Two BEST FRIENDS Talk About Video Games - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast
Episode: Two BEST FRIENDS Talk About Video Games
Release Date: July 2, 2025
Hosts: Tim Gettys, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye, and Andy Cortez

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Introduction

[00:07] Mike kicks off the episode by welcoming listeners to the "Two Best Friends" takeover of today's Kinda Funny Gamescast. He introduces himself alongside his best friend, Andy, and collaborator Barrett, explaining the sudden host change due to scheduling conflicts within the regular cast.

Notable Quote:

Mike: "Hey, Mike and Andy, do you think you could do the games cast together? And I smiled and said, of course."
[00:52]

Behind the Scenes

Mike and Andy delve into the logistics of hosting the episode, mentioning their responsibilities such as creating thumbnails and managing upcoming content. They humorously discuss the challenges of balancing personal commitments with podcast duties.

Notable Quote:

Andy: "I ranked and just sort of spoke very eloquently about the two newest Mountain Dew summer flavors. Just a blind taste test right there."
[01:22]

Personal Anecdotes and Humor

The hosts share light-hearted stories, including Mike's humorous account of planning content but forgetting his ideas after watching a movie. They poke fun at each other's gaming habits and physical appearances, maintaining a casual and comedic tone throughout.

Notable Quotes:

Mike: "I got a story about a Bomb Pop that you'll never forget, but I'll save that for later."
[01:41]

Andy: "I think you two look phenomenal in this hoodie."
[12:00]

Focus on Dune Awakening

A significant portion of the discussion centers around Dune Awakening, a favorite game of the hosts. They elaborate on game mechanics, personal progress, and strategies. Andy expresses enthusiasm for building and decorating within the game, while Mike shares his immersive experiences exploring the game's expansive world.

Key Points:

• Base Building: Andy discusses his passion for constructing and decorating in-game homes, highlighting the meditative aspect of building.
• Gameplay Strategies: Both hosts talk about navigating the game's PvP and PvE zones, expressing excitement over recent updates and future content possibilities.
• Community Engagement: They emphasize the game's strong community support and the potential for collaborative gameplay.

Notable Quotes:

Andy: "I love building so much in this game, so why not build a second one? I love the visuals of it so much."
[15:34]

Mike: "This is one of our favorite games of the summer."
[16:10]

Shoutouts and Acknowledgments

The hosts take time to acknowledge and celebrate their team members, especially Bless, whose birthday is upcoming. They humorously discuss Bless's gaming prowess and express admiration for his multitasking abilities.

Notable Quote:

Mike: "We gotta give him a quick Happy birthday shout out. Happy Birthday, Bless."
[07:46]

Game Ranking Segment: Blind Ranking of 2025's Upcoming Games

In an engaging segment, Mike and Andy participate in a blind ranking of ten games released or anticipated in 2025. Using a randomized list provided by Barrett, they assign their personal rankings based on their excitement and interest.

Process:

1. Randomized List: Barrett provides a randomized list of ten games from a pool of 34.
2. Ranking Criteria: The hosts rank the games from most to least anticipated based on personal preference and gaming interests.
3. Dynamic Adjustments: Throughout the segment, they discuss each game's merits, potential gameplay experiences, and personal biases, leading to lively debates and adjustments in their rankings.

Notable Quotes:

Andy: "I might go right in the center at number five."
[54:40]

Mike: "Crimson Desert is my number one. 100%"
[75:09]

Final Rankings:

Mike’s Top 10:

1. Crimson Desert
2. College Football 26
3. Subnautica 2
4. The Outer Worlds 2
5. Ninja Gaiden 4
6. Wheel World
7. Baby Steps
8. Dying Light: The Beast
9. Wu Chong Fallen Feathers
10. Madden NFL 26

Andy’s Top 10:

1. Crimson Desert
2. Ghost of Yote
3. Ninja Gaiden 4
4. The Outer Worlds 2
5. Subnautica 2
6. Wheel World
7. College Football 26
8. Dying Light: The Beast
9. Madden NFL 26
10. Baby Steps

Discussion on Game Mechanics and Industry Insights

The hosts provide insightful commentary on game development trends, monetization strategies, and community engagement. They compare different game genres, emphasizing the importance of balanced gameplay mechanics and the impact of player feedback on game improvements.

Key Topics:

• Monetization in Rematch: Discussing the potential for in-game purchases and customization options.
• Live Service vs. Single-Player Games: Debating the merits and challenges of maintaining player interest through continuous updates.
• Game Difficulty and Player Retention: Exploring how varying difficulty levels can enhance or hinder player experiences.

Notable Quotes:

Andy: "I need to get very, very honest with the times with Bless because sometimes you may be asked to play a game you're not super stoked about and you gotta play it."
[08:17]

Mike: "This game is not so heavy on survival mechanics, which is what I love the most."
[22:17]

Conclusion

Mike and Andy wrap up the episode by reflecting on their rankings and the diverse interests that shape their preferences. They express gratitude towards their listeners and tease upcoming content, maintaining an upbeat and inclusive atmosphere.

Notable Quote:

Mike: "This has been the Two Best Friends podcast. We took over today's Gamescast for Wednesday, July 2, 2025. Take care, be safe, and be good to one another. Until next time, goodbye."
[84:50]

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Key Takeaways

• Strong Bond: The chemistry between Mike and Andy showcases their deep friendship and shared passion for gaming.
• Diverse Interests: Their varied preferences highlight the broad spectrum of video game genres and the importance of catering to different player bases.
• Engagement and Community: Emphasizing the role of community feedback and participation in enhancing gaming experiences.
• Upcoming Games: The blind ranking segment provides a snapshot of anticipated titles in 2025, reflecting current gaming trends and player expectations.

This episode serves as an engaging overview of current gaming discussions, personal anecdotes, and insightful rankings, making it a valuable listen for gaming enthusiasts looking to stay informed about the latest developments and trends in the industry.

Transcript

[Mike]

Yo, what the heck is going on, everybody? Welcome Back to the 2Best Friends podcast, talking about the best video games and the best of times spent together. It's Mike and Andy, my best friend, and we're back taking over today's kind of funny games cast for Wednesday, July 2, 2025. That's right. It's just Mike and Andy in the studio alongside with Barrett, and we're taking over today's broadcast and podcast now. Andy, be real really quick. Had a lot of thoughts in my mind last night about how I wanted this podcast to go, because last week they were like, hey, we got a lot of people out. A lot of people out. What's gonna happen here? Hey, Mike and Andy, do you think you could do the games cast together? And I smiled and said, of course.

[Andy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mike]

And they were like, what should you guys talk about? And I said, don't worry about it. We'll just talk about.

[Barrett]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike]

And now I'm in the Uber on.

[Andy]

The way over here because my car's in the shop.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And, you know, Roger's like, can you do the thumbnails? Because I. I'm. I have a doctor's appointment. I'm like, I got you, big dog. And then. And then Greg's like, hey, we're pivoting a bunch of stuff. Can you do Greg Way? I'm like, I got you, big dog.

[Barrett]

Y.

[Andy]

And I made, like, two different thumbnails. I up on one of them. And for the Greg way. The Greg way is probably going up very, very soon.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Andy]

I ranked and just sort of spoke very eloquently about the two newest Mountain Dew summer flavors. Just. I got to taste them. So, you know, blind taste test right there, and then. Whack. Some poetic. Yeah, yeah. Summer. It's. One of them is Bomb Pop, and the other one, Infinite Swirl Pineapple Berry.

[Mike]

I got a story about a Bomb Pop that you'll never forget, but I'll save that for.

[Andy]

I don't know if I want to know that. I think I'm. Okay.

[Mike]

I'm gonna tell you about that Bomb Pop later. Andy, it's you and I talking all things video games, and unfortunately, I'm tired.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Mike]

Unfortunately, I can hear it. Unfortunately, this is not how I want it today.

[Andy]

I can hear it.

[Mike]

But we're here, and we're just gonna have to kind of put up with it. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there I was last night, thinking about so many cool ideas for you, and I. And I need you to know that I forgot all of them. I didn't write them down fast enough. And then I watched a movie in the beanbag chair and I forgot everything.

[Andy]

Sometimes you think they're gonna stick up there and they don't. Yeah.

[Mike]

I was like, that's a good idea. And I was holding it strong, but then I forgot about it.

[Andy]

Ooh, I noticed you wearing the Den of Wolves hoodie.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

What'd you say?

[Andy]

So the thumbnail that I made. Ok. Was meant to be. It was an image meant to be on yesterday's thumbnail. Ok. And I was like. Because at first I thought the only news on Gamezilla yesterday was that Outriders was almost finished. Outriders 2 was almost done.

[Barrett]

Stop.

[Andy]

And it got canceled.

[Barrett]

No.

[Andy]

Yeah. Big news yesterday, Mike. I would writers to near. Near nearly done in development got axed. That was one of the projects that got ax. So I was like, oh, I'll do a recreation of the snow. Mike Mike thumbnail that I did of you during when you're looking really, really sad and depressed.

[Mike]

Halo.

[Andy]

So I had Tim take some photos of me and I'm. I'm wearing that hoodie. Ended up not using that image yesterday. But I was like, oh, I could use it today for me and Mike's thing. I'll look super depressed. I'll have an image from one of Mike's YouTube.com show Mike Mike thumbnails where he's like, looking all happy.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And then Roger says, you better not be wearing that hoodie because I'm wearing it today. And I said, like I give a. You know, like what? Like anything you could tell me could affect me. But it seems like he's going to have some beef with you now. Yeah. And he respond. I don't know if he.

[Greg]

You saw his response to like I give a. He said, bro, I'm going to. I'm going to embarrass you in Modern Warfare 2.

[Mike]

You don't know about. You two have to do one v one on rust snipers only. No knives. And like, I'm. If today's the day we do it, I'm down to watch this. I'll commentate it. We'll watch it. Best of three, first to 11.

[Andy]

I gotta watch Jurassic Park Rebirth.

[Mike]

Like, you got game, though. You can get a map. We'll cut this podcast so short, we'll be ready to play this, you know, like, you won't even believe because that's what went down this weekend. You two look phenomenal in this hoodie. You know, I mean, we won't comment on me. I Gained eight pounds in five days. Let's not talk about that.

[Andy]

Which I don't believe. I don't think that that's true. This guy. The numbers are.

[Mike]

That's a team. That's a team of scale. Scale.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

I don't want to talk about landing.

[Andy]

It's not accurate, Mike.

[Mike]

I mean, that's like the heart rate monitor. Oh, Mike, your heart might explode. It's 177. Resting at 155. Do you think you're going to die? That's all fake.

[Andy]

Some real scientists out here, you know, Roger. Yeah, you know, Roger, I was joking about that because they. My twitch shot last. Last night let me know about the eight pounds gained.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And I said first, I was like, there's no way. There's. That's not possible scientifically. Like, he was walking a lot, and they were like, anybody? He ate a lot. I was like, nah, but, you know, science. And then I. And then it took me back to when I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago, and he was like, all right, let's get you weighed in.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And I was like, all right. And I, like, took my jacket off, and then I took my Bluetooth little. My. My headphone case out. Take that off, put my wallet out. And the whole time I'm looking at him and I got. I know that he's singing, dog. That doesn't.

