Game Scoop! 835: You Picked the Games of the Century - Did You Choose Poorly or Wisely?

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 835 Summary: “You Picked the Games of the Century – Did You Choose Poorly or Wisely?”

Overview

In this special episode, host Daemon Hatfield, alongside the IGN crew (Peer Schneider, Justin Davis, and Sam Claiborne), unveils “Scoop Nation’s” picks for the Top 25 Games of the Century (so far), as voted on by the Game Scoop community. The episode features deep dives into each game, sharing personal anecdotes, lively debates, and a nostalgic rundown of how these titles shaped the industry. The hosts also discuss news of the week, share retro gaming stories, and wrap with their signature interactive trivia segment.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction & Premise (02:22)

• Damon clarifies that the rankings are the result of audience voting: “This is your list, Scoop Nation.” [03:56]
• The crew acknowledges the potential for controversy and personal disagreements, but approach the list in good spirits.

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2. Counting Down the Top 25 Video Games of the Century

#25: Balatro (04:50)

• “Perfect game, genius game. Made by one person. The type of game that could only be made by one person.” — Daemon [04:52]
• Sam describes falling in love with the game during his Japan trip, praising its addictive, time-melting nature and roguelike deck-building mechanics.
• The group discusses strategy preferences (e.g., playing for flushes, full houses, or straights), and the satisfying “flight melter” quality for handheld play.
• Notable moment: Peer offers to send Sam a guide, highlighting how the game’s depth reveals itself gradually as you seek out rare joker cards [09:23].

#24: Portal 2 (10:18)

• “One of the best ending sequences of any video game in the history of video games.” — Peer [10:36]
• Discussion centers on Portal 2’s humor, world-building, and genre-expanding storytelling, as well as its co-op mode—an innovation at the time.
• Reflects on Valve’s current business model and the missed opportunity for a Portal 3 due to Steam’s overwhelming financial success.

#23: Bloodborne (13:16)

• “People really like games where you have a top hat and then you’re slashing things... The Gothic architecture and just enemy design. It’s a horror game in a way that FromSoft has never really gone that hardcore into that realm.” — Justin [13:55]
• The hosts marvel at its unique atmosphere and lament the lack of a sequel, attributing it to publisher exclusivity and FromSoftware’s multiplatform focus.

#22: World of Warcraft (15:24)

• Justin and Daemon make plans to play through the early game together, joking about forging a buddy-comedy video series: “Justin and Damon do World of Warcraft. We’ll do a thousand episodes, Damon.” — Justin [16:17]
• The show notes WOW’s cultural impact and enduring legacy, even as MMO popularity has waxed and waned.

#21: Hades (16:55)

• “There’s never been a game that had writing quite like this. Like, it reacts and responds to so much... I don’t understand how you did this. It just feels impossible.” — Justin [17:05]
• The group distinguishes Hades from its sequel, praising its uniquely reactive storytelling and gameplay blend.

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3. Honorable Mentions / Runners-Up (Borderlands 2, Call of Duty 4, Halo 2, Mass Effect, Resident Evil 4, Slay the Spire) [18:55]

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4. Continuing the Countdown (Highlights)

#20: The Last of Us Part II (19:20)

• Damon: “I don’t ever want to play that game again.”
• Peer: “I actually like it better than the first one because I felt like in the first one the...gameplay aspects were underdeveloped.”
• The crew debates its emotional intensity and contribution to interactive storytelling.

#19: Final Fantasy X (21:53)

• “It had such a cool story about, like, really sort of sad story about doomed characters. A really cool ensemble of heroes.” – Peer [22:54]
• Peer notes its emotional storytelling and memorable music; some hosts express surprise at its lasting popularity.

#18: Uncharted 2 (25:58)

• “It just has the best set pieces. Man, that chase with the tank... The train stage is cool.” — Peer [26:09]
• The series’ cinematic innovation and character moments are discussed.

#17: Halo: Combat Evolved (28:36)

• “It was just physics and like just let you... the systems, the sandbox... nothing has done it better to this day, you know, except for subsequent Halo games.” — Justin [30:09]
• Acknowledges Halo's impact on console shooters, open gameplay, and iconic music.

#16: Grand Theft Auto V (31:35)

• “Trevor just so brilliantly invites you to play bad.” — Peer [32:05]
• Rockstar’s sandbox design and the game’s continued sales/legacy are praised, with Damon expressing disinterest personally.

#15: Half-Life 2 (33:40)

• “Never ever, you know, rests control away from the player... the physics... back then... stuff like that had never been seen before in a video game.” — Justin [34:33]
• Lauded for its immersive design, environmental storytelling, and gravity gun.

#14: Metroid Prime (36:06)

• “Such a wonderful game and it’s my comfort food game and I can play it over and over again.” — Sam [36:22]
• The hosts reminisce on its design, atmosphere, and soundtrack, noting the unique experience of the original compared to sequels [37:06].

#13: Bioshock (39:13)

• “You uncover this like Jules Verne-esque world that then turns into a nightmare and then ends with a fantastic twist.” — Peer [40:16]
• Recognized for its environmental storytelling, dramatic twists, and “audio logs” innovation.

#12: Halo 3 (44:44)

• Praised for innovative stat tracking and its role as the community’s favorite in the trilogy.
• Justin remembers its groundbreaking online meta-progression.

#11: God of War (2018) (46:30)

• “The throwing and recall of the axe just feels perfect...” — Peer [47:09]
• The reinvention of Kratos and the “one-shot” camera are highlighted, along with the story’s emotional father-son dynamic.

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5. The Top 10 Games of the Century (as Voted by Scoop Nation)

#10: Baldur’s Gate 3 (49:00)

• “Probably the best video game story of all time.” — Justin [49:02]
• The group cites its “choose-your-own-adventure” depth and D&D roots where your actions shape a unique world narrative.

#9: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (51:39)

• “I really lost myself in that world.” — Peer [52:01]
• Noted for its vast open world, mod support, and high replay value.

#8: Super Mario Odyssey (54:17)

• “Every new world you go to, you’re sort of like, I’m not sure what this is and why...There is a true sense of discovery.” — Peer [55:23]
• Its inventive design, references to Mario history, and freedom of experimentation are celebrated.

#7: Red Dead Redemption II (58:30)

• “For me it was just fascinating...this felt like stepping into that world and living in it.” — Peer & Sam [59:42]
• Discussion includes the “boring” critique, its dense world, and the detailed simulation of western life.

#6: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (67:19)

• “I’m mad it’s not higher... I think it’s my number one as well.” — Justin [67:32]
• Praised for audacious physics systems, creative freedom, and expansion over Breath of the Wild.

#5: The Last of Us (Part I) (61:56)

• “You go on this adventure, you like these characters, and then there’s this impossible choice at the end... I think it should have just ended there.” — Daemon [62:25]
• Lauded for narrative innovation and emotional impact.

#4: The Witcher 3 (64:38)

• “The most satisfying little wrapped up little side story nuggets are to be found in the side stories. The monsters... it’s the witching.” — Peer & Sam [65:04,-65:18]
• Commended for its robust side quests, lore, and challenges.

#3: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (71:43)

• Justin contrasts the “grounded” survival feel of BOTW with the “domination” possible in TotK.
• Celebrated for immersive design, discovery, and world-building.

#2: Mass Effect 2 (73:59)

• “It replicated...getting the band together in a sci-fi setting...one of my favorite gameplay loops in any RPG.” — Peer [74:32]
• The hosts discuss its unique squad-building/loyalty mechanics and deep universe.

#1: Elden Ring (77:03)

• “An adventure like no other... this is an incredible game the likes of which I don’t know when we’ll ever see again.” — Daemon [78:01]
• The crew has a nuanced debate over its difficulty, sense of discovery, and grind vs. player agency.
• Sam: “It’s so flawed, I just can’t believe that this game is so beloved... but I totally get it.”
• Damon: “I started out knowing I was going to hate this game... I came to meet it on its own terms and I loved all of it.” [82:13]
• Justin: “Many viable builds...the feat of game design to let you break the game and reward you for it.” [81:15]

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6. Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “Every new world you go to [in Mario Odyssey], you’re sort of like, I’m not sure what this is and why...There is a true sense of discovery.” — Peer [55:23]
• “I want to play video games, I like to have a good time.” — Justin about why Elden Ring is not his favorite [80:21]
• “Trevor just so brilliantly invites you to play bad.” — Peer on GTA V [32:05]

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7. Segment Timestamps

• Start of show, intro: [02:22]
• Top 25 countdown begins: [04:05]
• #25–21: [04:44] – [16:55]
• Runners-up mentioned: [18:55]
• #20–11: [19:20] – [46:30]
• Top 10 introductions/BG3: [49:00]
• Top 5 through #1: [61:49] – [77:03]
• Elden Ring debate: [77:03] – [82:59]
• Recap and close on overall list: [82:59] – [83:36]

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8. Lightning Round: Video Game 20 Questions (86:33)

• Game to guess: Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (2005)
• Hilarity ensues as hosts circle the “sports” genre, ultimately missing the specific answer.
• Damon offers a baseball pun as a hint: “When it comes to sports genres, you guys are extremely off base.” [94:37]

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Conclusion

The Game Scoop crew celebrates the diversity and influence of the audience-chosen Top 25 games, offering technical analysis, cultural context, and warm personal stories. The episode's tone is energetic, friendly, and occasionally irreverent, reflecting IGN’s trademark blend of expertise and entertainment.

Final Note from Daemon: “There’s nothing on here where I’m going to say, I can’t believe it’s even on the list... I think it’s a good list.” [82:59]

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For New Listeners

This episode is a perfect primer on the current consensus in the gaming community about what truly stands out in the 21st-century landscape. All the major genres are covered—indies, RPGs, FPS, open worlds, and Nintendo’s reinventions—making it essential listening (or reading) for anyone catching up on decades of video game greatness.

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For More

• Visit Geek.com for other podcasts and features.
• Hit up IGN’s Facebook group and social channels to participate in future audience polls.

Transcript

[A]

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What's up, everybody? Welcome to a very special episode of IGN gamescoop. I'm your host, Damon Hadfield. Joining me here in the studio is Bear Schneider.

[B]

I'm here, Damon.

[A]

Justin Davis is with us. That's Mark's line, by the way. He's gonna be so mad at you.

[C]

I know.

[A]

And Sam Claiborne is here.

[C]

What's special about it?

[A]

Well, you're gonna find out in just a minute. Got a huge episode here. Of course. Metro Prime 4 is out. I know. At least Sam and Pear have been playing that. Sam is back from Japan, has a full report and a big show and tell, I am led to believe. I think he's also turned the corner on a game that we discuss here quite often on the show.

[C]

That's true. I forgot about that part.

[A]

I look forward to hearing that. But first, the time has come. It is finally here. I put out the call. Scoop Nation voted, and Scoop Nation has picked the top 25 games of the century so far.

[D]

Oh, great.

[A]

Game of the century. Watch.

[D]

Why did we record all those podcasts then?

[A]

We were just sort of. We were like, stoking the flames, just sort of getting people thinking. Like, we were just throwing out some possibilities. And then I put out the call. I, you know, on our Facebook group and all my, you know, Twitter, Blue Sky, Instagram, I even sent the message out, out of our solar system. I wanted to. I wanted to be inclusive, truly inclusive with. With this. With this gathering, this voting process.

[C]

So wait, so then. Then there was voting? Or did you have to throw this in the scoop computer?

[A]

Nope, there was voting. Some people nominated dozens of games themselves. I read through each and every one, and I counted them all.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

That we actually. We have a consensus.

[C]

You are the scoop computer.

[A]

I am the scoop computer. The scoop uter. Is that what I like to call it?

[D]

Okay.

[A]

Okay, so this is. This is. We didn't make this list. And I don't say that to distance myself from it. I think it's a great list. I do that to emphasize. This is your list. Scoop Nation.

[C]

Distance yourself from it. Listen, I didn't pick this crap.

[A]

Don't blame me. No, I think this is a good list. So without further ado, let's jump right into it. Let's jump in. This is the 20, the number 25 game. And I think this is. I love this game in the number 25 spot. Okay. This game is. Wait, wait, not that one.

[B]

Wait, it's got.

[A]

I also forgot to say that we have a soundboard back again so I can play some sounds. So coming in, number 25, the 25th best game of the century is something I think Sam has found an appreciation for.

[C]

Yeah. Although is this the only song in the damn game?

[A]

It is the only song.

[B]

It is the only song.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

It's Balatro.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Everybody. Yeah. We talk about this game a lot. Perfect game, genius game. Made by one person. The type of game that could only be made by one person. You could not make it by committee. Sam, what did. You played a lot of this on your. On your trip to Japan, right?

