby-Doo games, the but um Nick teams unite all those Nickelodeon games. That was THQ guys.
00:47:41
Speaker
And that's why I like freaking love THQ. And on top of that, they had so many other games too, not just licensed games. Like they made some really, really good games. Um, ah do you guys have any fondness for THQ back in the day before they, um, you know, kind of went under.
00:47:57
Speaker
I got to say, I can't think of specific games, but I do remember countless times growing up seeing that THQ logo during a game boot up. I can't I can't think of what exactly they made, but I know I've seen that logo enough to know that I would definitely respect that.
00:48:11
Speaker
Destroy all humans. Yeah, I know THC was the publisher, maybe the developer. I don't know of ah my favorite you know wrestling game, the WCW versus NWO games. Those were THQ back in the day and they were great.
00:48:24
Speaker
um So yeah, like like Hodge, you know of course I've seen that logo a lot, but I can't really think of a ton of games that I was just like, yeah. But I'm sure they exist. They had so many games. They had their name in so many things.
00:48:35
Speaker
Like any, basically any licensed movie game, you probably had them. They created like the, the um like all the sports games for like, um platform like um for like handheld. So like Madden on like the Game Boy was by them.
00:48:50
Speaker
um yeah all those wwe wwf games um mtv um sports games yeah ton of games so many good games i really like mainly for like i said those licensed nintendo those licensed nickeloneon um and cartoon network games but yeah thq what a game what a studio all right good pick yeah All right.
00:49:17
Speaker
So I'm up. Let me go ahead and give my number five here. And for my number five, um I'll give you a hint here. It it starts with an I. Can you guess? Sean?
00:49:28
Speaker
An I? Studio that starts with I. Insomniac. Insomniac. Wrong. So my number five is Intelligent Systems.
00:49:39
Speaker
Oh, okay. Fire Emblem. Intelligent Systems, of course, known for Fire Emblem as well as Paper Mario and stuff. Although I haven't really played much, if any, they do but I want to. How's the new doing?
00:49:50
Speaker
Yeah. So I love Intelligent Systems because I love Fire Emblem. I love, you know, the game all the games that I have played. I've played now, I think, four or so of them, and I'm excited to play a lot more of them.
00:50:00
Speaker
um So Fire Emblem is awesome. You guys know I talk about it all the time. It's one of my favorite games series of all time, and I will be playing all future ones and eventually catch up to the old ones, too. So shout out to Intelligent Systems, ah one of the Nintendo owned studios. They are amazing.
00:50:16
Speaker
um In my opinion, they need to stop making games that aren't Fire Emblem. But yeah. ah Sean will disagree, of course, because they make other awesome games, too. cause I mean, yeah, they they co-developed a lot of games as well. like They helped out with like all the WarioWare games they were co-developers on. A lot of those, um like they do a lot of like like puzzle games as well. like A lot of those Nintendo puzzle games, like ah like the Pokemon Puzzle Challenge game, like they made Pokemon Puzzle N64 game they made.
00:50:43
Speaker
um Like, a lot of those early and NES puzzle games, like, Wario's Woods, Yoshi's Cookie, they were all a part of that. Tetris Attack, Pushmo, they did the Pushmo games as well.
00:50:53
Speaker
um But, yeah, no, that's a great it's a great pick. They're not online just because, like, I really like Paper Mario. The Paper Mario 1000-Year Door, the original Paper Mario game, like, I really, really like that.
00:51:05
Speaker
But, like, outside of those, it's been, like, Fire Emblem, um... Three Houses. Three Houses. Yeah, why couldn't I think of the name for second? Fire Emblem Three Houses. Their first couple of WarioWare games. But other than that, I'm not big on them.
00:51:18
Speaker
But that's a great studio. You should play Awakening sometime, somehow. It's on 3DS. Yeah, dust off your 3DS and play it. That game is so peak, so awesome.
00:51:31
Speaker
All right. Hodge, you're up. Yes, I have three honorable mentions, but I'll just say them at the end. But first up, I have one that doesn't exist anymore. And so I'll do that at number five.
00:51:44
Speaker
And that is Neversoft. this game or this studio. Yeah. So Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero and the Spider-Man game that I talked about last week on our podcast.
00:51:57
Speaker
license game episode yeah i never saw just that eyeball logo i it's just so ingrained in my brain from being a child i played tony hawk obsessively in ah high school i played guitar hero obsessively and obviously as a kid i played that spider-man game constantly uh to the point where actually spider-man was one of the characters in one of the tony hawk games where he was unlockable character so it's darth maul Yeah, Darth Maul and then the the fat cop and everything. Yeah, it was it was I loved Neversoft. And obviously they went they went belly up about 11 years ago, I think. So they don't exist anymore. But ah yeah, so that's that's my probably of my favorite of studios that like just straight up doesn't exist anymore. I love loved Neversoft and they hold a special place in my heart from my childhood. So, yeah, I love Neversoft.
00:52:49
Speaker
All right. Awesome. I don't really have much to add to that other than, you know, if you're an Eversoft for more than four hours, consult a doctor. So tips and tricks, people.
00:53:01
Speaker
Sean, you're up, sir. All right. So next up for me, this, if you asked me this like 10 years ago, it definitely probably would have been higher on this. Maybe not, maybe not 10, maybe like 12, 13 years ago.
00:53:14
Speaker
um But that is anyone want to take guess? ah It is a Nintendo... well part Partially Nintendo. Nintendo EAD.
00:53:25
Speaker
Game Freak? Yes, Game Freak. yes Game Freak is up there. Which is like the Pokemon company too. so like Game Freak is my next one. so They are in charge of all those Pokemon games. And that crazy game that we got announced like I think earlier this year that like everyone when they saw Game Freak they were like, what is this? yeah They're making this and they can't make a Pokemon game look like this?
