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23. The Game Awards breakdown + Christmas Special! | Games Over Plastic
37 Plays3 months ago
Join us for this very special Christmas episode! Hosted by the king of festivities, Hodge. We breakdown the game awards and discuss if each game looks good or bad. We do our secret Santa where we "give" games for each other to play next year, and then we get into some Christmas topics and fun! Enjoy!
Very special video version at: http://www.youtube.com/@gamesoverplastic
Timestamps
00:00:00- Show Begins
00:05:00- Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound
00:07:06- One Move Away
00:08:00- Slay The Spire 2
00:08:43- Dave The Diver
00:09:30- Thick as Thieves
00:11:22- Shadow Labyrinth
00:13:00- Steel Paws
00:14:10- Kyora
00:15:13- Rematch
00:17:20- Solasta 2
00:19:30- The Witcher 4
00:27:20- Elden Ring Nightreign
00:31:07- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
00:31:30- Catly
00:33:20- Project Robot
00:35:15- The Outer Worlds 2
00:41:00 Split Fiction
00:43:38- Steel Hunters
00:45:00- The Long Dark 2
00:47:20- Borderlands 4
00:48:40- Final Fantasy XVI X Tekken
00:49:50- Splitgate 2
00:51:18- Virtua Fighter
00:52:35- Project Century
00:55:00- Turok Origins
00:55:50- Warframe 1999
00:56:00- Palworld
00:57:15- Onimusha: Way of the Sword
00:57:50- The First Berserker: Khazan
00:58:14- Dying Light: The Beast
00:58:40- Stage Fright
01:00:40- Game of Thrones: Kingsroad
01:02:38- The Last of Us 2
01:02:50 Sonic Team Racing Crossworld
01:03:13- Mafia The Old County
01:05:13- Dispatch
01:05:25- Okami Sequel
01:08:10- Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet
01:14:20- What We Are Playing- Midnight
01:17:20-What We Are Playing- Hodge
01:19:00- What We Are Playing- Sean
01:23:40- Secret Santa
01:30:00- Christmas Special!
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Transcript
Introduction and Holiday Preferences
00:01:07
Speaker
Hello! Welcome to Games Over Plastic episode 23, our very holly jolly Christmas episode, where we'll also be talking about the Video Game Awards. It's going to be a whole lot of fun. I am joined this week, as always, by my two ah gen awesomely genuinely awesome, I'm speaking horribly today, uh, co-host. First up is Midnight. How you doing, brother?
00:01:27
Speaker
I'm doing good. Yeah, I got my Santa hat on. I got Santa Bucky. I got my new PS5 Pro that I purchased. Wasted my money on. Hell yeah. What's the first game you played on it?
00:01:40
Speaker
The first game I played on it, which I will get to, is Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 from 2022. I was like, let me bring up a three-year-old cod. Playing with my friend, though. My my ah brother told me he's going to buy me a Santa Bucky before he comes up for Christmas, so I was like, good. I need one. I need it. But ah yeah anyway, I'm also joined by our lovely co-host, Sean Mason. How you doing, brother?
00:02:06
Speaker
I'm doing great. It's a very holiday centric episode. We got to be inclusive to everyone. Now, I love Christmas. Christmas is amazing. Absolutely the best holiday. Oh, yeah. Christmas. Yeah. Whenever I'm a if I ever need like a quite if I'm on a date or something, I just need a question like to ask a girl or something. I always ask Halloween or Christmas. So really quickly, what do you guys say, Sean? It's Christmas. Christmas midnight.
00:02:35
Speaker
What? Do you prefer Halloween or Christmas? Sorry. Christmas for sure. Christmas. Oh, it's not even close. Yeah, I mean, I'm the same. I love Halloween. and I love the decorations, everything. But Christmas, it's just so joyful. So i I am happy that we're approaching the holiday, even though it doesn't feel like it, because it's like 40 degrees here some days and then 10 another day and there's no snow on the ground and I'm working all the time. So.
00:02:58
Speaker
Christmas just doesn't feel the same, so sometimes you gotta to force yourself into that little holly jolly
Podcast Schedule and DLC Episodes
00:03:03
Speaker
attitude. But ah first, I guess, ah admin stuff before we get into everything. Games are plastic, biweekly podcast. You can watch us on ah Monday mornings every other week on YouTube and wherever any audio podcasts are found.
00:03:19
Speaker
um We also do DLCs during off week sometimes. If there's a game or topic we want to discuss, ah Midnight just did a Dragon Age The Vale Guard spoiler cast with two of our buddies. ah Previous guest, Lockmore, who's been on twice before, and then our buddy Sensei J-Dot, who made his debut on the podcast. I listened to it, even though I have no interest in this game. And you guys did an awesome job. I loved that episode. It was very, very good. Thank you. Yeah, somebody needs to give J-Dot his $20.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, J dot. He's a he's a natural podcaster. i I did not. I mean, not that podcasting is hard by any means. I mean, we do it, but ah some people they get on the camera and they just lock up. So it's good on him for being able to just join in with you guys who've been doing it for a while and just go along with it. So that was awesome.
Game Awards and Upcoming Titles
00:04:09
Speaker
But he was great. And I think he mentioned he had a YouTube like Sensei J dot on YouTube, I think he's bringing it back. So oh no maybe I don't know what's even there. But yeah, anyways,
00:04:19
Speaker
Yeah, we'll we'll we'll tweet it out when when, if he does upload anything, we can show off our buddy's talents. We don't need to promote Lock, he's bigger than us, so. But yeah, anyway, ah so before we go into our Christmas topic, we wanted to do just a fun holiday special. um We had the Game Awards to talk about, so we're just gonna kinda quickly run through ah the show and just kinda stop at the games we care about. ah There's no point in stopping at,
00:04:47
Speaker
you know games no one's going to play. So ah let's just start with the pregame show if you guys want, unless you guys got anything else to say before we do it. now Let's do it, man. All right. but My cat's excited. Yeah. So the pre-show started with ah that Sydney girl up on stage, per usual, chatting her way and doing her horrible jokes that no one laughs at. But um first thing we saw was Ninja Gaiden in a 2D Sega Genesis looking Skidescroller. I actually thought this game looked awesome.
00:05:16
Speaker
I don't know anything about Ninja Gaiden, but ah the anime like cutscene thing, it looks kind of like Flash animation ish, but the gameplay looked awesome. is It straight up looked like a Sega Genesis game. ah Do you guys have any interest in that or nah?
Games and Gameplay Experiences
00:05:34
Speaker
I do not have any interest in that. I've never really played much of the Ninja Guidance. I did play a little bit of the Ninja Gaiden on the Wii U when it came out because there was literally nothing to play on the Wii U and I had to justify.
00:05:46
Speaker
my stupid purchase, but I didn't get that far. I ended up just like dropping it and going back to the 360 and playing my games there. um I do. I forgot to show off real quick before we get too deep in the show. I wore a special Christmas shirt today and I just want to show it off for you guys. Check it out. It says I do it for the hose.
00:06:07
Speaker
He's doing it for the hose. Just like we do here at games over plastic. I'm just wearing a Snoopy shirt because of it. We'll talk about some peanuts later, but yeah. What about you, Sean? Yeah. What do you think, Sean?
00:06:20
Speaker
I think it looks gorgeous. I love the pixel art design. I think it's awesome. I love how they're not like phoning it in and doing the 2.5 G, which is yeah a lot easier to do than pixel art. ah But I've never played a Ninja Gaiden game. I actually tried to play. I did try to play it once. um And I just like I felt like it felt it felt really clunky to me, like the controls, like the old school ones. And I never played any of the 3D ones. But this looks awesome. Looks gorgeous.
00:06:48
Speaker
Right now, I mean, I'm interested in it. and We'll see if I end up playing it. I mean, I do like 2D side strollers, so I could easily see myself getting to it. But yeah, it does look awesome like the art style. So yeah. And then next up was one move away, which was just like some packing game. And I have absolutely no interest in this. So unless you guys are from.
00:07:11
Speaker
it's from the creators of unpacking which is like a it's like a puzzle game um which i liked i i did play unpacking um it was fun but i didn't like buy it i i got out of like playstation plus oh my god yeah very um not complicated, but it's a puzzle game with like a kind of a story over in like the house that evolves over the years. Like um it follows like one character and it's like them unpacking every time they move. It's kind of cool. It's interesting. Oh, it starts when they're a child and ends when like they're like a grown like woman. It's pretty cool. Yeah. OK, well, that's ah interesting. But yeah, I doubt I'll ever play it. So I'm guessing you're not going to be playing this midnight.
00:07:55
Speaker
You're muted.
00:07:59
Speaker
No, probably not. Sorry. Yeah, you're good. um Yeah, I didn't. I didn't think so. ah The next was up with splay the spire, slay the spire, too. This is a game I've heard people talk about a lot is slay the spire. So I don't know. Have either of you ever played this? I'm not.
00:08:16
Speaker
played this game, but it looked interesting. That's like the card game, right? Where you kind of like, it's like a card based RPG kind of thing. Yeah. I don't know. It looks interesting. It's just one of those that I've heard a lot of people talk about. So I don't know if you guys had played it or not. It does look like something I would probably like and maybe one day I'll get to. um Yeah. But I know Colin on LSM loved that game for a long time. Yeah. Probably a good portal game. Yeah, probably.
00:08:43
Speaker
um Next up was Dave the Diver in the jungle. I know Dave the Diver is another one that's huge that people were praising a lot the other year. So, do either of you have any experience with that or are interested in this one? I played Dave the Diver. I thought it was a really good game. I enjoyed my time with it. I love the Godzilla DLC they did earlier. I know it was earlier this year.
00:09:05
Speaker
um So I will definitely be checking this out. I mean, the gameplay is so much fun in that and like it's such just a fun that there's a really, there's a really interesting dialogue and it's funny writing. So I'm always entertained by it. So, um, yeah, should be a good time.
Game Announcements and Reactions
00:09:22
Speaker
All right, cool. Next up, this one was really intriguing. I'm very back and forth on it. It's Thick as Thieves. It's like an online multiplayer thief game where you kind of have to compete to steal stuff. And it looked really interesting, but the fact that it's ah like a live service game, I feel like it's just dead on arrival, but it looks really cool. I just don't really see it having legs. So what what do you guys think about that one, Midnight?
00:09:48
Speaker
could potentially be good. um I need to see more, you know, sometimes if you have like those really unique ideas, like those games could be really fun. Like I'm reminded of the Assassin's Creed multiplayer back in the day. That was always pretty fun trying to figure out who the assassin was or trying to sort blend in and survive. ah Yeah. And also i'm I'm reminded of a game that I played way back in the day. I think this was the precursor to that. ah What's that one that everyone loves now among us?
00:10:14
Speaker
um But before Among Us, there was Town of Salem was a game that I used to play, um which was very similar. It was like this little village. There was like 13 houses. There's all these different rules. One person was a killer. um And every night someone would die. And then every morning you would meet in the town square to discuss what happened. And you'd be like, I was the jailer and I had so i had this person jailed and nobody died. So this person had to be the killer and stuff like that. So it was it was fun. um So if you have like the right concept, it could hit.
00:10:43
Speaker
So I get to see more. Hey, what about you, Sean? A thief-based multiplayer game. Sounds familiar from a game coming out from Sony called fair games um I Don't know I'm not into i'm not really it takes a really special game for two for a multiplayer game to really you know Bring me in so this is like a definitely a pass for me Yeah, but I hope that it does well and those who like it. Yeah, enjoy it, but we all know in this
00:11:16
Speaker
ah Era of gaming with so many different multiplayer live service games. It's very difficult to crack that Web, so we'll say Yeah ah Next up was a game called. Oh, sorry. Did you say something? No, okay Next up was a game called shadow labyrinth. I honestly have no idea what this is It says something about pac-man and I have no idea so I'm not gonna say anything about this Yeah, this is supposed to be it's supposed to be like like a gritty, darker take on Pac-Man. And I know it's like next year, the 45th. Yeah, it's weird. I know next year is like the 45th anniversary of Pac-Man.
00:11:58
Speaker
So it's like a Metroid, so they're taking Pac-Man and making it into like a Metroidvania? I don't know. I do remember there was a time when they tried to make Pac-Man into something like much more than just, you know, the original Pac-Man, like- Didn't they make like a 3D platformer? ah Yeah, they had Pac- They had like, during like the p the early PS2 era, um they had like Pac-Man World, like 1, 2, and 3. They just re-released like the first one, I think, like I think last year, but I'll never forget ma this kid that I was in kindergarten with had a PS2 and I remember, I wasn't really friends with him, but he invited me to go over his house, so I did. And we played Pac- I think it was Pac-Man World 3 on his PS2, and I was like, this is the most bizarre game ever. Like, I'm running around as a Pac- And if you remember, there was a Pac-Man cartoon in the 90s that I used to watch on Boomerang back in the 2000s, and it was very strange.
00:12:57
Speaker
Like very very odd. So maybe they're just trying to reconnect on that Pac-Man lore Expand that a little bit Yeah, I don't know whatever what do you think midnight ah no comments on this All right, next up is a game that's only going to be on Netflix, so no one's going to play it. It's called Steel Paws. I don't know what it's about. It was just a little anime trailer or some lady run around some Pokemon looking things. And then the Tower of Babel showed up and I have no idea what's happening. So I have nothing to say about this. And plus, like I said, it's going to be a Netflix game, so I'm never going to play it.
00:13:35
Speaker
Um, next up is Kiora, Kiora, Kiora. Um, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, you want to watch it? Let's steal pause. No, sorry. well pause Um, if this was not on Netflix, I would be intrigued. But again, it's on Netflix, like you said, but yeah.
00:13:52
Speaker
does look intriguing to me. I do but that. That when it first popped up, I was very intrigued until I saw the Netflix logo. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I actually did have a little intrigue with it until it said Netflix gaming and I was like, OK, I'm never, never playing it.
00:14:09
Speaker
ah But anyway, yeah, next up is Kyora. It looks it's a gorgeous pixel art game, but it looks like it's like a crafting side scroller or something. And so it really is not ah sticking out to me. But what about you, Sean? Do you think Kyora looks good? I'm obviously it's probably never gonna not play it. So.
