Game Scoop! 792: The 2024 Daemie Awards

Summary

Summary of IGN's "Game Scoop! 792: The 2024 Damie Awards"

Release Date: December 27, 2024
Host: Damon Hadfield
Guests: Nick Limone, Sam Claiborne, Justin Davis

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Introduction

In the 792nd episode of "Game Scoop!", IGN's weekly gaming news podcast, host Damon Hadfield welcomes returning guests Nick Limone, Sam Claiborne, and Justin Davis. The episode centers around the highly anticipated 2024 Damie Awards, an annual event celebrating the best in gaming over the year.

Discussion on the Superman Trailer [02:26 - 06:05]

The episode kicks off with a spirited debate about the newly released Superman trailer, which has sparked varied reactions among the hosts.

• Sam Claiborne starts the conversation by expressing mixed feelings, highlighting the trailer's melodramatic tone:

  "Does it take itself seriously or is it a goofy ass comic book? That's the ends that it's trying to twist together." [03:41]

• Nick Limone offers a balanced perspective, appreciating the trailer's vibrant and comic book-like aesthetics despite his previous disinterest in superhero genres:

  "In a world where I haven't cared about anything superhero related in years, I looked at and I said, I don't hate it. I think it looks fine." [02:42]

• Justin Davis points out the iconic nature of Superman, noting that the trailer doesn’t explicitly name the character, relying on his legendary status:

  "You don't need to say Superman. Everybody in the world knows it's Superman." [05:25]

The hosts collectively acknowledge the trailer's colorful, pulpy style, reminiscent of classic comic book visuals, though opinions on its execution vary.

Overview of the Damie Awards [06:05 - 15:48]

Damon Hadfield introduces the Damie Awards, celebrating the best games of the year. He outlines his personal game list, having played approximately 38 games in 2024. Notable mentions include:

• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Tekken 8
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Tomb Raider Remasters
• Astrobot
• Shadow of the Erdtree
• Star Wars Outlaws
• Dragon’s Dogma 2
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Damon shares personal anecdotes about playing Indiana Jones, including moments shared with his five-year-old son, Kingo, highlighting the game's engaging puzzles and immersive environments.

Game of the Year Nominees and Discussions [15:48 - 33:39]

Damon Hadfield's Nominees:

1. Unicorn Overlord

   • Praised for its beautiful art, inventive turn-based strategy mechanics, and engaging character designs.

2. Balatro

   • Celebrated as a brilliant, one-person-made tactical game with deep strategic elements.

3. Astrobot

   • Lauded as a triumph in 3D platforming, rivaling Nintendo-quality platformers with polished gameplay and captivating design.

4. Shogun Showdown

   • Recognized for its pixel art, turn-based strategy, and roguelike elements set in feudal Japan.

5. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

   • Commended for its cinematic quality, seamless transitions between cutscenes and gameplay, and its appeal both to longtime fans and new players.

Damon emphasizes Astrobot for its technical excellence, running smoothly at 60 frames per second despite complex simulations, and its enriching experience playing alongside his son.

Nick Limone's Nominee:

• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
  • Holds sentimental value, praised for its immaculate direction, cinematic transitions reminiscent of the original game, and as a blockbuster event in the gaming year.

Nick acknowledges minor issues with side content but remains eager to replay the game, especially with the upcoming PC version.

Justin Davis's Nominee:

• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
  • Described as an immersive sim with perfect pacing, blend of cinematic action and puzzle-solving, and exceptional storytelling and character development.

Justin highlights the game's ability to balance exploration with intense action set pieces, making it his game of the year.

Best Art and Pixel Art Awards [32:58 - 34:03]

• Best Art:

  • Unicorn Overlord wins unanimously for its hand-drawn, beautiful art style that enhances the tactical gameplay experience.

• Best Pixel Art:

  • Xeno Tilt takes the award, noted for its detailed, high-resolution pixel art that rivals titles like Dead Cells. The game's aesthetic is compared to being sucked into a liminal, electronic gambling space, adding a unique and immersive visual flair.

Blast Processing Award [36:47 - 37:29]

This new category honors games that encapsulate the spirit of the 90s with radical interfaces and extreme gaming vibes.

• Nominees:

  • Star Wars Dark Forces Remaster
  • Iron Meat (a gory, pixelated Contra-style game)
  • Astrobot
  • Xeno Tilt
  • Ode to Castlevania in Vampire Survivors

• Winner:

  • Xeno Tilt awarded for its neon, laser synth-wave aesthetic that evokes the classic Sega Genesis vibe, solidifying its place as a homage to 90s arcade-style gaming.

Best Remaster Award [37:30 - 38:44]

• Nominees:

  • Star Wars Dark Forces Remaster
  • Castlevania Dominus Collection

• Winner:

  • Castlevania Dominus Collection
    Celebrated for its seamless translation of dual-screen gameplay to modern consoles, effectively refreshing beloved titles for new audiences.

Best Kill Gag Award [56:53 - 57:47]

Highlighting standout moments in gaming and television.

• Winner:

  • Shogun Showdown for its explosive and graphic “exploding horses with a cannon” scene, blending humor and gore in a memorable execution.

• Honorable Mention:

  • Terrifier 3 for its intense shower scene, though not reaching the pinnacle of "best kill gag," still recognized for its impact.

Top Five Most Read IGN Reviews of the Year [63:34 - 69:24]

Damon Hadfield shares IGN's top five most-read reviews of 2024, offering insights into the gaming community's interests:

1. Skull and Bones

   • Intrigued by its prolonged development and evolving scope, sparking curiosity about its final outcome.

2. Star Wars Outlaws

   • Despite not meeting Ubisoft's sales expectations, its unique approach and community interest kept it highly read.

3. Helldivers 2

   • A surprise hit with engaging gameplay mechanics and a strong community phenomenon.

4. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

   • Critically well-received but polarizing in gameplay execution, leading to significant reader engagement.

5. Black Wukong

   • Praised for its challenging bosses and intricate gameplay, making it the most popular review of the year.

Video Game 20 Questions Segment [78:05 - 77:09]

In a playful conclusion, the hosts engage in a "20 Questions" game to guess a listener-suggested title.

• Game Guessed:
  • Little Kitty, Big City
    • Identified as an indie, single-player, third-person, 3D platformer on contemporary Earth where players embody a cat navigating the urban landscape. The game was honed in on through clues about being playable on the Nintendo Switch and not being human-centric.

Closing Remarks [78:05 - 80:00]

Damon Hadfield wraps up the episode by thanking the hosts, frequent guests, and the production team. He encourages listeners to join the Facebook group for positive gaming discussions and hints at upcoming episodes focused on new game releases in the new year. The hosts share final thoughts on their favorite TV shows and movies of the year, with highlights including:

• Sam Claiborne: Arcane and Ripley
• Justin Davis: Silo and Shrinking
• Nick Limone: Delicious in Dungeon and Free Ren Beyond Journey's End

Damon extends holiday wishes and looks forward to returning in early January with fresh gaming news and discussions.

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Notable Quotes:

• Nick Limone on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth:

  "It is immaculately directed, cinematic in ways that most PlayStation games are not... a blockbuster event in a year where I feel like I didn't get too many big blockbuster events." [20:24]

• Sam Claiborne on Shogun Showdown’s Best Kill Gag:

  "Exploding horses with a cannon at very short range. I've got to get the best kill gag of the year to." [57:23]

• Justin Davis on Astrobot:

  "It's the closest anyone has ever gotten to making a Nintendo quality platformer outside of Nintendo and may probably be the most polished game of the year." [15:48]

• Damon Hadfield on Xeno Tilt’s Pixel Art:

  "It's pixel art but could never have... yeah, this is all pixel art." [34:31]

• Nick Limone on Indie Game 20 Questions:

  "It's a really cute game. This is just out this year... you can download this when you get home." [76:44]

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This episode of "Game Scoop!" provided an engaging and comprehensive look at the standout games of 2024, personal gaming experiences of the hosts, and insights into upcoming titles for 2025. The hosts' dynamic discussions, coupled with their enthusiasm and personal anecdotes, offer listeners a rich and informative recap of the year's gaming highlights.

Transcript

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[Damon Hadfield]

What'S up everybody? Welcome to IGN Gamescoop. I'm your host, Damon Hadfield. And joining me this week here in studio is Nick Limone.

[Nick Limone]

I'm back, baby.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sam Claiborne is with us.

[Sam Claiborne]

The Scoopy Scoopy days, everybody.

[Damon Hadfield]

And Justin Davis is here. Scoop, we got a great show for you this week. A very special show. A show that we that children all over the world look forward to all year long. It's the Damies. I believe this is the 451st Damie Awards that have happened this year.

[Sam Claiborne]

Feels like it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. We're gonna give out awards to all the best stuff that I played this year. So there's no but first. I think we should just sort of get right into this because there's a lot of stuff.

[Sam Claiborne]

But first that Superman trailer. That was pretty, but okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

But first that Superman trailer. We're Having a spirited conversation about that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, we got it all out before the show. Sorry, everybody, you're not going to hear it. But you. All you need to know is that Nick thinks it's fantastic.

[Nick Limone]

Hold on. That's not what I said. I said in a. In a world where I haven't cared about anything superhero related in years, I looked at and I said, I don't hate it. I think it looks fine. I think. I think that it looks very colorful, despite what other people on this cast might say. I think that it looked very pulpy, very comic book. What I think I said was, it feels like, hey, it's another week that I'm living on Earth and another issue of Superman has come out. Cool. I'm sure it's fine, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

This week he's whistling for his doggo.

[Damon Hadfield]

But Sam and Justin took. Sam's head is very big. Sam out.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it doesn't need to be any bigger. According to my wife.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sam and Justin took issue with the fact that they felt that the trailer was going for a little bit more of a melodramatic tone. Is that, Is that right?

[Justin Davis]

I mean, I like I'm in between the two of you, I think.