[Mike]

None of this matters. Please stand there.

[Andy]

Yeah, stand on there, you fat ass. Like the. Your. The two keys that you're taking out of your pocket do not matter in this way. Yeah. Unfortunate.

[Mike]

Yeah, I unfortunately, you know, I should have taken off all my clothes in front of Roger. I would have weighed in differently. Is right.

[Andy]

You had heavy clothes from the sweat. You know, it was really heavy. The liquid pack, you know, the liquid boils.

[Mike]

Exactly. I also have a bubble in my. In my leg.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And then I also have a bubble on my belly. You felt that bubble? Yeah, it's moving.

[Andy]

You asked me to feel it twice.

[Barrett]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mike]

I almost had Ben Starr feel it, but that's for another story. And I watched a bad movie last night. I wanted to play games. I sent out the rematch invite, of course, Gary Whita put us in a discord and a group text message to play rematch with him.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

I said, gary, I can't play all weekend, but the moment I'm free, I'll do it. I did respond. I said, gary, I'm free. No response back. You responded, I'll play tonight, too. No response.

[Andy]

No. Gary did respond.

[Mike]

Well, he was like, hey, they're me up. But he never said yes.

[Andy]

He already had it. Well, I think it was by that point a little bit too late. I had just finished with Lies of P and I knew. All right, I got Games Daily tomorrow. I got my. My car service thing. I'm going to wake up extra early. Let me cut things off a little bit early.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

But as he was leaving, he said he's down to get this going because we want to start the the 5v5 comp squad.

[Mike]

I want a YouTube video on our channel that says from going from bronze to gold with Gary Witta and we just battle. You know what I mean?

[Andy]

You see, Ludwig, we had a good couple games. Me bless.

[Mike]

You got game.

[Andy]

Me bless. Widder and Adam. Like, we started off awful. I hadn't played since the beta.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

But we got things going.

[Mike]

I haven't played at all for this whole launch. So I'm excited to jump in.

[Andy]

It was my first time yesterday playing since the first betas.

[Mike]

I mean, you were nasty though.

[Andy]

We got. We really good.

[Mike]

What are you seeing? Footwork wise. Meta wise.

[Andy]

Now let me tell you, the meta.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

As much as I said, this will be a. As close to a medalist game as possible.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

The meta is.

[Mike]

They're doing something. I know.

[Andy]

The meta is when you have two people rushing towards a goal, one of them is a ball handler, right. Handling balls kick off the wall, of course to cause the goalie to freak out. And then the rebound, the other kicker will be there to kick it in.

[Mike]

We knew that was so we.

[Andy]

We immediately went down like zero. Lost quickly due to that sort of strat. But then bless. Here's the thing. I wish we could clone Bless because bless is our the best goalkeeper. But also when he's not on the field, things aren't happening. So we need him in both places.

[Mike]

He's doing everything.

[Andy]

Yeah. He's the. The best at all of it.

[Mike]

We gotta give him a quick Happy birthday shout out. Happy Birthday. Bless we with. We wish we could clone you because you could be here right now.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Joining the two Best friends podcast.

[Greg]

Should we figure that out today for his birthday?

[Mike]

Cloning them up?

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

He'd be really thankful for that.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

He wants to be everywhere. He wants to play Magic the Gathering. He wants to play more rematch. He wants to be on podcasts. He wants to stream. He wants to write YouTube videos. He wants to do game showdown. Here's my thing about we need about seven blessing clones.

[Andy]

Here's my thing about blessing streaming. And I've been meaning to get. I need to get very honest with him.

[Mike]

You want to get real with.

[Andy]

I need to get very, very honest with the times with blessed because sometimes you may be asked to play a game you're not super stoked about and you gotta play it.

[Barrett]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andy]

There have been more than a handful of times that we're like, oh, bless. We'd love to have you on. Ah, I'm good. I'm not super, like stoked about that.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

So it's like blessings to understand that the horizons need to be broadened. Right.

[Mike]

In the streaming world. You gotta try.

[Andy]

Yeah. You know, there's times where Mike, you have to play a pve game you're not super stoked about, but you're there.

[Barrett]

Y.

[Andy]

You know, and we've been. We've been big timed a couple times.

[Mike]

By bless Couple of big time.

[Andy]

More than a couple times with streams. So, like, that's just something to kind of keep in mind.

[Mike]

How was peak yesterday, you guys?

[Greg]

Also big time bless a couple of times as well.

[Andy]

So I feel like that's. That's kind of.

[Mike]

Yeah. But like, we evened out the big timing because I gave a whole day to bless in dune where he'll never return to. And me, Andy and Nick, we were.

[Andy]

Going that us and like that.

[Mike]

That slow momentum, that's like Mike and Andy pull up to the starting line. We are two drag racers right there. We're going to rip this thing and blessing and as it turns green and I hit the throttle. But like, hold up. I want to be a part of it. And I had to rewind.

[Andy]

Like, you're not even in shape. We got to get. You got to get through the right shoes. We got to like it really us. That day, our dune awakening journey was really, really halted there. I heard that you're kind of done with dune awakening.

[Mike]

No, no, not at all. I just haven't played at all. I'm worried that you guys are ahead of me. Well, where are we at?

[Andy]

We're definitely ahead of you, but I'm not as ahead of you as. As everybody else.

[Mike]

You got a buggy?

[Andy]

I just built one.

[Barrett]

You.

[Andy]

I haven't done.

[Mike]

You don't got a copter yet, though.

[Andy]

Don't got a Thor? No.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Mike]

Okay, then we're in. We're in. We're good.

[Andy]

I'm gonna get this orthocopter. Well, so Washi and Kevin, Ax and Maddock, I believe are already mining on the the southwest area, which is apparently the hell zone. Is that the cave I Don't know.

[Mike]

I. I went into a cave with Washi and it was like the coolest experience around. That dune game continues to impress pink crystals. Yes, the pink crystals.

[Andy]

That shit was cool.

[Mike]

Yeah. When you go into the cave and you get lost in there. Washy and I were doing that, and it's like. Just like it happened to us during the marathon stream game update in an hour and a half. You got to get out. And Washy, it's scary. The buggy's already slow enough. And to go from the southwest desert or east desert to where we live was a long ride. While she's over here panicking, we got it. We got to hustle, Mike. We got to get out of here. Like, Washy, let's just.

[Andy]

Let's roll the dice.

[Mike]

Yeah. You know what I mean? Let's stay a little bit longer. And next thing I know, we're. We're mining the aluminum stuff. We're mining the pink crystal stuff. And I'm telling what. I'm like, let's just chill for a little bit. We made it in with, like, five minutes to spare. We survived. I'd like to see aluminum cool.

[Andy]

I've yet to do the aluminum stuff because the pink crystals turn into cobalt paste. We're getting really nerdy with doing Awakening.

[Mike]

Right. We have to. Because it's. It's one of our favorite games of the summer.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Yeah. I. But, like, there's something for the aluminum that was in there. Or you know what it was? It was something that I hadn't got yet because Washy wanted the pink crystals, but I needed a rock because I'm less than y' all. That was, like, higher than the two rocks that we've been getting because we've been getting copper and ore. Right. There's one more above that that I had not been getting. That was plentiful.

[Andy]

It's something about. Something about, like, air. It has something to do with, like, an air. Yeah, maybe a. It's. It's. Cuz you use iron and the other thing to make steel.

[Mike]

Carbon.

[Andy]

Carbon. Air.

[Mike]

Air, dude. God. You had it, bro. And so we found some of those rocks in there. And I was like, washy, like, let's do it. So we're putting it all in the trunk.

[Andy]

That buggy, dude, that holds everything. That's how I made my big move. I moved to the new neighborhood.

[Barrett]

No.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

So you put it all in the.

[Andy]

Buggy, Dude, I put everything in there. It held everything down.

[Mike]

That's brilliant.

[Andy]

There was so much space.

[Mike]

So where did you Go on the map. Can we get a Barrett, I know this on the fly. Can we get a map?

[Andy]

But also, you should know that we want the dune map right now. Like, you got to read Mike's mind.

[Mike]

I mean, Kevin, you got to be on there.

[Andy]

Kevin, you got to be on there. Okay. We don't have a graphic. Like. Well, no, you didn't prep anything. Well, you got to know.

[Mike]

You got to read this mind, bro. I'm going a million miles an hour. You know, you gotta feel it.

[Andy]

We would love the Arrakis map, Barrett, from Dune Awakening.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

I want to talk about our home.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And where you've gone. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

So the hilt. No, the helm, the something.

[Mike]

The next place we're going.

[Andy]

What's the big base in the middle that has that?

[Mike]

We've been at the Anvil.

[Andy]

Anvil.

[Mike]

The Anvil.

[Andy]

The hill to the helm. It's the Anvil. I'm on the east side side of the Anvil.

[Mike]

So you're still. Okay, so for viewers watching out there, and if you're listening, we're describing the map. You start in the south basin down there. You move up to this western gap up here or the eastern gap if you got lost. But we're in the western gap.

[Andy]

You can read that. Good for you.

[Mike]

Yeah, thank God.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

You know, there's a couple times. Barrett brought up a couple tweets earlier, and I'm like, am I about to ask Gary to read this right now? So like, thank God I'm Gary, you take this. You got it, Gary. I can't read that. Why don't you read that? So now we're in the western gap. And it's funny because you see the Anvil up on that top right side, that big green marker.

[Andy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike]

We've been over to the left hand side of that is where we kind of move towards. You're telling me you move just. Why to the Anvil, Then you're still in the same area as us?

[Andy]

Because it's a quick. Oh, sorry, not the green. My bad. The yellow on the. On the right. The icon on the right in eastern. Vermilion gap. The yellow icon.

[Mike]

Oh, you really moved.

[Andy]

Yeah, because we're on the left island, Mike.

[Mike]

Yeah, we're on the western gap.

[Andy]

No, no, we're on the eastern gap.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

Yeah, we're in the eastern. But we're in the big land mass to the left of the end.

[Mike]

You're right, you're.

[Andy]

So I just moved to the right side because it's A real short jaunt.

[Mike]

To get to the rift to.

[Andy]

To all to the pink crystals.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

The erythrocyte or whatever the hell.

[Mike]

That's smart.

[Andy]

That's smart.

[Mike]

That's.

[Andy]

It's a quick little journey.

[Mike]

So your thought was let me move the base to make my movement time.

[Andy]

I hate always driving around thinking about.

[Mike]

Making like an outpost a second based a smalling mining post.

[Andy]

I love building so much in this game, so why not build a second one? I love the visuals of it so much. I. I probably should do more out. Well, what we should do is all just make each other's houses each other's houses because that becomes other outposts for our friends.

[Mike]

Of course.

[Andy]

But I. I just love building so much and it was so meditative. It was the first night of you and Raj playing. I had you on a little mini screen and I was just building to my heart's content. Which by the way, give it up for Micah, Roger for freaking it.

[Mike]

We freaked it number two.

[Andy]

And thank you all to everybody in the chat for all the massive support for that Shining 2 stream.

[Mike]

Keeping the lights and mics on, supporting us. Thank you to Andy. Thank you to Kevin, Nick, Andy, Joey. You get double shout outs for you. Thank you Greg, Miller Bear. We missed you, but we love you. You tuned in as well. But yeah, we had a lot of support from the whole team here. Great merch too. Great merch. We sold some special merch. But yeah, thank you for breaking us your second screen experience.

[Andy]

Yes.

[Mike]

Because, yeah, we brought it and a nice move. Okay.

[Andy]

I'm just building a beautiful house. Yeah, it's, it's, you know, great. Great walking score on Zillow. There's a lot of great schools around there for the kids.

[Mike]

Can we talk about the house building? You and I have played a lot of these survival crafting games. A lot of. A lot of wood shacks in our day.

[Andy]

Right. Of course.

[Mike]

Now we've upgraded. We're in the sci fi world. How do you feel about the building stuff? Are you getting everything you want? Have you gone to your point of your building where you get more into the Sims with like home decor? Are you still keeping it pretty? Hey, this is an empty giant room, but it's got a lot of refineries. It's got the workstations.

[Andy]

The home decor is definitely an option. I'm more all. I'm all about the lighting. The lighting is. So I'm. I'm mainly decorating with lighting in Dune Awakening.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Like the. But the, the different structures that I'VE been kind of experimenting with on the, on the roof pieces and messing with different shapes and stuff. I'm just, I'm having such a blast with the building aspect of it and I'm, I'm so behind because I have been putting off the deep desert, which is the big PvP zone that recently got an update.

[Mike]

They got a big update. Big update.

[Andy]

You know, a lot of fans saying, I don't want to just do PvP. And you know, I think Dune Awakening would be one of the most perfect games for me if, if they took more liberties with a Dune IP and said, hey, what if we also had like monsters that you fought?

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Because you're fighting humanoids.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Of course. You're fighting normal sized humans.

[Mike]

Sand lizards and. Yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

I want, you know, I, I think it would be the perfect IP if, you know, obviously me saying taking liberties with, with the Dune ip, that's probably going too far. But if it was any other IP where it's just your desert based third person shooter, like, I would love to fight other stuff than just humans, scorpions, weird spider bugs.

[Barrett]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

It would be cooler to have, you know, more memorable boss fights of you going through a big ass cavern and having this crazy dungeon with these awesome layout, having a big boss at the end of it.

[Mike]

Starship Troopers. Yeah, that would have been the killer ip.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

You know what I mean? Like, dude's got the name and the hotness right now, but Starship Troopers, you can just add a bunch of crazy bugs and then have boss fights with all the wild bugs that you could.

[Andy]

Think and still be dealing with human factions and raiders and things like that, but also dealing. I would just love more enemy variety, but they already took enough liberties of the Dune IP by making this an alternate reality.

[Mike]

I'm excited because I think I want to change your thought, your mind process here with, with the outer desert, the PvP zone, to get you a little more excited because I look at that like the dark zone from the Division. I want you to start thinking dark zone division extraction moments.

[Andy]

Right.

[Mike]

Especially now with the new update where half of the map is PvE and then half of it is just PvP. I want you to start really thinking of like, let's get wacky with the extraction moments here where it's, hey, we're in the safe zone, but we're going to choose to go up there for 30 minutes and we're going to risk it all. You know what I mean?

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Instead of, hey, I'm just moving to PvP and they could tear down everything I've ever had.

[Andy]

Right.

[Mike]

It's more like, no, we're going up there in the buggy and we're praying to God that, like, nobody sees us. And if they do, we're in an intense firefight. Hopefully we make it out.

[Andy]

I'm excited to at least try it out.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

But I am not excited for it to become the norm. Like, this is where I'm at now at the end game. This is by far the most I've spent since Icarus with the survival game.

[Mike]

True.

[Andy]

You know, like, I'm. We are deep in this game.

[Mike]

I feel like the. I feel like once we hit the deep desert, that will be the end time for us with that game. But I'm enjoying every moment until we get there.

[Andy]

I want to. I want to get a new sniper because a new sniper requires aluminum, and we don't have that yet. I want. The weapons are so fun to use. They're so satisf. Their sounds are great. The, the way that my base is built out now because you told me about the grappling hook, I, I, I park my buggy in my sort of what is. What is kind of like the bottom floor of my house. But the only way to get into the house is either through the front door, stairway, or from within my house. I grapple up into my house. So it's just like a quick little. And, you know, now I'm in the top floor. It's just so much fun. The movement's great. The abilities are awesome. I would have never thought that I would have fallen this hard for Dune Awakening.

[Mike]

It's so good, Chad. Don't forget, this is today's kind of funny games cast. Of course, we'd like to thank our sponsors, Cash App and Mood. We'll talk about them later. And our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney Twining. With a new nickname, the Psalm.

[Andy]

We looked it up. Me and. Bless you. Can I get a. Yeah, the sommelier wine.

[Mike]

Oh, the sommelier.

[Andy]

Yes. Oh, sommelier.

[Barrett]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

When I say sommelier.

[Barrett]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

I had sommelier yesterday. Why did I do that?

[Mike]

I don't know that one.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Mike]

And what is that? Just like the game vibe, like.

[Andy]

No, he's a sommelier.

[Mike]

You know what? I think you're right. We've spoken with Delaney Twining and that's their job. They got like a family winery.

[Andy]

Bless mentioned wines during the. One of the Patreon calls or something.

[Mike]

I didn't think of that.

[Andy]

How did I say sommelier I don't.

[Mike]

Know if I've ever said that right.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

In my life.

[Mike]

Somalia.

[Barrett]

Okay. Yeah.

[Mike]

I'm so glad that we've been deep in the Dune as, like, a fun family collective. It's been really, really fun. I'm. I'm truly blown away that that game is that good.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

I cannot believe how good this game.

[Andy]

I think it has a really fun loop and I. It's easily the most surprising game that I've experienced in 2025.

[Mike]

Game of the summer.

[Andy]

I mean. Yeah, I can't stop playing it. I booted it up. When you and Rod start your stream on Friday.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

I started up on my PC over here, and Nick's walking by me going, you fucking asshole, dude. Like, I hate your ass so much. I want to go in there and play. I was like, well, they disconnected the PCs. And he's like, that's. He was so angry, dude.

[Mike]

Every time he's disconnected, he's all about it. Nick is like, he's got to be the furthest behind. You think he's in front of me?

[Andy]

He's furthest behind. No.

[Mike]

Yeah. He can't be in front.

[Andy]

He hasn't. He hasn't booted up in a while.

[Mike]

So have you unlocked all of the skill tree now? Not meaning like, you've unlocked it all, but, like, have you finally found the people to then progress it? Because it's interesting of there's five different classes we'll call it.

[Andy]

I think I'm being progress blocked and.

[Mike]

You can progress blocked.

[Andy]

Yeah, I think there are a couple of other missions that need to open those up for you to go meet.

[Mike]

The sisterhood and be able to progress that higher.

[Andy]

I did a mission for them.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

Went back to them. By the way, thank you for tuning into the Dune Awakening podcast for all the wakers out there.

[Mike]

Come get doomed.

[Andy]

Yeah, I. I did go back to talk to them after I did a mission, and they were like, hey, cool, I'm glad you did that. Yeah, I'll have something else for you later. And I don't really know what that means. Nothing has popped up since then, so I'm assuming maybe I gotta do the next big things that we have on our.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

So you haven't made it to. We got the Anvil, but there's another spot where it says, greatness awaits.

[Andy]

No, I haven't done that yet.

[Mike]

You haven't gone. Oh, man. You've been really holding back on the mission.

[Andy]

Yeah, that's great.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Mike]

Yeah, I like that. Yeah. The mix of mission Structure with that MMORPG type of vibe with the survival crafting. It's just a hit combo.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

A hit combo.

[Andy]

And it's not. It's not so breathing down your neck with the survival mechanics. That's what I love about it the most. There are some games that are way too easy on that shit.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

There are some games that don't stress that enough to where it feels like, well, this is even really a survival game where a. But like I love that the amount of times in other survival games where we. We are mid. In. We're mid story mission and you go, oh, time to progress to the next part of the mission. And you God damn, I gotta eat. Oh, dude, I'm starving. And that becomes the whole journey of should I didn't pack it. Whatever. Yeah. The fact that this game is not so, you know, survival heavy and it's always a. It's a delicate balance.

[Mike]

It's a give and take.

[Andy]

It's a delicate balance to make me not want to go. I gotta find like a setting that lets me turn this off or. Or make it a bit more chill. I think. I think at moments Valheim was maybe a little too intense with the survival stuff.

[Mike]

Read my mind. I was just gonna say that. Oh, I'm okay. I was gonna go with Icarus was too intense.

[Andy]

I think Ark was a little too intense.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

As well.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

But then there are other games that are way too lenient where I'm like, well, I still want to be reminded every now and then.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

You know, let's talk about rematch really quick. Let's switch gears now. Rematch. You talked about kind of the meta kicking it off the back wall. How are you feeling with that? Where are you at? Right. Like you're the striker. You got the big foot. Have you been playing goalie? How many times have you played since launch? Where are we at with this game?

[Andy]

I played once since launch.

[Mike]

Does this game have the juice?

[Andy]

I think it does.

[Mike]

I feel like it does. But like at the same time it almost feels like it doesn't. And maybe that's because I'm not playing it but like, I don't know. There maybe. There's so many games that I thought this game would ascend to greatness and it doesn't feel like it's ascended quite there.

[Andy]

Well, I mean they. To sell a million copies in a day and age where everybody expects. I mean 3 million players with game pass. But yeah, selling a million I think is such a massive mark for the devs of SIFU in A day and age where everybody expects their games to be free to play like they're in. In any other. I always go with like the multiverse argument. And in all the other multiverses, there's everybody complaining, this game needs to be free to play.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

It's going to die. It's got to be free to play. You like, the fact that they put out these successful betas showed people this is worth being on your radar. If you care about sports, if you care about soccer or football. If you give a. About that, we're going to give you two different betas to kind of try it out and selling people immediately. And they going, oh, I got to play this. When it comes out. And it comes out 30 bucks, whatever it is, I'm. I got to buy this. I got to play with my friends. I. I think that they are in such an amazing position to succeed and keep on getting better. Now the stuff that you kind of start to worry about is like monetization and customization because you got to buy like, haircuts, you know, you gotta, you know, they. There's not a whole lot of.

[Mike]

How much can you sell, though? Like, let's go on the flip side. They don't have. It's such a bare bones, like, just straight up game that there's not much to sell.

[Andy]

Right.

[Mike]

Of like, I. Shin pads, socks, shoes, headbands, jerseys, and your haircuts are really the only things you can sell here. Right.

[Andy]

I think there will be full player skins.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

Because one of the alternate skins you could be is like the coach, whatever.

[Mike]

So, like, Messi will be there.

[Andy]

I think they will. I mean, the fact that they already did this partnership with Ronaldinho.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And I don't even. I don't know if he's actually in the game or not. I don't think so. But like the. I think that's where you go next. I don't really know how else you can monetize because this isn't a game with a story like the. The season passes. Seems like a kind of an odd thing to do. Unless he's already introducing new arenas to look at. It's. It's such a bare bones product. But the. Those bones are so solid.

[Mike]

You know, they got a Puma partnership that they just had. Oh, so that's exciting.

[Andy]

Ronaldinho is a skin nice. Okay.

[Mike]

So it'll be very interesting to see. I mean, yeah, I'm. I'm down with all of it. I just. I guess I thought it would just be more of a global takeover but it's there for sure. But I thought it would be more of a global takeover.

[Andy]

I mean, I don't think it can be a global takeover without the FC license. Like without, without FIFA or whatever they're calling it now. Like, I'm very, very angry when it comes to soccer, but without those big names and clubs, I don't think it ever hits that sort of status. But it'll still be. I still think it'll be Rocket League big. Where Rocket League still being like, Rocket League is a free to play game and it's still always doing numbers and people are so dedicated to that. I think this builds a fan base like that.

[Mike]

I guess I thought it was a.

[Andy]

Pretty big base though.

[Greg]

That's still a large expectation, I would say.

[Andy]

Well, no, but what I'm saying is I still think it like generates a fan base like that that starts to go towards that. Unless you start getting all these big other companies going. Maybe we should do something like that.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And we have the licenses and we have the ip.

[Mike]

Because here's the deal. You saw the recent news. Both, both the teams now are teasing NCAA basketball.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

EA Sports of course, coming back. But 2K had a tweet that was like, we be teasing something like, hate it. Really.

[Andy]

I mean, I just hate it. I'm excited for whatever EA is gonna do.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And this, you know, this sounds like, oh, pick the one big, you know, gigantic, gigantic conglomerate over the other one. But like it's no secret that I really hate 2K's practices and what they do.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Monetization on the NBA side of things. And also just because the last several times that we played it, the last several iterations, it just felt like doctor to play online. So it's like, man, you have such a, you have a product that's making so much money and it still feels like to play just in a co op match with friends. Like, why is there so much delay on everything with them going? The campus has been kind of quiet recently. It's like, oh God, no.

[Mike]

We'd be paying them kids now we're going to the campus.

[Andy]

That's what me and Black now we.

[Mike]

Can go to the campus.

[Andy]

It's like nil's massive. Yeah, let's get these big deals with these college athletes. We can pay them, they can be on the COVID now. I like, you know, competition breeds innovation. But I just don't know if there's any innovation to be had here. I think it'll, it will just be.

[Mike]

The reskin of this. Just like we always talk about. Yeah, it's the. It's the exact same game at its core. There are light tweaks. This game runs faster than the other one and you have the pageantry but like it is just Madden NCAA football. The same thing. 11 people versus 11 people. You play in the game, you're going.

[Andy]

To be on the campus mini game to play beer pong over there. Like, oh God.

[Mike]

Do you think they one day do NCAA baseball? Nah, the show team does like a little mini.

[Andy]

I don't think so.

[Mike]

NCAA baseball, World championship, something like that.

[Andy]

I don't think if anything I would just see NCAA like larger teams being included in the show.

[Mike]

Well, they have that.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Yeah. They've been slowly including more and more. Yeah, that's right.

[Andy]

Yeah. I'm just not super okay on that.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

I don't know.

[Mike]

Well, here's. I mean we're getting more. A little more room and playing rematch possibly ncaa, maybe NBA street one day an NFL.

[Andy]

What do you think? I don't know.

[Mike]

I mean I don't think I'm always going to be the one screaming for street and blitz, but I don't think we will get that. As Washy likes to tell me, the NFL has really tried to make a move away from the word CTE and any sort of vision of people getting concussions. So I don't think we will have blitz where Mike is throwing the people's elbow on guys that are.

[Andy]

Those intro videos are so cool though, man. You just watch every player get their fucking life destroyed.

[Mike]

Like I don't, I don't think we're in that world anymore of that unfortunately. But I think the gameplay is just so much fun. Right. You bring up rematch where it's like you can speak to an audience that's like, I don't want to play Madden, Mike. I don't want to play 2K. And it's like, well, this is different. It's still soccer at its core, but it feels different. It's more fun and easier to jump into. I think NBA street is definitely poised for that. You have so many stars especially hey, LeBron's getting up there. Andy time strike now with the LeBron on the COVID NBA street before he's gone because homie's getting out soon. He might coach the Knicks.

[Andy]

What's like now he ain't no like without me saying they still don't have a coach. It's crazy.

[Mike]

Coach and player.

[Andy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike]

But yeah, I'm hoping for some things like that. Let's talk Liza P. Oh, yeah. You finally beat this or what? Why am I waiting on this?

[Andy]

Well, finally beat the. I mean finally beat the main game.

[Mike]

You beat the finally not where we at?

[Andy]

I'd already beaten the game before. OB. Yeah, like I. A lot of questions around people coming to my twitch and going like, wait, you haven't beaten this yet? Like, no, I. I started a brand new playthrough in anticipation for the dlc. Then the DLC came out. I beat the DLC that rocks. That needs to be played by everybody, beat the dlc, beat the DLC and then continued and finally beat the. The rest of the game.

[Mike]

So this will be your second time beating the main game.

[Andy]

Yeah, second time being two. Okay. A lot easier this time around because the DLC got me a higher leveled.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

And the DLC was definitely tougher than I thought it'd be. But then that kind of. That got me higher leveled for the rest of the core game. And the bosses, that took me two and a half, three hours last time. First tried them both. Like yes, in an instant. It was such a short stream yesterday. And then I tried out the boss rush mode which is brand new to lies of people.

[Mike]

What's that like? Like bloodborne?

[Andy]

No, they just let you. They just let you. No, no, no. They just. They give you a list of all the bosses and each boss has five difficulties and you can replay any of the bosses that you want the name.

[Mike]

You put me in the arena there.

[Andy]

Yeah, it's a cool way to re experience that because it's always a frustration with. With Souls games because, you know, all right, well, I'm playing on PC. I'm gonna have to download a mod in order to. If I do want to re experience this. Right?

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

There's a lot of bosses that are so awesome. It's like, oh, I would love another chance at that with a different weapon or whatever. But I love the idea of once you clear the main game, you can hop in. There's the full ass list of everybody difficulties.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And five is the hardest. And they, you know, the. They realize. I think that's what's awesome about Neo is. And Round eight is that they look at the hardcore souls and action adventure or whatever community and seeing that there's a big appetite for challenge runs, there's a big appetite for no weapon only fists or what. You know what I mean? Like there's all that sort of stuff out there. And so introducing the ability to fight every boss at five different difficulty levels I think is super cool and just a fun, neat Way to add more content to your. To your playthrough.

[Mike]

Yeah, Yeah, I like that. Now what does it look like weapon wise? So like the boss trust mode is unlocked after I beat the game. Yes, I do it anytime. And once you beat the game, so what character is that? Pulling your character with your weapons, still.

[Andy]

Playing as your character. You're going to like think of it as like going to any bonfire. And at any bonfire, if you. As long as you don't start new game. Plus, yeah, you're starting with your character.

[Mike]

At change whatever you want each and every time.

[Andy]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Barrett]

Interesting. Okay.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Barrett]

Cool. Cool.

[Andy]

And then at the bonfire or the Stargazer in this game, you'll see the boss.

[Mike]

Now see, I want to play this dlc. I should just play all of Liza P. Because it's a great game.

[Andy]

You can't just play the dlc. That's the issue. You can only get there.

[Mike]

So where do you fall on this? Should DLC just be a. Hey, this is a standalone thing over on the side. You can just press start or do I really have to go get mixed up in half of the game to start this game? Well, when you fall on these, the.

[Andy]

Whole game kicks ass. Yeah, that's the thing. You know, if. If this were a situation where DLC kicks so much ass and it finally writes all of the wrongs and. And it, you know, it. It fixes the sins of the full game, that'd be one thing. But like the whole game kicks so much ass and you're only getting even better content with the dlc. Now I would say if you want to skip all the other stuff, you could, you know, download a mod that.

[Mike]

Gets you a certain free save over there.

[Andy]

It'll give you a save at a certain point and you could be DLC ready. But I think the game is just so fantastic. Like it is still got all the.

[Mike]

Cool moments where I break their weapon because I paired them. So hot.

[Andy]

So good.

[Mike]

They do that so good.

[Andy]

And the bosses are amazing and the story just gets better and better. And the, you know, a lot of people looking at the DLC as, as a. Oh, it's a prequel dlc. It's kind of like Dark Souls, right? But I mean, it's a. It's a. It really is like it's a time travel dlc. You're going back in the past and you're also changing in the future and you're realizing that like, oh, that thing's there because my dude from the past put it.

[Barrett]

What?

[Andy]

Yeah, you know, it has, like, those sort of awesome revelations.

[Mike]

What if I don't know Pinocchio?

[Andy]

I don't know Pinocchio either. You think I know this guy?

[Mike]

It's him. The woodworking guy. They got swallowed by a whale.

[Andy]

No, no, they weren't. That was in the main story.

[Barrett]

Oh, okay.

[Andy]

You know.

[Mike]

Yeah, I'm just. I'm just trying to remember, like, the. The movie. This has got it like that.

[Andy]

I mean, this has got a lot of little touch tones to other public domain IP of like, other tales and fairy tales and stuff like that. But, like, you don't got to know Pinocchio.

[Mike]

You don't need to know Disney's.

[Andy]

You just got to know that this game is about a guy.

[Greg]

What else do you need to.

[Andy]

I'm sorry, really?

[Greg]

What else do you need to know about Pinocchio?

[Mike]

I don't know any of the story of Pinocchio. I don't even know Pinocchio.

[Andy]

You know what happens when Pinocchio lies? No nose gets bigger. Yeah.

[Mike]

And he's wood.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

But in this real boy.

[Andy]

In this. They're automatons. They're all robots.

[Mike]

Okay, but he's a real boy. Or is he still a robot?

[Andy]

He's wanting to become a real boy.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

So the thing in this story. Let me. A quick little rundown.

[Mike]

Yeah, that's what I need to know.

[Andy]

Quick little rundown. The dude named Vanini, he's an inventor.

[Mike]

Got it.

[Andy]

In the world of lies of p. Inventor, he creates like this golden rule for. For automatons and puppets, you cannot hurt your creator. You got to obey all the laws, whatever the fuck, and that. But that somehow puppet uprising happens and all of the. The puppets. But they're. They're automatons. They're robots. They're like servants for your house or whatever. They go crazy. They start killing people. And it's like, how did this rule get broken? But the rule of robots is. Or these puppets are. They can't lie. But every once in a while, as Pinocchio in this game, you're faced with a decision of a person going, hey, that one NPC that you talked to earlier, did you say anything cool about me? And you'll be given the decision, should I lie to make this person feel better, or should I tell them the truth and say that whatever you know. And so you could lie. And then as you. The more that you lie, the more that you start becoming more and more human. And then suddenly it's like, what's really cool is there is. There's an Idle animation in the game where you're just standing still. And Pinocchio, he's a robot. He's doing, like, his little, like, kind of robot jittery or whatever. The more and more you lie, the more human you become, the less jittery you get. Like, there's little touch tones like that.

[Mike]

Is it like, my health bar is going down because I'm human?

[Andy]

No, you're just bleeding blood. No, you're just. Yeah, you. Let me. Let me tell you this. A little cat who's scared of automatons starts to warm up to you because you're becoming more human. Yeah. Okay, you're lying. If you're lying, you're dying.

[Mike]

Roger. I would. I love lying to you.

[Andy]

I love lining you, Roger. My favorite quote of 2023, Mellow Fellow.

[Mike]

Writes in and says, are you guys going to touch the hard mode in Night Rain at all? Sentient pest is out for the week today.

[Andy]

I didn't try. I hate it.

[Mike]

That, no, I will not be going back.

[Andy]

Absolutely not. I don't want a hard version of that, but I really want to go back because our friend Alana says that she wants to play it.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

And I'm always down for more Night Rain. I tried a couple of solo ventures recently. I was like, let me see if I can get to this.

[Mike]

Oh, you've been trying solo. Good for you.

[Andy]

Let me try. If I can get to this full gore guy or whatever his name is. The big guy on the horse. Horse. Horseman.

[Mike]

Oh, man. Horse man. Centaur.

[Andy]

Man. Centaur. Minotaur. And didn't even get there.

[Barrett]

No.

[Andy]

I'm just so bad at this game.

[Mike]

Oh, you got game. He told me you didn't make it tonight, too.

[Andy]

I don't have game. I have persistence.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And you don't like that? Like, oh, yeah, you. Once you start dying in this, the snowball effect happens.

[Andy]

It's. It's why I relate so well to Alex Garland. Talking about Elden Ring. Alex Garland is the movie director, Mike, of Civil War. He's gonna be the movie director for Elden Ring. He also did Ex Machina, and he did freaking devs, one of my favorite shows on Hulu. What's up? What's up?

[Greg]

Sorry, I didn't know he did devs as well.

[Andy]

Yeah. So Alex Garland is going to be. He's the one who signed on to direct the movie or whatever for 824 and was asked about Elder Ring recently, and he was like, there's really for him. I relate to his experience. He says there's no real getting better. It's like eventually if you give a bunch of monkeys a typewriter, they'll write Shakespeare. That's like saying. Right? And I relate to that so hard because, you know, the. I just get. It's not that I'm like super improving, of course I'm learning patterns and things like that, but I'm so persistent that I'm never really first trying dudes a whole lot. It's more. It's mainly like, no, I'm gonna stick here because I'm gonna beat your ass.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And I don't care how sleepy I am. I don't care that I'm two and a half hours into this. I'm going to get this one.

[Mike]

Believe in the Bill one.

[Andy]

But you can't do that in Night Rain. You die. You start over. It's like a 40 minute adventure. Got to start again.

[Mike]

I love it.

[Andy]

I love night Rain. I don't know if I'm going back for hard mode. Barrett, have you hopped back into. No.

[Greg]

If you need. That's why I was popping up originally is if you all need a third. I would love to put more time into it. I was talking about it on my stream last night. Like, I've. Between the beta and then since it has come out, I've only put in like 10 hours just because when it came out, it was a bad time for me to play anything new.

[Andy]

What's that?

[Greg]

But now.

[Mike]

Golden triangle.

[Greg]

The golden triangle.

[Andy]

Oh, golden triangle. Yeah, yeah.

[Mike]

King of tupelo right there.

[Andy]

Oh, gotcha.

[Barrett]

Hell yeah.

[Greg]

Now that you know, I'm on the other side of death stranding too, and stuff. Like I'm. I'm. I actually have time to. To play other stuff. So let me know if you need an extra night.

[Mike]

I still need to play as the Birdman.

[Greg]

The Birdman's my guy.

[Mike]

I want to learn the Birdman.

[Andy]

Dude, the Birdman is so op and just too boring for me, really. But so useful.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

Like, man, the amount of times I've seen clips of this dude just full blocking through the most crazy attacks that some of these bosses are doing. He's just thinking, like, anything.

[Mike]

See, I never block. I need to see. This could elevate my gameplay in all Elden Ring games.

[Andy]

Well, because he's got the special attack with. With the halberd.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

With the pokey. Sort of pokey. So like, so no, like, only he has this ability to like, as he's blocking, just be like pat, you know, like he's got a special Thing going.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

He's a really, really strong dude. I just never really love using the bird guy. Now what I'm excited about. Did this Bandai Namco showcase already happened? It happened already, right? I think it happened already.

[Mike]

Know stuff about it.

[Andy]

I was hoping they were going to give us news about dlc.

[Mike]

Oh, I. Dude, I'm surprised. You know, we should have dlc because.

[Andy]

There are parts of the world that do not turn into a living a shifting lands thing. Right. Because you have the top left with the snow mountain. You got the bottom right with the rock.

[Mike]

The volcano in the center, you got.

[Andy]

The bottom left with the city sort of thing. Volcanoes in center, top right, and bottom, middle. Don't have anything. What are those gonna be?

[Mike]

Do you think that needs to start rolling out? Like, I don't want to use the word live service, but, like, do you think that needs to start getting more updates than just hard mode now? Or like, hey, we got a new boss coming. July, August. How do we roll this out?

[Greg]

The showcase is happening literally right now.

[Andy]

Ah, okay. Well, I see they don't have anything noted there about Elden Ring. They only got Digimon Strange. Oh, My Hero Academia.

[Greg]

Another My Hero fighting game got announced.

[Andy]

Tower and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree Toa. But there's an. And more and more it could be a. And one last thing. It's never been a better time to hop into Elden Ring Night Rain because.

[Mike]

We got a new boss.

[Andy]

If there was, like, if they introduced not only nude boss, but, like, new nightfarers. Think about how that could change the night. No, just your homies, the ones you control.

[Mike]

Oh, you want a new character.

[Andy]

Yeah, I think that's something that they like. There's so many avenues of new content for this game.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

That there's just so many opportunities, so much like juice to be squeezed here. And that sounds like a negative. That sounds like, oh, you're just, you know, you're just milking this thing or. But for me, it's exciting. No, it's a live service game. This game kicks so much ass. The game, the bones of it are so good. My opinion of it only went higher and higher as we cleared everything. Like, we had such a great time fighting all those bosses, involving people in the community with. With, you know, putting your little passcode up and saying, all right, anybody join in? Let's. Let's do this. You know, like, it was an awesome time.

[Mike]

I'm so excited for this. Does this game get you excited for the PvP one on the switch?

[Andy]

No, because that's a different concept. I mean, I'm still excited because it's.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

A new fromsoft thing and it's Miyazaki led.

[Barrett]

I'm.

[Mike]

I'm pumped. I can't wait. The idea of, like, I always am thrilled when we get an invader, because that was him. Always excited when it's like, oh, you came into my world and you want to kind of bring it on me. Like, let's battle. I love the idea. They're going to experiment with. Yeah. Experiment with. All of a sudden, they're going to give us a map, like, night rain, and there's going to be eight of us or whatever the number is running around. And all of a sudden, I'm going to look at you, and you're going to look at me, and it's like, are you stepping to me right now? Are we going to wait till later and, like, we could collide? I love that. I can't wait to see that.

[Andy]

But I think the idea of an. Of an invader is exciting to me.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

The idea of the idea of having ever present other players.

[Mike]

Oh, the looming threat that, like, I've been watching you like a goddamn mountain lion, and I'm gonna strike upon you when you're fighting another boss.

[Andy]

Less exciting to me.

[Mike]

Oh, I can't wait. There's Andy fighting for his life, and Mike just taking photos like National Geographic. The moment he finishes that boss, I swoop down and he's like, oh, fucking Mike. And I'm like, gotcha, motherfucker.

[Andy]

And that's the last time I play the game.

[Mike]

I cannot wait for this video game to have those moments.

[Andy]

Well, the. The things that Miyazaki's been mentioning about that sort of playstyle. Right. Because this is all. Because he really thought Tarkov was cool.

[Barrett]

Oh.

[Andy]

And so the. The way that he's hoping to. To make it fresh is that there are ways that. To. To form alliances. Yeah, that. That. That go further than that. Are more than just a. A vocal. Hey, I'm cool. You're gonna be cool. All right. Let's be cool. That the way that he's talking about alliances seem more mechanically based. Like, there's going to be a mechanic or a system that.

[Mike]

Like Call of Duty War Zone. Remember when we used to be able to add team members together?

[Andy]

You want to roll with us, and.

[Mike]

All of a sudden you're in my party.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

That was crazy that there have been hints from him that seem like there's going to be something more to the. Let's squat up and take on this dude process.

[Barrett]

That's cool.

[Mike]

Somebody brings up Covenants and be really cool that if like we all chose from like five different covenants at the beginning of the game, right? You chose the Rat King, I chose the Lemon Tree or whatever the hell it is. I just made that one up. I don't remember the Covenants that well besides the Rat King shout out. But like every game has two of each and when you jump in, it's your goal to find the other Covenant person and maybe you link up and if you team up, you get a boost and then you run around together, but you'll never know. It's like among us imposter, you don't know who's part of your squad.

[Andy]

Or maybe I look at somebody, I'm like, oh, you have negative loyalty with the Lemon Tree Covenant. Like you this over in the past. I don't know if I want, you know, and maybe those covenants are the leaderboard sort of thing. What I, what I. What I really, really want is for Night Rain. I'm going back to Night Rain instead of Duskbloods. I would love for.

[Barrett]

The.

[Andy]

I think the way that these extra hard mode bosses have been rolled out, I wish that they could have rolled them out in a way that felt a lot more like how Helldivers 2 rolls out their stuff where it's more like, hey, these dudes are back and we got to go take them down like that. Like community led almost. There's a new threat out there. We all need to take this on. I. I think the idea of the way Helldivers does, not only the social media and the way they're marketing, but the way that they do. Looking at the map and seeing what's. How you are losing on the front lines and how you need to take this shit back. I want that more in games. That community Led thing is so sick to have logged on every day and go, oh shit do. We're back up to 73% control. That's awesome. Like, that living sort of thing is so exciting and kind of so immersive. And I don't know how they could really do that with Night Rain or anything, but I would love for that to just be in more PvE focused games in the future.

[Barrett]

I love that.

[Mike]

Yeah. My one request of Night Rain, try a limited time mode, a wild one where it's two groups on the map, but they can kill each other. I want a little PvP at night rain. We're still playing through the nights and like my night one and your night one are on separate sides but like eventually we will collide. Well and then winner gets to fight the big boss.

[Andy]

I think when it comes to the team stuff, the one thing I always kind of wished would be for there to be PvE Inva or PvP invasions in night rain where it's just like one person wants to go up somebody. Somebody's run in the same way that Margit comes from heaven to take you.

[Mike]

On and chase you up as invaders. When that team gets to day one or day two, instead of getting a boss, you get the three invaders and you got to fight each other.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And that ends the day. That can be just a fun little invasion.

[Andy]

That could be cool.

[Mike]

That could be cool. You know what is cool? More Best Friend Podcast coming up right after a word from our sponsors.

[E]

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[Andy]

And Andy, gonna rank upcoming games. 2025 seems really cool. Will their list be lame? Welcome everybody to a blind ranking right here where me and Mike are gonna do the Tick Tock trend where we are given, you know, we're given a list of stuff that we don't know what order they're gonna be in. But the list of games. I gave Barrett a big ass list of games.

[Barrett]

Hell yeah.

[Andy]

The rest of the games coming out in 2025.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

And he's gonna only give us 10 of them in a. In a weird randomized order. And then you and I are gonna put them in place to go. You know what? I'm gonna rank these from the games I'd love to play and spend the most time in to the games I don't really want to play a whole lot of. And you just gotta hope that you put them in the right spots.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

We did this on Tick Tock a couple times.

[Mike]

I like that. I love that. I love when you go inner Tick tock on them.

[Andy]

And you just gotta hope that you're doing it right. You just gotta hope that the right games are popping up in the right moments. Because if you put, if you put Arc Raiders at number one and then your. The rest of your list is filled out and only nine is left. And then Silksong pops up. You're an idiot. People are gonna laugh at your list.

[Mike]

What are you doing?

[Andy]

You know.

[Mike]

Well, let's do it. I'm ready to make a list with you, Andy.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Greg]

So this was a list of 34 games. I'm only giving you the. The top 10 of this random now randomized list. Your number one game to rank is Subnautica 2.

[Andy]

Okay, that's a real tough one because this isn't a bad game or this is something I'm Looking forward to.

[Mike]

I'm so.

[Andy]

But I can think of a lot of other games that I would put above Subnautica too.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Andy]

Now it's just like now this, now.

[Mike]

This hits your survival crafting type game and it's co op, co op, new underwater world for you. Did you play Subnautica 1?

[Andy]

I played a lot of it and the whole time I kept thinking, man, I wish I was coping this with Mike right now.

[Mike]

Just somebody. Yeah, dude, this game rocks now. So some news story that we'll probably talk about tomorrow on kftd. Rocking the studio over there. I believe, like some of the heads left that. So that's tough. But on the game, excitement for me and the game itself, very high.

[Andy]

This is, this is a tough one because I, I, you know, I know what the other games are coming out this year. I just don't know if they'll be in this top 10 that Barrett has randomized. I'm okay. Well, we're going from like games that we want to spend that we will spend the most time with to the least.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

The games we're most excited for to the least. Subnautica 2.

[Mike]

Hit me.

[Andy]

I might go right in the center at number five.

[Barrett]

I like that.

[Andy]

I think it's like right there for me. I'm going to put this at number five.

[Mike]

I love that. I want to play it safe and put it at four, but no, it's a Mike. Tick tock list. Subnautica two at number three.

[Andy]

Oh, wow.

[Mike]

I'm spending time underwater in this game.

[Andy]

Okay. I don't, I don't hate that either. I think this is like a very solid game.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

For both of our interests.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

It was an exciting one. All right.

[Greg]

All right. Up next is Dying Light the Beast.

[Andy]

Now this one, I'm not a Dying Light guy, Mike.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

I'm not a scary gamer guy.

[Barrett]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mike]

Don't want to get caught at this game.

[Andy]

I would hate to put this at number 10 and then like Dragon Drive pop up or some shit like that. You know what I mean?

[Mike]

True, true.

[Andy]

And you know, and that would make my list look like a joke.

[Mike]

Okay, hold up. I really like Dying Light. I love a good open world zombie game. You'll hear me and Roger talk a lot about Dead Rising and how much I love that franchise. One and two, three, four. We started going downhill. But I've always enjoyed Dying Lights because of the parkour from Assassin's Creed. Meeting that open world zombie game in a fun, fresh take. But I was really down on Dying Light 2, really? I did not like that story. I got kind of bored of the. The world there. I enjoyed what they were trying to do of, like, hey, make decisions. You can join this squad or this squad and we'll kind of update the world with different gameplay effects, deciding on what team you wanted. That really didn't. Didn't do that much for me. And so I'm actually a lot more down on Dying Light right now where, like, when I hear this game, I'm like, I don't want to play that right now. Yeah, I don't want to play that.

[Andy]

I. I fucked up putting Subnautica to that low. God damn it. I'm already regretting that. I'm going to put Dying Light at. It's going to be a quality game.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Mike]

Oh, okay.

[Andy]

It's going to be good. I think it's, you know, it's going to get like, yeah, eight, you know?

[Mike]

Is this the Beast?

[Andy]

Yes, Dying like the Beast.

[Mike]

Beast. And you're going to become a zombie this time. Like, you're going to go freak mode. Zombie.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

I think that's the whole selling point of the Beast is you got something deep down inside of you and you're going to lose.

[Andy]

It was you on the treadmill.

[Mike]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

It was your. It was your fluid packet on your calf. I will put Dying Light. I will put Dying Light the Beast at. I hate this. At number. Where are you gonna put it?

[Mike]

Oh, you want me to go first? I'm hard on this game. I'm gonna go number eight. That seems low, but such an open board. Maybe. This will probably fall in, like, a six to seven range for me, but this is an easy eight for Snowbike.

[Andy]

You know what? I'm gonna go eight as well.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

I'm gonna go eight as well. Yeah, eight for me as well. Dying Light. The Beast. I spelled that. Gliding light. Dying Light. I'm keeping track on my side just in case as well.

[Mike]

But also, big credit to that studio. Very talented, making some good open worlds. And the parkour mixed in with that. Very good.

[Andy]

Yeah, I heard. I mean, I always knew that the gameplay just based on everybody talking to me about how the gameplay felt good. We streamed it one time, and even when I played, I was like, man, this is obviously a very scary game for me.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

But, holy, this feels good to play.

[Mike]

Don't go out at night.

[Andy]

All right, game.

[Greg]

Y' all ready for number three?

[Andy]

Let's do it.

[Greg]

EA Sports College Football 2026.

[Andy]

Damn it.

[Mike]

So here's the fun one. I went to Orlando. I can finally talk about it. And I played NCAA football ahead of its release here in July. I also played Madden. We'll have a fun little Mike minute talking about all the deep dives that I went into. But I did go down to Orlando. I got to go behind the scenes. I got to get all the information on Road to Glory. I got to see what they're elevating on the next one, presentation wise and more, of course. Remember, every team is somebody's favorite team. And so we really worked hard on the pageantry the first time around to bring. I mean, first off, they brought the game back after, like, crazy 10 years. 15 years. That's back, right? They brought the pageantry. This year they're doubling down on that, making sure even more teams are in this sphere, making sure you have the fun and really identifying what people love. You love Dynasty. You love Road to Glory. We're going to elevate a lot of that in Road to Glory. Making your player kind of being the focus on that now.

[Andy]

Now are you going to be hearing more than.

[Mike]

Andy? You will be.

[Andy]

Wow.

[Mike]

Chuck that out the window.

[Andy]

Wow.

[Mike]

You heard about the Metallica contest, right? They challenged college fans all around the globe, really the nation, to put on for a big presentation. And whoever won got to team up with Metallica to make the theme song for college football.

[Andy]

Whoa.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Weird. Interesting.

[Mike]

So for me, college football is high. Everybody knows I have one request. Mike and Andy in my basement on the beanbag chair. You have a playing college football. I live in the basement. I'm a basement dweller. Joey, Joey and Katie sometimes see me crawling out the basement like I've got that Bigfoot. Like, haven't seen the sun in weeks. I'm gonna. You know what? Very high on college football.

[Andy]

Okay. I'm gonna put college football. I already. I've screwed up my list so bad. Why did I put Subnautica 2 that low? It should have been a 3 or a 4, but I'm already in this position. I've already kind of screwed myself. I'm gonna put ncaa.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

At number seven. I just have a feeling, Drag. I have a feeling Dragon Drive is gonna pop out.

[Mike]

Okay. Okay.

[Andy]

And that's gotta go below dying light. The eight. I love that, you know.

[Mike]

Well, your boy, Snow Mike. Mike is very high on NCAA football. I love college football. It's number two for me. I'm leaving room for one more. Game starts with a JW World. Oh, what if it's on here? Jurassic World. Evolutions.

[Andy]

All three. Oh, I love Jurassic World. It is on the big list, so you never know.

[Mike]

You never know.

[Andy]

We'll see if it pops up.

[Mike]

Maybe there's some more games off. Forget about. But like, yeah, I'm feeling confident with number two for me. And you're just like. After day seven, you're like, we couldn't. We couldn't call up Nelly. You know what I mean? Machine Gun Kelly. Anybody just. Where's Post? Malone. He'll sing on Post. What about Bo Belly or Jelly Kelly and Nelly? Anybody help me out?

[Greg]

Andy, give me a drum roll, please.

[Andy]

I'll say. Is that loud enough?

[Greg]

No, it's very quiet.

[Andy]

Yeah. I don't know why it got quiet all of a sudden.

[Mike]

Quiet.

[Andy]

I don't know what happened. Thing freaked out. Oh, there we go.

[Greg]

Ninja Gaiden 4.

[Andy]

Oh, Ninja Gaiden 4. Okay, that's awesome. Because I think me being more of a traditional Ninja Gaiden fan because I played the. Out of the earlier ones when I was a tiny little baby.

[Barrett]

Okay, okay.

[Andy]

Super, super hard games. I never played the 3D versions. I know that when Ninja Gaiden 2 Black comes out and has its sort of. Hey, it's a reboot.

[Mike]

That was this year, right? Really bring excitement. Yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

The big visual refresh. I never had time to hop into that. But I know that they're kind of right up my alley. And. Yeah, my favorite thing about Ninja Gaiden 4 is, you know, they're kind of ex. They're exploring that one sort of thing we were hoping to kind of. Or not that we were hoping to get that we didn't even know we wanted, but. Oh, cyberpunk in ninja.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Andy]

Like this cyberpunk, futuristic sort of looking thing that. Duh. That makes total sense. Why wouldn't you do that? And to have this sort of be this tale of kind of the future in the past, it seems pretty hyped to me. I'm gonna put this. I'm gonna put Ninja Gaiden four at number three.

[Mike]

I like that. Andy. I played. I encourage you to stream through Ninja Gaiden 2 black edition. Really good. Because your boy Mike, I tried it. Got my butt whooped.

[Andy]

Right.

[Mike]

Okay. I had a bad time with this game. I thought I would dig it a lot more Too hard for me. But. But here's the deal.

[Andy]

Your soul's like.

[Mike]

I played Devil May Cry three.

[Andy]

Oh, right.

[Mike]

And I'm pretty nasty at it.

[Andy]

Oh, shit.

[Mike]

I got better at it as we progress. So here's the deal. I think I'm coming around on it. But I'm still. I still know this game is too difficult for me, so I'm going to put Ninja Gaiden four at five. Number five for me.

[Andy]

How many subs I gotta donate for you to play through Final Fantasy 16? It's DMC gameplay.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

You get the high, flat flying action. Yeah. Juggling and super crazy abilities.

[Mike]

And the side quests are good. How long is it?

[Andy]

I would say don't worry about side quests for a while. Just figure out the right ones to do.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

But it's the. It's the big set piece, boss fight. So you're just like, what the. This is where the budget went. There's like nine of them. And the music is amazing. And it's gonna make you cry. Oh, what a game. Okay, put it number five. Okay, I like that.

[Greg]

All right, next up, the outer worlds 2.

[Andy]

Oh. All right. All right.

[Mike]

You did the re review of outer worlds 1. I did avowed earlier in the year. You seem to be pretty higher on this game than I know me. We had the Xbox game showcase, the second presentation. The afterwards was all about this in Obsidian. Where are you at, Andy? Because you're. You've got to be higher than me on this. I'm pretty low.

[Andy]

I'm pretty high on this. But I'm scared to put it at number one. I'm scared to.

[Mike]

Oh. Because you know there's others.

[Andy]

I'm scared to go that high.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Because if Silksong pops up, egg on my face and egg on my face for even thinking it's coming out this year.

[Mike]

What about Ghosts?

[Andy]

Oh, goes at Yote.

[Mike]

Don't forget about Yote.

[Andy]

God damn. All right.

[Mike]

There's still some games out there.

[Andy]

There's a lot of games out there.

[Mike]

Bonanza.

[Andy]

Oh, God dang. Okay.

[Mike]

Kirby Air Riders.

[Andy]

Okay. You're bringing up a lot of titles right now. You're getting me real excited. So now I'm like, do I put Outer Worlds 2 below Ninja Gaiden 4? Should I even.

[Mike]

Yeah, but like, is that your heart? Yeah, exactly.

[Andy]

Well, it's not where my heart is. I just don't want to.

[Mike]

Let's just say this. This afternoon, I present to You Ninja Gaiden 4. And Outer Wilds. Or Outer Worlds too.

[Andy]

I would go outer Worlds too.

[Mike]

You're hard spoken.

[Andy]

No, but this is like the. This is like when we used to do the old school MCU rankings where it's like, well, I like this movie better than 15, but I like number six. Or I like number 12 way more than this, you know.

[Barrett]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andy]

Or Tim would do the really stupid.

[Greg]

Your personal list. You're not like combining your list.

[Mike]

Yeah, you don't have to combine.

[Andy]

It's the one and two that I. I am scared to say.

[Mike]

You want to leave Room for Jesus.

[Andy]

Yes.

[Mike]

AKA could be the best game. Yeah.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Put your hand on my lap. Jesus. That's fair. Crimson Desert as well, man.

[Mike]

Is that game coming out this year or not? Yeah, because that's high on my fantasy critic and I need this to drop and deliver. What do you mean? Yeah. Where is it at? Nobody.

[Andy]

What are you.

[E]

Why are you getting mad at me?

[Andy]

Don't fucking come at me.

[Mike]

Show me a date.

[Andy]

Why are you coming to me with this?

[Greg]

Fucking reveal the date already, Andy. Jesus.

[Andy]

I would go Outer Worlds two at number four because I'm leaving room for Jesus.

[Mike]

I love that. I really like the Outer Worlds one. I did not have the best of times with it though. I wanted more out of that. And I have seemed to have fallen off a big cliff with a lot of open world RPGs that normally I would love. I think about Oblivion Skyrim, the Fallout series, if I had time to love those games. And so the issue is, is like in recent past, we talk about a vow, and I think there was one last year. Oh, Dragon's Dogma 2 came out. Kingdom come, Deliverance 2 came out this year. These are these games that are like Young Mike loved. I would spend hours upon hours. Assassin's Creed Shadow. I love these games now. Lately, they're not my thing. I play 10, 20 hours and I'm like, I'm never touching this again. Am I worried with Outer Worlds 2 is I'll feel just like that. I'll jump into the world. It'll have fun little kooky characters. We'll be in space. I'll think to myself, man, I'd like to spend all the time in the world in this. And really, Mikey's gonna play five to ten hours of this. Never play it again. So I have to be real with myself. Outer Worlds 2. Definitely above dying light, though. I'll spend more time than this.

[Andy]

Seven. You think it's seven?

[Mike]

I'm gonna give it a seven.

[Andy]

Okay.

[Mike]

Seven could be a six, though, man.

[Andy]

Thinking back to it, I would. I like. I know it's such a silly thing to always look at any game and go, man, I wish I was co op. I really wish Dragon's. Dragon's Dogma 2 was co op because of just how silly that should have been.

[Mike]

Four adventures just going Off.

[Andy]

I mean even if it's not 4, just like if it were 2 player co op. Just the silliness happens with physics in that game. And how many laughs that I have whenever I watch the. The created version of Kevin that I made for you who then became my homie that I recruited. And having 4 foot 11 Kevin throwing a big ass rock at an enemy. Like, dude, this is the funniest man.

[Mike]

What's up with that game? Is that just gonna be done? You think we'll get DLC for that or is that like.

[Andy]

I think they moved on. I don't think it's old enough.

[Barrett]

Okay. Okay.

[Andy]

Next up here.

[Greg]

All right, next up is.

[Andy]

Madden NFL 2026. Me, Madden.

[Mike]

Okay, your list is getting tight. Your list is getting tight.

[Andy]

I gotta put this at number six.

[Mike]

Madden at six above college. You're not gonna go nine or ten.

[Andy]

With your Madden because I.

[Mike]

Why?

[Andy]

I'm so scared of Dragon Drive.

[Mike]

You gotta drop it. Don't worry. That's half the fun. Little egg on your face.

[Andy]

I'm so scared of Dragon Drive. Okay, number nine for me. Number nine. All right. I'm so scared of Dragon Drive. Okay, we gotta figure out something else with the kffl. We gotta do like a. Yeah, we do some special thing.

[Mike]

Maybe we create a ca.

[Andy]

I really wanted to do not. I really wanted to do an only playoffs kffl.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

We're like the. Maybe the day before the super bowl or the weekend before the super bowl where we have four teams do a playoff.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

And the kind of funny crew is kind of laid it throughout all the different teams. It's not just.

[Barrett]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

The kind of funny crew, you know, it's okay. And then we, you know, get audience members in all the other town. So it's just like four squads and then it's a playoff is they fight each other. Then they.

[Mike]

The other too many games, I think.

[Andy]

So maybe I'm just thinking like it's.

[Mike]

Like a whole day affair.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And it's kind of more like maybe down in the background we're grilling up burgers. We don't have to be like full commentator like the first games. And maybe it's like, hey, we're we're doing a little backyard vibe and like the game is going on. We see some of the highlights and then we get. We knock out that first round and then in the second round and the final we kind of similar to what.

[Andy]

We did for the.

[Greg]

The launch of college football.

[Mike]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

That's how I imagine it's not a bad idea. Maybe we switch to different areas or it's like now we're on the couch for this game, then we're in the, then we're in the tailgate and then we are on the set. You know, like, we just, you know, make it a big event. I'm not mad at big, big sort of variety event.

[Mike]

Madden, you're on my mind. I am more of a college football guy right now. Madden. When I go into Madden, it's a lot of mutt. And I'm trying to get away from mutt.

[Andy]

You do mutt?

[Barrett]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Hell yeah.

[Andy]

I didn't know you were a Mutter.

[Mike]

I just, I, I, I'm not a big franchise guy anymore. And play now is like, I have no one coming into the basement to dwell with me. So it's like I have to become a mutt. Man.

[Andy]

You're not inviting Joe and like, I.

[Mike]

Want Tim Tebow on my team. I'm a, like, I got, I gotta play Mutt now. Cause that's what Tim Tebow is. You know, I gotta get that card. And every now and then.

[Andy]

You love Tim Tebow.

[Mike]

Once a year, Tim Tebow will get that 92 card and you know, I gotta have it. So I'll, I'll just throw money at him until I can pack money at him. Give him that money. I'm gonna go with Madden NFL 26. Number 10 for me.

[Andy]

Fuck.

[Barrett]

Yep.

[Mike]

Lock that down. Lock that down.

[Andy]

Whoa. That's crazy.

[Greg]

All right, so for audio listeners, Mike's got his one spot open, his four spot open, his six and his nine spots open. And he has his one, two, six, and ten spots open. As we get into our final four here, what games are going to be brought up? Let's see.

[Mike]

Next up is Wheel World, the bike game. Tour de France. Open World, pastel colorway. You're biking, you're rolling up on people in this cute little village. Good music. And they're like, hey, we're biking to the brewery. First one there gets last one that has to buy the pints. And you're like, I'm gonna race you.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And you bike.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

But guess what? When you bike, not much going on in the game of world of biking. It's just pedal and break.

[Andy]

You're pedaling. It's an open world racing game.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

You got little missions, people be like, oh, if you go over there, you'll get some parts. You get some cool parts. Upgrade your bike. This is a game that I wish it, I wish it's the Only game that I cared about. Oh. Because I could see myself getting sucked into this game.

[Barrett]

Okay. Okay.

[Andy]

The same way that I got sucked into Forza.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Just. It's, it's, you know, it's very. It's. It's a relaxing type of game. I. But I think there will be too many other things out at the time for me to really, really give a damn about it. I think it'll review well. I think I'm gonna get like sevens and eights, you know?

[Mike]

Okay.

[Andy]

I'm still. I'm so scared about these one and two spots.

[Mike]

Yeah. Real World is not being your number one and two spot. I'd be.

[Andy]

But I'm just scared of worse games popping up.

[Mike]

Yeah, but you had a six spot right there to say, hey, this is a good game. It's going in the six spot. If we all look at this list and we said, oh, shit. Andy Cortez is telling me that Real World is his most excited. I'm gonna spend all the time in 2025 with.

[Andy]

You're right.

[Mike]

No, no, you're so right.

[Andy]

Wheel World number six for me. You're so right.

[Mike]

It'd be cool if this game had multiplayer as well, so we all could race together in the open world.

[Andy]

No, I don't think it has multiplayer, dude.

[Mike]

I think it's like a chill. It's like a. It's. It's got a vibe. It's a vibe.

[Andy]

It is a vibe.

[Mike]

It's a cool vibe game. And for me, this Vibe game will be number six. You know, I made friends back in high school. We grew up with Kid Taylor. Finney became a big time bike racer, did the Tour de France, did all the bike races. Kid was big time. Vinnie Finney, Taylor Finney, he was a Vibe. Tall, lanky kid, caught up on that.

[Andy]

Bike and just super aerodynamics in it.

[Mike]

You know what I mean? You'd be checking out posts. You're like, where's Finney now? Oh, he's up in Switzerland. Just bike riding.

[Andy]

Really?

[Mike]

Like, oh, where's he at now? South Africa, just bike riding.

[Andy]

You see all your friends getting blown by the wind and he's just not so cool.

[Mike]

You know what I mean? Then you look at his house. He's just got bike frames. Like, man, that's kind of cool.

[Andy]

That's pretty badass. So his house looks like the inside of like an Applebee's or something. All right, we've got our last three games. Where are you putting we World? Oh, you put it. Oh, yeah.

[Mike]

I know exactly where it's gonna be. Yeah.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Greg]

We have our last three games. Mike has his number one, his number four and his number nine spots left open in this blind ranking. Andy making a big gamble here with his 1 and 2 spots left open and his number 10 spot left open. With these last three games that we, uh, these boys are randomly ranking. Next up is Crimson Desert.

[Andy]

Oh, baby.

[Barrett]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

Here's the thing.

[Mike]

Tell me.

[Andy]

Okay, I got Silksong in the back.

[Mike]

Of my mind really hoping on that.

[Andy]

One that Silksong pops up.

[Mike]

I mean that but high chance on the list.

[Andy]

But I am too pumped for Crimson Desert to not put it at my number one. So Crimson Desert will be my number one over Ghosts. Over. Over Ghosts. I just can't take the risk. Like I think Ghost. I. I think I would put Ghosts over Crimson Desert. But we're not in that situation right.

[Mike]

Now because you don't know about that list.

[Andy]

We don't know if it's popping.

[Mike]

But in reality, outside of this list, you're more excited for Ghosts.

[Andy]

I'm more excited for Ghosts.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

Crimson Desert. I am so pumped for it though. Yeah, it is right up it. You know, you could look at the top games for the rest of the year and it would be up there in a big ass, four way, five way tie. Yeah, I would put Crimson Desert number one. I'm just too scared to take a risk and I need something cool.

[Mike]

When we saw that cool tech test too that they showed us of that engine, so awesome. Holy.

[Andy]

People got to play it at some event recently.

[Mike]

Summer game fest.

[Andy]

No, it was over. It was. It was either in Europe or Asia. I forget.

[Mike]

I really. I mean the tech was unbelievable. And this is a game that I've been like all in on. I liked Black Desert a lot. That mmo. I'm excited for what they got going on here. The idea of it's like a single player game now and like you get to be the focus. I'm really pumped up about. Crimson Desert is my number one. 100%. This is the game that I want to play right now. Yeah, that's the game. This is the game to play it.

[Andy]

When they showed off that, you know, hey, there's that big ass wooden door. Light that shit on fire. It'll eventually get weak and kind of break down. Then you can break it with melee because it was too hard to break earlier when it wasn't burnt.

[Mike]

Like I love the lighting effects, the crazy collision and like the anti collision now of like how to work with the physics of the horse meeting your cape and how it rests on that. The water looked so good.

[Andy]

All of it looks amazing.

[Mike]

All the this game trees. They got some crazy tree stuff going on in this one. I can't wait to play this game.

[Greg]

All right, we've got two spots left. Mike has his number four and number nine spots open. Andy has a big gap here between his number two and number ten spots left open for these last two. Two random games. The first ten games on this list of a total of 34 games. But we're only ranking the random top ten that these boys don't know. Next up is baby Steps.

[Mike]

I can't believe this game isn't out yet. When it get this game out, I.

[Greg]

Think it's out soon.

[Mike]

Let's play this game, y' all.

[Andy]

God, your list is so much better than mine.

[Greg]

Are you gonna do another marathon stream for this?

[Andy]

Oh, it's all about walking.

[Mike]

Oh, my God, Barrett. We gotta find a stair stepper. Gotta get a stair step right now.

[Andy]

Take down that goddamn treadmill right now. I would put baby steps. I'm key. I, I gotta keep room for Jesus.

[Mike]

Wow, Andy, let me tell you, I am taking risk. Me and Greg went behind closed doors and met the team behind baby steps at gdc. We got the rundown, Andy. This has got the humor. It's got the heart. It's got a little story to it. It's got a giant fucking mountain to climb. Like this is. This is gonna be big. It's gonna be good. This isn't. This isn't only up where all of a sudden, some crazy AI generated voice comes in and we start talking about my dead parents. No, this is like Sony.

[Andy]

Very odd situation. 10 here. I have to keep room for Jesus, though.

[Barrett]

Okay, okay.

[Andy]

I, I, I'm taking a risk either way.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

I put it at 2. Ghost of Yote pops up at number 10. Or I put it at 10, and Dragon Drive pops up.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

I'm scared either way.

[Mike]

I mean, I gotta be real with myself. I want to play baby steps way more than Ninja Gaiden, Four Wheel World, Outer Worlds, two Dying Light, the Beast. So it's four for me. It's easy. I'm locked in.

[Andy]

All righty. Before we'll.

[Greg]

We'll do a whole reread of these personal lists of. What are we calling this? Most antic games, Blind ranking.

[Barrett]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

For 2025.

[Mike]

The games I'm going to spend the most time in.

[Andy]

Yeah. Ranking the rest of 2025 in games or something.

[Greg]

Mike has his number nine spot left open. Andy has his number two spot left open. Of the last game. We have to rank. There's so many options, boys. There's so many options.

[Andy]

You have Ghost of Yote.

[Greg]

You could have Dragon Drive. You could have Kirby in the Forgotten Land plus Star Cross World. Or you could have Hollow Knight, Silksong. Lost Soul aside, Hell is Us, Donkey Kong Bonanza, Ninja Gaiden, Rage Bound.

[Andy]

What is it? Also the Kronos game, Kronos Yo.

[Mike]

By the Bloober Team.

[Andy]

Yeah. Hey, now that's another one. And the last game, Metal Gear is also on the list. Metal Gear is Wuchong.

[Greg]

Fallen Feathers.

[Andy]

I'm not mad at this, but you're number two. I'm not mad at this.

[Mike]

That's a high. You better. You better sell this on me.

[Andy]

Well. Well, I'm. I have no choice. But there were a lot of other worst choices.

[Barrett]

Okay.

[Andy]

Is a game that I didn't even love at GDC when I previewed it.

[Barrett]

Okay. Okay.

[Andy]

It's a. It's a Souls. Like it's another one of those.

[Mike]

And see, that's the problem for me is this game falls into the bucket of. It looks like 20 other games and we know what it is. And the only way to differentiate yourself is me going hands on and saying, oh, this is a standout. I don't know, when you watch these games, you go, oh, that looks like a dime a dozen nowadays.

[Andy]

I don't know if that'll happen, but I would rather play this over baby steps. In my mind. I made the right call.

[Mike]

You did. You.

[Andy]

I still don't know if I. I mean, looking back on it, I think I did play Subnautica 2 in the correct spot.

[Mike]

I think when I look at your list, Andy, at first when we go through all this, like, oh, Andy might have messed up with this list. Now when you look at it fully done. No, this is.

[Andy]

I look at that. That's an Andy list.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

You know, baby steps.

[Mike]

Madden dying like college football at the bottom. Yeah, that's a win.

[Andy]

It looks like I just listed them without randomize, without being given random choices. Now, Metal Gear Solid didn't pop up. That would have.

[Barrett]

You're good.

[Andy]

Obviously been a perfect number two. Wu Chong falls at number nine for you, Mike. I don't. I unfortunately don't know if it can stand out amongst the crowd of a lot of these games that look very.

[Mike]

You and I have played a lot of these games.

[Andy]

Yes.

[Mike]

And recently we've had a fad where now people want to jump on this genre. And recently we've played games where it's like, that's forgettable. I'll never play that again. You didn't stand out.

[Andy]

Right.

[Mike]

But there are some standouts. You brought up Liza P. That did it.

[Andy]

Liza B. Is the main one. I never went back to finish Kazan.

[Mike]

Kazan.

[Andy]

I never went back to finish Long Fallen Dynasty. Well, I never finished that, but I never went back to finish A Journey to West. What's the.

[Mike]

Oh.

[Andy]

Oh.

[Mike]

Wukong.

[Andy]

Wukong. Blackmong. Never finished. I needed like two more bosses there. Two or three more bosses there. I. I don't know if it'll stand out enough, but I'm happy that they're. I'm happy that like another sort of NCAA game style sports game that I don't really care about popped up at number two.

[Barrett]

Exactly.

[Mike]

And you're like, hey, I'm. Andy's definitely going to try this. Might fall in love or might just fall into the middle. Yeah.

[Andy]

Bless. What? Or. Sorry, Barrett, where were the other two options? Or what are the next sort of names on the list that would have popped up?

[Greg]

So, yeah, I'll give you the next five because, yes, this was a. A list that Andy gave me of 34 games. I put it into a randomizer. So you were close to ranking Mecca Break.

[Andy]

Oh, thank God.

[Greg]

Metroid Prime 4.

[Andy]

Okay.

[Greg]

High on Life 2.

[Andy]

Oh.

[Greg]

Ninja Gaiden, Ragebound and Moonlighter 2.

[Andy]

Damn. Okay, so Ghost of Yote was really.

[Greg]

Low on this randomized list. Hollow Knight was in the 20s, so. Yeah, it was.

[Andy]

We avoided a lot of the heavy hitters.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Okay.

[Mike]

I mean, I hit us. We both hit a solid 10.

[Barrett]

Right.

[Mike]

I think I'm very happy with that list. If you looked at me and was like, I want to know about Mike. There it is. That's definitely me right now.

[Greg]

Do you want to read your list off for most anticipated 20, 25 games? Blind ranking.

[Mike]

Yeah, I would love to list them off. I'm going to start at the ten spot, Madden NFL 26. Then at nine, Wu Chong Fallen Feathers. Number eight, Dying Light the Beast. Number seven, The Outer Worlds 2. Number six, Wheel World. Number five, Ninja Gaiden 4. Number four, Baby Steps. And my big three. Number three, Subnautica 2. Number two, College Football 26. And number one, Crimson Desert.

[Andy]

Number ten for me is Baby Steps, followed by number nine, Madden NFL 26. Eight, Dying like the Beast 7, College Football 26. Six is Wheel World. Number five, Subnautica 2. Number four, The Outer Worlds 2. Three is Ninja Gaiden 4. Number two is Wu Chong, Fallen Feathers, and number one, Crimson Desert. A lot of doubters with Crimson Desert.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And I don't think it's undeserved, but everything that potentially seen so far, it's like, you know, the fact that it's all real and possible is. What? You know that the reason why they showed all this to us behind closed doors was because all of it is real and possible and because we know that you all don't believe it. So I think there's a lot of doubters out there. Now, the game could still suck, story wise, it could still suck, you know, level design wise, whatever it may be. But, you know, for everybody worrying about it, maybe trying to do too much, I think it's. I think it's like gonna excel at all the system stuff. You know those lists if you.

[Mike]

Ben, I don't know if you just deleted that, but those lists are very much us.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

You know what I mean? Like, you have Andy with the more action RPGs up at the top, but willing to get weird and different with some of those in the middle. And then you have Mike, right? He likes action RPGs, he likes sports games, he loves crafting duo games with his friends. Like that. It feels right.

[Andy]

I love Subnautica.

[Mike]

You look at that and it feels right for us.

[Andy]

I'm excited for it.

[Mike]

This has been the Two Best Friends podcast.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

We took over today's Gamescast for Wednesday, July 2, 2025. We got a big weekend here in the States. Please be safe, take care of yourself, be mindful if you're lighting off fireworks and having your hands and your digits nearby. Have fun, be good to one another. And this has been Two Best Friends talking video games with you. Until next time, goodbye.

[Andy]

Bye, everybody.