[C]

Yeah. So I loaded up a few. I loaded up a few games for the flight, um, as I talked about previously. And I was expecting to play ball pit, and then what's the telltale game?

[D]

Dispatch.

[C]

Dispatch. Yes. I played like five minutes of dispatch and then tried Balatra, and I have not stopped playing ever since then.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

Happens to everyone.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah, it's. It's extremely good.

[D]

I mean, it's interesting. Like, you. You've said before, like, you're not a poker guy, like, in life.

[A]

He's just not a card game guy.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

No, no, no, no, no. I think I. Well, I mean, I don't really have an opinion on. On meat space cards. I don't like deck builder games.

[D]

Right, okay, Got it.

[C]

But see, I'm not. Would you. Would you call this. I don't think this is that, though, right? Yeah, it is.

[B]

Yeah, it's a deck builder poker. Roguelike.

[A]

Well, like.

[C]

Yeah, no, you're right. You build the jokers as your deck.

[D]

Well, in different. Like I'm. I'm going all spades this time.

[C]

No, that's true, that's true, that's true.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

You actually build the. The 52 cards out, too. Or. Or cut them down to nothing, which is really fun, too.

[B]

I've been on. On. On airplanes with a steam deck in my bag or a switch in my bag, and I take it out, you know, I'll boot up, start Pokemon. It talks my uf. I go, eh. And I take my phone and just boot up Balatra. And then the entire flight is suddenly gone.

[C]

Yeah. 100%. That's what's so magical about it. You know, train trip, flight, flight, flight, train trip.

[D]

It just.

[C]

Just melts away.

[D]

And it's a. It's a. It's a flight melter for sure.

[C]

And then I. I don't know if I'll like hit the. I mean, obviously everybody hits the limit. Although, Damon, you're still playing it. Sometimes it sounds like Parrot 2 and Justin too. So, like, I guess maybe there isn't one because there are things I want to try still. Like, I beat it, but I still need to unlock some decks. And then I was like, really curious about, like, how far you can bend. Like, I just got into flushes. Right. Because they're just really stupid. And then you're like, oh, this is like almost a cheat code. They're so. They're so effective. Right.

[B]

Well, if eventually you get to that loop where you go, I. I have undiscovered cards and I want to discover them and they're like useless cards. You don't actually want them.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. Is it even possible to play for straights? Because, like, that seems really difficult.

[A]

I think that's what Justin likes to do.

[D]

I like to play for straights, but I usually go for the joker where it lets you. Well, there's one that, yeah, four cards count as a straight. And then there's another joker that I think lets you skip a card. So it's like, you know, 2, 4, 5, 6 would be a straight.

[C]

I've done that. So I've gotten there. But I was also doing flushes with both those cards, so. And I had like flushes invested in. So I was just happening to get straights at that point. So that makes sense. But you have to get really lucky to roll one of those jokers really early on, right?

[B]

Yep.

[D]

I mean, yeah, it does that roguelike thing of like, you go into it open ended and open minded and then you just roll with like, okay, I got these two jokers. So I guess this is what I'm doing this time. Yeah, it's great.

[B]

But you can also.

[C]

What do you. What do you want to farm money.

[B]

And then reroll a lot until you get what you want?

[C]

That's what I was just thinking. So, yeah, that would make sense then. If you're gonna do that, Damon, do you have like a fallback that you go to?

[A]

My. My preference is full house. That's what I start out with trying to do. But you know, the jokers that you end up with, end up.

[C]

They.

[A]

They'll dictate how you're going to play your run. So my preference is full house. But if I, Yeah, I, I, I can adapt to whatever I need to.

[C]

And then the, my big weak. The big bad part about the boss fights in this game for me is that I've played for four hours straight and I ignore the, I ignore one word in the rule and I think like, it's the, you know, don't repeat cards one, but it's the only repeat cards one. I'm like. And then I just blow a hand and I'm like, okay, well, I needed to get to 100,000, you know.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

And you know, like the order that you place your jokers matters, right?

[C]

Yeah, but I don't understand it. Well, I mean, I started doing it with like, you do points to multipliers. Is that what you do?

[B]

Multipliers last?

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

And then multiplier. Multipliers last.

[C]

I've never really noticed that. That works super well for what I'm doing, but I'm just like playing at a lower level. Yeah, yeah, I do that though. I mean, I've been doing it.

[D]

Wait, what are the.

[C]

What you say there's multipliers of multipliers. That's a different dip. Is that not just the red x's there?

[A]

The regular multipliers will just add. They'll increase your multiplier. But then the other X multiplies that by like three, four, maybe five times. Okay, that makes it.

[C]

I don't really understand.

[A]

Maybe that's a better way to describe it. But like.

[D]

No, that was pretty good.

[B]

I'll send you a guide.

[D]

Yeah, like, it's a good video.

[A]

Your total cards have, they add up to 50 to times 15 multiplies. That's gonna multiply your score times 15. But then on top of that, whatever that final number, you could also like multiply that final number by three.

[C]

No, I understand that. I thought you were saying that those multipliers that I'm getting, which are the red x times 5 times 5 for each thing. I thought you were saying you could. There's even another level after that.

[B]

No, no, you want to have, you want to punctuation after.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Plus addition, whatever.

[C]

Yeah. Again, no further questions, your honor.

[A]

Okay. Anyway, Balacho. I love that game in the number 25 spot.

[C]

And then there's 24 other games. Let's move on.

[A]

And then there are 24 other games.

[B]

That's all the time we have today.

[A]

Can't spend that much time on every game.

Okay, coming in at number 24, a sequel a sequel to an already fantastic game. One of the rare games that Valve manages to put out.

[D]

Portal two. Half.

[A]

Oh, Portal two.

[D]

Portal two.

[B]

I thought it was going to be Alex, but not enough people own VR.

[A]

Yep. Portal 2.

[C]

If they port Half Life, Alex, the Virtual Boy, I'll totally check it out.

[A]

Thank you. I mean, Nintendo's bringing the Virtual boy back.

[B]

Portal 2, one of the best ending sequences of any video game in the history of video games.

[D]

Yeah. And it's one for that matter.

[B]

And it's not a cutscene, it's something you do. It's so cool. And then all of the sort of the storytelling that happens as you explore and solve puzzles.

[C]

Yes. It's almost like world building storytelling too where you're like, it finally it's explaining universe. You're like, I don't really care if you explain this universe because it's just about a Portal puzzle game. Like wait. No, no, this is great.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

It's so cool because they took, they took a puzzle game that was very compact and very clever and then turned.

[C]

It into a story which already had that element. Right. Portal had the behind the scenes kind of, you know, breaking and it had.

[A]

Literally connection to Half Life.

[D]

Yep. But just the writing, the swing that they took with the writing in Portal 2 of like, you know, Wheatley and Glados being so much more visible and all that stuff. It's like there are not many developers that could have pulled that off. Well, I think. And they completely managed to hit such a home run with it. Yeah.

[C]

And then they're like never able to pull it off again.

[B]

And then they're like, we don't have enough in this game so let's also add co op.

[A]

Yeah. Then there's a whole co op. A completely different co op campaign as well.

[D]

Yep. And then.

[B]

And then they never made a game again.

[D]

Well, yeah, it turns out that they have a machine that just prints infinite money and they don't need to make video games. Yeah.

[C]

So did this come out before or after the last Metroid prime game? How long has it been?

[D]

They figured out. So they could. I don't know what Portal 2 cost 50 bucks when it was new or 30 or whatever it cost, but. But they also figured out they could just get 30% of every video game that anyone ever makes. And they don't even need. They don't even need to do it.

[A]

Yep. Although I don't. It's that time of year again. It's the TGA. It's TGA's again next week. And now everyone's talking about Half Life three again.

[D]

Yeah. Just think about how popular Arc Raiders is. Every single copy that's sold on PC, Valve gets 30% of that money. Yep. Every single PC game. It's unbelievable. Like, they could be. We could be on Portal 8 by now if they really wanted to.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean, that's why everybody that works at Valve just does interviews from their private yachts now. Yeah.

[B]

Look, if you were Valve and somebody said, here's a million bucks, or you can spend 900,000 of that to make Portal 3, what would you do?

[D]

Yeah, I know.

[B]

Not that you can make Portal 3 for $900,000.

[D]

I like this B roll. If you're watching the show, I just. I really liked the bouncy paint Portal. What a game.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. I should play this with Kingo. That'd be fun.

[D]

I was just going to say that. Yep, I should. I want to replay Portal now.

[A]

Okay. That's number 24. Coming at number 23. A game I've never played. I've thought about picking it up, but I don't know. I don't know how well it would hold up. To me, it's bloodborne.

[C]

World of Warcraft.

[B]

Bloodborne.

[A]

It's bloodborne. Which I know is a. Yeah.

[C]

Now that you've. You've attached yourself to any souls, like, you could go back to this, right?

[D]

Yeah, yeah. Souls like lover.

[A]

You know, people want to remaster this or, you know, and I think it's only like 720p or something.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I experienced that through my. Through my son.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I picked it up. I said, this is bullshit. It's. No, you know, it's like, it's.

[A]

It.

[B]

It's not my type of game. I do really appreciate the art. The art and the monster design and like, the way it sounds and looks and feels. And so he took over and played it and I was the proud father watching.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I know the game.

[D]

People really like games where you have a top hat and then you're slashing things.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Just. I mean, I'm being a little flippant, but, like the Gothic, the goth.

[A]

That's really great.

[D]

The Gothic architecture and just enemy design. And it's so. You know, it's a horror game. Right. In a way that, like, Fromsoft has never really sort of gone that hardcore into that realm. Any other. Other titles. So I don't think it's really a sequel. Secret why? People are sort of clamoring for a sequel, but, man, I don't know if they're ever going to get one.

[B]

It's so weird, right? Like this is just like Portal. It's one of those games where when you figure there'll be another one and then it's just so strange that there isn't.

[C]

Because what's stopping this one from having a sequel? Is it just trolling they're making it? Well, it's just funny for Sony now.

[D]

Yeah, no, I mean, it was fromSoft and Sony. Right. So it's like they, I. There's nothing stopping anybody from making a sequel and rumors persist that maybe they will. But from FromSoft's perspective, as they're not, they're not, they're not a one console, you know, they're a multi platform studio. So a little bit less now.

[C]

Explain Chrono Trigger.

[D]

Yeah, I know.

[B]

If the money is right.

[D]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[A]

Well, I, I, There's a few games on this list that I've never played and I, I mean, I plan to play all these games that are on here that I haven't played before. So I'll find time to play Bloodborne eventually. What is that? 5, 4, 3, 22. Coming in the 22nd spot is a game that Justin will be happy about factor. It's World of Warcraft.

[D]

Oh, yeah. Oh, so you're gonna play World of Warcraft, Damon?

[A]

Oh, wow. I didn't shoot.

[B]

Don't know, man.

[D]

Okay, okay, okay, okay. Here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna look, it's free up to like level 20. You can get like a buddy pass. We can install it together. We can go questing.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

We can both make Taran.

[B]

This is going to be so romantic.

[A]

I'll have to do on my Steam deck. Is that going to work?

[D]

No. You need.

[A]

Yeah, I don't have, I don't have a.

[B]

You need battle net.

[A]

Yeah, I don't know.

[D]

Well, no, but it work. It runs on Macs.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

Native Mac versions.

[A]

Just play it on this, I guess.

[D]

Yeah, you can play it on that thing. It'll run on practically on a potato. Or.

[B]

Ooh.

[D]

We won't make Charan. We'll make Pandaren and we'll run around Pandaria.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

Oh, that sounds great.

It's a cot on the back of a giant turtle that floats through the sea.

[A]

Well, let's just, let's just make it a show, you and I. I would.

[B]

Watch this rom com.

[A]

Justin and Justin and Damon do World of Warcraft.

[D]

Oh, man. We'll do a thousand episodes, Damon.

[A]

Thousand episodes? Yep. More than GamesCube.

[D]

Oh, man, I love it.

[A]

Yeah, well, you're probably the only person here who's played it. Justin, do you want to say a few words about World of Warcraft?

[D]

No.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Coming to save it for the show.

[A]

World of Warcraft, a very popular MMO, I am told coming in at number 21, is, I think, only the second indie game on this list. The first was Balatro Hollow Knight, and this one is Hades.

[B]

Hades.

[D]

Oh, man.

[A]

2020. Our 2020 game of the year, I believe.

[D]

Hades is just. It's an unbelievable.