00:14:30
Speaker
We didn't really see much of it. when We only saw like we saw basically like I think like a minute or a minute and a half on it. So I'm not really wasn't really entirely sold on it. I mean, I did read a little bit of it because I know they updated the steam page. It's going to be interesting, I think. I don't know. I have to wait and see. I need more. And it's you can play eight player online. So that will be interesting. Hmm. Yeah, it's doubtful that I'll ever play this. Like you said, yeah I don't really like side scroll their stuff. I don't know. I'm old.
00:15:00
Speaker
So I don't want to play games that I played and in the 90s anymore. I want to advance, you know, for the most part. I do like the art style, though. It looks beautiful. It's it's a gourd. Yeah, it's beautiful. But yeah, I don't know.
00:15:13
Speaker
But next up, this actually is the one that surprisingly stole the pre-show for me was Rematch. It's a soccer game from the creators of Sifu. It looks kind of like Rocket League meets Sifu basically. And even though I have no interest in soccer, sorry acid or buddy, I do not care about that sport at all. I think it sucks, but that game looks super fun. So ah as a soccer coach, Sean, what do you think of it?
00:15:41
Speaker
ah So I never played seafood and I've never played rocket week, but I've always been interested in see who I think this is a really interesting and cool concept where They're basically taking that like seafood aspect and putting it to soccer and it's online multiplayer So that's gonna be a little different. So Um, I don't know it's gonna be intriguing. I actually showed this trailer to a couple of players on who a couple of um Students I have who are like soccer obsessed like that would get into FIFA and they're on my soccer team as well And I showed them and they were like, whoa, this looks sick. And so like they're really excited for it So I think it's definitely gonna hit that audience that you know loves rocket league and a lot of those people are into a lot of sports too So like that rocket league is a very casual game. Well, not casual but
00:16:29
Speaker
For lack of a better term, casual gamer game, where it captures a lot of the audience. So I could see this being a huge hit. Yeah, I definitely I definitely could see this being huge. What do you what do you think? Midnight? Obviously, you're a huge soccer fan. You love it more than that I love soccer. I actually I miss this. I wasn't watching a lot of the pre-show. I was busy playing a game. But I mean, I did play some Rocket League and that's cool. So I will keep my eye on this. I'll have to see more and decide later, but I probably won't play it, though.
00:16:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's one of those where if it's like a free to play game, I'll probably hop in a weekend with some buddies and try it out and see how it if it clicks. But yeah, I could see this. I definitely see this having a following for the long haul, but it doesn't mean it's going to be me. So this if this game is not free to play, it's going to fail. Yeah, exactly.
00:17:16
Speaker
Um, then finally in the pre-show was Solasta two. I have no idea what this is. Uh, it looks like, what a, like a little top down CRPG. I'm excited about this one a little bit. Yeah. I was going to say this one looks like a you game. So.
00:17:33
Speaker
So what this is, for people who don't know, if if people like Baldur's Gate 3, for example, this is a game that's up that alley, you know, it's ah it's a top-down CRPG, very deep lore choices based on Dungeons & Dragons, fifth edition, just like Baldur's Gate 3 was. um I've never played Dungeons & Dragons. Baldur's Gate 3 was my first experience in that world, um but it uses the same ruleset. So if people who like those types of games, those ah those deep RPGs,
00:18:01
Speaker
um With a lot of choice and stuff, but it's kind of that top-down Older feel if you will. um This is probably something you'll like Cool. Yeah, it looked it looked like the graphics were gorgeous. I will give it that I ah I mean the CG trailers always look great But like when it actually did cut to the the gameplay a little it did look good It's just yeah CRPGs are not my cup of tea. So I don't think I'll be touching it But what about you Sean?
00:18:27
Speaker
Other than Baldur's Gate 3, I've not really been ever played like a CRPG and really gotten into it. So, I, this, you know, I've never even heard of this series. So, apparently, I mean, if it's getting a sequel, the first game must have done, you know, must have done well. But we'll see. Maybe, maybe in this new era where, you know, Baldur's Gate 3 captured the mass of the audience, maybe that they'll be able to catch fire and, you know, pop on that.
00:18:54
Speaker
Yeah, maybe the first game was like a sleeper hit. I think and this one is going to be like bigger and better, supposedly. So when the when did the first one come out? Do you know? I'm not sure what year it came out. I know that my brother was playing it, though, and he liked it. Was it like an odds game or a 10s game or earlier? I'm going to look it up. Let's see. Twenty twenty one. Oh, so it's not even that old. I expected this to be like a sequel to a game that came out like oh, eight or something for some reason. I lost the crown of the Magister came out on twenty twenty one for Windows and Mac.
00:19:25
Speaker
Hmm. Okay. Later came to Xbox one Xbox series and PlayStation five. Huh? Cool. Well, that looks pretty cool. But all right. Moving on into the actual show. We started off with quite a banger that everyone except midnight was excited for. No, it's a they had a very honestly too long trailer for the Witcher four. So I'm just going to get it over to midnight. What are you thinking, brother? I'm going to come.
00:19:51
Speaker
Um, dude, this is going to be the game of the decade, the game of the year for sure. Uh, no matter what the Witcher three, which I played recently is so such a masterpiece. I'm going to go ahead and say it right now. CD project red isn't my new favorite developer. They have passed by aware. They have passed Bethesda game studios. They are the best. Um, cyberpunk was fricking insanely great. And you need to play at Hodge unless you already did.
00:20:20
Speaker
i I'll say in a second, yeah. Witcher 3 was immaculate. Just a beautiful, amazing game with an awesome story and choice. And the combat, while a little bit tough to get into at first, is actually really fun once you get into it and get more abilities. um Dude, the Witcher 4 is going to be awesome. I saw some of the people were talking about this was Woke and DEI because Ciri's the main character. um But if you actually knew anything about the Witcher, Ciri's been kind of the main character all along. Geralt was just like,
00:20:51
Speaker
you know, like her what her protector, if you will. And he retired at the end of The Witcher 3 in Blood and Wine, so it makes sense that she would take up the mantle. So she's not a DEI character that's thrown in. She's been there all along. She is a Witcher, and it's gonna be awesome. I can't wait. I just hope, I just really hope that this game does not drop in the next two Elder Scrolls 6, because Elder Scrolls 6 will not look as good next to this, I don't think.
00:21:18
Speaker
I could definitely see if it if they were about to line up. I could see Microsoft delaying it, like how they kind of delayed a vow to open up the schedule. I could see them delaying. I could see them delay. i Yeah, I truly think Elder Scrolls six is going to be an awesome game, but if you play it right next to the Witcher, I don't think that's going to be a good look for them. Yeah, because the Witcher is like the one game I see people praise more than Skyrim. Like I know, like so.
00:21:40
Speaker
I tried the Witcher 3, I couldn't get into it. I don't know, maybe if I did like you, where I tried it four times, maybe the fifth time would click, but I just couldn't do it. It was the same as ah Cyberpunk. I played it at launch. I dropped it not, it wasn't actually that buggy for me. I got it on Series X when the Series X came out.
00:21:57
Speaker
and it played fine it's just the pacing wasn't there for me and then i played it again when they kind of came out with the hey we fucking redid it kind of thing and i played it again i made it further this time but the world of that city is amazing i CD Projekt Red is obviously an amazing world-building studio. that's no There's no argument there. But the game, I just, it didn't... There was one time I was walking down the street and some cops just ser randomly started shooting me. I'm like, bro, I'm just fucking walking while black or whatever that expression is. Like, what is happening that they're just suddenly shooting me out of nowhere? And so I just kind of dropped it. And I was like, I get why people love it. It's definitely... ah I had no complaints about the gameplay or anything. It's just... the pacing and then that random kind of janky shit started happening and I was like I'm just I'm done with it but when the Phantom Liberty update came out they updated like the skill tree and all that shit so I was like maybe I will give it a third try one day so I'm not writing off cyberpunk forever but maybe I will get back to it
00:22:58
Speaker
CD Projekt Red, and who knows, maybe it's just a studio that doesn't click for me. But Witcher 3, yeah, I saw um people bitching, oh, you're a pleased woman. I'm like, I know series, like, I don't even know anything about The Witcher other than I saw the first season of the show. I like, I know series is an important character, so I don't find it weird that she would take over for Geralt or Geralt when he retired. Retires or whatever so I don't understand that complaint the only thing I saw as someone who knows nothing about the lore is someone said that she Technically couldn't be some like a witcher or something because she doesn't drink some potion that gives her powers I don't know what it was I saw something that there was some plot hole there, but I don't
00:23:33
Speaker
I could get into that. Yeah. So I'm not an expert on the Witcher lore. I've only played the Witcher 3, but I do know from what I've heard from people who are Witcher lore fans, that Siri is actually the main character of like the books and stuff, not Geralt. Geralt's just her shepherd or her protector. So it like I said, it makes sense as far as it she has the cat eyes in this trailer like the witchers They take mutagens and then they get the cat eyes She has the cat eyes in this trailer and people were pointing that out because in the Witcher 3 she did not because she never did the mutagens She was able to keep up with the witchers because she trained with them and because she had elder blood which is something that you'll if you play the game you'll learn and So she has elder blood and she trained with them. So she's able to kind of keep up, but she never officially became a Witcher. But in this trailer, she has the cat eyes. So people were pointing that out. We don't know, though. They might actually show that she gets some mutagens in the fourth game. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I don't know. It looked interesting. I thought that, like I said, I thought the trailer was a little too long, but.
00:24:31
Speaker
It looked interesting, but yeah, CD Projekt doesn't stick out for me. So maybe I'll get to this game one day if it comes out and it's awesome. But yeah, i but it didn't. It's not one that hyped me like, oh, can't fucking wait for this one. So but ah Sean, what do you what do you think about it?
00:24:47
Speaker
I'll be driving my own car during this bandwagon. No, I'm excited for people who are um interested in at midnight. It's just funny that they just announced this after you just had just finished Witcher 3 and you were like head over heels for it. So I was thinking to you right when they spread when I saw it. I was like, oh, midnight must be.
00:25:05
Speaker
so excited right now um it looks cool as far as like the the dei stuff like guys who cares like yeah i don't care if your protagonist is a man i don't care if your protagonist is a woman it really doesn't matter to me as long as the game is good and it's an interesting narrative and you are you find um that the character is interesting and cool like that's what really matters like it doesn't really matter preach yeah yeah Unless it's like egregious where it ruins the plot, but that's but that's it's never the case. So female protagonist is not a problem. It's not at all. um In fact, in fact, if you play Cyberpunk 2077, please play as female V because she is so much better. Her voice actress slayed it. She's so good. So much emotion and delivery in hers.
00:25:52
Speaker
Maybe I'll play as the female if I ever get back to cyberpunk. Her voice acting, the emotion is way better. And as I have mentioned before, I'll say it again. If you play as female V, you get to hook up with Judy. Judy's the hottest best girl. That tat that hot tattoo girl. Yeah.
00:26:09
Speaker
I wonder if people were complaining back in 2001 when Pokemon Crystal came out when they introduced Chris as the female protagonist as you could be an option for her. I didn't hear anything DEI back then. Of course, I was only five years old. But I wonder, I'm going to have to ask my dad about that one. Yeah, ask him. Call him up right now and ask him.
00:26:29
Speaker
I'm just kidding. yeah I mean, granted, granted, the granted, the biggest complaints I saw about Siri was that they made her look a little more masculine in this trailer. I'm like, that's just because it's a better CGI than the 360 game that she premiered in or whatever. Like, that's why. But.
00:26:44
Speaker
I mean, yeah, if they do, like if they do Star Wars Outlaws or where the actress is beautiful, but they make her some fuggle, then it's like I get it. I get complaining about it. But yeah, it's it's stupid. And especially after just a a reveal trailer, people are already trying to write the game off. It's like fucking grow up. That game is going to sell gangbusters. Those this is a small minority of people talking.
00:27:06
Speaker
yeah keggs Yeah, exactly. It's always the small minority yelling out on Twitter, but yeah, whatever. which is next or not They can't stop it. Sorry, move on. Let's go. Yeah. No, no, you're good. Next up was another game that hyped everyone up. They started off the show with two back-to-back bangers is Elden Ring and Night Rain, a multiplayer online Version of Elden like it's a new game obviously, but like it's not a DLC. It's not an expansion. It's an all-new game Elden ring night rain where yeah, you it's co-op So I'm like I might X I would actually be interested because I suck it from software games. We've talked about this I'm not a Souls like player I get my ass kicked in them But if it's a co-op where maybe some people can help, you know Teach me how to do it and kind of get be part of a team I would have a lot more intrigued with this one. So it looks cool Sean, what do you think about this one?
00:27:54
Speaker
i Really do enjoy firm soft games. It's like a shame that I haven't played Elden ring yet I mean, it's a shame like I like firm soft games, but I've only played Like Dark Souls and demons like I've never played any of the other ones I just haven't really gotten around to them and like Dark Souls 3 I adore that and I think a big part of Dark Souls Dark Souls 3 was actually my first um firm soft game and I think a big part of that was because um It came out right around the time. I had gotten I just got foot surgery during my June? Sophomore year of college? Yeah sophomore year of college after I blew out my posterior tibial tendon so I have so many memories of just like I couldn't like leave the couch basically on the couch for like a week it was just like laying there and I have vivid memories of just playing Dark Souls 3 and getting my butt kicked and being like oh my god
00:28:44
Speaker
like yelling and screaming and my dad being like, can you shut up? Cause I was right, right when I came home for summer. Um, yeah, it was, so like, I really would, I need to play Elden Ring first. Before I ever jump into this, I would need to play the base Elden Ring and shadow of the archery. So eventually maybe, but it does look cool. And I, this game's going to do gang clusters.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not going to lie. Elden Ring is the first from so actually Bloodborne's the first, but Elden Ring is like the second from soft game that makes me actually want to play it because it does look so cool. And I'm like, I kind of do want to learn to get good at this game because it looks so freaking cool. But ah same Bloodborne, but Bloodborne I'll play if they ever 60 FPS patch it because I'm not playing a PS4 game at 30. So yeah maybe one day. Yeah, exactly. So I'll do it with that. Same with. ah But I would I would definitely be down to try Elden Ring one day if it's, you know, whenever it's on sale for, you know, decently priced. I might. I own it. I've i've owned it since day one, but it came out right around. um It came out the same time as her 20. Was that right? Yeah. Horizon Forbidden West. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:29:50
Speaker
and so i played her yeah horizon you know comes out okay we always know the horizon can around because horizon one what was it breath of the wild came out dead yeah so we know when horizon three comes out elder scrolls six book it house yeah yeah uh but uh midnight obviously you are the eldon ring fan so what'd you think of this Yeah, I'm the Elden Ring fan, but this didn't do that much for me because I'm not a huge multiplayer fan um other than shooters. I like shooters. um But, you know, I like my ah RPGs to be single player. You know me. um Honestly, if this didn't have the name from soft on it, um I would have thought this was some cash grab because it was giving major cash grab vibes. It's like, oh, join your friends here and, you know, do all this stuff. And it's got a fortnight collapsing circle. And it's like, what the hell is going on here?