00:53:46
Speaker
And it kind of just goes to show you what's holding... what's holding the Pokemon games back is probably not Game Freak. It's probably more the Pokemon Company. Yeah. But yeah, they had like, I mean, Game Freak has so many like great, like obviously Pokemon games.
00:54:02
Speaker
They started before Pokemon, they did like um Mario and Oreo, which is like a SNES puzzle game. ah They did the original Yoshi game, which is also a puzzle game, but then they really found their niche with Pokemon red and green in Japan. And that kind of just took off from there. And then,
00:54:18
Speaker
After that, they kind of became the de facto Pokemon studio up until they released this game called, I actually got it. I remember because I saw the Game Freak logo. I was like, whoa, it was called Drill Dozer on the Game Boy Advance. And that was pretty fun.
00:54:29
Speaker
um Very similar to um like the WarioWare Twisted at the time where you had to like move the Game Boy to actually like move things. it was very, very like pre-DS like moving the, thing but then i remember they created in 2013 it was like their first non-pokémon game in eight years pocket card jockey for the 3ds and i actually really really liked it and you had to like buy like these like um like these like trading cards from this guy who would sell stuff and like you could like bet on horse racing in the game it was pretty funny i'm betting you know me yeah it goes hand in hand but um yeah like so many of the pokemon games we all know how much i love pokemon so it's like um
00:55:06
Speaker
Obviously, this was going to be on my list. Pokemon is a very special place in my heart. And that game that just got announced by them, it's called Beasts of Reincarnation. It is the first game they're releasing that will not release for...
00:55:20
Speaker
um other than mobile-only games, not on an Nintendo console. Beast of Reincarnation was what it was called. Yeah. What's that? It's coming to what? Xbox, PlayStation, and PC? Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
00:55:33
Speaker
Yeah, 2026. If Xbox is still around, it probably will be. No console wars here. yeah Yeah. But yeah, no game freak. I like, love them. Shout out to Pokemon games. Go out. If you've not played any of the generation three, four or five games, please go play them.
00:55:50
Speaker
Please, please. Those are just like peak Pokemon. Shout out to my boy, Polly Toad. Awesome. I have nothing to add for game freak. Cause I'm not a massive Pokemon. Hodge, you want to say anything before we move? Yeah, I just, I hope one day Pokemon can be at the quality that it should be for as big as it is. So like,
00:56:07
Speaker
Like i've what i've I've said ad nauseum about how I feel about modern Pokemon games, but I hope one day can, because like everyone knows silver and yellow are two of my favorite games of all time. I love, love, love those games as kids. So I would love to see game freak be great again, not,
00:56:23
Speaker
what they're doing now. So. oge Mr. Christmas, you you missed a great opportunity. said silver and gold. Silver and gold. You missed it. We had it and we let him off the hook.
00:56:34
Speaker
Dude. Anytime someone says silver and gold, I start singing. that Yeah, me too. so Of course. All right. Oh, one second. Okay. Alarm silenced.
00:56:45
Speaker
All right. So I'm up. yeah My number four is going to be Rockstar. So I'm going to take Rockstar here. want be a Rockstar. don't know why i said take them. Other people can as well. but yeah So Rockstar, yeah, amazing. And I'm going to cheat here, and I'm going to claim all of Rockstar for this pick instead of splitting them up. Like, ooh, Rockstar North versus San Diego, like I did in the draft. no But then we ended up giving away all Rockstar anyway. want to be Rockstar.
00:57:10
Speaker
Yeah. Excuse me. Rockstar is incredible as we all know. um Who doesn't love Grand Theft Auto and who doesn't love Red Dead? Two amazing, well, yeah. was going say one third of this ah this podcast. Red Dead Redemption 1 is an amazing... I love that game so much.
00:57:28
Speaker
but Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 are both masterpieces, as are um every GTA after Vice City. So Vice City, San Andreas, 4, 5, and... GTA 2, GTA 2, GTA London, the top-down games.
00:57:42
Speaker
do GTA Chinatown Wars on DS. who Game was freaking awesome. Yeah, Rockstar is awesome. Everybody loves to sweat Bully. I thought Bully was kind of mid, but I didn't beat it. I didn't beat it. I got bored.
00:57:54
Speaker
um But yeah, I mean, Rockstar is just awesome. They make bangers. I can't wait for GTA 6, of course. It's going to be great. um I even enjoyed it. Even though I hate it, I hate that this existed because of what it did. ah GTA Online. GTA Online, I hate that it exists, but I can't lie that me and my brother had a lot of fun. and running businesses and doing stuff on there for a while.
00:58:12
Speaker
Speaking of ah GTA Online, I decided I'm gonna quit every game I play and just go and play GTA Online from now on. That's all I'm gonna do is play GTA Online. I'm gonna role play in it. I'm gonna own a gas station. I'm gonna get people gas. They're pay me. It's gonna be great.
00:58:26
Speaker
That's my lifelong dream. and Spend all your money on shark bucks or whatever they're called. Gold. I remember when I was playing GTA Online and I just kept thinking like, man, if if just 1% of this could be real money,
00:58:38
Speaker
Like I could be so rich. I mean, that would be like in any game though. If you think about it, like if 1% of my money in Pokemon can be my real money. I mean, you wouldn't hear from me like we were talking about earlier. All right.
00:58:51
Speaker
So Rockstar, that's my pick. The great pick. I will say Rockstar was the one who made the greatest expansion of all time, and that is Undead Nightmare. I adored. Oh, no. those greatest expansion um one of the greatest expansions One of the greatest expansions of all time is The Ballad of Gay Tony.
00:59:11
Speaker
freaking I didn't play either. Oh, my God. You didn't play any of the GTA 4? Dude, it's like arguably better than the actual game. just not a big DLC guy usually, but yeah. But like those games, they're like full on like games.
00:59:23
Speaker
Yeah. at nightma You could play it separate. You didn't have to have the other game for Same with ah the Ballad of Gay Tony and the Lost in the Damned. Yeah, I don't know what is. I just don't often find myself revisiting games for an expansion or a DLC. I kind of lucked out because, again, my first time I ever played GTA, I wasn't one of those kids who was like, oh, I'm 10 years old, and I'm going to play GTA.
00:59:46
Speaker
No, I didn't play it until 2010 when I was, you know, actually, now that I think I was 13, so not much of a difference there. But um I got GTA 4, and it came with all like the DLC included with it, so I just played that like that.
01:00:00
Speaker
But I remember like, yeah, it it it blew me away. I could not believe what I was playing. Yeah, see, that's that's different. Like, you know, you get like the complete package and play it all together. That's cool. yeah But I'm just not usually big on like revisiting games that I've already beaten.
01:00:13
Speaker
um But yeah, I've heard that those are great. And one day I might play um All right, Hodge, you are up, sir. All right. My next studio is ah one of the studios out there that has never missed. It's made up of X infinity ward devs. And that is respawn entertainment studio that made Titanfall apex legends and the star Wars Jedi games.
01:00:38
Speaker
They just, every game they've made has been fun as hell. I fell off apex after a while. it it was a lot of fun though. I really loved that game. I tried going back to it a couple years later and it was very sweaty. So I just was like, I guess I'm done with apex.
01:00:50
Speaker
But Titanfall, one of my favorite FPSs of all time. And then the Star Wars games, even though I fell off Survivor for a different game, I got to go back and play it. But Fallen Order is incredible. It was crazy that a team of it was I mean, it's the same with like Gorilla, a team of old FPS developers made this amazing action adventure kind of Souls like game. It's ah it's so good. But yeah, Respawn Entertainment, they've never missed. And I absolutely love their game. So I definitely got to throw them next.
01:01:17
Speaker
Yeah, facts. Great studio, great games. um I agree. They haven't missed. I have played all of their games and loved all of their games um with Apex being by far the worst. But that's just because I don't like Battle Royale. But it was still a very competent and good.
01:01:31
Speaker
Yeah, it played it played well. It's just, yeah, it's it's a Battle Royale and there's spots out there who make it miserable. So the Star Wars Jedi games are quite good, though,
Nintendo EPD's Success Stories
01:01:40
Speaker
for sure. Yeah, I beat both of them.
01:01:42
Speaker
Sean, any thoughts on that? And you're up. No, I mean, I don't ever play any of their their games, but I know people I love love those those games. So you should play the Star Wars Jedi games. I know I need to. I always say I'm going to and I never do.
01:01:58
Speaker
I need to. I own them, too. So it's like I need to play them. Oh, yeah. All right. All right. So um next up for me is I think this is kind of people who is Nintendo EAD.
01:02:13
Speaker
um yeah Sorry, Nintendo EPD. Sorry. That's fine. EAD was the old name. yeah Well, one eight before they merged. EAD was a better name. Yeah. um But they merged with the sp Nintendo s SPD in 2015. And since then, they've just released so many good games. We got...
01:02:33
Speaker
mean, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Switch. They they did that. um I'm not a big Breath of the Wild guy, but they did Breath of the Wild. They did Odyssey. They did Captain Toad Treasure Tracker. They did New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Super Mario Maker 2, Animal Crossing, ah Bowser's Fury, Splatoon 3, Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4.
01:02:52
Speaker
um just so many good games, Dunk Dunk Bonanza, Mario Kart World, they're in development of the next 3D Mario. And then before that, you get all the games they made originally from like the two studios that they merged together. So like basically all the mainline Mario games, all of that.
01:03:08
Speaker
Um, basically if you think of Nintendo, um, chances are, if it's like a platforming game, they probably made it or a kart racer. They probably made it.
01:03:18
Speaker
Um, outstanding, unbelievable studio. Um, My favorite Mario game, obviously, is Super Mario World, but I also love like Mario Sunshine, which falls under their categories, too.
01:03:30
Speaker
Just an unbelievable like developer. And like they honestly... like they I mean, they have some misses. It's funny, because when they first merged to make EPD, their first couple games were misses.
01:03:41
Speaker
But other than that, like before that, it was like no misses. And then since then, it's been no misses. Their first game together was Triforce Heroes. And then Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard.
01:03:54
Speaker
But then after that, they just they took off and didn't look back. Shout out to arms.
01:04:02
Speaker
Nice. Where's my sequel legs?
01:04:06
Speaker
I want shoulders. Any thoughts on that? or I mean, i've so I've said this before. like Even though Nintendo games have never been like graphic powerhouses, they focus on fun and they succeed in that in all of their games. like they Even though i've never I don't play most Nintendo games, Nintendo's my third most played console of the ones I have. Yeah.
01:04:27
Speaker
But every game they make is a banger and they they play so well. They focus completely on fun. And so this studio is just great at making games that people just love to play. So I got nothing bad to say about them other than, yeah, graphically, but it gives a shit really.
01:04:42
Speaker
but Yeah. All right. Great pick. One of the best studios by far of all time. Some all time masterpiece games that they have made. Yeah. All right, moving on to me.
Celebrating Bethesda and Other Iconic Studios
01:04:53
Speaker
My number three is going to be the one and only Bethesda Game Studios.
01:05:00
Speaker
You guys know I love BGS, Bethesda Game Studios. course, I love Oblivion with all my heart. I love Skyrim, which is amazing. You guys just weren't there for the vibes in 2011. You missed out, I guess.
01:05:12
Speaker
Maybe it's too rustic now for you. But yeah. Of course, Fallout is also pretty great, um although I am mostly an Elder Scrolls fan. um The only Fallout that I've actually beaten is New Vegas, and they didn't make it, but it did use their tech and stuff. but yeah um But yeah, I love BGS, though. I also i think Starfield is a great game. overhated.
01:05:33
Speaker
ah starfield i think starfield is a great game it's overhaated Is it the best game ever? No, but it's an eight out of 10. um I think, of course, they got way too ambitious. The thousand planets was absolutely stupid.
01:05:44
Speaker
um They couldn't pull that together with the tech. So there's a bunch of loading screens. And as a result, the exploration is kind of trash. um But the crafting and the story um and, you know, the actual quests and stuff, especially like the faction quests were quite good, I thought.
01:05:58
Speaker
So and the the combat was fun, too, with the shooting. So overall, I mean, I think it is. a good game. And I think BGS is a great studio and I can't wait to play elder scroll seven in like four years.
01:06:10
Speaker
I can't believe how long this is taking. and They revealed this game in like 2018 or something. Like what the F are they doing? Yeah, 2018, yes, and they revealed it. and Todd, get it together. i still I still say the only reason they unveiled the game is because I remember that year all they had was Rage 2 and Fallout 76. So they needed to show something that would actually excite people.
01:06:31
Speaker
So they're like, oh, guess what? Elder Scrolls, it's it exists. Don't worry. That's the only reason it was unveiled at that at that show. like yeah that's That's my firm belief. I know Todd Howard has said that he regrets that they showed that off so early. But yeah, that was stupid.
01:06:46
Speaker
And it's taking forever. like I thought that the game might be ready next holiday next year. Or not not next year. sir Holiday 27 was my guess, but now they're saying like 29. I would say im just like damn if it were still old independent BGS, I would say that, I mean, they were the studio that would unveil a game six months before it came out.
01:07:05
Speaker
So I would say like it would be a possibility, but now that Microsoft owns them, I don't think they're going to let them do that anymore where they don't unveil something until right before it launches. So yeah, who knows?
01:07:16
Speaker
Hopefully it's out sooner than later for the those who love it, but I just hope I'm still alive when it comes out and you will be 20, 29 or whatever. I can't wait for it. It's going great. BGS.
01:07:27
Speaker
I will say with BGS, I, the way I, I rank them, uh, of their series is fallouts, my favorite vibe and like world and stuff. And then star field actually really loved. And then, uh,
01:07:39
Speaker
the the elder scrolls world after that, just cause I'm not a huge fantasy guys, people medieval fantasy. Yeah. Yeah. Even though I did really love the oblivion remake when I was playing it, but then obviously I dropped it for Claire obscure when that came out, but eventually I want to get back to it. Cause i was actually really enjoying that one compared to Skyrim, which I wasn't huge on, but oblivion was awesome. I loved it.
01:07:58
Speaker
Yeah. I want to play the remake someday. Cause obviously I played it originally on the Xbox 360, which was awesome. But yeah, I need to play the remake one day. It looks incredible what they did. Yeah. Um,
01:08:09
Speaker
All right, Hodge, you're up. Yeah, my next one is a PlayStation studio. And even though in recent years they've been a little missed with me is Naughty Dog, who's made obviously Crash, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, and then The Last of Us.
01:08:27
Speaker
Obviously, I'm not huge on The Last of Us Part II, but every game before that I love by them. i love all four Uncharted games. Uh... of the main ones lost legacy was fine uh have never beaten the golden abyss don't really care but that was a naughty dog make it that's not yeah but love jag and daxter crash bandicoot the first last of us so yeah they've they're just a quality studio even if even if i'm not huge on last was part two you can't you can't deny that it's a beautiful game that's played that plays well it's just obviously plot wise wasn't my favorite but yeah naughty dog is they're just an incredible studio and i'm hoping that um
01:09:03
Speaker
I was going to call interstellar. What's it called? Their new one. Intergalactic. Intergalactic. Heretic Prophet. Yeah. Intergalactic. Yeah. interglatic hair yeah I hope it's a great game because I want Naughty Dog to be still amazing. I don't want to just fall off of them as a studio. So I'm excited for it, but I want to see more before I get too excited. But in terms of their past stuff, love it all. So yeah. Naughty Dog.
01:09:27
Speaker
Great pick, Hodge. Great pick. This is not on my list, but I wanted it to be. It's an honorable mention for me. One of the one of the greatest studios of all time. One of the very few S-tier studios that exist right now, in my opinion.
01:09:39
Speaker
um I've said this before. I think in midnight and Midnight's personal list here, the only at really S-tier studios that exist out there, and I'm talking about the absolute echelon, is Naughty Dog, ah CD Projekt Red, Larian,
01:09:56
Speaker
um Nintendo EPD and Rockstar. Like those are the only absolute like S tier, like go studios. And then there's a whole bunch of awesome, like eight years, but great pick.
01:10:07
Speaker
Naughty Dog's incredible. John, you got thoughts on that? and you' Unbelievable pick. It's like phenomenal. um Obviously the, um, Just the games are unbelievable. I mean, they have Crash Bandicoot, the original trilogy. Crash Team Racing as well.
01:10:24
Speaker
They made that, which is totally weird. The Jak and Daxter games, I'm not the biggest fan of them. But Uncharted is so good. And then we all know I love The Last of Us. And I think, and I mean, we don't really know anything. ah but We don't really know anything about Intergalactic. We saw like that one thing for it and that's it.
01:10:39
Speaker
So judgment. I think we see that much sooner than people think, though. I think we might get that next year. um i butt they but I bet they show more of it at Game Awards. I won't be surprised if it's at 2026 at the end of it.
01:10:50
Speaker
I won't be surprised. But great pick. Awesome pick. Yeah. It also just sucks because recently most of their output has just been remasters of games that they've already remastered. So it's like, all right, come on, guys. We need more games.
01:11:03
Speaker
None of this. yeah but The Last of Us 2 was awesome. Glad I played that. And I'm i'm now excited for Intergalactic. I'm pumped for Intergalactic. I think going to be... To me, like i don't I don't know why so many people are oh it's going to be bad. it's like you Naughty Dog really doesn't... They really miss.
01:11:20
Speaker
Yeah, I was one of those people that was like, oh, this is going to be a lame game ah because I didn't like the aesthetic and the character and stuff. But after I played the last... barely know what anything about that here We barely know anything about the character. We barely know anything about the character. I know. It's judging a book by its cover.
01:11:36
Speaker
100% is. It's totally fair. um But like I said, after I played The Last of Us 2 and it was so incredible, I completely flipped. I'm like, no. how How could I doubt them? like It's going to be great, I think. i've I've flipped. I'm now super hyped and I think it's going great.
01:11:50
Speaker
Regardless of if I don't like the character aesthetic. They're going to make an amazing game. so ah Sean, you are next. Alright, my number two is my beloved Neon Falcom.
01:12:05
Speaker
The creator of the the tail the Trails of series, so Legend of Heroes Trails of, you know, my Trails games, plus the yeast games. um I freaking adore this. I don't think any, the Trails series in particular, I don't think any um game series has the...
01:12:21
Speaker
um The storytelling props throughout an entire universe of games that have spanned for over 20 years. And like, there's so much lore and like each game is connected in it.
01:12:34
Speaker
It is like a full on full world that just with each game gets bigger and bigger. And you learn there's so many payoffs in this game. I don't think I don't I honestly don't think there's a series that does it better. then having all the games connected to each other and have everything mean each other, mean something like you, something can come up in one of the games and you might not hear about it again for six more games. And then you'd be like, Oh my God, there's a huge payoff six games later.
01:12:58
Speaker
And it's like, this is insane to me. I think the world they create and to en trails is unbelievable. And the yeast games, it's awesome. It's, it's ah you get the trails aesthetic with a graphically, um but you get a completely different combat where trails is very calm, turn-based, a variation of turn-based. And then you have a yeast, which is all like action combat.
01:13:18
Speaker
And it's, it's completely different. And the yeast games are not connected. They have, they have those same main character, but none of them are connected. You can play them in any order you'd like. So it's like almost the opposite of the trails games.
01:13:29
Speaker
So I think they do they just do such a good job with the diversity in that. And then, like I said, they do such a good job with universe building. It's like, it's unbelievable. I know people give crap. Oh, there's so many games. They're so long, blah, blah, blah.
01:13:41
Speaker
But you have to you have to admit, it's pretty insane that they have the same universe going for over 20 years of games. And they just build and build on the lore. And it's it's absolutely, it's just it's insane.
01:13:54
Speaker
It's absolutely insane.
01:13:57
Speaker
The show? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Hodge. Thoughts on Falcom? You have none. No, I mean, I think it's cool that when studios are able to do that, where they make this huge universe that's just ongoing. I think it's obviously I'm probably never going to play in these games, but the the fact that they're able to do that. And I love when stuff like if people don't know, like the the show community, there's a joke that takes three seasons to land. And it's so hilarious that they actually put that much effort into landing a joke after that long.
01:14:25
Speaker
And so I love when stuff does that where they introduce something and you kind of think you forget about it, but then it comes back and in a huge way. And yeah, that's, I love that kind of, it's like almost Easter egg ish in a way. And yeah, I love that kind of storytelling. It's so cool.
01:14:40
Speaker
Yeah. I love it too. I think that's a great picture on, um, I am excited to one day, really break into these games. I think it's so cool what they've done, how they have so many games that are interconnected, to the worlds in the story. That's, that's awesome.
01:14:53
Speaker
Um, All right, moving on to my number two. This is one of those S-tier studios that I talked about it, you know, in my opinion, S-tier studios. And that's going to be CD Projekt Red.
01:15:05
Speaker
um CD Projekt Red, one of the absolute best goaded RPG studios out there, of course, famous for the Witcher series, Witcher 1, 2, and 3. And Cyberpunk 2077, which had a horrible launch, but afterwards they cleaned it up and it is a fantastic game.
01:15:23
Speaker
One of my favorite games of all time. I think it's like number four or five on my favorite all time games. I love ah I love ah Cyberpunk 2077 and I love The Witcher 3 and all of its expansions. I need to go back and play Witcher 2. I did play it a little bit back in the day, but I didn't beat it.
01:15:38
Speaker
So I need to go back and beat it. um And I can't wait for Witcher 4, and I can't wait for Cyberpunk next. You know, whatever they're doing. 2069. 2169, whatever. um But yeah, I just can't wait. I think that this studio makes some of the greatest um RPGs ever. They're always...
01:15:55
Speaker
Well, I was going to say they're always polished. That's definitely not the case with Cyberpunk. But what I mean is like from a systems and like story and narrative with choices standpoint, like they're always just so good. um And I love CD Projekt Red.
01:16:07
Speaker
So yeah, that's my number two pick. Great, great pick. um I haven't played many of their games, but like like I never said play The Witcher, but Cyberpunk is just unbelievable. It freaking blew me away.
01:16:18
Speaker
right yeah couldn't believe what I was playing. I absolutely couldn't believe it. Yeah. it's It's so well done and so immersive and just an awesome setting and characters and world. Yeah.
01:16:30
Speaker
um Hodge, you haven't played any of their games, have you? I tried Witcher 3. I wasn't a fan. But even though their games aren't for me, I also fell off Cyberpunk. But the one thing I will say, I obviously can't deny the quality. It's just that genre is really not for me. But the I've said this before, but Liberty City 4.
01:16:49
Speaker
feels so alive in that in that game. Like, it is so... Night City. Or Night City, sorry. Yeah, Liberty City is a GTA. Yeah, Night City, it's so alive and just beautiful, and it's built so incredibly. Like, that that world of Cyberpunk is so good. It's just the gameplay itself. like But they did revamp it, so I do kind of want to give it another try, because when I played it, it wasn't broken.
01:17:16
Speaker
Like, I actually was one of the few who didn't really have any... Game breaking bugs by any stretch. So I just kind of it just wasn't my kind of game But I heard that they revamped like the skill tree and everything so I would I'd really like to but you You did have a pretty bad bug. You said like the cops were all attacking you, right? That's not something that normally happens.
01:17:35
Speaker
Oh, then maybe that was. I don't know, because that was annoying. yeah I was walking down the street, and all sudden these cops started shooting at me. I'm like what is going I don't know what's happening. so Yeah, maybe that was a bug. But ah yeah but other than that, yeah the world of that game is so cool.
01:17:51
Speaker
And The Witcher, I understand people love it, but again, I'm not really a big fantasy guy, so it it didn't really grab me. Yeah. Yeah, and I definitely understand that the quality of the studio is there and everyone loves their games for obviously valid reasons. It's just not my taste.
01:18:06
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Now, Hodge, I do know you fairly well. I know your taste. ah The Witcher is not a game that I'm going to recommend to you. It's definitely not a Hodge game. It's way too big, way too expensive. And it's it's medieval setting type stuff.
01:18:17
Speaker
But I played on five hours of it. So it was... I am going to strongly recommend that one of these days pick it up for the PS, PS5 pro. It looks gorgeous on there. Play cyberpunk. Now that it's actually patched and fully working and you won't have weird cops shooting at you.
01:18:32
Speaker
yeah um Crank it up, crank it up to the, you know, the max settings on the PS5 pro enjoy the beautiful graphics. um And yeah, there's there's so many different play styles you can get. Like they have smart guns, which I really like the smart guns where,
01:18:45
Speaker
Basically, like it just has a big square and you basically just fire in and the direction of the enemies and the bullets trace and we'll like lock on and headshot the enemies. And it's really satisfying. And then you can also like hack enemies and make them like overload and catch fire and explode. It's really fun the story and the characters are so good.
01:19:01
Speaker
I did ah finally watch edge runners about two months ago and it was actually a really good show. I don i don't think it's like is like God tears. People act like it is, but it was a very, very good show. And adding to that world was it was really cool.
01:19:14
Speaker
But yeah. All right. alright Hodge, what's your number two? Yeah, so my next one, this is a studio that has been great for 30 years almost at this point, and that is Insomniac, who obviously they made more recently their Spider-Man and soon-to-be Wolverine. They've done Ratchet & Clank, the sorely underrated and underappreciated Sunset Overdrive.
01:19:40
Speaker
I wasn't a big fan of Resistance, but that's just because... Yeah, it wasn't like the story anything. It's just there were better shooters at the time, and it just didn't play as well as like COD and stuff like that. But the story itself was like the the the idea of aliens invading during World War II is such a cool concept.
01:19:59
Speaker
But yeah, i didn't I didn't see that one through. And then obviously, as everyone knows, one of my favorite series of all time, the OG Spyro trilogy, also Insomniac. Yeah. Yeah, they've just ah ever since my childhood up until present time, they present era, they have made games that I'm obsessed with. So, yeah, Insomniac is my number two.
01:20:18
Speaker
I think that's a great pick. I just wish that they could get off the marble plantation and kind of create like some new IPs and stuff because I'm um you know, you guys know I'm not the superhero guy. Cape Slop. I am excited for um Wolverine. But anyway, great studio, of course. yeah i mean, you can't knock the pedigree. The quality great, of course, even though i'm not a massive fan.
01:20:38
Speaker
Cape Slop fan. I mean, the Spider-Man games were great. So um they're awesome. Just the movement and gameplay in those games alone is getting so smooth. i fear I love Insomniac. Insomniac was one that just missed my list.
01:20:52
Speaker
i um I freaking love them. I love the Spider-Man games. I love all the Ratchet games. um Wow, that sounds really bad. I love the Ratchet games. um Shout to the yeah that mobile game that just got announced. Ratchet and Clank mobile game that just got announced. Oh god.
01:21:06
Speaker
Um, and actually it looks, it looks like, um, that crash rumble game that I played back in 2023 kind of looks like, um, but no, insomniac just, they don't, I freaking love it. I'm so, I really wish we get another resistance game. I love those games so much. And then obviously, ah like you said, the original Spyro trilogy, um,
01:21:27
Speaker
It's just, they're super talented. And i I'm really interested to um if they ever get off the Marvel IP. That would be awesome if they could. Yeah, well, it was so sad when we saw that roadmap leak or whatever, and it was just like Wolverine, Venom, Ratchet & Clank, Marvel game. Like 2030, though, Ratchet & Clank. Yeah, what I was just like, yeah, just, I want to see something new from, it because like Sunset Overdrive, like I said, it's so underappreciated. it was so fun. It was, it had basically movement that was just not as good as Spider-Man, but pretty much up there, and that game was incredibly fun to play, so I would love to see more stuff like that from them, but...