Like, it's just, you know, the gameplay perfect. There's never been a game that had writing quite like this. Like, it reacts and responds to so much. Like, there's just little comments about your last run and the weapon you used and then you used, like, you know, comments if you've used one weapon a lot and then you switch to another weapon and then you fail and it has a comment on that and like, just. It's so reactive that, like, this isn't. I don't think that this is like my favorite video game I've ever played, but it's one of the few where I'm like, I don't understand how you did this. Like, how did you make this? Like, it just feels impossible. And. And I just. I absolutely love it for that. Like, man, what a game. I went back to when Hades 2 came out. I went back and started playing Hades 1 again on the switch and was just reminded of, like, the writing is everything. But then I don't even want to sell short the gameplay, which is also incredible. So it's just perfect.

[C]

Is Hades 2 not living up to the.

[D]

I mean, Hades 2. Hades 2 is a fantastic game. I just don't think it's quite like an all time. I don't think it's a game of the century like Hades one is.

[B]

And it also didn't hit as hard because it was in early Access for so long. Right.

[A]

Also, Hades one was also, though. Yeah.

[B]

But under the radar and this was heavily played.

[A]

It's also very similar. Even though it's great, it feels very similar to Hades one. So.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. Great game. All right. That's. That's the bottom. That's the bottom five. Oh, I should have mentioned at the very top, there were some runners up. There's six runners up that all got the same amount of votes, but not enough to be in the top 25. And those were Borderlands 2, Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare, Halo 2, Mass Effect, Resident Evil 4, and Emergency before the original.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And. Yeah.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

Slay the Spire.

[D]

All right.

[C]

Coolers.

[B]

Spoiler.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

So those were the runners up. Did not quite make the top 25. But continuing on with our list in the number 20 spot. It's a little bit of a controversial pick, but the fact that it's here just shows it does have its, its supporters. And that is the Last of Us Part two.

[B]

Why is that controversial?

[A]

Well, so, for instance, I don't like that game.

[B]

Really. Did you play, did you finish or no?

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

I don't ever want to play that game again.

[B]

I actually like it better.

[C]

Do you want to watch a show about it?

[A]

I like it.

[B]

I like it better than the first one because I felt like in the first one the sort of. The gameplay aspects were underdeveloped. The story and everything, the look, the and feel were all really cool, but it was sort of a. A bad news. Bad things con. Constantly happen to you and you can't do anything about it also. And then the second. No, the second one you can sneak, man, it's like you're like solid snake. You can sneak through the grass and take down people. You've got moments of repose where you exploring, you know, overgrown Seattle. All of that. I, I thought it was really cool. And then there is inexplicably another chapter when I thought the game was over and it sort of dragged it out like taffy and stretched it, which I didn't like, but I thought. I thought everything else was so cool. Freaky ass, like forest scenes you're talking.

[C]

About just the, the island ending you didn't like.

[B]

Yeah, I didn't like the whole boys. It's. Is it Santa Monica in the end or where are you going? The very, the very.

[C]

Yeah, but that's gonna be the fifth season of the show.

Were they Peter Jackson it.

[B]

Well, I mean, yeah, it clearly departed from the game, but I, I really like this one. And I, I was, I, I enjoy. I, I like the Last of Us. And I came into it thinking, ooh, I hope it's not. It's not as drab and sort of under. Underdeveloped from the gameplay perspective. I really liked it.

I mean, obviously lots of people.

[A]

Obviously you're not alone.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[C]

No, no.

[A]

It's the children who are wrong.

[B]

And then the thing that always gets me with the Last of Us and like I encounter this all the time. Like you play something like Ghost of Yote and you're like, okay, now the character is going to do something and it fades to black and it doesn't show it the last of us. Every little thing is animated. Every little stupid thing. The characters do perfect animation with cloth and like, you know, touching and everything is amazing.

[A]

I do agree.

[C]

Try Prince of Persia. It was like that in 1988.

[D]

Oh, yeah. It's like what gamers are amazed by is like a character looking out over a vista and they can see this, like, landscape. And what other developers are amazed by is like they use. Watch a character pick up a guitar and put it on their back and you're like, that's impossible. That they just did that constantly.

[C]

Yeah, I like this game. I had fun playing it. I have no problem with it.

[B]

Technical Marvel, for sure.

[A]

Okay, so coming in at. That's number 20. Coming at number 19. Another game I have never played, but I know that people who played this at the time have a very special fondness for this game. And That's Final Fantasy 10.

[B]

Okay. I like Final Fantasy 10 too. I remember there was a lot of controversy because people hate that The Voice Act.

[C]

10.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, waka. I've never played it, so, you know, they gave him. They gave him an accent and, you know, surfer boy attitude and, like, people really hated that when it first came out. I really like that game. I think it's one of my favorite, favorite Final Fantasy games. My top favorites are the Super NES games. I played all of them in Japanese. So 4, 5, 6, I think are still my favorites. I know lots of people would pick seven, and then it's 10. For me. It just. It had such a cool story about, like, really sort of sad story about doomed characters. A really cool ensemble of. Of heroes. I did not like. I did not like the side activities, like freaking plain ball in the swimming pool and all that. But, like, everything else was so cool. And then the music is fantastic.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Well, this one, I know there's a remaster I can play. That's easy way for me to play this one.

[C]

It's.

[B]

It's really good.

[D]

You're gonna play Final Fantasy 10, Damon.

[A]

I said I should play these in between on this list that I haven't played in between. Wow.

[D]

Hold up.

[A]

Is it because you. You don't think I should? You think it's bad or you don't think I like it?

[D]

Well, I don't. I'm not gonna. I don't. My mom taught me if I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. So I'm not gonna comment on Final Fantasy 10. Wow. You don't like. I'm not. I. I'm. I'm just surprised Damon's gonna play it.

[A]

Well, I'm. I'm not promising to like, play it to completion. You all heard it.

[C]

You all heard it.

[D]

Damon's gonna 100% it.

[A]

Yeah. Okay.

[C]

So I've been. I played the remakes of seven recently like y' all did, and I can, you know, it's. It's a little bit of a slog to get into those games and it looks like 10 starts that way. That's what worries me about 10.

[B]

10 has that same. The same beginning where you feel like you're on a linear path and it's just tutorials to death without any sort of choice. Like it really started.

[D]

But.

[C]

But how many dozens of hours is that tutorial path?

[B]

It's not. It's actually in the end. It's not that long. It's just. It's a really cool story and a really good mix of characters with different abilities. Good balance.

[C]

Wasn't it 10:2 that we like? IGN in the review said that like the first 80 hours weren't great, but that you have to play.

[B]

Was it?

[D]

I think it was.

[B]

I'm not fan of 10 2. 102 is not like an exploration based game the same way that this one is.

[D]

Man.

[C]

This is though. I mean, that's good.

[D]

Damon, I'm so excited to go through the dead mines with you. We're going to go through the dead mines. We're going to go through Razorfin Downs. We're going to hit them all. We're going to go to Shadowfang Keep for sure. Wow.

[A]

Okay. I can usually play games about 9pm Pacific Time.

[B]

The kids are hopeful.

[A]

That works for you.

[C]

Is that character somebody from Kingdom Hearts in this game?

[B]

What do you mean?

[D]

What do you mean?

[B]

Oh, you mean he looks.

[C]

This guy Titus, the Kingdom Hearts guy.

[D]

That's this tidus.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

Did you think. Did you get him mixed up with the Kingdom Hearts protagonist?

[C]

Yeah, he looks like. He just looks like one because he has goofy.

[B]

He doesn't have giant buttons.

[C]

Big difference. Yeah, but he has goofy shoes.

[B]

And he also doesn't have a stupid key. Oh, no. I said something bad about Kingdom Hearts. I'm really sorry. Fans, please, I do not remember.

[C]

The top five games include all Kingdom.

[A]

Hearts in this list and Sonic the Hedgehog.

[B]

That's right. I like Sonic too.

[A]

No Sonic games on the list so far. They must all be the top two.

[C]

Or T O O2.

[A]

Good music. Okay, that was 19. Coming at number 18 is another PlayStation exclusive that I will introduce with a sound cue.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Probably my Favorite pet system.

[A]

Do you know which one this must be two. It is two. Uncharted 2 is the game.

[D]

We're the best one.

[A]

Yep. Yeah, I think that's. I don't think anybody. I think most people probably agree that's the best one, right?

[B]

I think so.

[C]

I like three the best.

[A]

You like three?

[C]

I like four better than two.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

I actually do like the sort of like the exploration by car and the little mini. Mini hubs you can explore in the other games. But like two just has the best set pieces. Man, that chase with the. The tank and like it's.

[C]

The train is amazing.

[B]

The train stage is cool.

[D]

The.

[B]

The weird thing is like, can you go back to it? Because so many games have done that stuff and so many movies have done this stuff now.

[C]

Indiana Jones perfected it, I think.

[B]

Right? Yeah, it is.

[A]

You mean.

[D]

Yeah. It is absolutely unbelievable to me that this game came out 16 years ago. It still wasn't what they.

[A]

Nine. Is that what it was?

[D]

2009 from a. From just a, you know, motion capture and set piece and just like, you know, animation and voice acting. Like there's Acting.

[C]

Acting.

[D]

Yeah. Like there have been games that have done it better but like in 2009 this was on like a completely other level. Like there was nothing. No one else was even close.

[B]

Like the games out at the time, whenever characters had something to say to each other, it would either cut to a pre rendered cutscene or the game would grind to a halt and characters would stand and talk to each other. In this game they're just talking while you're walking. They're just like making quips and that.

[D]

It let you play those moments of, you know, like you said the tank chase and just all that stuff was actually playable in game. And even though like, you know, it opened up this kind of cheesiness of like, you know, Drake would die if you veered slightly off the path that Naughty Dog wanted you to be on. But like that was the trade off to be able to, to, you know, to let you play those moments instead of them being a cutscene.

[B]

Yeah. And then, you know, a rare sort of multi game series that sticks the landing with a truly like really cool emotional moment in the end. So really good.

[C]

I think they should just stop making them.

[A]

Well, you're in luck.

[B]

Well, they did.

[C]

What's up with this list?

[A]

What do you mean?

[C]

Every. Everything just has this like punctuation mark on it.

[B]

They're all gone.

[A]

To be fair, they did make a few more after this one.

[D]

But yes, yeah.

[A]

Okay, so that was Uncharted too. Getting into number 17 is, I believe, the oldest game on this list that I will also introduce. Conquers Bad fur day with a sound view.

[D]

Halo. Halo 3.

[A]

No, this is Halo Combat.

The original Halo 2001.

[C]

2001.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

The game's so nice. They remade it thrice.

[A]

Yeah, well, yeah, keep coming next year. Yeah. So we mentioned that Halo 2 is. Was a runner up, but yeah, the original Halo made the list.

[B]

Do you guys like Halo?

[A]

Didn't. Didn't Sam just replay Halo recently?

[C]

Yeah, I just replayed the. The first remake of this. It was great.

[B]

Yeah, I loved it.

[C]

I. I just thought even better.

[B]

Like this was an era where, you know, jumping into vehicles in a single player game was still new and fresh and like this game did it so well. You could fly around, you could drive around. It's just, you know how bewildering this.

[C]

Universe and the story is when you play this the first time, nothing makes sense.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Everyone. Yeah.

[C]

You have to go to Wikipedia and be like, what is happening? And I like that in hindsight, like at the start of it, I was like, this is stupid. I'm not in on this. And then once I became in on it, I'm like, that's storytelling right there. Like, I think it feels good. Mass Effect on the balance. Right. Like they have the huge universe that they don't explain, but then they start explaining and you get it by the end of the game, by the end of Halo, you're like, what is a Pillar of Autumn? What are they saying? What are those words?

[B]

Arbiter.

[D]

Yeah, 100% true. Like, everyone gave 3, 4, 3 so much crap for its storytelling in halo. You know, 4 and 5 of like the didact and all this stuff that made no sense. And it's like, no, these games have all always been that from the beginning, from Halo 1. None of this makes any sense. No, I mean, I. What I loved about it is that it's systems. It's actually the exact opposite of Uncharted, which is very scripted and controlled.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Whereas Halo was just physics and like just let you. It put you in that combat sandbox. Right. And still nothing has done it better to this day. You know, except for subsequent Halo games.

[B]

Just jumping on a banshee and then, you know, abandoning it and having it crash into a horde. It's.

[D]

It's so emergent moments. Just the confidence and faith of like, we're going to construct these game systems. Here's the sandbox, the weapons. We're going to Put the enemies in it and the vehicles in it and the weapons in it. We're going to trust the player to go forth and figure it out. And that actually working is just unbelievable from a game design standpoint.

[B]

And then it was. At the time, it was also a showcase of the Xbox hardware. I remember just being baffled at the texture resolution, like, just staring at tree and dirt textures, going like, why? How can it be this sharp? Because nothing else on the competing consoles looked like this at the time.

[C]

I think it's one of the few games of the century that has, like, this music really stuck with everybody music. Like, everybody knows what it is. And, you know, just in terms of, I don't know, top top 10 soundtracks of all time. And unfortunately, when you have a really good soundtrack for a game, you tend to just reuse it in all the sequels. And I think that's a problem. But, you know, that's why you still hear the Halo songs.

[B]

Totally.

[A]

That's halo at number 17. Then coming in at number 16 is a game you may have heard of. It's the most profitable entertainment thing ever released. It's GTA 5.

[B]

I was going to say this is Minecraft.

[D]

Yeah. Fortnite. Go back to Conker.

[A]

I mean, maybe it's changed, but at least as of a few years ago, GTA 5 made more money than any other entertainment thing that we know of.

[B]

That we can track well.

[C]

But my point is that Conqueror sold probably, what, 600,000 cartridges, but each cartridge was about $400 in money at the time.

[A]

Yeah, that's true.

[B]

What do you mean you did not like it?

[C]

What are we going to say about this?

[A]

I played it at the time. I have no desire to ever play it again.

[B]

I thought it was awesome.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, I. I know that I keep saying everything is awesome here, but I. What struck me about this game was a lot of games like this, when you have a big open world, you're stuck in one corner of the world and you're sort of like, the missions I have to do is like, I have to go to this. This place and talk to this dude. And it's like, I already know what to expect. This game, you go like, nope, I'm gonna just be Trevor and freaking wreak havoc. And, like, you get. You get to switch characters and sort of like get this variety of the different story threads whenever you're bored with one. But you can also just go nuts. And, like, the Trevor characters just so brilliantly invites you to play bad, which is something that I usually struggle with when you have a game like you can be a good or a bad. You can be a Jedi or you can be a Sith. And you decide. I'm like, I'm always good. I always save everybody. I'm always nice in this game. It's like when you play as Trevor, you just got to be a scumbag. And the acting, the voice acting, some of the set pieces, like the way they're set up is just awesome. And then I do stupid stuff like use a submarine and try to explore the harbor for hours, knowing even though that there's nothing there to find. It's just fun to mess with.

[C]

All chiliad mystery.

[B]

Yep. DMA Rockstar has always been great at creating toy boxes where you just want to try out all the different vehicles. You want to fly around and climb to the highest skyscraper and see what happens.

[A]

Obviously, I'm in the minority on this one.

[B]

You are, definitely.

[A]

That's DG5. And number 16, coming at number 15 is Half Life 2.

[D]

Yeah, man. Well, I mean, I feel like we just talked about it on the show when we were doing our, you know, staff top 25. So I don't know how much I want to rehash all of that discussion. But you know, we talked about it with the portal section of just real time storytelling that never ever, you know, rests control away from the player, I think ever over the running, you know, the running time of the entire game. So that's a feat from like game design and object loading and unloading and you know, narrating. You know, it deserves so much praise for all of that. And then the physics. Right. That was the other big thing that we talked about last month or whenever we talked about this game. Like it was, it was. It feels less special now, but back then of like, you know, if you broke the supports that were supporting this bridge, like the bridge would collapse. Like stuff like that had never been seen before in a video game. Yep.

[B]

And then it truly like we've had a few games on this list now that have truly amazing ending sequences. Like this game has its like Matrix Neo moment, right. Where like you're like, like you. You just become so powerful that it's just fun to mess around with the physics and your ability. Also, very creepy game. I mean, there's some really scary parts to it. So it's. It mixes that. That exploration with shooting and some horror elements too, which I really dug.

[A]

Yeah. It's interesting you mentioned the Matrix because Half Life 2 came out five years later after the first one. It could have been they could have been influenced by the Matrix maybe.

[C]

Yeah, totally.

[D]

I thought you were going to say it's interesting because the next game is Enter the Matrix.

[B]

Oh, that. I don't think it's on any list.

[C]

That wood detail they're showing here, man, y look.

[B]

That's more frames per second than any game released so far this year.

[A]

Dude, the gravity gun is so fun.

[B]

Like if you had that many frames, you would be so rich.

[A]

I don't know why there are so many razor blades, saw blades lying around, but I'm glad they were.

[C]

I know.

[B]

Yeah, it's a.

[A]

Saw blades.

[C]

A lot of construction happening.

[A]

And what's the gun? You get like a. You shoot like these pipes. You can like stick guys into the walls with. I don't know what the name of the gun is, but it's just what.

[D]

The nail gun or whatever, the rail gun or something like that. You can stick them on the wall. Yeah.

[A]

So fun.

[C]

That's really cool.

[B]

It's been a while.

[A]

Okay. Coming in at number 14 is the first Nintendo game on this list and it's very relevant to this show and this particular date because it's Metroid Prime.

[D]

Yep. Good.

[C]

Still the best.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I think someone here gave the remaster A10.

[C]

I know.

[A]

I don't know why I didn't regret it. An 11 out of 10 off the chart.

[B]

You regret it really?

[C]

I said I don't regret.

[B]

Oh, you don't regret it. Okay.

[D]

Sorry.

[B]

No.

[C]

It's such a wonderful game and it's my comfort food game and I can play it over and over again. I'm playing Metroid Prime 2 and 4 at the same time right now.

[B]

That's like on two monitors.

[C]

Yeah. One's on a Wii U. Imagine dragging those things out.

[B]

Oh God.

[C]

Yeah, it was weird.

[A]

I mean, at the time.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, the best looking Nintendo game ever. I kind of thought it was maybe the best looking console game ever released at the time.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So it's funny now Maybe Metroid Prime 4 is the best looking Nintendo game ever released.

[C]

Really daring prime games. And like, you know what? We're all playing Metroid Prime 4 right now. Like you, you can draw a contrast for why this game works better than its subsequent games. And it's like at this time it didn't matter that Samus didn't talk. Now it feels a little weird.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

At this time it didn't matter that, you know, you're on an alien planet with like a civilization. It's like you need to discover the secrets of this planet now. It kind of feels repeated. Right. So it's like, you know, the first go round for this really did make a big difference, and it's never been as creative ever since. Which is not to say I'm not enjoying Metroid Prime 4, which I am.

[B]

Some really daring stuff they did in this.

[A]

Oh, God.

[B]

No, that's not it.

[A]

That's not it.

[B]

Don't show that one. That's the wrong one. Other M. This other M. No, there.

[C]

Is not a character from Kingdom Hearts.

[B]

Yes, that's the one with the giant buttons. No, there's.

[C]

There's a.

[B]

There's an entire section of the map that is slanted in this game, which is just freaking. It's hard to do for any developer to have the. The ground be slanted and everything work perfectly. And it's like they do it so well. It just looks like this decrepit.

[C]

Do you remember shooting up or looking up and seeing that there's birds in the sky? I'm like, oh, that's funny. Little birds. And then you can shoot them. And you're like, what? You know, like, there's just so much crazy, crazy detail in it. And this game, like, really did not lead you to the secrets either.

You get to the end of the game with like a really annoying 235 missile count. Even though you played the game 10 times, you're like, oh, my gosh. Yeah, how did I miss anything in it? You know, it's just so. Well, so well constructed and great and fun to backtrack in. Metroid Prime 2 is not fun to backtrack in. No pain in the butt to backtrack.

[B]

Exactly.

[C]

You go to these water areas and they suck and you have to go to the dark areas and they suck. And it's like this game. Everywhere you go, you. It gets easier to backtrack. And I love that. And that gets that way in the Metro prime too, because they give you the. What's it called, the spin in the air thing. But this game. Yeah. The ways that you backtrack become, like, you don't even realize that, but you could just double jump everywhere, right? And like everything else until then, until you get that makes it really difficult for you to get around. It's so cool.

[B]

Great remaster.

[C]

Another iconic soundtrack too.

[A]

Yeah, I was gonna say, actually I had a sound cue that I forgot.

[D]

So.

[A]

That's Metroid Prime 4 at number 14.

Then coming in number 13.

[C]

Prime one. Metroid prime one, not four.

[A]

Oh, I'm sorry. Metro prime at number 14. Number 13 is BioShock.

[D]

Nice.

[A]

Very important 2007 game. I haven't, I have not replayed it since it was originally released though.

[C]

There's a lot of PS3 Xbox360 nostalgia on this list.

[A]

Yeah, I mean a lot of people, I think, I get a sense that people think that was like, that was like the last great generation before. Before everything was like overly monetized, before everything was shipping unfinished and day one patches and DLC and all that stuff.

[D]

I think it's a very compelling argument to be made of like. And there's also an element of like, because, you know, there was a lot of crap in the 360 PS3 generation too, but there's an element of like, you don't know the good times or like that you're in them until they're like in the rear view mirror and then you're like, ooh, man. Yeah.

[C]

Do you remember when the crap had to come out on cartridge or disc? So it was shovelware. That was an interesting period.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

You couldn't spam us on our phones, like, this is it. Yeah, yeah, put it on disk.

[B]

This is the era, this is the era where storytelling got just so, more, so much more sophisticated, right? Like this game starts like the TV show Lost, right? And so they were borrowing this, this stuff from, from Linear Entertainment and just getting much, much better at everything, including voice acting. The, you know, the way they render characters and show emotions on the faces of the characters, but then also sort of the slow paced way to get yourself into a world. And like this game perfects that moment. Like you are on the water and you, you go, what the hell is that in the middle of the ocean? And then you just uncover this like Jules Verne esque world that then turns into a nightmare and then ends with a fantastic twist. I really love this game. Really love it.

[C]

The Jules Verne thing is really important because it has the art deco, you know, you know everything, right. And like, I would say like at this time there was a lot more experimentation with getting your game to look like nothing else. And I would say that Halo falls in that category too. It looked like nothing else. It was its own design from scratch and this was like its own design from a, from a design manual.

[A]

Awesome.

[C]

They like, they put out a manual of like what, you know, 1930s America looked like and then put it underwater and like that was their, their guiding light. I think that's so cool.

[B]

I think I've told this story before. Maybe not on your show, but we used to be owned by Fox, by News Corp. And we'd get, periodically we'd get phone calls asking about video games because video games were this mystical juju that only we understood. And I got a phone call from Peter Chernin, who's a big time Fox producer, and he said, Bioshock, Tell me a little bit about it. And I said, oh, underwater world, art deco zombies, super special magic powers. He's like, okay, stop you right there. Can't make it. Like why? He's like, it would cost so much money. We can't, like the risk is too high. We don't know if gamers would show up in theaters. We can't make it. It's way too expensive. And now we're going to get it. We're going to get a TV show eventually.

[A]

I guess now you can wait a long time.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is to me, this always looked like this would be perfect as a movie world or a TV show world because it's just so unique, so cool.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

At one point the guy that did the Ring and the Pirates of the Caribbean was going to do Bioshock. I can't remember.

[B]

Gore Verbinski.

[D]

Yeah, Gore Gore Verbinski was fantastic.

[A]

No, never happened.

[D]

What?

[B]

John Wu was gonna do Metroid.

[A]

Oh my gosh.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, wow.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean, I don't know about that, but.

Yeah. You like that one? Bioshock means nothing. It's such a funny, like because they made system shock title.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Like it's just so funny that. That's like, like obviously this should. This would have trouble in theaters as a show. Maybe not, but like Fallout explains what the damn game is.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, it's just such a weird Fallout situation.

[D]

At least a double entendre. If not, there might be a third layer there that I would have to think about.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

BioShock was also ahead of its time for being sort of a capitalism bad question mark game. Like that message is very prominent now. Was maybe not quite as much in the zeitgeist when this initially came out.

[B]

Yeah, the big daddy little sister thing is freaking awesome. Like you had, you know, like Resident Evil games, like introduced these like super strong characters as well that follow you around and that, that you just don't want anything to do with. And like encountering a big daddy in the beginning was just like super creepy.

[D]

And scary, super creepy and, and then, and then it was a big deal at the time that it was optional to fight them. It's like you can just, you can just leave. Like you don't need to. Like they won't fight you.

[B]

First you can rescue the little sisters.

[D]

That was a big deal. You know, feeling a little bit more trite now, but a big deal at the time. Another one. Audio logs. I don't know if this is literally the first game to do it like such a trope that's overdone to death now, but, like, you know, that environmental storytelling and exploring a creepy apartment. Then you hear an audio log about the people that live there. Like, that was much more satisfying.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Was this the game or just to put it away and walk around, though? Because the best innovation ever made.

[D]

I think you could in this one. Maybe not.

[A]

That's.

[C]

That's. There's still games. You can't do that. That's a Ten Commandments thing. What are we doing? You have to sit there and listen to an audio log. Like, what is happening? Or read.

[A]

Yeah, just.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I never read a book in an Elder Scrolls game. Like, I'm always like, meh. Okay, I can keep playing in this. I just explored while listening to wonderful stories.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Fantastic game. I should revisit that one. Okay. Number 12, Halo 3. So obviously, you know, finish the fight.

[C]

I love it.

[A]

It was a big deal. Is anyone surprised, though, that Halo 3 is the most beloved of that original trilogy?

[C]

I'm just surprised that 2 isn't on the list. I mean, I think. I think it makes sense.

[D]

I mean, I feel vindicate, like three is my favorite, but I thought two was the one that the community generally chose to rally behind.

[A]

Yeah, but I find you generally about. About 20 years ago is where people's nostalgia is hitting the hardest. And It's. It'll be 20 years in just a couple years. Right. 2007 is when I think Halo 3 came out. So maybe that's why. Yeah. Great guy.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

I think this rounded it out, like, adding the brute faction, like routed out Taylor. Like, this is what it worked, you know, and the weapons are kind of crappy and like the enemies were kind of like, you know, it just. I don't know, it added this fun, stupid balance to Halo, which I think makes sense.

[D]

Yeah. This was the first game. This is a very esoteric memory. It's the first game that I can remember where your stats from, what you played in the game. Like, I played like 6,000 matches of multiplayer or whatever it was was. They were really accessible and visible on the web. Like, you could go to the Bungie website and see, like, your win loss record and like, review. Like, you played 25 matches last night, and here's all your stats from those matches. And like that kind of like the information, not just living in the game, but being accessible outside of the game was, you know, Halo 2 and. But especially Halo 3 is the first time I can remember kind of like me caring about meta gaming aspects like that and wanting to rank up, wanting to climb the ladder was important to me.

Yeah.

[A]

Really, really fun game. Halo 3 is number 12. Then at number 11 is God of War 2018.

[B]

Awesome.

[A]

A big refresh of God of War.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Incredible game.

[D]

Loved it.

[B]

Save like. Yeah, there's definitely a theme here. Right. Like these are all games with really, really sophisticated storytelling. This one obviously has the amazing dynamic between the two lead characters in the story sort of unfolding in real time as you explore. The thing that I love about God of War and I played the originals before that too. I was not as into them. I always liked the more puzzly elements of the original God of War games more than the sort of combat brawler style stuff.

[C]

Our co workers loved those games. It was big in that gen option.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's like the Ninja Gaiden sort of approach. Right. That's what those games felt. Felt like this one, the throwing and recall of the axe just feels perfect. Right. It's like. It's what you see Thor do in the movies and like you do it yourself in this game and it's just every time it goes like go back into your hand, it just feels so.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

Just the idea of mashing up the Greek pantheon with the Norse pantheon was so smart. That one idea. This game did nothing else. It's like, let's take this and then, and then when that. And how they connect those and you know, when you get your other weapons and stuff, like, it's just smart. That's. That's really, really clever stuff. Love it.

[A]

Yeah. Really made Kratos a much more well rounded character. Much more sympathetic character.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

No cutscene. No cutscene in the whole game. No camera cut in the whole game. One, one shot. That's right. That's right. So cool.

[C]

Love that too. Another really smart. Just great. That was executed perfectly.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And never ending boss fights. Like they just constant escalation of like beating somebody to a pulp.

[A]

Even, just. Even that first, you know, there's a. There's an opening tutorial section and then you have that fight with Isabel. Oh my. It's. It's incredible.

[D]

I know.

[B]

It's so good.

[A]

Sometimes I just want to watch that on YouTube.

[B]

It's like a Dragon Ball fight, you know, it's like now they're fighting on tops of mountains. And it's like, yeah, so good.

[C]

Is it Thor that's like, such a slob in this, and so different. And. And I think consciously drew a contrast. Ragnarok, the Marvel character, which was like, the biggest thing in the world at the time, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

This came out right in the middle of Marvel being huge. And then, like, this. This Norse story is so different. I like that they knew totally what they were doing.

[A]

Okay, well, that brings us to the top 10. So this is the top 10 games of the century so far, as decided by Scoop Nation. And number 10 is Baldur's Gate 3. Nice.

[D]

Yeah.

Probably the best video game story of all time. I mean, certainly. Certainly one of the best.

[A]

Best Western RPG ever.

[D]

Well, I mean, I would say Balder two probably, but. But three is up there. No, I mean, you know, again, I feel like we just talked about this a couple weeks ago, so, you know, it's. It's a little bit of a hard game to sort of, like, sing its praises in snippet form on a podcast, because a lot of what makes this game really special is like, reading a really, really special novel where you just put it down at the end, and after a hundred hours of this game, you just, like, you feel like you've gone through the ringer. Like, you've been through it with this game and with these characters and, you know, and then it's made all the more special by, like, you know, you're choosing which ones, you know, you're in a relationship with, if you choose to be. And those all feel really well drawn and kind of earned sort of character development moments. So, you know, I, like, I. I sometimes get this urge to replay the game, but it's like, man, I don't know. I don't know if I'm ready to sort of commit another 100 hours again, but I'll go through it. Maybe it's a good. Maybe like a winter break be a good time.

[B]

I. I mean, it's daunting, right? But what makes Baldur's Gate so good is that the story feels like it was yours. You know, like, you really. It is Dungeons and Dragons, and you shape your character and your story, and, like, you can do things in this game that you wouldn't think would work in a video game, and you're constantly surprised that they accommodated for that system or for that solution. And, like, it would be a really fun game to replay.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is up there. Man, I'm already forgetting the game we talked about earlier that's like that, but just the reactive nature of this game that just says yes to everything that you want to try. Absolutely insane stuff that, like, really, frankly shouldn't work. That the game's just like, yeah, sure, like, we thought of that. Or even if we didn't think of that, like, the systems allow it. Like, you know, the game's not going to crash and the storyline's not going to break if, like, you kill this character that's supposed to be impossible to kill, you know, like it has a contingency for how it's going to handle that. Like, so the amount of freedom and power that that allows you to feel or like it's respecting your choices is. I mean, no game has ever done that better than Baldur's Gate 3.

[A]

And every character and enemy in the game is just set. So if there's in a castle, you can kill everyone in the castle and then the castle is just empty. No one's ever going to respawn. The castle is yours now. It's great.

[C]

Big fan of that.

[A]

All right, number 10, Baldur's Gate 3. Coming in at number 9 is Skyrim Elder Scrolls 5.

Which is like, available on every system available since then.

[B]

I know. It's 20 years old. It's 17 years old. It's 10 years old, 7 years old and 1 year old.

[D]

I never played it in VR. I would go play it in VR.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

I really lost myself in that world. I don't even know what my final hours were on it. But this was the game where, you know, I started playing one way and I got really sneaky and would lockpick and steal stuff and, like, get really rich just sneaking into everything and stealing everything. And then I'm like, meh, now I'm gonna just go slug in some monsters and like, build up my character differently and just really, really, really liked exploring this.

[C]

Imagine putting out this game and selling all the copies of it and having it be this cultural force and being like, you know, what we should do next, though, is a game in space. That sucks.

[B]

Is that how they planned it? They had a meeting to come together.

[D]

Should we make another?

[C]

I mean, I think so. I think it was like, sure, yes, fine, sure. That's the game you want to make. You're the boss.

[D]

You made this.

[B]

So negative.

[D]

Scrolls. Nah. No, not for. We'll do it in 20 years. We'll make another one.

[B]

I had really high hopes for Starfield, and I wanted it to be Skyrim in Outer Space.

[C]

One other person over Bethesda did too.

[D]

I mean, we do. Like, Bethesda deserves a lot of credit for its embrace of the modding community as part of why this game has sort of had the lifespan that it's had. And then, of course, you know, there's the dark side of that too, with paid mods and sort of the creator economy that they've developed. But, you know, like, you can still go into YouTube and if you were to type, you know, Skyrim mod guide 2025, 2026, it's like they can make that game look like a next gen game still to this day.

[C]

That's so cool. I completely agree. That's a big deal. And Fallout 4 is like that also.

[D]

Yep, yep. And then, you know, same as you were saying, per. Like, I've replayed it a couple of times, and every single time I'm like, this time's going to be different. And then I turn into a stealth archer every time. It's just inevitable.

[C]

I do too. That's exactly my go to.

Also, Half Life gets that. That fan treatment all the time, too. That's another with the mods. Every time I see him like, man, that looks better than I remember it. Like, no, no, that's just somebody that turned on all the damn mods.

[D]

The Bandit's friend just got shot in the face with an arrow. What was that? Must have been the wind.

[A]

That's coming in at number eight is.

It's Mario Odyssey.

[C]

Sounds like our booth at E3.

[B]

Oh, God.

[A]

Our booth is right next to the Nintendo booth.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

That was so loud.

[A]

That would have been 2017.

[B]

That's a good game, Damon.

[A]

It is a very good game, I might say. I'd argue it's the best 3D platformer ever made.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

The Switch 2 upgrade is unbelievable. Yeah, it looks so good.

[A]

I mean, it already looks good, so.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

But, you know, we. Our TV's got bigger in those eight years of switch.

[A]

Right.

[C]

Things started smudging and it really did help on Switch to.

[B]

I really appreciated that you sort of got, you know, when. When, if you're a Mario fan, you sort of get a feel for the worlds that are included in a Mario game. Right. Like, there's, you know, there's variation between them, but generally you get this sort of, you know what a Mario level is. Even sunshine is sort of, you know, becomes familiar. And then there's like a ghost house again. Like this game, every. Every new world you go to, you're sort of like, I'm not sure what this is and why. And like, why? Why am I in the Mexican desert now?

[C]

Right?

[B]

Like, it's. There is a true sense of discovery where it feels really, really fresh and every world surprises you. Then there's like a mini world with a freaking dragon. Then you go 2D and then it culminates in this really great showdown. And that is a throwback to, like, everything Mario and how Mario got started in the first place.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Nintendo has gotten so good, and it's this team because they went on. They went on to do it with. With Donkey Kong too. They've gotten so good at, like, paying homage to Nintendo's roots and to Mario's roots. And, like, we're going to show you something brand new you've never seen before, but we're also going to sort of reference ourselves in our past with a wink and a nod and in small ways, like those little 2D sections, but also big ways like New Donk City and Pauline and all of. Right. Like, Nintendo has really hit its stride, you know, unlike the kind of GameCube era, these dark time frames in Nintendo's history where they didn't quite know who they were, what they stood for. Of, like, these Mario games really, really did crack that code. I think.

[B]

Also, I, like, I would have wanted to be in that meeting where they decided that Mario can change his costume because, like, Nintendo was always known to be. They were such sticklers for the character looking exactly the way he's supposed to look. And like, you're literally. You're literally watching naked Mario running around here now. Right? Like, for them to take that step and make it all about different hats, different outfits and stuff, it's pretty notable.

[D]

You saw.

[C]

Well, that's. That would have happened in that meeting. Right? They would be like, but, sir, what we do about the nipples, Let them be seen.

But to. To be completely contradicting Paris Point, all of the costumes are references to old Nintendo products and like, a little Nintendo calendar from, you know, that you would have never seen, you know, because it was just in Nintendo Power.

[D]

Was.

[C]

Was the. The Western gunfighter costume.

[B]

Okay, explain Samurai Mario then.

[C]

Yeah. No, no, I mean, like, I think it wasn't something.

[B]

That's hilarious.

[C]

There's plenty that were. But. But to put those all in a game is doing the two things we were just talking about. It's. It's, you know, revering the past with deep cuts and riffing on it like freaking jazz.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Like, it's unbelievable.

[D]

And it's so clearly. And not to take anything away from, you know, Miyamoto and all the experts at Nintendo. But this younger generation, this younger generation that sort of come up in that Nintendo Tokyo team that made, you know, Donkey Kong Jungle beat and is, you know, going on to make these games, it's like they just get it right. They so understand how to be fresh and then still, you know, still sort of give you something familiar at the same time.

[A]

To.

[B]

To measure progression by the amount of stickers that you have on your balloon is so great too. Right?

[C]

That was really cute.

[B]

It's all about travel, this game.

[D]

Right.

[B]

And so they started with the idea that your suitcase gets more and more stickers on it basically.

[D]

Yep.

[B]

Very, very cool.

[A]

So good. A perfect video game then coming at number seven is something. I know a lot of people might say the same thing about this game. Red Dead Redemption two.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

All time favorite. Yeah, yeah, definitely my top favorite.

[A]

Sam loves it in particular.

[C]

I love it so much. If you're gonna. It's funny because it's the most recent big Rockstar game, right. So it's got like this and GTA 5 kind of have to like, you know, hold the line until GTA 6 comes out. And I think combined they just show you like how, how lucky we are to have a new Rockstar game coming out. It's going to be amazing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Do you remember when this came out, there was a lot of online chatter and comments, forums and stuff about how this game is boring and like I could not 100 I could not follow that line of thought. Like it was, I know like was the boring part. Like walking up the mountain in the.

[C]

Snow and like it's the beginning, right. It's like you're doing so much walking and talking. It's walking simulator for a lot of it because it's trying to establish the story and, and then for some people, for a lot of people I think, you know, driving a hot car around LA and blowing up things with a rocket launcher is like the level their brain is at. Like, like, you know, like doing a stagecoach, like heist of a train is just not, not going to do it for people that it just doesn't work for everybody.

[B]

For me it was just fascinating. And I grew up as a kid, you know, I was born in the 70s and like I grew up watching westerns with my dad. You know, late on, on Saturday evenings in Germany there was always at 10 o' clock, there was always like a western movie on and like got to stay up, watch those. So I loved westerns. This felt like stepping into that world and living in it and then like Doing things at your own pace. But like, you could do crazy stuff in this game as well. I mean, you just saw the train sequence. You could literally, like, that's the first thing I saw when a train was going by. I'm like, can I climb on top? Of course you can. You can do all that. Oh, realistic horse poop. There you go.

[C]

So I like how this game, if you don't know anything about westerns, it's a pretty good introduction to western tropes. And like, funny, funny because it retells every story from western, right? Like that's what Rockstar does. That's what EA does. With BioWare and Mass Effect, they. They take all of these things that already exist and kind of like work them into their game. That's a little. A little bit risky, right? Because you're using a lot of other people's ideas. But the way they do it in that kind of a. You know, what you'd call in college a postmodern pastiche is like, exactly what's happening here. I think it's so cool. And as somebody who never watches westerns and never watched them, I really appreciate this anyway, because it's really fun to experience them that way.

[A]

I did not think it was boring. I thought it was a little clunky. I think it's an absolutely gorgeous game and one of the all time best stories told in a video game. But just the moment to moment feel of the game is a little bit clunky. Like it, you know, another open world game. Ghost of Yotei feels amazing every step of the way. Whereas they were trying, I think they leaned a little bit too into. A little bit too much into the simulation of a west of life on the characters of Cowboy.

[B]

You can make coffee. Personally, you can slowly make coffee.

[D]

Make your coffee. Put your saddle on your horse. Yep. I don't need to do that.

[C]

I like that in Yotei they're like, you can. You can fry the fish. You're like, okay, I'll do that once.

[A]

Yeah, once. I'll do that once.

[B]

Then skip.

[A]

Yeah, I'm skipping it every time.

[B]

Making fire really slowly and it looks delicious.

[C]

And it's really. And then the option arises again.

[A]

Okay. The top five. The top five games of the century.

[B]

Red Dead did not make the top five. Ooh.

[A]

But coming in at number five is the Last of Us, Part one.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Interesting.

[D]

Jeez.

[C]

That's unusual.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

You think that's. That's surprising?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

No, I mean, in hindsight it's because it has Joel in It, Right. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Well, the second one has Joel in it too.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Last of Us definitely is a more compact and well told story. And it has a killer ending. Really, really cool. Which apparently lots of people misunderstood.

[C]

Yeah, that's true.

[A]

The reason why I like the first one so much more is that it has, you know, it's more of an. It's hard to say that it's enjoyable because it is very depressing.

[C]

It is.

[A]

You go on this adventure, you like these characters, and then there's this impossible choice at the end that you. That you were forced to play through. It's like. And I think it should have just ended there. Don't make any more Last of Us Leave. Leave the Last of Us Part one. Instead they revisited it and nothing that happens is satisfying to me personally.

[B]

The second one makes you play as a character you want to hate and pulls the coolest magic trick I've seen in a video game where I'm like, I start to understand her and actually like her. Like that whole sequence with her being afraid of. Of heights and stuff. Like they did so much through interaction to humanize these. These characters. I thought that was fascinating. But like, obviously this is a. This is a great game and a better story in the end.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I agree with that.

[C]

One thing that I like, I'm seeing in this list, and this really evokes for me, is that this and then the Halo games are kind of from the height of, I think, people's partisanship and love for PlayStation and Xbox. And I don't think those first parties are living up to that as much anymore. Yes, we had God of War, whatever, two or six years ago. There's some moments but like, boy, like that this time, this was the biggest thing in the world. Like, this was the biggest. Like we would do votes on ign and this was everybody's favorite game when it came out.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Right. And so was Halo 3. And it was just like. It was like there was a. There was a moment for this. I think Nintendo is still going strong, but I'm a little worried about first parties from these companies. Like this year, what did Sony have got? Amazing game. It's not like it's everywhere in the world though.

[A]

Yeah. But meanwhile, Xbox has had like five or six really great releases this year.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

As a publisher, Xbox is doing pretty okay right now.

[C]

But they're not cultural moments.

[B]

Yeah, no, I know what you mean, though. Like Ghost of Yote, Ghost of Yotei, even Assassin's Creed. All these games don't hit the same Right now.

[D]

Right.

[C]

Like they don't hit the same. Yeah, that's exactly right.

[B]

You're right.

[A]

Speaking of hitting. Okay.

[C]

Jesus.

[D]

I know.

[A]

Last of us, number five. Coming in. Number four is the Witcher 3.

[B]

Oh, man, what a game. Are you guys Witcher people?

[A]

We don't know. Sam is.

[C]

Okay, that's probably my favorite game on this list so far.

[B]

Yeah, Justin and I were talking.

[D]

Go ahead.

[B]

No, Justin and I were talking earlier about side stories before the show.

[D]

And like.

[B]

Or maybe it was with you. Like how Yotei has some of the bounties. Yeah, some of the bounties are more interesting than the main story.

[C]

Right.

[B]

Like the Witcher is all about that. Like you do side quests. You're like the most satisfying little wrapped up little side story nuggets are to be found in the side stories.

[C]

The monsters, it's the witching.

[B]

And then witching makes the game and then the bounties. Right? Yeah, exactly. Find like, like tracking down these, these creepy animals and in some cases they're not animals and like they have sad background stories. So it becomes this sort of gothic horror like Frankenstein and like, oh, it's so crazy good.

[C]

And you always demand the money because.

[B]

I confused you with Justin.

[A]

Because, you guys, I missed number six and no one said anything. I skipped number six.

[B]

I thought earlier that you skipped number 21 too, but like, I think, I think I was wrong.

[A]

No, I don't think.

[C]

Well, yeah, I just, I just didn't think there were any more Last of Us games.

[D]

Okay, so I like, I give Witcher. Sorry, go ahead.

[A]

No, say what you want to say about Witcher. Then I have to go and then I have to backtrack.

[C]

We're done. We're done with Witcher. Let's go.

[D]

Just very quick. Like, I like that it, you know, I'll skip all the stuff about the open world being amazing and the storytelling and you know, the choice that you have. Like I, I like the game for being, for a big mass market mainstream game, it's kind of hard. Like, it's not easy at all. Like you will die in a couple of hits. And so what I like about that is it forces you to engage with its systems of like, there are many video games from like, I can put oil on my sword. I'm never going to do that. I'm never going to bother with that. But like, like you said, Sam, it forces you to engage with the witching of like, I'm going to make a potion, I'm going to put the oil on My sword. The game is like hard enough that I need like every single advantage that I can get to like make it out of these fights alive and that they kind of feel like brawls and like, you know, you expect that from like an Elden ring, but I don't expect that from like a game that is going to go on to sell, you know, 50 million bajillion copies like the Witcher 3 has.

[C]

So that's a really good point. That means all the loot matters too, because you really, like, factor in, like, why was this hidden and so difficult to get? I must need it. And you know, you really think about that stuff.

[A]

Yeah. So Witcher 3 number four. And I apologize to our surely frustrated viewers and listeners. So to backtrack. 10 was Baldur's Gate 3. 9 was Skyrim. 8 was. Was Mario Odyssey. 7 was Red Dead Redemption 2. And number 6 was Tears of the Kingdom.

[B]

Oh.

I know. Skipped a little intro.

[A]

Apologies, apologies. Yes, six was Tears of the Kingdom, which.

[C]

Yes, that's a.

[A]

That's a game.

[D]

Okay. I mean, I'm mad. I'm mad it's not higher.

[B]

Yeah, this is my number one.

[C]

Yeah, it feels weird.

[D]

Yeah, I think it's my number one as well.

[C]

That's cuz Breath of the Wild is now having a resurgence of.

[B]

Of love.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, I know. And I know that like, as the dust has settled on these two games, the conventional wisdom is that Breath of the Wild seems to be kind of coming out on top as number one. But for me.

Yeah, but especially on the Switch 2, right? Like the Switch 1, this game is legitimately, like, you know, can be hard to play at times, but on the Switch 2, it's just.

It leaves me speechless, as I'm saying here, like, I cannot believe what they accomplished. Just the audacity to like take what they did with Breath of the Wild and then do it again, but then layer on more like, you know, you can make and customize your own weapons, like a whole. Like the example that I always use is like one of the main marquee powers in Breath of the Wild is just like. It's just something you can do by like putting something on your sword in the sequel, it's just almost like an afterthought, right? Which is the ability to like freeze things and make these ice plates, platforms, like just the, the everything having physics in it, you know, I think. I think everything is better. I think the story is better, you know, and. And I think one of the complaints of like, I just don't like Ultra Hand, I don't like building is like, when I replayed this game, I was sort of struck by like, it's not really that much of it. You know, it's five or ten.

[C]

You don't. You don't have to do it. It's such an option.

[D]

Yeah. And. And it's an option there that if you. If you want to make a mech, you can. But if you just want to play the game like Breath of the Wild, you can, and that's extremely viable. Just a perfect game.

[B]

I think the thing that hits different, and I agree, Tears of the Kingdom is the better of the two games. The world doesn't hit you the same way. Right. Like Breath of the Wild, you stepped into the world and like, from the plateau on, you discovered what this new Hyrule was like. And it was. It reminded you a little bit of Ocarina of time, but it was so different. And going on a mountain and experiencing that cold in this game mattered, but a flaming sword could cancel that out. All of those systems that was really unique. And Tears of the Kingdom could not bring those moments back. Now it had new stuff. Like you fall into a hole in the earth and fall down and down and down. You hear the freaking orc battle horn and you're like, what the hell is this? And that was a cool moment in its own right. But Breath of the Wild had the more sort of introduce you to the world that would be continued by Tears of the Kingdom. So those moments and those memories of experiencing the world and the systems for the first time, I think Tears of the Kingdom couldn't replicate fully. And that's why I think a lot of people go back to Breath of the Wild and say those moments were the most special of any other game. Even if maybe Tears of the Kingdom has the better systems in the end.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

There's the one thing that I don't like about this game, which might be my favorite game of all time, if I really reflected on it. But it is strange from a storytelling perspective that it's sort of a sequel and sort of a remake. Half the characters remember you and they're like, oh, Link, you're back. And then half the characters have never seen you before and don't know who you are. And, like, it's just strange. It's very strange and weird choice that they made. And, you know, I wouldn't even really give it a second thought except every single other aspect of the game is so well considered and so well thought out.

[B]

And the feel of, like, this the flying part and falling is on an.

[C]

Eight year old handheld.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Yep.

[B]

The fact that it runs, that was a surprise. This thing like the first time, I remember when they didn't reveal this in the events leading up to it. And we're like, really? Is it just the same world again with some stuff in the sky? And then like, I know when we got the final build and somebody in the office, like, do you want to know? It's like, yeah. Like there is an entire world underneath the world.

[A]

It's so good.

[D]

So cool.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I love mapping out the depths.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

So fun.

[B]

So creepy.

[A]

So Tears of the kingdom was six, then the last of us was five. Witcher 3 was four. So.

Number three is Breath of the Wild.

[B]

Ah, there we go.

[C]

We already talked about it.

[A]

Which we just talked. Which we just covered.

[D]

Yep.

[A]

Totally reinvented.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, Zelda, I want to go back and play it again.

[D]

It's a perspective that I've shared before and, you know, I'll go. The Tears of the Kingdom is my favorite. I respect people that like Breath of the Wild more because it feels more immersive. It's more ground level.

[C]

Right.

[D]

Like, you can't build this crazy flying machine to just fly over the entire world and dominate it. Like, you feel more.

You're being subjective to this world and you kind of have to survive it and get through it and sort of scale the mountain. Like, it felt like an event. Like, oh, I got to get from here to there. Whereas Tears of the Kingdom, because it's a sequel, I think it's the right call, but it lets you kind of like dominate the world a little bit more. And so it does create a really different feel and someone that's like, you know, just sort of the surprise and wonder of just, you know, discovering a grove of apple trees or whatever. Like, you're not getting as much of that from Tears of the Kingdom. And so I can. I can respect people that like that vibe of Breath of the Wild.

[B]

It just also introduced you to these, the enemies in this sort of world for the first time. Like, the Lynel is such a cool moment that there is a beast that if you approach it with your weapon sheath, it just does a question mark and looks at you and goes, whatever. But if you've got your sword out, that thing goes, I hate you and you must die. And like, that sort of like exploring, stumbling upon these very, very different creatures and figuring them out for the first time will forever be special for me with this game. But you're right. The Cool thing is you had to work really, really hard to get into a dungeon and out of a dungeon and on top of a mountain, and then Tears of the Kingdom goes. You did all that. So just morph through the ceiling and get out.

[D]

Right.

[B]

Like, it's. It's. It's a very cool progression, and I feel like you kind of want to play them in that order. You want to play Breath of the Wild first, and I. I want to talk to somebody who played them in the other. The other way around.

[D]

What?

[C]

Yeah, that's interesting.

[A]

Yeah, I forgot to play the music.

[C]

Yeah. Just gonna cue you to that.

[B]

Damon looked really, really sad the whole time.

[A]

That's why.

It'S so Good. Okay. Number two is Mass Effect 2.

[B]

Wow.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

Okay. I didn't. I could. Wouldn't have predicted that everybody was talking.

[C]

About their favorite RPGs and they said, this is my favorite Western RPG.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

I love. I love this game.

[D]

So.

[B]

Yeah, same.

[A]

Just definitely my favorite of that trilogy, it's.

[B]

I'm. One of my favorite movies of all time is the Seven Samurai. And that movie, you know, the. The villagers hire the samurai to defend their village, and they don't have a lot of money. And so then you see, like, this benevolent samurai leader who has to basically assemble the band.

[D]

Right?

[B]

It's Blues Brothers. You got to get the band together. And so then it becomes going after each character and assembling this. This thing. And every time they get somebody, it's like, you know, number two, number three, number four. And this game, like, replicated that moment in a sci fi setting where you got to get everybody. Got everybody get together for the grand finale. And, like, that is, like, one of my favorite gameplay loops in any RPG is assembling the.

[D]

The gang.

[B]

Love this game.

[C]

And then it's live alive in 3D.

[B]

Yeah. Well, live a life makes you play different. Like, you. You read seven books, and then they combine into one.

[D]

Right? I mean, it is funny. It feels. It's one of those things. In hindsight, this feels very video gamey of, like, you go on the recruitment mission and you go on the loyalty mission and the recruitment mission and the loyalty mission. But it didn't. It didn't feel like that when this was new.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Felt organic. And then it had its own style, right? Like the. The. The clothes, the art, the way the spaceships look and the fonts and everything. They're so uniquely Mass Effect. They didn't look like Blade Runner. They didn't look like, you know, Space Odyssey. They looked like. Didn't look like Star Wars. It looked like its own universe.

[C]

And I think this game did that better than the first game. And then I was a little tired of the third game, so it did really good. This is the perfect game for that peak. The design. It peaked in this one.

[D]

Well, yeah, just the weapons made sense in universe. All the sci fi gobbledygook. I mean, even the Mass Effect relays themselves. Right. Like, all of it was sort of grounded in this fake reality, but its own internally consistent logic and reality. It's one of the only games. Speaking of not reading the books in Skyrim, this is one of the only books I did read all of like the Codex entries and Lore entries as they were unlocked because it was just that interesting.

[A]

Also, they're read. They're voiced by a voice actor who is in Knights of the Old Republic and just has a great voice. I just love listening to.

[B]

Great.

[A]

Plus the music.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Good pick.

[B]

Scoop Nation number two. Take it.

[C]

I mean, this has Starfield really tried to do a lot of stuff that this does in terms of just like factions and universe building and how people get around and how gritty, like, and it just. It's. It just didn't accomplish it, you know? And I want. I want more games like this. I know they're possible.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And that means that Scoop Nation's game of the century so far is.

[D]

I should know.

[C]

I'm not sure I buy on a Commander Rearmed.

[A]

It's Elden Ring.

[B]

Oh, it's Elden Ring. What a surprise.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah, Figured, figured.

[A]

Yeah. I think that. I think I would. This would probably top my list as well.

[B]

I thought they were going to throw us for a loop here, but surely.

[A]

You would think the eldering would be somewhere in the top 25, so if we hadn't been to yet.

[D]

Yeah, that's true. That's true.

[A]

Yeah. I don't know what else needs to be said about this game. An adventure like no other. Like, I really felt like Justin feels. You're saying one of these games, you felt like you were through the ringer at the end of it. I don't know if it was Baldur's Gate 3 or whatever, but that's how I felt at the end of this. Like, I just felt like I really went somewhere with this game. And then with Erdtree, I did the whole thing with my son and we like how he still, like, we talk. He like brings it up, really. We played it like two years ago now. We have like, good memories of playing this game together. So yeah, this is an incredible game the likes of which I don't know when we'll ever see again. A game that's this big and open and you have this much agency and are able to be this creative and has so many ways that you can.

[C]

How would you like a multiplayer version, Daniel?

[A]

Yeah, yeah. No, no, no, thanks.

[B]

Well, they gotta work on bloodsplitting first, but maybe you'll get another one.

[D]

This has a very good, like, look. Elden Ring is not one of my favorite games, but I'll definitely give it credit for just this sen of kind of exploration and mystery of like you truly like, this is a, this is a kind of a stereotypical quote, but like in this game, you really genuinely didn't know what was going to be around each corner. Right. That feeling of like I played it long enough to descend down that long, long, long elevator, like comically long, and then there's like an entire world down there, right, that like, of course the game knows every player is going to find that elevator, but you feel like you're finding something. The sense of wonder that like no one else this, where am I? What's going on? And like, you know, secrets, layers on top of secrets and like more hidden areas that are inside of other hidden areas. And like, I really, I really give the game a lot of credit for.

Yeah, just the world feeling mysterious and, and just. You just never knew, like, you never knew what you were going to be fighting, where you were going to be next. And that sense of wonder, it's definitely one of the best games to ever do it even.

[C]

Yeah, I think that's this game single biggest flaw.

[A]

Which one is?

[C]

What is that? It's that it doesn't. You never know what's going to be around the corner and it's always unfair. And so the way that, that, that, that, that the game balances, that is it makes you grind. And don't tell me anybody out there that you're just so good at this game. That's nonsense. Y' all will use that warp point. You went to that field and you killed those little ninja guys over and over again. And then you explored like a normal person. That's what Zelda lets you do without the grinding. I think it's such nonsense. But I had really good time playing it. I just think like, the game is so flawed. I just can't believe that this game is. Is so beloved with having that kind of stuff. Now what they could do is they could put it out. It's like, here's some DLC where there's like a completely different character that plays completely differently and then I might be more inclined to do it, but just the sword and board rolling and, you know, the other nerf das, like, classes. Like, nothing feels right to me in this game.

[D]

I mean, we. Controversial opinion on my part, but this is not my favorite game because when I play video games, I like to have a good time.

[C]

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

[D]

Don't come back. Don't come after me.

[C]

I also don't. I've never liked the. The juggling of, like, you gotta heal this and heal this, then heal this, then heal this. Like, I hate that. This game feels like crap. It's just. It's so bad. Like, what's good about it is all of the world building and mystery and everything. Like, that's what's good about it. What's good about it is the challenge. That's what's good about it. But it also leads to a bunch of dead ends for me.

[B]

I love what Damon says is like my favorite game. And I played it with my son and we have so many great memories. And then somebody pulls Sam's string and Sam goes.

[D]

We just. We just.

[C]

But it's like.

[D]

Like we didn't need this.

[C]

Right? That's how people play this game. It's like, you want to invest this time to make it a really interesting playable game. You're going to have to invest the time in it.

[B]

It's a workout.

[D]

I like another thing that I. Another nice thing that I'll say about Elden Ring, and it's a feature shared amongst many games on this list, is the confidence amongst the development staff to kind of let you. Like, Balatro is a game that you can break. Like, you can build your character, build in a certain way and just win. It's a win button. You figured it out and it rewards you by just being like, you figured it out. We're going to let you in. We're not going to stop you from doing that. Right? And Elden Ring and Halo and Balatro and many games on this list, just the feat of game design to, like, there are many, many, many viable builds in Elden Ring. Dozens, right. And they all work and they all let you win. And then obviously there's, you know, an endless combination of unviable builds too, but it rewards you for, like, you know, your forethought and, you know, your cleverness. And I want to play this way or I want to play that way in the game. It's very much like a yes and game, you know, Although it will obviously smack you in the face plenty as well.

[A]

Yeah, I, I hear everything that Sam says. And yet I ended up loving. I, I started out like, knowing I was going to hate this game, thinking I hated it, but just over time it just, I, I came to meet it on its own terms and I broke it when I could and cheated when I could and I loved all of it. It was great.

[C]

What I liked about that is that then Damon had me play it that way. And that's the only time it took with me. Right. Like I was, I was unable to even move an inch. And then I started from scratch with Damon saying, like, this is what you should do. Do this like this. And then, yeah, it was, it was all. And I totally get it based on that stuff. Like, that's why I can accept this game at any number one list. Like, I would never think it shouldn't be at a, you know, the top of any list of the century. I think it totally belongs there. I just hate it.

[A]

All right, well, that's the list. That's Scoop Nation's top 25 games of the century so far. And you know, all of our lists or individual lists would be a little different. But I think there's nothing, right, there's nothing on here where I'm gonna say, I can't believe it's even on the list. You know, I think it's a good list.

[C]

Totally.

[B]

I think Final Fantasy 10 was a surprise for me. I wouldn't have expected that. It's like, no, they're like, I love the game, but like, I, I, I hear a lot of hate towards it online.

[C]

Well, which Kingdom Hearts would you put on the list instead of everybody's like.

[A]

I think it's Tina Amini's favorite game of all time. I think a lot of people feel that way.

[B]

It's good.

[D]

It's the last. It's the last of kind of the traditional final fantasies. Like they all got weird after that. Like, I love 15. Like I love many of them that come after. But like, you know, normal, kind of like prototypical. This is what, you know, Final Fantasy is going to be with turn based combat and everything. It was like the big last hurrah for that.

[B]

I'd agree with that.

[A]

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[C]

AG1 sent me some samples to try out, which I've been taking every day.

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All right, we are running long. We have to make a decision.

[C]

We have no Time for anything. We should talk about Metroid.

[A]

Well, let's talk about Metroid next week because you've only even. Only played a few hours of it. Right?

[C]

Well.

[A]

And I haven't played any yet. So let's talk about Metroid next week.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

Okay, we'll talk about Metroid next week. And then let's. Let's hold on your show and tell until after video game 20 questions. In case, like, Justin needs to leave or something. Let's try to do a 20 questions lightning round.

[D]

I have to. I have to do a lightning round.

[A]

Okay, let's do it. Comes from Andy from Indiana. Indiana. And then they say, I just wanted to write in saying thanks for the weekly game scoops. Game Scoop is my favorite podcast of the week. Makes sense. It's the only gaming podcast. All right, Let the questioning begin.

[D]

Okay. Did it come out in the 70s, 80s or 90s?

[A]

No.

[C]

Could it have been on our top 25 list of this century? Was. Was it a good game?

[A]

Yes. You kind of asked two different questions there.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Could it have been?

[A]

But yes is the answer to both though those.

[B]

Yeah. So.

[C]

Wow.

[D]

It could.

[B]

It could rank that highly.

[A]

Wait, wait, wait. Could it have been on the list? Was one question. Yes. Was it a good game? Yes.

Okay, you got, you got a two for there. I should have made you pick one.

[D]

Awesome.

[B]

Does your character wear a hat?

[A]

It's possible to wear a hat.

[B]

Oh, it's possible.

[A]

Optional.

[B]

Okay.

[D]

Is this a role playing game?

[A]

No.

[C]

This. Was this. Was this made in Japan?

[A]

No. That's five.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

This is a lightning round.

[D]

Is this a survival crafting game?

[A]

No.

[D]

I'm really hung up on. It's possible to wear a hat. Like, that's actually a very telling answer because that means you can put on and wear different clothes.

[B]

Yeah. It's not. It's not a Mario or a link who, who like you associate with hat, but you could put on a hat.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

What about this? Does this game have a character creator?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Oh, okay. That's very different.

[C]

So it could be a first person shooter.

[D]

Yeah. But it's not fighting game.

Yeah.

[C]

It could be like Call of Duty, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Sure.

[D]

Call of Duty as a character creator.

[C]

Well, I mean, you can definitely buy hats.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

This.

[D]

I'm failing at making this a speed round run. Was it made in Japan? I already forgot the answer.

[A]

The answer was no.

[B]

Yeah. It was not.

[D]

Was this game made in the United States?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Is this game a violent game?

[A]

No.

[B]

But your definition of. We, we talked about like last summer standing and Quentin Tarantino earlier. What's your definition of violence? It's like it's. It doesn't have blood. That sort of. Is that fishing?

[C]

Fishing is my definition.

[B]

David's definition of violence. I think Damon loves violence. That's what I'm saying.

[A]

Fake violence. Let's be clear.

[D]

Is this a. Is this a cozy game?

[A]

It's not a cozy game. No. That's 10.

[B]

Okay.

[D]

Not stardew Valley.

Made in America. Not violent. Not a survival crafting game.

[C]

Is this an indie game?

[A]

Not an indie game.

[B]

Does this game have.

[C]

What if it's like FIFA?

[B]

Yeah. I don't why he said it was not.

[C]

You can design your characters.

[B]

You can't wear a hat in soccer. That's illegal. No. You can only have long hair.

[C]

What kind of flag do you get for wearing a hat?

[D]

The rare, the rarely seen orange flag.

[B]

Does this game have hand to hand combat in it?

[A]

No.

[C]

It'S not violent. Why would it have combat at all?

[D]

But it's not a cozy game either.

[B]

Yeah, you could slap people with your hands, I guess.

[C]

You could jump on enemies heads.

[B]

If it had swords, it'd be violent. If it had guns, it'd be violent.

[C]

Right.

[D]

What is going on? What game has a character creator but it's non violent and not cozy?

[B]

See, that's where I was going down the route of like wrestling. Wrestling or something, you know?

[D]

Yeah, but maybe. What about Sims? Is Sims cozy?

[B]

Yeah, Sims is cozy and evil.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Is this a sim or a sports game?

[A]

Yes.

[D]

Is it a sports game?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Wow, you wasted one on that one.

[D]

No, he didn't.

[B]

It's a sports game where you can wear a hat though, which is very rare.

[C]

I feel like I've been getting at this for a long time, y'. All.

[D]

Yeah, you're right. Well, and so now we gave you a hard time about the hand to hand question, but that proved accurate because now we know it's not wrestling or boxing.

[B]

Yep, exactly.

[C]

I like thinking wrestling is hand to hand combat.

[B]

It is sports in boxing.

[C]

Yeah, that's right.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Wearing a hat in boxing would be really funny. But you wear helmets sometimes. Yeah, I think it's helmet based. I think it's a Madden. What?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I see. I don't think Damon would pick Madden because then you would have to guess which year.

[A]

And like that's.

[C]

That's what makes it fun.

[B]

That's impossible.

[D]

There's no way Madden 2012.

[B]

No, it's. It's gonna be more. If he picked it, it's gonna be more sort of a standalone yeah.

[C]

Well, are there, like, you know, fantasy sports games?

[D]

It could be Mutant League Football.

[B]

Yeah. Like it. Or it'd be like Tecmo bowl or something classic like that.

[D]

Is this.

[B]

Oh, well, it can't be. It's not in the 70s 80s.

[C]

Is this based on, like an actual existing league?

[D]

League?

[C]

Like league?

[A]

No. And that's 15.

[D]

Could be NFL Blitz. That didn't have official teams in it.

[B]

Could it be. Could it be. Now he's gonna make us nervous.

[C]

Could it.

[B]

Could it be a. Would you consider a car soccer game to be sports, Justin?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Would car soccer be sports?

[C]

Okay, but can your car wear a hat in that stupid game?

[D]

Yeah, I think so.

[B]

I think it can.

[C]

Oh, boy.

[A]

Yeah, it can.

[D]

I think it might be NFL Blitz because it doesn't have official. It's a. It's. It's not officially licensed. It doesn't have a league in it.

[B]

What do you mean NFL?

[D]

NFL.

There's something. Weren't the teams not real or there's something like that?

[C]

It is funny that Damon just told us that it's not based on a real league, but it could be Rocket League. That's funny at least. Yeah.

[B]

That's why I went to Rocket League, because he hesitated for league.

[D]

Is this a car soccer game?

[A]

No.

[B]

What about stuff like golf story, like the RPGs and things? Well, there's obviously Mario Tennis.

[C]

Those are indies.

[B]

There's. There's Mario Tennis where you could pick a character as a hat, but it doesn't have a character. It doesn't have a character creator.

[D]

Right.

[C]

Well, what are. What are some sports games that. Yeah.

[B]

That aren't FIFA? NBA Shots, Golf, Hot Shots, Golf or whatever it's called now?

[C]

Yeah, but those are all Japanese.

[D]

Is this a. Is. Is the. Is this sport? Do you have an inflatable ball in this sport? Does the ball have air in it?

[A]

No.

[B]

Okay, so no, not FIFA.

[D]

That was such a stupid question.

[B]

Yeah. Now you got. Now you got golf. You got golf, hockey. Do we say racing was out?

[D]

Right.

[C]

How many questions do we have?

[A]

You have two questions and a guess.

[D]

Whoa. I mean golf, golf, hockey, or it's not a ball based sport.

[C]

I got one. What about a team sport?

Should we ask that?

[D]

Sure.

[C]

Does that help at all? Is this based on a T? Is this a team sport game?

[A]

No.

[D]

Wow. Okay, then it's a golf.

[B]

Then it has to be golf.

[D]

Or it's not a ball archery sport. Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

Horse based.

[D]

Yeah.

Unless you're racing.

[C]

It could still be a racing game.

[B]

But characters wear helmets, not hats. In those games.

[D]

I think. I think it might be hot shots golf.

[A]

Here. Here's your hint. When it comes to sports genres, you guys are extremely off base.

[D]

Wow. I don't know. Yeah, well, I mean, it could be. We.

[B]

No, he's giving us a baseball.

[C]

He's extreme. No, he's saying extreme. So it could be skating or.

[D]

Yeah, it's Tony Hawk. It's not. The problem is that it's not a ball based sport at all.

[B]

I see. I. I thought bass was a baseball hint, but you're saying extreme sports is what it is. So it's Tony Hawk's pro skater.

[D]

I think it's Tony or.

[C]

Or snowboarding.

[B]

And we're never gonna get Shaun White snowboarding or whatever. Kelly. Wave boarding, wakeboarding.

[D]

Are you are. Just.

[C]

Just get the skateboard game. Then we have to like, spin the dice.

[D]

Are you. Are you on something that has wheels rolling around in this game?

[A]

Yes. And that's not snowboarding. Now you have to guess which.

[D]

Which Tony Hawk do we want to guess?

[B]

It's either the latest one or it's. It's. What was the Recent collection was 1 and 2.

[D]

The recent one was 3 and 4.

[B]

3 and 4 was the recent one.

[D]

I'm gonna. We should just guess the original because I gotta go.

[C]

Well, no, no, that's not the century.

[D]

Why? Oh. Oh, that's right. So it could be skate.

[B]

You sure it wasn't 2000?

[C]

Let's do skate.

[D]

I think it was the 90s for the original.

[C]

Oh, Tony Hawk pro skater. That was definitely in the 90s.

[B]

Yeah, it was 90s. You're right.

[C]

Let's just do skate and bounce.

[B]

Okay.

[D]

Okay. Was it skate?

[A]

No, it was not skates.

It was Tony Hawk's American was. Oh.

In 2005.

[D]

Underground.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Oh, American Wasteland. Not Thug.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

This is the RPG, right?

[D]

They made Thug. Then they made Thug 2 and Venom.

[A]

I don't think it's.

[B]

Did I play this? I. I may not have.

[A]

I never played this one.

[B]

Yeah, I don't think I played.

[D]

I think American Wasteland was the last kind of like, normal Tony Hawk game before they did Ride and then the franchise kind of ended. This was like its last try.

[A]

This one has like a story mode where you're new in town and you have to, like, make friends with the.

[B]

Liquid Skate game and you make your own character. Well, or do you play as?

[A]

So, all right, I was assuming you can make your own character because it's a Tony Hawk game and you can in. Yeah, the previous one. So.

[D]

Okay. Really? Especially because I thought you just played as like. I thought you just played as like, Bam Margera.

[A]

Yeah, there's that. You can also create your own character.

[B]

Okay. Okay, Damon, if you lied, we want a refund.

[A]

Yeah. If I. If I was wrong about that, you definitely would have got.

[B]

No, that totally led us astray. Then we would have said wasteland for sure.

[C]

I'm glad Damon finally owes us.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

If he's. If he's wrong, we're gonna do 2,000 episodes of our wow.

[C]

Show. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, nicely attempt. Thank you for the suggestion, Andiana. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for a video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address game scoopgn.com Right now, I think we're gonna say goodbye to Justin, but then Sam is gonna do a show and tell. All right.

[D]

So sad about the show and tell. Okay, well, bye. I'll watch the show and tell with the viewers.

[A]

Okay. Goodbye, Justin.

[B]

Bye, Justin.

[E]

If you've shopped online, it's extremely likely that you've bought from a business powered by Shopify. You know that purple shop pay button you see at checkout? The one that makes the process from think I'm ready to buy to I can't wait till it gets here. So incredibly easy. That's Shopify. And there's a reason so many businesses sell with it. Because Shopify makes it easy to start and run your business. Shopify is the commerce platform behind 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Mattel and Gymshark to brands just getting started. It gives you a leg up from the very beginning with hundreds of beautiful, ready to go templates to express your your brand style so you don't have to spend time coding a website. Shopify allows you to tackle all the important tasks in one place, from inventory to payments to analytics and more. Plus, they have built in marketing and email tools to help find and keep new customers so you can easily spread your brand's word. And did I mention that iconic purple shop pay button that's used by millions of businesses around the world? It's the reason why Shopify has the best converting checkout on the planet. It, your customers already know it, love it, and actually use it. If you want to see less carts being abandoned, it's time for you to head over to Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com realm. Go to shopify.com realm shopify.com realm.

[D]

We find Vecna, we end this Once.

[B]

And for all together on December 25th.

[A]

We have a plan.

[C]

It's a bit insane. Everyone in.

[B]

He knows where we are.

[C]

Watch out.

[D]

Get ready for one last adventure.

[A]

We stay true to ourselves, stay true to our friends.

[B]

No matter the cost.

[C]

Found you.

[D]

Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 begins.

[C]

December 25th only on Netflix.

[A]

Fallout fans, this is what you've been waiting for. The Wand Company has created a one to one screen accurate replica of the Pip Boy 3000 MKV built using the actual geometry from the Fallout TV series. It's got a die cast metal faceplate hand weathered finish, memory foam cuff and a working TFT LCD screen that plays over 45 in universe screens. It's also a fully functional clock with an alarm mode FM radio and a premium display stand that turns it into the ultimate desk or nightstand centerpiece. Whether you're cosplaying, collecting or just living your best wasteland life, this is the perfect Pip Boy. Grab yours now at store to ign.com before they are gone. And that is all the scoops that we have for you this week. A super sized episode. I told you it was going to be a special episode. Thank you to pairs. Thank you to Sam. Thank you to the ghost of Justin. Thank you to Jobert. Working behind the scenes making this all possible. My name is Damon. We'll be back next week. How does it end? I always forget how it ends. My name is Damon. This is IGN Gamescoop. And we're out.

[B]

It's like 300,000 episodes in I get.

[C]

Welcome to next gen console watch next.

[A]

Gen console watch a different way and sometimes I get hilarious.

[B]

This is the only place where you can get the thing.

[A]

This episode of Game Soup was produced by myself, Damon Hatfield and Gilbert Adienza. Technical direction is handled by Gilbert Atienza. Technical production is by Marianne Franzen and Amir Akib. Audio engineering is by Amir Aqib and post production. Editing is by yours truly, Damon Hatfield. Graphic design is by Nicole Kagempen. Gamescoop is an IGN production and the of part of the Geek Media Network.

[C]

Did you win 100 questions?

[A]

Yes, they did.

[C]

They did.

[A]

It was okay.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

Yeah, we crushed it.

[B]

I was very impressed. Like I was telling Damon Vectorman and Typing of the Dead. That was insane. I'm like you guys were so lucky that you asked about control method because then it got weird because it's an arcade game but it doesn't use a steering Vectorman. No, for typing of the Typing of the dead.

[C]

Oh, typing. That's good. That's good.

[B]

I would have never been able to guess that. That was insane.

[D]

Yeah, it was a good. We covered each other's blind spots for video games. I would say.

[B]

Yeah, I got. I think I. I got Shadow of the Colossus on two questions.

[C]

I don't know why, really.

[B]

I was like, oh, that's shadow.

[C]

That's so cool. That's so cool.

[B]

I was. I. I wasn't on the show, though. I was in a car.

And Doug, here we have the Limu.

[A]

Emu in its natural habitat helping people customize their car insurance and save at Liberty Mutual.

[B]

Fascinating.

[A]

It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

[C]

Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

[A]

Cut the camera. They see us.

[B]

Only pay for what you [e-mail].

[A]

Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty Savings Ferry.

[B]

Unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts.