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The 2025 Game Lounge Review
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The 2025 Game Awards have come and gone, leaving a bunch of new game reveals and details to be discussed! Tony is joined by Ninjafrog, Jo_Java, and MacRyanMac to recap the 2025 year of gaming, the Game Awards Reveals and Winners, and what happened in the last weeks of 2025 to close the year out!
Follow Tony: https://www.twitch.tv/tonysgamelounge
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonysGameLounge
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Follow NinjaFrog: https://www.twitch.tv/ninjafrog4884
Follow Ryan: https://www.twitch.tv/macryanmac
Follow Jo: https://www.twitch.tv/jo_java
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Join the Official Tony's Game Lounge Discord: https://discord.gg/xXyvjaCsXp
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Transcript
Introduction & Guests
00:00:00
Speaker
Disclaimer, all views expressed on this podcast represent the host and his guest and not the companies or agencies they are associated with.
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to Tony's Game Lounge, a bi-weekly podcast that covers everything in the world of video games, TCG, tabletop, and more. Here's your host, Tony 14. Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Season 9 finale of the Tony's Game Lounge podcast.
00:00:27
Speaker
I am your host, as always, to Tony 14. And joining us this week, we've got three very special guests joining us. Our first guest is speed runner. He's a ninja. He's a frog.
00:00:42
Speaker
Insert a bunch of random gierous gibberish ninja frog. Yo, yo. Nice to be back. I'm excited. We've got VTuber coffee brewer extraordinaire Joe Java.
00:00:55
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. I got a haircut for this podcast, so no can see it. Excellent. And reactor to Japanese and Korean music and turned interviewer this year.
00:01:10
Speaker
yeah Back, Ryan Mack. Hello. Glad to be back. Ryan, welcome back. This is your first time on this
Year Reflection & Game Talk
00:01:17
Speaker
season. Digifrog and Joe were on earlier this season. So, Ryan, how you doing?
00:01:22
Speaker
Oh, you know. but It's been of those years. It's been one of those years. i think so. i don't know how we're in December. i feel like it was just January and now we're at the end of the year and I don't know what happened.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's nuts. It's it's it's like a blink of an eye. We were playing the French game and now... Well, I'm playing the French game now. You and Ninja Frog are both playing the French game as a as of this recording. i don't think... You haven't finished it yet, have you, Ninja Frog? Nope, I am just about to get an actor. Don't worry.
00:01:59
Speaker
ah What about you, Joe? have you i don't think I don't know if I asked you if you played the French game or not. am also playing the French game. So a lot of French game players. Let's go. That's so funny.
00:02:11
Speaker
That is hilarious. We're all very far behind. I guess so. I'm the one that's caught up. But then again, did play 106 video games this year. Oh, my God. Oh, wow. I need to on your level. It's a big number. But like, if you remember last year, I was like at 160 something.
00:02:31
Speaker
I know. it's This is three years in a row that we have beat 100. That's crazy. games Which is nuts that I do this to myself ah and put money into this hobby like that. But you know what? It's for a good cause, and that cause is my entertainment.
Top Gaming News of 2025
00:02:50
Speaker
That is a good cause. Somebody's got it. That good cause. It is a good cause. And guys, ah we're kicking off our headline of the week.
00:02:57
Speaker
I figured instead of just doing one story like I have in the past with the finales, I figured the best way to do the headline of the week is to pick 10 of my favorite or 10 of the most impactful news stories that happened that I covered on this podcast this season.
00:03:15
Speaker
And so these are my top 10 gaming news stories of 2025. Are you guys ready to hear them? Yes. All right. Yes. So these are in no particular order. These were kind of just ordered based on their date of around like when they happened when I was going through previous outlines of this podcast. And the first one we got. Hey, we heard you like Doom.
00:03:37
Speaker
So, Limited Run Games is giving us a limited edition of Doom that comes in a box that runs Doom and includes a little cacodemon toy that runs Doom. It has 666 limited copies of the $666.66 Will It Run Edition?
00:03:57
Speaker
If only I wasn't for. yeah Good headline. Definitely. it's a It's a series that knows its branding. right ah Effective.
00:04:08
Speaker
Very effective, yes. Yes. ah As for if it came out or not, I don't know, because we do know Limited Run Games has a bad habit of announcing stuff way earlier of before it gets shipped out. And it gets hit with delays and delays and delays.
00:04:25
Speaker
I think some people are still waiting on a Sonic X Shadow Generation stuff. Oh, that's... like Yeah. Yeah. Ooh. yeah o Not great, but it's still funny because it's Doom.
00:04:41
Speaker
true True. Our second GTA 6 getting delayed not once, but twice this year alone with us probably announcing another delay next year because let's be real. Grand Theft Auto 6 is not coming out November 2027. No. 2027. Who knows? maybe maybe 2027 realistically 2027 is what i think it'll still be a most anticipated game true gosh yeah uh number three echo the dolphin creator ah ed annanziata said in an interview remasters of the original echo game and its sequel are coming he also pointed that if you go to the Echo the Dolphin website, there's a countdown that's that will end April 26, 2026. Hell yeah. oh Echo the Dolphin fans might might be getting something in April next year.
00:05:42
Speaker
ah which we'll report on if it is the case. I'm excited. to Yeah. or Isn't that like a super old game? Yeah, it is. It's very hard to come by, and i can't wait to have a whole new generation of people ah experience that game.
00:05:57
Speaker
Hey, ah another one. Spanish TV news station used the Dark Souls 3 boss fight to illustrate with 100% accuracy how the Conclave would elect a new pope.
00:06:09
Speaker
Now, is this is this the boss fight where it's a bunch of dudes and you have to find which one of them has like the spirit and then you hit him a couple times and then it goes to another dude and you just keep wailing on them all? No, I think it was the boss fight. Is it the Deacons of the Deep or something like that? Yeah, the Deacons. That's exactly the one I'm thinking of. I feel like if the if it's going to be any of them, it might be that one, which is...
00:06:35
Speaker
very funny yeah i don't know if it was that one or if it was because there's a boss fight in that game that's just like you're fighting like uh some something in a church right yeah that would be yeah i think it was there's a lot of bosses to be there's a lot of churches in dark souls ah yeah it was it's one of those two i don't know so specifically but they used it as a 100 with 100 accuracy how it would be elected so ah Another one, we've got the infamous stapler that GameStop used on a few Switch 2s, which damaged the screen on the consoles, ah which they then had to refund it or and or give them a new console.
00:07:18
Speaker
That was auctioned off for charity, and it raised $250,000 for the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. You know what? Good cause. Funny headline. it was It was a whole thing. I'm glad they were able to turn it into some into some good PR, but also for like a good thing to happen in the world. So good on them. yeah Is that the most expensive stapler? could be, yeah. Not That could be in like the Guinness Book of World Records. I feel like it is. I i don't know like i don't know any ah any other staplers that are more than $250,000.
00:07:57
Speaker
so Who knows? i mean, like maybe in the future it'll just be like, AI stapler. It knows when to staple, but it doesn't really... Yeah, stapling all the ah the stolen art together. Oh, Oh, ah on the but a story that was a bit more serious. The Roblox situation, which so much happened with this year, which started with Schlepp, who was a YouTuber who exposed pedophiles on Roblox. He got banned, which led to...
00:08:28
Speaker
The stone's turning, and he's now working with Chris Hansen on an expose for Roblox. Three states are currently suing the game, apart with like a couple European countries, I believe, as well. There was a mass player exodus from the game, and the CEO claims that they're doing everything for child safety. But let's be real, no one believes that they are. wonder why. wonder no one believes them. I've been following this, and...
00:08:56
Speaker
For whatever reason, and I could completely like this, this isn't like confirmed or anything, but I saw that the CEO posted something when asked, like, why aren't they banning people that might be pedophiles? Because they see it as an opportunity. They see it as an opportunity. What kind of opportunity? What? You are deranged man. What opportunity, the opportunity for horrible things. Yeah. What is wrong with you?
00:09:22
Speaker
Get off social media. of people need to be arrested. lot of, Oh yeah. God. Yeah. Next year is good. I hope that the, this thing with Chris Hansen drops next year. Cause it's going to be the biggest.
00:09:37
Speaker
Oh, they got to shut down the game. we're gonna get a docu-series on roblox next year i can't wait please i can't wait all the all the parents out of the loop isn't this the game my child's been playing yeah oh my god yeah oh god yeah uh back to some uh you know what i'm gonna keep it with the serious stuff and then we'll get back to the fun stuff twitch con ah happened this year, and they really need to reevaluate its event security among amongst other things. of Popular Twitch streamer Emiru was assaulted. VTubers, who were hosting panels and their fans gave gifts to them, unless it was at the Gamersup's booth, the gifts were just thrown away. Then, of course, Twitch itself had issues with the whole lurker ah debate having happened, where they in an attempt to
00:10:29
Speaker
get rid of the bots that are all on Twitch. ah It started not, they started ah recognizing lurkers as potential bots as well, even though they aren't.
00:10:39
Speaker
ah And lurkers are also not even being counted as viewers because of this. And it's kind of still an issue, sort of. I don't really know where... I haven't really kept up with that to know if it's still an issue or not. And now, and there's also debate going on of whether Dan Clancy should still be the CEO of Twitch, or if they should start looking for a new one to try to help fix these issues and give a better public P up, have better PR. Yeah.
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah, I man. I don't know how most of these CEOs got into their positions, but for whatever reason, it feels like, OK, you're the CEO now and here's the gun you use to shoot your foot. Use it every now and then. um Here's your social media account. That is a nuclear bomb that will ruin everything every now and then. So make sure you use it often. It's like I just. This is just like control where it's like, oh, you're the new one who's inherited this gun. It's going to talk to you and tell you what to do. Otherwise, it will shoot you.
00:11:45
Speaker
Yeah. Gosh, it's that's so accurate. I just man, I stream on Twitch a good bit. And so like, I think we all do ah here. I think we're all sadly. Yeah.
00:12:00
Speaker
who Like yeah just in case people don't know. this is Just in case. You never know. Listen, this could be someone's first time listening to this podcast. It could just come on shuffle.
00:12:12
Speaker
You never know. Hey, if we came up in your podcast shuffle, hi. We apologize. Thanks sticking around for these 12 minutes. We apologize. Not again. Again, look, I've only had one guest on here that got canceled, okay? i I've got a pretty good track record. huh Yeah, yeah. Fucking... when did Was it earlier this year that it it came out and I had to make a thing about that? I missed this. I am lucky enough to have only had one
00:12:44
Speaker
guest on throughout all five years. Yeah, it was earlier this year. i had to... I made a statement in my Discord because it's like, look, it Twitter's... i It's a whole shit show. him But because of that, but I... I'm not going to name them, but I did have to... I had to cut ties with one person ah because they there so they treated their mods like shit apparently and there was some oh it was like it was just like up some weird sexual stuff oh no kind of like i got nothing like nothing like unconsensual from what I gathered hmm
00:13:20
Speaker
But it was just like, it was a lot. It was, it felt, it was like very like the, the power dynamic imbalance, not great. And it's just, it was just like, okay, this is where we're jumping ship here. Yeah. Probably for the best.
00:13:36
Speaker
Probably for the best. Yes. ah So I've been like, like I said, lucky only one guest on this podcast has been canceled. but Some of them might have just disappeared from the face of the earth.
00:13:47
Speaker
ah But you know what? That's better than being canceled. You know, some people just go off to live in peace and army and life. Live that real life and get off the internet. And you know what? Good for them. They're probably doing better than most of us. Some of them are touching grass to this day. It's incredible. that Imagine touching grass. couldn Unheard of.
00:14:07
Speaker
Mostly because there's snow on the ground. right yeah that'alds There's not a lot of grass in Toronto. It's all just concrete. So... ah Okay, back to the the the the happy. The last three stories are a bit on the happier line of top 10 stories. then ten oh well okay well then Okay, this one's in between.
00:14:28
Speaker
I say happier. This one's a bit in between. ah Nintendo and the Pokemon Company were granted a patent related to the Pokemon series. That patent covers the gameplay mechanic of summoning a character and letting it fight another.
00:14:41
Speaker
That patent was then re-examined and the patent that Japan patent was then rejected. Thank God. oh yeah good I don't understand. i just Maybe I'm just simpleton that doesn't understand legalness with patents in the game industry, but it just doesn't seem right for for game mechanics to be patented. yeah Yeah, I think the only game mechanic that's really been patented was the was the rival mechanic in... um
00:15:16
Speaker
cha shadow yeah the shadow of war shadow of mordor yeah and that listen i'm gonna be real that that i don't know how much we can curse on here but that teased me off you know that remember joe we could say all the fuck words okay cool that really cheeses my greater you know that Because, like, they got that patent and they haven't used that mechanic since. And now the whole Warner Brothers Netflix sale is putting it even more up in the air. And it's just like, what the fuck? What are you doing?
00:15:51
Speaker
Why? ah i don't like I don't like patenting mechanics. It don't make no sense. Yeah. No, I definitely feel that. And the big reason that they wanted to do that as well was to help them with the PAL world lawsuit that's still ongoing. ah But, you know, I think we'll just have to rely on like everything else in the hundreds of lawyers that Nintendo already has.
00:16:12
Speaker
I hope I think I think
00:16:16
Speaker
ah You see, here's the thing. I don't like the game Pal World. I really don't like it. I think it same i think it's a very boring game that at the core at the core is this really just rinse and repeat crafting method that and they just like, oh, what if we had guns and cute animals to it?
00:16:36
Speaker
I try to to like ignore the to distract people from the fact that our base game of this is boring as fuck. No, I completely agree with you on that. And originally I was against Power World because a lot of their designs are too close to Pokemon for my comfort.
00:16:54
Speaker
But Nintendo is going after the wrong thing entirely. yeah like They were like, oh, you were successful in this thing that we kind of have the market on.
00:17:06
Speaker
We're going to shoot you in the face with lawsuits. How dare you? How dare you challenge us? Like, I feel like if Nintendo just let slide the game, would the game would die out. would have just It would have. It absolutely would have. They stoked that fire. oh yeah. This game isn't like as good as we thought it was. I think we were just blinded for like our hatred of Nintendo and Pokemon. But because Nintendo said it did nothing about it, I don't know what to put my rage against anymore.
00:17:34
Speaker
I just... I feel like Nintendo should lose this, not on like not only because it's just them bullying another company because they have the power to do so, but to set a precedent that game mechanics shouldn't be...
00:17:49
Speaker
shouldn't be able to be like trademarked or copyright or whatever. It should be like, it's a freedom of expression at the end of the day. Yes. now yeah Granted. Yes. But also the company that they are going after, this isn't their first offense. They have done this multiple times and you know what? It's kind of like, just put them in their place, Nintendo, and then never talk about this again.
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah. but That's where I'm at on this, but we will see where this goes because it's still.com. We shall see, indeed. ah on Nintendo as well, Doug Bowser is retiring as president of America. President, i'm not a president of America. I wish he was. president i want you know it was better he would be a better choice president of nintendo of america uh come december 31st 2025 taking his place will be devin pritchard uh starting january 1st she will be the first female president for nintendo of america and she's been with the company for like 20 plus years oh interesting i did not know that
00:18:48
Speaker
Yeah, so, and you know, Doug Bowser did make his, like, I think last public appearance at the Game Awards. Also possibly teasing a new Smash Brothers in the process. Ooh.
00:19:01
Speaker
Somehow, because he said, we're glad you guys like smashing things, or like, smashing things is really fun. And it's like, a very vague comment, it's like, Smash? Yeah. yeah i asked What else could that mean?
00:19:14
Speaker
True. ah Also, I feel it's one of those things where I feel like Nintendo said, okay, Sakurai, you can make your Kirby game, but afterwards you have to start working on Smash again. You can make your Kirby game, but no DLC because we want you to make Smash. Yeah. And that's why there's DLC for Kirby. which Honestly, Air Riders does not need DLC. It is a perfect game.
00:19:37
Speaker
It came out so beautifully. It's so good. Leave it to Sakurai to just make a game and have it be so, so pristine on launch. And leave it to Sakurai's wife to make amazing main menus for us.
00:19:51
Speaker
true She is such a good UI designer. They're so like colorful and stylish. it It really resonates how like Sakura said he really liked the Persona 5 menuing because like they're both very stylish, very stylized.
00:20:06
Speaker
Yes. And lastly, number 10 in my top 10 stories of the year. Capcom and McDonald's of Japan released a line of Street Fighter themed burgers that they called Street Burgers.
00:20:19
Speaker
The sandwiches were based on Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li and they rolled out at McDonald's stores in late October. I never heard about this. Neither have i That's kind of wild. Also, I feel like street burgers is not the greatest name for your your food Like...
00:20:44
Speaker
ah You know what? They could have called them knuckle sandwiches. Oh my god, that actually would have been so much better. Why why didn't they do that that? It was right there. I just thought of that. I'm not even... You need to be hired.
00:20:57
Speaker
I'm not even like in marketing or anything. I'm a programmer. ah Yeah, we had ah one of them is a teriyaki burger with an egg. That's the Ryu burger. ah The Chun-Li burger is, I think it was a chicken sandwich.
00:21:12
Speaker
Uh... Hold on. ah Yeah, it's the Yurinichi mayo chicken, which represented Chun-Li. It was a chicken patty using a big chunk of breast meat with lettuce, sweet mayo sauce, and a Yurinichi filling.
00:21:28
Speaker
um And then you got the Ken Burger, which is ah basically a big triple is basically a triple It would have been funny if they made the Ken burger just like a burger with ketchup and that's it. I mean, it's it's funny because Ken's the American. They're like, oh, American, three patties. Yeah. Most we can put into a burger. Yeah. so they They took the McDouble and they added a third patty with cheese.
00:21:57
Speaker
That's all the Ken burger is. America. Erica. I feel like they could have done that for like Guile because a Guile feels more American. That's true. I mean, true, but though though they are they obviously picked those three. There was also a Luke breakfast sandwich that they did.
00:22:15
Speaker
ah well we really? It was just like a standard breakfast sandwich, really. Huh. There was really nothing super special about the breakfast sandwich, but Luke was there too because Luke is, they're trying to make Luke the new face of the series.
00:22:27
Speaker
They are. it's It's almost like they're trying to reboot it at this point. I mean, they kind of, but with how Street Fighter 6 is, they kind of slightly, it's like a soft reboot. It's a very soft reboot.
00:22:41
Speaker
We'll see like when Street Fighter 7 releases in like another three or four years from now. It's a non-committal reboot. Yeah. Yeah. But those are my top 10 stories. What didd you guys think?
00:22:53
Speaker
Are there any stories you think should have been in this list? I think good list all were very and like interesting. Definitely a lot of them like were either very like unique, like the McDonald's stuff, ah or very like very interesting and very far-reaching.
00:23:17
Speaker
Because a lot of these I knew about, but like the more niche ones, I was like, oh, that's interesting. That's cool. Like the Spanish TV news station one. I i had no idea about that, but that's very funny.
00:23:29
Speaker
Right? i want I want to know what boss fight they were talking about. And they used like a football grid as well. ah Like where each person was sitting and like how they would be like you it was it's a whole thing. Wow. Go find it. It's a whole thing.
00:23:47
Speaker
man So wait, is it American football or everywhere else? Like football like no like American football, like American, American football. That's wild. Because you know how they like draw the like lines everywhere like for football? oh yeah. With the X's and O's. It was like that.
00:24:04
Speaker
that's I love that. I love that so much. It's so funny. It's so, so funny. Ninja Frog, Ryan, what about you guys? I enjoy them. I'm actually looking up the the Pope thing. I'm curious. Apparently, under po and of the they used footage from the Pontiff fight in Dark Souls 3. There we go. That's what it was.
00:24:30
Speaker
if But i I need to see this more in detail. What about you, NinjaFrog? I don't think i have anything. I was trying to think through my and my library of brain to find out if there's anything there. But yeah, outside of what we've got here, i don't think there's anything I could think of that was... at the stapler The stapler is what I always think of. That that was ridiculous.
00:25:00
Speaker
I'm going to honest. I'm going to start using my library of brain. Every time I need to find a thought, I'm just going to say I'm going to check out something from my library of brain. I love it. It's such a Ninja Frog quote. bring good quote ah I like it. Well, ah that's those are my top 10 stories of the year, but there is still stuff happening as we dive into the week in review. Here's what happened in the past two weeks that aren't Game Awards related. Recapping the major stories of video games and the world of tabletop, looking over recent releases and reports from the Game Lounge crew. It's the week in review.
00:25:38
Speaker
And starting off, some of the games that did come out, because there were some big games that still came out near the end of the year. We had Marvel Cosmic Invasion, the brand new side-scroller Beat'em-Up game starring all your marvel favorite Marvel heroes. Octopath Traveler Zero, Metroid Prime 4 Beyond, Skate Story, Unbeatable, and Let It Die Inferno, which is not doing that great.
00:26:02
Speaker
Hmm. ah for a spiritual successor with that could be attributed to like a big sea of J-Rock being brought to the West as the first game soundtrack featured Survive Said the Prophet, what Rookies is Punk'd, and a bunch of other J-Rock bands of the same like.
00:26:21
Speaker
The second one is not doing as well. m i need to I need to play Unbeatable. I saw when it was like... I've seen a lot good things. I've heard a lot of good things about this one.
00:26:32
Speaker
So I discovered it because I was scrolling TikTok like you do and I saw it, and I was like, wait, no, I i fuck with this. Hold on. So ah probably sometime next week, I'm to try and stream it soon because it it looks really good and very fun. Yeah, I'm going to try to play it in the new year when I've got time because...
00:26:53
Speaker
Right. is good i And between Final Fantasy? Yeah, that tweet ah yeah probably. but as for video game news, starting off, developer running with scissors announced a new entry in its provocative first-person shooter franchise, Postal 3, on December 3rd, only to cancel it on December 4th. The devs say that it's shutting down amid backlash and threats against its developers. The strong feedback from them, though, is that elements of the game are very likely AI generated and thus have caused extreme damage to our brand and our company reputation.
00:27:34
Speaker
That is what the developers are saying is why they got the backlash is that all the backlash is AI generated, even though... ah oh Oh, they're saying the back like the negative comments are AI generated. Okay, so oh I thought they were saying their stuff was AI generated. that's what thought. Both. Okay. ah there's not the reason people oh actually no People are bad I don't really know. It's Postal. Postal is has like this weird reputation as it stands ah being this very, for people who know OG Postal and Postal 2, basically think gta GTA but like extremely unhinged.
00:28:18
Speaker
like there's a dedicated piss button to piss on people. Oh, I remember this. Okay. Just walk up and shoot the mailman. Like yeah it's, I remember when that game first came out, it was like a huge thing.
00:28:33
Speaker
like thing. yeah yeah like there was like but There's been like backlash for every Postal game that's come out for various reasons, mostly because of just like, what the fuck? Why would you make this type shit? But also now with this new one, it's like, oh, now they're using AI in this shit too. It's like, I don't know what's true. I don't know. I'm just reporting ah reporting this. ah yeah It's Postal. so The game's not happening. It got cancelled. But just so you know, that happened. It happened.
00:29:03
Speaker
Gotcha. ah GTA Online is back in the news as their latest update, A Safe House in the Hills, is seeing the return of the final of the three protagonists in GTA Online, Mr. Michael.
00:29:17
Speaker
He is back in... He is finally in GTA Online. ah And now, who knows, this i they this might be setting up for a big thing where you see all three of them reunite in GTA Online for like an even bigger heist with you, your GTA Online character.
00:29:34
Speaker
I mean, it's cool, and I don't play GTA Online, but i feel like when I see something that's like, oh man, why is GTA 6 taking so long? And then I see, and we just made this huge update for GTA Online. I'm like, hey, wait a minute. I think I know where the resources are going, guys. I'm not an invest-a-migater, but I think I know a thing or two. Yeah.
00:30:02
Speaker
It's like, okay. In Mario Kart news, Mario Kart World's latest update has revamped a bunch of the intermission courses. ah They've undergone some redesigns with new obstacles and hazards and stuff.
00:30:17
Speaker
ah And custom rules have been added as well ah with like the custom item rules where you can now set what items use in the race. Because while that was in Mario Kart 8, that was not in Mario Kart World's at launch, which was, again, another reason of why Mario Kart World should not have won a certain game award, but we'll get there when we get there. we will eventually get there. ah For right now, though... a step in the right direction. it is. well i i heard a lot of people ah that were
00:30:49
Speaker
More, they weren't like freaking out about it, but they were like upset that they had to do the intermission tracks. Well, yeah, a lot of the intermission tracks were just a straight line. They're straight lines with the occasional turns and some cars here and there.
00:31:05
Speaker
I think like like with the updates I've seen, it's like, oh, hey, volcano balls. Oh, hey, a lot more crashing waves and like even more obstacles and shit like that. ah yeah They're implementing a lot more and they're doing a lot more for these intermission courses to make them not just lines anymore.
00:31:24
Speaker
Can i it's Not really conspiracy theory, but like conspiracy theory. i feel like i feel like the Sonic racing game doing so well scared ah Mario into being better. And that's why competition is good, kids. See, I don't... right i don't Maybe i don't have a perception of the sales between the two, um but my perception is it it it seems like it did well, but my my thing with the Sonic racing game is i just i don't like looking at it. Really? so i don't Yeah, i like i i don't I don't have much of an interest in playing it because it just it's something about it just feels...
00:32:11
Speaker
ah like half done I guess I mean I can say this like the Spongebob world sure a very fair if you're talking about the Spongebob world as a guy who spent 80 goddamn hours plodding that game it was nice to look at but I but like i burned myself out of that game yeah but i love I genuinely one of the best racers I've played in a long time No, that's totally fair. i mean i mean, it's not like I'm saying Mario Kart World is way better. no yeah it's like It's like not like they they butchered a lot with Mario Kart World. And if they want to keep it alive, they're going to have to keep doing these updates. Otherwise, it's just $80 tag. Yeah. $100 price tag
00:33:00
Speaker
ah yeah canada Oh, dear God. yeah you' are very lucky here. ah i paid I bought three Switch 2 games this year, and it cost me $300. Oh, my oh my god I can't imagine. Yeah. Uh, there, the first person horror game horses from Italian indie developer studio, Santa Ragione has been hit by another band. This game is being banned everywhere. Uh, after steam preemptively banned this game during development, the Epic game store has now also refused to distribute this game.
00:33:33
Speaker
Uh, it was like one day before the game launched. I don't know where you can, I don't know if you can even play this game because it got banned everywhere. uh, And it's when I saw this got bad for like, ah like it was like something, it was like sexual.
00:33:47
Speaker
Yeah. I don't even know what it is. I've just seen a bunch. It was just like, i I just assumed like, what the fuck are they doing to these horses? And turns out it has like nothing to do with, like with a, with a horse, but it's just like, well, you call your game of horses and it's being banned for like certain sexual things. I'm just like,
00:34:07
Speaker
it be it makes you It makes the outsiders look like, hu i yeah I feel like I was just flashbang by words.
00:34:18
Speaker
Those were so many things in so little time. ah Italian developer creates game named horses. yep that Did you say it was a horror game? yes Yeah, it's a horror game with the title horses. and It's been banned. That was an emotional roller coaster. i was not ready for. peter the horse is here.
00:34:43
Speaker
I still don't know exactly for what, because like I heard about it and then just TikToks were talking about it, but they wouldn't say why. i'm like well be like i don't know I don't know how bad it is, but if but if they're not even going to talk about it, it's like... Yeah, it has to be bad if no one's saying why.
00:35:00
Speaker
yeah
00:35:03
Speaker
Mamma Mia. I feel too concerned to Google it because then am I going end up like on lists or something? Are we going to end up on lists? Oh, no. ah mia fakullo Oh,
00:35:15
Speaker
ah In Pokemon news, the Pokemon Legends ZA Mega di Dimension DLC is out now. Before the release, however, they did show off in an official trailer Mega Lucario Z and they added Mewtwo event into the game of via Mystery Gift.
00:35:31
Speaker
And they also added an Alpha Charizard Mystery Gifts where if you use a certain code, you can get a big-ass Charizard. I am playing through the DLC as we as we record this. It is really good. I like it a lot, personally. um The story that they did is is is neat. It definitely feels, though, like they could have...
00:35:51
Speaker
I don't know, not charge 40 bucks for this and made this like are the game a bo bonus end game content ah because it like, yeah, it's it's modern day Nintendo Pokemon. It's modern day. But it's cool. It's cool. The new Megas are cool that they added the DLC oh yeah that I've seen so far.
00:36:12
Speaker
Um... but We also get they they are giving you they give us like five fucking mythical Pokemon in this DLC alone. Like we you get up. really We get Hoopa. We get I'm gonna spoil it, but it's like for people because people who want to complete their living decks like me, who is only one Pokemon away. I can finally get my fucking Hoopa because of this. You have no idea how thrilled I am that my living decks at home will finally be done once the home implementation for Legends EA is implemented. And I can do that. i get a zero We get a Zera Aura in this, and I can replace my shiny Zera Aura that's in that spot with the regular Zera Aura, which is great as well.
00:36:50
Speaker
ah we We get them ah another Magearna. We get another Mars Shadow. You need a minute? You get Volcanion yet?
00:37:00
Speaker
Yeah, we also get Volcanion. Really? Let's go. And Volcanion has a Mega. Oh, that's wild. um Darkrai also got a Mega. Darkrai's Mega is pretty cool.
00:37:12
Speaker
It's cool. They they butchered its stats. Yes. Which is so sad. Darkrai went from this frail offensive attacker that's not so frail to slow, not even slow, middling speed bulky hitter.
00:37:29
Speaker
Which is, that's so mean to do that to Darkrai. I get Dark Void was a problem, but why'd you do that to him? True. Nightmares. Nightmare, nightmare, nightmare. That's thought as that's the whole plot. Darkrai's having nightmares, and that's why these portals are appearing everywhere.
00:37:47
Speaker
Oh, interesting. is It's part of it's a part of like a bigger catalyst, but like that's kind of like one of the key things. So reason can I can I see say something that I saw, which I'm not 100% sure people have seen yet, but apparently there is for the Mewtwo part. There is a they call it ah Project M. Yeah, i know. It is. I forgot. They're trying to like change search engine results so that when people look up Project M, it comes up with this DLC rather than the... Yeah, rather than the modded Super Smash Bros. Brawl project, which became Project Plus.
00:38:26
Speaker
Right. But it's it's funny. It's so very funny that they would do that. Yeah. Like... I don't think it's on purpose. It might be. Who knows? But like, it's very That's why Nintendo came after Project Demo all those years ago.
00:38:40
Speaker
the It's all connected. It's all connected. Who knew? ah They knew they wanted to do this about a decade ago, I'm sure. I'm sure. i mean, we know from the leaks that Nintendo plans things out 10 years ahead.
00:38:55
Speaker
oh yeah, absolutely. first Oh, you know, winds and waves coming next year, apparently.
00:39:03
Speaker
ah In Netflix games news, Netflix sold the studio behind Cozy Grove back to their original owners, Spry Fox, freeing the studio to bring its mobile life sim to other platforms finally.
00:39:15
Speaker
Good. Fuck Netflix games. Agreed. but also, it's so funny to hear sold back to they're free now. They're free. They're just ah I have to buy your freedom. just When you go to put this on shorts, just have the the image of the guy breaking the chains that everyone uses.
00:39:37
Speaker
uh oblivion the skyrim mod that's turning the whole game into modern day oblivion has been delayed again to 2026 and the dev team is asking for more help once again to get this finished uh probably because they were all too busy playing uh oblivion remastered because bethesda was kind enough to gift everybody working on that mod uh the game for free Oh, that's cool. Wait, really?
00:40:01
Speaker
they did that. I was debating whether to put that in my top 10, but some other things beat it out. Okay, Bethesda. I don't really play a lot of your games, but like when you do cool stuff like that, I'm like, all right.
00:40:16
Speaker
I see you. Maybe I'll give you a chance now. Nintendo should learn. ah I brought this up earlier, but ah Russia banned Roblox over extremist content and specifically LGBTQ plus propaganda.
00:40:31
Speaker
That's why Russia banned Roblox because they can't handle the gays, which is a dumb reason. But you know what? It gets Roblox out of the country, so it's kind of a win it's for the wrong reasons. Yeah.
00:40:44
Speaker
Yeah. It's like, oh, Russia banned Roblox? That's cool. Is it because of all the pedophiles? Russia. You banned it for the wrong reason. The children are safe, but... but Yeah, the children are safe.
00:40:59
Speaker
But like... i Man, to Russia, did you ban that game for the wrong reasons? Again?
00:41:09
Speaker
Again? ah What can I say? ah In dictionary news, the Oxford English Dictionary has named its word of the year.
00:41:25
Speaker
It's rage bait. Really? Yeah. How's that a word? Right. right No, Digifrog, you're going to fall for it. You're falling for it.
00:41:37
Speaker
That's what they want. If I remember, I've got to double check, but the Merriam Webster dictionary word of the year was, ah oh, it hasn't announced it, but there was another one God dictionary word of the year. Wasn't it? Yeah. Don't say it. I think don't say it.
00:41:58
Speaker
and think we all know. let's ah Cambridge chose parasocial. Okay. Oxford was rage bait and dictionary.com. That's who what did it.
00:42:10
Speaker
That's that those are the perpetrators. Dictionary.com picked the forbidden numbers. The forbidden numbers. My mom said it one time and I told you to visit again. i'm never speaking to her again. Did you did you see the ah there was a tick tock or whatever where a kid goes up to the Grinch and says it and then he just comes back. i nine Yeah. And the kid goes, no. With like such disdain. And I'm like, oh, so that's what I need to start doing. yeah they thought they could They thought they could get the Grinch like they got Squidward to dab all those years ago. But the Grinch is smarter than Squidward. Thank God we have the Grinch.
00:42:50
Speaker
ah god Thank God we have the Grinch. Yeah. In Hideo Kojima news, Hideo Kojima is a voice actor now as he has a role in Zootopia 2's Japanese cast as Officer Paul Moldebrandt.
00:43:05
Speaker
Kojima did not have to audition for the role, but was actually asked directly by Disney Animation Studios due to Jared Bush, the CCO at the House of Mouse's animation arm. That's pretty cool.
00:43:18
Speaker
And now, is this also probably involved because Kojima, Dizzy is making a Death Stranding anime? Probably. What? Did you hear about this, Ninja Frog? I didn't hear about this either. Disney is working on a death stranding anime is called. Hold on. Let me find this. I think I actually I think I bring this up. Do I bring this up later in? yeah because I will just jump to that. No, I don't.
00:43:51
Speaker
ah Yeah, there is a death stranding ah anime being worked on by Disney. Anime Disney.
00:44:04
Speaker
Destinating Isolation. That's working title is currently. 2027? Yeah. yeah Wow. That's wild. Man. yeah but You know...
00:44:18
Speaker
Kojima, that man just kind of does things. And every time I hear about it, I'm like, OK, that sounds like something he would do or just like, oh, I wonder what he's going to do with that. So like, I'm curious what the anime is going to be about, if it's going to be like direct, like from the game or if it's going to be like a continuation of the story or what have you.
00:44:39
Speaker
I think it's it's sort of like, um I think it's going to be very similar to like Cyberpunk Edge Runners where it's not tied to the universe. Like it's in the universe. Okay. and I like, I kind of dig that. now It says it's going to be hand-drawn 2D animation as well. oh shit okay so they're going all out with this okay all right okay respect respect i'm glad i'm glad we're not using the forbidden letters for this let's go have the forbidden letters and the forbidden numbers god yeah the should just be the forbidden year honestly uh Sonic Racing Cross Worlds dropped a brand new update adding six new gadgets to the game a new legend competition mode to put all the legend racers all together so that way you don't have run into them in your online matches and the max rating is now 9,999 adding a whole 90,000 new points to the game ah and two new collaboration jukebox songs were added as well um
00:45:42
Speaker
I can shout out my boy Emerald because he reached Emerald rank. Let's go So, ah yeah yeah yeah, he had to do it to him. Yeah, absolutely.
00:45:54
Speaker
Minecraft's Mountain Mayhem update is out, adding the the new Nautilus underwater mount, spears, and bunch more other things that Minecraft always adds. Interesting.
00:46:04
Speaker
Skyrim's Anniversary Edition launched on the Switch, too, so if you want to buy it for a tenth time, You can't. yeah We can't not really release Skyrim. Come on, guys.
00:46:20
Speaker
insane. Every few years, they're like, but again let's just put it out again. Someone will buy it. yeah It's like the McRib. It's back. Now, whether or not you can upgrade your Skyrim Switch 1 edition into the Skyrim Switch 2 edition, I don't know. Probably not. oh that's I would hope you can. i think you can.
00:46:39
Speaker
i believe... I don't want to say anything, actually. yeah not i yeah I'm not sure, I'm not 100% sure. So double check that, gamers, before you go and buy if you have it on the Switch 1 to see if you can just get yourself a cheaper upgrade.
00:46:55
Speaker
ah A feature that Pokemon Go players have been pleading with Niantic to add for years is finally coming to the game. Remote trading of Pokemon is being added to Go, or has been added to Go, I should say, as part of an update to the friendship levels in the game, which will soon include a new tier called Forever Friends.
00:47:16
Speaker
Aw, that's nice. How long did it them to have this? You can remote trade in Pokemon Go. Anybody here still play Pokemon Go out of curiosity? Some of my family members play Pokemon Go. And while i I don't play it as often, it is nice that like every now and then, because my family knows I love Pokemon, I've loved Pokemon since I was young. Like I have like a younger cousin who really likes Pokemon Go and will just come up to me and show me his Pokemon. And we now have something to talk about. Hell yeah. Yeah.
00:47:49
Speaker
Which is just nice and wholesome. He's just like, this is my shiny Kyogre. This is like my shiny whatever. I'm like, yo, that's so cool, man. Like, I just get to like gush about him and just like give him props for all the cool stuff he has. And that's just a good feeling. And then Joe turns around. Here's his eyes. I wish I had a shiny Kyogre. do, actually. I still have it. I actually transported it to my ah my home. So I have a shiny Kyogre myself. Nice.
00:48:16
Speaker
Nice. I... have seven shiny Pokemon in Legend ZA. Oh, nice. That's that's it. ah Five of them were at full odds.
00:48:29
Speaker
can have four odds oh no ballahs no shiny charm and they just appeared i'm like oh cool thank you and i like getting the shot i will say this the shiny charm getting it in za without the dlc sucks ass because you have to do two thousand uh yeah two that like two thousand battles or something like that yeah which is annoying can i i just My best friend Blast has been trying to shiny hunt Phalanx because it's one of his favorite Pokemon. And so far he's caught four shiny Froakie, one of which is an alpha Froakie.
00:49:08
Speaker
And no phalanx. He's been going for so long. Because there are more phalanx in that zone than there are Froakies. There's a single Froakie in that zone. I know we what does like where this is, because phalanx, have one area. There is only one phroakie in the middle of the map standing on a pillar.
00:49:27
Speaker
And there are phalanx patrolling the whole area. Oh, that's funny. it He's... Man, he has the kind of luck that's like... dude, you wouldn't believe it. I tripped today and i like I hurt my arm. Oh, that sucks, man. Yeah, I tripped on this gold bar and now I'm to go sell it. It's like, what?
00:49:49
Speaker
Wow. Wow, what luck. I know. It's a sad day for video games as Katsuhiro Harada the lead game developer whose name is synonymous with Tekken.
00:50:02
Speaker
He's announced that he's leaving Bandai Namco and Tekken behind at the end of the year. Really? is Wow. the end of the Harada has been working on Tekken since its inception in 1994, which meat was is now beginning to theorize Tekken 8 may not have a season three for DLC characters. May. I don't know entirely.
00:50:26
Speaker
There is still a chance, but Harada, he's not behind it anymore. It's going to be, I don't know who the new game director will be, ah but it's no longer Harada, which is crazy.
00:50:38
Speaker
That's because he is such an icon in the tech and just like the fighting game. I that's wild to me. I've heard many very funny and very interesting stories. Some which may just be like people making stuff up. But i think one of my favorite things I heard about was people were asking him if they could add like the the Waffle House parking lot as a stage. And he reached out to Waffle House.
00:51:07
Speaker
Which is, that's so funny on so many levels, but it kind of goes to show where he was at in the community of Tekken. And it it feels very sad to know that he's like leaving Tekken behind.
00:51:22
Speaker
Most likely not just leaving like the community, hopefully not, But it's just, it's it's wild to know that he's he's leaving it behind as like a developer. i Yeah. Or did you say he was a developer or was he? Yeah, he was the He was the lead director. He was lead the lead developer. Got it. Like lead director. lead Like he was, the he was for Tekken, he was the lead.
00:51:46
Speaker
it was It was him. He was at the helm. That's kind of crazy to hear. And it makes me a little shaky on where the series and what it's going to do from here but I do wish him the best in all of his future endeavors.
00:52:01
Speaker
Yes. I doubt he'll hear this, but you know what? If he does, I have best for you. ah GameStop's Trade Anything Day happened, and it was psychological torture for some unlucky employees.
00:52:16
Speaker
People did, in fact, try to trade anything from taxidermy to social security cards to even a live pug. yeah If you are trying to give your dog away to trade it for games... Some of this was for the the the social media post.
00:52:33
Speaker
You should not own a dog. Shh. But like some people ah traded in some taxidermy items. i don't I think they got like five bucks for it.
00:52:44
Speaker
GameStop credit or whatever. um But there was like there was some good cool trades, some funny trades. It was quite a time that the Internet had with GameStop doing that.
00:52:55
Speaker
How did they figure out the pricing for this stuff? I think they're all $5. I think you always just get $5. Yeah, I think it's like a minimum of $5. If it's something that's actually valuable, I think they would give you a bit more, but like $5 is I think what you got for sure. I'm just imagining the guy who took his pug who was just like, hey, babe, I'm taking the dog out for a walk and for clout on Twitter. I'll be back.
00:53:22
Speaker
She's just a guy, whatever. Comes back with $5. Scrolls her Twitter, sees the photo of him leaving the geeks up with the dog with the caption, they wouldn't let me trade the dog.
00:53:33
Speaker
Yo, know poor GameStop. They could have said they got that dog in them and they just didn't want to take it. I think you need to get into marketing. Oh, me? Yeah. i You know what? in ah In another life I might have...
00:53:47
Speaker
ah ah Hey, the Fall Guys developers are making a new game. It's called Frog Squad. Bro, I was just looking at it. This game looks awesome. Low-key does. I think it's basically just like a new style of Fall Guys game with frogs.
00:54:03
Speaker
But no, I think this one's like co-op specifically. I think it's more like kind of like the realm of like like a peak kind of game where it's like, just like, like, so ah co-op extraction puzzle platform for up to eight players caught up with your farm friends for a friend slot party in the slapstick physics adventure.
00:54:20
Speaker
That's what I'm interpreting it as, at least. Oh my God. so Oh my. Let's. Okay. Hold on. I got a. i'm looking me I'm looking at the trailer right now. This this interesting. And I need more of those games. like The sledding game is awesome. Can't wait until that comes out. Peak is already awesome. like We need more of these more more of these co-op games.
00:54:40
Speaker
And we got Big Walk. i'm watching as As much of as hyped up that Big Walk. this Big Walk coming out next year as well. ah Not to be confused with the I Spice song Big Guy.
00:54:52
Speaker
You can use your tongue in the game. Oh, that's so cute. Using tongues to catapult people. Oh, okay. I have i had just wishlisted this. bubble. but You could become a bubble. a bubble. And then could eat a bunch of food and you'd really big. Oh, you'd get big. oh that's so cute. Man.
00:55:13
Speaker
man You know what? To the developers who made Fall Guys, I really liked Fall Guys. It's a fun game. And I hope this game also does well because it looks adorable as heck. I love how your character runs and his arms are like flailing behind his head like, yay! Like Kermit the Frog. but He looks like Kermit the Frog running.
00:55:37
Speaker
Yay! He's so excited! Yay!
00:55:41
Speaker
ah Yes. In some mod news, there is a brand new mod that lets you play the entirety of Hades 1 and Hades 2. The Xagreus Journey mod has a third option to your choice of how to leave the crossroads.
00:55:54
Speaker
A Chaos Gate labeled a Descendant Nightmare will ah is there. When you jump inside, you'll be back in Tartarus playing as Milenoe through it. However, any cutscenes with the bosses of Megara, the Bone Hydra, um Theseus and the Bull, and Hades are the replaced with za the cutscenes of Zagreus talking to them and interacting with them, with Milenoe acting like a shadow in the background of those, indicating that this is, that it's like, you're Milenoe experiencing this from, like, Zagreus' perspective, but you're
00:56:25
Speaker
millennia through this. um You can do that now too, which is cool. ah yeah dar Last story I have here. Peak added a brand new update, which lasted ah this past weekend with baby, no money holding a concert.
00:56:43
Speaker
and Yo, baby knows because let's be real. Bing Bong needed that. i don't think Bing Bong would have seen the end of the year. i don't think Bing Bong would have seen the end of the year if he didn't get that concert. He needed something.
00:56:59
Speaker
Poor guy. He's been going through it. Lost his wife. He lost his wife. He lost Baby No Money and he lost the Game Award. he's He's doing he's trying his best. Poor guy. Somebody check on Big Bong. Someone check on him, please. But no, he's doing better now that he got his Baby No Money concerted.
00:57:17
Speaker
yeah i think he's doing better so also thing you can do i believe if you had gone into the game and pressed the number seven you would get iron mouse hair because they were also in the concert oh that's pretty cool right yes it's like if you hit seven a bunch of times you'll get it eventually which is cool Very cool indeed. In ongoing game news, ah big stuff for Final Fantasy XIV because we have the rare Christmas update in the game. 7.4 releases December 16th.
00:57:51
Speaker
Here's everything more that we learned about Live Later from the Producer 90. He like he held that wrong. Starting off, the Arcadian Heavyweight Division raids are being added in. The Savage raids for these drop in the new year in January. The new gear looks very Phantasy Star Online is how a lot of people have described the the new gear from the raids. Also, Tom Morello and Beartooth worked on a song for the new tier of raids.
00:58:22
Speaker
And the song is going to be copyright safe. I'm curious how that came about. yeah Apparently Soken was just like, hey, I really like Tom Morello. Let's reach out to work on a song together. And Tom Morello's like, hell yeah.
00:58:36
Speaker
And then they got the lead singer of Beartooth to do the vocals. ah So, yeah, that's happening. The song is really cool. It will drop as a single, I believe, the same around the same time the update rolls out.
00:58:51
Speaker
um so even cooler the new dungeon is Mistwake the new trial at Hell on Rails both Normal and EX there's a new frontline campaign map Warcore Chirte that's being added in a new frontline game mode and series 10 for the PvP will begin with new rewards.
00:59:12
Speaker
Tsukuyomi's Pain is the new Unreal fight. The new Phantom jobs being added to the Occult Crescent are Mystic Knight, Dancer, and Gladiator. The new Weapon en Enhancer for the Phantom weapons is being added as well. And 7.5, when that comes out, they will be adding two new difficulties for the Forged Tower.
00:59:30
Speaker
The new crafted battle gear is being added. The strategy board and command panels are being added for quality of life stuff. The gold saucer is getting a new air force one map.
00:59:41
Speaker
So now we don't have two maps to rotate with on the aura veil and disnail darkhold are getting duty support options, which might see those dungeons change ever so slightly just for more ease of access with the duty support feature. Um,
00:59:55
Speaker
ah The glamour update removing gear restrictions, which means you can look like a tank and be a healer. Let's go. The only thing you can't change is the weapons themselves just because of certain animations with the weapons. So those are the only things that like you can't heal somebody with a spear.
01:00:13
Speaker
ah Yeah. Fair. The Cosmic Exploration Oasis will release in 7.41. The new Variant Dungeon, The Merchant's Tale, will release in 7.45.
01:00:25
Speaker
More Hildebrand will be released during 7.45 as well. go New Mount Wise are getting a new Snowman Melt that's based off of the the Yakui snowmen in Dawn Trail and some new minions that we're giving include a German shepherd and a like ah a gray fluffy cat.
01:00:44
Speaker
And also there is a Fantasian and Neo Dimension glam collaboration and emotes being added to the online store December 16th as well. um It's three character outfits and there's an emote that's also tied to each one of those as well. Oh, cool.
01:01:00
Speaker
And yeah go for it, Joe. I was going to say, ah because of the whole glamour update, i I saw a post someone made was like, I can't wait to see everyone get to level 100 with blacksmiths so they can get the armor. Because it's like the top is just bandages across your chest. And then like the bottoms are like these big pants.
01:01:20
Speaker
So everyone can like now just stylize themselves. So like they just they're almost shirtless, but like a little bit more stylized shirtless. taste Tasteful shirtless. Tasteful shirtless is a good way to put it, but I do think that having the restrictions on glamour is a good thing.
01:01:37
Speaker
People were crying because they didn't. the What about job identity? But i I don't know, man. I think it's better that like you have more options. You can make yourself still look like a tank. There's nothing stopping you.
01:01:52
Speaker
I feel like people were more worried to just have a, have something to be worried about. You know, people were just upset to be upset. Yeah, no, this is a really cool thing. I can't wait to be a a red mage and pull out a gun.
01:02:07
Speaker
True. ah ah In e-sports news, Evo announced their 2026 game lineup and Mortal Kombat is out.
01:02:20
Speaker
So it's not in the lineup. Mortal Kombat is not in the lineup at all. Damn. The lineup is now also featuring 12 games instead of the usual nine.
01:02:30
Speaker
The games that will be at EVO 2026 are Street Fighter VI, Tekken VIII, Fatal Fury City of the Wolves, Underdite Inbirth Grand Blue Fantasy vs. Rising, Rivals of Aether 2X Guilty Gear Strive, BlazBlue Central Fiction,
01:02:49
Speaker
Virtua Fighter Revo World Stage, Vampire Savior, and Invincible Versus. Okay, okay. A lot of those I kind of expected, some of which I'm like, oh, that's interesting. That's good to see.
01:03:02
Speaker
We also did get the Ivo Japan lineup as well for next year. Okay. Which is most of the same things. We got Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive, Grand Blue Fantasy vs. Rising, King of Fighters 15, Virtua Fighter 5, Tekken 8, Fatal Fury, Sea of the Wolves, Vampire Savior, Undernight Inbirth 2, Hokuto No Ken, 2X KO, and Melty Blood Type Lumina.
01:03:28
Speaker
Hmm. Okay. So we did get all of those announcements, but yes, no Mortal Kombat, which is a huge blow to the Mortal Kombat fans and community to not be at EVO going forward.
01:03:44
Speaker
I mean, i think it was a huge blow to the Mortal Kombat community that released the most recent Mortal Kombat game. You know what? Fair. Very fair. In TCG news, in the Pokemon world, Mega Evolution Ascended Heroes releases January 30th.
01:04:02
Speaker
In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Phantom Revenge is out now. Chronicles Deck, The Spirit Charmers, releases January 22nd. First Protocol, February 5th. Maze of Muertos, February 19th.
01:04:13
Speaker
And the Legendary Modern Decks on March 13th. In Magic the Gathering, Lorewind Eclipse comes out January 23rd. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, March sixth Secrets of Strixhaven in April, Marvel Superheroes in June, The Hobbit in August, Reality Fracture in October, and Star Trek in November.
01:04:32
Speaker
In Lorcanna, Winter Spell releases February 13th, and Wild's Unknown releases in quarter two of next year. And in the Digimon TCG, the starter deck Amethyst Mandala is out now. And Time Stranger TCG cards will be out January 23rd.
01:04:51
Speaker
Very excited for that, even though I'm not quite done the game yet, but I will be next year. I am very excited to see what cards ah they have there that are references to Time Stranger.
01:05:04
Speaker
ah And that is everything in the week in review. Any final thoughts of that, lads? Hmm. Honestly, pretty big week. yeah lot of stuff happened. We're near the end of the year.
01:05:17
Speaker
it's It's interesting to like kind of look back on a lot of stuff that we've done and seen so far. But ah more than anything, I hope Bing Bong's okay. i hope he I hope he's doing well.
01:05:28
Speaker
yeah Yeah. i said Yeah. Please check on your local Big Bong, guys. Indeed. Well, with that, we're going to dive into the games that are coming out here at the end of the year, which there's there's only four. But here are the four games that should be on your radar from December 15th to 31st.
01:05:48
Speaker
From AAA titles, indie hits, hidden gems, and hot pieces of garbage, here are the games coming out that should be on your radar. And I like, obviously there is a bunch of other games that come out, but like, yeah yeah like they they're like Steam exclusive and no one has time to pick through everything that releases on Steam on a daily basis.
01:06:08
Speaker
ah But the here's some here's what's coming out. On the 15th, Man Eater makes its way to iOS and Android. On the 16th, the Rogue Prince of Persia makes its way to both Switch consoles.
01:06:19
Speaker
On the 19th, Avatar Frontiers of Pandora gets the From the Ashes DLC on PC, PS5, and Series X. And on the 30th of December, Adventure Reborn comes out on the Switch.
01:06:31
Speaker
That's it. That's it. That's the end of the year.
01:06:36
Speaker
That's all we got for you. Did anybody play Avatar Frontiers of Pandora? Because that's like the only game that's like not notable. ah Not to say anything brood of Rogue Prince of Persia, but I didn't play it, so I can't speak on it.
01:06:50
Speaker
ah No, honestly. It makes sense that like there's not a whole lot stuff releasing the end of the year. Also, the reason the Avatar DLC is coming out of that day is because the new Avatar movie also drops that day. That makes sense.
01:07:07
Speaker
Understandable. Yeah, and James Cameron said if it the movie doesn't do well, he's just going to stop making Avatar films.
01:07:15
Speaker
Wait, wasn't there supposed to only be three? or as a i I don't actually know. we can I think it's like, ah I thought maybe it six. but oh Do you want to hear something that's very shocking?
01:07:30
Speaker
I have never seen any of the Avatar movies. Same. Same. i I remember seeing the first one. i don't remember anything that it it was about. Okay, currently it's five, but maybe six and seven.
01:07:45
Speaker
You know what? Don't go see the movie, guys. Have him stop. Listen, save your money and go see the the movie in January that's supposed to be coming out, Iron Lung by Markiplier. Apparently it's coming into some ah Canadian theaters as well.
01:08:08
Speaker
yeah I should double check that map. There's like over a thousand theaters now that's going to be in it. It started at like 50 to 100 and it's like exploding and I'm yeah very happy for him.
01:08:22
Speaker
The dude obviously put a lot of work into this. oh yeah so Every video I've seen of him is in like He just looks so tired, but thankful for everyone. Cause I think there's like a lot of them that have been sold out now already. Yeah.
01:08:35
Speaker
Mark releases project. He puts his heart and soul into yeah him thinking no one's going to watch this goes on ah posted on it. He's very humble. He always forgets like how much his community loves backing his projects. Apparently, in his most recent video that I watched, ah you know, spoiler for time and whatnot of this being recorded, but ah he went and checked like the listing to his hometown and it was sold out on like opening day.
01:09:06
Speaker
Like he couldn't get a ticket to go see the movie. Yeah. and he was like he was the best way to describe it his gabber was flasted i mean his this flabber was gasted sorry his gabber was blasted oh no oh man but he was he was shook he is so like like it's crazy to think about like At the end of the day, he's just a YouTuber, you know?
01:09:38
Speaker
And he's he made a movie that's going to be in theaters that I can go and watch. Yeah. And I think that's like almost a hopeful message in and of itself. like Never think that you're less than you are because you can aspire to do greatness in the world. Never forget that.
01:09:56
Speaker
And speaking of greatness, it's time for us to talk about the greatest award show on Earth. Ha! people some people to some people some people ah you know if some people might say the oscars are or some people might say uh the adult uh video net awards are those your favorite tony what never heard of that one let's go talk about uh what we're talking about this week in the game Conversations of past and future games, the state of the gaming industry, how big decisions affect gamers and anything else that's important to us. Here's what's going down this week in the Game Lounge.
01:10:38
Speaker
So, the ga- the... God. The Game Awards. Yes, God. ah No, yeah, the Game Awards. Hey, they happened.
01:10:49
Speaker
And to cover this first part, we're going to cover the announcements that were made at the show, as we usually do. First, ah as there were a lot, but it felt like there weren't as many that as there usually are, which was kind of nice, in a sense, because it felt like the show had like these spots of, like, we can breathe.
01:11:10
Speaker
ah that is That is nice. um' I'm going to say right now there's one that like was announced and it like I went to bed early because i was like, ah, there's not much. like i'll just I'll just see it tomorrow whatever. I wake up and like... it's Instant regretty. Instant, I was just like... I wasn't even fully awake yet. I thought I was looking at something that someone had like photoshopped And I was just like, oh, that's crazy. I wish that had happened. And then I saw it again. And I was like, man, people are really retweeting this Photoshop. And then like the third one, I was like, what?
01:11:48
Speaker
The third one from the official account. Huh? Huh? We will get to that momentarily. Starting off with the pre-show.
01:11:59
Speaker
Hosted by Sidney Goodman. ah We started off the first game reveal of the Game Awards was The Free Shepherd, which is coming out 2027, where you heard sheep as a dog. Oh, that's fun. oh That's very whimsical. i love it. ah we We do love that. oh We then got this look at a first-person horror shooter type game called Decrepit.
01:12:21
Speaker
No release date announced. ah Then we got change for Audio Mech. There is a demo out now, and this game syncs with the music you are listening to. ah oh yeah okay. I'll have to check this out. I tried out the demo.
01:12:35
Speaker
this game much prefers that Wub Wub type music. Oh, I see. it's It benefits more from the Wub Wub type music is what I should say. You can play it with like your regular music, but like if you've got that Wub Wub, this game is going to be like 10 times better for you that kind of music.
01:12:54
Speaker
Oh, I just, I'm looking at, there's a lot of like... There's a lot of just lights. Yes. Gotcha. Yes. Escape from Duck Off was there, which I've never seen gameplay for Escape from Duck Off.
01:13:08
Speaker
It kind of looks, it looks a little silly and fun. The new region was added to that game. um So i make I might go check out Duck Off because it looks super, super silly.
01:13:20
Speaker
um Pragmata got another short trailer where we kind of got a first look at like a boss type enemy. The game comes out April 24th. Solasta 2 got trailer. This is a tactics based basically, hey, if Baldur's Gate 3 was like a tactics RPG instead of just like a D&D RPG.
01:13:42
Speaker
That's kind of what this is. Benstar is in it and it comes out March 12th. Would you say he stars in it? Oh, God damn it. Possibly. i know I don't know what kind of impact this character has on the story, so I can't say. ah Then we got checker for Tank Rat, where you play as a little drone who possesses tanks.
01:14:03
Speaker
And you're tank rat. okay That comes out in spring 2026. Then we got probably the coolest reveal at the Game Awards, Bradley the Badger.
01:14:14
Speaker
This is a 3D platformer that is very self-aware of itself being a video game where you're playing as a badger. They find like essentially the dev tools controller and you're able to manipulate the world with this. And it's really cool. Oh, this looks like a really cool game.
01:14:33
Speaker
And then we got a music video. Um, that I can only describe as i this feels like the successor to lollipop chainsaw in a sense it's called stupid never dies this is an action-based game that the like 90% of the trailer was this music video where I'm like is that machine gun Kelly no it's not okay um and then they showed like a little bit gameplay at the end of the trailer it's like the fuck was that okay
01:15:05
Speaker
no it's not machine gun kelly it's his cousin uzi jason uh ah so that was the pre-show that was everything that they announced the pre-show and now we get into the main show uh all the big announcements everything huge and large and people that studios that paid a million dollars to get their games here allegedly ah Starting off the first trailer of the show, Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic being led by the same person who led the Knights of the Old Republic.
01:15:46
Speaker
Oh, God, what was his name? Casey casey Hudson. Casey Hudson is leading this game. um So it's in good hands ah or ah is what I've heard.
01:16:01
Speaker
So excited to see that. I still never played KOTOR or KOTOR 2, so I can't say much to the games. But a lot of people were excited for that.
01:16:13
Speaker
We got a trailer for Toxic Commando, which drops March 12th. And then we learned what the big-ass statue Jeff was tweeting about all week was. ah It's for the brand-new Divinity game being made by Larian Studios. Yeah. Which I i didn't even know Larian did the Divinity games because...
01:16:34
Speaker
Again, never played a Divinity game or Baldur's Gate 3. So it's like, Marian wasn't really put on the map for me until Baldur's Gate 3. So, yeah, ah they're working on a new game. Apparently it's supposed to even bigger than Baldur's Gate 3. Yeah, it's supposed to be like three times as big as Baldur's Gate. Yeah, so, God.
01:16:53
Speaker
And then J.J. Abrams appeared.
01:16:59
Speaker
i Yeah. yeah i He kind of... Now Grant, it wasn't as like out of left field as a fucking ah Al Pacino coming out that one year. Because that was weird.
01:17:14
Speaker
Don't get you know. Yeah. ah But it's because he's working on a new game with a former Left 4 Dead lead developer called For Loop. m And it's ah basically you go out, fight robots, die, come back to life and do it again.
01:17:31
Speaker
It's another one of those like Left 4 Dead style games. I'm glad it's not spelled F-O-R. Yeah. Because... As a programmer, i would hate yeah to have to Google for loop.
01:17:48
Speaker
And now a video game comes up first. That's funny. Oh man. That would be so annoying to newer programmers. i don't even want to imagine. We then got a trailer for covenant of the chicken foot, which people are, i'm assuming they're right. It seems to be the story of Baba Yaga.
01:18:12
Speaker
Oh, okay. As you play as this old lady with chicken feet and there's this creature that helps you. And I guess that's what Baba Yaga is.
01:18:23
Speaker
ah I gotta double check. Which one's Baba Yaga? Baba Yaga is the old woman with the chicken. yeah Okay, yeah, so you we play as Baba Yaga. Yeah, supposedly her house is also supposed to have like chicken legs and it just kind of walks around in places. She's like an old witch.
01:18:42
Speaker
there's a lot of There's a lot of mythology behind her. Yeah, well, now Baba Yaga gets their own game with Covenant of the Chicken Feet. No release date on that one either.
Game Announcements & Trailers
01:18:51
Speaker
We then got Ontos revealed. This is the new ah from the creators of Soma. It's their spiritual successor to Soma. This is coming out next year.
01:19:02
Speaker
ah So get ready for some spooks. Always ready. Gotcha. Gotcha. 2XKO will be coming to consoles in January, they announced. And then we got another trailer for Resident Evil Requiem, which if people had paid attention to the PlayStation store with the store page for Requiem was made, they might have seen this news a bit earlier as it did leak. But the trailer made it official. Leon Kennedy is back as a playable protagonist.
01:19:32
Speaker
or Resident Evil Requiem. So you play as both Grace and Leon. Man, if if the internet is anything to be believed, it probably isn't. ah Leon is ancient. he's He's going to a retirement home soon. He's he's about to die. He's on death's door. He's so old. He's 51, and Leon Kennedy is just like... he Leon Kennedy is Resident Evil's Cure You.
01:19:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah. That's very accurate, actually. he he ages, but he doesn't really age. Yeah, yeah. Or they age like they age well. like Like a fine wine. Yes. I am looking forward Requiem comes out February twenty seventh We then, from the creators of Braid and The Witness, comes a game that's been in the works for 10 years, featuring 1,400 puzzles, Order of the Sinking Star.
01:20:37
Speaker
Okay. That's a lot of puzzles.
01:20:43
Speaker
Yeah. Very puzzling. but Very puzzling. Understandable why it took a decade. Yeah. That many? That many. you You start playing that game, you'll puzzle until your puzzler was sore.
01:20:59
Speaker
i don't want to know what the platinum trophy for that game looks like. Probably looks like a platinum trophy, but to get it, it's going to be difficult. Okay. Listen here, wise guy. Listen. Yeah, listen. Listen.
01:21:15
Speaker
yeah i thought it funny it was uh then uh wizards of the coast come out and they announced two games uh one that they're publishing one that they're working on uh the one that they're publishing is called exodus it's a space type shooter game there's a space bear in the trailer um so that doesn't come out until 2027 but they're but the game they're working on it comes out summer 2026 called warlock dungeons and dragons that's also so So are we going to get like more... Are we going to get other games like Barbarian Dungeons & Dragons? Rogue Dungeons & Dragons? Maybe.
01:21:52
Speaker
good point i don't know. but Maybe. Who knows? We'll have to wait. its knows We shall see. We got a trailer for this anime racing game called Screamer, which comes out March 26th. And then we got a really cool reveal for a brand new game coming to the Remedyverse, Control Resonance.
01:22:12
Speaker
Good name. Again, really cool. ah Playing through Control myself right now, so it's like, oh, perfect. I can play Control, then I can play Quantum Break, then I can play Out of the Wake 2, and then I'll be ready for Control Resonance.
01:22:28
Speaker
Because, you know, it's the Alan Wakeverse. Right, right. yeah you got You gotta know everything that's gonna happen. You gotta know everything. And then, speaking of knowing everything in a universe to play a game, well, you won't have to for this one, but Gang of Dragon was shown off.
01:22:44
Speaker
And this is being done by the former lead director of Yakuza in his brand new studio. Interesting. ah Back in 2021, he left RGG after working with with Sega and RGG for 30 years.
01:22:59
Speaker
He left to then start his own studio, and this is his first game, part of that new studio. And it stars Don Lee, I believe is his English name. ah but who's also known as Madong Sok, you'd recognize he's a very recognizable Korean actor. I know who you're talking about. Very recognizable. The big guy.
01:23:21
Speaker
The big guy, the gentle giant. But if you hurt him, he'll hurt you like even harder. The big man. He is the one who is starring in the game. Uh, and, uh, looks cool.
01:23:33
Speaker
I can't wait to try it because it looks like it's using some form of the dragon engine. Um, so, not like okay. ah Then we got our first trailer for the Street Fighter movie. My God. And first look at the cast. And my God, what a fucking... It seems looks cool. It's just like your action.
01:23:55
Speaker
And then the cast all come out. It's like, God damn, that's a lot of fucking people. It seems like a fake. With the cast. So... Is this an animated movie or is it live action? Live action.
01:24:11
Speaker
Okay. um You see it. it but That one comedian guy who's like in it. I'm like, okay. but yeah Okay. So here is your cat. I'll read off your cast. So okay let me start off with Ryu and Ken. So playing as Ryu is Andrew Koji.
01:24:30
Speaker
Noah Centineo is Ken. Blanca is Jason Momoa. 50 Cent is Balrog.
01:24:41
Speaker
Okay. David Dasmalkian is Bison. Really? Yeah. yeah ah Oh, God. What's his real name? ah Roman Reigns is Akuma.
01:24:58
Speaker
Olivier Richter is Zangief. Eric Andre is Don Savage.
01:25:06
Speaker
Raina... Oh, God. How do I say her last name? Valadingham is Julie. Cody Rhodes is Guile. Mel Yarnson is Cammy.
01:25:16
Speaker
Kyle Mooney is Marvin. Kalina Liang is Chun-Li. Andrew Schultz is Dan the Man Hibiki. It's over. Dan's in the... Okay. Vidya Jemwal is Dalsim. Orville Peck is Vega. Hiroki Goto is E-Honda. And Alex Volkanovsky is zhao from streetf fighter wood Joe Joe.
01:25:45
Speaker
i it It really just feels like they put a bunch of different names in a hat and then just kind of like... This feels like it's like half actors, half w WWE, which is why I just want to say this is w WWE the movie. Yeah.
01:25:58
Speaker
Because that's what it feels like. i I'm more than anything, I'm kind of like, okay, so what what are we doing? What's the movie going to be about? Because M. Bison and Akuma?
01:26:16
Speaker
Like, I feel like normally if if I was going to go for a movie like this, I'd just have one of those guys be the antagonist. But it feels weird to have them both. i beat But if you really want to look at Street Fighter, Akuma really only goes after Ryu.
01:26:31
Speaker
Right, but who's going to be the lead if it's not Ryu? You know? Whereas Bison's more like a threat to the world, so everybody can go after Bison. Akuma is more of Ryu's own personal thing.
01:26:45
Speaker
You know what? Make the movie star Dan Hibiki. He's the front man. Any other movie, I think it would. ah But we got our first look at the cast of
Awards & Accolades
01:26:55
Speaker
that. It was wild. And then they presented the award.
01:26:58
Speaker
Joe, I have a question for you. What award? Because they a presented an award after coming out on stage. What award do you think they gave out? Okay. if if So a fighting game movie, ah I feel like you would most likely, if we're going by logical points, you would give like fighting game of the year or whatever. yeah Why do I feel like it's about to be like puzzle platformer of the year?
01:27:27
Speaker
ah be like game the gave the award that they out was best ongoing game
01:27:38
Speaker
Oh, best ongoing game. Yeah.
01:27:44
Speaker
Okay. okay Was there, was there not an award for fighting game this year? oh there was, there was, they gave that they just put it in the montage of games. Like where Jeff is like, and now here's a bunch of other awards.
01:27:59
Speaker
Oh, why? but the ah I don't know. Ask Jeff. Jeff, why? Interesting. why would you do Why would you do that? Well, you see, because the the people who run the game for most ongoing game right now, they gave me a lot of money to have them be announced.
01:28:21
Speaker
um So I went with that. Okay, Jeff, you couldn't have the the Street Fighter cast an announced like the fighting game of the year?
01:28:32
Speaker
Well, you see, I didn't want to. okay We then got a brand new trailer for Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight and a release date of May 29th.
01:28:44
Speaker
Okay, that's fun. And then not one, but two brand new Tomb Raider games. ah The first Tomb Raider Catalyst, brand new game entry to the series coming out 2027 and then Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis, which is a reimagining of the first Tomb Raider coming out sometime next year.
01:29:05
Speaker
man, this is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them. It's interesting to announce two of the same franchise. Yeah, that that is interesting. To be fair, we haven't heard from Lara Croft in how long?
01:29:18
Speaker
In a hot minute, that is true. I, you know, Lara Croft did like the Tomb Raider series is one of those series where it's just like it it somehow goes under the radar for a while.
01:29:30
Speaker
And then when it comes back, you're like, oh, yeah, Tomb Raider. okay so it's it's very interesting. It's also interesting that like they announced both of these games. Yes.
01:29:43
Speaker
At once, like one is 2026. The other one's 2027.
01:29:48
Speaker
I guess like this is the best time to announce both of them. Supposedly. Yeah, sure. ah We then got a trailer for forest three. So like the forest or just.
01:30:02
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Yes. That forest. Okay. i what Except we're not in a forest. We're on an alien planet. Okay. So not forest, not a four old. Sorry. It's a probably a forest to aliens, but like it's not an earth forest.
01:30:20
Speaker
ah So that happened. It was just like a title drop. There was like nothing else. ah Invisible versus introduced their new, another character to the roster elemental. ah And then we got this trailer for this cool space nineties anime game. That's a switch to exclusive or a time exclusive on the switch to called orbitals.
01:30:39
Speaker
Okay, cool. Cool. ah And then a demon appeared and said, fuck you influencers and ah executives. nice and uh it was for diablo for s lord of hatred dlc and i'm like ah makes sense it's blizzard they hate everybody yeah fair what come on guys don't you have phones ah i get that joke thank you
01:31:09
Speaker
he ah And then they announced the new hero coming to Marvel rivals on January 16th. It's Deadpool. Voiced by Alejandro Saab. Let's go. Voiced by Alejandro Saab. Sayu. He's everywhere. They can't escape him. He is inevitable.
01:31:30
Speaker
it It was inevitable. I didn't realize it was Sayu until after the fact as well. I was listening. I, man, I hear his voice a lot in different games. So like, I mean, I listened to his voice for like 80 hours this year because of Borderlands 4 and me picking Rafa.
01:31:45
Speaker
Ah, man. Like, at first I was listening, i was like, oh, that's cool. It's cool to see Deadpool. And then, like, I heard it I don't know what it was. I heard it i heard I heard him.
01:31:59
Speaker
I heard Sayu in in Deadpool, and I was like, there's no way. And then I pulled it up, and it was like... You see, there's no way. And then you pull out ah pull up Amelie's Twitter and just see, he's there!
01:32:13
Speaker
ah He's always there. we then got our villain to reveal for 007 First Light. The villain's name is Bama and he's played by Lenny Kravitz.
01:32:27
Speaker
Oh, okay. That's cool. I'm going to be very upset if he doesn't use any explosions with a name like Bama. I'm going to be upset if he's not the one doing the Bond theme now.
01:32:39
Speaker
o Good point. nice That's also a good point. Now it is rumored that Lana Del Rey might be the one doing it as well. But okay mean what if it's Lana Del Rey and Lenny Kravitz?
01:32:50
Speaker
There's nothing that says that can't be both. It can't be. Marsway 7th, the game drops. We then got trailer for Lords of the Fallen 2, which used a song by Ghost, as Mellow pointed out in our watch along, as Mellow went absolutely feral. Oh,
01:33:09
Speaker
That's not surprising. that That does sound like Mellow. It does. And then we got another new trailer for Sorrows, the game starring Rahul Kohli being worked on by the people who brought us Returnal and whatnot. That comes out on the 30th.
01:33:24
Speaker
ah Then we got a trailer for this game called NOLA, and this is what I would say was the worst looking game at the Game of Awards this year. As it looked very choppy, unpolished and whatnot. And probably could have waited a year or so for that one.
01:33:43
Speaker
Phasmophobia will be coming to the Switch 2 sometime next year, as we also learned. And Mila Jokovic will be the next elusive target coming to Hitman once you're done killing Slim Shady. Oh, cool.
01:33:56
Speaker
ah Then Total War announced that they're making a brand new Total War game and they are entering the world of Warhammer 40k. Okay. And we got a new Ace Combat game, Ace Combat 8 Wings of Thieves, which is coming out sometime.
01:34:12
Speaker
Okay. but ah And then another Star Wars game from the creators of Burnout and Need for Speed, Star Wars Galactic Racer. Oh, interesting. Yeah.
01:34:23
Speaker
Now this is pod racing, right? Now this is pod racing. It comes out sometime 2026. And then we got a new trailer for Out of Words. This is the stop motion co-op game where you don't have mouths.
01:34:36
Speaker
And it's coming out 2026. We got new trailer for it. Looks cool. Looks cute. Okay. I'll check that out. Then got ah then we got a Then we got a OneRepublic music video because they're working on a collaboration with Arknights Enfield.
01:34:56
Speaker
So we just got to hear OneRepublic play like a new song. Like, where have OneRepublic been? It feels like it's been forever. i kind of like quickly skimmed through these notes when I saw Republic. I just assumed that you're going be talking about a Star Wars game. but No, I'm talking about the band.
01:35:14
Speaker
ah We then got the trailer a new trailer for Phantom Blade Zero, which comes out September 9th. And then what Joe has been hyping up, what he woke up to, thought it was fake news, but it's real.
01:35:26
Speaker
Mega Man is back. Mega Man Dual Override comes out 2027. He's back!
01:35:33
Speaker
um He is alive! Oh my god, I'm gonna... Man, I'm gonna lose it. i The Mega Man series is near and dear to my heart.
01:35:44
Speaker
The fact that they had like a full orchestra playing the theme. ah it was... but i could... i Listen... I'm to tell you right now, I got the Mega Man autism. I could tell you so many things that were in that trailer. When the letters DLN001 came up, that literally stands for Dr. Light's numbers, and Mega Man is the first one, which is why it's 001.
01:36:10
Speaker
Fun fact, Proto Man is 000 because he comes before Mega Man in the series, and that's why he's a prototype. He's Proto Man. Yeah. Wow.
01:36:22
Speaker
Yeah, i know I know too much. Listen, you want Mega Man stupid fun facts? Just ask me. Don't ask me. I will not stop. but We then got a short new trailer for super the Super Mario Galaxy movie where we see Luigi kick Bowser Jr. in the face.
01:36:39
Speaker
The falcon knee. And then a new trailer for Neo 3, which drops February 6th. And then the last game they revealed... is a game called High Guard, a new PvP raid shooter thing from the Apex Legends and Titanfall development team, Wildlight Entertainment.
01:36:56
Speaker
It's going to be free to play come January 26th. And it's it was kind of a weird way to end the show and and the game reveals of the show. Because it was very... is' very Like we've seen what apex and Titanfall were right. And and we're, there's it's a lot of like, at least it's coming out next month. So we'll be able to see if this reaction is justifiable or not.
01:37:24
Speaker
I know a lot of people are getting burnt out on this kind of like type of game. Yeah. So it's unfortunate, but at the same time, like i do, I do hope it does well. Like, you know, I can't. bring to see like you like but What type of game are you trying to think you're comparing it to?
01:37:45
Speaker
Like of the hero shooter genre, I'm assuming. Yeah. Because we like we've been getting a lot of, like, we said mean we saw the the the the rise and fall of Concord. But I don't, like, when I was talking with you, Tony, I don't think that's, like, when I think of... Yeah, no, like, that's the thing. Like, I don't really know how to describe this game yet. Like, what they showed didn't show us, like, a definitive answer of what we're getting. Like, we're getting multiple characters, but, like,
01:38:13
Speaker
what style are we doing? Like, is it just like classic class base or like each character is like a different class and we just go out is like just a free for all thing. Is it objective based? Like what? Like the trailer so didn't show us much. It showed a lot. It showed. It didn't show a lot.
01:38:31
Speaker
This is the general description on Steam. um A PvP raid shooter where players will ride, fight, and raid as a wardens. Arcane Gunslinger is sent to fight for control of a mythical continent. That's so very general. Yeah. um But it yeah, it it seems very different from like, I don't know if I'm playing Overwatch or what Concord was basically just going like a similar to Overwatch. So like, it seems very different in that respect. But so I thought it was going to be Battle Royale, which I was not excited for. Some people are saying it might be more Paladins coded than anything potentially as well.
01:39:08
Speaker
But it's like, we'll have to wait and see yeah until like some either sometime between now in January 26th or just until January 26th. I feel like it will be in wildlife entertainment's best interest to show us something sooner so we can get a bit more of a understanding. What are we looking at? No, agreed. i like that. And plus it it has a lot of like competition currently. There's a lot of games that are,
01:39:35
Speaker
like taking people's time when it comes to PvP games. So I'm curious what it's going to try and bring to the table to like kind of entice people to play it. Yeah. yeah How is it going to stand out aside from being like, ah, we're riding horses. Nuts.
01:39:52
Speaker
So, ah yeah, ah performance wise, there were three big performances at the Game Awards this year. They started off the show with an Exposition 33 piece, ah which if you've been through Act 2 of the game, you would recognize.
01:40:07
Speaker
Ryan, how far are you into Exposition 33 now? I am at the part where I just have Monoco. Monoco? Oh, you just hit Monoco.
01:40:18
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Then I cannot talk about where this thing is ah But if you know, you know. Evanescence performed Afterlife, which is their song they did for the Devil May Cry anime. It rocked. It was cool. And then Miss Piggy came out. and daive She... Jeff fucked the pig. ah ah
01:40:43
Speaker
yeah Miss Piggy did her song Honestly i wish it was Waldorf and Statler again No Waldorf and Statler were great oh I wish it was them Not Miss Piggy I do think We had a bingo card And every time Miss Piggy appeared i'm like assault somebody Assault somebody I put that on my fucking bingo card She didn't that but she She literally, she didn't do the, hi yeah she didn't, she didn't. And I'm mad she didn't.
01:41:14
Speaker
Man, like that, that feels like a missed opportunity. is. Especially, she could have done that to Jeff. That would have been funny. It would have been funny. Oh, man. But it was a missed opportunity. They did do a song, and they mentioned Kingdom Hearts in the song, and that's the only Kingdom Hearts we got all show. I will say, for the performances, I did see when they were doing the nominations for Game of the Year, that flute guy who, every time I cut him, had like 16 different instruments. Yeah, let's talk about this. It's like, what's happening? Obviously, one of the best parts of the Game Awards every year is the Game of the Year medley that they do with the whole orchestra.
01:41:52
Speaker
Every song, essentially, every like game transition, flute guy had a new flute. It was crazy. At one point, he had a PVC pipe. What? I was able just to see that. I'm like, where is all of this being kept? Where is where does he getting these from?
01:42:10
Speaker
He had like six different flutes, if not more. It felt like it was like 20. Does bro have hammer space? What? yeah ah But no, but it was a great... Again, the symphony is like the best fucking part of the game. awards every year oh yeah and this one was no different they ended with doggy con bonanza and they used i didn't i didn't know what song they were going use for bonanza and they used like the the song from bonanza the what the lyrics the vocalized song i think it's just called breaking through they used that and i'm like yo and they brought out uh pauline's voice actor in doggy con oh yeah that was the singing for it too and i'm like
01:42:51
Speaker
Oh, shit. That's so hype. That's so sick. ah Because honestly, it's like, well trust the 3D Mario team to give us good fucking vocal music. Because it's just banger after banger.
01:43:06
Speaker
Real talk, I'm kind of like, they did, like, it was banger. But my favorite song from that game is literally the Zebra song. and I'm like, man I wish that had been played. Cause that would have been very funny to listen to.
01:43:22
Speaker
i feel like if they were out of context, I feel like if they were were to do one of the Bonanza songs, it would have been the, the gorilla Bonanza, the car. Oh yeah. song No, that makes sense.
01:43:34
Speaker
I feel like that would have been they'd done. They did. Uh, but those were all the game announcements. Um, thought Any final thoughts on any of those? Ninja Frog, you first, any final thoughts on any ah of the announcements? Yeah,
01:43:51
Speaker
I mean, there's tons of these that I'm hyped for. I'm making it go like a speedrun overall. The Star Wars game, it's nice to see things coming back, and I'm hopeful for the racing game. Yeah.
01:44:07
Speaker
We'll see how that turns out. Even Old Republic. that I'm still ah cautiously optimistic. um at Certain highlights I was excited for. a bunch of like the indie kind of like um fun art. Covenant Chicken Foot looks really interesting.
01:44:24
Speaker
um
01:44:27
Speaker
the I'm done in Dragon's game. I'm curious to see what that's going to turn into. because It seemed like it was going to be kind of like a either... like It's not going to be like a Baldur's Gate. It's going to be more like you're playing a warlock and you're like a first person or third person view or something like that. So I don't know. I'm kind of curious what that's going to turn into.
01:44:48
Speaker
um Tomb Raider is nice to see. I played a played a little bit of the original growing up. So it's kind of like in my brain. So it's cool to see that they're bringing the original kind of like reimagining it and like new graphics and stuff. That's really cool. um I'm excited for 007. We haven't had a 007 game in a long, long time. And I'm very hopeful because I loved playing the one on the Wii. Even though it got hacked really fast. Like three months into it. I don't know. Maybe it was more than that. But it was like... Oh, wow. You would like start playing online and then you'd all of a sudden just get like 20,000 XP.
01:45:26
Speaker
And it's just for a one kill. And it was like... What's going on? so it was more of the positive side, but anyway. ah um Yeah, so I'm out of words. is Another one of the the interesting art games I was excited for. I'm like a trickling of everything, honestly. There's like Phantom Blade I've never played before, but it looks awesome. um i double with shag man I double checked with Phantom Blade Zero. I'm like, oh, was there another...
01:45:52
Speaker
uh phantom blade no no that's just what this game is called uh because the original like developers of phantom blade zero had this other game uh that they worked on long long ago ah come of a god where is it uh called rain something right rain blood or something think of the i think it was ray blood i mean rain blood blood Yeah, Rainblood. That's the one.
01:46:22
Speaker
ah that therere there but as It's... a It's... ah It's... Vans of Blade Zero is part of, like, this franchise of games. And these are, like, old games. Like, Rainblood 1 and 2.
01:46:36
Speaker
They're old. Okay, yeah, it's yeah it just it looks really interesting and fun combat. um And then, i yeah, the the High Guard, I am and cautiously optimistic. i mean, most things I am, but like this one, i i like i understand like comparison to ah the hero shooter. I think the reason I try to like separate it is because think...
01:47:01
Speaker
i think um For me, I haven't been buying any of like the Battlefield games or Call of Duty. theyre ah just They make them so fast. it's like It's hard to keep up, and they're so expensive. but like I so i i had kept my eye on Delta Force, which was an FPS um kind of like arcade shooter that's more like Call of Duty. I never ended up jumping into it. i don't know if it's still popular, but and never got into it. But...
01:47:30
Speaker
This one is interesting because it's more of a hero kind of thing with fantasy theme, but it looked more arcade-like with this raid shooter thing. I don't know what... I still don't really understand, but I'm kind of interested to see it and see where it turns into and see if it ends up being something that can kind of survive, but is more available to more people because of the it being free. So I'm interested in Ryan, what about you? What are your highs from this list? I feel like, obviously, I have to go with Resident Evil Requiem. I'm a huge fan of Resident Evil, and it's nice to see Leon come back, and we can hopefully move on from Chris punching boulders.
01:48:18
Speaker
yeah now that makes sense you know I'm looking forward to seeing that I saw like a few other things as well and some of like the creatures in that looked very disturbing so I'm intrigued to see how this is going to be uh i'm also curious about antos because i like soma and like all of those games so yeah and because yeah it's this is the soma and the amnesia games is what they've done before yeah so and then it's exciting to see yeah so i'm curious about that too and then i've never played a divinity game but i'm not sure who's seen the trailer of it but it was Yeah, whole trailer for the new Divinity is so like... It's very interesting. There's a lot of puking, pigs eating people like having sex, them burning people, and then pus flying out from him. So I'm like, what the fuck is this game about? Wait a minute, what is Divinity about? That's what don't know. But yeah, I'm watching this trailer and I'm oh, this guy threw up. Oh, a pig's eating it. Oh, they're putting someone like in this huge thing and setting on fire. They're burning a man. Yeah. He's like, pus is turning into this thing that's landing on the ground. like, what's happening?
01:49:30
Speaker
Yeah. so Very creepy trailer. I'm more intrigued now to go back and look at what this game is about. And then I did see the Bradley the Badger. And that looks very different from the rest of the games that I just spoke about, but very interesting of like making your own platforms, doing all this like stuff. And yeah, I'm like, huh, I'm curious about this. We got Badger board before we got Bloodborne. Oh man.
01:49:58
Speaker
And Joe, obviously for you, Mega Man, the big highlight. Who? Rock Man. Oh, yeah. Yeah. um No. So it's it's super exciting. ah Just from like what I've seen, like I've ah rewatched the trailer for that. um He looks great.
01:50:22
Speaker
ah I saw at one point he got hit by something and his armor reflected the damage he took while on the map, which is a really cool detail. Um...
01:50:33
Speaker
The backgrounds look beautiful. I could keep going. But ah along with that, um some of the other cool stuff that I like. I'm excited to see the Street Fighter movie um in the future, whenever it may come out.
01:50:47
Speaker
I might watch the old Street Fighter movie just to, you know, kind of get a feel for what we might see, what we might not see. Yeah. and We're not going to get good lines like that, I don't think. We aren't.
01:50:59
Speaker
You know what? if If we do, if we do, though. Yeah. That'd be kind of sick. Go the movie. movie of the year 2026 yeah i'm i'm worried that like studios might be starting this trend of because sonic was so successful and because mario was so so sex and successful i mean they've kind of already been doing that trend yeah like they realized oh if we actually put effort into the video game adaptations people will like them yeah Well, yeah, but I'm worried it's less less that. It's just, oh, video game movies get a lot of people to go see them. And that's what I'm worried about. I'm worried that, like, the point was missed. And they're just like... It's like we're trying to tell them where to hit, and they just throw it the other direction. Exactly. Like, oh, yeah, because it's about a a video game. People will go see that. And like, yeah, probably. But it also doesn't mean like people will go rewatch it because I know people that went and rewatched the Sonic movies. I know people that rewent went and rewatched the Mario movie.
01:52:04
Speaker
So it's I'm a little especially because it's a um a live action movie. I'm very apprehensive about it, but I do hope like I always hope that like things are going to be better than what people might predict. So, you know, here's hoping if the movie is about Dan Hibiki, it is goaded and I'm going to go see it multiple times because the fact that they would take such a risk, I respect that.
01:52:35
Speaker
Dan the man. hipyki Oh, yeah. all right. um but Yeah, everything looked like a lot of things looked interesting. And I'm, you know, I'm expecting a lot of cool things to be announced in the future with these games.
01:52:50
Speaker
As am I.
01:52:53
Speaker
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Speaker
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01:53:36
Speaker
Remember, a meme saved is a laugh earned. Okay, let's get into the Game Awards winners now. I've got every category listed in every winner. We're going start off with the ones that no one cared about. Best Esports Team went to Team Vitality. Best Esports Athlete went to Chovy. And the Best Esports Game went to Counter-Strike 2.
01:53:56
Speaker
ah Now that those are out of the way, Content Creator of the Year went to Moist Critical. And his reaction... Oh, nice. So funny. Woo! His reaction was not whoo. It was anybody but me. yeah And then well, thanks. Thanks. So funny. I can't believe that they would actually pick me. ah This is a travesty beyond words.
01:54:17
Speaker
ah I can't believe they would do this to you. I mean, to be fair, if you look at the track ri the track record of ah former winners of that award, ah the who wants to hear the track record for content creator of the year game awards edition?
01:54:39
Speaker
Who wants to hear the track record? i'm curious, but I'm like... I'm worried, curious. Like, you hear a noise in the woods, but you're curious, kind of curious.
01:54:52
Speaker
Well, ah let's see Let's go back a couple of years. 2021, dream. Oh. Oh. dream oh oh As you see, 2022 onward is fine, but 2021 back, aside from 2020, because I think Valkyrie won 2020, you had Dr. Disrespect. You had Shroud, who's kind of got that... Shroud! Shroud stocks are So, you know...
01:55:26
Speaker
ah so you know
01:55:32
Speaker
face reaction for that honestly ah based reaction to have to to win that yeah just i don't know what's what um what's gonna happen to be yeah uh most anticipated game 6 g t six That's an interesting award to have. It's an interesting award to have because I feel like if you win it once, you should not win it again. Yeah. I think this is a category where it's like, okay, we get it.
01:56:01
Speaker
It got delayed, but like, we know it's anticipated. Let's put the hype on something else. Like this is like the one award I think should be limited. Bro, i'm I'm super biased. Mega Man should have won that award. ah Best adaptation went to The Last of Us Season 2. Okay. wait First, like, with Last of Us 2, very mixed reception.
01:56:25
Speaker
Yeah. it's It's interesting watching this, the like season, knowing how it works. And they're kind of doing the like season, the way that the game plays out.
01:56:36
Speaker
Sort of. Because I guess the season three now is going to, is going to be Abby's it's going to be like focus on Abby and then there's going to be a fourth season which will I think carry off with where season two ended with Ellie and then Ellie's bigger journey I feel like a lot of people are going to hate season three but also but here's the thing with season three onward Neil Druckmann's not a part of this project anymore oh okay Neil Druckmann is not working on any of the TV show anymore interesting it's going to be interesting how they what they do with season three onward with this so I'll leave it at that I will say this it beat out the Minecraft movie which is kind of nuts considering like the amount of reception and yeah stuff over the Minecraft movie over this year
01:57:24
Speaker
Chicken Jackie. oh God. i think they just didn't want that to happen. so i could tell watch himwars explod The Game The Game Awards explodes into Chicken Jackie. Everyone going crazy. Yeah.
01:57:40
Speaker
Best multiplayer did not go to peak, unfortunately. It went to Ark Raiders, which I feel like it only did that because of recency bias. I feel like if Ark Raiders came out earlier in the year,
01:57:53
Speaker
I think it might have gone to peak. I think it would i think it would i think any of the other games was to the better chance. But because of recency bias with Arc Raiders, I think that is why it took it.
01:58:04
Speaker
Not saying Arc Raiders is a bad game anyway. It's not game for me. I agree. Arc Raiders is so recent. um But, it man, that feels so bad because peak...
01:58:17
Speaker
Big Bog needed it. Big Bog needed it. He needs it, guys. Come on. I feel like Peak is... It feels so much more like it's in the zeitgeist that people have been paying attention to it. I have friends that will be like, the new update's coming in a week or so. I'm like, that's cool.
01:58:40
Speaker
Like, I feel like I hear about Peak way more consistently throughout the year than I've heard about Ark Raiders, even though it's newer. yeah And the only thing I have with that is that may be interest biased. I'm not super interested in arc creators personally right now, but I also, because I can't play it on my own computer. But if I look at quickly, just looking at Steam charts, trusting that what their numbers are. Okay. Peaks all time. Peak.
01:59:13
Speaker
ah Four months ago of player base was 170,000, which That's lot for an yes, peak ago is Yeah,
01:59:28
Speaker
so i think i think the player base overall yeah but' higher yeah yeah no and absolutely so yeah I think that's why. because Because I think a lot of Game Awards just logically end up going towards popularity, usually. i mean, it is a jury vote. yeah I did see this this take on the jury that they have with the Game Awards. Jury members, ah people who make up the jury, should have to play every game one hundred percent in every category.
01:59:54
Speaker
ah Because it's not confirmed whether or not they do or not. ah And I think, you know what? If they did, ah some of people say that the results might have been changed. for some stuff that might have come out. oh it's I mean, the the same thing could be said of like the Oscars or whatever. They have to watch the movie. I think i mean, I feel like with the i feel like with the Oscars, no offense to like video games. I feel like watching like six or seven or eight movies to decide on what wins that is a much easier task than playing like six 80 hour games. Yeah, just just a little bit. You don't,
02:00:29
Speaker
and you you know i don't think you really have to interact with a movie is just a bunch of old men who have nothing else the oscar judges now actually are required to watch all the nominated movies really yeah i did not know that yeah they be able to vote and like whatever they have to be watch all of them which makes sense good yeah yeah uh best sports racing game went to mario kart world Okay.
02:00:56
Speaker
Which, Sonic fans in shambles. Yeah. Best Sim Strategy Game unfortunately did not go to Two Point Museum like I had hoped it would go to because it's a goaded game and one of the best damn Sim Strategy games I've ever played, but it did go to another great one. It went to Final Fantasy Tactics and Evil East Chronicles.
02:01:16
Speaker
So you know what? Not complaining with that. Very good game. Best Family Game went to Donkey Kong Bonanza. Mm-hmm. Hell yeah. I'm so happy about that. Honestly, that's fighting game. What's a fatal fury city of the wolves. Okay. Good for them. Honestly, best action adventure went to hollow night. Silk song. It's one of the night. Uh, Jeff that did take a slight jab at team cherry because team cherry announced that they were going to go to the game awards because they said we're not going to win anything. So we're not going to go.
02:01:50
Speaker
ah And then they won that and Jeff kind of took a jab at them. And I'm like, you know what? Fair. Fair. That's a wild thing for them to say. We're not going to win anything for like the game that like forced other people to delay their game coming out. Yeah. Yeah.
02:02:10
Speaker
Best action went to Hades 2, which was haes two Hades 2's won award of the night. Oh, interesting. I'm happy for. I'm but happy they won something because I put so many hours into Hades 2. God damn. Hades 2 is good game.
02:02:25
Speaker
Best VR AR went to the Midnight Walk, which I think is well-deserved because that game was done entirely in Clay Nation. Oh. It also has a normal game functionality, not just VR AR. Oh, that's cool. I did not know that. for them.
02:02:41
Speaker
yeah Best mobile game but went to the game that's suing PETA right now. Umamuse me, pretty derby. i i saw that. It is so funny to imagine the Yakuza walking up on PETA headquarters just to stand on business. just standing on business.
02:02:59
Speaker
The horse girls would like to see you now. It's kind of wild to know that the Yakuza love Uma Musume, and it's very funny to imagine just some Yakuza just walking up to a PETA, just like bust down the door.
02:03:15
Speaker
i heard you were making fun of Silent Suzuka. going to have to take your fingers. Sorry about that. ah No, but the real reason they're doing PETA, though, is because... um is certain things in their ULA or like their yeah they like it's like if you like seven rules if you it's like if you do something to like that's like educating like the like the real life horse it's to protect the real life horses that these girls are based on than like those horses and PETA broke one of those rules and they're like oh okay we're gonna fucking sue you for everything you've got PETA and it's like oh oh
02:03:52
Speaker
Also, and like I did more research on this, the worst part about all this is it's just rage bait. It's not even saying anything. It's it's literally just to rage bait because they could have easily said like...
02:04:07
Speaker
Like the horses need like more protections for like, for so like different kind of trading methods. Cause there are a lot of them that are like a little too harsh for the horses or anything like that. Or the fact that like, maybe they need more protections for horse racing in general.
02:04:22
Speaker
but No, why would they do that? PETA owns four different horse racing things. So they can't say that's wrong. Cause they own that. Come on guys. Yeah.
02:04:35
Speaker
Oh man, it's rage bait and I'm getting rage baited right now and I need to yeah back up. Best community support went to Baldur's Gate 3 which will probably be the last year Baldur's Gate 3 gets this award ah because I think they've now said that they're done updating the game and it's it it's like absolute ultimate form ah so yeah and then no not announced divinity so unless like dragon ball they're like we can go a step further and this is to go even further beyond ah best ongoing game which was presented by the street fighter cast ah went to no man's sky ah relate to their thanks to their two big updates that they had this year games were update went to south of midnight
02:05:25
Speaker
Innovation and accessibility went to Doom, the Dark Ages. Oh, interesting. Best audio design, which was the only award that Claire of Scor did not win that they were nominated for, went to Battlefield 6 instead, which makes sense.
02:05:41
Speaker
Yeah, no. it And audio design is a different thing than music itself. So good for them. Players Voice, the one, the full the the category that's fully voted on by the players and is nine out of ten times wrong, which this year it was wrong, went to Wuthering Waves, the other gotcha game.
02:06:06
Speaker
Interesting choice. but They gotcha. Indeed. Yeah. ah that The Game Awards Game Changer Award went to Girls Make Games this year is instead of that. it' that its so what they they It's a smart play to pick an organization for that award instead of a single person because last year when they introduced the award and then when people dug up things about that guy and it was like, oh, it should not go to this guy. all And they faced major backlash for that.
02:06:37
Speaker
Best performance went to Jennifer English as Mayel. She nails it. these's like Just playing the game, she is so crushing that role.
02:06:48
Speaker
and Ben Star who was sitting right behind her was like, yeah, let's go. i love that. We also got like two Ben Star memes this year from the Game Awards.
02:06:59
Speaker
ah We got him, it like it's like a dimly red, like the lights were like red and dim. And it's him just holding up both bums smiling. And because it was the Warframe Warframe was that they talked Warframe briefly, but I didn't bring it up because it's like they announced nothing for Warframe.
02:07:18
Speaker
It was just there. They just said it. Okay. And then they played a trailer. It's like, okay, this did nothing for like, like, well, this, there's no new update or whatever. Like it, it was just that. And then this is a game.
02:07:32
Speaker
And then the other one is a meme where it's just bed, like sitting in the shadows because of this is like, ah, one brings shadows. And it goes back to when I was blinded by the white lights that one light. Inside you, there are two wolves. Inside you, there are two wolves. Also, the people who gave her that award, they're from Baldur's Gate too, right?
02:07:54
Speaker
Neil Nubon. Neil Nubon, yes, because he's a Starian. The other one was Lady... She voices Shadowheart, for those who don't know. Oh, that's cool. And the other presenter for Best Performer was Lady Dimitrescu.
02:08:08
Speaker
Yes. Oh, okay, nice. And best RPG. best debut Best RPG, debut indie, independent game, score and music, art direction, narrative, game direction, went to Clarum score Expedition 33. And big shocker, game of the year 2025, Clarum score Expedition 33, giving the game a total of nine of the ten awards it was up for.
02:08:35
Speaker
Cinema. Yeah. Absolute cinema. I haven't even finished the game and I can understand. enjoying far. No, it's so beautiful. It's so like... I saw... The game is art itself. yeah I saw a meme today.
02:08:50
Speaker
Absolute wee! The best SGA! Let's go! And then after they won the Game the Year award, ah they're like, and the free update to say thank you is out now.
02:09:04
Speaker
Oh. That's so funny. so It's not even like a thing that the that had a trailer. Like, hey, ah so you know... So the update adds one new area for you to access once you reach Act 3 of the game.
02:09:18
Speaker
ah it has new outfits that you can purchase at a gestural shop. And it has a new super boss ah where if the first super boss wasn't hard enough for you, this one it will be. Because I saw a clip of it and I'm just like, and a person did over 800 parries. Oh my god.
02:09:39
Speaker
So good luck. It took them half an hour as well. fuck wo and those were all the awards ah throughout the night overall yeah i this is kind of what I was expecting to happen this year same like I'm happy Silksong and Hades 2 took home at least one award oh of course Hideo Kojima also when the announced game of the year he just walked out he he left early I guess to go beat the traffic and whatnot but he
02:10:12
Speaker
ah There was like like somebody took a still of like when all the you see all the like devs celebrating and everything. You can see in the corner walking out just but to the exit of the theater is Hideo Kojima. It's like, oh, oh, I mean, oh poor guy. you he He's tore up about it. He's like, Jeff, Jeff told me he's my friend and I don't win a game award. What the fuck? I'm leaving. It's wild. Yeah.
02:10:41
Speaker
ah i see overall Overall, I think it was a good year. if for a no it's a Production value, solid. The awards, you know, a aside from players' voice, but that's like the one that like It's the one we control and we fucking let that happen. Yeah. i so honestly, i love, I like the game awards, not because of like what gets what awards, but it's nice to just kind of look back and see all the good games that came out this year. This year we had like a lot of really like, it was just banger after banger after banger.
02:11:19
Speaker
Claire obscure silk song, like man, there's so many good games. And that's like, that's like one of the nicest things. Like in today's day and age, we just have access to so many things we can play.
02:11:37
Speaker
we we do. As you can see from Tony playing a hundred and how many games? And four of them were nominated for game of the year. Damn. I missed two of them, but one but but because I didn't play KCD one or Death Stranding one, so I didn't touch those ones because I want to play. like If I'm going to play them, I want to play everything, obviously. So with that then, with that in the year done, if i what will and putting it back on you guys, right all what would you guys say are your top
02:12:16
Speaker
three to five games of the year, whether you played it for the first time this year or it came out this year. I'll let you combine both. Cause I know that Ninja frog didn't spend a lot of money on new games.
02:12:29
Speaker
um So put putting it like that. So of all the games you played, what what are your like top three to five games that you played? Who wants to start? I'm like trying to think now.
02:12:45
Speaker
if I had to pick games of the year for me, uh, honestly, I did play a couple of new things this year. one of the things that I finally got to um was playing the, uh,
02:13:02
Speaker
the shadow bringers expansion in, um, final fantasy 14. And that was, sitba that was so good. i had such a good time with that.
02:13:13
Speaker
Um, it was fun. it was really nice just to have chat. Like I had people that like, I don't think I've seen in my community before come into my community and then come say hi to me in game and like, follow me around while I'm going through the story, which was awesome.
02:13:31
Speaker
What a wild experience that was. Everyone was super chill and super nice. No one gave anything away. i was i had a great time with that. um But if it came to games from this year, Silksong was so good.
02:13:48
Speaker
ah Being able to play that on my Steam Deck was amazing. Just being able to like take it with me and play it in other places. Cleric Obscure Expedition 33.
02:14:02
Speaker
Beautiful. like The game itself feels like a work of art. Not that games aren't art, but you know what I mean. um It has a lot of a lot of fun and varied characters. It's just... That game is so pretty. And honestly, if I had to give one more... um You know what?
02:14:26
Speaker
Uma Musume. Because I've learned... I've learned so much about horse racing because of that game. And I didn't know it was an anime already. i might watch the anime soon because...
02:14:40
Speaker
Like obviously there's a lot of lore, there's a lot of like fun things, but it's just, you know, sometimes you just have like a game about horse girls running around a horse track and you realize life doesn't have to be so serious. You can just do that kind of thing.
02:15:00
Speaker
Okay. ah Ryan, I'll let you go next. Okay. Well, I feel like I've been playing catch-up this year. i think the only game that I've been playing that ah I think has come out this year is the Expedition 33.
02:15:15
Speaker
and I'm really enjoying that so far. And then I finally finished Baldur's Gate 3 after having like... Probably close to 200 hours in the game. Hell!
02:15:26
Speaker
Wow. ah Finally finished it, really enjoyed it, and would probably play it again. i did also play the Silent Hill 2 remake this year and really enjoyed that.
02:15:41
Speaker
um Okay. If you are a fan of Silent Hill or horror in general, and think they did a really good job with it. um I think that's like all I've really done it's like i to tell you how far behind I'm playing Undertale for the first time oh okay it' awesome so I'm really enjoying that as well too like I love the the music in Undertale as well trying to figure out I'm trying not to get anyone to to die so trying to figure out how to okay interest not kill people is also very unique
02:16:18
Speaker
um I did not know that that that was an option in the game, but now I'm like, okay, now i have to figure out how to not just murder people in this game. So i'm enjoying it. you know nothing. I know nothing.
02:16:29
Speaker
Oh, that's so yeah that's so interesting. I somehow managed to go however many years with wow not knowing what happens in the game. So here's my question to you If you complete Undertale, are you going to move on to Delta? Yes, I have. i already bought it. Okay. Okay, cool. yeah Cool. Honestly, yeah that's kind of that's kind of exciting. yeah Just knowing nothing. yeah i damn I know some of it's very funny hearing like the soundtrack when I get to certain areas. I'm like, wait, that's where this song comes from?
02:17:04
Speaker
Yeah. So that' that's been my year. Nice. Ninja Frog, what about you? um Okay, so there's a lot of things I've trickled in and haven't gotten to finish and some I've gotten to actually finish. um So i'd I'll just kind of like run down because i don't I haven't really gotten to, since a lot of haven't gotten to finish. Can't really solidify on what I'm like, oh, those are my top. um I will say um I did play Order in the Will of the Wisps.
02:17:36
Speaker
That didn't come up this year, but I was very, I hadn't played it yet. I did like the first one and I really enjoyed this one. um It's like the similar, I love the nature vibe of the game. it just looks so pretty. And you're kind of this like spirit character. I love it. So yeah, that was a very good game. I enjoyed that a lot.
02:18:00
Speaker
um I think I was still playing Baldur's Gate 3. Still haven't finished it. I finished it with my brothers. My personal playthrough I haven't finished. um Been having problems with my computer. um So that's kind of part of the issue.
02:18:15
Speaker
uh there's a lot of things running in that game especially in act three yeah uh i understand but yes uh i do that one's probably on the top um i got covid in the middle of the year but it was right when donkey kong bonanza came out so i bought donkey kong bonanza and played it the entire week i had covid and i was awesome i played it and then i learned the speed run and then i speed ran it over game chat on twitch too it was it it was great. i was That game is awesome. I don't know how much I'll come back to it, but like the amount of time I put into it and had a blast with it was awesome. That's awesome. That's definitely um one of my highs.
02:18:56
Speaker
um Another one that's kind of recent-ish, Megabonk, I've put a lot of time into. very Very good ah like wow roguelike kind of game. i think um I have some frustrations with it sometimes, but I think I have an overall good time with it. um So yeah, I like that game a lot. um And then the couple that I'm really interested in getting more into, if I can actually finish a game. I will definitely finish Clare Obscure so that I'm deep into plan to finish. I've luckily was able to use GeForce Now. My computer cannot run the game, but GeForce Now, i just they had like a discount and I'm paying for their other ultimate. So I'm able to play that through that. It'll actually run.
02:19:42
Speaker
So I'm excited that I actually have an opportunity to play the game because I was really excited for it. um And then the other game that barely runs on my computer that I haven't gotten back to is... um that hasn't come out was Horizon Zero Dawn. I got through like the tutorial part, like the proving, and then I had to get back to like school really hard. Which is how I got back to it. um but yeah so Those are kind of my highlights for the year. oh right i will give
02:20:15
Speaker
without any details, because obviously I have to make a video about this. My top 10 games in no order. i will give you, you guys will be the first to hear my top 10 games of the year.
02:20:27
Speaker
ah In no order, we have Two Point Museum, Claire Obscura, Expedition 33, Digimon Storytime Stranger, Blueprints, Sonic Race and Cross Worlds, Sword of the Sea, Hades 2, Kirby Air Riders, Ghost of Yotei, and Donkey Kong Bonanza.
02:20:44
Speaker
All good games. That is my list. are Some honorable mentions I will shout out really quickly. ah Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Geek, Haste, Date Everything, Borderlands 4, Legend ZA, and the demo of the sledding game because it was one of the best goddamn demos ever released.
02:21:07
Speaker
That's awesome to hear. ah With all that now, we have to get into the bonus level to start wrapping things up. So let's dive in and have some fun. Crazy lists, great deals, and recapping gaming history. It's all here in the bonus level.
02:21:22
Speaker
ah Starting it off, we have Game Clash. Because there's four of us, we will each do one of the regular matches and then figure out the semifinals and finals. Are you guys ready? No. We're not looking at them. Today's tournament is previous Game Awards Game of the Year winners.
02:21:43
Speaker
Match one, we are giving to Ninja Frog. who wow I've never played for either of these games. Perfect. Last Us Part 2 versus Sekiro. Shadows die twice.
02:21:55
Speaker
um I'd probably go with Sekiro. It's a good choice. o Okay. Good choice. Good choice. that's two going to riot breath of the wild versus boulders gate three do you just hate me these are two great games i feel like i have a bit of a bias right now because i just played boulders gate three with three friends and it made it a lot more enjoyable as well but like Imagine if you could play Breath the Wild with three friends. Right? man ah
02:22:30
Speaker
I feel like right now i would ah pick Baldur's Gate. okay oh I'm not very confident in that answer, but that that's what I'll give. Joe, God of War 2018 versus Elden Ring. o as As much as I love God of... Boy. I'd have to give it to Elden Ring. I love Elden Ring. It's so fun and it's so big. The world is huge.
02:22:53
Speaker
All right. And then I take match four. It takes two versus Astro Bot. I'm going based on the one that I played, which is Astro Bot. Fantastic game in itself. Oh, yeah.
02:23:04
Speaker
All right. Match one versus match two. Tag teaming this up. Ryan and Joe, who wins between Sekiro and Baldur's Gate 3? I feel like I have a bit of a bias because I like Soulsborne games.
02:23:19
Speaker
Oh, okay. So we're both on that same page. I also like Soulsborne as evidenced by Elden Ring. yeah um do Do we want to say Sekiro? I would pick that, yeah.
02:23:29
Speaker
I would also pick that. Okay, Sekiro moves on. Ninja Frog, it's you and me. Elden Ring versus Astro Bot. What are you feeling? o I haven't played either game. um I'd probably lean towards Ashravod just because of the the uniqueness and ah what they did with it. no i regular say I feel the same way considering I played Elder Ring for three hours and got mad at it. i You have a hatred towards it under understand A little bit. a little Just a little bit.
02:24:02
Speaker
Moving on to the finals. All four of us now. Can we come to a conclusion? Sekiro versus Astro Bot. Oh, God. I am a fan. Which one's better? Okay. here's I'll just say this. I'm willing to vote however you guys want. I don't care. I have a. So the host this so I'm going to I'm going to be 100% real.
02:24:22
Speaker
As much as I love Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, it was a good game. i enjoyed it a lot. It would Astro Bot was very refreshing. all the little cameos from other Sony games was really cool. Very cute.
02:24:36
Speaker
ah There was a lot to do in it, and it was a pretty solid 3D platformer. i i think I would give it to Astro Bot as much as I love Sekiro. I haven't played Astro Bot, so I would I would take your word on that.
02:24:51
Speaker
Mm hmm. Ninja frog. Yeah, that's, that's, that's what I would go. on i i just yeah yeah just Yeah. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, Astro bot wins.
02:25:03
Speaker
o good for it for them yeah Good for them. They did it again. Moving we on to this week in gaming history from December 15th to 31st. Here's what happened in the past. On the 16th, 1993, Toys R Us in the USA ceased selling the Night Trap video game for the Sega Genesis wait due to public complaints about violence.
02:25:27
Speaker
Wait, what game is this? That's not what I'm saying. Night Trap? Oh, so I learned about Night Trap earlier this year. It's the movie at the same time about a slumber park. It's wild. It's wild. Go look up Night Trap. I think I watched Game Grumps play this. They did. They did play this. I remember that.
02:25:46
Speaker
ah In December 21st, 1994, in Japan, Nintendo and St. Giga Television Service Company announced the Satellaview service, allowing Super Famicom users to download games via cable service.
02:26:00
Speaker
The price is 14,000 yen, which is about 150 US. It was set to begin in April. And on December 23rd, 1994, the Street Fighter film opens in theaters in the United States.
02:26:13
Speaker
ah It comes full circle. does! The Street Fighter movie. Yeah! ah As for some game birthdays, the six teethth sim The Sims Busted Out turns 22. On December 18th, Final Fantasy X turns 24. Next year is its twenty fifth anniversary.
02:26:30
Speaker
December 21st, EAS 1 and 2 in Japan turn 36. On December 24th, Tetris Worlds turns 24. And on the 29th, Sega Rally Championship in Japan turns 30.
02:26:44
Speaker
Moving on, we have the results of the Tony's game poll for this season where we asked all our guests what franchise deserves a new game in 2025-26. Now, we do have one person here who has not voted in this. Ryan, yes you have not voted in this. yes if What franchise deserves a new game that has not been announced yet? Alien Isolation.
02:27:07
Speaker
I've played Alien Isolation I think every year since it came out. So okay I remember what my vote was, but considering what happened at the game awards, oh yeah I don't think I'm in the running anymore. So no honestly, I think I'm the winner here. Yeah, you win.
02:27:28
Speaker
Here's what I can say. Here's what I can say. Everybody is a winner unless they said Mega because we had four votes for Mega Man this season. That's so funny. And because of the Game Awards, those votes are now null and void. Damn. Which we tried for the win are the following...
02:27:55
Speaker
games that I will ah read in order. Super Mario, a new Super Mario 3D platformer. Nier. Ori. Team Fortress. Crash Bandicoot.
02:28:06
Speaker
Yoshi. Actually, Yoshi. I don't avoid. ah Cuphead. Rock Band. Star Fox. Zelda. Like ah but mainline Zelda, Legend of Dragoon, Bully, Iron Harvest, and Alien. KOTOR was said, but KOTOR, we're getting a new Old Republic game too. Those are this season's winners. That's crazy. That's very funny. Three games become the big loser this season. That's funny. Which is absolutely hilarious that that buzzer happened. buzzard what's the opposite of a buzzer buzz reader yeah what's the opposite no what buzz even though even though my vote is now null and void because the game was announced i feel like i win you do because the game was announced yep you you have a game to look forward to indeed ah god the hyper fixation is going to be so real for the next year ah your deals of the week coming up on Epic. Hogwarts Legacy is free until December 18th, and then I believe they're going to go into their daily free games for the holiday season after that.
02:29:18
Speaker
The Epic Game Sale has their holiday sale until the January 8th. The PlayStation has their end-of-year deals on until December 22nd. And then there's so many goddamn sales on Steam right now for holiday stuff and whatnot.
02:29:30
Speaker
um Some will end around the 16th. Some will go longer. Just go check this. There's two goddamn many this time. You don't want to go through all of them? not Not this week. It's the holidays.
02:29:42
Speaker
ah give him a break the achievement of the week is an Octopath Traveler Zero job master which is to obtain all secondary jobs at the game of the and the game of the week is in Avatar Frontiers of Pandora from the Ashes DLC cause there's not much um I'm gonna be honest you gotta be careful the word job people get scared around that word anymore I know you gotta censor yourself when this goes up I know but just remember folks if you don't have a job that means you don't have a willy
02:30:13
Speaker
And that's a date everything joke because the embodiment of your job is named Willie.
02:30:19
Speaker
Oh, okay. You can check that out. The latest Tony's game lounge, YouTube video, or myself, Sunbello fellow. And Hey, it's tonic NTC. All a smasher pass the over 100 dateables and date everything.
02:30:33
Speaker
i see self plug uh guys one quick thing before we end up if you were to recommend a game old or new at this very moment what game would that be ninja frog starting with you um you know what
02:30:55
Speaker
If you can play it, um... Clare Obscure. what? If you can play it, play Clare Obscure. okay.
02:31:06
Speaker
thought you said something else for some reason. ah Ryan? ah I'm going to say, because we're around the holidays, and you know sometimes hanging out with your family makes you want to rage, and if you need to let that go, you can play Doom.
02:31:18
Speaker
There you Wait, what? I was feeling like I was getting baited and overcooked at Doom. You Doom? The one that Mick Gordon made the soundtrack for?
02:31:31
Speaker
That one. Because it's you just get kill random creatures and listen to metal. And it just lets all that rage out. I'm just imagining someone playing this while also listening to to holiday music. La la la la Joe, what about you?
02:31:50
Speaker
ah man. Well, you know, with the fact that it was announced and you have a full year to to get into the series before it comes out, ah play the Mega Man Legacy kill Collection. i think I'm going to do that. All the collections, I believe, on Steam are cheap as hell.
02:32:10
Speaker
um And they also go on sale. So it's very inexpensive to get into Mega Man. And you have plenty of time to try and learn the series.
02:32:25
Speaker
Excellent. Which one do you recommend the most? Ooh. Uh...
02:32:32
Speaker
I would say if you're going to start with any of the Mega Man games, start with Mega Man 8. It's the most user friendly. It gives you a lot of the mechanics of the other games and it gives you use to like charge in your buster, hitting enemies.
02:32:48
Speaker
A lot of the attacks are way slower than they are in previous games. So you have like a lot. But then it also has the difficulty spike in the late game to really let you know this is Mega Man.
02:32:59
Speaker
You're never safe. Okay. Good to know. Well, with that, ladies and gentlemen, we have made it to the end of another season of Tony's Game Lounge.
02:33:13
Speaker
Yay. Woo! Sorry, i ah I didn't see the applause slide. You just turned on. My bad. Thank you three so much for coming on. ah Starting with Ninja Frog, where can we find you on the internet?
02:33:33
Speaker
Yeah, if I ever happen to stream again. Twitch.tv slash NinjaFrog4884. yeah, it's i mean, you could technically find me on Twitter as well or X.com slash the same thing. But yeah, that's about it.
02:33:50
Speaker
Ryan. Yeah. You can find me on YouTube. was going to say TikTok, but that's not really true. I don't really post on there. at He has a TikTok. He yeah he has some stuff.
02:34:02
Speaker
You know, Blue Sky, Insta, Mac, Ryan Mac on most of them, except for Twitter. For some reason, it still can't get that. It's blocked and I cannot get it. So that's still the Ryan underscore underscore Mac.
02:34:15
Speaker
And Joe. ah You can find me at twitch.tv slash Joe underscore Java. ah If you want to watch my VODs, you can go to youtube.com slash Joe after hours.
02:34:30
Speaker
just because I thought that was a very clever name for it, or youtube.com slash joe underscore java for my short form stuff. And ah if you want to follow me on social media, ah I'm on blue sky at joe underscore java. And if you want to follow me in real life, don't do that.
02:34:47
Speaker
your Your address is... No! We have it right here in bold writing of who do not say and he just Joe lives ads. Tony just has it at the bottom of his doc that he sends us. I don't know why he has that. ah Did I send you the doc with my social security and my credit card again? Gosh dang it, I need to stop doing that. but ah And i just want to shout out some projects that we have coming up in the new year, ah coming to the game on channels, either the Twitch and or YouTube.
02:35:20
Speaker
First, ah myself, Ryan and a bunch of other game on people, we will be doing an archipelago sometime in the new year. um If not, realistically February because we're realist. My, my job is about to get really busy in January again, because I might be doing more. I might be doing mornings for a fixed amount of time again, because we are losing a staff member potentially. And I will have to do some coverage for that.
02:35:49
Speaker
so but Archipelago coming soon myself Ryan for sure and then we're gonna see who else joins with that who else hates their life Joe yeah I'd be down for that honestly oh hell yeah also with Joe that we're doing ah because he's finished Shadowbringers we're gonna hunt the combo we let's go And also probably do the Omega Savages as well.
02:36:12
Speaker
Because why the fuck not? We'll try. i don't know if we can two man some of them, but we'll try. Listen, man, I know Larbert and Starbird. I'm ready. Okay, good. Because I forgot those entirely.
02:36:26
Speaker
ah And with Ninja Frog, I'm sure you'll see him in an upcoming video here or there. ah Because we love hanging with Ninja Frog. Awesome. I love it. that we do uh and of course uh you can find me at your local popeyes eyeing you down while i eat two-piece um i'm sorry what no and that was uh that's where you can find the poggerator sorry that's his extra you can find me at tony's game lounge on twitter blue sky instagram tiktok twitch and youtube uh you will find highlights of this podcast
02:37:00
Speaker
ah beyond the next two weeks because I need to backfill until like March or ah February or March when the podcast is back. So I got a backfill my YouTube short speed with as many highlights as I can. So you're goingnna hear a lot from this episode and then probably some Twitch clips to space things out a bit.
02:37:19
Speaker
So look forward to all of that. I'm going to do my best to keep things like a three up, three shorts a week type thing. So let's see if I can do it. i Look forward to that. um Good luck. Thank you all for coming on this season night finale. Oh, right. I got to thank everybody else who was on this season as well. Cause I do that.
02:37:40
Speaker
Cause I'm a good podcast host. I want to give a special thanks to all our guests that we had on for season nine. Freezy pop, Joe glubbers, no score, Nick green, swift, Ike, Ebrozo, Logan, Robo, Tuba guy, Tristan, Ninja frog,
02:37:57
Speaker
I am Zam, some Mellow Fellow. My name is Tonic, who is now Hey, It's Tonic. AF Wagers, DinoMation, FlavorfulVT, Drusk is also here, Spurrwiggles the Great, and Blue Water Gaming. I want to give a special shout-outs to...
Conclusion & Next Steps
02:38:13
Speaker
Thank you all for listening to the Tony's Game Lounge podcast. We'll be back probably in March as long as I don't lose my voice again like I did last year or this year. We'll be back then. Until then, everybody, ah be sure to like, share, and follow this podcast on whatever platform you're listening to this on. And we will see you right back here next year in the Game Lounge.
02:38:37
Speaker
Bye. Bye. Six, seven. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Tony's Game Lounge. New episodes release every two weeks. Make sure to follow, like, and share the podcast on your streaming service and follow us on Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and X.