01:22:06
Speaker
Yeah, apparently we're just going Marvel games from them for eternity. So give us a sequel to this. Give us a sequel to Sunset Overdrive. Yeah, I would bring Port on so Sunset Overdrive to PlayStation since Xbox is no longer exclusive to anything. So bring Sunset Overdrive to PlayStation and then make a sequel like do it, please.
01:22:26
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. Game Studios being mismanaged. ah Game Freak. Insomniac. I do think I, this managed maybe as a strategy because they're still making great games. It's just not what we want. Really.
01:22:39
Speaker
I do think Insomniac. I do think that roadmap has changed since we saw it. I definitely, I'm sure. yeah I think some of those games will not, I don't think we're going to get the Venom game. I really don't.
01:22:50
Speaker
i don't either. All right, Sean, if you have more thoughts, go ahead, but then
Reminiscing Square Enix and Bioware Classics
01:22:55
Speaker
you're up. all right, for my last one, I think we can all guess what it is. it is my beloved Square Enix.
01:23:04
Speaker
um I freaking love Square Enix, you know, back from Square, you know, Squaresoft and the Enix days. So Square Enix, you know, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, so many different just, and I mean, just so many different um, franchises, um, Octopath, which unfortunately, no longer with, um, the developers are no longer with the people who made,
01:23:26
Speaker
um them are no longer with square but still just so many so many banger after banger we all know like i'm my two favorite franchises of all time are kingdom hearts and final fantasy so like obviously the same developer it's like you gotta have um this is your your favorite i mean it's just like the outstanding uh i've fallen in low i fell in love with them from an early early age maybe they just kept bringing me games that i love i love g rpgs and that's that's what they specialize in i'm not talking about the square enix you know Montreal, not talking about those ones, I'm talking about your key, your core Square Enix Japanese in these games, you know, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts.
01:24:03
Speaker
um Yeah, Romancing Saga is some of them too, because I played some of those. My beloved Mario Hoops 3 on 3, which is one of the rare Mario games to not develop on Nintendo. It had Square Enix characters in it. It was a DS Mario basketball game.
01:24:17
Speaker
And you can play as like the black you could play is like the the characters from Final Fantasy 1, like the classes. like You can play as a black mage, a warrior, a knight. It was super fun. I played the crap out of that game. and Yeah.
01:24:29
Speaker
Which is funny because that's like the only Mario sports game that they've never gone back. Like they've never gone back to like Mario basketball. Why not? Maybe. um Star Ocean as well. Like I freaking love Star Ocean.
01:24:41
Speaker
Just so many, like it's it's literally, it's like if you were to create a ah franchise, like a game studio, like, and you told me, oh, they have this, this, this, and this. This is what this is what it would be.
01:24:54
Speaker
Just like, yeah they can't go wrong for me. They haven't really. I mean, even near, they made near like, that's insane. Oh my God. I totally forgot. They made Mario sports mix. That game kind of sucked. I will say, which I was super hyped for, but you know, like you said, when there's like a, when there's like ah like a, like sports game with like multiple sports games inside that one game, you know, it's not going to be good.
01:25:16
Speaker
Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. wow Yeah. So no square Enix freaking love them. Excellent pick. Hodge, thoughts on Square? I mean, great, great pick. Obviously, they made the Goppy Sweep game of the year from last year of Rebirth. They did.
01:25:34
Speaker
Yeah, Kingdom Hearts, obviously. I still remember back when it was still Square Soft. Square Soft, that was the last Kingdom Hearts game. The game was released under Square Soft, but they had made the merger before the game actually released.
01:25:46
Speaker
Yeah, I just remember because in that opening where it goes in the clouds, you see the logo Square Soft yeah pop up, and it was... Yeah, I loved it. Yeah, obviously, yeah, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy VII, both the new one and or old one and remake. Like, yeah, Square Enix has made some amazing games. Obviously, JRPGs aren't my favorite, but of the ones I've played by them, all incredible. And yeah, great, great choice.
01:26:09
Speaker
Yeah, Square Enix has developed and published some amazing games, no doubt. um Funny enough, I was playing, ah like I said, Call of Duty with DLB yesterday, and we got talking about some JRPGs because I mentioned I was playing Tales of Arise.
01:26:22
Speaker
And he was like, you know I'm kind of in the mood for a turn-based game. So I recommended him two turn-based games that he needs to play. um And the two that I recommended, the first one was Octopath Traveler 2 because it's incredible. go it doesn't get much It doesn't get much better than that for turn-based.
01:26:35
Speaker
And the second one was actually Claire Obscure Expedition 33. I was like, two awesome turn-based games. Check them out. i but I'm pretty sure that Square Enix also published Sleeping Dogs. They did.
01:26:46
Speaker
we did so yeah. Awesome. Good pick. All right. Let me move on to my number one, and this should be no shock for anyone. My number one favorite game studio of all time is none other than BioWare.
01:27:00
Speaker
Of course, BioWare nowadays, not so hot. But... Going back to the past, I mean, I can't just ignore that they released Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3. Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age 2.
01:27:13
Speaker
um i can't just ignore that they had Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire. I mean, they made some of the greatest RPGs of all time. Some of my favorite games of all time. um I love Bioware.
01:27:25
Speaker
If we're talking about all-time favorite game studios, that is definitely ah my number one. Sean, why are you making a face? What's going on? No Obsidian on your list. No. Honorable mention. You always talk about how much you love. like, I'm the biggest Obsidian fan in the world.
01:27:42
Speaker
Yeah, I thought you were going to say Obsidian is number one. Really? Well, just because you hadn't said it yet. and They're an honorable mention for me. Obsidian is actually not in my very top.
01:27:54
Speaker
They're like in the sucker punch category. Like a studios that I do love a lot, but they're not like the absolute goaded studios. um Like Obsidian, I always say Obsidian is ah is an 85 factory. Like they make great 85 out of 100 games. And a 70 in Avowed.
01:28:12
Speaker
Avowed was an 81 in my opinion. And I think actually it was about an 81 on ah the critics too. and Yeah, that game is overrated as well. best follow-up game so yeah i love bioware they're awesome um i am still completely ah you know inhaling the hopium and copium that uh mass effect 4 will be good um i just hope like if they get rid of all the stupid trans bs put on my glasses you know if they if they just go back to making normal games
01:28:42
Speaker
um with great stories and stuff, I feel like they could hit it because Veil Guard actually underneath all of the stupid BS ah was a very solid game. So if they could just get back to making a good RPG. They just need better writers, really. Yeah, they need better writers. They need to stop pandering and being stupid and just make a great game.
01:29:00
Speaker
I'm still hoping that Mass Effect 4 will be great if it comes out. ah But yeah, Bioware, all-time great for me. If you guys have thoughts, otherwise, Hodge, you are...
01:29:12
Speaker
Next. The best Bioware game ever. Mass Effect Andromeda. Actually, ah better game than people give it credit for. But terrible compared to the first three. They're just so much better.
01:29:27
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I loved... I played Mass Effect 1 for the first time couple years ago, and I loved it. It was so much fun. I started 2, but I think I fell i fell off for...
01:29:39
Speaker
think it was because I went back to school and I just didn't have time to play it anymore so I fell off or maybe it was even Hogwarts Legacy came out and then I fell off that because of school but yeah I just I need to get back and finish that trilogy because it was incredible but I also need to play KOTOR at some point I tried it as a kid wasn't a fan who great so yeah so me as an adult I want to try it again and see how it goes but yeah bioware great choice um yeah hopefully they can return to greatness because i think if uh i think if mass effect 4 isn't good that studio is doomed uh yeah yeah i think they probably will be doomed if they flop again um yeah kotor is an amazing game but it is at this day and age it's very musty and old feeling um so you'd have to you'll have to really set get your mindset right when you go in there you're just gonna have to
01:30:25
Speaker
but your Put your mindset into 2004 Hodge. like Yeah, it's really it's one of those where I know the gameplay is going to be a little janky, but I just know it has an incredible story. and Oh, yeah, it's insane. So that's why I want to get yeah to it at some point. But, ah yeah.
Anticipation for Remedy Entertainment's Future Projects
01:30:40
Speaker
Anyway, my numero uno, i don't think it's going to be a surprise to anyone, and that is Remedy Entertainment. I obviously control amazingly fun games.
01:30:53
Speaker
Alan Wake, some of my favorite stories of all time in games. And then even Quantum Break, I think is sorely underrated. it's not It's not like an amazing game, but I think it's really, really good.
01:31:08
Speaker
Um, so yeah, remedy, uh, I'm so excited. I mean, even FBC fire break, it didn't end up amazing, but it wasn't bad. It just was kind of dull, but yeah, remedy. I love it.
01:31:21
Speaker
So yeah, remedy is my number one. All right. Great pick. Great pick. Of course, I played Alan Wake recently. I played Quantum Break. um I played Control. I think they make some great games um and we know you love it.
01:31:33
Speaker
um Sean, do you have any quick thoughts on Remedy? and No, because i need to play. I need to play some of these games. I really do. Yes, you do. Yeah. Yeah. um really quickly before we wrap it up i want to do my three i have three honorable mentions that i didn't do uh just because each of them have only made one or two games so i don't want to say like oh they're my favorite one they're just you know one for one or two for two and that's kojima productions obviously both the strandings are amazing uh ember lab which made kind bridge of bridges spirits they've only made that one game and then sandfall which obviously made claire obscure those are
01:32:05
Speaker
three amazing games from, so I'm hoping to see these studios blossom into something great future. I mean, obviously Kojima is, but the other two, I hope they blossom into something great, but they only have one game out, so I couldn't include them for that.
01:32:17
Speaker
Sean, did you want to mention an honorable or two? I love games, Shovel Knight. All right. For me, of course, Obsidian. I love Obsidian. Sucker Punch, I love Sucker Punch. Larian, one of the S tier and one of my favorites, currently one of my favorite studios of all time.
01:32:32
Speaker
Baldur's Gate 3 is incredible, um but Anyway, yeah they're they're not in the top five all time because I've only really played BG3. So, all right. So this, let's go ahead and wrap it up here, guys. Let's do it. It's been a great episode.
01:32:45
Speaker
um Let's go around the horn and do final thoughts here. We'll start with you, Hodge. Final thoughts for episode 47. A lot of fun. i've I've actually, I thought about this episode a long time ago. So when we're like, oh, we need something. I was like, oh, let's do that. And so I love doing this. Obviously love hanging out you guys talking games every other week and sometimes every week. But yeah, ah happy if everyone's listened.
01:33:06
Speaker
Thank you. We love you. We love you. and Yeah. My final thoughts are the same. Thank you for your support. Shout out to tales of arise. This game's awesome. I recommend it for people. I'm really enjoying it.
01:33:18
Speaker
Really hooked me, brought me back to Weebery a little bit. um Sean, final thoughts, sir. Great episode, guys. I love talking games to you guys. Some awesome studios. I'm very pleased that none of us picked like a really bad studio.
01:33:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. These are 15 great studios. I'd say. Um, All right. Well, guys, this has been episode 47 of Games Over Plastic. Thank you guys for your support. Likes, comments, and all that. It's appreciated.
01:33:46
Speaker
We're going to go ahead and up out of here. Goodbye. Bye. He's a good boy. he ain't been to jail yet.