Game Awards Nominees 2025 Live Reaction - Kinda Funny Games Daily

Summary

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Kinda Funny Games Daily: Game Awards Nominees 2025 Live Reaction

Date: November 17, 2025
Hosts: Tim Gettys, Blessing Adeoye Jr., SnowBikeMike, Greg Miller, Andy Cortez

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Episode Overview

The Kinda Funny crew reacts live to the official announcement of The Game Awards 2025 nominees, diving category-by-category into initial reactions, hot takes, snubs, surprises, and predictions for the biggest night in gaming. The episode captures the unfiltered excitement, frustration, and insights from the hosts as they dissect each notable category, the evolving identity of "Game of the Year," and the continuing challenges around award show categories.

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Main Segments and Notable Reactions

Pre-Show Vibes & Expectations

• Leaked Nominees: Speculation on Game Awards leaks, but all hosts avoid spoilers, aiming for genuine reactions ([01:51]).
• Betting Stakes: Andy and Mike mention a pizza bet on predicting the big six for Game of the Year, with much anticipation ([03:00]).
• Hype & Concerns:
  • Blessing: "Death Stranding 2 deserves Best Art Direction. At least a nomination. I would even go as far as a win." ([03:04] - Blessing Adeoye Jr.)
  • Mike is keen on Battlefield 6 for Audio Design and curious to see multiplayer picks.
  • Greg: Eager to see if Indiana Jones gets love beyond "crickets." ([04:00])
  • Andy: Jokes about fighting game drought and category overlaps.

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Nominees Announcement: Live Reactions & Key Moments

Game of the Year: The Big Six ([16:22], [126:15])

Nominees:

• Claire Obscure: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
• Donkey Kong Bonanza
• Hades 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

Immediate Take:

• Mike, who nailed his prediction, celebrates Kingdom Come making the cut ([17:01]).
• Tim: "I'm very happy with this list... It's exciting to see things really changing." ([126:15])
• Andy: "Expedition 33 just dominates all of the conversation... it's the story of the year." ([126:43])
• Blessing: "These are the right six. Maybe Split Fiction or Ghost of Yote was close, but these are it." ([32:43])

Best Game Direction ([43:01])

Nominees: Claire Obscure: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yote, Hades 2, Split Fiction

• Split Fiction being nominated is widely applauded, especially since it missed GOTY.
• Andy: "I generally hate this category. It just doubles as another Game of the Year, but I'd rather it reward genuine innovation." ([44:22])
• Split Fiction and The Altars called out for unique creative direction.

Best Art Direction ([117:25])

Nominees: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yote, Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong

• Discussion: Near-unanimous awe at the quality of the nominees.
• Andy and Bless would swap out Ghost of Yote for Absolum or Kingdom Come 2 ([117:54]).
• Shoutouts for unsung art direction: South of Midnight, Sifu, Keeper, Sword of the Sea.
• Mike: "This could be the best example of this category we've ever seen." ([117:25])

Best Score & Music ([112:01])

Nominees: Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades 2, Expedition 33, Ghost of Yote, Death Stranding 2

• Tim's biggest snub: Mario Kart World. "One of the greatest soundtracks ever... not just old songs, but crazy new arrangements. You're an idiot if you think otherwise!" ([24:53])
• Panel in awe of Hades 2's dynamism and Silksong's atmospheric mastery ([113:11],[115:09]).
• Bless: Expedition 33's music is "powerful... the emotional core of the narrative is sung."

Best Performance ([123:02])

Nominees: Ben Starr, Charlie Cox, Jennifer English (all from Expedition 33), Erica Ishii (Ghost of Yote), Troy Baker (Indiana Jones), Konatsu Kato (Silent Hill F)

• Andy: "It's Jennifer English for me." Others agree Expedition 33 dominates the conversation.
• Discussion over Aaron Paul (Dispatch) and other strong performances omitted ([124:16]).

Best Independent Game (& Debut Indie) ([96:12], [90:24])

• Clear Obscure makes history with 12 nominations, "the most in Game Awards history" ([34:29]).
• Snubs discussed: Peak, Dispatch, Ball Pit found less deserving by some, while Mega Bonk and Rematch were contentiously overlooked ([97:00]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Category Frustrations, Snubs, and Hot Takes

• Blessing (on Best Art Direction): "Death Stranding 2, deserves best art direction. At least a nomination. I… would even go as far as a win." ([03:04])
• Tim (Mario Kart World Score): "You're an idiot. You're an absolute goddamn moron. Mario Kart World doesn't feature a single song that's just an old track. We're talking about brand new arrangements. This is like the apex of video game music." ([24:53])
• Andy (Split Fiction in Direction): "There are moments in that game… where I go, nobody's doing it like this." ([48:15])
• Mike (Best Esports Player Snub): "Faker's won six Worlds now… that's pretty wild. Give the flowers where those are due." ([31:01])
• Greg (Monster Hunter Wilds): "I don't think it's gonna be in my top five. Maybe in my top ten… the narrative's gotten away from it." ([21:47])
• Blessing (Debut Indie): "Blueprints is a masterpiece… but Clear Obscure is going to take it." ([92:01])
• Andy (Alters, Sim/Strategy): "Creating clones of yourself at different big moments of your life… such a cool game. The decisions are trippy and so creative." ([62:12])

Snub Discussion Highlights

• Mario Kart World (Score):
  • Tim and Andy repeatedly bemoan the lack of a nomination for Mario Kart World in Score/Music ([24:53], [112:01]).
• Sonic 3 (Adaptation):
  • Hosts annoyed it was left off the Best Adaptation category ([36:01], [109:44]).
• Family Game:
  • Lego Party a surprise hit. Mario Kart World "underperformed" versus expectations but is still a strong nominee ([65:33], [66:12]).

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The Ongoing Challenges of The Game Awards Categories

Fighting Game Drought ([73:46])

• Bless/Andy: Remark how "there's only four fighting games this year," forcing collections and old games into the nominee list.

Sim vs. Strategy Muddle:

• Bless: "In 2025, should those be lumped? No. Sim is a completely different thing now." ([29:03])
• Andy: "I would… just fucking redo a bunch of shit. But I understand that ruins the prestige." ([29:03])

Best Indie Definition & Category Overlap

• Greg: "Every year we get here, we have this conversation. This is a category that officially needs to be re-done and be best small game team… Under 50 or less." ([93:20])
• Andy: Definition wrangling over what makes an indie, double A, independent studio, and debut.

Recency Bias & Awards Windows

• Frequent frustration about December releases being forgotten during voting windows; Andy and Bless volunteer to canvass with "December pamphlets" so no candidate gets lost ([19:19], [103:05], [36:01]).

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Post-Reaction Deep Dives – Segment Timestamps

• GoTY Nominees Announced/Immediate Reactions: [16:22] – [17:06], [126:15]
• Art Direction & Score/Music Discussion: [24:53], [117:25], [112:01]
• Sim/Strategy and Indie Breakdown: [61:00] – [64:44], [90:24]
• Family Game Conversation: [64:55] – [68:13]
• Fighting Game Category Woes: [73:46] – [74:53]

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Final Thoughts and Predictions

• On "Claire Obscure: Expedition 33" Dominance:

  • "It is the most nominated game in the history of the Game Awards" ([34:29]).
  • Most hosts expect it to "run away with it" for many categories, especially Game of the Year ([126:15]).

• On GotY Qualities:

  • Tim: "Expedition 33… how much I'm going to think about it for the rest of my life, it's part of my identity… more than just my nitpicks with the game." ([126:43])
  • Blessing: "Even though I'd personally pick Hades 2, Clear Obscure is going to run away because it's the one that stuck out this year." ([127:35])
  • Andy: "In 10 years, we'll talk about Expedition 33 as a top five ever for some people."

• Pizza Bet Update: Andy wins as his big six all make the list ([128:20]).

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Notable Chat & Audience Callouts

• Multiple super chats highlight overlooked games (Dispatch, South of Midnight, Shinobi Art of Vengeance, The King is Watching) and celebrate unexpected nominations like Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 ([129:48]–[134:28]).
• Clamor for Sonic Fox, Faker, and other esports icons to get their due.

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The Kinda Funny Crew’s Takeaway

2025 is one of the most competitive years ever for The Game Awards, with indie games like Claire Obscure: Expedition 33 standing shoulder-to-shoulder alongside tentpole sequels and storied franchises. Category definitions and the eligibility window continue to challenge both voters and fans, sparking debates on how best to recognize the diversity of gaming achievement. The crew's passion, heated takes, and deep industry knowledge make this a must-listen for anyone invested in gaming’s end-of-year honors.

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Key Quotes by Timestamp

| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | |------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------| | 03:04 | "Death Stranding 2 deserves best art direction. At least a nomination. I would even go as far as a win." | Blessing Adeoye Jr. | | 24:53 | "If Mario Kart World doesn’t get nominated for score and music, I’m going to lose my shit!" | Tim Gettys | | 43:14 | "I'm happy Split Fiction got this nod since it's not in Game of the Year." | Blessing Adeoye Jr. | | 44:22 | "I generally hate this [Game Direction] category... I'd rather it reward weird innovation." | Andy Cortez | | 112:01 | "I always talk about musicals… you can understand the emotion and story of [Expedition 33] through just listening to the soundtrack." | Tim Gettys | | 126:15 | "I'm very happy with this list... The way people see GOTY is changing, and that’s exciting." | Tim Gettys | | 126:43 | "Expedition 33 just dominates all of the conversation... it's the story of the year." | Andy Cortez |

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For category-by-category breakdowns, specific debates, and extra snub/appreciation lists, see detailed timestamps above. For full crew verdicts and more hilarious sidebants, check out the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

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But are you? Walmart Black Friday deals await. Who knew? This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast. Smart move.

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State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and.

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Eligibility vary by state.

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Recruitment for Arknight's Enfield Beta Test 2 has officially begun. Head to endfield.griffline.com and complete the recruitment survey for a chance to join Beta Test 2 when it starts on November 28th. Today's stories include the Game Awards 2025 nominees are revealed and we're gonna watch them live right now because this is kinda funny Games Daily. What's up everybody?

[B]

No one even knows why that's impressive.

[A]

No one even knows the kind of funny Games daily for Monday November 17, 2025. Of course, I am your host, Tim Gettys for a jam packed star studded episode of Games Daily. I am here with blessing Adioa Junior. Good day, Tim Snowbike. Mike.

[C]

Hi, Tim.

[A]

Greg Miller.

[B]

Hello, Tim.

[A]

Andy Cortez.

[E]

Good morning.

[A]

In just a few short minutes the Game Awards nominees will be revealed. They might have leaked. I heard they leaked.

[D]

Yeah, I don't know. Saying they leaked. I didn't see anything.

[A]

But we have not seen that.

[B]

We secure.

[A]

We do not have chat up. So we do not know what the official nominees are going to be. We are going to watch the video that Jeff Keighley put out.

[D]

That's crazy that they leaked, right? Yeah, that doesn't happen.

[A]

Yeah, we're leaking award nominees. Does anyone know where and how they leaked?

[B]

I heard Jeff.

[D]

We did it.

[B]

Dropped a piece of paper.

[D]

Class we fucking infiltrated. That's what you get, Jack.

[E]

Right, that's.

[A]

That's so funny. Well, I mean I'm sure after we watch this we'll be able to get the information, track it down, we can talk.

[B]

Jason Shire burned all the bridges but.

[A]

The plan for today is Games Daily is going to be a little bit different. We'll start off with the live reaction to the nominees being announced and then we'll have a big discussion about what we think topic by topic for each of the different categories. What were the snubs? What we're excited about, all of that stuff. Bless.

[D]

Yes.

[A]

How are you feeling going into this? Is there anything that you're like, I'm going to be pissed if this.

[D]

I was thinking about this a lot yesterday. I was going through the different categories and doing my predictions for the categories and I think overall I'm excited about all the games of the year.

[A]

Right.

[D]

Like there is so. There's so much variety in 2025 and I think there's so many excellent games that deserve nominations across various categories. The one that I stand by, the one particular one, Death Straining 2, deserves best art Direction. At least a nomination. I. I would even go as far as a win. That game looks incredible. That game has such crazy direction. Yoji Shinkawa is doing his damn thing in that game. So that's what I want to see.

[A]

Mike.

[C]

I like that. Bless. Yeah. People are going to get upset. People are going to be happy. Tim. That's all I really know. Shroud. He might not ever play a single player game if our creators isn't nominated. That's what he says. No. On the real. I'm excited to see what the big six are for Game of the Year. Me and Andy had a great discussion on Friday. We even have a pizza bet for what those six nominees will be. So I'm excited to see that Best Audio design is what I'm really looking forward to. Battlefield 6 has been my front runner. That thing bleed, makes my eardrums bleed every time I play. So yeah, I can't wait to see what happens here.

[A]

Greg Miller.

[B]

It's time to put up or shut up, game critics. Last year I said what no one was brave enough to say. Indiana Jones. Just not that good of a game.

[A]

And everybody.

[B]

Oh, I had so much fun for the first four hours. You're an idiot, Greg. And then it's men goddamn crickets about this game since. So here's your chance.

[A]

Here's your chance, everybody.

[B]

What do you want to do if.

[A]

It was so good?

[C]

I guess it's going to get a.

[B]

Lot of nominations this year, isn't it?

[D]

What do you want to dominate?

[A]

Going to roll on it for this game. It was so good.

[E]

No, no. I don't like this. I don't like this.

[B]

I don't like you.

[E]

Because what we need are reminders of what missed the cutoff.

[B]

Oh, I see. We need reminders.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

With this head of hair that just keeps getting better.

[A]

How does it keep getting better?

[E]

Just got worse right there. No, we need reminders we don't like.

[B]

I'm not blaming you guys.

[A]

The reminder is ourselves. Like, we. We are the ones that need to look at it and know this.

[E]

I mean, I need to think about December.

[A]

I need like December rules specifically. Tell you what to look at the rules.

[B]

Take your job as seriously as I do.

[E]

Marvel Rivals missed out cut off last year. Keep that in mind. Critics, you know, never forget Hussein me.

[B]

Last year on Marvel Rivals by not reviewing it for fantasy critic.

[D]

We were so close. The one nomination I want to see for Indiana Jones is Troy Baker for best performance.

[A]

Well, I think that is.

[B]

You nominated him, right? Because you were such a big fan.

[D]

I don't. I don't know. We can't talk about what we did.

[C]

We can't talk about what we did.

[A]

What about you?

[B]

It's like going into a confessional. No one knows what happens.

[E]

Doing the predictions last night, it's such a weird thing with all the different genres and what's going to fall, where and what will be it, you know, will El Line Re Night Ring be in action game or multiplayer? Like, it's. It's just.

[C]

Or both.

[E]

You know, who knows? I. I had a good time going through it. It's. I think fighting game is going to be the funniest, interesting one if there is that category. Because I failed to find a fighting game that wasn't. What, the single singular early access game.

[D]

I got. I got you on five for that.

[A]

You have five fighting games.

[D]

Well, I stretch a little bit.

[F]

Right.

[D]

You have two xko.

[E]

You have like Mortal Kombat collection and Capcom.

[F]

Well, let's see.

[D]

I do have. So I have 2x scale.

[A]

No.

[D]

Are you Roger Fatal Fury, City of the Wall.

[E]

Oh, that one too.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

I have Virtual Fighter 5 Revo. I have Hunter Hunter, Net Impact. Good game. No, but it's the fighting. And then I do have Capcom fighting collection, too.

[E]

Okay. So I put Sifu in there as well.

[A]

Yeah, Sifu belongs on this list.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

What was the pizza bet between Andy and Mike?

[C]

The big six.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Will be Hades 2, Hollow Knight, Expedition 33, Donkey Kong Bonanza, Death Stranding 2.

[D]

Yeah. Kingdom come Deliverance, too.

[C]

And Kingdom Come Deliverance.

[A]

No. Yeah.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

And then I. Andy took that six as a lock. And then to have fun with it, I said, I think, like A split fiction. A Ghost of Yote. Something will break in. That's not those six. We thought those six were a lot.

[E]

Tim convinced me that Ghost of Yote, having more reviews and being the more popular one will replace one of those two.

[A]

Yeah, like my. My thing. I think that the Kingdom Come Deliverance two will, like.

[E]

It'll replace Team Come Deliverance two.

[A]

That's what I'm thinking.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

And that's just historically looking at this. The PlayStation sequels always make it. Spider Man 2 made it like. Like it's.

[D]

We're just wrong.

[C]

That would be crazy.

[A]

I'm not pretty. I'm just. I'm just saying, like.

[B]

Can we jam for a second?

[A]

I think that's the one that's most at risk.

[B]

I think that's the one on the cusp.

[A]

Yeah, I. And that's training too. I think there as well.

[D]

If I can give a hot take.

[A]

Right.

[D]

I played 30 something hours ago. I played about three and a half hours of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. I think Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 deserves to be on there more than Ghost of Yoga.

[A]

I'm not talking about deserve.

[D]

I'm just saying.

[A]

You know what I mean? I'm not talking about pandering. Okay.

[B]

Who can't remember what the voting window is? So let's just say they're gonna be there going.

[D]

I don't remember that month.

[A]

I just want my.

[B]

Here we go, everybody. Get your super chat reactions in so we can read them after this. Tim, I'm building you a Wii News Live.

[G]

Jeff Keighley and the game awards season is official. Officially.

[C]

He's glowing.

[G]

Leading up to our live show streaming everywhere.

[A]

He's an ex.

[B]

No, actually, you know, that is correct. This is funny. You keep bringing it up as a.

[G]

Community to celebrate and of course debate the absolute best in video games. And of course also get a look at what's next from our industry's most talented creators. This year there have been so many incredible games created and updated, but only.

[B]

Jilted Ex Girlfriend.

[G]

For the Game Awards by voting jury, who's in the running? Well, you're about to find out as we reveal this year's nominees across all the categories. And you can get the winners by [e-mail] about the vote in election.

[B]

Right.

[D]

Should we do it?

[B]

We should.

[G]

First category for best performance. The nominees are. Ben Starr.

[E]

Charlie Cox for Clar.

[G]

Erica Ishii for Ghost of Yay. Jennifer English For Clara Expedition 33, Silent Hill F. And Troy Baker.

[A]

December.

[G]

The nominees are.

[B]

I'll tell you right now. I'm gonna be pretty red in the face. Indiana Jones game of the year.

[E]

I would eat a lot of shit right there.

[B]

Everybody gets a pizza from me.

[G]

The nominees are Destiny Rising. Persona 5. The Phantom.

[E]

That came out. Sonic Rumble.

[D]

I played that.

[G]

This year's nominees.

[A]

Here we go for you.

[D]

Better be destroying obscure Expedition 33.

[G]

Death Strand.

[A]

There we go.

[D]

There we go.

[G]

Ghost of Yote, Hades 2 and Hollow Knight.

[D]

That's right.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

That's right.

[G]

Score and music. Leveled up by Spotify are. Christopher Larkin.

[E]

Yes.

[G]

Silksong. Darren Corbian. Test flare. Obscure Expedition 33.

[C]

Toma.

[G]

Otoa for Ghost of Yote.

[B]

And yeah.

[E]

Wood Kid.

[A]

You.

[B]

You.

[A]

This is my one thing.

[E]

The best Mario Kart World.

[D]

Mario Kart World.

[F]

Man.

[G]

Stupid as Battlefield 6. Claire. Obscure Expedition 33.

[D]

Have we seen Nintendo yet?

[B]

They know what they did.

[G]

And Silent Hill.

[E]

F. Damn.

[G]

Best adaptation was added to the game awards in 2020. Nothing came out to recognize an outstanding show, movie or other creative work inspired by and based on established world.

[D]

Here are this twisted metal baby in Minecraft.

[G]

A Minecraft movie. Devil May Cry.

[B]

Yes. There you go.

[G]

Season two Until Dawn.

[C]

No.

[B]

Tim's got bad.

[A]

Tim's got bad taste.

[D]

33.

[G]

Death Stranding 2 on the beach. Ghost of Yote Kingdom come. Deliverance 2.

[E]

Wow.

[G]

And Silent Hill. F. Silent Hill Ever celebrate and transparently engage together. Final fantasy 14 Fortnite.

[B]

We're real gamers that we haven't done. You know.

[A]

Afternoon.

[G]

Your nominees for Don't Order Lunch Once are. Consume Me.

[B]

All right.

[G]

Despote.

[B]

All right.

[G]

Lost Records. Blue.

[B]

All right.

[G]

South of Midnight and Wonderstar.

[E]

Ah.

[B]

I wanted Ann.

[A]

Roger.

[G]

Real bad multiplayer.

[D]

What's the message? Lost Records.

[G]

Our greatest.

[E]

Night.

[G]

Rain Peak and fiction. Best independent game celebrates games with a high degree of risk tolerance produced outside the traditional publisher system.

[B]

Those nominees are Risk tolerance.

[G]

Blueprints.

[C]

Nice.

[G]

Their obscure Xbox 33. P2. And Hollow Knight. Silksong's debut indie game recognizes a development team that hasn't won a game award before. In fact, these teams published their first game this year.

[B]

Okay, that makes more sense.

[G]

The nominees are. Blueprints. Nice flare. Obscure Expedition 33.

[D]

All right.

[G]

Despalote.

[A]

Expedition 33. Boxes SW.

[G]

AR game. The nominees are. Alien Rogue.

[B]

Incursion.

[G]

Arin Age. Ghost Town.

[B]

Marvel's Ghost Town.

[D]

No. Lumen Sri.

[A]

That's crazy.

[G]

Content creator of the year. The nominees are.

[B]

I'm happy to be back.

[G]

Deadpool VR even.

[B]

No. They sent it out ahead of time though.

[G]

Sakura Moo. Burnt Peanuts.

[B]

Go.

[G]

Part of the game awards to what Next.

[A]

I like the peanut.

[C]

I met the Peanut.

[G]

Lots of games to announce on December 11th.

[C]

Yeah, and he was in a peanut out there.

[G]

Anticipated upcoming game 7 foot tall nominees based on currently announced titles.

[A]

I wonder what it's gonna be.

[G]

First Light, Grand Theft Auto 6, Marvel's Wolverine, Resident Evil Requiem and the Witcher 4. The best action adventure game nominees are.

[D]

Could have been Half Life three.

[G]

That's straight. A Week on the Beach, Ghost of Yote Hollow Knight, Silk Song, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Wow. Split Fiction.

[B]

You know, I take it back. All right.

[G]

Clear obscure. Expedition 33, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Monster Hunter, Wilds Wow. And the Outer World. The category of best fighting game. The nominees are two xko Capcom Fighting.

[E]

Club.

[G]

City of the Wolves, Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection and Virtua Fighter 5. Revo World Stage.

[D]

Good on them for not having the.

[G]

Numbers for best action game are good.

[E]

At them for finding another one.

[G]

The Dark Ages.

[E]

Yeah.

[G]

Ninja Gaiden 4 and Shinobi Art of Life.

[A]

Let's go.

[G]

Innovation and accessibility celebrates games that are making our industry available and enjoyable to more people. The nominees for innovation and accessibility are Assassin's Creed, Shadows, Atom Fall Doom, the Dark ages, EA Sports FC 26 and south of Midnight. Next up, Best family game. The nominees are Donkey Kong Bonanza, Lego Party, Lego Voyagers, Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing, Crosswords and Split Fiction.

[D]

You know I fuck with this category.

[G]

Strategy game nominees are the Alters, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ivelisse Chronicles, Jurassic World, sid Meier's Civilization 7, Tempest Rising and Two Point Museum.

[D]

Interesting.

[G]

No schedule games are nominated for best Sports Racing Game, WWE Sports, FC26F125, Mario Kart World, Rematch and let's watch.

[E]

All right.

[G]

Now the nominees in our 3 Esports College Football.

[C]

Again we are lost in the world.

[D]

The entire world.

[A]

The same reason why cricket doesn't make it.

[C]

We put rematch that died three weeks dead.

[E]

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[D]

Watch your mouth, Brock. It was a great three week Ch.

[G]

Forsaken, Kakaru Mena RD and Zywu.

[D]

Let's go.

[G]

Nominated these teams he just threeped. League of legends, Team Falcons, Dota 2, Team Liquid Ph1, Mobile Legends, Bang Bang and Team Vitality. Counter strike two.

[E]

Okay, we're all the cut off hadn't made it.

[C]

That's right.

[G]

Okay, first, Best game direction recognizes outstanding creative vision and innovation in game direction and design. The nominees are Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2 on the Beach, Ghost of Yote, Hades 2 and Split Fiction. And now it's the picture might be.

[D]

Getting the Game of the year of.

[G]

The Year recognizing pretty nervous Indiana Jones. This year's awards. Our global TGA jury has selected the following six games as the nominees for Game of the year. Player Obscure Expedition 33 from Sandfall Interactive, Death Stranding 2 on the beach from Kojima Productions, Donkey Kong bonanza from Nintendo, Hades 2 from Supergiant Games, Hollow Knight, Silk Song from Team Cherry and Kingdom Come.

[D]

There it is. There it is.

[B]

That's a big one for Mikey.

[C]

I like that game a lot.

[G]

Have it. You're nominees for Game of the Year and now that those are official, you can anticipate Lauren Balf and the Game Awards orchestra playing their themes as part of our music.

[A]

Before that, we need your help.

[B]

He doesn't want to hear his favorite winners.

[D]

Make sure to head to the game.

[G]

Awards.Com to cast your ballot. And new this year, download your vote cards. You can share your picks on social media. Oh, there is still one more category where the nominees are have yet to be revealed. Players voice where fans 100 select the winner from 30 nominees. We'll announce those nominees on Monday, December 1st. So set a reminder on the word.

[B]

Yeah, we did okay.

[G]

The winners in all categories will be revealed live during TGA when it streams globally on Thursday, December Dispatch starting with opening act at fourth.

[C]

Yeah but that got narrative or whatever discussion on Friday. We don't know where that lands.

[D]

It's that weird.

[G]

And live across your video social platform out there. Thanks for watching. See you live on Thursday December 11th to celebrate the best.

[E]

I think you're. I think you're at liberty to say whatever you want now. I think you in particular.

[D]

Yeah, you're right. Well it's not a thing anymore.

[B]

You know.

[D]

Not future class anymore. It doesn't exist.

[A]

Last class everybody. What's up? Welcome to Kind of Funny Games Daily. The real episode breaking down everything that we just saw each every weekday we run you through the video game news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free and a daily exclusive show for a chance to be part of this show, please YouTube super chat in what got snubbed? What are the things that you wish were here that aren't or what are you excited to see? Did some of your favorites make the list that you weren't so sure were going to? I want to know. Little housekeeping for you. Big exciting announcement on January 28th we're doing a live in person in review event as part of San Francisco Sketch Fest. A very exciting thing. What movie are we doing? The missing link in our Marvel in Review ranking. The Marvel movie that began it all. Not Iron Man.

[B]

Nope.

[A]

Howard the Duck.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

Adding that to our every Marvel in reviewed, ranked and recapped, we have about. We have less than 10 Marvel movies total to have done every single one ever, which is absolutely terrifying to think about. But yeah, we'll get one step closer with Howard the Duck. Have you, have you seen that before, Greg?

[B]

Have I seen Howard the Duck? Yeah, I'll let you know. I was like a sicko as a kid watching fucking Howard the Duck because it was like both cool and then terrifying. It was like a live action cartoon. But then at one point the principal from Ferris Bueller's Day off who turned out to be a pedophile, his tongue comes out because he's like an alien and goes into the cigarette lighter. And I remember being fucking freaked out. But I watch it all the time of vhs.

[A]

Well, I can't wait for this.

[C]

And if you care, vhs, it's like.

[B]

One of those you recorded off tv. Of course my mom was like, I'm sick of renting this from Super America.

[A]

Go to Kind of funny. Go to kind of phony.com sketch fest to buy your tickets before it sells out. Yeah. It's January 28th. Coming up today after Games Daily you're going to get Gamescast. It's going to be andy's review of Moonlighter 2. Exciting. After that the stream is going to be checking out some new content in in Arc Raiders. If you're a Kind of funny member, Greg Way is going to be another live one on Patreon. It's going to be up for everyone later on. And thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs and Delaney Twin and Omega Buster I believe and Omega Buster. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Rope Report. It's time for some news. We have two stories today. Baker doesn't the game award nominees are in. What are our initial gut thoughts? Andy Cortez.

[E]

That recency bias can sometimes change stuff. And now I don't know what to think with the popular votes anymore with Yote being, you know, I think more people overall play Kingdom Come Deliverance too. But Tim really had me convinced that Yote would have been there just because of the Sony kind of and the amount of people that play the games but can become Limerence 2 was a you know, overall higher rated game. And I think more people played across more platforms, so that's something I should have considered as well.

[A]

So where's the recency Bias come in there?

[E]

Well, no, these are two separate things. Recently Bias, talking about Monster Hunter Wilds, I think that if Monster Hunter Wilds came out more recently and didn't have time to die down, like a lot of, you know, live service games kind of go, you know, like, jump in. Yeah, sure.

[B]

It's the traditional thing. I think with Monster Hunter Wilds, when you look at it, that game came out so early, had such a moment, everybody's playing it, but it's been around so long that it's faded and people are like, well, it doesn't have the stickiness of Arc Raiders, which are in the mood for now, or it doesn't have. And there's a lot of things to criticize. And, you know, Capcom has been out there of like, well, sales were soft and da, da, da. Like, the narrative's gotten away from it in a way right where that game's been just hitting so much. And for the record, as somebody who loved it and was so adamant on streams with Mike, don't forget, forget Monster Hunter. Don't forget Monster Hunter. It's not gonna. I don't think it's gonna be in my top five. I think it's gonna be in my top ten.

[D]

That's what I was gonna ask. I remember either last year or the year before. We're talking about Monster Hunter Wilds coming up and we're talking about like, oh, man, 2025 is gonna be a big year for video games and we're doing Give me the year predictions, like, even back then. And I remember Monster under Wilds being a big conversation point and even me being like, I don't know if Monster Hunter Wild is gonna be in our top five or whatever, right? And like, people are looking at me crazy. But I think that's coming off of Monster Hunter Worlds being such a big thing and so successful and all this stuff. This Monster Hunter Wilds really. Does that live up to what Monster Worlds did? Because I feel like the conversation has outside looking in has died down real.

[B]

Quick for me as a fan. No, I don't think it did. I think Monster Hunter world was such a breakout. It was what I had wanted Monster Hunter to be for so long as somebody who played him on PSP and played them on Nintendo and, you know, did all these different games. Like, that was such a. Holy shit, look at this. And it was a Monster Hunter for so many new people. I think Monster Hunter Wilds arriving and being the sequel to that, which is great and fun and really cool. Ran into some problems of still being having the Monster Hunter jank, if I will Mike, of how you party up and how you progress through stories. And then also at launch one of the big stories was it's too easy, it's too easy, it's too easy. Since then they've kept with what I think the world release schedule was of new event, new monster. You know, now it's a six star. Now it's what like it's gotten harder and harder but you lose that zeitgeist you had. They didn't come with a complete game that maybe that's too far but they didn't come with what I think their complete vision is as it is right now. But even for us right now it's like as a Monster Hunter fan as somebody's going to have it in their top 10, but probably towards the 10, I was sitting there, it's like, ooh, Halloween stuff dropped and it's like, but I have Arc raiders to play and I have this to play and I have that event to do and I have this single player. Like there's so much other stuff that even getting me back into it's different.

[E]

And anytime I've tried to write off the popularity of a game, I. It always bites me in the ass because I always think that like, well, this game will probably make it. And then a game like Monster Hunter Wilds, which has an 88, a 90 and an 88 on Metacritic across the platforms with about 160 critics reviews, which was like way higher than a lot of games. I'm like in my mind that just says like the math is on its side and it just wasn't. Which like it's not like I was rooting for Monster Hunter Wilds. I just thought the numbers would have really kind of vaulted in that space. But shout out to Kingdom Come, Deliverance too for like breaking for. Yeah, Breaking through and being that game that, you know, at first I was like, yeah, this will probably make it. And the Ghost Yote thing really sort of like threw my, my predictions off there. But yeah, Tim, I'm shocked about Monster or about Mario Kart World not being in soundtrack.

[A]

I mean I'm not shocked because like to me that's my biggest upset. I've been talking about this me and Blessed been talking about it a lot of how I was like, I'm going to lose my shit if it's not there because I get the argument of people being like, it's a bunch of old songs. And to that I say, you're an idiot. You're an absolute goddamn moron. Because Mario Kart World doesn't feature a single song that is just an old track that an MP3 they're putting in. It's not like a Smash Brothers situation that, oh, it's just collecting all the music and it's just literally the song. We're talking about brand new arrangements of classic songs from the entire history of Mario games. Almost every single Mario game was touched. There are songs that we have never heard since the original game. They were in arranged across pretty much every genre of music imaginable, featuring live instruments, like live performances, some of the greatest arrangers and orchestrators and conductors, not conductors, composers of all time joining together. Like, this is an all star squad situation. On top of that, this deserves an award for the new music. It has the new Mario Kart music. Every single new track that they had had a new song that was amazing. And again, the road trip element to the. The game's kind of vibe and the whole point of Mario Kart World allowed it to have such a different thing. Mario Kart 8, it's all the jazz remixes. Every single thing is jazz, jazz, jazz. This has started with that like, harmonica kind of road trip, like bluesy type thing. And then every section of the world had a completely different vibe, whether it's the city pop of the the Princess Peach area or just like so many different genres being represented. This is like the apex of what production value can be for music production in a video game. And I understand people just might hear it and the untrained ear are just like, it's the Mario song. But it is so, so, so much more than that. I want this all clear. I think Expedition 33 should win and I think it will win. I just wanted this to get nominated because I just think it deserves a shout out. We're talking about one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever. And it's not just because it's a collection of things. It is because of what this did for a soundtrack.

[E]

I agree. Ivelisse Chronicles make an rpg. Kind of goes against the grain of why, like, like you saying, well, yeah, they're not just old songs. They are like completely redone. Evely's Chronicles. To me, being in RPG when it got a new coin of paint, coat of paint and voice acting is pretty surprising to me.

[A]

Was that rpg? Was that.

[D]

I think I was sim.

[E]

Oh, that Was tragic. Okay.

[A]

So point stand.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Right. And that, that's always that weird thing that we've had the conversation a bazillion times about Remake. Remaster. Where's the line? What are we awarding here? Because Resident Evil 4 Remake being up for Game of the Year a couple of years ago, that's a similar conversation. Right. And we can agree or just. I hated that on what it is, but it's like, yeah, there is that President. I do think there is a difference between Resident Evil remake and Final Fantasy Tactics, but. Oh, yeah, that's a personal thing.

[D]

I mean, CapCom Fighting Collection 2 got.

[A]

Nominated for Best Mortal Kombat Legacy.

[D]

Legacy.

[A]

Which is not even good. Yeah. A lot of people are super bad about it.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Like a lot of you are mad about like the input lag and like that.

[A]

But that I do think is. And, and we know this. These are the categories. Right. They're not just going to not do the category because there's not five games. Maybe they probably.

[B]

But that's my thing is like, I think it gets sticky, I guess. But you would assume there's rules for when you're nominating a game for game awards that you need to nominate X number. So I think so many people toss in. We're doing this. And when that came out this year and we reviewed it, we didn't like it, but I guess. But like, there should be a. There should be a not. I don't know. I don't know what the cutoff is. And I'm not saying it's Metacritic, but it should be. Maybe you don't need to nominate X amount of games. You can nominate just one. If you guys love one game, nominate one game.

[D]

But I don't think that's the problem here. I think with Best Fighting Game, the problem is that only four fighting games came out this year.

[E]

Right.

[D]

Like.

[B]

Well, that's my problem.

[D]

That's what I'm saying.

[E]

Okay.

[B]

Where I'm saying, like, we should have been. And I'm. I, I don't remember what we left nominees. I'm saying exactly. I'm saying bless. Should be able to say, hey, I. Jeff says you don't have to nominate X amount of games. We nominate one game. Game stop spot nominates two. But nobody's not feeling they have to make a quota. So at that point you would end up with, knock on wood.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Three games rather than five. Yeah.

[D]

I think it's the second thing where it's. I think either solution they could have for dealing with these categories is probably Going to hurt them, right? Because it's either you keep the categories the way they are and then you have situations where it's like, all right, this year is just a bad year for fighting games. And so let's have two collections on the list, one of them being bad, or we revamp the categories. But then you lose the prestige of having these categories reappear year over year over year over year. Because there are some categories in video games where I'm like. But there are things that evolve. There are genres that evolve. Where I look at best sim slash strategy, and I go in 2025. Should those be lumped into one category? I think not. I think what you get from the strategy genre and what you get from the sim genre. Sim is a completely different thing. Nowadays, when I think sim games, I am thinking of all the truck simulators that might be playing, right? I think about Schedule 1 and the card game shops and all that stuff. And those games are such a big genre in video games nowadays that I think that kind of overtakes the strategy thing. But now we have this weird thing where it is, well, the category has been best sim slash strategy. Because sim used to mean one thing, now I mean something else. I like. I don't know what the solution is. I would go in there and just fucking redo a bunch of shit. But I understand that, like, that kind of ruins the prestige of shit.

[E]

Can't believe Hunter. Hunter got snubbed. Bus.

[A]

I know.

[E]

Big fighting game snub right there, Greg.

[A]

Big takeaways.

[B]

Glad to see Clara Skier get the recognition it deserves. More importantly, I think I. It's good. I'm glad to see Kingdom Come get the recognition it deserves. Again, these are both games that I didn't connect with, but I know how good they are. And I can objectively say that it always is that concern with something like Kingdom Come, Deliverance to A Big Lift. A not your average rpg, right. Western RPG to jump into. There's always that fear that people aren't going to play it, so they aren't going to understand it. So it is just going to be the most marketable, the most mainstream. The fact that they were able to break through both them and Claire, very similar to a Baldur's Gate thing. Not as crazy, because CRPGs, I think, are even harder to jump people into and get them really excited about. It's awesome to see them get that recognition. Especially after, you know, Mike has pandered to the audience and really fallen in love with it.

[A]

Yeah, Mike, let's Get to you. What are your top level thoughts?

[C]

You know what, I want to give a couple shout outs. Best family game, Lego party.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Hey, congratulations to that team. That's a really special game, a really fun one that I know we enjoyed. I mean not seeing Mario Kart world up on the music. Tim, I was right there with you, me and Andy on Friday. That was one I was banging the drum for. Also came to come deliverance to some great music in that but there's a lot of great games with some great music in it. My biggest snub with the the the nominees of course is Faker, not best esports gamer out there. Kid has won six worlds now in League of Legends. He went back to back to back. That's three times in a row. It's never been done before. That's pretty wild. I know we're not a big esports audience but like given the flowers where those are due, that's definitely there. EA Sports college football has gotten better this year, which is crazy. It does go as all of you say of like, hey, it's an international audience. College football might not resonate with everybody out there, but the idea that that game came out last year was such a big bang and then this year was better than last year is wild to see that not get nominated up there. But all in all it kind of went as I expected it to. My big six are up there for the game of the year that I thought we would see. I do like seeing games when we get into, you know, best multiplayer. I didn't know if our creators was going to be there, Tim.

[A]

Right.

[C]

We kind of had this talk about what would the cutoff. What's the cusp. You've seen a big large audience right now online really pushing for arc raiders riding for that game. So to see it get up there in the best multiplayer category, that's great. I'm happy to see some recognition there. And for Dispatch as well. These are two games that are like right hot and just out. So yeah, all in all, Tim, I'm pretty happy with everything.

[A]

Bless.

[D]

Yeah, I'm very happy with the game of the year category. This is the six that I would have predicted as well.

[C]

Right.

[D]

And I think this is the right six when you look at the scope of the year. You know, I think it is tough when you're. I look at games like Split Fiction or even Go that are probably like just on the outside looking in that I could have seen either of those getting in there. But when I look at these six games that are nominated. I think these are the right ones. There are a couple categories that, you know, I get sad about Dispatch being one that got lost in the shovel here. It was nominated for one of these categories.

[B]

Debut indie.

[D]

Debut indie.

[E]

Thank you.

[D]

But you know, I think when you are doing the episodic thing and like, again, like I think you have, when you have your game coming out over the scope of what is nominee season, I think you get lost to a few things. I could have seen that being nominated for even more categories, whether it be narrative, whether it be even performance. I think Aaron Paul in that game.

[E]

Yeah, I think there's a lot of.

[D]

Performances in that, honestly. Yeah. Like, I would have loved to see some of those sneak in.

[B]

I think that's another one of running. I'm sorry, not cut off. Yeah, it's, you know, running up against that deadline where it is. There's so many games and you're coming down to the thing. And it was a similar thing with us, you know, making time to review it and do a spoiler cast the day it came out. Right. Which was just last week. Like, episodics are always hard. So I think that kind of worked against them in this one specifically.

[D]

Exactly. And speaking of best performance, of course, Shout Out Troy Baker getting nominated for Indiana Jones. That said, I think Troy Baker also should have been nominated for Destroying two. That performance is fucking incredible that he puts on in that video game. So, yeah, I think, you know, stuff like that, it's like, all right, cool. Clear Obscure, of course, had a lot of banger performances. And Clear Obscure just has a lot of visibility this year as far as how good quality that game is across many different things. And so seeing it, seeing three different people get nominated from that game, I'm like, I get it. But also, man, I would have loved to see some other people.

[B]

One thing to toss out here too. This is from the press release and I'm putting in bullet points as we go. 12 nominations for Claire obscure exhibition 33 quote it is the most nominated game in the history of the game Awards.

[A]

Wow.

[E]

Hell yeah.

[C]

Wow. Little cool one as well. Shout out to Obsidian Entertainment two RPGs from there. That's a wild.

[B]

And they'll both lose.

[C]

They had a big year. But avowed and Outer Worlds 2, you had grounded in the mix. That's a studio that was absolutely cooking this year.

[D]

One more I'll say is that for best sports Slash Racing, we didn't see Tony Hawk's Pro Skater three plus four. We didn't see that period today.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, obviously that would be the 1 category, but yeah, it should have been there. Like, that was great. But also, I do think that in comparison to 1 and 2, it wasn't the same. Like, I feel like it was not as complete of a package and there were things that it wasn't as good of a remake as 1 and 2 were of 1 and 2.

[E]

Tony Hawk's looking at Mortal Kombat collection. Like, fuck that. Why are you there? Why are you in your category?

[D]

Oh, and also Keeper. I don't think we saw Keeper at all today.

[C]

Correct.

[D]

Yeah. And I would have loved to see that for best art direction.

[A]

Yeah. I already talked about Mario Kart, so you got that. But yeah, my big things are for adaptation. Like, I think that they. They. We really dropped the ball as a people with this because until dawn sucked. Like, that does not deserve this. And like, no joke, Twisted Metal season two was awesome. Season one was like, hey, by the end, surprisingly good. Season two was legit great. And everybody that watched it felt that way. And it should be here. And you know what else should be here? Blessed.

[D]

What's that?

[A]

Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

[D]

Oh, is that in the.

[A]

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 didn't make this list. And that's.

[E]

Maybe we should get reminders about cutoffs.

[D]

Honestly.

[A]

Yeah, like in the middle of the year.

[D]

It's not Sonic 3.

[A]

Wasn't it?

[E]

I hope it was December.

[A]

April.

[D]

Oh, it was over.

[A]

Yeah, whatever. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is on my mind at all times, but it deserves to be here. Like, and, like, they got a couple of things right. Like, there was only so many spots, so I get it. But until Don, get the hell out of here.

[D]

What?

[E]

I'll.

[A]

What?

[D]

I'll propose to Jeff. Even though I've been shit talking you a lot lately, next year, put me and Andy on the team. We'll make a pamphlet. We'll make a December pamphlet of like, hey, this is what happened December last year, in case you forget. And we'll make it all pretty. Andy will handle the graphic design. I'll do the research door to door.

[E]

Just canvassing.

[D]

Don't forget December.

[A]

Yeah. Do you guys want to go category by category and talk about it? Let's do that after a word from our sponsors. Arknights Enfield is a real time 3D RPG with strategic elements from publisher Griffline. Coming to PlayStation 5 PC and mobile devices in early 2026. Experience an immersive story and explore the frontier world of Talos ii. As you command a team of up to four operators in stylish real time combat. Gather resources, plan and construct your production lines with the automated industry complex factory system to feel the true satisfaction of a management sim and to transform the planet through industrial growth. Beta Test 2 is the latest playable experience for Arknights Enfield and introduces a rebuilt storyline, a brand new explorable region, revamped combat, a deepening AIC factory system, multi platform support, and much more. Recruitment has already begun and you can visit enfield.griffline.com now to complete the recruitment survey for a chance to join Beta Test 2 when it begins on November 28th. This episode is brought to you by Aura Frames. There's a gift that can bring your favorite holiday traditions and memories to life each and every single day. And it's called the Aura Frame no Lie or Frames are undeniably the best gift I have ever given family, friends, partners. Everyone loves being able to have beautiful frames showing off their loved ones and favorite memories. You can order the frame online and preload it with photos and videos using the Aura app so it's ready to go right out of the box. There's unlimited storage so you can add as many photos and videos as you can find. For a limited time, visit or frames.com and get $45 off or as best selling Carver Matte frames named number one by wire cutter by using Promo code Kinda Funny at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code kind of Funny this exclusive Black Friday Cyber Monday deal is their best of the year, so order now before it ends. Support this show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply or frames.com promo code kinda Funny this episode is brought to you by Factor Fall always feels like there's just so much more stuff to do. Shorter days, busier routines, back to school. It's all just a lot. That's why so many of us here at Kinda Funny Love Factor. Their chef prepped dietitian approved meals make it easy to stay on track and enjoy something comforting and delicious no matter how hectic the season gets. On many occasions, Factor has completely saved Greg and Jen when they needed it most. You can choose from a wider selection of weekly meal options including premium seafood choices like salmon and shrimp at no extra cost. Enjoy even more GLP1 friendly meals and new Mediterranean diet options packed with protein and good for you fats. Eat smart@Factor Meals.com kinda funny 50 off and use code kinda funny 50 off to get 50 off your first box plus free breakfast for one year. That's code kinda funny 50 [e-mail] for 50 off your first box plus free Breakfast for one year. Get delicious ready to Eat meals delivered with Factor offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. And surprise. We're doing a special live recording of In Review as part of San Francisco Sketch Fest. What movie are we doing? It's a Marvel movie we've been avoiding for years, but it's finally time. It's Howard the Duck, baby. We're doing it live. It's going down on January 28th. Grab a [e-mail] sketchfest before they sell out.

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[A]

De masajes bien and conunato se vuelben bastante practicas el Volkswagen taeguan confuciones premium como los acientos de lanteros con masaje disponibles solo parese extravagante. So here we are going category by category of the game awards nominees for 2025. Barrett, where should we start?

[F]

At the bottom of where Kotaku has.

[A]

Yeah, Kotaku's adding all the. All the categories here. Developing story. We will refresh later.

[B]

The game awards site cannot load.

[A]

That's the direction. Best game direction. Right now we have clear Obscure, Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yote, Hades 2 and Split Fiction. Anybody feel like something's missing or is this feeling good?

[D]

I'm happy Split Fiction got this nod since it's not in game of the Year.

[E]

Right.

[D]

Like, again, it being such a competitive year and Split Fiction being a game that I think coming after It Takes Two. Which one? Game of the Year. The year that it came out, Split Fiction had a lot to live up to and I think for the most part it lived up to that game in gameplay. Even though the story I think might have lost people, the story might not have been as inspired as It Takes Two. Even though It Takes Two was also kind of a rocky story of places. But yeah, like, that's an excellent game that I think deserves a shout out.

[E]

Thank you.

[B]

I can't.

[D]

I can't.

[E]

Not anytime. Well, as soon as you.

[B]

Any hazelight game comes around, I go code.

[E]

You pointed at me and I was gonna go amicia. Yeah, I think Split Fiction, it's one of those where because we had seen something like it before and arguably better with It Takes Two and also a recency thing, I think if Split Fiction came out last month or two months ago and a lot more people were playing co op together and it sort of dominates the discussion, I think it maybe is on the radar a bit more. But I. I generally hate this category anyway. I think it needs to.

[B]

Why do you hate it?

[E]

What. What I called it last night on my stream was I want this to be a new category for direction and innovation in game dev or devs just doing weird and being weird little weirdos where it's like, I don't at this point it kind of just usually is game of the Year. I wanted to also focus on like what's pushing like tech in a really weird way, which I don't know if.

[D]

Best innovation a lot.

[E]

Like, yeah, like maybe not even innovation, but I think of when we played Viewfinder, like Viewfinder is an older game that came out a couple years ago with weird ass tech that was like this needs to get recognized. And I to me game direction just like it's like best song and best out best record or whatever. Like it's. They're usually almost the same nominees and like I, I would, I, I think that a lot of the stuff that these games are doing are reasons why they are game of the year.

[A]

You know, having said that, I do think Split Fiction belongs here. Like I think that if anything Game direction is what that game does a thousand percent. And for what you're saying about like doing something that is different, like nobody does it. Like Hazelight. And this might not have been the best Hazelight project in my opinion, but I still really loved it. And I do think that it deserves flowers for what it is achieving and how different it is and how awesome it is. Like that the idea of a co op game and not just in terms of super fun gameplay, changing it up constantly and you and someone sitting on a couch having fun, but also the commitment to that experience and all the, the ways that the team has made sure that I forget the game share or whatever it's called. Like the pricing of it. Like it's just there's a lot of direction decisions about this game and like what it's supposed to be that I'm like, yeah, this deserves.

[B]

This is usually the thing that I think gets lost. Especially on today when people run through knobs and especially on the actual show. Right. Is like the game award site which is borked right now. So I'm pulling from an old one. Does list what these all mean? Right. And so for them, best game direction. At least this is from notes I had forever ago awarded to a game studio for outstanding creative vision and innovation in game design and game direction and design. Sorry I butchered that. But you understand I'm driving at right where it really is on the shoulder of the judges us when we nominate and when we vote to come in and look at the games through that lens. But I'm with you that it sounds so close to game.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Like inevitably it also ends up trying to just be game.

[E]

Looking at this list, it's like Split Fiction. I would have that there. I would have something like the Altars there.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

With just being weird of like it's one actor acting as seven different. Eight different. 12 different versions of himself and different characters and what it's doing with the simulation and the sort of choices you're making, I wouldn't have Hades 2 here because Hades 1 did what Hades 2 did. And it's. They're not adding like VR support to Hades. You know what I mean?

[B]

Like creative vision and innovation.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Like direction and design.

[E]

Yeah. I wouldn't have Yote here. Even though Death Stranding 2 is a sequel to Death Shining 1, I still might have it here just for. As weird as it is. I don't know.

[B]

But I agree with that.

[E]

I. I would like to shine a light more on games and maybe just have it be completely different category.

[D]

I'm surprised Donkey Kong Bonanza isn't here. Like, I know we're talking about games. I iterated on other games. So DK Bonanza, it being a Nintendo 3D platformer, that is totally shifted the idea of. No, we're about destruction and like we're having this different materials and all this.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

I think to your point, I look at that as more of a fit for this list than goes to Yot or even Hades.

[B]

But then you come back in, right. And I think you throw the word direction around. Right. And what all these have in common, as you look at them, like we're talking about performance and story being. And like, don't get me wrong, there's gameplay to all this as well. But I think it is taking these complicated many. And I'm not saying this is justified, I'm just pointing out, I think as you look at the list, taking these complicated stories that the games are telling and how do you do right and how do you make that shake shake out? And that's what I think when I think of Death Stranding too Claire Obscure, obviously as it goes on progresses and changes and evolves. Ghost of Yote, how do you want to tackle?

[D]

Because yeah, when I vote, like when I look at the. At the category, I look at split fiction as like the. A really good example of not. I don't want to spoil that game, but there are moments in that game, particularly the last level of that game, where I look at and go, nobody's doing it like this. Like, this has such a vision, this has such a direction, this has such a. And like most of that stuff for me is on the gameplay level of how they're able to execute on that. And I think for me is to the indie best song versus best record thing. Right. Like, I think the technical difference is best record is more about like the writing and the construction of the song. Whereas best song maybe more about like the final product and the impact. I'm sure I butcher that, but I look at that similarly here as far as how are you putting the ingredients together to make a game that feels like it stands out and is doing something fresh and different, which maybe might be more clear if you rename it innovation or something?

[E]

Like.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, I've said this so many times. Like, the point of these award shows is the conversation because it's like there is. All of us disagree with the categories and what goes in and whatever. But, like, if you were to make something people that you're like, this is the perfect award show. People are going to be like, no, it's not. Like, this is wrong and this is wrong and this is wrong.

[B]

And no one's ever argued our top.

[A]

10 before having to vote for things. And looking at what the categories are, things like games for impact, it starts to get a little cloudy of just like, all right, there's a couple that are clear. Yes. But then it's like, all right, are we really just putting this game because it's kind of artsy in this category? And I feel like with game direction to what you're saying and it gets weird because what exactly are we trying to do here? And it means something different to different people even no matter how much you try to explain it and be like, this is what it means.

[E]

I don't know.

[D]

Yeah. I'd also shout out blueprints for this category as well. Like, blueprints, I think should get nominated and possibly win this category for that direction.

[E]

I agree.

[B]

I agree.

[A]

Let's move on. Best esports team. Any thoughts, Mike?

[C]

No, I mean, would I like to see T1 on there? Yes, of course. Is T1 always nominated when you go back in the history? Of course. Right.

[E]

I think the cutoff, I think that's a big one, though.

[C]

Yeah. But then you could talk about the cut off for last year.

[E]

Right.

[C]

And then people forgetting in December what happened at Worlds, Right?

[E]

So it's like, well, they won last year, right?

[C]

Well, yeah, they won last year. So, like, where's the cutoff? Right? Because if the cutoff was the year before that and then they won this year, that means they should be nominated this year because you would want to highlight that. But I mean, this is a. A category where you got to have the right people voting on that, knowing and the knowledge of that. And if you don't know, it's like, well, I'm not a part of that for sure.

[A]

And then esports athlete, same thing. Moving up.

[D]

Well, I want to Shout Out Men RD in that category.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

That was co the Street Fighter at EVO this last year and has been like dominating Street Fighter for the last couple years. And usually I feel like for this category we don't see the fighting game players make an appearance and so I think that's a huge one to get in there.

[C]

Had a great run at EVO this year.

[A]

Great.

[C]

A really good storyline. Like that was one of those. If you were watching the finals there, that was a story that everyone was talking about and highlighting that. That was an awesome one.

[E]

I, I feel like I don't know how Sonic Fox has been doing recently, but I know they're usually on the list.

[B]

Yeah. They want one, right?

[C]

Yeah, yeah. I'm looking past five years, I'm not even seeing Sonic.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

I don't remember Sonic Fox in many.

[C]

Of the no year.

[E]

That's maybe when they first like popped.

[D]

Up on the scene.

[B]

But I remember some award show. Sonic was it?

[E]

I could have sworn Sonic Fox went up in the mask.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

I'm gay and I'm the best.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

But that might have been like 2019 or something. Maybe Sonic Fox has been dominant for that long.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Then next up we have best esports game. Counter Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Mobile Legends. Bang Bang every time.

[C]

And Valorant feels like this is kind of the, the line that we normally see with most of the games. Right. Like who's making a splash in the scene? You know, Marvel Rival tried to this year. I don't think they really got the full ball rolling quite yet. But like they had a small little impact that they were trying on this. But I don't think there's anything massive that I would change on this list.

[E]

I, I, yeah, I think I, I can't think of any other title that would.

[C]

I mean, unless you're adding fighting games.

[A]

Right. But again this year. Oh well, that's the thing. Bless. Like thinking about it, you being the most in tune to the fighting game thing. Obviously last year was like the fighting game renaissance. Like holy crap. This year is a bit slower, but in terms of player base, in terms of esports game, these are older games. So do you think that there's any fighting game snub there?

[D]

I mean, I thought Street Fighter was.

[E]

No, I've man, that's the thing is.

[D]

Like you would have to look at EVO and the hype of evo. But like it's the thing of is it standout this year versus previous years? I feel like EVO year after year, you're the Street Fighter is always going to close it and always going to be hype in the same way. Right. Tekken is always going to be that second to last and it's always going to be hype. And even I think this year Tekken might have had like some complaints Slash like this year for Tekken and evo, the final two or ended up using like all the same characters type. And I know like a lot of the people I saw that were popping up in chat and like on online were like ah, it's kind of whack. Oh, it's kind of boring type. And so like maybe not this year. I could see next year if Marvel Token Fighting Souls hits in the first half of the year and makes a splash at EVO and like gets that moment. I could see that popping up. But it's just a tough thing of when it's these same games every year. I think you're gonna go for more of the popularity aspect and a lot of these games are just going to more popular than the fighting games.

[E]

Andy kdg, you're out. You're out there listening somewhere. Katie kdg, our statistician, our the holocron keeper.

[B]

You better get our true not a funny game showdown right this year KDG's.

[E]

Out there keeping the records. Bless for next year. How many of those fighting games that you just mentioned, whether it's 2xko or Invincible or Marvel to on Fighting Souls. How many of those games if any sort of take these five or six spots away from what we're so used to seeing with Dota and with League of Legends and valorant and Counter Strike 8.

[D]

So I think the best two that have the potential are Marvel token and two Xko.

[B]

I.

[D]

They would have to have a splash at Evo. Yeah, like it'll have to be like viral videos coming out of EVO and like all that shit happening like firing like you know, firing off. I don't know if they do it.

[B]

I think you don't know if one.

[E]

Of them can take the space of mobile Legends. Bang bang.

[C]

Yeah, that probably like you're not taking down League of Legends or Dota.

[D]

Right.

[C]

Those are the two largest esports in the world when it comes to tournaments and the esports scene. Right. And then Counter Strike continues to just be a staple. Right. So you're talking about like Valorant going up against itself. Like with Riot Games, Riot has shown that they can really make a splash. Now with Valorant in that scene, 2xko, they could do that for sure.

[B]

Timothy Gettys from iconfunding.com you have a question?

[A]

What? What is Mobile Legends Bang Bang?

[D]

I've been seeing that name thrown out thrown around a lot lately.

[A]

Does anyone know?

[E]

No idea.

[B]

No idea.

[D]

It's become more popular.

[E]

Mobile Legends Bang Bang is a a direct comparison to why college football does not make the best sports game.

[B]

It's a multiplayer online battle arena that's a MOBA developed by Moonton, subsidiary of ByteDance. It's free to play, monetized through Purchable's characters cosmetic customization primarily played on smartphones and tablets, iOS and Android.

[A]

ByteDance is tick tock By Dance is the one that.

[E]

Right.

[A]

That was Mark.

[D]

Oh, so they'll be getting them ads in. Yeah, that makes sense. I've probably seen an ad for this and just like blanked it out.

[E]

Yeah, we're going to get back to Deadlock. That'll be on there, Mike. Yeah, first two years deadlock will be there.

[A]

First came out July 14, 2016. So that's another one that's just been around. Interesting. Let's move on to best sports and racing game. EAFC 26F125 Mario Kart World Rematch and Sonic Racing cross worlds.

[E]

I'm so happy rematches there.

[D]

Dude. Shout out to Sonic Racing and shout out Sonic Racing.

[B]

You know. Come on now.

[A]

Good job, Mike. You. You were upset about that.

[C]

Go down the list of like we continue to highlight EA Sports fc, the soccer game that everyone I know internationally, we all love a good soccer game but we complain every single year that all these games are copy and paste and then we continue to highlight it. It won last year. So it's like all right, well then they must be doing incredible things because every year we just compose. We continue to moan about the same things. And so it is crazy that we're highlighting like an EA Sports title that is the same as always. Mario Kart World. That's definitely walking away with this one. Rematch. I thought really missed it and did not deliver the way it should have. I would slide in EA Sports college football over rematch.

[D]

You're saying that based off of the like life servicey aspects of it, right?

[C]

Like you're saying the gameplay itself as well, right?

[D]

Oh no.

[C]

I think they had something there but it was missing some sort of flavor. There was something missing out of that to make you want to play it all the time. I don't know what it is from a progression, a standings. There's something in Rematch. That is why it died off so quickly. Because something was missing. Yeah, it Wasn't the Rocket League where all of a sudden everybody got it, wanted it and got better at it. There was something there that's like just missing that special ingredient.

[D]

I think there's two things I, I want to. I'll say. I think the content was lacking, especially when you look at a Rocket League. How when a Rocket League even at launch had all these different cosmetics, had flags from all these different creators. Right. You had the Team Fat flag in Rocket League at launch.

[B]

What a terrible idea. You kind of funny. You can put a flag in the game. Yeah. Don't use our company logo. Put team Fat in here.

[D]

One of the most popular video games. Right. So you have, you had all that stuff. You had single player content, you know, quote unquote content in Rocket League, but you could play single player in that game. I think they just had a lot of stuff available to you. And then they also had the post launch content that was able to back it up and keep people in and keep people entertained. And Rematch was lacking in both. Both those degrees. I do think though that the core gameplay of Rematch is so fucking fun. Like me, Gary Whitta, like a crew of us were fucking hooked on, on Rematch. And I think that core gameplay is so good that it deserves the acknowledgment. But I think this is the first and last time we see Rematch.

[E]

Right.

[C]

I still stand by. I would have held that until the World Cup.

[A]

Right.

[C]

Like we are one year away from the World cup where the entire world will be eyes on the screen, glued to it. Football, of course, is a big international sport. Everybody loves that. But there's something different in the air when it is a World cup year. It's a World cup summer. This game would have really benefited from that if we had that going on at the same time.

[E]

I think it's the type of game that would have stayed, that would have been really, really popular in a year that wasn't so stacked with everything else, with people fighting for people's attention. As it stands right now, it has 3,000 people playing concurrently on Steam. But it is a game. Pass game. Yeah.

[A]

Where.

[F]

And it did launch with Crossplay, right?

[E]

Correct.

[F]

Okay.

[E]

And that was real bad. Tough.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

And dumb.

[F]

Barrett, do we think there's a world where Sonic Racing Cross Worlds wins this over Mario Kart?

[A]

No, no, no, no.

[D]

I'm happy to see it nominated.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That's a win right there. That's a win right there for a great game.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

Yeah.

[F]

Everything I hear, everything I hear Sonic Racing Cross Worlds might be the Better racing game.

[A]

But you're just around Roger a lot. That's really all that comes down to.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Roger and Ben.

[A]

There's a handful of people that are very loud about Sonic racing cross worlds and I get it. Congratulations. Y' all had a good game. Are you guys Fidel? Yeah, Exactly.

[D]

Oh, yeah. I still get his invites. Are you guys surprised that skate didn't make it in?

[B]

No, no. Absolutely not. No.

[D]

That's a serious question. I thought you guys liked it.

[B]

No, no.

[C]

Best feeling game around. Skate still feels great. It is still fun to play. But they absolutely missed the mark on what skate should have been and could have been.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Do you think they have a rebound?

[C]

No, never.

[G]

Really?

[C]

You will never be able to fix that. That's right. No. You won't be able to get the player base back to jumping into that. It doesn't matter how many updates it takes. You will not have the opportunity like you did to revive skates. You had one shot.

[D]

I feel like I missed a chapter. That's crazy. I didn't realize it was like that people were that down.

[B]

Oh, dude, the skate fans hate skate.

[D]

Oh, shoot.

[B]

Yeah. I had to leave the subreddit because they were just so negative. And the subreddit still shows up in my feed. Cause they know I like skate.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. I. I will say I'm bummed The Tony Hawk 3 and 4 aren't there. I'm not surprised that they're not there. Like I was saying earlier. But it would have been nice for them to get it in just so that maybe one day somebody looks at it and goes, hey, it was Game Awards nominated. The other one won the category a couple years ago. Well deserved. And maybe we should do Thug and Thug too. Maybe we should keep this going. But I'm still to this day surprised we got the game, but sad to not see it here. But it's okay. Moving on. Best sim slash strategy game. The Alters. Final Fantasy Tactics, the Ivy Leagues Chronicles, Jurassic World Evolution 3, 7, Tempest Rising, and Two Point Museum.

[E]

I was so stoked about alters being there, I didn't realize Jurassic World Evolution 3 was there.

[B]

So now pick one.

[E]

You have them both Alters, but I don't. I don't know if it wins, but I'm just so happy that the Altars got got nominated. That's a really, really cool game with an awesome narrative.

[B]

Do you think it has a pretty good shot?

[A]

Because I feel like some people might not know about the Altars.

[E]

Well, shout out to Jan Dolski, who all I. I wish was nominated for her best performer, best performance. Yeah, Alex. I'm. I think I'm blanking on his last name. But the Altars is a game about. You are an astronaut who crash lands on a planet and you are in a ship. It's kind of think of like the Martian where it's like Matt Damon's got to just like fight to survive and live. But you have this tech with you that you are able to clone yourself to help your. Your odds of survival because you have more bodies that can do more things. And at multiple points in your life you are cloning. Like let's say, let's say when Greg was traveling. You remember that one like horror story you told us on the. On a road trip where you almost died, like you almost crashed or whatever. Now imagine like the version of. Of that Greg that like actually did almost die.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

And then he got really into some genre of like science or religion and like you helped cure yourself.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

And then at that point you would. On this planet you would clone yourself at from that point from the Greg Miller that almost died. And now that scientist version of Greg now comes out and he's a different person. Different. Think multiplicity. Michael Keaton. Good movie.

[B]

She touched my baby Good.

[D]

She touched.

[E]

She touched my pee pee. What's his name?

[A]

I forgot.

[B]

He underrated Andy McDowell.

[E]

Anyway, the game is like you. You creating clones yourself at different big moments of your life that would have like completely been altered.

[B]

I really want to play this and.

[E]

It is for it. It is such a cool game. The decisions that you're making, the things that are happening to you. It's a basically a sim strategy game where you are just trying to get materials, trying to keep everybody happy, trying to keep these clones from that have been brought into existence from like revolting against you and being like you. I don't want to be existing right now. And in their mind they also had like a past life, even though they didn't. So like they have a future as well. And it's like, it's. It is so trippy and so cool and creative. And I really hope it wins.

[A]

So.

[B]

Yeah. My question is, do you think get wins? Because don't get me wrong, Final Fantasy tactics, Jurassic World Civ 7 Tempest Rising Two Point Museum. I've heard good things about all of them. Usually people just bag on tactics because it's whatever, but like alter seems to be the one that kind of is the one that people like. Oh man, you got to play that. That's something really cool.

[E]

I really think that Final Fantasy Tactics still wins.

[A]

Yeah. And just to be real clear about this, like, people banging on Tactics, you probably. That's just me in your ear, Tom. Not liking the art style of the remake. Like, nothing. This game, it's like one of the best games ever. And it's a perfect remake. Like, they killed it. And, like, Roger's been playing it for the first time and it's changing his life.

[B]

Like, I mean, something's gonna straighten that guy's life out finally.

[A]

Yeah. Nasty Tactics, baby.

[E]

But I think that's seven, though.

[A]

Like, I thought that was not well received.

[F]

It was launched well, which is, I feel like usually the story with Civ. Right.

[E]

Really me off.

[C]

Yeah, that's how it goes. I ride for Two Point Museum. I think what the two Point team did with Museum, making it so much fun to play. Really welcoming. A good, great onboarding. I'm riding for Museum.

[A]

Andy, is the Alters a contender for you?

[E]

Yes. I think Alters makes my top 10 this year. Yeah.

[D]

If I could pitch a Smiley's category, that is best game that we didn't finish, Alters would be up there for me.

[E]

Nice.

[D]

The alters and lies of P Over.

[E]

I'm so mad at you for not getting that.

[A]

Moving on from this, we have Family Game, Donkey Kong, Bonanza, Lego Party, Lego Voyagers, which I still need to play. Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing, Cross Worlds, and Split Fiction, man.

[B]

Another. That's a category.

[A]

What a strong category.

[B]

Great games here.

[A]

I think this is definitely one of the better, best family game years. Because sometimes we look at this list and go, what are we? So it's. It's cool and, you know, Mike was saying it, but shout out to Lego Party that the game really, really, really did something special, which is just kind of be like, hey, Mario Party. You're not the only ones that can do this. And in fact, we can kind of do it better in some ways. And it's really wild because Lego Parties, a game that, when it first was announced, all of us looked at it and went, this looks like shit. Like, this looks like, why? Like, who's making this? Why are they doing this? And it was a major surprise. So congrats to them.

[E]

It's one we want to return to so badly.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

If you. If you want to have a fun hour and a half of just watching something on YouTube, watch our last time playing Lego Party. It's a fucking blast. It's hilarious.

[B]

So when you look at this category, though, what does it come down to? Bonanza versus Split Fiction.

[C]

Oh, I think it's Hard World and Donkey Kong.

[A]

Right.

[F]

I think Bonanza runs away with.

[C]

Yeah, it's the two Nintendo games gotta.

[D]

Be up at the see, I think World Over World.

[B]

I think it's Bonanza Split Fiction because I think World again a great game, insane attach rate, yada, yada yada. But critically and I mean it did well. But I mean I feel like everybody's like, okay and everybody moved on.

[D]

It underperformed for a Mario Park. Mario. Mario Kart. Critically, okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Whereas the Split Fiction, of course we're follow up to a game of the year and a game that is awesome and nominated for game of the year, Bonanza. You know this thing that was so incredibly different.

[A]

Yeah. Mario Kart conversation is very interesting and I think that time is going to be a very interesting thing because I think the problem with it is it being the launch title for the Switch 2 and on the critic side. But I don't think it underperformed compared to any other Mario Kart because It's like Mario Kart 8. Like nobody gave a fuck it was on the Wii U. I'm saying eight Deluxe. Yeah. But even eight Deluxe it's like obviously it was a. We know what a Deluxe is. It's one of my favorite games of all time. I give it the nod over Mario Kart World for sure. But I think that we over talk like how negatively received Mario Kart World is like I think critically it's that eight. Right. And it's just like yeah, expectations. We want it to be a 9 or a 10.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I think that that's lofty for a Mario Kart and I don't think that's going to really affect the wide critic appeal of the game. Having said that, I do think that there's tens on this list with dog. Right.

[F]

So it reminds me of what you were saying earlier Greg about like the Monster Hunter Wilds of the World.

[D]

So much time.

[F]

It's a great game. Like I don't know if it lived up to its predecessor, but it was a great time. And yeah, I think the more we talk about it, we. We talk more about the things we didn't short comics.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

[A]

But yeah, otherwise I feel like this is just a. These are all great games to some.

[C]

Oh yeah, Split fix. I'm a little split on for best family game. I can go back and forth on that but I guess I kind of have a mindset of like Greg and Ben.

[E]

Right.

[C]

He's not handing him. Let's Play split fiction together. Yeah, but in five years there is. But like when I look at those, I'm like, that's the one outlier to me where I'm like, I get it. But at the same time I don't think it's better than any of those.

[A]

When I think of family game, I disagree entirely. I think that that like I was saying this earlier, but split fiction, that dedication to co op, you and someone else playing that is what a family is.

[B]

And I was going to say how many people think of family as their partner too that come home and can share this game with their non gaming partner?

[E]

Yeah. You know, the split screen aspect of it all is also really nice.

[D]

You know what's the, what's the game awards definition of best family game?

[B]

Because I don't know if I'm buying.

[D]

Best partner game for best family game.

[B]

For best game appropriate for family play irrespective of genre or platform is what I have a very, very document.

[E]

I don't got friends, I got family.

[B]

And again, I think you were talking about how critics go take that and then apply it to their life or whatever.

[D]

Yeah, I just, I think that's a weird category then it's like we're doing awards based off of scenarios, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. I think that's a weird one.

[B]

That's all.

[A]

I think that's a weird one. Then moving on to the next one, we got innovation in accessibility. Assassin's Creed Shadows, Adam Fall, Doom, the Dark ages, EA Sports, FC 26 and south of Midnight. This is one that I'm definitely out of my depth on where, yeah, this.

[B]

Sucks because I'm trying to see if the game awards will load. The page when it will load will tell you, here's what I did accessibility wise. Like you can jump in Adam Fall. If I can just start spitballing while I try to fill it, find it or if it'll work for me. Atom Fall. When you talk about that one, that was one that like one of the hooks of Atom Fall was. It's one of those games where we tell you nothing, Find the clue, figure it out, go to the Northwest. But if you wanted to, you could go in and change all of that to be like, no, I want a guided take me there kind of experience. I don't know if that's what they're talking to accessibility. I'm out of my depth on that one. Yeah, same thing for, I mean south of Midnight I, you know, talked a lot about their accessibility of you can skip battles. You can do this. You can go through. Unable to load nominees. Yeah. So we're not going to get the information here why they're nominating it.

[A]

Yeah. If we got it later, we'll come back to this one. Best action game, Battlefield 6, Doom the Dark Ages, Hades 2, Ninja Gaiden 4 and Shinobi Art of Vengeance. There we go. Zapor Shinobi.

[B]

Yeah, baby.

[A]

Any surprises here? Any snubs? Anything that you're like, how'd that make it?

[C]

I mean, my pick was Battlefield 6. I'm happy to see Doom get some recognition there. I think Doom was one of those. With the time it came out, how it came out, I didn't think people would still remember it. So nice to see both of those on there.

[E]

Yeah, I'm super happy. Doom is there. I was like, as I was going through my nominees last night, my predictions, it was the only time I could type it and felt right typing it. And I was like, I'm happy to finally be typing in Doom the Dark Ages because I, I, I think it largely got like, quickly not panned because it's, everybody just said like, oh, it's the worst of the three. And I don't even agree with that. I think the game, like starts off really, really awesome and then continues to excel and get, get better and better. And I had a great time with it. But yeah, it's super awesome seeing Shinobi Art of Vengeance there for sure.

[D]

I was wondering if you'd see Liza P. Overture sneak into this category. This is like the one category I could have seen it interesting popping up in. But I think it being dlc, of course, makes it tough for people to, I think, recognize it. That said, Ninja Gaiden 4 would, you know, prediction of what runs away with this. It's a tough category though, because I think Hades 2 and Doom the Dark Ages, of course, are also standouts.

[A]

80S 2 is my personal pick. I think it is an amazing game, an amazing action game specifically. But I do think because it's a sequel and I think it loses a little bit of the people be like, oh, I'm not going to vote it for this. I'm going to vote it for something else type thing. But yeah, Shinobi Art of Vengeance, like, great to see it here. I do personally think the Ninja Gaiden Ragebound should be here as well. But I also understand that it's, it's not, but Ninja Gaiden 4, it's, it's from an action perspective. I've heard nothing but Good things. I know your guys's review, you didn't necessarily love the game overall.

[D]

Whoa.

[A]

I did, yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What would you give it it Innate. Okay.

[E]

I love the action of it. That's. And that's it.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. So there we go.

[E]

But I, I would put. I wish Night Rain were here as well. Like, I know Night Rain also got nominated in multiplayer, but I, I do wish that we saw Elder Ring Night Rain here for just being an awesome action experience. I mean it's all action, you know.

[F]

I'm just happy Shinobi's at the table and that, you know, I'll take it.

[A]

Yeah.

[F]

Because that game's fun as hell.

[A]

A bunch of people in the chat pointing out that these are all sequels. Is there any non sequel action game that we feel like could have made this list.

[F]

Absolute?

[D]

Oh yeah.

[F]

It's a weird one because like you don't think of it in that same direction. But combat is primarily what you're doing in that game. And I think that is like some of my, that's my favorite combat this year or one of my favorite comments in the in games this year. So would love to see it here. But again, I'm happy to see it at the table that it got to nominated for a different category.

[C]

So I think our creators could have a conversation here.

[D]

Is that an action game?

[C]

I mean, what's your definition of action game? Right. Because that it's now starting to really.

[B]

We don't have an extraction category, so.

[C]

There'S not a shooter category. There's not an extraction category. It's action. Right. And Battlefield 6 to me is action.

[E]

Right.

[C]

The things that I get into in Arc Raiders is definitely action. For sure.

[E]

The way you played. Yeah, for sure.

[D]

Yeah, the way you play.

[E]

I, I, I was gonna say that. Well, last night I came up with a mathematical, you know, equation scientific that it has to be 78 or more of action in your game in order for it to be an action. And if you're like at the 75 mark and 25 platforming, then you're an action adventure.

[D]

Yeah, Yeah, I like that.

[A]

I mean the way they define it really is about the focus on combat and the action adventure does have a focus on, on platforming or exploration and stuff. And so it's like you, I get what you're doing. I don't like it.

[D]

Did we mention Elden Ring Night Rain in this conversation?

[E]

Yeah, I was hoping to see it there.

[A]

Yeah. Then next up we have Best fighting game. We've talked about it. Let's go through it again. KX2 I'll never get this right. 2 KX oh yeah, I hate this. Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Fatal Fury, City of the Wolves, Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection, Virtual Fighter 5 Revo World Stage.

[D]

Yeah, I mean it's a weird one too because two XKO is also in early access. It's in some kind of pre release stage.

[E]

Yeah, it's not fully out of.

[C]

Very recent too. It's like very early access.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

Everything else has been invited.

[C]

Everybody.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

I kind of genuinely don't know what wins this category. Like I look at this and it.

[E]

I mean either I think Fatal Fury takes it.

[D]

I could see Fatal Fury but like that game's. It's cool. I like that game but I don't look at it as like oh that's the best fighting game of the year contender or whatever. But I guess in this year probably.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

For a fully released thing I think maybe virtual fighter 5 even.

[A]

I don't think we'll get it.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

With Riot Games.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

I mean the look style but it's also like you don't have that big of a character roster in that game.

[E]

Like six characters.

[D]

Yeah, like I don't look at that as like a full fighting game release. I think we're just in a weird stage with this category.

[A]

Yeah, we really, really I might say.

[D]

It and give it to Capcom Fighting Collection too. Yeah, and Power Stone up in that thing.

[A]

Best role playing game avowed clear, obscure. Expedition 33, Kingdom Come, Deliverance 2, Monster Hunter, Wilds and the Outer Worlds too.

[E]

So shocked that about is here. Just so shocked that that based on like you know you don't always have to look at Metacritic but it being probably the most reviewed of all of these. I was looking at you know, the top rated games and going through that and I in my personal predictions I had put one of Mike's favorite games of the year, Chaos in the Sky.

[B]

Sure.

[E]

You know Digimon surprised like you know.

[F]

We'Ve heard so much good things about Digimon. You know, like all of this praise for this game.

[E]

Yeah, I'm so sad and not surprised at all. But it's like you know one of my immediate contenders, Citizen Sleeper didn't go anywhere and like I. But the altar is also being such a, a decision making thing and you know when I think of like role playing I just, when I looked at like the top six games or whatever, it's like all of these are. All these have role playing game elements. We're just like really, really melding what These genres are. But yeah, I would say Kingdom Come, Deliverance to may take the win here.

[B]

You think over Claire.

[E]

Only because I think Claire wins best everything else. Best everything.

[B]

I think that. I think that. I don't think it's going to stop people from voting for this. Sometimes you talk about that where you worry about going to the ballot. Well, I voted Claire and 15 other things. Why not? And I mean I don't think that's going to shake it up too much.

[F]

We always talk about like the diversifying of like winners and stuff and people think about that. It almost never shows.

[B]

Exactly. We always get in our head about what actually happens when people step up to it. I'm more interested and I guess like none of us call it out. So I'm just the odd man out. If I was nominating Monster Hunter Wilds, I would have put it into action like we were talking about earlier. More than role playing. But I know this falls into. What do you define as role playing? The old definition I have from an old game awards thing says for the best game designed with rich character customization and progression including massively multiplayer experience. So I see it and I'm not like riled up about it, but I was like, oh, that's an interesting one. I'm with you that I know there's better RPGs this year than Avowed, but I think about we're back to mainstream. That was a game that every could get their hands on. It was, I think out there for everybody a big push from Xbox and a great combat system. You know, I didn't love the overall experience but like combat felt really good. Maybe it wore out over time. I'm happy as a fantasy. Outer Worlds 2 get it here. Obviously I don't. I wouldn't vote for it in the category. You know, I don't think it's going to win this category Story. But it's cool to see it there at the table.

[D]

I want to shout out deltarune even though even based off of that definition Greg said, I don't even know if it would even be a fit in this category. But like I look at Delta Rune as an RPG and it came out. At least a part of it again came out this year. But it's really structure so weird that I'm not surprised to not see a pop up. And also Mike, what's the word with Trails in the sky first chapter. Oh, you brought up.

[C]

I. I agree with that on Andy's side of that. That and Digimon. You could definitely have a Conversation about putting sliding those in Digimon.

[B]

I know so many people love we.

[E]

Got to add like decision making to but when I think of RPG I'm role playing is something I'm making choices what would I do in this moment and you know because every Would you stab this moss? Yeah but like it's just like you know we're, we're just in that weird territory with genres but like everything has a skill tree now.

[A]

But see to that too. It's funny because like I, I know there are in specifically this game there are examples of it but but are you really making that many decisions in Expedition 33?

[E]

Well that's, I mean that's personally why I don't know if I had it on my initial list. Just think of like what the what inherently what the game is like but.

[A]

It is I think inherently turn based rpg. It's an RPG for sure. But like I think the decision making thing like is it necessarily like the, I mean the difference maker of what an RPG is It's kind of the.

[D]

Difference between a western RPG and a jrpg. Like I, I, I think that's why this category gets weird and again like we kind of have to go by what the overall thing is. But yeah like for most JRPGs you're not making decisions like you are in Avowed or Kingdom come, Deliverance 2 or these all these other Western RPGs.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

I'm not saying you divide it that way but I think you could cut this category in half and be able to give games that feel more competitive against each other. Because like when we talk about Trios in the sky for a chapter, I don't compare that to Outer Worlds too. Those are different genres of games even though they're both RPGs.

[B]

Well this is why whenever I open my fat mouth right, I'm like oh man, I love rpg. Well, I love Western rpg. Well I love you know what I mean? You start getting down where it's like yeah, I wouldn't no Digimon. Right. I wanted to go and play that idea.

[A]

Glenn Wilson says about 100 deserves to be here. The combat parkour moment to moment were so good. Loved the story as well. Need a sequel.

[B]

You're getting one apparently.

[A]

Moving on to best action adventure game. Death Stranding 2 on the beach, Ghost of Yote Hollow Knight Silk Song, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Split Fiction.

[F]

You Greg?

[B]

Hey man. I didn't get Game of the Year but I was I am impressed it made anything. Troy obviously very deserved his indie was great but I'm with the death stranding conversation from before, but I'll stop now. Another great category, but, I mean, when you stack these up right, we're all thinking Silksong wins it.

[C]

Right? You know what I mean?

[B]

Where. Where do you. I mean, there's a lot of great games on here to ride for, I think.

[D]

I think any of those top three, honestly, I think any of these, funny enough, aside from Indiana Jones has a chance.

[B]

Yeah. You think Yote has a chance?

[D]

I think so.

[B]

Love Yote. Not taking shot at it, but I mean, I start like, do. Whenever you look at these categories, Tim, I start doing the guess who thing where I'm like, knock you down. Knock you down. Like, what else would you know? And so pretty quickly I'm like, death stranding Song.

[C]

Got a pretty cool adventure.

[D]

Death Stranding 2 is amazing.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

Didn't you tell Andy it was a skip?

[C]

The ending is a skip.

[D]

What the.

[C]

No, he's not. There's a moment.

[D]

There's a moment.

[B]

One moment you weren't happy with.

[E]

He was asleep.

[B]

Oh, my God. You're crazy. That was when I was like, kojima's back. Kojima is back.

[C]

Everybody's doing this, Tim. We're all dancing.

[B]

Awesome.

[D]

And it was a incredible.

[E]

He was following.

[B]

Go play 30 more hours of magic in a dusty show.

[D]

According to the world, Ghost Yote is only like a 9 or 10 out of 10 game. So, like, going off of that. I'm just saying it should win, shouldn't it?

[A]

Andy, what are your thoughts on Silksong?

[E]

I think Silksong takes it here. I think. But then when I look at the game of the year, I look at the lack of Yote and wonder, do people vote for Yote? Because that's the only place they could vote for it here. But then that goes with the sort of line of thinking of, yeah, but it's usually the more popular thing. Will win anyway.

[A]

I do think it's. It's funny to look at this. Like, obviously all these games fit the category. Deserve the category, all that. But action adventure on the 2D side and 3D side, I think, like, literally by definition. Silk Song and Ghost of Yote.

[E]

Right.

[A]

Like Ghost of Yote I think is like the most paint. Not paint by numbers. By the numbers. Action adventure game. You know what I mean?

[B]

Like action combining combat with traversal and problem puzzle solving.

[A]

Yeah. Like, I do think it is an emphasis on both of those things in a way that death stranding too. More on the adventure side. Right? Indiana Jones, more on the adventure Side Split fiction kind of a mix there, I'd say.

[E]

But I think split fiction is like, kind of perfect for this genre just when it comes to, like, exactly what you're doing in the game. But for me, Ghost of Yote, I just.

[D]

I.

[E]

As much as it feels like you're going on an adventure, like you're not like you're climbing mountains because they. That's what they're putting in your way to get to the next thing. But, like, there's. There's not a. There's no challenge there. You're just climbing it because it's an alternative to walking. And. But with Silksong, you have these platforming challenges where you are zipping and trying to get that perfect jump and trying to do the pogo bounce off of an enemy to then go to the next thing and grab onto the ledge. Like, that's what I feel like. Like that's nailing the adventure sort of platforming aspect in the description.

[D]

How is DK Bonanza not in this? That's based off of that conversation. Like, DK Bonanza is such the definition of action adventure when you think about it.

[E]

A great call this, you know, the.

[F]

Middle chunk is, you know, because it's for families.

[D]

Very, very rich.

[A]

Move up. Most anticipated game 7, First Light, Grand Theft Auto 6, Marvel's Wolverine, Resident Evil Requiem, and the Witcher 4.

[C]

It.

[A]

Yeah, it's interesting. I think that this is always a funny category. And like, specifically it's going to be GTA 6, because until GTA 6 comes out, it'll be GTA 6. But these are kind of the six games we know about. Like, we are in a weird place right now that I don't think we know too many titles of. Of games coming out in the next year that are.

[B]

Is the Witcher 4 next year?

[A]

Or, you know, even just.

[F]

I don't think. I don't think he categorized it. Okay.

[A]

Now it's games, period.

[B]

So I would have put a new infamous collection out.

[D]

No Fable, no Marvel to consist of.

[C]

Bloodborne Remaster, hello, Campaign Evolved, Gears E Day. You know, there's a lot of cool games out there, y'. All. It's very exciting.

[A]

Would you put a remake in a prequel?

[C]

Yeah. I mean, it's Gears of War. Years of War absolutely rocks. You know, so, yeah, I mean, you could replace a thousand of these games with those six. Right? There's so many games to look forward to.

[D]

Shout out to 007 first light. Making it in. That's one that I. I'm not surprised, but I Am surprised to see it like on this list with these other.

[B]

Games that are See more of it this week.

[E]

Mike, that was running in like 20 frames per second in the trailer.

[A]

Let's move up. Content creator, any thoughts on this? Mike, you popped off for the.

[C]

I mean, I love the burnt peanut. I'm a big fan of him. I really enjoy him. Vtuber of the year at the Streamer Awards. We'll see if he wins that. But this is a content creator that made a huge splash on the scene this year. Coming from the escape from Tarkov World that is so grindy. It is such a small niche market and to kind of blast through that right now and be in the stratosphere of some of the larger creators is a pretty wild story to say, right? Moist Critical, being so open and honest and doing what he's doing right now with his channel and also showing all the revenue, the numbers, breaking it down so people on the outside can understand the industry of this live stream content creation world is a wild one. No one was doing that. And Moist critical went out there and had a conversation.

[E]

So Charlie's up there and killing it in dispatch. Also, like, that's crazy.

[C]

You could go down the list of everything that Kai has done this year and you would be blown away. Right. There are so many content creators and streamers out there that are doing things that like, you would never believe that could be done. Right. He had a whole streamer university where they took over a part of a college and brought in younger streamers to. To learn from a bunch of content creators. He had this mafia thon where he brought in more celebrity guests into a streaming Twitch world than you could ever imagine.

[D]

Right.

[C]

LeBron James showing up to sit on a webcam. Twitch stream is crazy. You never would have thought that five years, 10 years ago. And so we go down the list of all that and there's two others that I don't know, but man, that's a. A wild deal of content.

[D]

Does this lean towards gaming though?

[C]

What do you mean?

[D]

Like when you're talking award. Yeah, because when you're talking about his.

[C]

Audience would tune in to watch him win.

[E]

Right?

[C]

That's the hope.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

It doesn't lean into gaming. No.

[D]

I think that's the thing is when I think of Kai so not I think of all the things that are outside. I know he does. Like he did Elden Ring.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

But then like if we're just talking about content creator, then it's yeah, speed should be on there. Speed should be like Jason the Wiener like extra Emily and those people, I feel like.

[C]

But like our people voting know those people, right? It's like, like, did they know Jason the weed jumped out of a plane and live streamed him skydiving? Right. Did they know that X Family went around the entire globe this year and live streamed it? Did they know Speed put on multiple, hey, I'm in this country for 30 days live streaming from the middle of China.

[B]

Did they know that Mike and Roger were handcuffed together?

[C]

Exactly.

[D]

Like Speed was around the globe like he was a president. You know what I mean? Like he was meeting people. He's like a second pope.

[E]

He's the ambassador. When aliens come to Earth.

[A]

Earth, we're gonna be like, yeah, that's a good call. It's funny though, everything you just said has nothing to do with video games.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

At all. Well, I mean, what brings us all together is video games, Right? Charlie plays video games all the time. Burt Peanut only plays video games. Right. Kaisenat started playing video games and now his content has morphed from that. Right. So like the Vtuber there, I'm sure is playing games. So like everyone is playing games still here, right? So like that's the, like that's the glue that binds us all together. It's the games that brought us all together.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And then your content grows.

[A]

I just feel like the content creator of the year at the game awards should be about making content about the games. That's this year. These people are amazing. These people have done well. They all stuff.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But the counter would be like, they all made content about games this year.

[A]

But is that what they're getting? Content creator of the year?

[D]

Like, was Kaiser not.

[E]

Well.

[C]

Well.

[A]

And who.

[B]

Who is?

[A]

This is my other question. Like, who did. Out of this list, who did the most gaming content that deserves this burnt?

[E]

Peanut? Probably, I think Everybody critical streams.

[C]

Games 5 only exc. Kai Sinat. But like Kai's put on larger streams with video games and probably all of them because of his size and his size of the audience.

[D]

That's the only thing I'm putting out is.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Kaiser not, I think out of. Out of these five is the one where I think he's. Obviously he's one of the biggest streamers in the world, but I feel like his gaming content is such a small piece of the pie compared to everything else that he's doing.

[E]

K Drell is a League of Legends coach who I'm sure does a lot of streams based on like, you know, teaching and, and review tapes. You know, like you ever Seen, I'm sure, Mike, several years ago that there are a lot of content creators going like, hey, submit your.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

Clips or whatever and I'll guess what rank you are.

[A]

Like that.

[E]

I assume that. That he's really big in the League of Legends world. That's just speaking from a place of ignorance.

[A]

Moving on to the next. I'm moving on. We have Best VR slash AR game, Alien Rogue Incursion, Arcan Age, Ghost Town, Midnight Walk and Deadpool VR. Happy to see Midnight Walk here. I still haven't finished it, but really excellent little game. It's not only in VR, you can also play it on PS5. Super cool, Tim Burton esque art style. Like fun little puzzle game. Yeah. Otherwise don't have too much to say about this, does anyone?

[C]

I only played Alien Rogue Incursion with Nick. We had a nice smile on our face. Wasn't great, but it also did a good job creating a cool world within Alien that you can walk around and really feel like that. But it didn't. Wasn't groundbreaking to me.

[D]

I'm happy to see that VR is thriving.

[B]

Are you being a troll right now?

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Val's all in, baby. What are you gonna do? And like, to your point, Luminescent Rise could have been.

[D]

Yeah. Where's Luminescerize?

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

It's crazy to me that, like Deadpool.

[F]

VR, which isn't even out yet, but luminous, that we like also had codes for earlier.

[B]

I mean, again, to jump in here though. It's all about, I think, people trying.

[F]

To play for nominations and getting stuff early.

[B]

Not even that as much as I think PR making a big deal. And this is a stupid thing because it's in the title, but Deadpool VR is a VR game. Luminescent Rise was a puzzle game.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah, you can play on a psvr, but it's everywhere else too. Like it wasn't like how they're gonna drive for it, but I hear you there.

[A]

Next up, best debut indie game blueprints, Claire Obscure, Expedition 33. God damn. It's not fair. Does Belote Dispatch and Mega Bonk? I mean, look, it's just wild. Like, obviously we're going to talk a lot more about Claire Obscure as we go on, but most nominations ever. How much is it just going to run away? Like, how much? Like, if there's 12 nominations, is it going to win 10 of them? And you look at best debut Indie Game and it's like you want to give. Of the amazing games here, Despote is the only one that I truly Know nothing about.

[D]

Oh, dude, it's good. Yeah, it's like. It's like a documentary game essentially about, oh, what's the country that it takes? No, it's not Ecuador. Yeah, there we go.

[E]

I. I beat it over the weekend.

[D]

Oh, cool.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[D]

Really cool. Our style. This is first person. I wouldn't say walking sim, but almost like an interactive experience where you are playing as a kid in Ecuador during a year where they were in the World Cup.

[B]

They're trying to qualify for a slice of. A slice of life adventure about childhood and the magical grip soccer held over the people of quito, Ecuador in 2001.

[A]

Is this the one with the art style where it's very like, dry looky?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay, cool.

[A]

Very cool.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

But Mike mentioning that he saw it at a museum.

[C]

Yeah, it was at the moment is exactly.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

What kind of game it is?

[E]

Yeah. Playing as I played it. It takes about two hours to beat. It's like. Like this feels more like a. Just an interactive autobio autobiography or like a documentary piece.

[A]

Yeah. Cool. And then. Yeah, Blueprints. You want to speak to that?

[D]

I mean, of course, like Blueprints is a masterpiece that I. I would vote for this category, but Clear Obscure is.

[E]

Going to take it.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

That's the tough thing.

[A]

There's a conversation in the chat. We Lord saying Expedition 33 is not an indie.

[B]

There we go.

[A]

But I mean, like. I mean, let's have a conversation is like, what's the argument that it's not an indie.

[B]

The team's too big.

[D]

Team's too big. Budget is comparable to double a.

[B]

Double A game.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. But it's like it. It is by definition an independent studio. 100. So it's like that is.

[E]

They're not.

[B]

They're nothing. When goddamn Dave the Diver was there last year. So shut the up and strap in, you know.

[A]

Yeah. So it's. It's interesting.

[B]

But like, by the way there, for the argument I'm making, if you're new here, I'm. Expedition 33 is an independent game by definition, period. Dave the Diver was not. Dave the Diver was nominated because it looked like pixel art indie shit.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Not shit.

[A]

You know what I mean? Yeah. It's just wild how you could look at all these different games and expedition 33 just. You look at what that game is and calling it an indie. It is an indie. That's crazy. It plays with our minds.

[B]

It's the normal thing where, yeah, we can sit here and talk about it. Like we're talking about earlier Overthinking it. It'll win.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

There's a chance other people could sit at this and go, what's the best indie? And the go Expedition. I don't count that as an indie. That could happen. And there's a lot of great deserving games on. I think Expedition will run away.

[D]

Sorry, go ahead. I was gonna say, I think the conversation. If we're gonna have a conversation in a bigger way, right. Like you could stretch this to be like, well, Larry in with Baldur's Gate 3. Baldur's Gate 3 is an indie game. Why didn't that nominated? You could stretch that to even the Witcher devs with cyberpunk and all that shit.

[B]

Right. Every year we get here, we have this conversation of this is a category that officially needs to be redone and be best small game team. A game made by a team, an independent team of only 50 or less or something like that.

[A]

And it's it. We're not even talking about best independent game. This is best Deb independent game. Right. So even if it was just best debut for a team that gets a little complicated.

[B]

But even then I think that would make more sense where it's like, I. Sony isn't going around making that many new studios. Right. So even if they did and they were a great thing.

[C]

Cool.

[B]

It's your first game off the thing you're in for best debut game.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, that's probably a better.

[E]

I was recommending every dev has to send their financial books to Jeff Keighley.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And the other argument to it too of best debut game is the idea that like we look at the. The other ones. I forget what category. I think it might have been shoot, not shooters, but action games were like, oh, they're all sequels. Like, well, good. They want to be nominated for best debut game.

[A]

Yeah. Barrett.

[F]

I think there's also like a weird thing with people thinking about indies in terms of art style and presentation as well. Because if you look at I went to Kepler Interactive, which is the like publishing side of this game. The other games that they published this year was Bionic Bay and RE Rematch. And I think if like you recognize those games as being smaller teams, indie purely just because of like how they look, but not Claire Obscure. I think you also need to like kind of break down that barrier in the conversation as well.

[A]

Of like.

[F]

Well, just because it looks like this certain thing doesn't mean it's Triple A or Double A or whatever.

[B]

And if you're not paying attention, since we called this out of Course, earlier when we're talking about a little bit of numbers, 12 for Claire Expedition, Kepler Interactive has 13 nominations, which puts it in second place to. Wait, yeah. Sony Interactive is 19 nominations across the combined portfolio. Kepler's in second place with 11. EA and Microsoft are tied with 10.

[A]

Wow.

[D]

Yeah. I think the only way you could shake it up to try and figure out how to make, I guess, a new indie category would be to go by team size or budget. But that's just not feasible.

[E]

Right.

[D]

Like those numbers, those. That information isn't available to everybody, for everybody.

[B]

This is one of those things that's funny. It's a great problem to have to go back to being at IGN and being like, we need indie Game of the Year because they could never be game of the Year.

[E]

Right.

[B]

And when got to that point where it was breakout, indies are suddenly starting to sniff around Game of the Year, or at least even genre awards. That was crazy. So now that we're here and we're. And I understand, try Jeff's the Game Awards in general and even Dice or whatever, trying to figure out how do you honor the small teams but not make it insulting and not have them just get run over. But then the small teams or whatever independent studios are making Baldur's gate are making Expedition 33.

[E]

It's a team of 30, but they had their six friends also. Ask some people.

[B]

And then this will be the whole thing again where Expedition 3033 was 30 people or 50 people, except for the hundreds of outsourced people they use, which so many games do. So it's a whole thing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Show. Show your fucking books.

[A]

Moving on. You have best independent game, Absolum. I was like waiting to make sure. Did I get that right? Yeah, there we go. Ball pit, blueprints, Expedition 33, Hades 2, Hollow Knight, Silk Song, a wrestling call and response. What a list of video games.

[D]

If this, if we gave this an extra week, though, Dispatch would be right in there.

[A]

And I mean, again, even more like banger. Like, is this the best list of independent games we've ever had in this category?

[C]

Where's Peak at?

[A]

I don't know. You tell me.

[C]

I mean, that was fantastic. Right? I don't know where we missed that one. What would you tell me about it? You don't like Peak?

[D]

No, no, no, no.

[B]

I like.

[D]

What would you take out to put in Peak?

[C]

Absolum or Ball Pit? Those would be my two votes of like, I would. I would say Pete could replace one of those two.

[E]

Fair enough.

[B]

This is not what I'm arguing. But while we're calling out a Peak, you said snubs and it's one of those. I have to digest the list. One of the disappointments for me in this list, and not that I'm saying these lists are on wrong, is the fact that hell is us got nothing. Not even a tip of the hat somewhere as a nom. I'm just saying a nom because I thought that game was doing something very, very special. Well, I think it was criminally underplayed. Yada yada yada. I don't think it should be here. Don't get me wrong. I'm not taking away what.

[A]

What just without what. Looking at the actual list and you're saying it has to replace something. What do you think it could have.

[B]

That would have been action adventure, right? It would have been music and score and setting and sound. You know what I mean? Like that kind of thing. There's some. I just want to see somewhere that get. Get a nom. Because I think that did such a great job at making a really cool world to live in and explore.

[A]

Yeah. Best independent game like any. Andy, what. What's this list do to your heart?

[E]

Well, I mean Peak was the. On my original predictions list, I had Expedition 33, Silksong, Blueprints, Peak and Hades 2. I think not only from the aspect of the amount of people playing it, but how much it really dominated a lot. And it wasn't just the flavor of the week. It wasn't just one of those indie games that takes over for a little bit and then you never hear about again. Like it was around for a long time. It had staying power and it kept on building and building audience and we're talking, I think at this point, 12 million plus purchases, which is crazy. I was. I was pretty shocked to not see that there. But yeah, I mean looking at this list without Peak being there, it's like, yeah, these are all very, very strong indie titles. I'd agree with Mike. If I were to replace something on this list with Peak, it'd probably be Ball Pit or Absolum.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. So stoked to see Absolom here. I'm still haven't finished it. I know Barrett's played a lot more than I have, but Shout out to Dot Emu. They're really killing it and I think that they've been doing such a great job with the license side of things. To see them come out with their own IP and have it be as good as this is awesome stuff. I think that they are definitely A group to keep your eyes on. And I think that this won't be the last time that their games show up at a game awards.

[F]

I love that they're nominated. I would love to have seen them. I don't think they're in best art direction, but that's another game that I just think is so pretty. And if you like beat them up. Gameplay and really smart roguelike systems that you'd see in Hades too, like, you owe it to yourself to play absolute ball pit.

[A]

Tell me more. I still haven't played it. Like, I know everybody loves it, but is it.

[B]

You gotta play it.

[A]

I. I will at some point. Maybe not.

[C]

I don't know.

[A]

Actually, if I'm being honest, it's a good time.

[E]

Like it was. It didn't knock my socks off in any way, I think. But I think I am in the minority in terms of how everybody felt about the game. I think I gave it like at the time a seven. Five out of ten. I put in like 30, 40 hours into it. I really enjoy my time with it. And yeah, it's just. It's a roguelite game where you start off every level and you pick a new little villager and each villager has a different thing about them that makes your brick breaking experience easier or more different or more unique. And yeah, it had really cool progression hooks. I. I thought it was a really, really fun time, but I didn't see it. Like, I don't know if I would put that over even something like. I guess Megabonk is just 3D vampire survivors. But yeah, it's a lawsuit. It's another one of those games that I think is like, really, really fun. But I haven't really thought about it a whole lot since I moved on.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, I just think of Blessed when he brings up that category of like, there's something missing here with the sim games that you bring up From Power Wash Sim 2 Schedule 1. Right. You talk about the King is Watching. There's just. It's too many games, Tim. That's all it is. You go down the list and I could give you six best indie games that you would go and be like, those are good games. Those are good games too.

[A]

Talk to me about megabonk, Mike.

[C]

I mean, megabonk was hot. Mega Bonk is just vampire survivors with a 3D twist to it. So. So if you like that, you're going to love Mega Bonk. Mega Bonk is very fun.

[A]

Does it deserve a spot on best independent game list?

[C]

I could definitely talk to you about Mega Bonk Over Absolum or Ball Pit again, I don't know about the other four because I do really Ride Spot. Yeah, exactly. I could make a list of 10 right now that I would have added more onto for sure. Megabunk would be in that conversation. Repo could be in that conversation. Schedule one would be in that Schedule one. The pool simulator would be at Water Park Sim, Power Wash Sim, wherever that falls is going to be somewhere on this list. Yeah, there's a lot of great games.

[A]

Moving on. We have best multiplayer arc Raiders, Battlefield 6, Elden Ring Night Rain Peak and Split Fiction. Peak getting in here. Does that make you happy, Mike?

[C]

Yeah, I'm very happy with Peak in there there. I circle back to Split Fiction. I like the co op nature of it. Right. I look and go in my head where there are other best multiplayer games. I might bring up Marvel Rivals from last year. That's that December one that missed the cutoff that comes into this. Right. Like, what is a multiplayer game to you? Could be a lot of different things, right. In this category. Five of those are more than just two people. Right. So do we lean a little bit on that of like, hey, let's get more multiplayer here. Split Fiction. Split Fiction is such a special case. And yeah, it is a multiplayer game. That's that co op nature. Something different when you look at the rest of them. But I would probably have a conversation.

[A]

With Marvel Rivals here.

[D]

Yeah, I feel like Marvel Rivals would complete this list. It's tough because I look at it and I don't know what I would remove from Marvel Rivals. But also, like, I think multiple of these categories have six options. I think this is one that could have had six options here with Marvel Rivals making it in there because like, that game had such an impact within the last year. That game is stuck around within the last year. We're still getting exciting updates. Right. They just announced Gambit and Rogue, but.

[E]

You need me and Blessing canvassing in your town, in your local town.

[D]

Yeah. Let us make the pamphlet.

[B]

Put them under the windshield wipers.

[E]

Exactly.

[D]

Efd. Don't forget December.

[E]

Yeah. Put them on your door knobs. Yeah.

[A]

Andy, do you think Arc Raiders takes this?

[B]

Great question. It's riding high right now.

[E]

Yeah, it has.

[B]

This is such a good. They plant their flag at the right time.

[E]

It has such momentum right now. I think planning their flag at the right time would have been maybe two weeks or a month prior.

[A]

Okay.

[E]

Only from the aspect of getting put in more areas, being nominated in more spots. But yeah, I think it's riding such a high right now that I could definitely see Arc Raiders taking it. I don't know how much of of the industry will hold against the AI stuff against it. But yeah, I could definitely see it.

[B]

I think you look at it and it's Arc Raiders Peak or Split Fiction. And I think when you start going in there and doing our little game of knocking things down, I bet, I would bet Split Fiction wins because I think there's enough people who even I, you know, I don't like Extraction shooters usually. Right. I love Arc Raiders. Arc Raiders brought me in. That's amazing. I still think the majority like who played in this critics judging category, who played more. I think Split Fiction probably had more people playing together, having a good time.

[D]

I think you're underrating Arc Raiders.

[B]

I hope so. I want our creators to win.

[D]

Yeah. I mean you look at the steam counts.

[B]

But I'm talking about judges. But yeah, yeah.

[D]

But I think judges are included in that. Right. Like you're talking about such a big judging pool as well that votes within this and Arc Raiders I think is one of the highest played games of the year. Like I'd be surprised.

[B]

I hope so.

[D]

If more of the judges haven't played Arc Raiders over split fiction.

[C]

Battlefield 6. I mean we're not talking about Battlefield 6.

[B]

We're not and we won't.

[C]

Battlefield 6 is one of the best on this list. If not one or two. Actually it would be Arc Raiders in Battlefield 6 leading this. In the front here, Elden Ring Night Rain gets a nice little tip of the hat. Peak is very good. Peak would be my number three. Split Fiction would be at five or six here. I do think that we are forgetting that Battlefield 66 came out and had a fantastic launch. Battlefield 6 nailed it after a ten year just mishap of all three of those games that came out since Battlefield 4 and 1. Right now you're talking about Battlefield 6 nails the launch. Then after that you look at it, they nail the DLC right afterwards with a new map and a battle royale. I mean this is a game that like has taken over. I know know it's a little bit cooled because our craters is the hot thing of the week right now. But like both of those games, that's where the votes will be going.

[A]

We'll see. Let's move on. Your games for Impact. Consume Me Despalote Lost Records Bloom and Rage south of Midnight and Wander Stop.

[B]

Great list.

[D]

I'm still so curious about Lost Records. Blooming Rage. Like the reasoning of it being on.

[B]

This list, Teenage angst, you know, together, impactful. Whatever they did, I feel like people.

[F]

Just nominate what has an emotional story.

[B]

Yeah. That's why I don't think it's in the running. I think that was many people's fifth write in or whatever it needed to be.

[D]

I mean, it has to be either despotic, consume me.

[B]

You know, thing here's what I would say is I think, I don't think you're wrong. My heart says despalote because I feel I've heard that narrative so much, I still haven't played it myself. Janet Garcia yells at me about it all the time. Understandably so. I would say, you know, consuming, being about an eating disorder, Despote being about this whole thing that, you know, there's more under the surface of the two hours.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And then, yes. I, I, I think again, though, south at Midnight got in a lot of people's hands, and people really did like that. Look at the Deep south and everything Hazel went through in that. I don't know if it's enough. I think of that tree. I think of the tree man. I think of the tree man song.

[E]

I think more judges will look at this nomination list and go, what haven't I played? And if they haven't played Desperate, they'll go, oh, it's only two hours. Play that. And I'm in that category. I got to see that. Winning. Yeah.

[A]

Next category. No Man's Sky, Best community support. We have Baldur's Gate 3, Final Fantasy 14, Fortnite Helldivers 2, and no Man's Sky.

[E]

Simpsons in Fortnite, you know?

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

No, but I guess I think Fortnite more of, like, ongoing game, I would say. This is another weird one. Community and.

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[E]

I don't follow their social media accounts, so I don't know.

[D]

Whatever won last year, it's probably gonna win this one.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Next up, Best narrative, Clar Obscure Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2 on the Beach, Ghost of Yote, Kingdom Come, Deliverance 2, and Silent Hill.

[F]

F. Silk Song should be here.

[A]

I agree.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Would you replace yot with it?

[F]

I can't speak on Yote.

[B]

You didn't play it?

[F]

No. No interest. Yeah. I don't know. It's a tough one. I just think what, what Silk Song does with its narrative and how it kind of rolls out its story, learning about the characters, learning about this society and this kingdom and all this stuff, and then, like, the, the character stuff. Character work that they do as well, I think is phenomenal.

[A]

I think this category is another one where it's like, what are we even doing? Yeah, Expedition wins.

[D]

It's so easy and like I want to be like oh, but death raining too. But like no, it's clear obscure.

[A]

Next category, best adaptation. We have a Minecraft movie. Devil May Cry, Splinter Cell, Death Watch, the Last of Us and Until Dawn.

[C]

Case of a Mobile is great in Minecraft movie. Like let's just take a moment.

[A]

Who saw Minecraft movie? Was it just Mike.

[C]

Appreciate that the Minecraft movie made you smile and had a good time.

[A]

Ok.

[C]

Okay. Jack Black, you got Jason Momoa. They're running through, laughing, having a good time. I'm riding with that dude.

[D]

Everybody in chat is saying Minecraft.

[E]

Holy.

[C]

Yeah, Minecraft was fun.

[D]

Was it? It was good.

[C]

It was a fun time.

[D]

I feel like I stepped into a different dimension. I could have sworn everybody was hating on Minecraft.

[A]

I think more about Borderlands, I guess.

[D]

Yeah, maybe.

[E]

I think more people were blown away that it wasn't awful, that it was like, oh, that wasn't a bad time, you know?

[A]

Yeah, I can't speak to that. I haven't seen it. I loved Devil May Cry. Very happy to see it here. Can't wait for season two. Splinter Cell, Death Watch. I haven't heard a single person that's watched it that hasn't been like, it's amazing. Roger specifically loves it but it's not just him. Like the talk around this is high Last of us. I. We all understand it was a very split season. You either liked it, loved it, hated it, everything in between. But I still think that it deserves a spot here. Until Don does not at all all deserve a spot on this list. Everybody, season two and definitely Sonic 3 deserves.

[E]

Everybody's saying where's Sonic 3? Where is Andy and Blessing in your local town?

[D]

Don't forget, don't forget December.

[C]

They brought up.

[E]

I love that you're doing the like the Clinton Obama hand thing.

[C]

They brought up chicken jockey. Do you remember how viral.

[D]

I remember going to chicken.

[E]

I went.

[D]

I forget what movie it was. I saw some. It was Sinners. I think I went to see Sinners and I was in line and just a bunch of kids.

[C]

Kids, yeah.

[D]

Were there for Minecraft.

[C]

It was the most annoying selling popcorn and candy to kids.

[D]

It was the most annoying experience I ever had.

[E]

They re released like the you can around and do whatever you want version. Like the sing along or whatever you want.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

I was behind like a group of kids in line. One of the kids turned around and was like, hey, I got these chicken tendies. Do you want these chicken tendies? And I look and I was like, no, I don't want your half eaten chicken.

[A]

Get away from me.

[B]

Get away from me.

[D]

I'm not here to talk to children. I don't want to watch Sinners.

[A]

Sonic got robbed. Moving on, we got best audio design, battlefield six, cleric scare, expedition 33, which made it simply for its Perry sound.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Death Stranding 2, Ghosts of Yote and Silent Hill. F. Yeah.

[E]

I was mentioning last night as awesome as clear obscure exposure. 33 sound effects are. I think they are kind of poorly mixed in some spots with the volume and things like that. And I'm surprised that Arc Raiders did not make this list. I really thought that that could have and should have been a shoe in with. With hearing shoes on the ground and footsteps and.

[B]

Sure.

[E]

And just the. The environment and explosions and sounds like the 3D audio in that game is so fucking immersive.

[A]

Yeah. Any. Any thoughts on this, Mike? I know you.

[C]

I mean, it's got to be Battlefield 6 for me. Battlefield 6 is crazy audio design. From everything that you experienced throughout that game. Every single moment in a multiplayer match is just screaming in your ears. The. The audio was awesome in that game. So yeah, I'll ride for that.

[A]

Next up, we have best score and music. Hollow Knight, Silk Song, Hades 2, Clear Obscure Expedition 33, Ghost of Yote and Death Stranding 2. It's a tough one. Don't need to go over my Mario Kart thoughts again. I also think south of Midnight, if it deserved anything, it was best scored music. The fact that that game focuses on music so much and the entire narrative is through song.

[B]

Yeah, beautiful song. Good point.

[A]

Such a great story narrative that again, it's. It's through the music and I feel like it. It's a snub here where like that game, I understand, not the best thing ever, but Tom is amazing and I. I really feel like it deserves a spot here.

[E]

I mean it's the top three here for me. Like I. I could roll a dice and whatever it lands on, I'll. I'll understand and go like, yeah, that deserves it over. You know, whether it's Silksong, Hades 2 or Expedition 33. And anytime I lean towards one, I think about smaller moments in the other games that really highlight and go, oh man, I can't believe how crazy right now the Darren Korb is doing different. Near the end of these runs and exposition. 33, I think about how awesome all those songs are and how diverse they are with Genres and suddenly you have this weird techno thing coming out of nowhere, and then you have this instrumental thing with a dude screaming at the top of his lungs. And then Silksong. I just think it's Christopher Larkin at his best. Like, that's. This is going to be the one that, like, when Christopher Larkin is accepting the lifetime achievement award, it's going to be like, Silksong is the one where you really, really kind of brought it.

[A]

Hades two for me was. I mean, obviously Dan Corp going off. Love it. But I wasn't personally. Like, I'm putting this on the list until the second half of the game, like, until I really started getting into more of this stuff and I beat the game a couple weekends ago and. And that cemented it, like, oh, my God, this belongs on this list. Which is a very tough year because we have so many bangers. But what they did with Hades 2 to elevate the Hades 1 stuff deserves so much praise in terms of presentation and production value. They're so damn talented. Hollow Knight Silk song, like, just doubling down on what Andy's saying. Like, the score of that game is utterly phenomenal. Like, it is more than just atmosphere and vibes. It, it, it. It does everything it needs to at every single moment. Like, it creates the perfect kind of, like, bow on a package of, like, oh, this is like a perfect video game in so many ways. And I. It just always makes you feel the way you need to. And a lot of the music you can listen to outside of the game, but it functions even better in the game. And I always think that that's an important thing to keep in mind. For me, it is Expedition 33 that takes this away because not only is this a new, New, like, composer that we haven't heard before, knocking it out of the park for the first time. What Andy's talking about, the various instrumentation and genres and all that, but the. I always talk about musicals and can you listen to this, the soundtrack of a musical, and know the story and know what's going on? I feel like with Expedition 33, it's not a musical. That's a different thing. But you can understand the emotion and of the story of that game through just listening to the soundtrack and. And the vocalist, the. The main female vocalist and the main male vocalist that are on so many of the tracks are so incredibly talented and the way that in so many of the songs they're fighting back and forth and it. It almost doesn't sound good because it sounds like, raw. She's representing this. He's representing this. It's literally a fight between two characters. They're representing these characters. And that stuff is so powerful. Like Expedition 33 for me.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[F]

The thing about the Cogwork Tower, though, Andy, like, remember how sick that was?

[E]

Underrated for audio design. Just going back real quick. Silksong. To me playing Silksong with headphones for all of the time, because I never really played it off stream. Really, that. That's. That's the most 3D that a 2D game has ever felt. Like, what they do with directional audio and where certain sounds are taking place and. And how the world is reacting around Hornet is really, really crazy.

[F]

Like the first. When you kind of walk into that first little village and all of the little green bugs flutter out. And that was one of those first moments where it's like, ah, the audio design is already kicking ass 10 minutes into this game.

[E]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

The audio design. Hollow Knight deserves a shout out for sound design. Absolutely.

[D]

Yeah. I definitely want to double down on everything Tim said because I agree 100% as far as clear, obscure Expedition 33 winning it. But then also Hades 2 and what they do with that soundtrack, the variety there is incredible. It's not just the fact that there's a, you know, there's a, I guess a range of, like, growth throughout the runs that you're doing, but also just the amount of genres and like, how hard they go in those genres is incredible. I also don't want to sleep on Death Training 2 soundtrack because that game has a immaculate soundtrack. I was re watching clips because of Roger. All because of Roger McCorney and because of Wood kids. I was watching clips of that game yesterday. And like, even just the opening area where you're doing that first walk across.

[E]

Minus 61.

[D]

It'S so good. And then I think about certain cutscenes and certain character themes, whether it be Rainy, whether it be Elle Fanning's characters, and like, the specific themes they give to those characters.

[B]

The.

[D]

The theme they give to EL Fanning's character, specifically during certain scenes where it is like, oh, y' all are going hard here. This is incredible stuff.

[A]

Stuff.

[D]

Yeah. Death rating 2 soundtrack shouldn't be slept on.

[A]

Yeah. And the last thing I want to say about Hades, you reminded me, like, because I was mainly talking about the latter half of the game, but without spoiling stuff. This second boss in that game, the lead up to the second boss, and then the second boss itself, that alone, I think does. Would earn the game a. A part on this list. Like, that stuff's so damn cool. Moving on. Best art direction Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2, Ghosts of Yote, Hades 2 and Hollow Knight Silk Song.

[B]

Wrong.

[A]

Yeah, I've said this like a bazillion times. This might be the best example of this category we've ever seen. Like all of these are bangers.

[E]

I would have. If I could remove something, I'd remove Ghost of Yote and replace it with Absolum. That was like more of a personal choice.

[B]

Sure.

[E]

Not that I don't think Ghostiote does anything, you know, that you know would take it off the list in a. In a real bad way or anything, but. But I. I just really love the art style for Absolum.

[D]

I think it's tough to take anything off this list. But Kingdom Come Deliverance two looks incredible for the three and a half to four hours of that game I played. I was shocked by how good the cutscenes look in that game. Yeah, one of the best looking games of the year by far.

[A]

ZOVGM in the chat says south of Midnight not getting a nom Here is the biggest snub of the show.

[D]

Oh yeah.

[E]

This is like Sifu not making the list. That. Yeah dude, how the on put it back on this year.

[A]

Yeah, just give it something, you know what I mean?

[F]

Or put rematch just to make make up.

[C]

Dude.

[E]

For real.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

I thought the Whales Mike in this in the space, you know you could change your arenas.

[F]

Like that's shout out to Sword of the Sea. Not. Not nearly enough people played it to get it any sort of nominations. I don't think it does anything like super new which is probably another reason. But there is some like twists and turns from what you expect from the studio that did Journey that I thought was really, really fun and really beautiful. But I just want to give that a shame out.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

So many chat mentions Keeper. I think we mentioned that during the live thing but man.

[A]

Yeah, Hades 2 obviously what amazing art design and direction. But like that is also just following up what they did. Like I don't think that Hades 2 is particularly like. I mean it's. It's better than Hades 1 I would say. But like I don't think it. It necessarily like deserves it over it. Having said that Hollow Knight Silk song I do think is such a beautifully art directed game more so than Hollow Knight. And you look at them and there's a lot of similarities but. But the amount of depth in how much unique hand drawn like beautiful locations and just everything about the art direction of Silksong is like God damn. Like I don't understand how the brains work.

[E]

On the flip side, think of Dionysus and that big old bulge he's got. Took a lot of Ren in it. Ren for that bulge.

[D]

PR look incredible. We could have done a best art direction part two category.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. The chat called out. I think it was Karam said dispatch. And I do think, I mean obviously it's like sure, what. But I mean also it looks gorgeous in. It looks like you're watching a show. Which I know is this, but it's a whole thing. But that was a well directed art style that is throughout that entire game that I really loved.

[E]

For me it's between Expedition 33 and Death Stranding 2. Even as somebody who has only experienced Death Stranding 2 through like the first couple of hours of playing it and seeing screenshots and clips in here and there, it's like God damn like Yoji Shinkawa and just his hard surface design. But like in terms of what they're doing visually and for me Expedition 33 is kind of, you know, I was going to say every frame of painting which is like so on message for what the game is. But like they do some awesome stuff with vistas and like every time you walk into a new area and you just sort of like oh, I need a photo mode right now.

[D]

It's like looking at a beautiful piece of abstract art.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Where it is. I'm looking at scenes in clear, obscure. And I'm like, I've never seen this before. But that said, Death Rating two would be my vote here.

[E]

With a bullet it.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Like you look at again talking about the opening scene where you're walking across the mountains. The amount of fidelity in like the curves of the mountains that you're seeing from far, far away. And like when they pull the camera out, seeing all of the detail looks immaculate. And then you get to other scenes. Like there's a scene with a bunch of fireworks that I've talked about even in my. In the preview and you've seen in trailers where walking through that, seeing the lighting for all that incredible. The design of like the buildings and like the vehicles in that game. It's all the Yoji Shinkawa stuff.

[G]

Stuff they.

[D]

I can't say enough good things. And then also for the sequel, right. Death Training 2, the way it follows up on death rating one with the amount of variety in the environments and you get snow, you get a lot of fire, you get like a lot of rain, you get raising tides and all that and all looks so Good.

[A]

Yeah. Moving on to best mobile game. Destiny Rising, Persona 5, Phantom X, Sonic Rumble, UMassumi, Pretty Derby and Wuthering Waves. Anyone have any thoughts at all?

[E]

Mike, give it to us.

[C]

I mean, I like pretty derby, but I didn't play it on mobile. I played it on PC. I had a blast with pretty derby. I think that was so much fun.

[A]

Wait, was that the. The.

[C]

The gotcha horse girl?

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

I was the best horse girl coach there was and we went to the track and we.

[B]

He really was.

[A]

Next category, best ongoing Final Fantasy 14. Fortnite, hell divers two Marvel rivals. So did get somewhere here and no man's sky guy. Any thoughts?

[F]

I have seen a couple people say like why Final Fantasy 14 this year from some Final Fantasy 14 heads that feel like this year was like not the best year for that game, especially in terms of support and it being an ongoing game. So I just wanted to.

[D]

I say more than previous years. I feel like I've heard the words Final Fantasy 14 less.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. The jigs up.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean that sucks.

[D]

I don't think I've heard him talking about final.

[B]

That's crazy. That's crazy.

[E]

Easy.

[A]

Next up, we have best performance. Ben Starr, Charlie Cox and Jennifer English all for Expedition 33. Eric Ishii for Ghost of Yote, Choi Baker for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Shimizu Hanaku for Silent Hill F. Oh, so here's. Here's an interesting thing. Expedition 33 can't win 12 because it's competing against itself.

[B]

One of the categories interesting here this is. We're going off of Kotaku's report. The email PR blast from Keely has Konatsu Kato from Silent Hill F on there.

[E]

Not Mizuhina.

[A]

Yeah, interesting.

[B]

I don't know where the. Maybe that's the character. I don't even know. But I don't know what's happening there.

[A]

Great year. I feel like obviously these are all great answers. There's so many people that could have been here too. I was rooting for Milano. We from Haiti to being on there. But my number, my pick here is Jennifer English.

[E]

I just refreshed it.

[F]

It seemed like they. They fixed it.

[B]

Gotcha.

[A]

Great. Charlie Cox. I'm a little. I'm not. I shouldn't be surprised but he is.

[F]

So charming in that first third. And for someone who like doesn't do video game stuff like again, big year for performers who don't typically do, you know, performance VO stuff for video games. Charlie Cock and Aaron Paul like both killed it this Year.

[B]

Yeah.

[F]

I was pleasantly surpr. Charlie Cox cuz he shows up.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Once gave and so like I hey, I did like a day of work. I'm. I, I'm glad people love it. I don't think about it.

[E]

I recorded for four hours. Well gave him the dub. Is. Is I'm here. Oh man.

[A]

Yeah. Okay.

[E]

Like, like that's really what got him the nomination here. I, I would. I, I think for me, when we're talking about the inconsistencies with the Dispatch nominations, I understand it not being nominated for a lot of stuff because not all the episodes had been out, but enough had been out for me to say that like I think Aaron Paul should have been nominated just because I was really impressed by his.

[B]

I mean it's constantly, you know, banging the same old drum. But I thought Laura Bailey was awesome in it.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

As well. And I mean I know Laura Bailey is just awesome in everything but.

[F]

And Jeffrey Wright as well.

[B]

Oh my God.

[F]

Phenomenal.

[D]

And I'm not going to go to get over Troy Baker from Destiny 2 not being here.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[C]

I like Tom McKenna.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Henry of Scallots from Kingdom Come. Deliverance too. Did a great job carrying that.

[B]

What's the Latin thing he says?

[C]

Oh, what's. What do they say?

[B]

Fan. I don't remember. I mean I played it. I remember.

[E]

Where's Jan Dolski?

[A]

Ob Shout out to Ben Star. Right. Like we, we kind of just like it. Freeze.

[E]

Pass.

[A]

He just goes, duh. We love him. And he killed it as Verso in this game. This sang. That's insane. You know what I mean? He's out here at concerts now singing songs so sick.

[E]

It's him or Jennifer English for me.

[C]

Mean. Yeah.

[D]

Ah, Troy Baker though. I really liked his Indiana Jones.

[B]

He's a great indie.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

But he's. I, I still think better villain. I. Yeah, exactly.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

You're looking past that Stranding too. He was so incredible. Eggs.

[A]

Let's see the next one. Game of the year. This is it. Big one. Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2 On the Beach, Donkey Kong Bonanza, Hades 2 Hollow Knight Silk Songs Song and Kingdom Come Deliverance too. I'm very happy with this list. I think that Kingdom Come Being Here and Ghost of Yote not just for all the, the just history that we've had with video games. The games industry and the way people see it is changing and I think that's exciting. Like, I think it's cool that it's not always gonna just play by the same rules. So yeah, great. Amazing list of games.

[E]

Yeah I, I look at this list and for me It's I think exhibition 33 runs away with so much of it. It just, it's just the story of the year to me. I think it just dominates all of the conversation and when we talk but we look back at 10 years from now what games were like dominated the conversation. Exposure 33 is one of those that came out of nowhere and became some people's like top fives ever.

[A]

Yeah yeah. I do think like game of the year. It's, it's. It's Expedition 33 for the most people, the most quality, the most things, the most reasons why. And I'm saying that as somebody that I would give it a lower review score than some other games on this list. Dong bonanza and 80s two and probably even Silksong. But I still think that for everything that does right it's importance how much I'm going to think about it for the rest of my life and like how much I. It's part of my identity. You know what I mean? It's like it's a game that I'm going to reflect on as like being more important than just like my nitpicks and issues with the. The game critically and for it being their first game for, for us seeing the game a year ago when it was announced and being like oh my God this looks incredible but like I simply don't believe it. And then it coming out and over delivering. Yeah crazy.

[D]

I agree with everything Tim just said. Even though I think I if I'm making a personal pick I would still go Hades 2 out of this list of 6 games games just because it's the game that I look at that I think is the best. Right. If I'm picking what I think is the best video games out of these bunch. Out of this bunch. Hades 2 is the one that sticks out to me but I think Clear Obscure is going to run away with it as it should because I think to the most people that's the one that stuck out.

[A]

Any other thoughts?

[B]

I think we owe Andy a round of applause. KDG did write in with the pizza bat between Andy and Mike where Andy bet six Game of the Year nominees would be Hades 2, Silk Song, Kingdom Come, Deliverance 2, Death Stranding 2 Donkey Kong bananas. At Expedition 33 Mike Bets split fiction Andor Blueprints will slide into one of the goatee slots.

[C]

I still get half of it.

[B]

If they're both wrong, nothing happens because.

[C]

I that's how it Be I. Well, if you were watching, I said I'll be the bad guy here because we both agreed on the six. We knew these were the six. But I said I'll be the bad guy just so we could have a pizza.

[B]

You made a bet. You made a bet and now you need to buy pizza today and I think you should buy some for me because I'm.

[C]

But like we hey, let's be real. Would we like pizza pizza? Let's get real.

[A]

Not be real. Big D. Be real with this. Either I'm in a pizza boot.

[B]

It's either Totos or Little Caesars with cheese in the crust, which I still haven't had. Remember when we ordered it, it wasn't the right pizza.

[D]

What about Pizza Hut though? Orders that feel like this is a Pizza Hut office.

[C]

Now we're ordering pizza. It's a great six right here. It's a very strong six. It's been a fantastic year. Video games games. You could slide in another hundred games in here that all deserve a little tip of the hat in the nom. But it will be fun to see when we get towards our predictions right and where everybody lies because that will be another fun pizza bet.

[D]

I got a strategy from Pablo.

[A]

We have a ton of super chats that I. I want to kind of lightning through just to to give the shout outs to people because it's been a great show. We have so many of y' all hanging out watching right now. So thank you for thinking of kind of funny when big gaming moments happen. Want to be here. I love this. I love the conversation. We'll be reacting ad so cool. I love. I think that we get to like add a lot of, you know, insight on the experience of all this stuff and so thank you all for hanging out.

[B]

Remember reacting to game awards obviously live here on Twitch and YouTube and remember this week reacting live to the Xbox partner showcase.

[A]

Thursday 10am JB says I think I'd be most pissed if the eligibility is such that neither Dispatch or Arc Raiders get nominated. Both did I think lighter than they would have had the timing been different. But there's no way to get that right. No matter what, there's always going to be a shit. I do think Game of the Year probably shouldn't tell the entire year, but that's just me. Mr. Jib says I'm running a Battlefield 6 server battle with KFBF Keen Omega and I refuse to let him win. If you want to join a war between two consenting adults, add him on Discord. Check out Mr. Jibs. Two B's in that jib, baby. Joshua Mitchell says, I've never been more torn on a category than I am with best performance this year. Not a single clear front runner in all in my opinion. Just all greats. Spilling the bean says Adrian Ray should have been nominated for south of Midnight. I agree about that as well. That is another snub. Hers Hazel I thought was incredible. Brandon Martin says Shinobi Art of Vengeance deserved an art direction nom. Yeah man. That's a game that like you might see screens of it and be like, I don't like the way it looks.

[E]

Play it.

[A]

See it in motion. It is gorgeous. Stunning. Sergio's talking out here saying Tim really wanted 25 plus year old songs to get nominated for score and music. Old music's old Tim him.

[C]

No, they deserved it.

[A]

They deserve it. Sergio.

[B]

Damn. Sergio. You got owned.

[A]

Recon awesome says, I know it's not going to win but I'm so pumped that Kingdom come deliverance 2 got nominated for game of the Year. Hell yeah. We got King Toast saying I Wish the King is Watching was nominated for best Indie. Andy, anything to say about that?

[E]

Still one of those early access titles. I just don't know if enough people got around to it. But I would. I would love for when it finally comes out for more people to get eyes on it because it it is a contender for me. It'll be in my top 10.

[A]

Wilfredo says the Kojima Tax is real.

[B]

Shut up.

[C]

It's a very good game.

[D]

It's an amazing game. Very good. It's one of the best games.

[E]

Very good.

[C]

It's a very good game. Yeah.

[A]

Riyadh says what's more impressive? Game of the year or fan pick out of 30 games? Game of the Year, definitely. I don't know if that's a serious question or not. S' mores and Oreo says Henry and Hans Vas got snubbed for performance.

[C]

Oh, those two are so good. Good. Are you yanking my pizzle right now?

[E]

He touched my payp.

[D]

Steve.

[A]

Good Lord. Kebab says hype for DK Bonanza making the cut just to hear the credit song and the orchestra at the end. Kebabs. That's a great point that I need to look at. What is the Game of the Year six here? Why do I not have.

[E]

Man, we really got screwed with Final Fantasy 16.

[A]

I think about that every day of my life. Andy. All right. Yeah. We're going to hear Music from Expedition 33, Death Striking 2 Bonanza, Hades 2 Silk Song and Kingdom Come Del, this is about to hit hard.

[D]

I might bust out a cigarette on stream. Start smoking her in a second.

[F]

Andy, who's the little white lady that you fight in Silksong? What's her name again?

[D]

Silk.

[A]

Lace.

[E]

Lace. Oh lace. Yeah, the one of the lace boss.

[F]

Fights songs needs to be used for hollow knight silksong. It won't though because they're cowards.

[E]

I just need Sherman to walk on stage.

[F]

Yeah, and then DK Bonanza won't be the credit song.

[A]

It'll just. Just be the.

[D]

I want the one where he turns into a giraffe or something.

[C]

I hope the Gillette hydro shick man comes back.

[A]

Never forget Melissa with a y says all 30 devs and clar obscure are going to need to hold a game awards trophy for all the awards they're going to win.

[E]

All 30 of them.

[A]

Mural says glad to see Katsukado get the best voice Best va nom for Silent Hill F Is this the first time a non English speaker got a nom at the vga?

[D]

Oh, that's a good call.

[A]

I don't know.

[E]

A great question I would lean towards yes.

[B]

You think so?

[E]

I think so.

[D]

I don't think Troy Baker speaks English.

[A]

Josh G says Claire obscure expedition 33 nominations are insane. Spartan says no faker for esports player is wild pogles shout out to your name says there's been only one game in this this year that scratch an inch I didn't know I had and it's blueprints. Glad to see it but afraid of its competitive category. I'm thinking Portello's for lunch. What's he get Greg?

[B]

I mean I would do two hot dogs, catch a mustard pick only a large cheese fry, large coke.

[A]

There you go. Oak toasted says Expedition 33 indie wasn't it published by Kepler? We went through that B. Corbin says Ghost of Yote was my hundredth platinum earned it over the weekend. Hate to see it not nominated for goatee but this year stacked so I get it.

[D]

Many indie games have publishers gonna throw out there.

[A]

Bryce Jackson says South of Midnight admitted from best scored music is the real snub. Not just because the music was good but how it was implemented in gameplay play. Absolutely. I'm just a Billy says happy Monday. Is there any worry about judges not playing nominated games, just voting for the games they did play? Claire Obscure got game of the year. Love y'.

[E]

All.

[A]

It is what it is. These people were chosen for a reason and they're going to play what they play and not play others. There's no solving this problem.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

There.

[B]

I mean limited time. Right. In terms of what goes on the argument, you would think. I think don't think so much when you say judges. I think you worry a lot about one person. Think of how kind of funny sits here and nominates and votes and all that jazz. Like, like it. There's a weighted thing that it doesn't matter that I didn't play X because you guys all played it and love it. So it's not like it matters that I'm the one emailing Jeff. Like we're voting as a team.

[E]

Yeah, it's. It's a curse of the industry because if you're an Oscars voter, you have to watch 10 or 8 or whatever 2 hour long movies and this is just like a different beast, you know, there you have to try to group.

[D]

To play these six games.

[A]

Resolute says Sonic Fox also Snubs tied. Most Evo win.

[D]

Let's see Sonic Fox wins so much though. That is boring.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Every single time I watch Mortal Kombat at evil, I'm like, I know that I know what's gonna happen.

[C]

Yeah, Faker the goat too. You know what I mean? But like there's still a chance. That's the underdog story.

[D]

It's like when you're just so good that people don't like people don't have. People don't pay attention anymore even though you're still that good.

[C]

Remember when we went they had the alpaca. They were hoping the alpaca. The kid could do it. Gosh, he couldn't.

[E]

Couldn't do it.

[A]

Kebab says this is the ninth year in a row a Sony game has been nominated for game of the year. Hopefully Wolverine can secure a decade streak next year. Anthro Metal says sad to see Warframe not still getting it's not getting its flowers. Despite Consist consistently being good crazy. It's somehow under the radar after all this time.

[D]

I also do want to shout out this one from Rad Avenue because Mortal Kombat is terrible. That's another thing I'll shout out or I'll point out evo. Mortal Kombat is where Sonic Fox is killing it. Mortal Kombat is also not a highly viewed game. It's like one it's on night one and so no offense tonight one but.

[A]

Banderas and says Sonic Rumble getting best mobile is a travesty. Sonic 3 not getting best adaptations of Derelict of Duty. We need to do better for December releases. Glenn remember the games. Pretty dude says not shocked. But south of Midnight not getting a nom for best soundtracks. Disappointing. We don't get music from the south like that often. Often in games Kenny Pants is playing through It Takes Two and now Split Fiction with my eight year old have provided some of my favorite gaming memories. Glenn Wilson says about 100 deserves to.

[E]

Be here and I need Sonic Fox to get really good at Street Fighter. Oh bless. Or Tekken. Like probably Street Fighter because it's like the.

[D]

The if you want to get that.

[E]

Like it's Shohei Ohtani coming to America to play in the major leagues over here. And it's like well how are you going to compete over here? And then you do and you're the go to. You're the best ever, you know.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

JB says let's stop capping. Just accept the reality that Clar Obscure is about to have more game awards than Return of the King has Oscars.

[E]

It's gonna be a big day for it. Yeah.

[A]

Del Walker says isn't Val technically an independent studio? You could put HalfLife 3 on that list. I mean well, when Half Life 3 is real, then when it comes out conversation.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Dispatch got robbed from best nar says Karim.

[E]

The game wasn't out yet. The game full game wasn't out yet. What if the game just shit the bed in the final packs, you know?

[A]

Yeah. And then the final one point a Dois Miladorius says when do we get Snow Bike Mike for content creator award?

[B]

Oh my God.

[C]

Can you imagine me and Roger on to make a push. But don't worry, next year will be even better here at Kind of Funny and we will make a push for best organization for content and best content creators. You can make that a promise.

[E]

Best event stream as well for the streamer awards.

[C]

Y wait until you see what I got planned for 2026.

[E]

Yeah. With these two, Mike's gonna tie himself underneath like a semi truck drive across.

[C]

Don't put that idea.

[A]

And real quick, I want to let you guys know that we just talked about a lot of very big things. Isn't that right? But Greg, if I want to know about something way smaller, where would I look?

[B]

You'd go to our last news story. The place with all the smallest news you need to know about the WE News channel.

[A]

It's true. It's WE News, baby. There's an Xbox partner preview on Thursday at 10:00am Pacific. Of course we will be live reacting to it and then breaking down everything we saw. Right after that Xbox says we'll show you an exciting first look at content coming to 007 first light. An electrifying extended gameplay trailer for the upcoming dark fantasy epic Tides of Annihilation. I can't wait. And a fresh look at Re Animal, the new horror adventure from the creator of Little Nightmares, among other great games. Heading to Xbox consoles. Xbox on PC and Xbox Game Pass. We got the first picks of the Zelda movie posted on the Internet. Y' all see these?

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

That's fucking late.

[C]

They.

[A]

That's. Let's go. That's a real location. There's no green screen. I'm feeling good, y'. All.

[F]

He's wearing a green tunic and not a blue one.

[A]

That green tunic. Link, baby.

[E]

What? West Ball, man.

[A]

Can't wait.

[E]

Does he know ball?

[A]

He does, baby. He does.

[D]

Does that man speak right there?

[A]

Eurogamer. Yes, Eurogamer says despite its high price Xbox Raj, Ally X sales have exceeded each other. Even Asus's expectations as the handheld is in quote, short supply. And that's it for we news, everybody. We did the super chats. I'm gonna look at you wrong, but if you piss me off, I swear.

[B]

Oh, you mean having it run?

[A]

No, no one says anything there. Some people just saying what should have been there. But that's not what that's for. Thank y' all for hanging out with us today for this episode of Kind of Funny Games Daily. A very special one. Our day is not over. We're about to do games cast. We're about to raider stream checking out all the new content. It's going to be a great time. If you're on Twitch, hang out, stay where you are. If you're on YouTube, you got to make the jump over to the Gamescast video. We'll be right back with that. Until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you. Goodbye.

[E]

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