[Sam Claiborne]

Does it take itself seriously or is it a goofy ass comic book? That's the. That's the ends that it's trying to twist together.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, you see Crypto literally whipping up a. A dust storm while he's trying to pick up Superman by his cape and whip.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's a dog. NATO.

[Nick Limone]

I think it's very silly. Like it, It. It wears its silliness as a. A badge of honor. I think Luther Corp, you know, the Daily Planet looks like the Daily Planet from the comics. Not the Snyderverse where it looks like cnn. It's just. It's very comic book.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, yeah, Justin, I thought it was fine. And then Sam really loved it.

[Sam Claiborne]

I didn't go. I didn't go on the record. Either way, this is all pre ship, so this is what I'll say.

[Justin Davis]

Hold on. You said. But first, let's talk about that.

[Sam Claiborne]

But Superman trailer, that was a funny butt joke, though. You gotta make those. I think that, that I agree with Damon, that I always will give James Gunn the benefit of the doubt because I've really liked Peacemaker and I've really liked the Guardians movies. Even the latest Guardians movie. Yep. I. I even like that movie with modoc. That's why my head is so big.

[Damon Hadfield]

The Ant man movie, but Quantumania.

[Sam Claiborne]

What?

[Nick Limone]

You like that one?

[Sam Claiborne]

But it's just, it's Just. It's just a Modoc joke. Okay, so there's a. But. Yeah, no, I can't. I don't get a lot of gun from this for. And then Justin had mentioned it doesn't have like the soundtrack for that. Right. It has this kind of like, you know, emo doubt Superman soundtrack, which is, you know, really, I think detracts from its. What Nick is saying it's comic bookiness. So anyway, I don't know if it's going to be a James Gunn romp, but I. I want it to be and I. I'm hoping it will be. The trailer doesn't tell me that it's going to be that, though.

[Justin Davis]

I do think, like, you look like Superman is so iconic that I had. I didn't make this observation. Someone else pointed it out to me that the movie. The trailer never says Superman. It never says the name of the movie, but character. And like that's. That's kind of a neat detail. Like everybody just knows.

[Sam Claiborne]

Doesn't that kiss say Superman though?

[Justin Davis]

Like you don't. You don't need to say Superman. Everybody in the world knows it's Superman. You're right that there's some dialogue at the trailer that says Superman, but I just. I thought that was neat.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's no splash to the title. Huh?

[Justin Davis]

Right.

[Damon Hadfield]

That is interesting.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, it's coming out at 7:11, so I hope I have some kind of Slurpee tie in. That's red and yellow and blue.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, that is the Superman trailer. Let's move along with the proceedings. One of the fans out there put together a little intro to the show this year, which I appreciate. Unfortunately, I cannot. You will not be able to see it. I'm gonna have to add it in post because my laptop will not download the file. But I wanted to give a shout out to Kyle who made this perfect little intro that just fits the mood of the Damies perfectly. Roll it right now. Okay, here we are. The Damie Awards 451st annual. Here's a quick wrap up of everything I played this year for at least a few hours. I think I played 38 games this year. Did not finish them all, but at least, you know, played enough to get to get a sense of whether or not I like them. So I think my list is Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown, Tekken 8, Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, Final Fantasy 7, Rebirth, Tomb Raider 1 through 3 Remastered, Helldivers 2, Lords of Exile, Contra, Operation Galuga, which is unfortunately probably the worst game I played this year. Unicorn Overlord, Star Wars Dark Forces remaster, Dragon's Dogma 2 Balatro pepper grinder, Stellar Blade Animal well Little Kitty Big City Hades two Mini Shoot Adventures, Shadow of the Erdtree, Black Wukong, Star Wars Outlaws, Astrobot Castlevania Dominus Collection, Shadow of the Ninja Reborn Volga the Viking 2, Steamworld Heist 2, the Plucky Squire Beyond Shadowgate, Shogun Showdown Metaphor Refantatio, UFO 50 Iron Meat Dragon Quest 3 Remake, Metal Slug Tactics Xeno Tilt Flight Simulator 2024, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. And I'll throw in Ode to Castlevania in Vampire Civilization Survivors as well.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that's quite the list.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. So, man, I play a lot of video games, and it. That's why the list of movies and TV shows I walked. Is it much, much smaller because I spent my time playing video games instead?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep, yep, yep, yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

My short list for my favorite games of the year would be Unicorn, Overlord Balatro, Astrobot Shogun Showdown, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circus. Quick couple quick anecdotes about Indiana Jones. I've been playing it with Kingo. He watches me play. Kingo's five years old. We got to the part last night, the sort of boss fight at the end of Egypt. So if anybody doesn't want to know anything, I'm gonna describe it in loose detail. Yeah, that's it. If anybody doesn't want to know what it is, skip forward. But, yeah, you're. And you're exploring these underground caves. You walk into a room. Have you played this yet?

[Nick Limone]

I've not gone that far.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, Wagaturu. It's all dark, and you have to step on these plates on the ground that will shine light into it when you step on the final one. A giant. There are giants in the game, which are really just really tall people. A giant appears behind you and knocks you down, and all the lights go off. And now you're shuffling around in the dark, and this giant guy who was blind is, like, fumbling around trying to find you. And at that point, Gingo decided he'd had enough.

[Nick Limone]

That's all the time I've got left.

[Damon Hadfield]

He would rather play Astrobot. That's good. That's good. That's fine. I want to know what his limits are. I want him to communicate to me what his limits are. That's fine.

[Justin Davis]

That moment's really spooky. It is pretty scary in that moment. Here's what undercuts that moment a little bit, is. And Damon, I don't know if you figured this out, because I felt like an idiot. I didn't figure it out till afterward. And I was reading online, you can just shoot the giant.

[Damon Hadfield]

I didn't even think about that. Yeah, I, first of all, I spent a long time trying to figure out the puzzle to beat him. But no, there's no puzzle to it. You just have to. Nope, you can just knock him out.

[Nick Limone]

He's useless without his head.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I mean, I just got. Picked up those shovels and just bashed him over the head a few times.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's helpful to turn on the lights to figure that out. Right. But it does. If you don't want to do the shooting, there is an interesting. And in harder modes, the shooting is difficult because he can get to you before you know you can get enough shots in him and like that tells you right where he is. And he's like a one hit kill when he gets here. So. But I do like how you can like stand up and shuffle around a little bit and like attract the giant over and then like go hide and then, then plan your attack. Like that's really cool. You know, you don't have to like throw a bottle or something like that. Like something really obvious. I love this footage right now.

[Nick Limone]

It's great.

[Damon Hadfield]

The footage that we're, we're showing of, of Indy just, just pushing people climb.

[Nick Limone]

A ladder and he just pushes them off.

[Damon Hadfield]

And that's exactly what that's all Kingo wants to do. He just wants to watch me push people downstairs and off ledges and everything. Oh yeah. He just thinks it's the funniest thing. Thing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Egypt's a great place to do that because there's a lot of people standing over holes in the ground. Over tombs.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah. And the other anecdote is that we're going to be, we're staying home for Christmas this year. And my Kim, my, my Kim, my Kim's. My wife's family is coming to stay with us and one of her sister's husbands, my brother in law is more like my brother. We are like this. We're the same age, grew up with a lot of the same milestone touchstones. Star Wars, Indiana Jones and such. But he doesn't play any video games. Absolutely zero. So he's a. But he's a huge Indiana Jones fan.

[Nick Limone]

That's great.

[Damon Hadfield]

So I'm gonna sit him down and I think he's, I think it might, he's. I'm sure he's not even aware that the great circle exists. And again, we like, we try to avoid the, the spoilers of this Year. But the opening moments of the game I think will mean something to longtime fans. Yeah, Indiana Jones and you know, they.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just improved the lighting and that and everything. It supposedly looks that much better.

[Damon Hadfield]

I didn't, I didn't know that but the lighting was already pretty great that game.

[Sam Claiborne]

I know, I know it, it's, it's surprising. They, they made like the, the shadow effects like more pronounced and so it just looks more jungly. But yeah, I mean when you, when that refresh happened and I was playing in the middle of Egypt, I didn't notice it too much but like it looks so good all the time, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, it really does.

[Nick Limone]

I was in, I was in the Vatican when that dropped and I was like, oh my God, this looks incredible.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's really cool. So I, I, this, I've been to three places since Egypt which is, I won't go into what they are like why that happens but the sequence of events after and Egypt was a great open world area. I was really excited to play, you know, an area that's, that's as in depth as that. But yeah, I, I just played through a bunch of places which were like more like a kind of like uncharted style, you know, sequences and, and they were unbelievably cool too. Like it just, I didn't know the game was going to shake up gameplay in any way and it does in really smart ways constantly. And although I could just play Egypt all the time, I 100% I got every single thing I could in that area. And the puzzles, the more obscure the puzzles were, the more interesting I think some of the war there was some really neat, just side questy like oh, this tells a story while you get through this, you know, temple underground. And what is this one about? What's what makes it different and leads you down a rabbit hole. Like just good stuff like that know. Perfect, perfect.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's also smart about the way it provides hints for puzzle solutions because like you have, you're usually you A lot of the time you have like a partner with you and in God of War your partner would just start telling you the answer. But here, you know, the mechanic is that you can take a picture of the puzzle and you know you'll get a text hint if you want to do that. So I thought, I just thought that was clever.

[Nick Limone]

It's very smart.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's very, a very deep understanding of the psychology of how people are playing, you know, action adventure games and games with puzzle elements now to let you, let you opt into A hint versus just like, oh, did you notice that there's a mirror over there? Like shut up, shut up. I was getting to it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Why don't you just tell me there's a safe combination?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Oh yeah. And there was another moment I wanted to say. There was like a, a puzzle in Egypt where you, you just have to arrange these statues in the right order, whatever. So like I was doing that and I wasn't stumped. I was just in the process of figuring out and Kingo was like daddy, can I try? And he just took the controller and he just solved it.

[Nick Limone]

He just really.