00:30:40
Speaker
ah But it is from soft and they have never missed really so it will probably be good and I might give it a chance We'll see um it might be fun to get in there and play with your friends. I mean co-op can be fun sometimes It's just not my usual bag. I usually like to either get really sweaty and like gun people down Or I like to just really relax and just play like by myself on it in a some world, you know, go explore. Yeah Cool Um, next up was really quickly just a announcement that final fantasy seven rebirth is coming to PC. Uh, so, uh, I don't know. if Please play it. Please play it. Thank you. That is all. Yeah. If you haven't played it, play it. i'm I'm assuming you're not going to buy it again to play it again midnight or unless you're crazy. You want to play an ADR game again. No, I'm not going to play it again, but and anyone who missed this game, you got to play it. It's a masterpiece. It's amazing. It is the best girl. So yeah.
00:31:30
Speaker
Uh, then next up was an acid trip that I didn't ever expect to go on. It was a game called Catley. It was just weird. I don't know what's happening. I'm not going to play it. I don't have anything to say about this. So, uh, Sean, I know you should probably going to be your favorite game of the year.
00:31:44
Speaker
No, it's funny like I'm not like I like stray a lot But I'm not into cats like I'm not a cat person, but I don't know why it's something about stray I really liked I think it was the puzzle aspect um But I probably won't play this like I tried to play like like my friend tried to get me to play that cat Quest game like you know those like those three games that just came out like they're like action hack and slash games like Yeah, they're called like cat quest right? I think are they good No, I didn't. I mean, I didn't like it. I didn't like it. But again, it's it's the the cat aspect. It has to be like for me to like a cat has to be like cat human cat anime style. You know, am I the only cat lover here? I love cats. I love dogs, too. I love dogs and cats. I think they're great. um I used to hate cats until I lived with my ex and then I kind of tolerated them by the time we broke up. But I'm not a cat. I would never own a cat.
00:32:38
Speaker
Most people who I know who don't like cats, they're either allergic or they've never actually had their own cat. Because cats are different when they're yours versus if you actually just live with them. Because if they're yours, they will be a lot more affectionate towards you. Like they imprint on one person usually and then they'll be real affectionate to that person. And everyone else, they just kind of tolerate and they're like, ah, fuck off, dude.
00:32:58
Speaker
My my ex's cats loved me. She always called them traders because they'd always follow me around. But like I i again, I don't I don't just I actually was allergic. But after living with them, I just got over it. But um but I just don't like them because they chew through every fucking cord that they see. So mine doesn't.
00:33:17
Speaker
Well, lucky you, mine did. Even when we use the fucking spray stuff that stops them from chewing on stuff, they still did, so ah they're a little musters. But anyway, moving on. ah Next up is Project Robot, an untitled game from the people who created Eco and Shadows of Colossus. ah Cool trailer. ah If I'm being honest, I find Shadow Colossus very overrated. I'm sure I'll get a lot of hate for that one.
00:33:43
Speaker
But it looks cool, but i'm it's probably gonna be one I play on PS Plus five years down the road or something. i I'm not gonna go out of my way to touch this one. ah What about you, Sean? these i think ah do are you and Are you a fan of these games? No. I think these games are incredibly boring and very minute, and I can't stand them. That was actually on our last episode, our gaming hot takes. I almost had Shadow of the Colossus as one of the most overrated games of all time as one of my takes.
00:34:12
Speaker
I cannot stand it and I tried to play eco because I never played eco before and I literally played for probably I Don't know an hour and I was like that is an hour. I will never get back. I am yeah Lee deleted it. I played I played the shadow classes remake, I thought it was fine. and ah There is an emotional moment where someone something tragic happens, I'll just say. And it wasn't it was a heartfelt moment. But ah the only time I actually really enjoyed those games was I played the demo for last guardian VR on my PS VR. And that was fun just being walking around the big kind of tomb or temple area with the giant bird dog thing flying around. So it looked cool. But
00:34:55
Speaker
Yeah, I don't I don't these games are not not really for me. What about you? ah Midnight? What do you think? Yeah, I've actually never played any of the eco and shadow of the Colossus game. So I don't know if these are good games or not. They've just never really spoke to me. They've always seemed kind of artsy fartsy. Like, I don't know. um Maybe one day I'll get to it, but it is not a priority. So. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:17
Speaker
Anyway, moving on, a game that I know we are all hyped for is The Outer Worlds 2. I was hyped when they announced it because they made the joke about like, oh, it's only a CGI trailer-like thing. And this one actually had gameplay and it looks it looks like Borderlands and Borderlands didn't suck. So I ah like the in terms of graphics. so I think this looks awesome. I cannot wait. I loved Outer Worlds. I fell off of it because something else came out and I just didn't finish it. But I did love what I played. i Actually, I should go back and replay it because I had so much fun with it. um But I am hyped for this game. i'm just gonna But since I didn't finish the first one, I'll pass it on to you guys since I know you are huge. First, let's go with the Obsidian Lover Midnight.
00:36:00
Speaker
What do you think? I was going to say Sean is the most excited about this game. Let me pass. I'm going to pass it to Sean. All right. Let's do it. Sean, I know you're hyped. Oh, I know Sean's hyped. That's what I was going to do in a second. The Outer Worlds 2 was my favorite, most anticipated game of the show. I didn't think we'd see it. And every single time there's an event, I always hope to see it. I'm like, Outer Worlds 2, Outer Worlds 2. And I know every single time people are like, no, it's not going to happen. They have to do it without first. And you're not going to hear anything about it until a vow comes out.
00:36:27
Speaker
and then we see this and i was like you yes and when only that 2025 release date hit i'm like oh my god thank you it'll be i'm guessing it's going to release in november that will be six years before the last game this game looks so good um Obsidian just doesn't doesn't miss with the writing. like Their writing is top tier. They're probably the best studio ah Western studio in writing. So I cannot wait for this because the Outer Worlds just got better as like the game went on. the day I think each DLC release was a vast improvement over each each other. um The writing and the murder of Aradonos on Aradonos was insanely good. The humor the game has combined with some serious aspects too, plus just
00:37:14
Speaker
the world building they do weapon design is great the characters are so ah it's so good i did a really good job with the companions in the game too like i loved Parvati Parvati i mean Parvati sorry not poverty Parvati Parvati uh she was awesome um Yeah, I am so excited because ah i can't get I couldn't get enough of the Outer Worlds. like I played it through it on PlayStation. I got the Platinum on PlayStation. I played through it on Xbox and completed it there. I am so looking forward to where they take this, and I really hope they don't expand the size. It was open world, but I liked the contained nature of each planet.
00:38:03
Speaker
where you could conceivably go from one end to the planet to the other in a reasonable amount of time and it wasn't like, it wasn't, I mean, I love Fallout but it wasn't like Fallout where the map is just ginormous and you can essentially go anywhere at any time whereas in the Outer Worlds there were certain parts that are locked off until you're like higher level or you can somehow skill base your way in. So I'm really excited. It's gonna be awesome, I know it. And I just can't wait to see where the story goes and i have a feeling they're gonna I'm interested to see where How they link it back to the first game like I'm i'm really interested to see where like what's the spacers choice that faction up to now? Yeah, it's gonna be interesting especially I'm excited to figure out what ending they decide is canon too because there's multiple endings in the outer worlds and there's in certain endings were like
00:38:55
Speaker
kind of set up the universe to be like, oh my gosh, if if this is the true ending, the universe is kind of like screwed, kind of doomed for the long run. So I'm interested to see what can an ending may cheese. Yeah, quickly before you go midnight, I got to say that next year is going to be the year of obsidian between this and avowed. That's insane that this studio is releasing two games next year and they both look amazing. But ah yeah, what do you think? Midnight back to you again, though.
00:39:24
Speaker
Yeah, that is insane. If they actually do that and they hit both dates and they launched two full games, like actual, like real games in 2025, that's insane. Like this isn't like Pentamint, like which, which I love, but that's like a small project. This is like two full games. So that's crazy. um I can't wait for the outer worlds too. It's going to be a lot of fun. Great game. Love the trailer, the humor and everything. um The graphics and the combat and everything looked a big improvement over the first game. um Also, I noticed that you could throw grenades, which was a nice improvement because you couldn't do that in the first game. um And yeah, I'm just ready for a great story. Like Sean said, they always have amazing narrative chops, great storytelling, great choice and consequence, which, you know, I always love. um I love Obsidian. Obsidian is one of my favorite studios. They're in my top five. um And yeah, it's going to be great. I can't wait. I'm also super excited for Avowed. Can't wait for that, but we won't talk about that right now.
00:40:20
Speaker
At Spacer's Choice, we cut corners so you don't have to. It's not the best choice, it's Spacer's Choice. I have a shirt, my shirt, I have a shirt that says that, I love it. I love it, that's amazing. It's so good, dude. Dude, and the logo for Spacer's Choice, just the giant... The moon man? The giant head. Yeah, I love it, I absolutely love it. When you run into the first, the first time you run into him, like the guy in the costume, oh my god, he's so funny, because like you can tell he hates his life, he absolutely hates his life, but he can't do that because he knows everyone's watching him, so he just like pretend like he's like all-out Pete, so it's great. It is great.
00:40:55
Speaker
that's hysterical man moving on next up ah Joseph Ferris took stage to show off his new game split fiction he's a guy made it takes two and a way out and I think another one that I can't think of right now but ah yeah this one I at first but what what Brothers or brothers. Yeah, that's right. Um at I'm not gonna I when this first started I was like, yeah It looks okay But then as the trailer went on it actually kind of grabbed me more and more To where I was like, actually this is very intriguing. It looks interesting. I actually am in on this so I I still haven't played. It takes two. I really want to. I did play a way out. I loved it. I thought it was awesome. So I'm excited for this one now. And what are you? What do you think? Have you played any of them midnight? I haven't played any of these games, but I would kind of like to. But sadly, I don't have any friends. So nobody wants to play with me. You know, these are co-op games you need someone to play with. Very sad. Very tragic. One of these days, though, I would like to play one of these games because they look super cool.
00:41:59
Speaker
And I thought this game in particular looked really cool. I like to like the whole aspect, like it looked kind of sci-fi, but then also like different art styles too thrown in there. It looked awesome. So maybe I, if I can find a friend, maybe I'll play this sometime when it comes out. Yeah. What do you think, Sean?
00:42:18
Speaker
Midnight, I'm so i sorry sorry i I offended you with my friendship. I apologize, man. No, but I'm really excited for this. I've played through all of these games with our good friend Poot, the host of the Why You Should Play podcast. And we are actually planning to play this game. And this time, we're planning to stream this game.
00:42:39
Speaker
so we're gonna swing them live together yeah we've played through all of them together it's been great i like love it um it was awesome because he ran i remember i wanted to play it takes two but uh claire didn't want to play it because she hates like platformers and hates fun, I guess. Um, so, um, who was like, Oh, let's play through it. So we played through it back in 2021 and I like loved it. And then we played through, uh, we went back and played a way out and then we went back and played brothers. So I was pumped and you guys will be happy. I, I jumped on the Xbox to play a way out because something's, something was wrong with like my, you know, how like EA accounts back in the old EA games, you had to like have an EA account to play all these games.
00:43:17
Speaker
Yeah, my EA account is all screwed up and like I try like I emailed like EA I've talked to them and they're like, oh, well we're gonna figure it out and it's never it hasn't happened and then I bought a game and I can't even play it because I don't have my EA account and Like they're like we're gonna refund you they never did Damn you EA. Yeah, right in the holidays, man. Yeah All right, well, next up, unless you guys have anything else to say about that one. um Next up is Steel Hunters. This game looked awesome. It's like Titanfall meets Transformers meets Apex Legend. and like It looked so cool. And then at the end of the trailer, it only showed Steam and that you could play the PC beta. And I got instantly sad because I do not have a PC.
00:44:05
Speaker
And I'm not going to get one because I'm not spending three thousand dollars to play my video games. And so I was very sad to see that I probably won't be playing this game, but it looks awesome for any PC players who are out there, a.k.a. Midnight or anyone else. ah This one looks fucking cool. What do you think, Midnight? Did you watch the trailer for this or are you have? Do you have any interest in it or did you think?
00:44:30
Speaker
Yeah, i don't I vaguely remember this, but I also don't remember this. I don't think I was really feeling this too much. um I'm not, I don't know, i'm not I'm not like a big Transformers guy. This looked like Transformers, the game. um I'm not sure if I will play this or not. Yeah, what about you? Have you played any of these?
00:44:51
Speaker
No, I want to play this, but again, I don't have a PC, so I'm not going to be able to. But for anyone who obviously this is not a Sean game and Sean had to go for a second. So we're done. You need to ask his opinion on it. But next up is the long dark to black frost.
00:45:09
Speaker
Um, I just, this one, it looked intriguing, but it also had that look of. Hey, this is an indie game. Like the all the character designs, they had like a claymation looking face and it brought me back to like Somerville, like, or the last, like it kind of kind of looked like Somerville meets the last of us. It looked interesting, but at the same time, it kind of had that like, Hey, I'm an indie game look, which is kind of an annoying look to me. Just at times because it it always kind of comes off as a little pretentious, but I don't know. It it looks cool, but I don't have much hype for it, but I am intrigued by it. um Did either of you see this or think anything of this game? Yeah, this wasn't doing too much for me. I wasn't feeling the the indie art style and stuff. I mean, it looked all right, um but I probably won't play it. Yeah. So the long dark, too. You're muted.
00:46:07
Speaker
my friend yeah it definitely screams indie game to me like that art style you can definitely see it you it has that aesthetic from the that all these indie games that have come out since like 2020 have taken on um it definitely hod you brought up uh inside and what was the other one like summerville yeah Yeah, Somerville, it definitely has that vibe for like 2D, like you're just roaming rolling around, not 2D, but like you're roaming around in like an area and you kind of have no idea what's going on. It's all environmental storytelling. I did like Inside and I played Somerville. I wasn't as high on it as Inside and Limbo.
00:46:50
Speaker
But this looks interesting, but I want to see a little bit more. And it's not coming out until 2026. It's actually early access 2026. So it's like interesting. Yeah, I remember seeing that and I was just like, don't show me an indie game that's not coming out for two years. Like you can show me the early access. Yeah. Yeah. You can show me like the Witcher if it's coming out in two years, because that's a game people are going to be hyped for. But don't show me an indie game that has no following two years early because we're all going to forget about it until you re re show it 2026.
00:47:21
Speaker
But yeah, anyway, moving on. Next was another big announcement for people was it Borderlands 4. I am not a Borderlands fan, so I have nothing to say about this. um Are either of you Borderlands fans at all? No, I have no one interest, but it's funny. Like nobody is talking about like I've not heard like I haven't seen like big like commotion about it. I haven't heard like, oh my gosh, Borderlands 4. Oh my God. And I think a lot of it might have to do with how bad the movie was.
00:47:49
Speaker
I was going to say that I think the movie killed all hype for that series because the movie was so I didn't see it. But from what I heard, it was so bad that it just kind of killed. And then plus Borderlands 3, a lot of people didn't like because the writing was terrible compared to the first two. And then no one played Tiny Tina's Wonderland, which apparently is actually better. But no one played it because I think I honestly think Borderlands is pretty much dead at this point. like Obviously, it's still going to sell.
00:48:15
Speaker
But I feel like it's not what it was. And Borderlands 4 is going to have to be really freaking good for people to want to play it. But yeah, as from I've never cared for Borderlands, so i I don't care. um Moving on next up. What's up? I just say, yeah, I think the hype is dead. Everyone loved Borderlands 2. It was really big, but three was kind of a semi let down. It was kind of almost a flop. Yeah. And like you said, the movie trash.
00:48:42
Speaker
Yeah. um But moving on, next was everyone got very surprised to seeing Final Fantasy 16, but then it turns out that he's joining the Tekken 8 lineup. So I'm not a Tekken fan. I don't care about fighter games. Sean, you look a little excited. What are you thinking?
00:48:58
Speaker
I'm just excited because it's Clive. I love Clive. Clive's one of my favorite Final Fantasy protagonists of all time. I adored Final Fantasy 16. So when I saw this, I thought I was like, oh my gosh, this is going to be awesome. I can't wait to see him. It's funny, though, because he's the Square Enix character they're putting in Tekken when everyone wanted Tifa to come to Tekken. Everyone's like, Tifa would be the perfect Tekken character. Yeah, she's basically Final Fantasies like Chun-Li, so. but we're We're getting Clive.
00:49:24
Speaker
Yeah, I did. I did. so I did like that. Like his power move or whatever. I don't know how tech and works, but like his power move was summoning effort. I thought that was really cool. I was like, that looks sweet. us I can't remember. Are you a fighting game fan midnight? No, I suck at fighting games. I don't know. um I do love Final Fantasy Final Fantasy 16 and Clive is an awesome character. So I was pretty excited to see it. I think it's pretty hype for fans of that game like Kog. I'm sure they're going to get into that. So yeah, I still need to play Final Fantasy 16. I just yeah, I just haven't gotten around. I played the demo and I really liked it. So I just I just never got around to the game itself.
00:50:02
Speaker
Because I think I was still in school when it came out, so I didn't have any time. But anyway, moving on. Split Gate 2, for those who don't know, it's like it's basically like Halo with portals and it looks awesome. I am actually super excited for this. I never played the original, but I didn't they like take it down or something because they were making this one. So they basically delisted the the first one ah to prepare for this one. I think it was something like that. But this looks awesome. it look ah If it's a like a free to play, you know,
00:50:32
Speaker
Arena shooter that you can play with my friends I'll probably hop in at least to try it like I did with x defiant like I it looks awesome I feel like I'll get I'll i'll get sweated, but I still want to try it ah midnight What do you think about this one? Have you ever played split gate? No, I remember when split gate came out It was like really huge for for a short time there it like had a huge pop like almost like power world like everybody was loving and talking and and playing this game and Um, and then eventually it started to die down. I think something stole its thunder, but, um, yeah, basically you got it right there. Halo with portal, uh, kind of looks cool. It looks interesting. Uh, I might, if I have friends that are interested, I might hop in and try it. Um, but yeah, I'd never played the original. Yeah.
00:51:12
Speaker
Oh, what do I? Obviously, Sean, you're not really an FPS player, but and so. No, no. OK. I don't even know what split gate is. Yeah. Next up was Virtua Fighter returning. ah This was definitely like i like you said earlier with Tekken. This is probably and one that hyped up our buddy Kog because he is a huge fighter fan. And this I honestly I haven't played Virtua Fighter since like What PS2 or something on it that might have even been the last one that fucking came out I don't know but I I'm not too into it, but do you guys have any feelings about virtual fighter? Okay for up until the like big game announcements. I thought it was virtual fighter
00:51:51
Speaker
like with an L like for my entire life I thought it was virtual fighter and that is why I never understood why they called it virtual file I'm like I don't get why virtual fighter I didn't make any sense to me so now I know it's virtual fighter no I have no interest in this okay Yeah, I don't really either, but I thought it was very interesting, the choice of studio. This is being made by Ryu Ga Gotaku, RGG, the Yakuza studio. um So I mean, there is a lot of fighting combat in those games, but they've never made like a traditional side scrolling fighter like this, or well, a well, 3D fighter, whatever. um So we'll see how it works. um I think it's pretty interesting. That's one of the OGs back in the day of the fighting games, the 3D fighters. so yeah I couldn't name one character from any of these games. No, exactly. No.
00:52:39
Speaker
um But speaking of our GG project century is coming out ah this one. I thought looked awesome I have no attachment to like a dragon series, but the 1915 Japan like mafia look kind of thing really intrigued me so i I'm not this isn't gonna be a day one for me But I think I do want to try it one day just because of the setting But I know you've midnight are a fan of these games aren't you so what did you think of this one?
00:53:06
Speaker
I am a fan. I like RGG a lot. Great studio. um Yeah, this is a game that I will definitely be playing. Don't know about day one, but definitely in the first year, I will be playing this game. It's gonna be awesome, I think. They make awesome games. um I guess this is a, it's a new IP, so that's exciting. It's not an, I thought it was the Yakuza game at first, but no, it's a new IP apparently. Project Century. um We had a 1915 Japan. It looks super cool and I am in.
00:53:34
Speaker
Well, yeah, because haven't they traveled time in not like time travel, but haven't they had different eras in the Yakuza games, basically? They had a shin which took place in like the samurai times. Yeah, but for the most part, though, most of them have taken place in like 1980 and after. Oh, OK. Sean, do you have any interest in this one?
00:53:54
Speaker
I am interested in this. This looks really cool and I am really excited because they confirmed it's a new IP and it's not it's not like a Yakuza slash like a dragon game. It's its own IP so I can jump in without having without feeling like oh my gosh I need to go back and play all the older games. Yeah, so I'm really excited to see it because I know that like a dragon and infinite wealth and It's like an amazing game like I know the like a dragon and and like a dragon infinite wealth are amazing and I need to play them because they're bright up my alley and So this is like an excuse to try to kind of experiment with this studio. So I'm excited. It looks good I am excited to see more. I wonder what they're actually gonna call it. That's that's what I'm wondering.
00:54:37
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if it was just called Project Sentry because, like, Triangle Strategy, I didn't think that was going to be the name of of that game that came out, but it came out and it was called Triangle Strategy. But every time they have, like, because originally it was Project Octopath, Project Triangle, like, they usually drop the project. So I'll be interested to see what they call a Sentry Link Internet Provider.
00:55:01
Speaker
Um, yeah. Anyway, moving on. Next was Turok origins. I never played Turok because I never had an N64. So I never i ah I know this was like a beloved, you know, dinosaur shooter back in the day. But it this honestly didn't do much for me. I thought it just looked like. Fine, but do you have either of you. Do you either have any experience with Turok or are you excited for this one? No, never played Turok.
00:55:29
Speaker
I played Turok once at a friend's house. um And I thought it was the it was the epitome of why I think the N64 is either the game is either really good or it's really bad. And I thought this game was really bad. There you go. Next up is Warframe 1999. I don't know anything about Warframe. I have nothing to say about this. Either of you have any experience with Warframe or anything? No.
00:55:53
Speaker
Okay, next up, Pal Worlds getting a new day ah update. ah This game, I'm happy they're keeping ah it supported and everything, but I feel like the Pal World hype has died, and I don't know anyone who's playing it anymore, so I don't care, really. I'm happy for those who are still playing, and I hope they beat Nintendo in their lawsuits, but like i I don't care. ah Do either of you have any? No.
00:56:20
Speaker
No, I don't care about pal world, but I'll just make a quick statement that they've already patched their game. I saw to remove the ball aspect. You no longer throw a ball to capture or summon your monsters. They just randomly appear right next to you, which is f freaking stupid. Screw you, Nintendo, with your litigious ass. I'm tired of you. I don't like when these companies trademark.
00:56:40
Speaker
game design because it makes other games bad as a result like when Warner Brothers Trademarked the the awesome ass system that they had for the Lord of the Rings. game Oh the nemesis system that fits them That system was so cool and now nobody else can use it and they're not even using it. We haven't seen it ever again It's super annoying now. We got Nintendo out here doing trademarks for throwing a ball like fuck off. I don't like that shit anyways. Yeah, I Well, one of those is getting karma because you know all their crappy games since Batman Arkham Knight Yeah, pretty much Next up is Onimusha Way of the sword. I have no experience with Onimusha either. So I know this is another beloved one from back in the day So either of you have you if you ever played Onimusha or are you excited for this one?
00:57:32
Speaker
Shockingly, I have never played this game like I Like this seems like a game like right up my alley like I would love I think I would love this series, but I never played it and I don't know why I just never it Never appealed to me. I never really stuck out to me when I was you know shopping back in the day Yeah, same. Yeah, next up is the the first presurker Kazan or Kazan I don't know, but I don't know anything about the berserker series. So I've nothing to say about this one either. I I don't even remember this, so. Yeah, yeah don't know you play some guy with long blonde hair and you're killing stuff. I don't know.
00:58:07
Speaker
Next after that is Dying Light the Beast. I'm actually not a huge Dying Light fan. I actually prefer Dead Island. I'm weird. I liked Dead Island of the first one way better than Dying Light. So this doesn't do anything for me. It looks cool, but I'm not going to play it because I just like I said, I'm not really a Dying Light fan. So do we either of you like Dying Light or have any plans to play this one? No, I'm not a big zombie guy for the most part. wow These games just never appealed to me. I also don't like horror games and like when it gets nighttime, things get real difficult and spooky and I'm not, I'm not into that. Yeah. Uh, then next up was stage fright creators have overcooked. Uh, I played overcooked once on switch with my brother and it was fun. It was fine, but I have never gone back to it. So I don't really care. Uh, this game looks interesting, but I'm never going to play it. Uh, for some reason, I don't know if you've played it or not, but this feels like a you game, Sean. I don't know if you have any interest in it.
00:59:06
Speaker
um i really liked overcooked like i really enjoyed over i never really got into overcooked too though i remember when overcooked one came out i played it a lot in college with my roommates um but other than that like i never got it like i said i never got into it and overcooked it was weird it was one of those like We play it, and when we played it, we played it for hours and hours, but then we'd not play it again for, like, weeks. It was one of those games. This is gonna be it. I am interested to see what happens. I could see myself getting sick, though, of, like, the art style of the characters. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of, like, rabbits in games. Yeah. Like, I could see myself easily getting very sick of these. Or trolls. You know what the characters look like? They kind of look like those trolls characters from that Trolls movie.
00:59:52
Speaker
Yeah, they do. So I don't know. It's interesting. I'll be interested to see what happens, especially now, because I don't really have anyone to play it with. Like sitting next, like Claire doesn't. Claire won't play this. Yeah. So. Yeah. The only only thing I will say is I like the concept of that. You're two people in different universes kind of having to work along through puzzles to get each other through each other's universe kind of. I do like that aspect of it, but Yeah, it's so it's another thing like it takes to I just when I don't have someone Consistently to play with like I play co-op games usually with my older brother But he you know, he's married and all that so it's like we have to find time to play anything together So it's one of those that maybe one day we'd play it but I'm not I'm not maybe if poot wants to play it I'll play with him or hodge if you want to play with me I'll play with you. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see when it comes out who knows
01:00:45
Speaker
But next up was Game of Thrones Kingsroad. I don't know. It's like they're trying to introduce. they it It felt Kingdom Hearts-y to me where you are an out of place looking character in a real world and the graphics of the real world just look off.
01:01:06
Speaker
And so I was just feeling like i all I was thinking of was that Pirates of the Caribbean level from Kingdom Hearts 2 where every character just looked off. They sounded off. It just didn't look good. Like I love Pirates of the Caribbean, but that level is one of the worst levels in Kingdom Hearts 2 because of that. And that's kind of the vibe I got from this where it's like, look, it's Jamie Lannister. It's the, it's the eunuch guys, Jon Snow. None of them are voiced by their actor and they all look kind of weird. And it's just like, i it's isa and my Game of Thrones hype is basically dead at this point. So I don't have anything about this, but ah either of you give any shit about this? Midnight? Sean? No. I do. I do. I love the Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones is awesome. um
01:01:56
Speaker
one of the best shows of all time. Yes, the ending was trash. yeah But if you just ignore that and just to enjoy the rest, it was awesome. And House of the Dragon has been awesome too. They've had two seasons which have been great. um So I love Game of Thrones. um I'm interested in this, but the thing that kind of turned me off right at the beginning was the Netmarble logo. Netmarble is one of those gotcha slop companies They don't make like they don't make like real games from what I know of. So I hope this isn't like some gotcha trash um where they're like just trying to milk you for money. I hope it's an actual game. And if it is, I will probably check it out. Yeah. Yeah, I don't even know what it's on. It doesn't say in the trailer. Yeah, I don't know who knows. um Then next up is last was part two remastered is getting remastered again. No, I'm just kidding. It's just coming to PC so you can
01:02:46
Speaker
play that on PC if anyone wants to play it. I don't have anything else to say about that. It's just a little announcement about a game. If you like Last of Us, play it. If you don't, don't. Sonic Team Racing, after that, Cross Worlds, I don't care. I know you guys are huge Sonic fans, so. Sanic. Sonic. Yeah. Yeah, I don't care.
01:03:08
Speaker
Yeah, then after that, this one looks awesome. Mafia the old country. It reminded me of the Godfather game back from PS2. I loved that game so much. And this one did a lot for me. I still need to play the Mafia game that it's on game pass. I'm pretty sure Mafia one definitive edition or whatever it's called.
01:03:26
Speaker
I do want to play that because I do love the vibe of like that old early 20th century mafia shit. It looks so cool. And so this sense, this one's like basically them back in Italy or whatever before they even came to America. It looks awesome. ah Midnight. What did you think about this one? I know you liked the mafia game, right?
01:03:44
Speaker
Yeah, dude, I'm excited about this. I actually like you need to go play mafia one and two because I did not play them, but they look so awesome and they look so up my alley. I just haven't had the time to like slot them in. They're in the backlog. I plan to play them. They're free on game pass. I think they were free or might be free on PlayStation Plus.
01:04:02
Speaker
Like you can find these games um and they look the graphics look great on these remasters. Like they look really good. I love that old mafia aesthetic like 1920s, 1930s is f freaking awesome. And this one, of course, you'll be going back to the very beginning in Sicily, which I've never seen a mafia game do. So I'm really excited and I will be playing this and I will eventually be playing part one and two as well. And shout out to those amazing Godfather games that you mentioned because they're so good. They are so awesome. I love those games.
01:04:31
Speaker
ah What about you, Sean? Do you have any interest in this? I've never played a Mafia game. I've heard really good things about that Godfather game, though, on PS2. I loved it. Yeah. um But again, it was like I. Again, I was probably I was like too young. Not like not that I couldn't play them, but I was like during the PS2. I was a little too young to play those Godfather games that got fit in the Mafia games. I didn't really know what they were until.
01:04:54
Speaker
later. Like I had heard about like GTA, but I never heard about like mafia until later. I do own ah some of them. I think because of PS Plus, I have. Yeah, I think I own one in three. actually Yeah. um But yeah, so that looks sweet. Next up is from ah Sean's favorite developer of all time, Telltale, a game called Dispatch.
01:05:17
Speaker
Uh, this game looks fucking terrible. I'm sorry. It looks horrible. I don't, it's nice that they have cool, good actors in it. Aaron Paul and Laura Bailey. Cool. I don't care. Their, their stage banter was some of the most cringe shit I've ever watched in my life. Uh, but yeah, if, if you like telltale cool, if not, I like me, I know I don't want to play this game. So I'm moving. I'm interested. Oh, I love those games.
01:05:42
Speaker
OK, I love telltale type games. You know, I love a narrative with choices. Yeah, so know it's just it was also the tone of this one. I couldn't stay. It's not really that as telltale is the tone of this game. I couldn't I couldn't do it. I mean, they were really cringy on stage, like you said. But I mean, hopefully the game will be good. I thought it looked cool. Yeah. Midnight, did you have you played Goodbye, Volcano High yet? No, the great. That's the one with the weird animal people, right? The dinosaur people. Yeah. Yeah, the furry din people. Yeah, I'm not a furry. sea But it's, kind I mean, I loved it. I liked that game was awesome. And you said you wanted a good narrative with choice and consequence. There you go. All right. I'll put it on the backlog, Sean. And no promises that it'll come anytime soon.
Okami Game Announcement and Comparisons
01:06:22
Speaker
Quick game. I'll consider it.
01:06:25
Speaker
All right, next up, this was like what everyone thought was the last thing being announced and everyone was angry about it was they're making a new Okami game. And everyone's like, really? That's going to be your big reveal, because here's what I think about Okami. I've never played it, so I can't judge it from that aspect. But Okami feels like one of those games where it's artistic. So critics feel the need to say they like it, even if they don't, because they don't want to be the guy who says, I don't like this artistic thing.
01:06:53
Speaker
And that's what the vibe I get from Okami. And since it came out 20 years ago, it's now at the point where everyone cemented in their head that Okami was a good game. So everyone has to pretend that they're excited for its return. When in reality, I don't think anyone gives a shit about Okami because it's never talked about unless it's just randomly brought up. And then everyone has to say, I love it. So that's how I feel about Okami. This did nothing for me. What do you guys think?
01:07:19
Speaker
i've never played okami i don't care about it sean you are the weeb in chief on this network here we're a network now what what did you think i've never played okami either but uh okami came out at an interesting time because legend of zelda the twilight princess came out right at that same time and they had wolf link they had wolf link in that game with wolf combat and uh From what I what I've heard is that the wolf combat in Twilight Princess is better than the one combat in Okami. So i I prefer Wolf Link over the Okami Wolf. Hey. All right. Listen. Hey. Wrong game. Dude, I had a but when I was like when I was younger, my are of time when I was younger, my text tone whenever every time I got a text was Navi going, hey, listen. And every time it happened, my dog would bark.
01:08:09
Speaker
Because I didn't know where the voice was going. Your dog was listening. Yeah, it was funny.
Naughty Dog's New Game Discussion
01:08:14
Speaker
Anyway, um then finally, last thing after or before I think it was before the game. Yeah, before Game of the Year was announced, ah we got a trailer from Naughty Dog of their new game, Intergalactic. ah The Heretic Prophet.
01:08:30
Speaker
or heretic prophet um heretic prophet jesus christ i'm stupid anyway uh this i will not lie did absolutely nothing for me i knew immediately even before they showed the logo that this was going to be naughty dog's game because it has the look of a naughty dog game because they all look the same and so i just this did nothing for me it felt like hey it's guardians of the galaxy and cowboy bebop but you play as a bald chick and i just it I need to see more. The cinematic did nothing for me and we got a half a second of gameplay of where she jumps off a rock to hit someone with a sword. And so I need to see more. I'm not the person online saying, it's woke because she's bald. I mean, it's stupid. You made a bulb. There's probably just no one to animate hair.
01:09:14
Speaker
but uh it's it's dumb but at the same time i'm i don't hate naughty dog like the anti-woke crowd on the internet i just don't like the last of us part two though i will replay it soon uh i bought the update and everything the ps5 upgrade And so I will play it again, but I this did nothing for me to hype me up. It just made me think of it. Star Star Lord from Teemu. And I just I saw I just nothing about this did anything for me. I didn't think it deserved the hype it got.
01:09:45
Speaker
And ah but I'm ah obviously probably going to be wrong or I'm going to have disagreements, probably from you, Sean. What did you think of this? So I just I would disagree with you the saying that I think it's stupid that she has that she's bald. I mean, it's just a character design choice. It really doesn't matter. um I mean, I know it just reinforces the it reinforces the I'm playing as a stoic badass woman instead of an interesting character.
01:10:10
Speaker
So we don't know if she's interesting or not. we We don't really know anything about. I know that. But that's what the press. That's what the first impression was from this presentation, is that she's just a stoic person who doesn't who looks serious all the time and has no sense of humor is the is one. But well, we got to we got to figure out what the kind of like what the world's like. I mean, what if it's. Yeah, de I agree. I agree. A world where humor doesn't exist.
01:10:33
Speaker
I know I'm just saying it's a well, Kumail Nanjiani's in it, which means he's probably going to be serious or cracking jokes the entire time. But I just I don't it. It was a first impressions teaser trailer. And the first impressions I got was I have no interest so far. So I'm just saying it that from this trailer, obviously, I don't like I said, I don't want to discount Naughty Dog. They've hit way more than they've ever missed. So I don't want to discount it. It's just this trailer itself did nothing.
01:11:01
Speaker
Okay, that's fine. yeah I am really hyped for it because I don't think Naughty Dog has ever missed with a game. I think every game they've delivered has been, well, since Crash Bandicoot, I don't know anything about their prior games. yeah um Every game that Naughty Dog has delivered has been an absolute banger to me. It's so it's commercially and critically praised well, and I know this is a vocal minority on the internet, and I think it's the same thing we said about The Witcher, where people are gonna You know, bag it and say, Oh my God, D.I. D.I. But the game's still going to sell millions. It's going to be a huge success. I think the game's going to be awesome. I love. I was so interested to see Naughty Dog's take in space and their take on hack and slash combat because most of their like basically for the last 20 years, they've only developed 25 years. They've only they've developed games with just guns. Like that's the primary mechanic of combat is guns. So this is going to be more of a hack and slash game, which is really cool.
01:11:52
Speaker
I think we're going to get more narrative choices in this game, too. I have a feeling there's going to be some choices in this game. I am very optimistic about this game, given it the pedigree of Naughty Dog and the fact that they deliver with every game that they make, except for the exception of factions, which was canceled. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. What do you think, Midnight? All right. So, yeah.
01:12:22
Speaker
So Hodge is down on it, and Sean is up on it, and I'm in the middle. ah So there you go. Naughty Dog is obviously a story developer. They made The Last of Us Part 1, which one is one of the best games I've ever played. um I did not play Last of Us Part 2 because of the spoiler leaks that came out. I didn't like that. um I didn't like that they were forcing you to play as Abby, who was was a big part of the leak who did the the bad thing. um i yeah like Why would I wanna play as her? um I didn't like that there was no real closure at the end, you know but I didn't actually play the game. And now that I have my PS5 Pro, I think this might be a good time to actually play The Last of Us Part II, because I'm pretty sure it has a update on there. So that'll be cool. So I'll play The Last of Us Part II one of these days, um but yeah.
01:13:15
Speaker
I don't know. Like i the main character, I'm not a fan of her design. I think she's ugly. I think she looks like your typical like butch, modern female character. um But the game may be awesome. I do like the space take. I like the retro vibe. I thought it was super cool that they used the old PlayStation logo at the end. That was hype. I love that old PlayStation colored logo. um They should bring that back. But ah yeah, um I mean, Naughty Dog is a great studio. I'm interested. I will keep my eyes open. I will probably play it. Hopefully it's going to be good. Yeah.
01:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, I really I hope it's good. Obviously, I don't want Naughty Dog to make bad games. I not that I don't even think Last of Us Part Two is a bad game. I just think it's fine. I like I just thought it was over praised, if I'm being honest, and I thought the pacing was bad, but Yeah, I want this game to be good. I just it's just from the trailer I just feel like it's what I I feel like I already know the plot because she's gonna go try and rescue Kumail Nanjiani because she's part of some group of five and one of them's dead and it's gonna turn out that Lalo Salamanca who's part of the crew is the one doing it and I just have a feeling that's what it is and There's gonna be no surprise from it. But yeah, I don't know. I hope it's awesome. So But yeah, that'll be good. I'm sure it'll be good. It's not at all Yeah, I mean at at worst it'll be
01:14:31
Speaker
like a metacritic an 80 at worst. And I'm sure it'll be way better than that. So um yeah, let's, before we move into our Christmas topic, we're gonna really quickly just run through our games that
Games Currently Being Played
01:14:43
Speaker
we've been playing. We're not gonna get into them too deep because we don't need to really. But so ah really quickly, midnight, what have you been playing? Just ah give ah your brief impressions on each game you're playing and we'll just kind of move through them.
01:14:55
Speaker
Alright, so I'll give the very abridged version and next episode we'll get into more depth. um So I'm playing Thronebreaker, a Witcher's Tale from CD Projekt Red, my new favorite developer. This game is awesome too. It is a Gwent style game. The combat is card-based like Gwent.
01:15:12
Speaker
Um, but it's not exactly Gwent because there's only two rows instead of three, but very similar. But basically you just go around like this 3d world and you, it has a narrative that's voiced and you make choices and it's really cool when I'm enjoying it. Um, next Kena bridge of spirits for you. Hodge. Um, I made it up 30, 30% done. Basically I beat the first section where you like you save the first spirit or whatever.
01:15:37
Speaker
um I'm not super enjoying this game, to be honest with you, because it is very puzzle-y and I hate puzzles. But I am going to finish it. I'm going to go back at some point and finish it. um I'm sure it'll look great on the pro. Who knows? ah Way of the Samurai 3. I booted this up for a second. Immediately didn't know what the hell I was supposed to do. Ran around for like 30 seconds. This game is really obtuse. Not 30 seconds, 30 minutes. And then eventually I just put it down and moved on. And then last but not least, COD Modern Warfare 2.
01:16:07
Speaker
not black ops six because me and my friend got really tired of the cracked out movement and black ops six and how you can't freaking keep up with anyone and we were like let's go back and play some classic cod so we downloaded modern warfare two from 2022 it feels great to be playing a normal boots on the ground regular speed cod again um the maps are awesome i had never played this game i was level one i completely skipped this game i wasn't interested um So I was level one. We played last night for a couple hours. I went from one to 18 level um and had a lot of fun. Was getting kills, was getting streaks. The streaks actually do stuff in this game. um like Like I got just one set of streaks, which is just like ah like a predator missile and an air strike. And I swear I got more kills from that one set of streaks. I got like four or five kills than like my last like five helicopters of Black Ops 6. Like the streaks don't do much in Black Ops 6 from my experience. Unless it's on the enemy team.
01:16:59
Speaker
Yeah, then it'll kill you, but yeah, but that's what I've been playing. Do you guys have any thoughts about any of those games? Probably not. Really quickly, Kenna, I understand why you wouldn't like it, but I love the... you So you've seen you've saved one person, you've seen the world, which means, or you've seen the CGI, and those cutscenes look amazing. They look straight into the movies, but yeah.
01:17:20
Speaker
All right, um I'll go next really quick. I've been still playing Death Stranding, still awesome, still love it and have nothing else to add. I'm just loving, I've gotten to the point where I have finally the the the van and I have the zip lines so I can get deliveries done quick and I love it.
Exciting New Releases
01:17:37
Speaker
Jak and Daxter, just because I was playing on the portal and I wanted to test out streaming, i threw on the they added the original Jak and Daxter trilogy to the PS Plus catalog. So I hopped in and was playing some Precursors legacy or for her Why am I liking what it's called? Percursor Legacy. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I was right. Yeah. Love it. One of my favorite platformers of all time. Naughty Dog. Hit it out of the park with that one. um And then Indiana Jones. ah I am loving this game. I'll go into it more next week after, especially once I'm further into it. But this is a genuine game of the year contender for me. I am in love with this game. Troy Baker's does an amazing job as Indiana Jones, even if he
01:18:20
Speaker
really has only the vocal range of he's mumbling. ah He doesn't really vocalize much like he does in the movies. So that's my really only complaint. But on that it's an amazing game. I'll get into it more as I play it more. And then Astrobot, they released their Christmas ah um DLC or level pack ah played through it 100% although all the way it's only like an hour and a half or something So I loved every single moment of it I had a big stupid grin on my face the entire time the bots you unlock on the level are Some of the best that they had in the entire game I'm not gonna spoil any of them because they are such a joy to to discover um But yeah, love it. Love Astro Bot. I'm happy at one game of the year
01:19:05
Speaker
ah which is why we didn't talk about the awards, because honestly, the awards don't matter who cares. But I love Astrobot happy at one. And I loved my time with the Christmas level. ah Sean. Yeah, I'm going to hop right on to hop right off of um your take on Astrobot. I love Astrobot. I love the new level. I played it Christmas team level. ah Yes, like you have said, some of the new boss are pretty cool, pretty awesome. They're so did not expect to see him.
01:19:34
Speaker
Yeah, some of them I did not expect to see, which is really cool. um I thought the level design is really good too. And the new one, I think they do a really good job at incorporating all the different powers. Like we had talked about, remember how you had said you want to use the sponge one more, the sponge one right in there. I thought of you right when I got that one. um I thought it was really cool. And this is gonna become a game that I'm just leaving on my dashboard because like we talked about I had a feeling they were just gonna start you know every once in a while I think they're just gonna start they're gonna throw in a level here and there they can throw something in and um apparently it's gonna be free so that would be great I hate I would have paid money for this um so yeah I really enjoyed that it took me yeah it only took like an hour to get through and go through and find everything and I was taking my time too looking at everything oh yeah yeah um
01:20:15
Speaker
Yeah, um moving on. I finished Visions of Mana. Like I said, excellent game. Unbelievable. The ending is insane. Like absolutely wild. Just a huge reveal after you beat the game. And it makes me really interested in just the world of Mana because all the games take place in the same universe, but they're not like sequels to each other. But it makes me so intrigued to see where the series goes. And I'm really intrigued to go back and play some of the older games. I'm going to get into that a little bit more next week because next time we record, cause I am going to get the platinum in it.
01:20:45
Speaker
And there's a lot of extra stuff I need to do. After Visions of Mana, I decided, i was um so basketball season just started. So so um for me, I coach basketball as well. So a lot of times when I come back, come home, like i I don't really feel like playing a really story-driven game. So I decided to run through Crash Bandicoot one through three, and oh my gosh, one through four, and oh my gosh.
01:21:10
Speaker
I'm just reminded how much I love Crash Bandicoot and the games are just so good and the level design is amazing and I can honestly think I can say I always said I like Crash 4 the best, which I still do, and then I like Crash 2 and then Crash 1 and then Crash 2. I think Crash 1 is overtaking Crash 2 for me. I really, really like Crash 1. Just going back to it, I think it's great. I love the fact that There's only like two vs but vehicle levels where you're riding a hog in Crash 1, and like you don't have like the the double jump or the slide jump, but I think that makes the platform a little bit more difficult, and Crash 1's definitely the more difficult than Crash 2 and 3, but oh yeah it's still so much fun. I 100% it all, through all Crash 1 through 3, I didn't 100% Crash 4 yet. i'm I mean, it would be like that ah probably like the 8th or 9th time I've done it. I just love Crash Bandicoot, so.
01:22:00
Speaker
dude yeah i i've replayed when the insane trilogy came out i replayed one and my skills have atrophied since i was a child that is for sure but see i've gotten better i've gotten better i'm gonna keep playing them um Other than Crash, I've also played some Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so um some of you may, some some people don't know, i was I lost power Wednesday for a very long time, Wednesday night, I was kind of mad, I was in the middle of the last boss fight of Visions of Mana, my power went out so mad.
Secret Santa and Game Recommendations
01:22:29
Speaker
um So I really didn't have anything to do, so I just booted up my Switch and just sat there and played my Switch for probably like four hours before I went to bed.
01:22:37
Speaker
and I just played Smash Bros. Ultimate for four hours by myself just doing classic mode with my favorite characters and just just reminded me how much I love that game and how much I love Smash Bros. as a whole franchise and I am so excited to see um where the series goes because we just actually had the sixth anniversary of Smash Bros. Ultimate um And six years is a long time. I mean, you had, it was three years between Smash 64 and Melee. It was seven years between Melee and Brawl, but Brawl was, it was supposed to be six years, but Brawl got delayed. And then it was another six years to Smash 4, and then it was only four years to Smash Ultimate. So I think we're, especially with Switch 2 coming out, I think we could be in line for a new Smash game, which I would totally love, because that's just such an event. It's such a hype event. I'm curious what they would do.
01:23:23
Speaker
I'm curious why ultimate is basically all of them together in one I Think you're gonna see something different, but I don't know that maybe we can do a DLC episode on our speculations for smash one day. Yeah All right. Yeah, that's what we've been playing ah We'll get into we'll get more in-depth in some of these games later on but we want to keep it moving because we got some fun Christmas stuff to get to but before we get to Kind of true Christmas traditions stuff. We wanted to do a GOP games over plastic secret santa so we all took uh we all have one of the other hosts and we're going to gift them a game that they need to play in the year of our lord 2025 and so this is and we we made the rule that games couldn't be like 60 hours long or more
01:24:12
Speaker
and that it couldn't be a game or it could, but we're preferring not to make it a game that is going to be a trudge. Like I have midnight as my as my person, and I was at first debating doing Kingdom Hearts, but I know he has absolutely no interest in Kingdom Hearts, so I'm not going to force him to play that. So we're going to do games that we actually want to play that are maybe in our backlogs or that we haven't really thought of much. So ah first, let's do Sean's gift from midnight. What are you gifting our boy Sean?
01:24:43
Speaker
Okay, so my gift to you, Sean, I know that you are a fan of the Grand Theft Auto games. I know you like those open world kind of sandbox games where you get to run around and have some fun. I'm pretty sure you have not played this game. It's a game that I've recommended on this podcast before. It is Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition on right now um the PlayStation 4 or Xbox, whatever, probably PlayStation.
01:25:11
Speaker
Um, it's a game that came out on, uh, like 360 and a PS3. So it is kind of like not the best graphics ever, but they did remaster it a little bit. So it does look better, but dude, the story and the gameplay are awesome. You get to run around Hong Kong. You get to listen to some awesome Hong Kong rap and rock music. Um, you get to do some kung fu. As I mentioned before, you get to grab people and shove their face in fans and do all kinds of cool environmental fighting stuff.
01:25:35
Speaker
ah The combat once you actually get used to it like the combos are really fun um Like you'll get used to them and you will have a great time I think it's also only like 20 ish hours to beat you'll get to choose whether you're gonna be good guy or bad And I can't wait to hear what you think so sleeping dogs definitive edition. That's what I got for you Sean OK, sir. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm looking forward to it because I remember when you brought it up, I was really interested in it because I had never really had any thought about playing it. So I'm looking forward to playing them. Put it on my list. I put it in the discord, too. You can see exactly what it is. Perfect. But you already knew probably and dude it's good. You'll love it.
01:26:14
Speaker
Nice. Sweet. Yeah, i've i've ah I've never heard anything bad about the game. I've always heard it was pretty beloved. So I think, and especially with it being like Yakuza Grand Theft Auto, I feel like you would definitely, definitely dig it for sure. All right. Next up is acting too. So yeah. Nice. Yeah. So next up is my gift from Sean. Sean, what you getting me for Christmas? Oh, I'm not getting you anything. You got Cole. I'm sorry. You got Cole the game. Love it.
01:26:42
Speaker
Yep, Cole from Infamous. No, um I have decided to give you a fun little game. It is an indie game because I know you are a big indie game fan. And it is that game that I had brought up a few weeks ago called CrossCode. Yeah, that's 16-bit. you You had said you and you'd seen the ah cover for it before. Yeah, i mean it is.
01:27:08
Speaker
look it up Yeah, it is a game where it takes place inside an MMO Like you're playing like as a character in the MMO that's stuck in the MMO. I brought it up a couple weeks ago The the game is really fun, I think you're gonna enjoy it Hodge because the gameplay is fun It is act. It's like action based RPG light RPG elements and you're just exploring a world and I think you're going to love it. Just mainly due to the art style. I think is right up your alley. I think yeah you will enjoy that um and I I have a feeling I have a feeling this is going to be one of your favorite one of your favorite games that didn't come out in 2025 that you're going to play in 2025. Nice.
01:27:52
Speaker
Yeah, I also I love that it reminds me of the legacy of Goku graph like graphics. It looks that's like so. Yeah, so the artist who worked on it was inspired by that. Oh, hell yeah. And yes, I am totally down. i What is this on again? It's on ah it's on PlayStation. It's on Steam. I think it's on Xbox. OK, I mean, I have all the consoles. So as long as it's as long as I can play it on a modern console, then we're good. Yeah.
01:28:20
Speaker
Because I'm not going to go out and buy a Game Boy Advance for it. um You don't have to go out and play a Game Boy Advance. But the story is really interesting. It's really intriguing, too. And I think you'll dig the characters. And and there's some humorous writing in it. So it's sweet. Awesome. Nice. And then finally, Midnight is getting a gift from ya boy. um I couldn't remember if this was I have a backup in case this is one you have played, which but they're from the same developer. So and everyone knows it's going to be one of my favorites of this era.
01:28:50
Speaker
I'm going to give and I guess. Sure. Hades. No, actually. OK. It's not Hades. I could actually I could get what it was. No, no, you have to go with what you were going to go with. No, I just I will. But do you like do you like roguelikes like that? I can't even remember if that would be. I'm not sure I barely played them. OK, but the one I'm going with is control. Have you played control?
01:29:11
Speaker
Oh, I have not played it, but I am interested because I was my backup was going to be Alan Waker mastered because I do want you to get into the remedy verse, but control is the best gameplay. It's just a fun game. You have psychic powers and stuff. It is so much fun. I think you would love playing this game, and it's a really cool, intriguing plot. So I do want you to get down like eventually, but Control I think because you don't need to know Alan wake to play control But you need to play a control to play Alan wake to kind of so I want so control is kind of That's gonna be my entry for you in the remedy verse
01:29:47
Speaker
All right, i'm I'm excited. I will definitely get to that next year. I think this is great. I think we got some good games here. I know Sean's going to love Sleeping Dogs. um Again, I just real quick, the graphics are not. It's a PS3 game. So ah don't expect the most amazing graphics ever, but it's decent enough and but you'll love it and cross code and control. So I think these are great games that we're all going to enjoy. um So yeah, I'm excited. Yeah.
01:30:12
Speaker
Alright moving on to so we wanted to do a great one more thing one more thing. one thing Yeah. Yeah hodge I meant to say I think cross code I think will be a good portal game for you. Oh Yeah, that's what I would recommend PlayStation. That is what I will do PlayStation. I'm gonna play that on the portal dude It's actually I'm turning into a pony because there have been a couple games that I've seen on Xbox from like I kind of want to play that on PlayStation so I could play it on the portal and so not I'm getting to that point where I'm kind of slowly transitioning to my games being on PlayStation because I want to play on the portal. And which is why Xbox needs to release a handheld because then you might as well. Xbox doesn't care. So why should you go and get it on PlayStation? Yeah, I might be. I might. Yeah, it might be my daily driver next next gen. Who knows? Because, yeah, I'm loving the portal. So yeah CrossCode will be a portal game for sure.
01:30:58
Speaker
Um, but anyway, yeah, we wanted to do a Christmas episode. There was really nothing Christmas gaming that we could do. Like obviously Halloween, we were able to do horror games. There's really no like Christmas games. So we're like, screw it. Let's just talk Christmas. We love it. And VJ's is our gaming topic for the week anyway. So.
01:31:14
Speaker
ah So we're gonna talk just do some Christmas fun.
Christmas Traditions and Start of Season
01:31:18
Speaker
So to start off with Christmas, when to you guys does Christmas season begin? Are you a November 1st, the second Halloween ends? Or are you a December 1st or a day after Thanksgiving type of person? When do you consider Christmas season started? Midnight.
01:31:38
Speaker
December 1st or even later. um November is Thanksgiving. Okay. November is Thanksgiving. Calm down. All right. Settle down, folks. At least in America, in real countries. No, I'm just kidding. um But yeah, in December, that's when it's Christmas. December 1st, it's appropriate, or even on Black Friday is fine, I guess, if you really want to. You can throw up your tree. You can get into it. um But yeah, December 1st, or even as you get later into December, like around this time of the year, this is like peak Christmas. This is when you're going to make sure you're getting all your gifts.
01:32:06
Speaker
You're gonna be rapping them. You're really looking forward to it. So yeah, December for me. What about you, Sean? November 1st, for me, I think it's the Christmas season starts November 1st, and Thanksgiving is part of that Christmas season. I would say November is like the soft opening for Christmas, whereas December 1st is the, you know, the actual opening, that hard opening. So I go November 1st, I think it's great. um I grew up in a household though that was staunchly December 1st is when Christmas starts. So maybe that's why, i and I love Christmas so much that I'm like, November 1st, that's when Christmas, the Christmas season starts, Thanksgiving's the part of it, It's the soft opening.
01:32:45
Speaker
There you go. I, too, am a November first person. I usually don't start like listening to Christmas mae music or anything like that until after Thanksgiving. But I don't I don't like. So the next topic, we'll get into it more. But I like actually decorating stuff for holidays. So I throw up my Christmas stuff basically right after Halloween because I'm not going to take down Halloween shit, put up nothing and then wait a month to put up Christmas. So I just kind of do it at the same time.
01:33:12
Speaker
of take one down, put the next one up. But yeah, December or after after Thanksgiving is when I really start getting into the Christmas spirit. But to me, Christmas season does start November 1st. That's when I kind of start thinking about it a little more because to me, Thanksgiving isn't a holiday. It's a meal and just a day of football. So I just that's kind of what so I don't think much of Thanksgiving. It's Halloween. And then Christmas starts the next day. But that's just for me.
01:33:39
Speaker
But, you know, the older you get, the less you kind of really think about the holiday. Obviously, as a kid, the second Halloween's over, you're like, I can't wait to get Christmas presents. But as an adult, it's more of just like, I don't want to I hate winter and it's cold and I want to be happy. So I'm going to put up Christmas lights. So so that's it for me. But um next up, so going into it, decorating, yay or nay, do you guys put up any decorations of any sort or are you?
01:34:06
Speaker
Do you not or do you even like like like Christmas lights? do you even put Do you even take the time to really look at them or anything? like I love decorating. I'll go first. I love decorating. I like putting stuff up. I get that from my mom. I get my artistic side from my mom. That's how I become a good driver or a drawer and designer and all and musician and all that. I get all that from my mom's side. So I get also the urge to decorate my house or apartment or whatever.
01:34:32
Speaker
from my mom. So I really like it. I like putting up the Christmas tree and all that kind of stuff. um Midnight, obviously I can see your apartment. You don't really care to decorate, but what do you think of Christmas decorations in general? I love it. You know, I love Christmas lights, Christmas trees, all that stuff. Very festive, very fun. I'm a fan of it. I just don't really get into it myself because I live alone in a one bedroom apartment. So I'm not going to throw up a bunch of shit. um I don't do a tree because again, it's just me. Nobody's coming over here for not for Christmas. I go to my brother's house for Christmas. So but I might get maybe this year I'll get like one a little small like Charlie Brown Christmas tree and put it somewhere that might be cool.
01:35:07
Speaker
yeah Yeah, no, I don't really get into it much myself, but I do love it I mean who who doesn't love seeing some nice lights and some festive vibes, you know. Yeah. What about you Sean? I love Christmas decorations, I absolutely adore them. Growing up, that was a big thing, and that's a big thing in my house, was you know putting up Christmas decorations, decorating the tree, um just decorating in general. There was a, every year on December 23rd, my parents, we would go to this one neighborhood in a couple towns over from us, and the houses on that neighborhood would go all out with Christmas christmas lights outside, and just like all decked out, and that we looked forward to that. I remember that every December 23rd, we'd go out and do that. and um
01:35:44
Speaker
It was huge for me, just like seeing all the lights. because we we never did we never We didn't put lights outside, but our whole inside of our house was decked out. I remember every year my mom still does, she puts a basket. and for We had like a fireplace at our house. We never used it, but there was a basket, and she would put these like picture books in there, like Christmas picture books, like yeah a children's stories.
01:36:05
Speaker
And every year I would read through them. I still do it to this day. I go over there. I read through them. We had like Charlie Brown Christmas like the comic was like in an annotation of a book. We had like um just a bunch of books that like I remember getting from like scholastic book fairs and it was like all Christmas themed. I really loved it. Nice. Yeah. I love.
01:36:25
Speaker
I love all of it. so i'm i'm a i'm a i was Everyone knows he so you know I'm hosting the holiday episodes. I am a holiday lover. So yes, I adore the decorating and everything. ah But moving on to other Christmas topics of let's list our three favorite Christmas movies. If you OK, now hang on one second. Now, are we talking Christmas movies or Christmas specials? Because there's a difference to me.
01:36:52
Speaker
Basically anything that you'd only watch during Christmas season of just anything of that sort Specials are included. All right. Yeah. Yeah, so um Midnight we'll go first just cuz I'm not I'm not sure what kind of Christmas things you're into So what movies or specials or shows or whatever as if any are there that you would watch annually or you know every few years or so Yeah. So, you know, I'm not a huge movie guy, but of course I have seen and I do enjoy some Christmas movies. So I'm going to go and rank these. So at number three, I'm going to say bad Santa. That was hilarious with Billy Bob Thornton or whatever. You know, he's all drunk at the mall and stuff. Hilarious movie. Love the dark edginess. Uh, it has Grinch vibes. I love it. Um, so bad Santa is my number three, my number two. And yes, this is a Christmas movie.
01:37:40
Speaker
It's not diehard. It's Home Alone. Home Alone is a Christmas movie. Oh, yeah, it's awesome. Obviously takes place during the holidays. Macaulay Caulkin. Great movie. um And then at number one, this is an old take because I'm an old man. um I think it's just called a Christmas story, right? Yeah, Christmas. Yeah, a Christmas story is the one with the kid who gets the BB gun, you'll shoot your eye out. You know, that's the classic, you you know, with my old ass. and It was on TV every year. And I always enjoyed it. That's a great story.
01:38:09
Speaker
Definitely has aged. Modern like Gen Z kids will probably be like, oh, what is this old shit? But it's a great story. I like it. Shout out to Ralphie, you know, and his BB gun. So that's my top three. Awesome. Those are fantastic movies. I support your decision and including all three of those. ah Sean, what about you?
01:38:29
Speaker
This is a really tough list for me. There's a lot that I want to include, but I can't. So, I'm going to... Mine are basically all specials. there's no There's no movie here. If I had to pick a movie, it'd be Nightmare Before Christmas. But they're these are all specials. So, here we go. Starting at number three, we have... It's Christmas Every Day, Fairly Odd Parents.
01:38:50
Speaker
This is a Christmas episode from, I think, 2002, where Timmy Turner wishes for... He wants it to be Christmas every day because it's gonna be the greatest. But it he soon realizes he can get sick of it and it runs Santa dry on his magic power because every day there's like there's fewer and fewer gifts and people are getting really sick and tired of Christmas. And it pisses off the other um holiday mascots to a point where they're going to kill Santa Claus. So... um I really, really, that was my number three. i Sorry for that. Number two, I have another Nickelodeon special, and this is the Hey Arnold! Christmas, where um everyone in the boarding house, if you're not familiar, gets a secret Santa. They get a Santa person, and um Arnold gets Mr. Wen. Yeah, Mr. Wen.
01:39:38
Speaker
I almost called him Mr. Wang, that would've been bad. Mr. Wen, and Mr. Wen always gets really depressed around Christmas, and Arnold has to figure out why, and he figures out why, and he gets him a very, very special gift, and every year we watch it on Christmas, and it makes my mom cry every year. Every year she cries. I love that episode, man. It's so good. That and the Thanksgiving one are like, oh my god. Dude, Harold is a great show. It was awesome. Yeah, it is. I love that show. Unbelievable. And finally, my number one,
01:40:08
Speaker
It's a twofer. It's a twofer here. It's a combination of Mickey's once and Mickey's twice upon a Christmas. You can watch these. I watch them backto back to back. I have a DVD that plays them back to back.
01:40:22
Speaker
And um these are just like literally, it's like three adaptations of Christmas stories. Like that's what they do. It's just like three. So like they have the gift of the Magi is one of them, which is a story we read. I read with my freshman in high school, all about symbolism. And that's just Mickey and Minnie um doing. Are you guys familiar with the gift of the Magi? I know it only because the the Simpsons made a episode spoofing it. Yeah, um kind of. I mean, slightly. i Yeah, okay. Well, they have a um gift of the Magi. ah They do a Christmas carol with like Mickey. um Scrooge McDuck putt is Scrooge. um is very And Mickey is um like the the worker who you know has to work on Christmas and Christmas Eve.
01:41:04
Speaker
um And they just do a bunch of like adaptations of like old Christmas story. So those are my three Mickey Mickey's upon a Christmas once and twice um Hey Arnold Christmas special and but and fairly odd parents. It's Christmas for every day. I haven't got out to the spongebob one That's a great one too. I actually I watched the fairly odd parents one about two days ago I haven't watched the hair Arnold one yet again. I need to do that as well. I don't remember what it's on. It's a para on um It's on Hulu, it's on Paramount, it's on everything. Yeah, I'll have to check that. And then, the yeah, the SpongeBob episode's great as well. But my three, ah starting at number three, I'm gonna go with, man, this is tough, I'm gonna go with Christmas Vacation. I love this movie with The Passion, Shitter's Full Clark. It's just one of the one of the funniest Christmas movies ever made. And then, number two, why am I blanking? I just had it in my head. ah
01:42:03
Speaker
Oh, my God. Why am I blanking? Son of a bitch. Oh, my God. Oh, Grinch the Grinch. how the The Grinch stole Christmas. The Jim Carrey one. It is. Oh, you don't like it. Oh, man. It's one of the funniest movies. Oh, I love it. I was torn between that and Elf, but ah I love the Grinch. Fantastic movie.
01:42:24
Speaker
And then my number one is always a weird choice to people, but I love it is a Muppet Christmas Carol. It's one of the, it's my, it's mostly, I mean, we'll get into Christmas traditions later, but every single Christmas since I was a kid, I watched this with my family. And so it's just a tradition to watch it every single year on Christmas.
01:42:42
Speaker
And so I love it for that, but it's also a very funny movie, very heartfelt. And, but yeah. And then it's an honorable mention. I also watched the Charlie Brown Christmas with my parents over here too. I love that as well. That's special, but yeah. So those are my three favorite. Um, yeah. Christmas, I think this ah wasn't one that I'd written down, but what do you guys think? Do you guys prefer Christmas movies or do you prefer just like watching horror movies during Halloween? Which one is your movies Christmas movies? Yeah.
01:43:10
Speaker
Uh, equal equal. I like them both. Yeah, I like I like ah I probably would go with Christmas over Halloween, but ah let's go move on to this question about speaking of Christmas movies. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? What do you think? Midnight? Yeah, why not? Sure. I mean, technically it's not that Christmasy at all, but it takes place at Christmas. And if you if you're having fun, you're having fun, so.
01:43:39
Speaker
If you want to watch some Die Hard on Christmas, I support you. I'll say sure. yeah Knock yourself out. What about you, Sean? No, it's not a Christmas movie. It was released in July. It's a movie that just happens to take place on Christmas. Just like Spider-Man is not a Thanksgiving movie because there's a Thanksgiving scene in it.
01:43:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Home Alone's not really a Christmas movie either, but I feel like it's a lot more Christmas-y. No, it is. It definitely is a Christmas movie. It's a lot more Christmas-y. And they probably came out in December, I think. It did. And it's definitely a lot. It's centered around. Christmas is a big aspect of it. Yeah. Yeah.
01:44:13
Speaker
Yeah, I I agree with you, Sean. It's just a movie that takes place during Christmas because there's no Christmas themes to it. It's just that happens to be during a Christmas party that all of the shit goes down. If if you want to watch a Christmas, that's fine. But it's mostly also because there's always that person out there who's like, my favorite Christmas movies die hard. And it's like we get it. Shut up. You're trying to be edgy. Yeah, we get it. It takes place during Christmas and you want to let everyone know you don't like Christmas movies, but you like Die Hard.
01:44:40
Speaker
And plus, Die Hard 2 also takes place during Christmas and no one gives a shit about that one. So, it doesn't matter. But Die Hard, great movie, love it. Even though the third one's the best one, in my opinion. um So, do you guys have any Christmas songs and or albums that you go out of your way to listen to or that when it comes on you're just like, man, this is a banger. Sean.
01:45:04
Speaker
uh christmas wrappings by the waitresses absolutely love that song i don't know that one actually bang you'll know it when you hear it okay it's an absolute banger and it is played on repeat almost every day starting november 1st is played a couple times a day every day and i love it nice so good what about you midnight Um, I like all of them. Uh, maybe rocking around the Christmas tree. That's a good one.
01:45:30
Speaker
wearinging rude sea Well, my, uh, rock. I mean, ah you know, well, rock is fantastic. Mr. Grinch. you have made one one This is your read a lyric for that. Oh, you're the lyrics. They're really bizarre. Yeah, they're wired. The I wish every day could be Christmas. There you go, Sean. um But no, my favorite song is either. Well, when I was a kid, I don't know why. But as a kid, I love the song Little Drummer Boy. I really don't know why. I just love that song. But as an adult, I might go with ah Where Are You Christmas from the Grinch movie.
01:46:08
Speaker
was sung by Faith Hill. That song is absolutely fantastic. And but I got to say with my favorite album is the Michael Buble Christmas album because that dude's voice is just. ah Yeah, it's ah it's great. But yeah, I love I love Christmas music. I am the kind of person who occasionally not not every day, all day, every day or anything. But occasionally I will just open up my music app and just throw on a playlist of Christmas music just to listen to while I'm driving or something just to Get myself into spirit a little bit, but yeah, I like Christmas music. I know a lot of people who are like, I wish stores would never play it and it should all be turned off. I'm like, nah, I like it. I like it a lot. but um We'll go to Sean first with this next one. Your favorite Christmas cookie or snack? You are the baker. What Christmas treat delicacy do you go for the most?
01:47:03
Speaker
Alright, so Chris, obviously I'm a big time baker and and chef. So Christmas Day, I always make a lot of food. And we don't really have a go-to dessert. I don't really have a go-to dessert that I make, but on Christmas this year, I will just tell you what I'm making on Christmas this year for dessert. I am making cake style brownies for my dad, because he loves those.
01:47:27
Speaker
And I am making peanut butter blossoms. who But I'm using green and red sanding sugar to make them a little festive. So I am pretty excited for that. But if I had to pick one Christmas dessert that I really, really enjoy around this time of year, it's gingerbread. Gingerbread men.
01:47:51
Speaker
I will be actually making them for Christmas Eve ah for my grandmother. That is a surprise for her. She does not know I'm making gingerbread men because we used to do that as I used to do that with her as well a lot when I was a kid with her. That's where I learned a lot of dessert baking from her. And I'm going to decorate them. But I'm also going to make a gingerbread house for her. Nice. That's awesome. say I'm pretty excited for it. I really enjoy you know baking and cooking and when I can decorate,
01:48:20
Speaker
in and like bake it's like the best so it's gonna be interesting I'll take pictures of the gingerbread men with a gingerbread house and I will include a PS5 in my gingerbread house Sony pony that's a little I'm gonna get a nice nice piece of white chocolate put that in there carve it up a little bit maybe my PlayStation and then I'll maybe i'll yeah I'll throw an Xbox in there too I'll just write in there I'll write you this is an Xbox There you go. just yeah You can just put anything in there and call it an Xbox. I was going to say, otherwise, all you have to do is make like a just a little put a little chocolate square in there, basically a little chocolate rectangle. And that's basically an Xbox. But um yeah, ah midnight. What what Christmas snacks or treats do you like? ah Gingerbread is cool. um I would say.
01:49:07
Speaker
like for a dessert, I guess. I don't, I feel like pecan pie is kind of like a Christmas type thing maybe. um And it's good, and you know, with some cool whip. Can't go wrong with that. yeah um I don't really associate food with Christmas so much. That's more of like a Thanksgiving thing. For me, Christmas is more about just getting together with family and giving out gifts and receiving gifts when you're younger. But as you get older, you might like to give the gifts a lot more. But ah yeah. Yay or nay on candy canes. Yeah, they're decent.
01:49:35
Speaker
Yeah, I I don't eat them often, but if I ever have one, they're fine. But ah do you like candy canes, John? When I was really little, we devoured candy canes like a lot in our house. We used to put up my my parents used to put candy canes on the Christmas tree, like in the wrapping and meat. But they stopped doing that because me and my sister kept taking them and like eating them and then making them it's like really sharp and then fighting with them.
01:50:00
Speaker
nice he and I better to let you know kids still do that. Oh, yeah, of course they do yeah I would too um My favorite so my mom is She's she's an okay chef. She would admit that herself, but she's an amazing baker The cookies she makes are fantastic. And she makes these powdered sugar sugar ones that are I just call them cocaine cookies because it looks like co cocaine or just like cookie just covered in white sugar is like basically what they are. So I can't. And they are by far my favorite cookie. But my mom also makes just the sugar cookies that she frost. And when we were kids, we'd all you know, frost with them. But obviously none of us live at home anymore. So she mostly does it with my aunt.
01:50:41
Speaker
And she just makes a and and she makes snickerdoodle. She makes these chocolate cookies She makes the the peanut butter ones where you stick the kiss on them. I can't remember what those are all blossom. That's all that They're called. Okay. That's why yeah, okay. Yeah, those are amazing. I love those so I couldn't I didn't know those name I just heard peanut butter and I got excited but blossom Yeah, those are those are amazing. She makes great great gingerbread cookies. um So yeah, I any to any Christmas cookie like that anytime I see a trailer or something or anything that has like Santa eating the cookies, that just brings it back to me because that's kind of what I think of all the time. The cookies my mom makes, as you can tell, I'm a fat guy, so I like cookies.
01:51:21
Speaker
um But yeah, so next is do you have any special gifts or memories or anything of Christmas past? Like we could kind of tie it into gaming a little bit.
Gaming Gifts and Personal Traditions
01:51:33
Speaker
Anything you remember getting as a kid or at any point that you're like, hell yeah, this is an awesome Christmas.
01:51:40
Speaker
Yeah, I'll go first, I'll keep it quick too. is I do, I've mentioned this before, but shout out to my grandma, rest in peace. She gave me my Nintendo Entertainment System on Christmas, and she gave me my Sega Genesis on Christmas, and really helped me get into gaming a lot, playing on those. So love love her, love those systems, had so much fun. And yeah, I guess that's it for me. Yeah, what about you, Sean?
01:52:04
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I associate a lot of my great memories of gaming on for with Christmas. um I'm just going to shut out two really, really quick ones. on Christmas 2005. So that year, my parents actually got separated. They ended up getting back together and it was they got back together. They they got separated in like right after Christmas 2004. And then they got back together in like October 2005. So and my dad was the one who left. So um It was my dad's choice, but um he felt like he owed us in ah Christmas 2005. So me and my sister, we got ah almost everything on our list. um And I'll never forget i'm getting my Nintendo DS Lite that year and absolutely falling in love with it and just playing that DS Lite. Like I opened that and didn't want to open anything else. Like I didn't care what else I got. And just playing so much Mario Kart DS with my, my sister got one too. And we just played so much Mario Kart DS that day.
01:52:59
Speaker
um playing Animal Crossing Wild World with her. Like that was amazing to us. The fact that we were doing like wifi with each other, running each other running around each other's islands. That was an amazing, amazing Christmas, Christmas 2005. And then one memory I had is that my parents would host, christmas my parents host Christmas Eve, the big Christmas Eve party every year. And growing up, it was all the kids would always be in the basement. We'd be in my basement playing video games and every year it would be Smash Brothers, Mario Kart or Mario Party. And I'll never forget,
01:53:29
Speaker
Christmas Eve 2001, playing the original Mario Party. There were eight of us in the basement. So it was like it was like four, you know, I was four player, but it was like each the two verse, two verse, two verse two. Me and my cousin were Wario and we were playing on the Bowser stage, which is notorious for like stealing coins and all that stuff. And I'll never forget my cousin flipping out because me and my other cousin Ryan, who I was paired up with, stole a star from him. And he flipped out so much. He shut the N64 off and just ran upstairs.
01:53:57
Speaker
and went to my room and locked the door and wouldn't come out that's hilarious yeah i uh for me i don't really have many gifts that i remember that are game related i do remember when i was a little kid i had a little stuffed pikachu that i got on christmas i carried that thing around all day i was probably eight years old or something, I don't even know. I actually still have it. It'll be, when I move, it'll be in my background because I'll be bringing it from my parents' house. But um I also remember getting Dragon Ball Z, Budokai 3 on Christmas. That's just, for some reason, that's the one game I always remember getting on Christmas because I just remember staring at that box art, which the American one is Goku punching up towards the, the but like, towards you. So you just see his face and a fist.
01:54:44
Speaker
And I remember just staring at it while everyone's opening their gifts, getting ready to be like, I want to go to my PlayStation 2 and play this right now. And I played it that entire day. I loved it so much. But I also just a couple of years ago, I don't know why I don't want to pat myself on the back. I bought my brother an Xbox Series S just because he's a PC gamer, but we like playing Xbox games occasionally together. So I bought him and a Series S just so he could play with us. And he was really happy about that. but Um, cause yeah, most, most of my memories about Christmas day are just hanging out with my family. Like you said, midnight, it's really about just kind of hanging out. We watch a lot of the Christmas movies and shows together, just hang out, you know, eat food and just enjoy each other's company. So the gifts part, I don't remember as well, but I do, I've, you know, my parents are awesome. I had a great childhood. So I, it was Christmas was always a fun day and we always, you know, had a great time. So I love it. But, uh,
01:55:36
Speaker
One thing about gaming also is we can and we'll transition to our favorite Christmas traditions that we have is basically through high school and college up until recent years, me and my older brother, we only saw each other at Christmas, you know, because we're either off at college or we just live in different places. And so every Christmas we would get together when we'd be home for, you know, a week or something for Christmas and we'd play through a Lego game. I've talked I've talked about this before is I've played through basically every Lego game because me and my brother just That's our tradition of we play them together. And it started, well, it started when we were kids and we were playing them, you know, just together because we were kids. But when my brother went off to college, that was it. When we when we'd be up both be home for Christmas break, we would just make it and make it a thing that we play through a Lego game. And so those games always have a soft spot in my heart because of that, because it was just a bonding thing between me and my older brother, me and my younger brother. You know, we play games together, too, but it was just those Lego ones for holidays.
01:56:33
Speaker
because he was the brother who was away and I was home waiting for him. So when he'd come home for a break, it's like, yeah, nu next Lego game, we're playing Lego Batman this time. And so it was a lot of fun. And so I think about that. So let's use that to jump into really quickly before we wrap up any big Christmas traditions you guys have that you enjoy. Midnight. Unfortunately, no. um Boring. My only Christmas tradition is just going to hang out with the family and Getting some good food and opening gifts and just having a good time. um I don't really do anything like religiously Every year like I do the same thing. I don't really have any of that um But Christmas is awesome. Enjoy it with your families. Yeah Be merry. Yeah, what about you Sean?
01:57:18
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a big tradition guy. I mean, Christmas, you know, I make Christmas dinner every year for my family and I love it as I'm making Christmas dinner and making the desserts and making everything. My mom is in the other room with Claire and my father watching A Christmas Carol, but it's like the it's like the nineteen It's like, I don't know, some special version of it. She loves it every year. That's the one she wants to watch no matter, you know, even if it's not the best one, that's what she wants to watch. That's the tradition. But like Christmas Eve family, Christmas Eve party with my mom's side of the family every year. I had mentioned all the kids used to be in the basement playing video games. All the parents would be upstairs playing Trivial Pursuit. But as we've gotten older, I'm the I was the youngest cousin where now everyone hangs out upstairs. I mean, we always play like these fun games. My mom organizes it. We do a Yankee swap every year.
01:58:03
Speaker
And it's always themed so like last year was themed was inappropriate ornaments was the theme um This year the theme is getting an item from a Christmas movie I had a random item from a Christmas movie any Christmas movie you want. I got mine picked out. I think it's awesome I actually posed it to my students and one of my AP yeah Lit students who was a junior gave me the perfect idea and I can't wait and I'll tell you but you I can't tell you cuz my dad's gonna listen so tell us after we stop recording yeah i'll tell you after but it is a perfect idea and i can't
01:58:35
Speaker
that's awesome yeah i'm just thinking like like i said the video game one with my brother but yeah we do the same where christmas day used to be my mom's side of the family it would be her sister my cousin and then her parents but both those grandparents have saidly well all four like Grandparents have sadly passed away, but they passed away recently So it's mostly just my aunt my cousin come over on Christmas Day And we just watch movies and hang out and usually it's me and my brothers downstairs he've playing a game or whatever um And then Christmas Eve though That's when we got with my dad's side of the family and there's 11 cousins on that side with my brother and or um my dad and his brother and two sisters and so that side of the family is always together
01:59:16
Speaker
Nice and so that that side was always fun Christmas Eve was and then especially once we all got to like end of high school into college They became parties basically every year where because all of my cousins right now are I believe between the age of 31 and and thirty eight so it's eleven cousins who are basically within about eight years of each other and so we've always been a tight knit group and since we are you know there's with that age range we have basically a lot in common we're all from the same generation and everything so
01:59:50
Speaker
Yeah, as kids, we'd be off playing video games until like presents or whatever, and then we'd run upstairs and in college it as we all be drinking. And then there's presents. And then now sadly, ever since COVID, we haven't been able to do Christmas Eve's together because the COVID year my aunt who has since passed away, sadly, she was she had a very bad immune system. So we didn't want to risk everyone getting together for Christmas Eve and at hurting her. ah So we didn't do it. And then just years after that, my cousins, like I said, were all in our 30s. So most of them are married with kids. So they kind of want to do their, you know, they don't want to be flying out to Illinois. They want their kids to be waking up in bed on Christmas day so that, you know, Santa can give them their presents and
Family and Christmas Values
02:00:35
Speaker
all that kind of stuff. So it hasn't happened as much, but we do still try to get together for family get togethers. But yeah, the Christmas Eve's growing up was always a lot of fun. and
02:00:44
Speaker
I loved every moment of that. And yeah, just traditions like that where it's it's really because I mean, it's, you know, corny and cliches. It sounds that's what Christmas is about is hanging out with your family. It's really not about the gifts and all that kind of shit. So that my favorite parts of Christmas are just getting together, watching a funny movie that we all love. And we all quote to each other and stuff and just hanging out and.
02:01:03
Speaker
Yeah, I love Christmas. So um I didn't really have anything else to add to the Christmas topic. I just yeah, I was happy. I just wanted to talk some Christmas this at the end of the year because I love this holiday and wanted to host the episode about it and everything. And so I hope everyone had a lot of fun. So before we wrap up, um let's just do some final thoughts about this lovely holiday end of the year, maybe some gaming awards. should Sean, what do you think about this wrapping up? Our next episode is going to be a lot of fun. I'm excited for that, too.
02:01:33
Speaker
So our next episode it's gonna be great. Yeah, but in this episode was great. Hodge did a great job hosting I love talking Christmas Christmas is amazing um Everyone out there. I hope you have a happy happy holiday because the next time we record will be post Christmas So have a great great Christmas Have a great Hanukkah cause Hanukkah starts right around there and I know Kwanzaa starts right around there, too So enjoy enjoy and Festivus You had Festivus, yeah. December 23rd, Festivus. Yeah, Midnight, what do you what do you got to say? Yeah, great episode. Great job, Hodge. Can't wait for next episode. It's going to be so good. It'll be awesome. um Shout out to the Game Awards. Great, great show. I give it an eight min A minus, by the way. Oh, yeah. It was a fantastic show. We didn't say that overall. Amazing show. Probably his best one. Yeah, The Witcher 4 is going to be amazing. Mafia, the old country, is going to be freaking amazing.
02:02:25
Speaker
All of these games that we talked about can't wait. It's going to be awesome. um But yeah, this has been a great episode. And yeah, whatever you celebrate, do it with friends, do it with family, and have a great time. That's my final words. Be great.
02:02:39
Speaker
Yeah, i'm not all dad I add. I have nothing else to add. Everyone just have a Merry Christmas, every whatever holiday you celebrate, and we will see you next episode for a very fun, very special episode. Also, this one, it'll be two episodes in a row, not hosted by midnight. It's gonna be a lot of fun. you know he'll get it He'll get back at the start of the next year. But anyway, yeah, so it's ah I'm Hodge for Sean and Midnight saying, I love you and happy holidays.
02:03:09
Speaker
Goodbye. Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho.