Game of the Year 2025 (So Far) - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: Game of the Year 2025 (So Far) - Detailed Summary

Release Date: April 22, 2025

In this engaging episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, the hosts—Tim Gettys, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye Jr., Andy Cortez, Michael Huber, and Nick Scarpino—delve deep into their top contenders for Game of the Year 2025. Skipping over the initial advertisements, the conversation quickly pivots to the main topic, enriched with personal experiences, insightful analysis, and vibrant discussions about some of the year's standout titles.

---

1. Introduction and Setting the Stage

The episode begins with the hosts greeting each other and sharing brief personal updates before diving into the core discussion. Tim Gettys introduces the primary focus of the show:

Tim Gettys [01:35]: "Today's big topic is going to be our game of the year so far."

He sets the tone for an in-depth exploration of the games they've been playing and analyzing throughout the year.

---

2. Game Contenders Overview

a. Ninja Gaiden Rage Bound

Tim shares his excitement after getting hands-on experience with Ninja Gaiden Rage Bound, developed by Kitchen and published by Dot Emu.

Tim Gettys [06:03]: "So far in the game, there's none of that [cartoony animation]. It is all pixel art and very beautiful, beautifully crafted, directed cinematics."

He praises the game's cinematic pixel art and seamless integration of storytelling with gameplay, highlighting its departure from retro aesthetics by infusing modern elements.

Michael Huber [10:41]: "These boss encounters are just immaculate. The pixel art is on another level."

The team agrees that the game's attention to detail and narrative depth make it a strong contender for their top spot.

b. Monster Hunter Wilds

Nick Scarpino discusses his deep involvement with Monster Hunter Wilds, highlighting its evolving content and compelling gameplay mechanics.

Nick Scarpino [15:06]: "I can't imagine playing another game more than I should play Monster Hunter Wilds this year."

He emphasizes the game's addictive nature and continuous updates that keep players engaged, positioning it as a perennial favorite.

c. Citizen Sleeper 2 & South of Midnight

Blessing Adeoye Jr. passionately advocates for Citizen Sleeper 2, noting its enhanced storytelling and expansive galaxy exploration.

Blessing Adeoye Jr. [18:31]: "I love the writing is next level. The storytelling here is just phenomenal."

Simultaneously, he praises South of Midnight for its emotional depth and immersive world-building.

Blessing Adeoye Jr. [20:49]: "The melancholic vibe really speaks to me, just the quiet, somber loneliness of space."

Both games are lauded for their narrative strength, character development, and ability to evoke genuine emotional responses from players.

d. Blueprints

Barrett Courtney shines a spotlight on Blueprints, describing it as a masterpiece in puzzle and exploration gaming.

Barrett Courtney [32:15]: "Blueprints does everything so well... it's a phenomenal game."

He commends the game's innovative mechanics and the seamless way it blends learning and discovery, making each playthrough uniquely rewarding.

e. Hades 2

The anticipation for Hades 2 is palpable among the hosts. Michael Huber shares his enthusiasm after playing the game extensively.

Michael Huber [56:31]: "Hades 2 is going to be my game of the year for the second year in a row."

Tim Gettys echoes this sentiment, noting the game's refined gameplay and rich narrative continuation from its predecessor.

Tim Gettys [58:33]: "Hades 2 continues to deliver on all fronts. It's a strong contender for Game of the Year."

---

3. Detailed Game Discussions

Ninja Gaiden Rage Bound

The hosts delve into the game's artistic direction and gameplay mechanics, appreciating its balance between retro aesthetics and modern design.

Tim Gettys [07:28]: "The gameplay feels exactly the way you want it to. Rip the shit out of demons. It is awesome."

They highlight the game's cinematic moments and intricate pixel art, which elevate the overall gaming experience.

Monster Hunter Wilds

Nick discusses the continuous content updates and community engagement that keep Monster Hunter Wilds fresh and exciting.

Nick Scarpino [15:09]: "The event quests every week keep me coming back for more."

He praises the game's ability to evolve post-launch, addressing initial criticisms and enhancing player satisfaction over time.

Citizen Sleeper 2

Blessing emphasizes the game's superior storytelling and character interactions compared to its predecessor.

Blessing Adeoye Jr. [20:54]: "The writing is so immersive... you can see it all and feel it all in your head."

The team appreciates how the game balances narrative depth with engaging gameplay, making each decision impactful.

South of Midnight

Barrett Courtney lauds South of Midnight for its compelling story and emotional resonance, despite certain gameplay mechanics that some players might find challenging.

Barrett Courtney [32:15]: "South of Midnight deserves that spotlight. It's a game that really connects with players on an emotional level."

The discussion highlights the game's ability to blend melancholic themes with immersive gameplay, creating a memorable experience.

Blueprints

Blueprints is praised for its innovative puzzle mechanics and exploration elements. The hosts admire how the game subtly teaches players its mechanics without overt tutorials.

Blueprints [27:05]: "The way you start learning things is just so freaking next level."

The seamless integration of learning and discovery makes it a standout title in the year's lineup.

---

4. Audience Interaction: Super Chats Highlights

Throughout the episode, the hosts engage with their audience through Super Chats, addressing listeners' opinions and game preferences.

• Dolphin Coin [49:56]: "I'm a big Huber head. Glad to see him on Kind of funny."

  Tim responds warmly, appreciating the support for Michael Huber as a positive force in gaming.

• Kingdom Come Deliverance Two [54:41]: A listener shares love for the game’s nostalgic elements and the community's engagement.

• Dynasty Warriors [54:35]: Another listener declares Dynasty Warriors as their game of the year, emphasizing the impact of nostalgia.

The Super Chats not only reflect the audience's diverse gaming tastes but also enrich the conversation by introducing varying perspectives on potential Game of the Year contenders.

---

5. Final Picks and Conclusions

As the episode progresses, each host shares their personal top picks for Game of the Year 2025:

• Tim Gettys: Favors South of Midnight and expresses high anticipation for upcoming Nintendo releases like Hades 2.

• Michael Huber: Strongly advocates for Hades 2, citing its extensive content and refined gameplay as top reasons for his preference.

• Nick Scarpino: Highlights Monster Hunter Wilds for its addictive gameplay and continuous enhancements, making it a secure favorite.

• Blessing Adeoye Jr.: Emphasizes the narrative strengths of Citizen Sleeper 2 and South of Midnight, positioning them as strong contenders due to their emotional depth and immersive storytelling.

• Barrett Courtney: Commends Blueprints for its masterful design and engaging puzzles, making it a standout title deserving of the top spot.

In wrapping up, the hosts acknowledge the competitive landscape of 2025's gaming titles, with each game bringing unique strengths to the table. They encourage listeners to try these games and form their own opinions as the year progresses.

Tim Gettys [59:01]: "Let us know in the comments below what your game of the year so far is and which ones you're looking out for that you think might take the crown at the end of the day."

---

6. Upcoming Shows and Farewell

Before signing off, Tim mentions upcoming episodes, including a spoiler cast for The Last of Us Season Two and Greg playing Oblivion for the first time, promising more insightful and entertaining content for listeners.

Tim Gettys [60:26]: "So there you go floating around once again. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, we're about to do our Last of Us episode 2 spoiler cast."

The episode concludes with a heartfelt goodbye, leaving the audience eagerly anticipating the next installment.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Tim Gettys [06:03]: "This feels like a modern game that just has that retro style."
• Michael Huber [10:41]: "These boss encounters are just immaculate."
• Nick Scarpino [15:09]: "The event quests every week keep me coming back for more."
• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [20:54]: "The writing is next level."
• Barrett Courtney [32:15]: "Blueprints does everything so well."
• Tim Gettys [59:01]: "Let us know in the comments below what your game of the year so far is."

---

Conclusion

This episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast offers a comprehensive and passionate exploration of some of the most promising games of 2025. Through detailed discussions, personal anecdotes, and interactive audience engagement, the hosts effectively highlight the strengths and unique qualities that make each game a worthy contender for Game of the Year. Whether you're a seasoned gamer or new to the gaming scene, this episode provides valuable insights to help you navigate the rich landscape of 2025's video game offerings.

Transcript

[Greg Miller]

This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. Not everyone is careful with your personal information, which might explain why there's a victim of identity theft every five seconds in the U.S. fortunately, there's LifeLock. LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity. If your identity is stolen, a US based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year by visiting lifelock.com podcast terms apply.

[Andy Cortez]

Moms deserve our very best. Especially on Mother's Day. There's only one place I trust to deliver high quality mom Approved rose bouquets. 1-800-flowers.com. this year, 1-800-flowers wants to make sure all the mothers in your life get the best with double the roses for free. When you buy one dozen, they'll double your bouquet to two dozen roses. To claim the double roses offer, go to 1-800-flowers.com Spotify. That's 1-800-flowers. Com Spotify, the official florist of Mother's Day.

[Tim Gettys]

What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for April 22, 2025. My middle school friend Amanda's birthday.

[Michael Huber]

Happy, happy birthday, Amanda.

[Tim Gettys]

Of course I am. I am joined today by Andy Cortez.

[Michael Huber]

Hello.

[Tim Gettys]

Greg Miller.

[Nick Scarpino]

Hello.

[Tim Gettys]

And making his return to Kind of Funny. You see him all the time on Easy Allies. You see him all the time on Min Max. It is my brother in hype, Michael Huber.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yo. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

[Tim Gettys]

Huber. How are you doing?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Super good. I saw Sinners last night. Highly recommend.

[Tim Gettys]

Did you get to see it in 70 millimeter or just normal? Yes, you did. Oh, I'm so jealous. It's sold out, man. I gotta go.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It was packed. It was packed.

[Tim Gettys]

That's great. You liked it though?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Loved it. Loved it. Highly recommend.

[Michael Huber]

I've been seeing that. Our friends Belinda and Yousef have seen it three times in three different formats.

[Tim Gettys]

Good for them.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Wow.

[Barrett Courtney]

They're trying to see it in all of the formats.

[Tim Gettys]

Keep cinema alive, baby. Get that, Greg.

[Nick Scarpino]

I'll wait for it to be streaming on a plane. That'd be best.

[Tim Gettys]

This is the Kind of Funny games cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast server services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify or Apple podcasts to get all of our shows ad free and a daily exclusive show for. Just be part of this show though. YouTube Super Chat. Your questions, comments, concerns, whatever you want in and we'll get to them throughout the show. Today's big topic is going to be our game of the year so far. So please super chat in your game of the year so far so we can talk about those as well. Little housekeeping for you. We're an 11 person business all about live talk shows. You've already gotten a banger episode of kind of funny games Daily. And after this is going to be our screencast spoiler cast of the Last of Us Season two, Episode two. It's going to be me, Greg and Nick talking all about what we saw a couple nights ago. And obviously you're not going to want to miss this one. Then after this, that is the stream of Greg playing Oblivion for the first time.

[Nick Scarpino]

It's time. Let's go solo stream.

[Tim Gettys]

Just you.

[Nick Scarpino]

I didn't want anybody else in there. Mike was like, oh, we could do this. We. I'm like, no, I want. This is my playthrough, right? So I want to be. I'll look at the chat and I'll talk to the chat here and there. But I want to just play the game.

[Tim Gettys]

Jump in and go. I love that.

[Michael Huber]

Not have a yap and all over the place.

[Nick Scarpino]

You know, Roger didn't. I sent a Roger text. It said fry question mark.

[Tim Gettys]

You just hear Kevin, if you're a kind of funny member. Today's Greg Way is 16 minutes all about Greg's WrestleMania FOMO, but not for the reasons you think. This is the type of clickbait that I'm like, I need to know. So I'm gonna listen to. You know, you can too with the kind of funny. Oh, that's why. Okay, I don't want to listen anymore.

[Nick Scarpino]

It has nothing to do with stars in the bank. Just right now, I am being once again persecuted and kind of funny. Oh, we're on Friday. Bless. Is like, hey, guess what? You have to cash in before the season finale. And I say, all right, fine. That's a new rule. I didn't know I was coming. And then he goes away for hang out with Kojima. So now I got one week now to cash in.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, before the season ends. Not before the season finale. Again, as the finale.

[Nick Scarpino]

Now we want to make the cash in as lame as possible. Barrett.

[Barrett Courtney]

Well, just think about, think about this, Greg. Let's say, like through all of the bullshit stars at the end of the. At the end of the season, you're down for the count.

[Michael Huber]

But hey, now those are bullshit. That's How I'll get a star.

[Barrett Courtney]

Hey now, the Super Mario party bullshit stars at the end of the seasons. Let's say you're down, but you're just a couple of stars away.

[Nick Scarpino]

I came up with a solid idea on Games Daily today and it just involves us buying plane tickets to Japan for me, you and Roger. And we go over there and we do it in front of Kojima. And I am I embarrass you in front of one of your favorite Japanese developers. That's what's going to happen.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, okay. Okay. Great idea.

[Nick Scarpino]

Oh my God.

[Tim Gettys]

Friday the Elder Scrolls Online podcast. The kind of funny gamescast limited series is back with episode two. Matt Ferrera and Rich Lambert from the ESO team are back with Greg and Mike to talk about the ten year journey. The episode starts with the game's rough launch and review scores before finding the ESO audience and building the playground they wanted come for the deepest dive of Greg Miller's career Friday on all your Gamescast feeds and on Bethesda's YouTube channel. Thank you to our Patreon producers. Anatoly Asked, Delaney Twining, Carl Jacobs and Omega Buster. Today we're brought to you by Imperial and Aura Frames. But we'll tell you all about that later because we got to get to it. The topic of the show, Game of the year 2025 so far, people might say, wow, it's a little early in the year to be doing one of these.

[Nick Scarpino]

A quarter is already down.

[Tim Gettys]

We're a quarter through the year.

[Michael Huber]

I hate it.

[Tim Gettys]

We even more than a quarter.

[Michael Huber]

It's going to be May in a week.

[Tim Gettys]

God, man, that's wild.

[Michael Huber]

It's going to be May. I don't like it. I don't like where we're at already.

[Tim Gettys]

I don't either. I don't either. But I'm happy because it means we're inching closer and closer to the Nintendo Switch 2. Of course we are some Mario Kart World Imminence, everybody. But here's the thing.

[Michael Huber]

Did you say I nailed. I nailed the prediction, by the way.

[Tim Gettys]

No worlds.

[Michael Huber]

I said world. Didn't nail it.

[Nick Scarpino]

Didn't nail it.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, but reasoning for it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I give you credit.

[Michael Huber]

Thank you.

[Tim Gettys]

No, I don't give you credit though, because your reasoning wasn't. Because it's all about Earth World. You what you were saying, it was like a multiverse thing. It was going to be all the different worlds.

[Michael Huber]

Because I don't even remember saying it until I saw the video.

[Tim Gettys]

I don't even know what video. I love this stuff. But here's the thing. We're talking about our game of the year so far. We're going to go around the table and say what our pick is so far in 2025. But I'm going to cheat just a little bit. Just a little bit. Because I obviously haven't completely played this game yet because it is not out. But I'm going to talk about a game of the year contender. Oh, that I did get to play a preview of Ninja Guidance Rage Bound.

[Michael Huber]

Oh.

[Tim Gettys]

So a couple weeks ago I got hands on with Ninja Gaiden Rage Bound from the game Kitchen, Developers of the blasphemous series that Andy is always going on about, published by Dot Emu, who I've lately been obsessed with Ninja Turtles, Shredder's Revenge, the upcoming Marvel Cosmic Invasion. I got to get hands on with Ninja Gaiden Rage Bounds and guys, it's good. Huber.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, dude, I got to play this too. It's sick.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, dude. Like this. This is our entirely. It is a 2D action platformer. It is decidedly not a Metroidvania. This is way more side scroll platform action. Go through, rip the shit out of demons. It is awesome.

[Michael Huber]

This art style is just undefeatable.

[Tim Gettys]

Cinematic pixel art is one of my favorite things ever. And this game kind of takes it to a level that I don't think I've seen before. Like, this doesn't just feel like, oh, it's another retro game. It's like, no, no, no. This feels like a modern game that just has that retro style. And that's true of Shredder's Revenge as well. There's something different about this one though, where as you're going through the level, like in the background, boss characters will be kind of popping out. Like, there was one part in my preview where you're on a zip line and this like demon jumps at you to attack. And then a giant, like snake dragon thing comes and like kills him. And it's just the coolest thing. And then couple screens later, you're fighting that giant snake thing and it just felt very, very, very cinematic. And in a way that when we saw the debut trailer for this, it was like that hand drawn animation, or maybe not hand drawn, but like the more cartoony animation. So far in the game, there's none of that. It is all pixel art and very beautiful, beautifully crafted, directed cinematics. But then they bleed perfectly into the gameplay. The gameplay feels exactly the way you want it to. Recently, I guess not recently because we're getting incredibly old the messenger came out and the messenger was a. Yeah, that.

[Michael Huber]

Was my first year. Kind of funny thing.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. Okay.

[Nick Scarpino]

Doesn't seem like it was like it's, it feels like it was, yeah, 2018.

[Tim Gettys]

Feels like it was just here, man. That's crazy. But I love the Messenger.

[Nick Scarpino]

It was your first.

[Michael Huber]

I think it was 17. Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Love the Messenger a lot. And it, it felt like obviously it was very inspired by the original Ninja Guidance, but trying to, that was more of the like kind of indie focused retro game that we've seen a lot of. But I think on one of the highest ends, actually this feels like that, but like taken to the next level again. And I'm so happy about it. Multiple characters you're, you're playing as. And like, I mean, just look at some of the vistas in the back, right? Like, this is Ninja Gaiden through and through in a way that I didn't expect. How it would merge the old school NES games with the modern. Again, very old man here. The 3D Xbox Ninja Gaiden games. And what a year for Ninja Gaiden fans. We had Black two coming out. We have, we have four coming out later. We have this coming out. Like it's a great time. But yeah, this my gameplay experience with this so far. I, I, it was impeccable. Like, I really like, it is one of my best gaming experiences so far. And I do think it's gonna be very high on the, on my game of the year list when it does end up coming out. I think in August they said, I don't remember if it actually got a date, but either way, very, very excited about it. One thing that I want to throw out because it really, really blew my mind is Bear, can you bring up the, the intro to the original Ninja Gaiden? The NES Ninja Gaiden was one of the first games Nintendo games with like cinematics, quote unquote. So it was like, definitely a big deal. I was like, what people like one of the things they remember besides the brutal difficulty and all of that stuff, but super freakin sick. Like this is such an iconic video game thing here. And we see that the death of Ryu Haibus dad, right? The prologue of Ragebound is you playing up to this moment. And it's like just so cool. And like the music cues and everything are like, they are straight from the original game. And I'm just like, yeah, man, this is what it's all about.

[Michael Huber]

I'm telling you, Tim, if you, if you ever played Blasphemous two or even the first one, there are boss encounters. When you look at the boss art, you just like, God, it's. It could. It probably took eight months to just draw this two frame animation because of how detailed the pixel art.

[Tim Gettys]

And that's when you say two frames, it's like some of the animations are way more than.

[Michael Huber]

No, I mean two frames of the whole animation.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, exactly. It's so detailed and so cinematic is the word I keep going back to. But like, man, my highest praises to this. I can't wait to get my hands on it. Exciting again. The soundtrack is sick, man. Love it. Can't wait. I think it's gonna be awesome. But that's the future. That's me hoping things pan out. Based on my preview of Ninja Gaiden Rage Bounds, I want to talk about games that we have played, that we have beats that are on our game of the year list that might end up being our game of the year. I want to ask right now, is anybody confident? Is anybody. Has anybody played something that they're like, this is my game of the year. I can stand by that.

[Nick Scarpino]

And we think it's going to be there at the end of the year.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, I mean, some contenders, but I'm not ready to like, definitively.

[Michael Huber]

There are some deep fried contenders for sure.

[Tim Gettys]

But you use contenders in different ways, right? Because you have the contenders meaning, like it's going to be a top.

[Michael Huber]

My. My contender Huber is like, it'll be in, in a top 10 list. It'll hit the top.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Because I feel like all of us, all of us. But do any of us right now think we have like, oh, I think this has a chance to wait to be number one at the end.

[Nick Scarpino]

I sure do.

[Tim Gettys]

Hit me off grab.

[Nick Scarpino]

I mean it's no surprising. No one. Monster Hunter Wilds, a game I gave a 9. 5 on this show about. And that they're just, I think making better and making harder and making it so you're actually carding and doing the things that people at launch didn't like tonight, obviously we dropped the Blossom Festival and there's a whole bunch of content around that and da da da da da. Like, I am so happy that when we do a review, oftentimes you talk about what you hope the rest of your year, your, your time playing this game will be like. And for me, it's always, I had such a great time with this. We're doing a stream on Friday or whatever and I'm hoping I'm able to get back to it when reviews End And I said on there, of course, like, oh, like, I think I can't imagine playing another game more than I should play Monster Hunter Wilds this year. I was very clear that I was like, I feel like it's going to be my Diablo or just be the comfort game. I go back to, I put hours into they add up and suddenly you go, oh my God, I can't believe I did that. I said all that on the review and then went into four or five other reviews back to back to back to back. All the other things we had to go play, all the things we had to do, trips, filming movies, all sorts of crazy crap, right? And so to come back from Chicago, you know, for Ben's spring break and look at the calendar, be like, you know what? Until this apparent Oblivion shadow drop and until I was talking about, you know, doing another Outer Worlds playthrough, I'm like, I actually have a gap right here where I can play Monster Hunter and I can just sit there and enjoy it like I want to. And that's all I've been doing. And it's that thing where night after night, moment after moment, they're on the portal there on the big screen tv, they're at my desk. I'm playing it and I'm playing and I'm playing it and I am still insatiable. I'm excited to play Oblivion today. I love open world RPGs, as everyone knows, and I've never played Oblivion, so I'm super stoked to jump in there. But there is a part of me that goes, I hope it doesn't speak to me because of course it's my luck that it drops today and so does the Blossom Festival. And we got to watch Prometheus and it's like, motherfucker, that's a big Tuesday when I just want to go home and try the new Monster Hunter content. But even to take away new content dropping today and just talk about from review to now, I think the game has only gotten better and only shown. Oh, man, it really is going to be that game that will be here as long as I want it to be. I'm insatiable about it, right? But it's because I am grinding all the different armor sets and I want to get different weapons on, blah, blah, blah. And I like seeing my hunter rank go up. I could easily if I had to, and I do stop today and not come back to it until a bigger thing or another break. And I would feel like I'm in a good place with It. It feels like a good game. My birthday stream on Friday is supposed to be Monster Hunter Wilds with Joey, right. And Mike out there playing more. And Joey was like, hey, I can. I can step out of it. I don't have to. I don't want to hold you back. And I'm like, I'm at a place right now with what I'm doing that it's no problem for me to just run in game content with you. Andy Cortez.

[Michael Huber]

What would it take for you to fall off?

[Nick Scarpino]

It'll be the. Well, I think it'll be not just.

[Michael Huber]

Other coming out, but if they came out with a new content drop, what would it take for you to look at that content? Drum and go, man. Not worth it. I thought I was coming back and I'm out.

[Nick Scarpino]

It is the classic games as a service, even though arguably is this. They're not doing like, you know, battle passy things. But there's login bonuses and stuff and there's events every. Every week. So it is. We'll say for this argument.

[Michael Huber]

They had, yeah, the pope died. They had that event.

[Nick Scarpino]

I mean, I killed him in the game. They put a giant pope in to memorialize the real monster. You know what I mean? Because of the child abuse.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, he was.

[Michael Huber]

It was a different era.

[Nick Scarpino]

Well, I mean, you got to take another figurehead.

[Michael Huber]

He's a woke. We like that he was the wolf.

[Nick Scarpino]

Anyways, what it would take for me to fall off, I think is suddenly be to be on that level of like, there's nothing left to grind for or nothing I want to grind for. Grind is usually so bad in the game when you say, oh, you grind for this. You got to grind for a bunch of hours to take on the final boss, Monster Hunter. Grinding is. I'm looking for this one gem to drop off Gore Magala. You know what I mean? Like, I gotta get out. I gotta do this thing to get like. So it's like I'm doing a monster I like a lot or I can go, you know, grind the event quest to get more armor spheres so I can upgrade, you know, all this dumb stuff. But it's like I feel like when I'm doing all of that, I'm getting something that I know I'm gonna use or need eventually. Whereas if it was that, I'm just doing it. I'm like, okay, cool, I've got everything I want. Or I'm not interested in going for that carrot. I want it. But they're doing a great job so far of Event quest every week and be like, all right, cool. It's this bird you put on your head. Do you want to go fight these things so you can have a little bird to rest in your head? And I'm like, no, but I wanted it. I wanted my. The new ones, like this hood that looks like this, like, thing sleeping on your head. Do I. Will I ever wear that? Of course not, but I want to grind for it. And then I'm doing the fashion thing. I'm changing all my colors. Like, there's like, I finally got to the point where I was like, you know what? I've played so much of it and done so much and I mean in like, recent days that I'm like, I can finally feel like I'm not wasting my time to go in and customize the messages. My character Auto says when people join the game or you jump on somebody's back, I'm like, I want to go do that. I want to do that. I'm like, I feel so good.

[Michael Huber]

I also need to recreate your character. Re edit.

[Nick Scarpino]

You do? Yeah. I want you to read my character. You can do that.

[Michael Huber]

Today, Greg's character doesn't look like himself. Looks like. It looks just like a different nationality entirely. So let me get it.

[Nick Scarpino]

Okay, it does.

[Tim Gettys]

Got it, got it. Yeah, let's. Let's fix that. Hubert, are you a monster hunter guy and have you played Worlds at all?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, yeah, I rolled credits on that. And then like, so many other games came out, so I just got same distracted with it totally going back because, like, Iceborne and World and stuff. We did weekly hunts and I've been wanting to do that with, you know, the Easy Allies patrons and everything. Just been so busy with like, other. Other games. There's just too many games always coming out, of course. But like, you were talking, Greg, just being able to, like, hop into Monster Hunter for as long as you want, you know, it's like, oh, I got an hour to kill. I'll go on like one or two hunts, try to find some materials. Or it's like, no, I'm just going to settle in and just, you know, hunt after hunt after hunt. So I love how accessible it is, for sure.

[Michael Huber]

Yeah.

[Nick Scarpino]

Looking forward to the marathon stream this weekend. You know, bringing Joey and Mike back for the first time in a while and showing them some of the new stuff and then, yeah, seeing what's, you know, the Blossom Dance Festival of a Chord is all about out here as we go.

[Tim Gettys]

Of course, of course, of course. But, Hubert, it is not your Game of the year so far. Monster Hunter. What is so hard?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I kind of cheat here. I've got a personal. My personal goatee, and then also, like, what I think is probably goatee right now.

[Michael Huber]

Am I allowed to do that, or.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Do you just want me to go.

[Tim Gettys]

For Highlander, have the conversation, and then Highlander it. Okay. Like, you're gonna have to choose, but I want to hear your love for both games.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Citizen Sleeper 2. I am my guy. Huge fan of this game. Loved the first one. And the second one, I feel like, is just kind of better in every way, because the first one, you're just at this little hub area, and then in this one, you can go kind of all over this galaxy, and it's just got a really, really cool amount of characters that you can meet, and you can bring each character onto the missions, and that changes the story. So the story can really change on the smaller, intimate level. I don't know how, like, big. The main choices can change, but a lot of those little character interactions change depending on how you play, which I really love. And just managing these dice, like, I love rolling these dice. Like, you'll go out. Yeah, you'll go out to, like, you guys are watching, like, Prometheus and stuff. It definitely has that, like.

[Nick Scarpino]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Alien crew going out into the middle of nowhere to, like, scavenge some derelict ship.

[Michael Huber]

And not everybody's friends with each other on the crew. I love the dynamics.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yes. Uneasy alliances. And it's like, you'll go out and you'll have a couple dice, and you're just like, dude, I gotta roll this. Like, I'm going. I'm going for the greed. I'm going for the scrap. And, like, things can. Things can go bad really easily in this game. You throw a couple bad roles, and, like, things escalate in really fun and impactful ways. And it's just got. Overall, it's just got a melancholic vibe that. That really speaks to me, you know, just the quiet, somber loneliness of space. The music is super good. Just a really good game to play, like, at night and vibe out, too. For sure. I love it so much.

[Michael Huber]

And, like. And some of the most immaculate writing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The writing.

[Michael Huber]

And the thing that I love about its design is that because that's also my choice, I would probably go with citizens. And. And I kind of did the Hubert thing, too, where I have several things written down as well. But I. I think what I love about it so much is that the game is designed and the. The. The way it's designed is that you're gonna fail. You're not supposed to have the best of any of the outcomes, because eventually you're. You are a. A person's consciousness uploaded into a robot, and you have essentially signed away your consciousness rights to this government. And you are kind of just working off a debt. So your body's out somewhere, God knows where in a sleeping tube somewhere. But you are in this robot body just meant to just work and work and work for the man.

[Nick Scarpino]

And you.

[Michael Huber]

Your body's breaking down, and your body will continue to break down, and you will run into situations where you can't recover or have the perfect outcomes anymore. And it's meant to be that way. You're not supposed to play this to always feel great, because it's designed to. Where you are going to either overcome challenges or be hit so hard by them. And then they will give you the light at the end of the tunnel. Little monologue to tell you why things are still going to be okay. Dude. It's just so guys making the best out of.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Out of a bad situation. Yeah.

[Michael Huber]

It's all about getting to the.

[Barrett Courtney]

Like, just get to the next day. Just, like, try to survive. I haven't played enough of this, but I. I did play, like, I would. What I would consider probably, like, the prologue. And then, like, other stuff came out, and it's just been busy since then. But, like, hearing you two talk about it again, I'm like, damn. Yeah, I really enjoyed this. And I loved the kind of. I don't know what the first one was like, but the sense of momentum in terms of story stakes and what that was building up to, I thought was really cool. And I really liked that, like, so early on, just, like, how different playthroughs can be. Like, Juni right here, you know, very early on, we did some stuff together, and they were like, like, all right, I'm peacing out. And it's fascinating to hear, like, does that happen for everybody? And, like, how different. All of these story things come together for people, but still have the level of writing that it just hits so hard on. The kind of looking at just people trying to survive in such a. What seeming is seemingly like a super capitalistic future in space and everything being terrible all the time. It's really rad. So thank you to the both of you for lighting a fire under my ass to get back to this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm glad you guys brought up the writing because we think of storytelling like Final Fantasy or Last of Us or something super High budget and crazy big, which is incredible. But then you have something like Citizen Sleeper that's just like the writing is so good. Good. You just get so immersed and you can see it all and feel it all in your head. It's just.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The writing is next level.

[Michael Huber]

Yeah. When talking about it during our review, Huber, I kept on saying whenever we look at. Like I'm such a sucker for art and art direction. And when you have those games where it's every frame of painting type shit where everything's a screenshot. Everything looks so like perfectly placed. This was. Every line's a bar. Like every line of dialogue being delivered is like. Like you couldn't write something cooler on your best day, you know? And that's every line in this game.

[Tim Gettys]

Is there a voice acting in this or is it.

[Michael Huber]

No voice acting?

[Tim Gettys]

So you're just reading it all and kind of like here.

[Michael Huber]

Yeah. And again, I don't read.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Michael Huber]

Anybody out there who's like, I don't read. Sorry. Neither do I. And I got sucked the hell into this universe. I don't. I don't have. I haven't read a book since probably, I don't know. Night of the Living dummy. Goosebumps or something. Maybe it was red where the red fern grows. I don't remember. But God damn. Like this. This. For anybody out there who's discouraged by these type of things. I played it exactly the way Huber mentioned it where it was my nighttime Steam deck game and I played it at night and it was just me. My fucking. My Steam deck and my feelings. And you get so. Just engrossed into this world and it's. It's a kind of a perfect sci fi experience.

[Tim Gettys]

So Andy, you agreed with Huber that Citizen Sleeper is what in the contention for even today's answer you. What else is.

[Michael Huber]

Well, another one that I see. Well, okay. There's a lot of. Tim, you know how like, you know, like disaster movies where people will just like be. They know that an oncoming disaster is happening and you could do whatever you want in the day and you can go shopping, you can hang out with friends. But you know that there is a meteor about to hit the inevitable.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah.

[Michael Huber]

And you. And it's always in the back of your mind. That's Hades 2 for me. I think Hades 2 gets the full 1.0 release this year.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Michael Huber]

And it cannot be denied that that will likely be my. My number one.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm right there with you.

[Michael Huber]

I had just have so many hours into that video game and you Know, we could talk all day and night about Hades, too, but the other one that I put on the list is.

[Nick Scarpino]

Are you gonna be surprised if it doesn't come out this year, though?

[Michael Huber]

I will be very surprised.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'd be shocked.

[Michael Huber]

Yeah. Because they mentioned that the next update is their final update.

[Tim Gettys]

Do you have hesitancy there?

[Nick Scarpino]

No, not based on anything. It's just with indie games and especially a indie developer that has proven themselves and have an audience as big as Super Giants is, I just don't think you rush it. So it's just one of those, like, I'm always ready for everybody to delay their games and stuff, but you guys watch and pay more attention. Like I'm saying closely, more closer to this one's early access journey. So I was just wondering.

[Michael Huber]

Well, the other choice that I had written down that is not this oncoming meteor that's about to hit anytime soon, is another one on. On Huber's list, which is blueprints. Yes, dude, Huber, please, please wax poetic about blueprints.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Wow. Okay, so I am pretty terrible at puzzles.

[Michael Huber]

Same here. And I don't like reading.

[Nick Scarpino]

We get it. You hate reading.

[Tim Gettys]

And he's waiting for Hades for his real Andy stuff.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Blueprints feels so special and unique. I definitely encourage everyone to hop into this one. It's getting a lot of hype right now. Some people may roll their eyes, like, oh, it's just a little puzzle game, whatever. I definitely encourage everyone to hop in because the way at which you start to learn things in this game, I think is a really, really magical experience that definitely lends itself to a goatie type game. When you first walk, like, when I first booted up this game, I walked in, I was like, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I'm just building rooms, vibing out, whatever. But as you progress and move forward, you start learning little things, big things. Your curiosity drives you. And then with each day that advances, you take that knowledge that you've learned, and your next day is potentially a lot more interesting and better because you're like, wait a minute. This. This means this, or this adds up to this. So, yeah, just the way you start learning things, I think is, like, next level. I haven't learned in a game like this in so long, where it's not explicit, me explicitly telling me things interesting, but I'm discovering these things and realizing these things organically as I play.

[Michael Huber]

Yeah, you're trying to get handed over the keys to a manor, and you have to. It's A magical mystical manner that all the rooms are changing and it's a.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Robot who doesn't love a mystical man, of course.

[Michael Huber]

And you are trying to get to the 46th room of a 45 room mansion. This mysterious 46th room that hasn't been seen in who knows how long or nobody even knows if it actually exists. But it's just it the way it teaches the player like Huber was mentioning, I think is just so freaking next level. In addition to even all of the writing in the small stuff that does may not mean a damn thing. Although I think that everything in this game means something. I listened to a recent the recent Besties podcast where I, Chris Plant mentioned interviewing the developer and ask and they're on a zoom call asking what was behind him on his like, you know. Oh, oh, you like movies? What movies that like I can't trying to see behind you on your zoom call or whatever. And he mentioned three different movies and, and, and Chris Plant was like oh, what's the. Well that's a weird kind of combination of movies. And, and he said well they all came out in the year I think it was like 1940 so. Or 1950 something. And that was my address when I grew up. And they're like oh, you are like the guy.

[Nick Scarpino]

Oh, you're living the game like and like it.

[Michael Huber]

It's so crazy. And I, I, I definitely got some details there wrong but it was like, wow, you are this. No wonder you made this type of video game. Yeah, I, it's one of those weird experiences where everything feels like it is so purposeful and just the curiosity that it, it develops with you to want to start that next run even though you thought this run is going so great. Holy. I'm kind of goated right now. I have so many items and things and then you run into a brick wall and you go God damn it. That, that's a little bit frustrating. But what's one more run right now? And it just has that roguelite thing which I think can turn some people off and can maybe discourage people where they go man, you're for having a puzzle game that is so reliant on knowledge and putting things together to add an RNG aspect to it may be a bit too much for me. I think it's just a, an awesome culmination of all these different aspects of game design.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, dude. Andy, I've never had so much fun not knowing what the hell I'm doing. Like I honestly, it's okay to just go in and just fumble around I like, I just went in and I was like, I'm just gonna start building rooms that look cool and try to get to the top. And then as you just do that very basic function, you start learning.

[Michael Huber]

Right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And yeah, yeah, just that, that, that one more day type roguelite element speaks to me so much. And it's just another game. Like. Go ahead.

[Michael Huber]

I was gonna say it's like the start of a Hades run when you go.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Exactly.

[Michael Huber]

I'm starting off with this boon and I guess this is going to be a fire run.

[Nick Scarpino]

We're gonna go change the entire.

[Michael Huber]

We're focusing on all this and the, the trappings are all there where when you start off with the first three rooms you could choose from and you go, oh, cool, this is a great starting three. I'm gonna go with this one because I now have this strategy that I've been and developing for the last couple of runs and I, I know Barrett Beaton and Barrett loves it as well. Barrett, what? I mean, you've already reviewed it, but you know, give us some more thoughts on Blueprints is a good game, Real good.

[Barrett Courtney]

Sorry, I wasn't expecting to be put on the spot like that. Yeah. Tim, you asked the question earlier if like, is it anybody, like confident in like this being the one I said on our review once I had given it a 10 out of 10 masterpiece. It's gonna take a lot for any game this year to dethrone Blueprints as my game of the year. And like, you know, that's with a new Mario Kart. That's with a new 3D Donkey Kong game coming. Like, there's a lot of stuff.

[Nick Scarpino]

You know how stacked this year is.

[Tim Gettys]

Yes.

[Barrett Courtney]

And I think Blueprints does everything so well and whether it clicks with you or not, that's a. I feel like a different conversation. But for me in terms of, yeah. Starting up this game for the first time, not really knowing what the vibe was, but kind of just vibing out to it and just getting lost. And then. Yeah, Huber, like you were saying, slowly, without the game tutorialize, throwing tutorials in your face, subtly teaching you the mechanics and language of the game in really smart, fascinating ways. And I think something that shouldn't be understated is that like, yes, getting to this room 46 in a 45 room house is your ultimate goal. But you are going to naturally find a lot of other mysteries and puzzles that even if there's a run where you get so close and you're like, gosh darn it, but Hey, I, I did unlock these three different rooms that have something going on, so maybe if getting to the end is a wash, let me go play around with some of the other stuff. And there's so many different. Different threads to pull on and then.

[Michael Huber]

Excitement of permanent upgrades too.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

And like there are permanent upgrades and all this stuff, but different threats to pull on that might actually loop back to the main thread in really cool, engaging ways. I think the way it tells, you know, it's not the most complex story or anything, but I think the way it tells story with like this family surrounding this house and all this stuff is really, really cool and natural in ways that I haven't felt in a video game in a while.

[Michael Huber]

It's so interesting, man.

[Barrett Courtney]

It's so. And like, I, again, I have not gotten back to it. I need to get back to it. I'm. I only like roughly 20 hours in and I know there's so much more to explore after rolling credits and, and all that stuff, but it, it is a phenomenal game. So it's good game.

[Michael Huber]

I got so many goddamn screenshots on my laptop. Like, I have so many notes screenshots. And I got my little Greg Miller notebook out. Like it is. It's such a cool time to. To zen out. Out after a stream where I was just like banging my head against the wall fighting a boss or whatever. It's. It's really cool to just kind of. All right, this is my, this is my just chill out time. I, you know, the music, it's just a very kind of weird, unsettling. It's. It reminds me a lot of when Greg Miller played Gone Home and said at every moment you think this game's going to be a horror game, and it's not.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And every time I get to the den, I vibe out.

[Michael Huber]

Every time I get into the, the. The photo lab, the dark room, like, the dark room terrifying. I run to the door to open it up because the power turns off. It scares me every time.

[Barrett Courtney]

Have you talked to the thing?

[Nick Scarpino]

Yes.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, I talked to the thing once and a couple times. It's like, oh, this is kind of weird. And like I'm getting kind of like weird vibes. But then there was one time where it was like, look out. Watch out while you're walking around this house. And it's like, what the. That run turned into kind of a horror game for a second where I'm.

[Tim Gettys]

Like, do I need, do I need.

[Barrett Courtney]

To look out for myself now? Like, oh, the way it can shift vibes too, in, like, subtle music cues. Because certain rooms will have, like, you know, if you open up the. The. The church or whatever, you know, you're gonna get a bit more of, like. Like, kind of church, religious music, whatever the. And then that can kind of shape, like, how you're feeling about a run or, you know, you get, like, what is it? Like, a. One of the green rooms? And then it's a bit more, like, vibey and chill. You're like, oh, yeah, like, I'm having fun. And then, yeah, you get to, like, one of the red rooms, and you're just like, oh, God, everything is awful and sucks. And, yeah, it's so cool.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah, I got code, and I think I was the first to start it here, and it was one of those. I put other requests, and I was waiting, and I did, like, an hour, hour and a half of it and immediately sent Blessing the message of, like, dude, this is your shit, and you haven't requested a code yet. You want one, right? But it was the idea of, like, it's a notebook game, and I can't wait to get back to it because I enjoyed what I did, but I didn't have a note. I forget if I was on a plane or if I was doing something, but I was doing it on Steam Deck, and so I didn't have all my faculties ready to go. And it's that right now, working the Monster Hunter junk out of my system, where it's like, I finally have time to play something that I'm not reviewing. I'm pouring all that, but I'm hoping to burn that out and then get back to it. On a day where it is like, Ben's doing whatever. I can have a cup of coffee and I can sit here with a notebook and go. Because I loved what I played.

[Michael Huber]

He's in the blessing with a toaster. Get him out of there.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yes. I believe Kevin might have to correct me, because I know him and Kevin have been going back and forth. I believe Bless either just finished it or is very close to finishing it, so. Or getting to, you know, the. The main end goal.

[Tim Gettys]

Kevin is obsessed in a way. I haven't seen him with the game in so long since Breath of the.

[Barrett Courtney]

Wild, like, and that was before my time, but I remember the stories of him whenever he's running a show, always playing Breath of the Wild or, like, staying up until 2 in the morning playing Breath of the Wild crowd. And that is Kevin with this game.

[Tim Gettys]

Dude, you know, Kevin is obsessed with something when he gets to levels of comfortable. You've never seen him before and that's saying something. But I love it because he'll just be sprawled out on the couch just.

[Nick Scarpino]

Like guys PlayStation portal.

[Tim Gettys]

He's ready dude. I love it.

[Nick Scarpino]

Programming note right now. I mean everything's subject to change but I don't think this one will Monday, April 28th we are planning a blueprints spoiler cast. So very cool.

[Michael Huber]

If I if I beat it. Yeah, could be done.

[Nick Scarpino]

You want to come back? You want to be back on it?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'd be on for sure.

[Nick Scarpino]

I'm putting you back on.

[Tim Gettys]

We're going to take a quick break for a word from our sponsors, but when we get back we are going to talk about my game of the year so far and also all of yours. You've been super chatting in. I want to get to all these please. If you have more super chats get them in with your game of the year so far and we'll talk about that. But we will be right back this episode's brought to you by Imperial We've told you all how important it is to developers to wish list games you're interested in on on Steam. So if this game sounds cool to you, make sure that you wish list it. In Imperial, you play as a mercenary sent to a distant planet to discover the mysteries of an ancient civilization. Powers unknown lie within the monolith, but those are no mere ruins as an expedition has already ventured inside with only a few survivors. Why was it built? What powers reside within who is at the center of the Monolith? All these secrets and more will be uncovered if you are brave enough to take on Imperial. Imperial features a unique blend of RPG systems and skill based combat across three weapon the Acrobatic Glaive, the defensive but devastating Mace and Shield, and the powerfully ranged cannon. With a deep ability system and extensive customization. Every battle is an opportunity to refine and optimize your combat style. Form relationships with each of the few surviving expedition members who all have their own personal quest lines. Whether you choose to help or not can have drastic consequences for them. The Monolith is guarded by powerful automatons, each with distinct attack patterns and weaknesses that demand precise execution and strategy to be victorious. Create your mercenary, enter the Monolith, learn powerful abilities, defeat the automaton, and uncover the secrets that lie within Imperial Imperial is available May 8 on PC, Xbox S&X and PS5, but you can wish list now. Do it Wish List Imperial this episode's brought to you by our frames. If you haven't called your mom in a while. Here is your reminder to do it. But then, if you want to go above and beyond. Mother's Day is coming up and I have the perfect gift idea. Our frames are incredibly smart and easy to use use, allowing you to upload unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame. Plus 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. It's a gift so special they'll use it every day. Trust me. Gia's dad does. Greg and Kevin and a ton of people here at Kinda Funny are obsessed with their aura frames. It takes about two minutes to set up a frame using the Aura app and I know that from experience. Experience Ara has a great deal for Mother's Day. For a limited time, listeners can save on the perfect gift by visiting aura frames.com to get 35 off plus free shipping on their best selling Carver matte frame. That's a U R A frames.com promo code. Kinda Funny. Support this show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. And we are back. So far, 2025 has not been the biggest Tim Getty's game year. You know, I feel like there's many things coming down the pipe that I'm like, oh, I hate you so much. I hate you so much.

[Nick Scarpino]

Three stars some would say are coming down from your little tree.

[Tim Gettys]

He's gonna take it from me so quick, man. I have a lot of things coming out the the rest of the year that I am very much looking forward to. New things like Mario Kart World and of course Donkey Kong Bonanza. All the Nintendo stuff that that's, you know, what I'm here for. The Hades 2 exactly like is going to be the meteor we're all waiting for. In addition to that, some of my favorite games of all time are being remade. We're getting the remaster of Onimusha too excited for that. Even more so. Even More so. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4, you know, Delta Gear Solid Delta. Like that's the thing is like I have a real remake, heavy year and like I'm cool with that. Like that to me speaks very loudly. But of course I always am trying to lean towards Game of the Year. Like the actual game of the Year. That should be something new. Unless the remake or remaster or whatever, not even remastered. A remake goes so above and beyond in a Final Fantasy 7 type way where it's essentially a different game. So we'll see where we end up with all of that. But so far, I would say my game of the year contenders are Split Fiction and South of Midnight. And going into this, I'd say Split Fiction is one where I loved my time with Greg playing the game thoroughly. And I love Hayes Light. I love what they do. I don't think it quite hit the level of this is my game of the year, and I really stand by that. And it's my number one or even, like, I don't even know how high it's gonna be. My top 10, I imagine, but I actually don't even know it will actually, like, maybe that's where I'm at. It's not a. It's not a lock for my top 10 this year, and that is a little disappointing. I really loved my time with the game, but I expected to love my time with the game. So I'm gonna go with south of Midnight. South of Midnight, to me right now is my favorite new game that I've played this year. And I really, really loved my time with the game. And more so I love my time after the game reflecting on playing the game. I am a music lover. You guys know that. I love music from movies, from video games and all this. And I think a lot of it comes down to what music does to me and what music allows me to do, which is reflect on moments and memories that I have that are positive, negative, emotional in any way. Right. And I know that I loved an experience, whether it's watching something, playing something, when I hear a music cue and it triggers the memories of experiencing it for the first time. And it's rare that newer games give me that. Every once in a while it'll happen. And I feel like with the big, highly produced stuff, the God of Wars and Last of Us Is and all of that, it's like, I'll hear music you, and immediately I'm taken to that moment. Even the Jedi games recently have done that as well. Well, this game is absolutely full of it. And I've been listening to the soundtrack for the last couple weeks, and I just keep getting brought back to the different moments. Oh, my God. Anytime music starts playing, I get triggered because I think Greg's doing some. You know what I mean?

[Barrett Courtney]

I just wanted to shout out how good Tuto Tom is. Like, I was. That track was stuck in my head for days.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

So good.

[Tim Gettys]

And. And I keep listening to these songs. I keep thinking about the. The boss fights or just like the. The. The parkour moments or whatever it is. And I went back and just played through some of these moments again just because I'm like, so I want to be back there and do it again and. And I'm just so satisfied with the world that they created here and how much fun I had experiencing the story for the first time and then sense that many times over going back to it. I know it wasn't everyone's favorite thing ever and I do understand a lot of the. The criticisms of some of the gameplay. It's the type of game I like a lot though. And I feel like it really is going to be a game that years from now I am rocking for. And I think that as time goes on, I'm only going to enjoy this game and my memories of it more and more. The further I get from the things I didn't like, you know, because I said this during my review and I stand by it now. Like, I'm not going to remember not loving the running around as the little guy over and over or not thinking the combat was deep or whatever. Yeah, you know, I like the Crouton questions a lot, but I am going to remember all the things that I love about it and the, the world and the story and the characters and I really hope we get a sequel. So, yeah, so far that is my game of the year. And I'm also really happy seeing how much people seem to be enjoying the game and now that it's out, you know, like now it's past that initial critical reaction of like, reviews and like talking about it with, with our people and everything. It's like, oh, people are vibing with this game. And I'm like, cool. I'm not crazy. Like there's, there's other people out there that are vibing with it as much as I did. So yeah, really, really thrilled about it. But I do think there are many games to come this year that are going to dethrone it.

[Nick Scarpino]

But south of the Midnight deserves that time in the sun right now, deserves that spotlight. That is a game that again, you know, we talked, I thought had a really excellent review on with lots of different perspectives on it. And it is something that I hold in my heart as what a great ride that was. I enjoyed that game so much and I love that game despite any of its faults. Like, I thought that game was awesome and something really special. And I'm glad, like you're saying, so many people are connecting with it, so many people are playing again. You know, we talked today about oblivion in Expedition 33 and like it, but does that oblivion, bringing people to game pass. Make them go, oh, wow. And expedition. Oh, wow. And south of Midnight. Oh, wow. Avowed to keep them around longer to get those, you know, dips in there.

[Tim Gettys]

That is a very optimistic perspective on that. I said it's a question. I appreciate it. I appreciate it, but I'm so concerned about expedition.

[Michael Huber]

Careful. Careful, Tim. Careful.

[Tim Gettys]

Be careful.

[Michael Huber]

He's got another note. He's got another note.

[Nick Scarpino]

I didn't want to do it.

[Michael Huber]

Another handwritten note from somebody from Chicago.

[Nick Scarpino]

Quote by this. Thank you, Brad. Quote by this, my sword. I swear, Tim shall win this challenge and possess the stars forevermore.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Great.

[Nick Scarpino]

Clive Rossfield. Sorry, Greg.

[Tim Gettys]

There we go. Oh, man. Andy, I forgot.

[Michael Huber]

I. I'm gonna get those three.

[Tim Gettys]

There's been so much going on the last couple months and games coming out, movies like, everyone in and out. Did you play south of Midnight at all? Did you give it a shot?

[Michael Huber]

I booted it up, but I was playing Kazan at the time, so I didn't really hop in a whole lot. It was one of those. I booted up just to see how it looks. And then I played kind of a couple of first combat encounters, and I was like, not what I want right now. And also, I. I'm just, like, really bashing my head against the wall with Kazan.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. Yeah. Huber, what about you? Do you play Solid Midnight?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I booted it up, but I was playing Kazan.

[Michael Huber]

There it is.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. I mean, dude, you're the king of swimming in, man. This is the game for you.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, I'm. I'm actually. I know. I'm actually really far. I'm like three fourths of the way through. And I love south of Midnight, and I love that you. You are repping it. And just like the games we've brought, because I'm thinking about just like the Pillars of Godey and games and what we love from a game. And it's like blueprints. We got those puzzles and explorations. South of Midnight, we got just this story and this emotional world. And then like, Monster Hunter Wilds is like, you'll get that dopamine grind, get that combat, hunting those monsters. So just like, all of these elements of games from the ones we've picked here. Just loving it.

[Tim Gettys]

It's cool.

[Michael Huber]

I think, booting it up. Also, Tim, I had that almost immediate, like, this element. Doesn't make me stoked of walking around the house and going, huh, My old laptop computer mouse. Used to use this all the time when I was in school. Huh. My old laptop used to love this.

[Tim Gettys]

Using it with my mouse.

[Michael Huber]

Like, I just like games need to stop doing that, man. Like, I.

[Nick Scarpino]

We had to set the stage or.

[Michael Huber]

Figure out a better way to implement those little sections. In the same way Cameron. Cameron Kennedy always hates the slow walk in between the crevice, which, like, I totally understand as well, like how overdone that is now, now. And it's mainly done for, you know, a lot of performance purposes, but those little like, optional things I just like, it's become such a staple in third person action games and I just. There's gotta be a better way to do it. Totally better way.

[Barrett Courtney]

I will say, like, the writing does get better after that because that was a weird first impression for sure.

[Michael Huber]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Let's get to the super chat, see what y'all think about Game of the Year so far. Dolphin Coin says I'm a big Huber head. Glad to see him on Kind of funny. Of course, you got to be the biggest fan of one of the most positive forces in video games. One of my favorite people in video games. Let me just say that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yo, Tim, real quick. Is Super Mario Party Jamboree the best Mario party of all time? I'm ready to say it right now.

[Tim Gettys]

My problem with Mario Party, we've talked about this. They start to blend for me and I don't even remember so much though, which is the best one, which is the worst one? Like, even what my feelings are, are. I honestly think that the easy answer is yes, because it is just the most refined and has a lot of the classic maps that we like and just the classic games that we like and all that. So it's easy to say that. But I also feel like the best Mario party of all time is which one did you play with your friends the most? You know what I mean? Because that. That's what it's all about.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So. Right. You're so right.

[Michael Huber]

Also, this has nothing to do with a Super Chat, but this is a totally aside, a total aside right here. Tim. Very happy for the rematch beta which had118,000 concurrent players on Steam only. And like, I hope this game is a huge hit because all I can think about is C2 or whatever the next. Whatever the next thing that they will fund with that. Like I. The. The game rocks. I had such a fun time streaming it with Mike and.

[Tim Gettys]

And.

[Michael Huber]

And blessing and the fact that this can possibly be their little golden goose. It just kind of prints money for them for future things that we really, really want to see from them. Even though this is awesome, I I. I'm just so, so unbelievably stoked for Slow Clap that a lot of people are really jazzed up about this video game.

[Tim Gettys]

That is an excellent point. And those numbers are incredibly impressive. And I'm so stoked about that because I remember, you know, a couple years back before Hades 2 was announced, there was a lot of conversation of, like, what's Super Giant gonna do next? Are they gonna continue to just put out new ip or are they gonna do a sequel to the biggest hit ever that, you know, was either so close to or for many people, game of the year status and such a win. And they went with 80s too, which I think we especially now can agree was the right answer. What is that for Slow Club? Is it Sifu too, or is it something new? I hope it's seafood, too.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Sifu, dude. One of my favorite games, dude.

[Tim Gettys]

Me too, man.

[Barrett Courtney]

Know, I give them Daredevil or.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, hey, this. The gameplay style of the Seafood. I'm.

[Michael Huber]

Yeah, with that art style with all the. Dude, Sifu is just so unbelievable, man.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

S the best, dude. Sifu's the best.

[Tim Gettys]

Bobby Joe says Kingdom, Kingdom Come Deliverance two's got to be my game of the year so far. Excited for Expedition 33? Yeah, obviously. Lot of love for Kingdom Come Deliverance, too. Not much from the people here, but.

[Michael Huber]

It was a bad time. I was playing about when it was out or when it was kind of coming out during that review period. And also, I think maybe some emails got missed where, like, Greg was like, yeah, I requested a code for. Because I. I was.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah, we didn't. We only got one code, I think, for preview, or.

[Michael Huber]

I was like, a late request and Greg was like, yeah, they haven't gotten back to. I think, like, things just got. Got. Got caught lost in the shuffle. And then a vow came out. Out. And I wish I could pause time and put a lot of time into Kingdom Come Deliverance, too, because I really enjoyed the tone and the vibe and the characters and the writing and all of these really kind of annoying mechanics that I don't necessarily find annoying because I love how they're going for that extra level of realism. I. I wish I had more time to hop back into that game.

[Nick Scarpino]

Same thing where it was like, I. You know, I'm always, like, talking about how much I love open world RPGs and choice and all this stuff, and people are like, oh, my God, Kingdom Come. You can come. And it was that thing of when we started and I played that first hour the way the Granularity it was going for. I was like oh, I don't know if I want to get this into the weeds. And it was the same thing similar to blueprints. If I didn't have time to do it at that moment it was something I was looking for a quicker hit. And then yeah vowed came in and again that is that more top level. I I have it on my Steam deck. I'm ready to go.

[Michael Huber]

But it runs Grant Steam deck too.

[Tim Gettys]

Huber, you play Kingdom come at all or any of the easy allies.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Same exact thing where I played like five hours but then had to hop onto something else. But definitely one of those ones I really want to go back to because it, you know, I remember a lot of people comparing it to Red Dead 2. Just the sense of exploration and kind of just wandering around outside and just, you know, feeling the sun on your character and just yeah just finding all these little, you know, secrets and discoveries. So definitely want to get to that before the end of the year.

[Tim Gettys]

CJ splits on says slow year for me so far but gun to head Monster Hunter Wilds.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. Tom Texo says getting the three diggies from my wife later. Oh, three diggies from my wife later. Thanks Greg.

[Nick Scarpino]

Oh, you're welcome.

[Michael Huber]

Oh Jesus.

[Nick Scarpino]

That's your game of the year, Everybody.

[Tim Gettys]

Man Chocolate Fox 9 says my game of the year is Dynasty Warriors. The nostalgia hit hard. Hell yeah. Love to see yo.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's the best Dynasty Warriors I've played. Yeah, I, I, I always, I've always tried to get into Dynasty Warriors. Origins is the one. Dude, that one is sick.

[Tim Gettys]

Mike. So happy for Mike. So happy. Jen. Jen. ZFC says blueprints is good and at some point I felt I had enough for game of the year but lately I feel the game is unfair and in my opinion doesn't have enough juice to become epic. Yellsing says I don't think it's possible for a game to usurp Monster Hunter Wilds for game of the year. Even after getting the platinum, I still can't get enough.

[Michael Huber]

I really want to, I really want to dive deep into Expedition 33 after playing that that preview and somebody who's not into turn based but the you're.

[Tim Gettys]

The most anti turn based person I know.

[Michael Huber]

I mean you know, you just got to wait for so long Huber, you know what I mean? Like you control the buttons you press Andy. Like you know, you just got to wait there while things Strategy. Yeah, exactly. But the way the sound design and the way those Perry felt and performed and everything that game is doing visually just seems so similar and I really enjoyed the characters and the moves and everything is like, oh, I'm gonna lose a lot of time to this video game.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I'm very excited as well. Alec Bobko says for new releases, probably blueprints or split fiction. Overall though, I think I have to go with Hades 2. Finally beat Kronos a couple months ago and it felt so good.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh man.

[Tim Gettys]

80S too. Mad Rock says unless I get caught up in the RPG vortex with Expedition 33, Hades 2 is going to be my game of the year for the second year in a row. Super Giant continues. So to fucking kill it. Bj Bernardo says, first of all, shout out to my goatee blueprints. But also thank you for convincing me to try Citizen Sleeper 2 and south of Midnight. Hell yeah, man. That's what the show's all about. You know what I mean? Celebrating the video games, all of that. So enjoy. BJ.

[Michael Huber]

I also love how incredibly well developed Hades 2 is. And I, I've the last 20 hours of me playing because I'm like 90 hours in the last 20 hours of me playing, I'm just like, look, I appreciate you all have put this much unique writing into your game, but like I'm just trying to get to another run. Like there's so much dialogue in this game. It is a, it is a feat that they are able to pack this much new things every time something happen, every time a new run is completed. But for the again, for the last 15, 20 hours, it was like speed past it. Like I, I really appreciate this amount of love you're putting into this, but holy. I'm just trying to get back into another run.

[Tim Gettys]

And then the final super chat for the day. Costa says we often look at nominations nominees during strong years and say in any other year they'd win. How many of the top five is from last year could have won if released this year so early? Yeah, that's the thing is like, I think the answer is, yeah, there's gonna.

[Nick Scarpino]

Be a whole new crop of games that could have won this year when we get to the end of the year.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I do think that. I mean, at least personally for me so far this year, like we had a lot of bangers, but I feel like a lot of the bangers last year like are in the conversation as well.

[Michael Huber]

Prince Versa, Lost Crown.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Michael Huber]

Rebirth.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, totally. I mean for me, I'd put those easily above south of Midnight, Shadow, the Earth.

[Barrett Courtney]

Would we be having that same. Will we be having those same conversations though? If GTA 6 comes out this year and post Mario Kart worlds and all that stuff. Right?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

I'm still a doubter on GTA 6 coming out this year, but like, like, I know humor is very much. It's coming this year, but you know, coming.

[Michael Huber]

If I'm playing in 30 frames per second on my console, that out of my face, dude, vomit all over it. I don't give a damn.

[Nick Scarpino]

God damn.

[Tim Gettys]

I know I said it was last one, but one just snuck in here. Riley said, hey, y'all love the show. Greg, you're. You're going to waste stars in the bank. So besides blueprints and aow, what other game of the year should I contender? Should I play on Game pass for PC Oblivion today?

[Nick Scarpino]

Right?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I mean, that's a great call. I would say give Salad Midnight a chance. See if it's for you. It's on Game pass. And I mean, you know, Andy was bringing it up earlier, but Expedition 33, like, with the demo was awesome. And that's on Game pass, which is awesome. Yeah. For them.

[Michael Huber]

So later this week, go back to get a time machine. Go back to last month and play and beat Lies of P while it's on game pass as of last month, but it's already off a game pass.

[Tim Gettys]

We also have Doom coming out in a couple weeks.

[Michael Huber]

That's crazy.

[Tim Gettys]

That's crazy.

[Michael Huber]

I've been replaying Last Be though. What a game. Like, God, what a great game.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, it's so good.

[Michael Huber]

Andy getting stoked for this DLC, which we still don't have a date for. Summer 2025 is still what they're saying. It's like, what? Keely.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Keely will drop that date on us. He's like, yo, here it is.

[Michael Huber]

But is it gonna be a Shadow Drop? Yeah, that's right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Shadow Drop. But he'll be like, yo, it's coming out. The trailer will hit and it'll. It'll be. There'll be a date there for sure.

[Michael Huber]

It's so bizarre that we still don't have one, but God damn. Like, man, making your own weapons. I'm going with the A. I'm forcing myself to not go strength build and go with something more dexterity or whatever. And holy, it's just so cool. Crowd taking the handle from that one weapon because it does a certain animation, but then mixing it with this other blade that has a sick ass kind of R2 special. Dude, it is such a great video game, man.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Wrench.

[Michael Huber]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Thank you so much for hanging out with us for today's episode of the Kind of Funny Games Cast. Let us know in the comments below what your game of the year so far is and which ones you're looking out for that you think might take the crown at the end of the day. Michael Huber, thank you so much for hanging out with us today. You are always welcome here at Kind of Funny, but besides here, where could people find you?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, just at Michael P. Huber on Twitter X or whatever. And then yeah, just easy allies and occasional min Max.

[Tim Gettys]

So. So there you go floating around once again. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, we're about to do our Last of Us episode 2 spoiler cast. So hang out for that. If you're on Twitch, stay where you are. If you're on YouTube, you got to make the jump. And then after that, Greg's going to be playing Oblivion for the very first time. Exciting stuff here at Kind of Funny. Until next time. Love you all. Goodbye.