[Damon Hadfield]

I was like yeah. And I was like yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

He could tell like the animal whatever.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is there were that he, he sorted it out. So I thought that was great. Okay, a quick word on my Damien Game of the year nominees. Unicorn Overlord, Breath of fresh air for tactical games. Like just the most beautiful art. I love the art of that game. It solved an issue with you know a lot of times with turn based strategy games after you've put in a few hours, maybe you just put you auto or not auto battle or just like skip battles or whatever because you know, you just, you've seen it a million times. But on Unicorn Overload I just wanted to watch the battles every time because the art's so great, the animation's so great. I love the character designs, it's all great. So love that Balachro. I don't know what else needs to be said at this point. Completely a completely brilliant idea for a game made by one person that I'll probably just play for the, you know, off and on for the rest of my life. Astrobot, a triumph of 3D platforming. The closest anyone has ever gotten to making a Nintendo quality platformer outside of Nintendo and may probably the most polished game of the year. And things have changed for me this year. This is the year I really started playing video games with my son. I played all this with him. He actually played the most of it and beat the game self and just had a great time. So that was really cool. Shogun Showdown is firing on all Damien cylinders. It's a pixel art turn based strategy roguelike set in feudal Japan. It's great. Love it. That's another one I'll be playing for a long time. And then of course Indiana Jones in the great circle which we've just been singing the praises of. But I got to give it to this year. I got to give it to Astrobot. Part of partly because the experience just you know, playing it with my son Part of how impressive the game is 60 frames per second. There's like, there's so much stuff having so many simulations happening at once, like countless objects on the screen that you can interact with. Often there's like multiple fluid simulations happening at once and not, you know, the game never hitches up. It's great. It's the most polished game I've played of the year. I don't know. I was just super, super impressed with Astrobots. I was looking forward to it, but it ended up impressing me even more than I thought it would.

[Nick Limone]

It's easy too, to, like, kind of, I think, take it for granted because it came out not, not like super long ago, but enough that it doesn't have that recency bias for a lot of people who are talking about it in, you know, the day, me specifically. But, like, they just are constantly reminding me why I love this game. I played through all of the Christmas content, the holiday content DLC that dropped. It's incredible. It's one level that it's free, substantial. There's so much fun stuff to do, and it's just like, man, I wish games just.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it's really. It's real. You should play it for the highest.

[Nick Limone]

I. It's just. I. I hope they continue to drop stuff like that and remind me, like, dude, this game rocks so hard every.

[Sam Claiborne]

How do you access the Christmas content? Like, where do they put that stuff?

[Damon Hadfield]

It's just a little meteor. Yeah, a little meteor will show up and then you can just go there.

[Nick Limone]

It's like its own dedicated planet. But it's just. And. And when I looked at the game after I finished the deal, the. The Christmas dlc, I looked at the galaxy, I was like, there's a lot of empty space here. I feel like you can fit more content in here. Come on. Or Team Asobi, let's make it happen.

[Damon Hadfield]

Also, the music is so good.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it's very good. Also very cute Christmas outfits.

[Justin Davis]

Very. It's a very joyous and joyful game, you know, which. There's a nice counterbalance to, like, what, you know, a lot of video games are these days. Even, even. Even great games. But just like the mood and vibes, it's a. It's a festival and a celebration, and that's super rad.

[Damon Hadfield]

If there's anything, it's missing. When you compare it to Nintendo, it doesn't go as deep with the secrets, you know, like if in a Nintendo game. So you've got. You've got your hub world, right? In a Nintendo game there. There'd be like a. A secret area you'd find behind a waterfall or whatever that would lead you to a backdoor entrance to one of the other levels that you couldn't get to any other way. You know, it's missing that sort of level, that. That level of depth and exploration, but in terms of just pure gameplay, I don't think I.

[Sam Claiborne]

It does a good job at hiding things within the levels. Yeah. So much so that I did end up replaying levels a couple times to try to get everything. And, you know, you can. You can unlock a bird that tells you where stuff is. You can use a guide, stuff like that. But there's. There's things that, like, you know, they're. They're not obvious and then they're clever when you figure it out. I. Right now, I think my favorite world is the big little world. And I. I just end up really liking that one a lot. I don't know why. Like, I. Some of the others are so much more visually impressive. Everything but that one did a good job at like, teaching you how to. This is it right here, actually. How to. How to solve its puzzles and stuff. And it felt the most Nintendo.

[Nick Limone]

I thought it was the first time.

[Sam Claiborne]

The cat theme too.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I think it was one of the first times I used my PS5 and I was like, oh, my God, this is the. This is actually like when you shrink down and is like. To scale, everything is correct. And she's like, dude, this is nuts. I don't know what kind of technical wizardry they're doing over there at Team Asobi, but hats off to him because Again, it runs 60 frames per second. It is flawless. And it is just. I don't know what they're doing, but keep doing it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

The Boss, similar to the Ratchet. The Ratchet, Clank, like, Portal stuff. Like, it's just like, oh, that's something you couldn't do before, you know.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. The DualShock as well. Right. Which was true of even a master bot. What was it called? Omega, the one that came with the PS5, is like playroom. That's right. It almost felt like a demo of the DualShock controller or the Dualsense. And like, this game, it's another Nintendo comparison of, like, it really feels like an extension of the controller. And you're not thinking about how you have a controller in your hand, but you just feel very much like kind of at one with the game, which, you know, the best Nintendo games can do. And, you know, many other developers don't even, don't even try to try to give you that feeling. You're just kind of like fighting with the controls off and on the whole time.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then the PlayStation history and the just deep enough cuts is really great in it too. Like it is really cool. They what they included and how weird it gets.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I mean, Dart from Legend of Dragoon. Let's go.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I mean there's deep cuts in there. And like Kingo is like, you know, he has like a passing interest in all this like older PlayStation stuff now.

[Nick Limone]

Like, you know, he knows what vibrant is. That's crazy.

[Damon Hadfield]

He's like. He actually knows what Jumping Flash is and thinks Jumping Flash is cool. There's something cool about that too. So that's Astrobots. But I would like to hear from my friends here, Nick, what's your game of the year?

[Nick Limone]

Oh man.

[Damon Hadfield]

Have you or have you. If you haven't decided yet, that's okay.

[Nick Limone]

No, I. I think. I think I gotta go with my heart on this one. Call me Basic. I don't care. It's what spoke to me. It's a thing I will keep thinking about and I continue thinking about to this day. I think, I think it's Rebirth. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. I think that game is super duper special to me.

[Sam Claiborne]

I didn't have a doubt in my mind, Nick. I never doubted you.

[Nick Limone]

I think that that get. I have problems with the game. I think the side content detracts from the momentum of the main story. But I want to replay the game ignoring all the side content since I've already 100% it and just replay the game on hard. Because I think that is definitively the best, most fun way of playing that game. And it's just presentation wise, it just is one of those things that strikes me as this just looks. It is immaculately directed, cinematic in ways that most PlayStation games are not. I think that there's a like a lot of prestige leaning for a lot of first party PlayStation titles that are, you know, the Last of Us style, like deep and serious stuff. But I just think the way this game seamlessly transitions between its pre rendered cutscenes to gameplay is impressive and evocative of the original game where you would go from a pre rendered cutscene that seamlessly transitions into gameplay. And it is evoking that same feeling while still being, you know, very big and flashy. And it is just. It is a blockbuster event in a year where I feel like I didn't get too many big blockbuster events.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah. I like this game a lot. I got deep into it, but then I think I got distracted by Unicorn Overlord and other games and then just never went back to it. I don't have a PS5 Pro yet. If I ever get one, I think I'll probably. I'll definitely make a point to revisit Rebirth.

[Sam Claiborne]

Definitely get to that date with tifa. It's so difficult to get anybody to date you in that game.

[Nick Limone]

Well, not if you're a pro like me.

[Sam Claiborne]

Sam, you got the special date with tifa too, right?

[Nick Limone]

First try, no guides, baby. Let's go.

[Sam Claiborne]

Which it takes extra. There's like extra conversation points and stuff you have to hit, but Basically, if you 100% each area, it's gonna happen, right?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. But, man, what an experience, though. And I can't wait to revisit this game. I'm deciding whether I want to replay it on my Pro or on PC, because the PC version's coming out. I'm.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's pretty exciting.

[Nick Limone]

I don't have hard unlock, though, on the PC and I have, like, 99% of the achievements, so. I don't know.

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't know. Trophy.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, I didn't think about that. There's no cross save situation. Right. With Square, so. Yeah, that's too bad. They haven't built that. I mean, the more they port stuff to PC, the more it might behoove them to do that. So people buy it on multiple places.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right, Sam, Wonderful. What's this? What's the Sam?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. So let me pull up my IGN playlist. So this is on my IGN playlist. And I will. This is. This is the top 10 games. And there's an honorary mention here, which I have. I've just booted off. But I would say it's a tie for these. But I kept it to 10, which is the Tetris Forever, which I loved. So I have Prince of Prison, of the Lost Crown, Little Kitty, Big City, which I really, really liked. That's not a joke game for me. I think that was a really great, like, look at Japanese life on the street level. Like, Suburbia. Like, it was really cute and fun. I really liked it. Like, the dialogue, too. And then Indiana Jones, Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom, which is unbelievable. Thank goodness you're here. Vampire Survivors, Ode to Castlevania. I'm finally part of the club, y'all. Star Wars Outlaws, which I thought was great. Nintendo World Championships NES Edition, which I reviewed. Love that game. And then Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Minishoot Adventures. What a great, cool game. To make two of our lists, at least so far. And maybe more so right now because I haven't beaten Indiana Jones. I'm not going to call that my game of the year. I'm going to go with echoes of wisdom. I know that might sound a little basic, but I thought it was a fantastic Zelda game. I liked every moment I played that. I couldn't wait to play more of it. Before that it would have been mini shoot adventures because I also think that's a fantastic Zelda game. Couldn't wait to play more of it. All that. But right now I am just enamored with Indiana Jones. And the scenes I played last night were so amazing and unexpected. And where it's going right now is so exciting. And every bit of dialect, like, there's even a little bit of like romance character develop stuff that, that's a little bit more like what you would think happens in every Nina Jones movie, right? And it's handled really well. Like, the acting is good. You know, it's like those moments in Wolfenstein where like, whoa, I would just like, you know, decapitating Nazis for 40 minutes. And then I had a really nice conversation in my, my home base with some refugees. You know, like, that stuff is so funny and that, that the studio really gets it. So, you know, that that could end up winning out. But for right now, I'm going to go with Zelda.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, Yeah, I have Zelda, but I've probably played less than an hour of it, so I didn't include it on my.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, you have so much to look forward to. That's exciting.

[Damon Hadfield]

I'll get to that sometime.

[Nick Limone]

That might be my, my game to Japan game of the year. Like, I will. I'm going to Japan in January and.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think that'll be Nick. That's awesome.

[Damon Hadfield]

It is awesome. You were just there.

[Sam Claiborne]

The fight will just melt away.

[Nick Limone]

I can't get enough.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, Justin. Justy of the year.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, my. The Justy of the year. No, no, no. No one is more surprised by this than me. But yeah, it's Indiana Jones in a landslide. Like, yeah, it's so great. Like, and look like I played a lot of hours of Factorio space age. Like I played a lot of really great games this year. Indiana Jones, like, it's an immersive sim and it really delivers and it, you know, Sam, you were touching on this earlier, but like it, it's really good about how it's paced of like, you know, you're gonna get a cinematic that has interesting story beats you can kind of lean back and take a breath and then you're gonna solve puzzles that are like. I mean, look, they're not like truly hard, but they're hard for like a AAA action adventure game. Like, they're more legit. They're more legit than the puzzles and uncharted.

[Nick Limone]

They're meaning.

[Justin Davis]

No, they don't feel like time wasters. Yep, absolutely. And then, you know, I know exactly the sequences you're talking about because I'm right at the end of the game. And then it does go into like, like as soon as you're like, okay, I know what this game is. You're sneaking around, solving puzzles. Like, it throws you more like cinematic action. Like, you know, fighty shooty, like action set pieces. And they're. And they're amazing. Like, I don't even want to talk about them because I don't want to spoil them. But like, you know, and then it's back to. Okay, now explore another big open world area. So just pitch perfect pacing, great acting, you know, really satisfying. You know, sort of peeling back the layers of each environment as you get your different outfits. Hits that let you kind of explore different spots. It's, it's, it really caught me by surprise. I'm a little bit sad, like based.

[Sam Claiborne]

Off.

[Justin Davis]

You know, based off the Steam stats. And granted, maybe everybody is playing it on Game Pass, but like it sort of sounds like the game isn't, you know, doesn't have this critical mass of people playing it. So I really, really strongly encourage you to like you. You know, this isn't a game that you need to wait for it to be on sale or whatever. Like, it's fantastic and it's the best game I played this year.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it's, it's very generous with content. I'm, I'm still early on in the game. I just finished Vatican, but I'm like 10 hours in because I just wanted to see and do everything I could in Vatican City. And I, I cannot wait to continue. But yes, this an actual surprise for myself as well.

[Damon Hadfield]

And it'll get a boost when it comes to PlayStation next year.

[Nick Limone]

Oh yeah, another shot in the arm.

[Sam Claiborne]

So crazy. I mean, a PlayStation Pro might be a really cool way to play that.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's true.

[Nick Limone]

And it already runs so well on Xbox. I'm playing oh my God on PC, but it runs immaculately on Xbox. Digital Foundry did an incredible job of breaking down the technical prowess behind this game.

[Justin Davis]

It does, it does a really cool. I think a lot of people probably won't see it because they use Quick Resume. But, like, if you don't use Quick Resume, if you boot the game all the way down.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And then boot it back up. The title screen changes according to where you are and what you're doing in the game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did they do the update just so they could show me this? Because I'd never see it otherwise. It's like those. They take that thing that they do in Uncharted to the next level where the cutscene ends. But you can't really tell because then you have control of the character. Like, oh, it's like, whoa.

[Justin Davis]

And this.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's like the title screen is suddenly like, becomes the game. It's so cool.

[Nick Limone]

So cool. Yeah, I love to. This is going to. This is really bad. But I do love quitting the game when I'm like, oh, this is going to look cool. Just so that you can see the loading screen, like in the title menu to see what they choose to be like your holding card, essentially. I just. It's such a nice touch.

[Damon Hadfield]

Cool. Well, there you have it. Those are our favorite games of the year. We still have a lot more awards to give out. Let's. Let's get moving right along. The next category is Best title screen. I appreciate a good title screen. So our nominees this year are Balatro Animal. Well, Star Wars Outlaws and Astrobot. So if anyone needs a reminder, Balacho. So Balatro only has one song in the whole game and there's. It will be modified somewhat based on whether you're playing around or open up a pack or something. So. But the title screen sort of like shows all these cards flying together into the center to form the deck of cards. And the. The music rises and then you hear this, the theme song, which is absolutely iconic to anyone who's played the game because it's super catchy and weird and kind of jazzy electronic. And you just hear that same song for maybe hundreds of hours if you play it for that much. So that's. It's going to just end up being a very iconic. I think anyone who spent time with Bellagio, you could just hear that you would like, stop in your tracks if you heard the music for Bellagio. Animal. Sam, if you remember, it's just got this sort of like creepy. The pixel art wavy rabbits. And then I don't. Is it like a fox? What is that other animal that comes down?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, a horrible dog.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Scary dog.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's just like a cool, moody. I love like a moody pixel art title screen. Like super metroid.

[Nick Limone]

With like some fun little CRT flicker.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

It just wants to fetch Damon. It just wants.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's it. Star Wars Outlaws. It's like sort of like opening theme is kind of electronic and different for Star wars, but I think that's pretty cool. And then it just. That music kind of swells and you see the logo, which is kind of like a neon sign, flicker and show up.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah, that was cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

I was just like starting the game out. That was just like, cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then Astrobot has the dualsense spaceship from the game flying with a random selection of bots that you've rescued sort of hanging on to the sides. And you can control the ship, you know, before you press the start button too. So that was all very cute and clever too. I got to give the award to Balatro just for being all vibes. All vibes. The game is like the aesthetic and the sound game is so weird. Like, while you're playing the game, like, look at the background. It's just like this sort of like swirling miasma that's cut, that's often brown or green, and it's kind of gross. But, you know, you're just. You're focused on trying to max out the score. You can with each hand. So this, the vibe of the game is super weird.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. You think that there is some, like, hidden story. Yeah, there's no, but it's just like.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

I've always likened the general aesthetic to like, you went to a random gas station in somewhere in Nevada and got sucked into the. The video slot machine and you now just exist in this liminal space of gambling and electronics and, I don't know, just weird and kind of grungy. But still really, really nice fiction right here, everybody.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it definitely evokes, like, it gives you vibes that there's something incredibly sinister happening. But then like, it doesn't ever do it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Like.

[Justin Davis]

No, there's not.

[Damon Hadfield]

It just has the vibe.

[Nick Limone]

But like, I mean, when you use like, tarot cards.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, there's something going on here. I don't know. The spectral packs and all that stuff. I don't know.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, well, since you have the. The B roll up, Gilbert spoilers, let's go ahead and do Best Turn based Game, which my nominees would be Shogun Showdown, Balatro and Dragon Quest 3 Remake. But I would give it to Balachos. Not only the game I played the most this year, it's the game I bought the most this year. I bought it on PS5 switch PC and then it was included with my Apple Arcade subscription. So four different copies of Latcher this year. Best turn based game of the year. I have two art categories, Best art and best Pixel Art. So best art. I'm only going. There was only one nominee. It's Unicorn Overlord. Which shouldn't be too surprising to anybody who's been following Killer My gaming journey. Just an absolutely gorgeous, beautiful game that I love. Just sitting in front of my TV and just watching for hours and hours every night for a month or so. Monomanies for best. Yeah, well, yeah, we're looking at here if we a little bit more impressive in the battle scenes.

[Nick Limone]

But you know, Vanilla Wear just doesn't miss with any and all art direction.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, well, and I think like look like they sometimes catch. Vanilla Wear sometimes catch catches some heat for their sort of grotesque proportions on you know, their male and female characters sometimes. But like, you know, Unicorn Overlord I think threaded that needle right of like really, really beautiful, you know, handdrawn, you know, character portraits and characters without necessarily. And like I. Look, it's subjective, right. There's other people that really, really loved their character designs and considered them iconic. But like the slightly more grounded nature of Unicorn Overlord appealed to me personally and felt like the best of both worlds of like this style and this aesthetic with you know, a slightly more grounded.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean I love the battle scenes but I also love the little chibi, you know, the super deformed versions that you see on the, on the grids before battle too. So that's all great. Love Unicorn Overlord. Okay, my nominees for best pixel art are Animal well, Metal Slug Tactics and Xeno Tilt. Xenotil, you remember is the. Oh, sorry, I'm getting your screen.

[Justin Davis]

That was great.

[Sam Claiborne]

I can see. Confirm they're in the same room now.

[Damon Hadfield]

Now I know that's the follow up to Demons Tilt which was a spiritual successor to the 90s. Was demons crushing. I guess it's Alien. Alien Crush, yeah, that's the pinball game. And so that's gotta actually gotta be the winner. That's the. It's all pixel art in the game but it's like super detailed high res pixel art. The kind of pixel art that we do like dead cells, but it's pixel art but could never have. Yeah, this is all pixel art.

[Sam Claiborne]

This looks so good.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's amazing, right?

[Nick Limone]

This is my first time hearing of this game and yeah, this looks sick. I didn't absolutely download this when I get home.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's just one table. Yep, just one table.

[Sam Claiborne]

So is this is it a sequel? Was there one already?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it was the follow up to Demon's Tilt.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

Which was like a. More like. Like occult themed. And this is like cyberpunk alien themed.

[Justin Davis]

They're on sale. Seem winter sale right now.

[Nick Limone]

Really?

[Damon Hadfield]

Really?

[Justin Davis]

Yep. Yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

This has a mechanic. Sam, tell me if this is like common or from other games. You can cradle. You can build up ammo. There are lasers, laser turrets you have. And you can cradle the ball in one of the flippers and if you nudge the ball down, that will get your turrets to fire on your enemies.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, that's kind of.

[Sam Claiborne]

What do you mean, nudge it down?

[Damon Hadfield]

Like you can nudge the table but with the analog stick in different directions.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, cool. That's funny.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Tilt. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. No, I mean the thing. I mean, obviously probably sent in ball games or whatever. I've done stuff like that. The thing that games are doing a lot now is you have to find a really quick time to cradle the ball and stop all the action. So you can hit the action button on the game. And some games are really funny with that. So there's a button above the flippers on an actual pinball machine. Right. Like right here. And some of them actually require you to do like, hit it as fast as possible. And one of those is the Pirates of the Caribbean game that Jersey Jack made. The more you hit it, the more money you'd get to spend on modes. And like, that was really funny because you would. You would want. You would start hitting it, but the ball would still be in play. You'd be like. And then you go back to try to trap the ball, to hit it more, but you'd run out of time. Is really smart idea. Love that stuff.

[Damon Hadfield]

And I'm also realizing I should have had a category for best subtitle of the year because Xeno Tilt subtitle is Hostile pinball action. Which is so good.

[Nick Limone]

I was going to say that's like, dude, Tactical espionage action number one. Hostile pinball action number two. That's really good.

[Justin Davis]

That's pretty good.

[Damon Hadfield]

Great. Yeah, there's this like, evil lady at the top of the table and as you hit her with the ball, like her skin starts coming off and it's this horrible skull screaming at you.

[Nick Limone]

It looks so sick.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. And the next award is a new one for the Damies. And that's. I'm excited about this award. Next. Next one is the Blast Processing Award.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, all right.

[Damon Hadfield]

This goes to the game that most encapsulates the spirit of the 90s. The radical interface. Extreme gaming. The game that does what Nintend. Don't let's say that. So the nominees are Star Wars Dark Forces Remaster, Iron Meat, which is a Contra Lite, a gory pixelated Contra like out this year. Astrobot Xenotilt and Ode to Castlevania in Vampire Survivors. But once again, as we were just looking at, I've got to give it to Xenotil because it's just so neon laser synth wave. It absolutely just reminds me of like the attitude. I could just see like the old Sega Genesis ads in magazines like, you know, you're a super Nintendo. Won't, you know, doesn't have hostile pinball action.

[Sam Claiborne]

Totally.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, baby. Pinball action. Hostile pinball action.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Okay, really quick awards. Best remaster. This year, only two nominees. Star Wars Dark Forces Remaster and Castlevania Dominus Collection. I'll give it to Castlevania Dominance Collection. What a cool little pack of 3ds games. Yeah, they like, they translated really well from the dual screen to. To your TV show, dude.

[Nick Limone]

They. They crushed it with this one.

[Damon Hadfield]

So where are all the other DS games? Let's start porting some more DS games to modern, modern consoles.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, bring back Hotel Dusk, man.

[Nick Limone]

Yes, switch to. Hopefully. Real quick. I do want to give a quick shout out for I believe it was this year. So please let me know if I'm wrong, because I'm sure you will. System Shock Remastered from Nightdive Studios. Incredible work with that remaster as well as the thing remastered, which Nightdive Studios also did. That just came out and it is a remaster of the PS2 game and it's pretty good.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I never.

[Sam Claiborne]

I hear that. Go ahead.

[Damon Hadfield]

I was gonna say I haven't played either of those. Yeah, I do hear good things.

[Nick Limone]

It's a canon sequel to the movie.

[Damon Hadfield]

I know.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

That Dragon Quest remaster looks amazing.

[Nick Limone]

Oh yeah. I haven't even jumped into that one.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yet, which I know.

[Damon Hadfield]

3.

[Nick Limone]

Dragon Quest 3.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

I didn't include it just because it's a full. It's a remake.

[Nick Limone]

It's like a full on remake.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. Yeah.

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Visit lifelock.com podcast terms apply. Come to me Focus Features invites you to succumb to the darkness. From director Robert Eggers comes a masterpiece of hope. He is coming.

[Justin Davis]

This creature is a force more powerful.

[Damon Hadfield]

Than evil is death itself.

[Sam Claiborne]

Nosferatu.

[Damon Hadfield]

We do r under 17nm without parent. Now playing only in theaters. Special engagements in Dolby and imax. The not best Traversal award. This is the not best award. The not best Traversal award goes to. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that's fair.

[Damon Hadfield]

Just running around those open areas, it's like what I'm constantly being hitched on like rocks.

[Nick Limone]

Then it's like, how do I know I need to get up there, but how the heck do I get up there? Like, this is not, not a great moment in the game.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, you could, I mean you could give that award to infinity. Nikki too. I said it on the show last week. Like it, but like it's by design. It's in the design of the game of like, you know, there's a heart that you have to get on top of this building and the only way to get there is to jank way up there on like some weird piece of geometry of like you're jumping off of like the lip of like the, the shutter that's on the side of the building. And like that's what you're supposed to do. Which I say with love and affection because I think the game's great. But like that's not the strongest part of the game.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. There's another release I played this year that is an all timer for me that I absolutely loved, that we haven't talked about yet. So I, I've got this category for the Best experience I had playing games this year, period. And it would go to Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, I don't disagree.

[Damon Hadfield]

Just not, not going to nominate for game of the Year because it's not a new game. But man, just like playing through that with my son turning off blood, just playing through all, like, we had, like, we had so many, like, moments of triumph, you know, where like, we, we. We try to beat a boss for like three nights in a row. And then we'd finally do it. We both jump up off the couch, jumping up and down, hugging each other. It's great.

[Nick Limone]

I, I still, like. There's two, Two moments to me that are pure gameplay. One is at the end of the Shadow of the Erdtree dlc. I won't spoil it. But just when you realize who the final boss is, I was like, hooting and hollering. I was like, so pumped up and ready to go. And then the second would be when you realize how you have to dispel the dog spirit in animal. Well, that was probably my favorite. Like, right.

[Sam Claiborne]

That was really funny.

[Nick Limone]

Gameplay experiences, like, for good, though, when you actually, like, are done with the dog spirit, that was when you first.

[Sam Claiborne]

Realize what you have to do and you're like, is that even possible? Like, can I even, like, get to this area under these conditions? It's really funny to kind of sort that out in your brain.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. I think we've pretty much done, well, just about everything, except it really bugs me. I still haven't beaten the game, still can't beat the final boss. Every now and then I'll go back to it and I'll try and be like, nope.

[Sam Claiborne]

It must be so hard to go back to it and try that.

[Damon Hadfield]

It is because I have to, like, spend some time, you know, re.

[Nick Limone]

Acclimating.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

And Kingo still asks. He wants to play and he, like, he wants to, like, go and find a new area to explore. And I'm just like, I think, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So you can get more of the tiers. Right. And then, like, weaken the boss more.

[Damon Hadfield]

There's more to get. Except, you know, if I looked at a guy like, I. It's. I don't know which ones I've gotten right.

[Nick Limone]

So it's kind of like what's left over. Yeah, yeah. That's always.

[Sam Claiborne]

You should have Kingo look at the. The checklist on the map and check them all off. And then the. Enjoy the dread of error.

[Justin Davis]

It's your co pilot.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I've tried. You know, I summoned Other players to help. So my hope is just one day I'll get some. Like, let me solo her. Someone like that who could. Just do it. Just do it. Just do it for me so I can have this.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's interesting.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Okay. Another new award this year. Best Nation. Let's see. What's the best nation?

[Nick Limone]

Hold on.

[Justin Davis]

Wait a second. I don't know. I was getting into this.

[Damon Hadfield]

The nominees are Japan.

[Nick Limone]

All right.

[Damon Hadfield]

Whatever you'd call it. Astro Astros. Like, community of his bots that live in on his. On the PlayStation 5 ship. I don't know what they call it, but we'll call that a nation. The Astrobots.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, we'll call that the Bot Nation.

[Damon Hadfield]

The Bot Nation and Scoop Nation.

[Nick Limone]

Hold on. Why is Japan just Japan?

[Damon Hadfield]

It's a nation.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, sure. But there's. It's not like the other.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's one of the best.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, I don't disagree.

[Sam Claiborne]

Top three.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's a top three.

[Sam Claiborne]

Top three.

[Damon Hadfield]

And the winner is Scoop Nation.

[Nick Limone]

Of course. Thank God.

[Damon Hadfield]

Scoop Nation. Congratulations.

[Sam Claiborne]

And this isn't pandering, but it was a landslide because 1 out of 1.

[Damon Hadfield]

Daemons agree 100% of the votes went to Scoop Nation.

[Sam Claiborne]

When does that happen?

[Damon Hadfield]

That's all the popular vote. Congratulations to Scoop Nation for just being the best nation there is out there. And speaking of, the next award is for the best moderators of a gaming podcast Facebook group. And there's only one group of nominees this year.

[Nick Limone]

There's only one podcast.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I think that's right, because there's only one podcast, so there's only one gaming podcast Facebook group. So the winners are Matthew Fortune, Daryl lacroix, and Calvin ag. Congrats to you all, and thank you for taking such good care thank you for taking such good care of the games group Facebook Group. Once again, if you aren't members, come ahead and join us. I know Facebook is super lame, but the group is great. It's actually a nice, positive place to talk about games and gamescube takes. Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

You can hang out with us and other gamers with reasonable takes, and you can find some finds on Facebook. Marketplace. Those are the two things that I use Facebook for. I buy.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's a great marketplace.

[Justin Davis]

I buy Magic the Gathering, Dual Lands, and then I lurk on the. On the Facebook, on the game scoop group.

[Sam Claiborne]

100%. I do the same thing. I'm in a bunch of music equipment and record collector groups. And, like, they're all usually in Europe, but they sell amazing stuff all the time. And it's like well, now I'm on Facebook all the time again. Great.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. They get you. They get you in the end.

[Sam Claiborne]

But I check out the game Scoop. I really do like it. I love it when people speculate about what thing I said that gets cut out of the episode. Read through all those. I have to talk about the next week.

[Nick Limone]

You know, it's a good crew. When it's like, I just see. I saw a post from Ben. He was like, with Okami, it'd be sick if they brought back other games like P N03. I was like, hell, yeah, let's go.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's right. Piano three.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

One of the Capcom five.

[Nick Limone]

Dude, bring them back. Beautiful Joe returns.

[Justin Davis]

How many of those did. One of them never came out, right?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. There's a Phoenix one that never came. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Project.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. That's most of my gaming awards. The best TV show that I watched this year. My. My short list would be Fallout, Shogun, House of the Dragon, and Sugar.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

Pretty solid. Pretty.

[Damon Hadfield]

I have. I have an honorable mention, but I think this still surprised no one. But I think Shogun was definitely the best show. My favorite show that I watched this year.

[Sam Claiborne]

Awesome.

[Nick Limone]

Like, yeah, that was masterful.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. So good. It's cool we're getting a second season. Be interesting to see how they handle that. But still. Yeah. If anyone out there hasn't watched Shogun, I would highly recommend it. It's on Hulu.

[Nick Limone]

Also, I. I want to do give an honorable mention to Arcane. You don't need to play League of Legends to like it. In fact, it's way better than anything League of Legends is. But Arcane is just incredible from beginning to end.

[Sam Claiborne]

What we do in the Shadows ended its run this week.

[Damon Hadfield]

I haven't finished that yet.

[Sam Claiborne]

If you have a chance to watch it, make sure you go back in to the Hulu extras if you're streaming it, because there's extra endings and they just recorded extra endings to the show.

[Nick Limone]

I love that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Really cool to include Star Trek.

[Justin Davis]

Lower decks ended this week, too.

[Sam Claiborne]

What a show.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Really good moments in that show. Very, very impressive. Final season two.

[Justin Davis]

It does the thing where it's a goof them up. Right. Like it's a Star Trek comedy show. But then of course, like the best shows that are like that, it actually ends up kind of like building up to something meaningful in the end. And you care about the characters and what's going on with them. It's great.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nick, is Arcane your favorite show this year?

[Nick Limone]

I think my favorite shows. It's A tie. It's a dead tie for me between Delicious in Dungeon and Free Ren beyond Journey's End. I think that those shows. The second one, Free Ren, yeah, it's tldr. It's basically, this is a story of what happens after the Dragon Quest when the party kills the Demon King and what happens to the world and the party after that, when one of the party members is essentially an immortal while the others are not. So it's like a reflection on relationships with each other, how we relate to one another culture and, you know, how times change and history changes and how that informs what comes next. It's just really like solemn, incredible fight scenes when they happen, but it's just like. It's a very mature take on what happens at the end of the jrpg.

[Damon Hadfield]

That sounds great. Is it on?

[Nick Limone]

It's on Crunchyroll. I don't know if it's on anything else, but it is, you know, if. Delicious in Dungeon, I think is very similar in that I think it's all about how we relate to one another via the. The wonderful power of food. But this takes a lot more of a serious route in. In that same kind of like, dungeon fantasy style adventure. But yeah, Free runs so good. I'm only halfway through it right now, but man.

[Sam Claiborne]

And you like that better than Knuckles.

[Nick Limone]

I'm not a sonic boy. I'm there. I'm gonna say. I don't think I'm the only one here on the scooter that's gonna say.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right, let's not open that wound. Just got in good with the Facebook group. Gonna ruin it all.

[Nick Limone]

It's fine. They have a movie coming out.

[Sam Claiborne]

I owe Justin a shout out for my favorite show of the year, which I bet you thought I was gonna say sugar, but that was not it. It was Scavengers Reign.

[Damon Hadfield]

No, no, that's last year.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, I don't think so. Was it right at the end of last year?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it is amazing. I'm rewatching it now.

[Sam Claiborne]

Then I will pick Ripley.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, yeah, yeah. You were singing.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think it was just called Ripley.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, it's just called Ripley. Okay.

[Nick Limone]

But it's based on the Netflix one.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah, I forgot about that.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Really good show. All shot in, like, chromatic black and white. And I still think about Scavengers Reign every day. And there was some news about a new season that was not good. It's been kind of shifting networks. But. Yeah, but. And it might happen. It just might not happen on the same network. The. But yeah. Ripley. Really, really fun. Creepy watch with the, the villain from Sherlock Holmes in it. I forget the actor's name.

[Nick Limone]

The guy Morty Moriarty. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't know his name.

[Nick Limone]

Andrew Scott.

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't know the name. Yeah, I know. You mean.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, maybe.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, I, I did like Sugar also though. That was a good show.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sugar was very fun. Justin, what was your favorite show?

[Justin Davis]

It's a good, like I. There was a lot of really good TV this year. There's a lot of good stuff on now. I'm really enjoying the second season of Silo I think is great.

[Sam Claiborne]

I know wait to watch that.

[Justin Davis]

Some people it starts a little slow so it's, it's a little bit hard to watch week to week. But if you let some episodes build.

[Sam Claiborne]

Up, I'm lucky then because I've not watched yet and so I can't wait to catch up.

[Justin Davis]

I'm also, I'm really loving the second season of Shrinking. I really loved what we do in the Shadows.

[Sam Claiborne]

I really love thinking last night, the latest episode. It was really good.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. So I don't, I don't, I don't have like a single show I want to shout out. I think it was a pretty good, pretty good year for streaming television.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean it's the shows I haven't seen yet, like Creature Commandos, Penguin, the Star Wars Goonies show. I mean I haven't seen these shows yet. Like I can't wait to watch them.

[Justin Davis]

Skeleton Crew's been really good. I mean I've heard some people be like it's the best thing since Andor. And I'm like, look like Andor is on another level like Skeleton Crew. Like we watch it as a family show. Like it's really, really great as a family show. I don't want people like bigging it up too.

[Sam Claiborne]

I also have to watch that two part Watchman series.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, the Animated Watchmen adaptation.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it looks cool. I've heard nothing but good things. And yeah, a more tight non Snyder adaptations seems pretty. It seems like a good idea. I'm sure, I'm sure it's good.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. Best movie would have to have the caveat that I just did not see very many movies this year. But I think the best movie that I saw personally was Furiosa.

[Sam Claiborne]

I thought it was great movie and.

[Damon Hadfield]

Also just like, like it shouldn't be that good. Like George Miller writing and directing this, you know, the fifth Mad Max movie after it spans what, one, two, five decades and it's not. It's a Mad Max movie. Without Mad Max even in it. And yet it's just. It's just like, so fantastic, so well done. Entertaining all the way through. Works as a perfect companion piece to Fury Road.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, that's the thing about George Miller. He doesn't know how to not go 100% every time he makes a film. Babe. Picking the city.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Yeah. It's just. It's great. It turned out so well. I was a little bit skeptical about it, but.

[Sam Claiborne]

And this is because you haven't seen Sasquatch Sunset yet, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

That's exactly right. Yeah. But I gotta give an honorable mention to just Terrifier, Terrifier three and the whole franchise. I'm so far down the rabbit hole now, and I'm so committed. This is not. This is like an older one. Anyway, I watched all three movies over one week. We're not going to be able to show this joburt we're gonna get out.

[Nick Limone]

That's red Kool Aid.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I just. I watched all three over a weekend, saw Terrifier 3 in theaters, and I'm just. So. I'm fully on board with. With Terrifier. And that leads us to our next category, which is my. Usually my favorite award of the year, the best kill gag. And you might think it would have gone to a terrifier kill, but no. Terrifier. I'll give an honorable mention to a kill in Terrifier 3. So we've watched 1 and 2, right?

[Nick Limone]

Yes.

[Damon Hadfield]

Terrifier 1 and 2 each have one kill that is s tier. That's just like the most insane slasher kill you've ever seen. Terrifier 3 doesn't have one that's quite on that level, however, with no spoilers.

[Sam Claiborne]

You told me about one, which sounded.

[Damon Hadfield]

Pretty messed up, but that's from one. That's okay. Okay. Terrified 3 has a shower scene that goes pretty hard, but. So that's my.

[Nick Limone]

I remember the film the director likening it to. This is what Alfred Hitchcock would have done if he made a movie in 2024. To that, I say that is a very bold claim, my friend.

[Damon Hadfield]

A little bit more restraint. There is no restraint.

[Sam Claiborne]

Chocolate syrup.

[Damon Hadfield]

There's a lot of chocolate syrup. So that the shower kill in terrifier 3 would be my honorable mention. But I think. I think you all will appreciate what I'm going to give the best kill of the year to. It goes to the show Shogun.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, my God. Is it the horses?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. I mean, I wasn't gonna. I was. I was gonna give a spoiler alert.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, My God.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Spoiler alert. If you don't want an amazing kill from Shogun spoiled for you, skip ahead. But yeah, Exploding horses with a cannon at very short range. I've got to get the best kill gag of the year.

[Nick Limone]

That was pretty impressive.

[Damon Hadfield]

And there are riders on the horses too. It wasn't just horses. Yeah. They really wanted to kill the riders. The horses were just.

[Nick Limone]

It is the closest I've ever take that horses. It was the closest I've ever seen to an Unreal tournament. Flat cannon used on a real human.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that was a really good one. Maybe a bit of a surprisingly gory show. Shogun was actually. But that was the best.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of chopping in that show too.

[Damon Hadfield]

That brings us to our final category. The most anticipated 2025 Damie Games. And there's no winner here. This is just. I have six games that I'm looking forward to next year. So there are two shmups.

[Justin Davis]

They're all winners.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, there are two shmups coming out next year. Sonic Wings Reunion. Which Sonic Rings is called Arrow Fighters here in the us and now we're getting a new. The first new Sonic wings games in 27 years. And this is of course a series where you can play as a dolphin who flies a jet.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

And this game has a release date. It's May 29th. Coming to switch PS5 and PC. And there's been no trailer or screenshots or anything for it.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

What system did this originate on? Is it pre PS2? Just an arcade series.

[Damon Hadfield]

Wow.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I think they were on. I think I played one on maybe the snes. But like, you know, they're arcade ones.

[Damon Hadfield]

Super Nintendo, but known for the arcade.

[Sam Claiborne]

With dolphins in it.

[Damon Hadfield]

On Super Nintendo, there's a dolphin who flies the jet. Yep. And then the other one is Truxton Extreme. Truxton is a SEGA Genesis game. Yeah. And this game was announced in 2023 with a 2024 release window. Obviously that's not happening. So presumably this will be a 2025 game. And I'm excited for that one as well. And then there's. Yep, It's. That's a lot of Bullets. Ghost of Yote, The Outer Worlds 2 replaced. Which has also been a long time coming. But I think 2025 will finally be the year for that. That's an inside like. And then slay the spire two. I think those six are what I'm look mostly looking forward to in 2025. Anything you want to shout out, you're Looking forward to playing in 2025.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I just real quick, like the. Oh, sorry, were you tossing to Nick.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nick B. And then. Well, yeah, we'll get.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I was just gonna say Hades 2. That's the one that I look forward.

[Damon Hadfield]

To play that right now.

[Nick Limone]

Well, hold on. I wanted. I wanted to leave early. I played for about two hours and I was like, I'm having so much fun. I need to stop right now because I'm only gonna break my heart once I reach a point of the game where like, all right, we're still working on this part.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Hades 2. I cannot wait for the moment it hits 1.0, because I am going to dive in head first and just gobble it up with a big spoon.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yummy. I like very much what I've played of Hades 2 as well. Yeah. Justin, what'd you want to shout out?

[Justin Davis]

Oh, no, I just slay the Spire 2 reminded me that, you know, every night I have the same routine every evening. I play a video game for a while and then I need to stop playing video games so I'm not all worked up before bed. So, you know, I'll watch something for a little while. I watch. I browse YouTube and watch YouTube essays and I've played a lot of hours of Slay the Spire. I have never once given any thought to, you know, what is the spire? What is this place? What are you doing when you climb it? And then you kill this heart at the end. And then, like, there's a YouTuber I unfortunately can't shout out his name, but he did, like, a lore deep dive on Slay the Spire that, like, explained, like, there's all this lore in it and how, like, the little space whale thing at the bottom is, like, manipulating you to go up and, like, destroy the aspire and, like, in the relic descriptions and stuff like that. There's way more lore in the game than I've ever thought about. And the developers, Megacrit, have promised that the sequel is going to be, like, more lore forward. Like, it's gonna have a little bit more background and a little bit more storyline. Like, you know, a little bit more information about this world and who you are and your place in it. And it's one of those things that, like, look like the sequel looks really beautiful, like it didn't need this. But it's one of those things that once I learn that, it's like giving me something that I didn't even know that I wanted. Right. Which is always a really, really good feeling to have. Yeah. So that. That makes me even more excited for Slay the Spire two. And I just wanted to shout that out.

[Damon Hadfield]

Super excited for that. Sam, anything 2025 to shout out.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, so much. Yeah. So I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say games that I don't even know exist yet. So Wolverine, that's my most anticipated game for 2025. I can't wait to play that again. We have no knowledge that that'll actually be a 2025 game. We haven't seen anything except for a teaser. Mario Odyssey 2. I'm going to go ahead and call that out.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, let's Will It Into Existence. I love it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Will It Into Existence as a Switch launch title. First of all, Switch launch title, whatever it is, I'll be fine with. That's my most anticipated game of the year. Come on. Like that. That's what it is. Metroid Prime 4 might be the other option there, though. I don't think that will be. I think it'll be a Switch launch title because I don't think Japan cares about Metroid enough to make that the Switch launch title suck. I think it's going to have to be a Mario Kart or a Mario Core. And then I'm excited for the bread and butter February games. I think AC Shadows is probably going to be pretty fun. Probably play that for a month or so. It's going to be a good one.

[Nick Limone]

I. I don't think it'll come out next year, but I'm very looking forward to. Very much looking forward to the next Fumito Ueda game that we saw a little teaser of at the game Awards.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think that's 10 years from now.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

But very excited. I thought it looked cool too. Like, I had nothing. I had no problems with that trailer. I was like, oh, this is. I can see what's happening enough to know it. You know, it doesn't show you anything, but I know enough about these games now that it's a cool idea.

[Nick Limone]

And it looked like gameplay. I was like, that looks like some, you know, Shadow of the Colossus ass gameplay of what we saw. All right, let's. Let's see it happen.

[Sam Claiborne]

You guys are excited for the Metal Gear remake, right?

[Nick Limone]

I'm very excited for Delta.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's not top tier for me, but.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, like, I mean, I've already played that game and it'll just be a better version of that game, which is good. It's fine. But yeah, I am looking forward to that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I thought that would Be a big one.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. As the year winds down, I have the top five most popular IGN reviews of the year. And job I realized I should have. I'm gonna, I'm gonna count up to one. Starting with number five, in case you had BE already. So these are the top five most read IGN reviews of the year. And starting at number five, it was Skull and Bones.

[Nick Limone]

What? Yeah. No, yeah, no.

[Justin Davis]

I mean we've talked about this on Scoop before, right? Like the people, the games that most that like. Often the game reviews that get read the most. I mean sometimes it's like something so big that people just want to read the review, but usually it's like people don't know if it's going to be good or not. And that's what makes for a very well read review.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, especially something like this that was in development hell for so long.

[Justin Davis]

Forever.

[Damon Hadfield]

Big curiosity. Yeah. Even if you have no intention of buying playing the game, there's a big curiosity there. Like how did this game turn out? Right.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. It seems like the scope of the game changed pretty significantly over the course of its development. I'm curious to see a behind the scenes story of what actually happened with this, if we ever will.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah. I don't know what the player count for this game is these days, but.

[Nick Limone]

The first quadruple a video game.

[Sam Claiborne]

It'd be great if every game either got a digital clip style retrospective or a Half Life 2 style documentary. Just, just, just so we can get these development, you know, stories exposed. Because those were two great vehicles to show us gaming history that came out this year. Both.

[Justin Davis]

It should, it should be the law that like five to ten years later they have to tell us what really happened.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, exactly.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's true. What is this creature that they're about? Are there like sea monsters?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, there's like sea monsters. Really?

[Damon Hadfield]

I didn't know.

[Justin Davis]

Nobody knows.

[Sam Claiborne]

I didn't know that either.

[Justin Davis]

No. But nobody played the game far enough to get to the sea monsters when.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sam, you've just reminded me that I totally missed, I totally forgot to include Tetris Forever on my list of games I played this year. And I really enjoyed that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. That was on my honorable mention on i11 that I wanted to swap in.

[Damon Hadfield]

But yeah, okay. The number four most read IGN review of the year was Star Wars Outlaws. We got Ubisoft going back to back there. That one's a little bit different because I think, you know, I don't think the game performed as well as Ubisoft had hoped, but it didn't have like a tumultuous development history like Skull and Bones did. So there was interest in the game, at least from reading the review and, you know, wanting to know what we thought about it. But that didn't translate to the sales that Ubisoft was hoping for.

[Nick Limone]

Right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

So what do you think is 2025 the year Ubisoft turns things around?

[Sam Claiborne]

The year that Rockstar turns things around.

[Justin Davis]

I think it's the year that Ubisoft gets like, you know, gets bought out or, you know, has something like, you know, the company has so many great characters in their roster and such a history of making some of the greatest games of all time that I think, like, I think that on a long enough timeline, Ubisoft is going to write the ship and be fine. But I think they're in for a few kind of like rough, great shot right there.

[Sam Claiborne]

Character dipping to the floor. They fixed that.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

I think it's the year that they get acquired.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. Yep. Or, you know. Yeah. Or many, many people lose their jobs or whatever. Like, we saw the chart on like, their. The money that they make per employee is like unbelievably lower compared to, you know, ea, Activision, other similar companies.

[Nick Limone]

Dude, this incredible.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep. Yeah, we're just looking at some funny bugs in Star Wars Atlas. Okay. Number three most read review of the year was Helldivers 2.

[Nick Limone]

That makes sense.

[Damon Hadfield]

That game was surprise.

[Sam Claiborne]

It was a surprise. And people kept on looking it up to be like, why is everybody talking.

[Nick Limone]

About this game generating hype? And everyone wanted to be ke, like, clued into why this game is becoming a phenomenon. I think it was such a wonderful story at the start of the year. Like, how was. How this game, you know, the. The different. Completely different first game became a phenomenon in the year 2024. And it was fun. Everyone was role playing and just like enjoying and leaning into the. In the infiction universe.

[Damon Hadfield]

Really, really good.

[Nick Limone]

Also incredible feeling game this. The way you move in this game is unlike anything else. Very Phantom Pain esque.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. The top two. The. The number two most read review of the year, the entire year was Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Yep, that makes sense.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's a fun read.

[Nick Limone]

Very strong.

[Justin Davis]

Not a fun game.

[Nick Limone]

Very well.

[Justin Davis]

I did. I almost bought the game. It may still be like, I think last week or during Black Friday, it was on sale for like $3 or something. Something ludicrous like that. And I'm like, should I? Maybe. But I didn't.

[Nick Limone]

I. I did. I bought it for like 350.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh my gosh.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I played a little bit. I'm like the game, the presentation of it's really cool. I think the story stuff is cool. The cinematics are cool. I just the, the game, the moment to moment gameplay is just not there.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

But this was very, very similar to what was the pirate game we just talked about the number five.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, Skull and.

[Nick Limone]

Skull and Bones. Yes. It feels very much like. Yeah. Everyone is going to read this with the same tenacity that they read that Skull and Bones review.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. So with those four out of the way, can anyone wager a guess what our most read review of the year was for? I'm sure perfectly normal reasons. Still black Wukong.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, black.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. Yeah. That was our most popular review. Okay.

[Nick Limone]

Fine game. A fine game.

[Damon Hadfield]

Great. Very good game. I. I enjoyed that game. I played it for few weeks. Few weeks.

[Nick Limone]

One of my favorite last bosses in recent memory.

[Sam Claiborne]

Bosses look so cool in this game.

[Damon Hadfield]

And that brings us to the final video game 20 Questions of 2024. So just as a reminder. Oh boy. Early next year we'll be getting stats on how well everyone performed. Yep. Video game 20 questions this year. So this is your last chance.

[Justin Davis]

What? These things. Wait a second. We've been recording these.

[Damon Hadfield]

And our suggestion this week comes from redacted and I'll reveal the name after the game is revealed.

[Justin Davis]

And with that you can't even reveal the name.

[Damon Hadfield]

I can't. With that, let the final questioning begin.

[Justin Davis]

Is it because we already know what Big Tony styles favorite means?

[Nick Limone]

I was trying to be cute of like is it the opposite of small? And I just couldn't think of the opposite of Tony. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this from the last century?

[Damon Hadfield]

You mean not this century? Is that what you're asking?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. The previous century?

[Damon Hadfield]

Nope.

[Nick Limone]

This century. Is this game playable on the Nintendo Switch?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it an exclusive?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Did this game originally come out in after the Switch had been released? Like in the Switch's contemporary era?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Got it. Not an oldie. Ported to the Switch.

[Nick Limone]

A new.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it an indie game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes, that's five.

[Nick Limone]

Modern indie. On the Switch. Do you play as a human?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it a garlic like.

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Is it. Is it. Does it have 2D graphics?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Nick Limone]

3D non human. Modern Switch. Indie game.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Multi platform. But on the Switch.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you think it is a platformer? Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Could be a 3D platform. I'm trying to think. There's not. I mean there's a hat in Time and ukulele are indie 3D platformers. But at hat in Time. I think you play as a little human girl.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, you do. There's Hollow Knight.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, but that's 2D.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, yeah, you're right. You're right.

[Justin Davis]

You're a little. What are you, a little beetle in that game?

[Sam Claiborne]

Would you say that multiplayer is a big component of this game?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Nick Limone]

Single player. What are we at?

[Damon Hadfield]

Nine questions.

[Nick Limone]

Nine questions.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this an RPG or RPG adjacent genre?

[Damon Hadfield]

No, that's 10.

[Nick Limone]

Is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it a roguelike?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Nick Limone]

Is this a platformer?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, no, we're in trouble here.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, the multiplayer genres get rid of so much that, you know, puzzle and fighting and stuff like that. So like, it is nice to have those genres, those main genres eliminated.

[Justin Davis]

So not a platformer, not an rpg, Not. Not multiplayer focused. Don't play as a human.

[Sam Claiborne]

Not a roguelike, not a garlic.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it has 3D graphics.

[Sam Claiborne]

The indie. Maybe a shooter.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I'm thrown off by it being on the switch because like there's not that many multi platform games on the switch.

[Nick Limone]

I'm curious if it's like, what was.

[Justin Davis]

That, what was that? What was that crow game?

[Nick Limone]

Oh, the Death's Door. Yeah, that was like.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

One.

[Nick Limone]

I wonder if like, what. What is this game, like renowned, Maybe, like, maybe we want it like.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's also tunic.

[Justin Davis]

There's. Yeah, tunic. Hades. Do you play this game from like a isometric viewpoint?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

No.

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Nick Limone]

Well, what are we at?

[Justin Davis]

That eliminates all three of those questions.

[Nick Limone]

We're at 13 questions down. Is this game critically well received?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Could be. First person.

[Nick Limone]

This game is critically well received.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe it's one of the puzzly first person games.

[Justin Davis]

Or are you a human in neon white? I don't know what you are. I played that game and I can't really remember.

[Nick Limone]

You used to be a human, but you're a dead human, so I would say that you play as a human in that game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe this is just an adventure game, like walking around solving puzzles. First person.

[Justin Davis]

Is this a. Is this a first person game?

[Damon Hadfield]

No. That's 15.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, no.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wait, so it's third person. Probably isometric. Maybe it's a strategy game.

[Justin Davis]

No, it's not isometric. I asked.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, no. Yeah, third person, not isometric.

[Justin Davis]

Oh. Oh.

[Sam Claiborne]

So what. I mean, over the shoulder or like a really pulled out. Maybe you play type game. Right.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe you play as a really. A really rude goose.

[Sam Claiborne]

Great game.

[Justin Davis]

It is on the switch.

[Nick Limone]

It's a modern indie.

[Justin Davis]

3D graphics. Oh, I would describe that as an isometric viewpoint though.

[Sam Claiborne]

We get Asked if it takes place on like contemporary Earth.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I like that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this an Earth game? Contemporary times, time frame?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think you might be right, Justin.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. I want to narrow it down in a smart way. Well, hold on. Actually, the fact that it's on contemporary earth and you don't play as a human, like it could be Little Kitty, Big City. I don't know if that's on the switch, but there's not.

[Sam Claiborne]

You play as like an animal. That's just. Yeah. Stray is another one. Like, do you play as like a common. I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

How many questions do we have left?

[Damon Hadfield]

Three questions and a guess.

[Justin Davis]

Do you play as a common earth animal?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Do you play as an animal with. With a beak?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, wait, no, I said the wrong word. I meant Bill.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you play as a cat?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Okay, so it's either Little Kitty, Big City, Stray. Is there any other cat games?

[Justin Davis]

But stray isn't contemporary Earth. Isn't it like Sci Fi Earth?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's.

[Nick Limone]

You're right. So it has to be little Kitty, Big City.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Lkbc.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Is it Little Kitty, Big City?

[Damon Hadfield]

It is Little Kitty, Big City.

[Sam Claiborne]

The contemporary earth saved us.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep. Yeah. Nicely Job. I was worried it would be too easy because we were just talking about it earlier. Earlier on the show.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. That's great. I have a new tiny black kitten that looks exactly like the age of this cat right now, which is really funny to see.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I played this with my daughters and they really got a kick out of it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Love this game too.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. And this was recommended by someone going by the name Big Kitty style.

[Nick Limone]

That's actually the opposite of Tony.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's great.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Yeah. This is a really cute game. This is just out this year. I didn't realize it was on Switch, but this is on Xbox, Switch and PC, not on PlayStation.

[Sam Claiborne]

As of right now, my cat has been doing this exact move. Going to a very tall thing, doing some rollovers, some stretchies, the stomach exposure and then just falling off. And today it was right next to me on like a really tall shelf and I totally caught the cat mid fall and my hand cat's just like totally limp. Just like, thank you, but I don't really care. I was going to be fine. You know, I was like, that was. That was an eight foot fall. They just don't care.

[Justin Davis]

Nope.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, nicely Job got there. I love. It's always exciting when you get it on the 20th question. Thank you for the suggestion. Big Kitty style. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for 20 questions for us to play in 2025. Email them to me at the email address game scoop.com and that's it. That's all the scoops we have for you this year.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's all of them.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep, that's it.

[Nick Limone]

It was fun. Thank you for having me.

[Sam Claiborne]

Crazy.

[Damon Hadfield]

We did another one. Another one down. Everyone out there in Scoop nation, you are officially recognized as the best nation now. You even beat Japan. So you have a lot to be proud of.

[Sam Claiborne]

Keep an eye out for your plaques. They'll be in the mail.

[Damon Hadfield]

In the mail. I hope everybody has very safe and happy holidays. Play lots of fun games. Lots of fun games to look forward to in the new year. Thank you to everyone who scooped with me this year. Nick, Sam and Justin. Mark is a frequent guest to the show as well. Thank you to Joburton, Ryan and Amir and Dave and everyone, Jamie, who works behind the scenes when we're shooting here in the studio to make all this possible. Everybody just have a really good time and we'll be back in a couple weeks to talk about all the new video games coming out in the new year. So my name is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Thank you so much, everybody. It's been a great year. Appreciate it.

[Justin Davis]

Game Scoop will return.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep, Game Scoop will return.

[Nick Limone]

2025.

[Damon Hadfield]

And we're out. Buffet brawlers.

[Unknown]

Glory Holes gone wrong. Cannibalistic castration cabins.

[Damon Hadfield]

Public poopers.

[Justin Davis]

These are just a few of the.

[Damon Hadfield]

Crazy topics you'll hear covered on Excuse.

[Unknown]

Me, that's Illegal, the pettiest podcast around.

[Sam Claiborne]

Whether you need a break from all.

[Damon Hadfield]

That murdery true crime stuff or just enjoy hearing hilarious stories told in a.

[Unknown]

Unique way, I got what you need. I'm Leroy Luna, your fearless host chauffeur. So come hop in my minivan and.

[Justin Davis]

Let'S go for a ride.

[Unknown]

I promise you probably won't be disappointed. Excuse me, that's Illegal is available on.

[Justin Davis]

Apple Podcasts, Spotify, basically everywhere you consume.

[Damon Hadfield]

Podcasts, with new episodes dropping on the.

[Unknown]

10Th, 20th, and 30th of the month, baby.

[Damon Hadfield]

Hey, folks, we're the hosts of Comic Sans, the podcast about comics for those who are sans knowledge. I'm Yen, a reader, writer, liver and breather of comic books. And I'm Nat. I used to know absolutely nothing about comics, but now. So actually, I've got a quiz for you. I still have a lot to learn about comics. Thank you. On Comic Hans, I make Nat read some of my favorite works in the medium, including Saga, Daredevil, and the Flintstones. And Yen talks about what makes that comic special. Sometimes it's a story, sometimes it's paneling, gutters, page turns, colorings, lettering, semiotics, juxtaposition. Okay, professor, save it for the episodes. You can listen to Comic Sans on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge. Our first two seasons, that's over 20 episodes on 20 different comics. And we just launched season three. New episodes every two weeks. Weeks.