← The Besties
The Besties
Dispatch's Second Chance (and The Game Awards Predictions)
01:01:12
Some of The Besties were skeptical of Dispatch, the spiritual follow-up to Telltale titles like The Walking Dead. But this new, TV-like superhero series won us over with each new episode. Plus, we share our predictions for winners and announcements at The Game Awards.
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- [00:00]
A
Did you guys know that normally I've just discovered a new feature in Riverside. Like normally I have the chat with all four of us up and that's good. I was trying to figure out a way to hide myself from the chat and I removed myself from the whole call. So that was pretty fucked up. But I have discovered that if you want, you can just pin Russ. So you can just make Russ big. You can just make Russ big. You can pin Russ and that way you're getting like a direct fee.
- [00:26]
B
It's like a wicked for good situation where you see my giant face.
- [00:31]
A
You can also full screen pop out Russ so you don't have to see any other guys and you can really focus on how Russ is reacting to everything they're saying.
- [00:39]
C
It makes for a really business opportunity for us.
- [00:41]
B
It's mostly eyebrows.
- [00:43]
C
What if we just had a full time Russ feed that you know like the real top end best you subscribers could get.
- [00:52]
A
Right.
- [00:52]
C
I think it's probably worth seven fat bear week.
- [00:56]
D
But just rust tell you guys if.
- [00:58]
A
If on this episode it seems like Russ and I are like really grooving. I'm reading his micro aggressions, the tiny fractal eyelash blank that lets me know he wants me to reference New York giraffe or something.
- [01:13]
B
Yeah. I'm also wearing Justin's aura ring so his entire being is sufficed into my being, which is lovely.
- [01:22]
A
Yeah, it's really cool. And I've got his aura frame. It's right behind me. You know, gift giving season is just around the corner.
- [01:48]
My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week.
- [01:51]
D
My name is Griffin McElroy. I know the best game of the week.
- [01:54]
C
My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best game awards of the week.
- [01:59]
B
My name is Russ Frostchik. I know the best game of the week.
- [02:02]
A
Welcome to the Besties where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a video game club. You know, just by listening, you my friend, have become a member. I'm so happy to have you here today to talk about a couple things. First off, we're going to lead off with dispatch. Dispatch, what's that? Chris Plant.
- [02:21]
B
Oh, is that how you pronounce that word?
- [02:24]
C
Dispatch?
- [02:25]
B
Is it meant to be like a double entange?
- [02:29]
A
What?
- [02:29]
D
What do you mean what? It's double entange.
- [02:32]
B
Dispatch. When you say it like that sounds like you're killing someone versus dispatch, which is when you're sending like taxis out like on the show. Taxi.
- [02:41]
A
Now I'm gonna be. Dispatch. Dispatch.
- [02:45]
D
Dispatch. Dispatch.
- [02:48]
A
Dispatch, Dispatch. Mickey, tell us all about. Tell us about Chris Pratch.
- [02:55]
C
You want something like those classic Telltale games that you used to love. You want that Walking Dead flavor, that Sam and Max. Not the original games, but the adventure ones. Well, you can get it right now in the form of an entirely original superhero city. Superhero story. There we go. Set in the city of Los Angeles.
- [03:19]
A
That's right, Chris Plant. We're talking about that and a little bit about the game awards. That's all coming up right after this.
- [03:28]
B
This episode of the Besties is sponsored by our Frames. The time has come again to talk about Oura Frames, which is a super awesome product. Here's the deal. You probably have someone in your life. Maybe it's a grandparent, maybe it's a parent. Someone who doesn't understand technology. But they want pictures of you. They want new pictures of you. They want it all constantly updated in a digital picture frame format. That is where Aura comes in. The really cool thing about Aura Frames, you can get it, you can log in and you can upload all of the photos to the frame before they even get it. So all they need to do is plug it into the wall and they will be good to go. You can even set it up so that it's pulling down new photos from the Internet before they get it. So again, super easy for them. And suddenly you are the best child in the world if that sounds good to you. For a limited time save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off Aura's best selling Carver mat frames named number one by Wirecutter. By using promo code Besties at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code besties. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast. And so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply.
- [04:50]
D
I hope these biocharacters make it in the next poker night at the inventory. I don't think that's too much to ask. I want to see them up.
- [04:57]
A
Whoa. That really want to see them up.
- [04:59]
D
There with strong bad want to see them up there with inventory.
- [05:03]
A
Sheesh.
- [05:04]
D
It took me back the heavy from fucking TF2.
- [05:09]
I feel like this is my.
- [05:13]
Hat in hand. Sort of mea culpa game of the year of being one that I felt pretty rock solid. Certain I wasn't gonna like and wasn't gonna be for me and was so not Excited by any of the trailers or anything I'd seen about the game, but was so sort of shocked by how much buzz and positive reaction it had gotten. And I'm very glad that I gave it a sh.
- [05:41]
Finished, I think, six or so episodes of the eight episodes in this first season in about three or four days.
- [05:50]
B
Wow.
- [05:50]
D
Very, very, very, very into Dispatch. And I'm very glad that we. I managed to get it in here before our considerations.
- [05:58]
B
I do want to make a slight tweak to what Chris Plant said earlier in the episode describing Dispatch, because his pitch for it, which is what I've basically heard the entire time this game has been out, yeah, is like Telltale esque. And I don't actually know that that's entirely the best way to view it.
- [06:21]
D
Interesting. Why that?
- [06:22]
B
Because at least what I've played, and I don't know if this changes dramatically, but at least what I've played it is much less interactive than a Telltale thing. It feels more like an interactive. Like you're watching a show and occasionally you have options to like, choose dialogue. And then there's obviously there's a game element to it that we'll get into.
- [06:42]
C
Right.
- [06:42]
B
But it doesn't. The thing about Telltale was like, you were like, literally walking around these environments and like clicking on things and like. Yeah, stuff like that. Which this is not like, this is.
- [06:54]
D
A much more direct. This is very, very much that. That is what turned me off from it at first is like, that doesn't sound great to me. And honestly, for me, Telltale has a weird track record where I thought the first season of Walking Dead was one of. That was my game of the year that came out. The year that came out. I really liked season two and then pretty much every other thing that they made, I never finished. I never got all the way through.
- [07:19]
B
I liked Wolf Among Us, even though.
- [07:20]
D
I recognized Wolf Among Us. Yeah, it was great. The Borderlands one, surprisingly, really great. Really fun. I just never, like, they never hooked me. And so knowing that I didn't feel like I wanted to get invested in. In a lightly interactive superhero show, a genre that I also kind of don't give a shit about anymore and have been pretty well turned off by regardless of whether it's movies or TV or comics or games or whatever. But against all odds, I think they actually do a really smart thing in how interactive it is to set it up a little bit. It is familiar to those Telltale games where it is telling a story with important kind of like junction points and conversation Choices and decisions that you will make that will sort of branch things off. You are running a superhero team called the Z Team of former villains who have turned things around and become heroes. Most of them kind of, you know, dragging their feet along the way. And you are basically their manager. You are the guy in the chair telling them where to go as these calls come in. You are assigning them to different jobs, making those decisions based on their different superhero stats that you can level up as they go and they do a good job. But the narrative layer on top of that is that it is very much like a workplace comedy, I think. Yeah. Not that it isn't funny. It is funny. It's just like. I don't know if that's the genre it would slot squarely into.
- [08:52]
B
It's not the. When I think of comedy, probably something closer to, like, a Harley Quinn, the animated show. It's not like, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke.
- [09:02]
C
It's uncomfortable bits character.
- [09:05]
D
It does have uncomfortable bits. The game layer, I think, is really smart because the.
- [09:10]
A
I would say, like, drama. Light drama.
- [09:13]
B
Yeah.
- [09:13]
D
Okay. I mean, it takes some pretty fucking heavy, heavy, heavy swings in the. For the love of God, Griffin.
- [09:21]
The management.
- [09:22]
A
It's serious mostly, and sometimes there's jokes.
- [09:25]
D
That's good.
- [09:27]
I think the way the gameplay of sending out heroes and assigning them to different jobs on these long shifts is actually a really smart, synergistic way of kind of telling the story they're telling. Where you start to get invested in these characters based on the writing and acting, which is. They're both really great, but also you begin to form these attachments to, like, oh, well, Golem's my dog. Like, Golem is my dog. When I know things are getting, like, hairy and I need someone who I can depend on. Like, that's my dude I send into those jobs. And that kind of. I don't know that, like, lends itself into you giving a shit about the characters in a way that is really effective.
- [10:11]
A
Some people are. Some of the heroes are, like, more professional. And so, you know, like, if this breaks bad, it would be really bad. So I need somebody who can, like, keep their composure. And they're pretty clear upfront, like, the mission description about, like, you know, they're protecting the governor. So you need. The way that's expressed is sort of with a pentagonal skill graph with, like, their toughness and their fighting ability and their pure strength and charisma and intellect, I think, on, like, a chart. And that is how their success or failure in a mission Is determined. There's. But it's not like yes or no. There is a random element. So basically, if you imagine that Pentagon, the requirements of the job will take up a certain area of the Pentagon, depending on what skills are needed for it. And your character also has their own, you know, shape represented by their skills. And in that overlap, there is a percentage overlap. So they overlap by like 70%. Right.
- [11:08]
B
You've got a chance to succeed is.
- [11:10]
A
Really a chance to succeed, basically. Yeah, exactly.
- [11:13]
B
Yeah. I found that mode that like game and I need to do more of it a little bit stressful. I found the like actual show of it interesting. I need to spend more time with it really. I'm still very early, but animation wise, like through the.
- [11:28]
D
Holy shit.
- [11:28]
B
Wow. Incredible. And shot really well. Like, the framing is like, this is professional. These people know how to do a show. I'm actually surprised that they didn't like partner with a streaming network at the same time. And I'm sure they will now, especially after the success of it, because it really is very well done.
- [11:48]
A
I don't know that they will. I mean, I don't. Because this is the. It feels like one of those where this is the best version of it. I mean, who knows, right? If there's money to be made, I.
- [11:57]
B
Think it'll get optioned and they could turn this universe into something certainly.
- [12:01]
A
But it really is. I don't want to overstate it, but like at first I started playing it, I was like. Didn't click with me because it seems so lightly interactive. Once I realized that this is like it's a interactive TV show. Like in a real sense where you're making narrative decisions that I don't know how they would ride around. It seems so gigantic. I mean, there's not a ton of those, but like there's enough that it feels like you're really in. Not a. Not a. Like a performer, almost like a director position. You know, like who you are interested in in the story. Who do you want to keep around in the story. Who do you want to keep seeing, like evolve in the story? And once I got my head into that, where they're making concessions like.
- [12:50]
The chapters are pretty or episodes are pretty concretely like 45 minutes. The length is pretty standard. You know what it is? You know what it is when you're sitting down, for one, like you have a sense of the thing. I think what clicked for me is when I realized that there was nothing.
- [13:09]
Really to be mechanically gained from anything like your performance in the main mode. The Dispatch thing is really more about how it impacts the narrative and what you're interested in the narrative. But you're not gonna get too good or too bad. It's not going to change the story that much. Right. It's much more about keeping you engaged with the story. But I was getting frustrated by how often failures seem random. But then it's. It doesn't matter. Like it's not, It's. That's not the essential thing.
- [13:42]
B
And realistically, like from a logistical standpoint, like if they were programming a bunch of fail points like that, that dovetails the narrative out into 60 different options. So they did have to kind of pen it in a little bit. I want to ask one so. So the first choice you make in the game is the setting choice. So you can play as. As. Like, I think it's interactive or like traditional. I don't remember what the two options are.
- [14:06]
D
And this is what I want to.
- [14:07]
B
Interactive is.
- [14:09]
So you'll. You'll. I think in both modes you're still obviously making choices. You're making dialogue choices. You're making like moment choices. But in interactive you're also doing like almost quick time of quick time event style things where someone throws a punch and you have to like hit B for lack of a better example. And if you don't get hit B, you'll get punched. I tried it as the interactive thing and found it to be like kind of cute. And they do animate like fail states in that like you'll get punched if you miss the thing. I was intentionally missing things just to see how it plays out. I don't know that it makes a long term impact how well you do at those moments. I think it just makes. Might make you feel a little more engaged. But you guys played the other.
- [14:53]
D
But that is a very. That is a super dupe. And I've always kind of felt this way basically all the way back to Shenmue. One of like, that's not really gay. Yeah, like, it, it's. It's the lightest, lightest imaginable layer of interactivity. And honestly this has been.
- [15:12]
A
They hit you with a disproportionately high. I wanted to express to Russ because I know that he hasn't played quite as far. Like they hit you with a disproportionately high number of those in the first like 20 minutes of this episode. Of the first episode. There are way more. Griffin, tell me if I'm wrong, but there's a bunch of putting on your suit and buckling this and fighting this and there's a lot more of those quicker, quick time things. It still pops up, but it's a lot more rare.
- [15:38]
D
So I actually wouldn't know because I turned that shit right off. No, because I.
- [15:44]
A
Well, I didn't and it almost. It very rarely popped up.
- [15:47]
B
Okay, that's good to know.
- [15:48]
D
I think it is the fact that it does rarely pop up. And like I have been really, really enjoying playing, watching, playing this game while eating and it is. I don't want to be shaken out of my chill dispatch sesh because like all of a sudden a big A prompt appears on the screen.
- [16:09]
A
What happens in your dialogue choices? Are they timed still?
- [16:13]
D
Yeah, they're still timed. Those are still timed. The only other setting that there is is there's like a hacking mini game that you will do sometimes while you are dis. Which you can do sort of in lieu of like taking a guess at whether or not your heroes are going to be up to this particular challenge, you just do this hacking minigame. You can affect like you can, you know, choose an option of whether or not those have like fail states or not. I like those.
- [16:39]
A
It could use a few more of those. I think it could use a couple more engaging minigames like that I think to keep things. But that's not the exact thing they're making, of course.
- [16:47]
D
Yeah, no.
- [16:50]
That stuff is light and it I think gets by being light because truly.
- [16:56]
Just the writing and acting is just really, really, really fucking great. Really super good. Aaron Paul plays the main character and brings a level of.
- [17:08]
A
He's really turning into like one of the top tier voice talent wise.
- [17:12]
B
Oh, he crushes.
- [17:14]
A
He's got great.
- [17:16]
It's a great control for a character that isn't extremely ostentatious. He's a lot more reserved. But it's really interesting, really accomplished nuance he's doing with not a ton dynamically from an emotional sense.
- [17:32]
B
Yeah, he was very Jack as well. So he's definitely.
- [17:35]
D
Yeah, for sure. Jeffrey Wright is also in it and he's an incredible, fantastic. There's also a lot of casting. There's a lot of the critical role folks who are in here which obviously didn't know the fuck they're doing. Laura Bailey turns in a powerhouse, truly hysterical performance. There's a running gag where her character can't think of funny, cool catchphrases to say in the heat of battle that lands every single time, every joke. But then there's also some more. A term we learned when we were vying to get in the Trolls 2 movie of stunt casting of like, some streamers. Like Jacksepticeye, who plays Punch Up. And I forget the guy's Charlie. Moist, critical guy plays Sonar, one of the characters. I feel like everyone turns in a great performance and the writing is truly very, very compelling. I keep coming back to it. And it's not just that it's compelling cliffhangery, good storytelling. It's like, I don't know, it's a story about a bunch of fuckups who are kind of nice to each, like, eventually form a pretty sort of loving misfit family. And that format has been beaten to death and done so many different times. And so I think it's like, pretty remarkable how good a job it does.
- [18:55]
A
Telling that sort of familiar tale as people who, like. As somebody who.
- [19:01]
Is very into like interactive cinematic storytelling and thinks about that a lot. Cause like, a lot of FMV games I think, are in that territory. This, I feel like, is maybe the most successful in terms of interactive tv.
- [19:16]
D
Okay.
- [19:16]
A
If you're talking about an interactive TV show, I can't tell you something that's worked better than this. And like, the closest you get is like, what's the Quantum Break? You know, that. That I think is like the closest. I mean, I can't think of anything else that's even in the. In the. In the neck. This neck of the woods. But like, yeah.
- [19:34]
By. By hueing closer to TV and making it less like a video game, I think they actually made it more successful.
- [19:42]
B
Yeah.
- [19:42]
A
Or like Quantum. Quantum Break seemed to want to bring more game into it. And I feel like that made the pacing just.
- [19:50]
B
Well, it's also a budget issue. Like, the second you make it more like a video game, suddenly you're making levels and fucking environments and characters and animations above. I mean, they're still doing animations.
- [19:59]
A
I mean, that's the secret saucer dispatch. Right. All the heavy action definitely is covered in like a map. Like the high octane action sequences are usually like a circle moving around a map.
- [20:11]
B
Yeah. And even if they weren't, it's obviously much cheaper to do a lockdown animated scene than it is to like fully program a whole level.
- [20:19]
D
There are some great fight scenes. There's also, there's a. I think a secret splinter cell inside of Ad Hoc, which is the studio that made Dispatch. That is, from what I understand, formed from a lot of former sort of Telltale folks. There's someone in there who wants so badly to make a mecha anime game. There's so many close ups on Fingers punching in, fucking that cowboy bebop ass, like launch sequence.
- [20:44]
B
Pushing a thruster forward.
- [20:47]
D
Yeah, it's so cool. I'm fucking wild about this game. And it has, it is a revitalizing experience for me because it doesn't happen super often where I write a game off as completely being a genre I don't care about, about a genre of fiction I don't care about, in a genre of game I don't care about. And thinking like, well, this kind of looks like, you know, I don't really groove with like Invincible or, you know, a lot of those kind of like edgy, funny, cool, nasty superhero. I thought, oh, this is just gonna be like one of those. And it, it has truly surprised me and made me feel like, you know, I need to be more open minded about this.
- [21:25]
A
Who's your favorite character?
- [21:28]
D
God.
- [21:29]
A
Shit. Well, yeah, God is.
- [21:31]
D
When he shows up, God is so great.
- [21:33]
A
Shit.
- [21:34]
D
There's one character who is just kind of a.
- [21:39]
Kind of a. I don't know how to describe him. Waterboy character who is extremely nervous and wants so badly to be a superhero, but is like so.
- [21:52]
Self conscious and stumbles through every single line of dialogue that he has. And he is very good. There's also just great moments between the more kind of like minor character members of the team. There's two named Prism and Malevola who have a bunch of really great beats that kind of like Bert and Ernie and It's a Wonderful Life. Just kind of talking after the main characters have left the scene and just delivering some great jokes. There is a lot of characters to love in this game.
- [22:23]
A
It actually makes for me the specialness of the interactivity more because I feel like the things that I'm seeing feel special. A little bit more special because it's like, I don't know what scene I would be getting otherwise, but this is my experience and it's good enough that that actually means something. Where like a lot of other games like, oh, who gives a fuck I'm a lizard man or a dinosaur man, I don't know.
- [22:43]
D
And even though the episodes are short, there's eight of them. I still feel like it gives them enough room to give them arcs. When you say.
- [22:51]
I mean 45 minutes is fairly short for, I feel like a telltale episode. It's very.
- [22:55]
B
Yeah, usually those are like an hour or two.
- [22:57]
D
I don't even like what was the.
- [23:00]
A
Last telltale episodic game that we were comparing this to?
- [23:03]
D
I think I'm thinking of like Walking Dead season two. Those were Those were beefy. Those were those. I remember those beats.
- [23:11]
A
I want to be careful because what I. It is exactly the length of a television episode. Yeah, that's the length.
- [23:15]
B
Correct.
- [23:16]
A
And it's not sure I'm pushing back against short because like what they are doing, like, I feel like it is the exact right length for.
- [23:23]
D
For what it is.
- [23:24]
A
I am over.
- [23:24]
D
I'm comparing, I'm comparing it to other games in the narrative adventure or like.
- [23:29]
B
If you have an episodic game, generally speaking, they're usually much longer than an hour. I think this length is perfect because it is exactly the sort of patience that you would have to absorb a narrative and feel like you get to an end point and you can stop at that moment or you can keep going. Whatever you want to do. You want to binge it.
- [23:47]
D
Yeah.
- [23:47]
B
But you don't feel like. Whenever I was playing Telltale Games, I always felt halfway through an episode I'd be like, I'm going to take a break. And it was never at a good point. It was just like, just because it went on too long.
- [23:58]
D
The dispatch part of the game actually is like a really helpful sort of pacing block where you will have an intro scene and be like, this is what this episode's going to be about. Here's some bit with the characters now. You're going to dispatch them and there's going to be lots of dialogue and lots of stuff that is going to build up to the events that will happen in the scenes after the dispatch part. Or maybe you'll do like one shift and it will go really shitty and then you'll come back and fire up the troops and then go out for a second dispatch shift in the episode. It creates like a. I don't know, like an expectation to the pacing that I think is also just really, really, really smart and well designed.
- [24:32]
A
Yeah. But you really got to meet it on its own terms. That's what I discovered because I blew it off at first because like, I'm playing games in 10 minute spurts. I don't have time for this. But if you sit down and engage with it, you know, clear an hour, I think it's really, really worth it.
- [24:45]
D
Or I mean, genuinely, I don't think I would have gotten into the game if I didn't. I'm not watching anything right now that I'm like watching solo. And so I just like put it on my Rog ally X and propped it up while I ate lunch one day and was like, oh, okay, if I Turn off the QTEs this is like actually kind of perfect. This is actually. I can knock one of these out a day, no problem.
- [25:05]
B
Yeah, Cool.
- [25:07]
D
Should we.
- [25:08]
A
Yeah, let's take a break and when we come back, we'll talk about the video game awards.
- [25:12]
D
If you're a gamer fan, and I assume you are because you're listening to my voice right now on this show, you're gonna love Fangamer. Fangamer designs and sells apparel, toys, books and more for many of your favorite games. I'm talking about Hollow Knight, I'm talking about Undertale and deltarune, talking about Pizza Tower, talking about a bunch of other stuff. And they've got plush toys, they've got apparel books. Fangamer also publishes physical games for a bunch of different indie titles like Hollow Knight and Stardew Valley and tunic and Celeste and a whole bunch more. I got a bunch of stuff actually very recently from fan gamer. A sick UFO 50T shirt that has a design with like all of the characters from UFO 50 games which I love. I got some Hollow knight plushies that my son is really, really wild about. We've played with a whole bunch of. I got a deck of Balatro playing cards that look so incredible and you know, I don't have a lot of time to play cards but if I did I would do them with these because they look so frickin cool. Fangamer's Black Friday sale is live now and runs until Tuesday, December 2nd. Check out fangamer.combesties to check out our personal recommendations. Get discounts on some items, free shipping on US orders and more. That's Fangamer.com besties.
- [26:32]
B
Okay, we're going to be talking a little bit about the big Jeff game awards that are happening next week.
- [26:37]
D
But before that's what they call it. Big Jeff.
- [26:39]
A
Why did they change it?
- [26:39]
D
Big Jeff here.
- [26:40]
A
That's the name. That's the question on everybody's mind. Why did they change it to the big Jeff awards?
- [26:45]
B
You know you'd have to ask big Jeff, only he knows.
- [26:48]
D
Yeah, sure.
- [26:49]
C
The BGGAs before we.
- [26:52]
B
Yeah, before we get into that though, we have some besties game of the year talk to discuss. Chris Plant, what's going on?
- [27:00]
C
We are finishing up our bracket. We have already chosen 12 games that will be in the bracket. What are they? Wouldn't you like to know? You'll be finding out soon enough. But you have a chance to vote on four additional games that will round out the 16 seed bracket. And if you're listening to this right when the episode goes up you can actually still cast a vote. Polls close tonight, Friday at 11:30pm Pacific Time. So you still have a little bit of time. But if you are already a subscriber to the newsletter or the Patreon, you already know all this. It's. It's in your email inbox, which is all the more reason to subscribe to either of those.
- [27:40]
B
Right. So that. So the gist is we've picked the 12. You guys are going to vote on your top four, and those top four will make it into the full 16 bracket when we do the game of the year, and that'll give us enough time to play some of your picks. If we haven't played the picks already, that'll allow us to have some good discussion and see if it gets higher than we would have expected.
- [28:02]
C
If you want to see games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle or Dispatch, which we just discussed, you should go vote. You should go do that right now.
- [28:11]
B
Very important.
- [28:12]
D
It'd be a huge favor, actually. I've played a lot of Dispatch at this point. If y' all could bump that one, that would actually be huge.
- [28:19]
B
Just from an ROI standpoint.
- [28:20]
D
It would be just from a. Yeah. Sunk cost fallacy, sort of.
- [28:23]
B
Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. Okay. We did this last year, but I thought we'd just make some predictions on the game of the year. The game awards, specifically the game awards picks. I have the.
- [28:38]
C
Are you ready for this? Are you ready? Are you ready? We don't even need to start. Are you ready?
- [28:41]
D
Okay.
- [28:42]
A
Yeah, I'm ready. Clair.
- [28:43]
C
Obscure Expedition 33. I don't even care what the category is. I think it's going to win. I think it's just going to clean sweep basically whatever it's in.
- [28:51]
A
I think it's not going to win hardly anything. I think people are just going to think other people vote for that. I want to rep my face. It's so domineering. You know what I mean? I want to vote for a little bit indie. You know, that's the only split fiction of.
- [29:07]
C
It's coming, baby.
- [29:08]
B
It's coming.
- [29:11]
Is there a specific genre that you think you guys wanted to tackle?
- [29:16]
D
Fighting game.
- [29:17]
B
You want to tackle fighting. Okay. So there are a lot of good, good fighting games here. Most of them came out 30 years ago, but that's okay. Retro Fighter 5, Mortal Kombat.
- [29:28]
D
I was kidding. I was. Dude, I don't know any dude. Dude. Dude, come on.
- [29:36]
A
I. I wanted to talk about my announcement predictions officially.
- [29:43]
Later.
- [29:44]
D
Your announcement predictions? Not even the awards?
- [29:46]
A
All right. No. Do you Guys want to talk about. We're going to talk about war predictions first. Okay.
- [29:51]
C
I mean we honestly could just skip right to it because I'm not joking when I say I think we would go through almost every single thing and it would be clear, obscure Expedition 33.
- [30:01]
D
I think what makes you feel that confident? What makes you. What makes you feel that confidence?
- [30:03]
B
And to be clear, this is not our game of the year selection. This is just.
- [30:08]
C
How is game theorying.
- [30:09]
B
What the.
- [30:10]
C
It has everything it could possibly need. It's a narrative game and narrative games, slash role playing games tend to win. It has the quote, indie bump. Indie is a funny term there, but right. It's. You feel good voting for has, I believe the highest Metacritic score of anything there. And it has originality. So, you know, it's. It's not going to go up like Hades to Ghost of yotei, Death Training 2, even Split Fiction. It has all the pieces of what you would expect from a winner in the game of the year awards.
- [30:46]
B
To me, it feels like it is up against one other serious contender and that's Silksong. So when it for Godey, for Goatee, for Indie Game of the Year, like.
- [30:57]
D
When it's best debut, it's nominated for best debut indie game and it feels like such a wild and also best independent game. And it's up against Blueprints in both of those categories. That feels like a tough. That feels like a tough putt for old Blueprints. Same for Dispatch. Dispatch is in there with best debut indie game too. What a wild game.
- [31:20]
C
Blueprints basically can't win. Also, to be super clear, it would be next to impossible for it to win because the voting body is international and Blueprints is a strictly English game. Oh, is it? The numbers don't work for it.
- [31:34]
B
Interesting.
- [31:35]
A
Okay.
- [31:36]
C
Yeah.
- [31:38]
Yeah.
- [31:39]
B
I don't know. I could see Silksong taking it, but I do agree if it doesn't take it, Claire Obscure is going to take it. The other thing I would keep in mind is there is a as with the Oscars, there's the game direction category and then the game of the Year category. So you could see people splitting that vote where it's like, I'm going to vote for Clara Obscure for Game Direction and Game of the Year for Silksong, or vice versa, whatever it is.
- [32:02]
D
Don't you think Silkscant's not up for best Game direction? Death Stranding 2 is. I feel like that's maybe the spoiler for that. That could be clear. Obscure Expedition 33 in that particular category. So if it doesn't.
- [32:15]
A
If it's not a triumph of, like, game direction and, like, figuring out how to make that whole thing work, I don't know what it is.
- [32:22]
D
So, yeah, I don't think it's nominated for, like, best performance anywhere in there is Rita. Did Ritus get a bump? Nope.
- [32:28]
C
I mean, I completely agree. Especially, like, if we were doing, like, what do we actually think should win from these? I would definitely say Death Stranding too, but again, I think it's. Death Stranding is too divisive of a game. Like, they're just. There's a contingency of people who just do not like those games, who do not like Kojima games, and it doesn't have the big emotional pull that the ending of Claire Obscure does. And I think it's kind of the problem that we see with, like, the Academy Awards too, where, like, people aren't actually judging to the category. They're judging to, like, their emotional connection with the game.
- [33:04]
D
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gosh, I think. I think you're onto something, Chris, because I'm looking at all these categories, and it's like, best score and music. Like, there's a lot of really good stuff in there.
- [33:14]
C
Darren.
- [33:15]
D
Poor Babies 2 Christopher Larkin, Hollow Knight Silk Song. Yeah, for sure. For sure. But also, like.
- [33:21]
Like, it's gonna. I feel like Clarem Skier's gonna get in there and get nasty on it.
- [33:24]
C
That's another one where I wish Death Stranding 2 had it.
- [33:26]
D
I mean, maybe Death Stranding 2 is nominated for best.
- [33:29]
C
For best music. It could get it.
- [33:33]
D
Best performance is interesting because Erika Ishii is in there for sure. For sure. Troy Baker in there for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Yes, absolutely.
- [33:43]
A
There's no way he remembers doing that.
- [33:45]
D
He does not.
- [33:48]
A
They told me that I did this with this Indiana Jones game. I'm happy to be here. Am I Batman?
- [33:54]
C
No, not his Death Stranding voice.
- [33:59]
D
Then there's Ben Star, Charlie Cox and Jennifer English. All clear obscure Expedition 33. Half of the nominees. There's no Dispatch representation.
- [34:05]
B
I think Dispatch came very late, and I think the fan support happened before the critical support.
- [34:12]
D
So I think it was a big push point.
- [34:14]
B
And that's just what happened. I mean, it has presence in independent game, I believe. And like, fan.
- [34:19]
C
If there's a split, this is where I feel like it could be. And y'.
- [34:22]
B
All.
- [34:23]
D
Oh, I see.
- [34:23]
C
It's almost certain that Indiana Jones is gonna get in through that. That listener poll. So I started going back and playing that game.
- [34:31]
D
I Think it was incredible. Super fun.
- [34:33]
C
I forgot how bonkers good that game is. And his performance is.
- [34:38]
B
Oh, it's crazy.
- [34:38]
A
Nuts.
- [34:39]
C
He's not just his impersonation, it's just a great performance.
- [34:43]
D
It's a really good.
- [34:44]
B
I do want to call out one interesting thing that I don't know has ever happened before. At least someone can correct me in the comments if it has. Somebody pulled out of a nomination, they said, I do not want this nomination. And that is the developer of megabonk, who basically said, look, I've made games under different studio names and different types. I've worked on other titles. So this is not really my debut game, even though it's the first game I'm making as this studio name. So don't bother.
- [35:11]
D
Mystery. Mystery is afoot.
- [35:13]
B
Kind of interesting.
- [35:14]
D
Who is the megabonk developer? I mean, I didn't realize the megabonk developer was operating under a certain veil of secrecy and maybe they don't want to walk onto a stage to be congratulated. I adore megabonk. Also. It is up against in that category, CLEAR Obscure, Expedition 33. And.
- [35:34]
What was the other big debut? Oh, blueprints.
- [35:37]
B
I also say you don't need to show up. It's not like Local funk showed up for the Bellotro nod.
- [35:42]
D
So, like, I did. Didn't he dress up like a clown?
- [35:45]
A
Man, he did dress up like a clown.
- [35:47]
B
Was he.
- [35:48]
D
He was there someone dressed up as a clown to accept an award for Balacho? Maybe that was the local GDC award.
- [35:53]
A
Couldn't.
- [35:54]
C
No, no, it was like the spokesperson.
- [35:56]
A
Yeah, listen, I think it's so inspirational that within the span of a decade we have gone from women with award winners painted on their bodies to someone withdrawing from consideration to preserve the sanctity of the game. Awards. It's proud tradition of the best. I am no debut, so I cannot take this from another deserving viggy recipient.
- [36:20]
B
This is what Big Jeff has been working for and he's here. He made it.
- [36:23]
A
Yeah, it's happening. Listen, I'm kidding. On the square. Big Jeff, you know how proud the J man is of you. Personally, I tell you in all our.
- [36:32]
D
Texts, I hope that we do still get like a beleaguered Samuel L. Jackson on stage handing out the viggy to fucking fucking umamusume. Pretty derby for best mobile game. That's a dream.
- [36:46]
A
It's time to call it the Viggy, Jeff. You don't have to. You don't have to get us. You don't have to mention us. Even but you could get this year start calling it the Viggy. I think that that's time. It's time. Best adaptation threw me for a loop. Cause did you guys know they did a Splinter Cell cartoon with Liam Shriver is Sam? I didn't know about that.
- [37:09]
Okay. Like, hey guys, if us didn't know about the Splinter Cell cartoon on Netflix starring Liev Shriver that came out in October, who did? Who knew? How did these people know about it? Denominated?
- [37:22]
D
I don't know. I don't know. Let me just check and make sure. No, none of us are still. None of us are content. Creator of the year nominated. That's fine.
- [37:30]
B
I actually was.
- [37:33]
D
You pulled out made room for the burnt peanut. I get it.
- [37:36]
C
Do we want to guess some announcements? Yeah.
- [37:38]
B
Justin, you have some bold.
- [37:39]
A
I don't have like. I don't have guesses, but I have some things that I pulled up mainly based on when they their previous appearances in the VGAs and their relative quiet since then. Right. My rationale here being that announced the VGAs haven't heard anything for a while. Maybe we hear something and you guys follow more closely. So I want to see what you think. First of all, what about a Max Payne remake trailer?
- [38:05]
D
Seems like a good thing.
- [38:07]
A
We know there's a remake coming.
- [38:08]
B
Yeah.
- [38:08]
D
And.
- [38:09]
B
And that studio Remedy has done actually a lot of stuff at game awards, so that would surprise me.
- [38:14]
A
What if Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake is there?
- [38:17]
C
What do you think about almost Ubisoft certainly will be. I would put like 95% bet on that.
- [38:24]
B
You should keep in mind the likelihood that Ubisoft won't exist as accompanied by next week. So that's the other consideration.
- [38:29]
C
I would say that we'll see that and we will see Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake there. I would not be surprised if Ubisoft pulls Bethesda when they are trying to confirm their sale and just announced everything. Do you all remember this before Xbox acquired Bethesda and they were like here's the next 20 years of games. Ubisoft's just gonna start saying whatever they're working on.
- [38:56]
A
What about.
- [38:58]
Blade trailer? What about a mention of Blade?
- [39:01]
B
How I forgot Blade was being made.
- [39:04]
C
I would like to see that.
- [39:05]
A
Yeah, I know, right? It was Arcane was working on a Blade game. They were confirmed to be working on it as recently as last year. So I don't know.
- [39:14]
C
The only reason we did not see that is Wolverine is so close that if they're going to show anything, they might want to show Wolverine but possibly. I think we'll see.
- [39:27]
B
That's Insomniac is making Wolverine.
- [39:29]
C
Right? But they're Marvel Games, bud. It's Disney's the one who controls the game and everything.
- [39:36]
A
Now, what would you guys think about this? Probably some Elder Scrolls Online bullshit.
- [39:43]
C
Yeah.
- [39:45]
That sounds right.
- [39:46]
A
Do you think that'll happen?
- [39:47]
B
So I have a. I have a genuine thing.
- [39:49]
A
Oh, wait, wait. I forgot to add the second part that I am excited about. Until I see that it is the Elder Skulls online. Those things get me every fucking year. Big Jeff, you gotta stop teasing me like that, buddy. They'll be like, in a world beyond compare, demons and dragons fight for supremacy. I'm like, hell yeah.
- [40:06]
B
They'll always say Cyrodiil. They'll say Cyrodiil very early in the world of Cyrodiil.
- [40:09]
A
Yeah.
- [40:10]
D
Return.
- [40:12]
Return to the forgotten islands.
- [40:15]
Yeah, baby.
- [40:16]
A
Coming this month, the 17th era begins. Like, oh, fuck.
- [40:22]
Online bullshit.
- [40:23]
D
Never mind.
- [40:23]
A
Change the channel. Kids.
- [40:26]
B
I want to mention. So I don't think historically there's really ever been major Nintendo announcements during the TGAs, but it does seem like we might get a Dust Blood.
- [40:36]
A
If Anybody else has VGA's from now on, I'm gonna kill you. It's Viggy's.
- [40:39]
B
Please. We're not gonna get the Big Jeff biggies. It does seem like we might get a Duskbloods trailer, given that that's a switch to exclusive and like a big.
- [40:50]
C
And there's always some Fromsoft there, right?
- [40:52]
B
They've already announced it. They haven't really shown gameplay really. So that and my.
- [40:58]
C
Yeah, my other big bet. I think we'll see a lot of Sega stuff. They've been showing up more and more in these.
- [41:04]
A
They've got a few properties they could like delve into a little bit. Sega's got their crazy tax thing and Jet Set Radio thing.
- [41:11]
C
Yeah, they made that announcement. We're like, we're bringing back everything. We're bringing back Golden Ax. We're bringing back Crazy Taxi. Jet Set Radio. There's a rollerblade skate shop in downtown Santa Ana that now has what looks like all this licensed Jet Set Radio future stuff all over it. Like they've like liveried the entire outside of the store and the anniversary is coming up. It just feels like something is on the way there. And then Sonic has 35th anniversary and hasn't had a mainline game in a bit. So I feel like there's a Sonic announcement likely.
- [41:44]
D
I think they'll show new Persona 4i for Jesus Christ. What was the new Subtitle of the. I should know this since it's, like, my favorite game of Revival.
- [41:52]
C
More Golden.
- [41:53]
D
That's right.
- [41:54]
C
Yes.
- [41:54]
D
Persona 4. More golden revival. I'd love to see that again, especially since they didn't show basically fuck all when they announced it at the Xbox Game Showcase back in June.
- [42:02]
C
Yeah, that'd be nice. That would be nice. Yeah. The only other last thing that I would expect is that new Jurassic park, like, Survivor Game. Like, it might actually be called that. Survival.
- [42:15]
A
Yeah.
- [42:17]
C
Anything that's like. Yeah, anything that ties into movies, I feel like is game awards fodder. Because they're like, we're already in la. Let's get the celebrities out, do all that stuff.
- [42:28]
D
Is there gonna be Fable stuff?
- [42:29]
A
Maybe.
- [42:30]
C
Ooh, that'd be nice.
- [42:32]
D
What was the other game that rare? The, like, Open World?
- [42:36]
C
Oh, I got canceled. Jesus Christ. Not perfect.
- [42:38]
B
Dark. Which also.
- [42:39]
D
No, it's like a fantasy.
- [42:44]
C
Wild.
- [42:44]
A
Ever.
- [42:45]
D
Yes. Ever Wild.
- [42:47]
C
Yeah.
- [42:49]
D
Oh, no, it was canceled. Yeah. Never mind. Bye, everybody.
- [42:53]
C
Yeah.
- [42:53]
B
Yeah.
- [42:54]
D
Then Viva Pinata. Viva Pinata. Coming back in a big way. Definitely.
- [42:59]
C
Ever Wild. Damn. Cancel. That's a bummer. Did they feel pain?
- [43:04]
D
The games? The pinatas?
- [43:05]
B
Yeah.
- [43:06]
D
Oh, they screamed when you hit them. Yeah, for sure.
- [43:08]
A
Awful.
- [43:09]
D
I. Viva. They would scream.
- [43:12]
A
I want to hit you guys with a prediction that is way out of left field, but you tell me what you think, because it just feels. This one I feel in my bones.
- [43:19]
C
Please.
- [43:19]
A
And when I wrote it, I just wrote in this document, Fortnite Movie.
- [43:26]
C
Wow, dude.
- [43:27]
A
Right? When I say it, there's some part of you. It's like. I think big Jeff just got a chill on his spine. He's like, how did he know?
- [43:34]
D
Say it again so I can receive it.
- [43:35]
A
Fortnite Movie.
- [43:38]
Yeah. Illumination Studios, an epic partner. Fortnite Movie. They just did this Kill Bill thing where.
- [43:46]
B
And. And they just did a big event where they basically, like, reenacted the scene from Ready Player One, but with all their fucking franchises where King Kong, Godzilla, and Marty McFly were, like, punching a giant monster in the face.
- [43:57]
A
Right? So I feel like I just. Guys, it just the. The. The Simpsons thing and that, like, they're. The scope of it is getting bigger, and I feel like it is at a point where the property. There isn't a big enough property for Fortnite to consume it. You know what I mean? Like, it almost has to be. It has to be the meta property itself. And it feels like there's a Lego Movie opportunity that's just kind of been like, yeah. Sitting there. If you nail the tone. But like, I don't know. It just feels like the game Awards Fortnite movie.
- [44:32]
C
I have one very dumb reason that I don't think it will happen, at least not right away, is I think Epic is proud enough.
- [44:42]
Or stupid enough that they would demand it be made in Unreal Engine.
- [44:47]
B
Oh, I think Unreal Engine.
- [44:49]
C
I think that they would be like, we're not going to partner with any other studio unless they are making the game in Unreal Engine.
- [44:55]
D
It's all going to be Machinima.
- [44:57]
B
Well, yeah, the planes. I mean, the Unreal Engine theoretically would be capable of doing a fully.
- [45:03]
C
It could, but would. You would have to get some partners who are not illumination. Right. Like you're gonna have to work on. People are gonna be like, no, we're gonna use our tools.
- [45:10]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [45:11]
D
In my mind, it would. That would look like Final Fantasy the Spirits Within. And maybe that's unfair that I'm. That I would make that comparison.
- [45:18]
B
Because that looks so good.
- [45:20]
D
Because it looked so good. That's exactly.
- [45:22]
C
They also exported at 720p. It's gonna be great. Stuff looks so good on my iPhone.
- [45:31]
B
It's gonna be a big show. Yeah. We. Let me just do two quick reader mails and then we'll dive into honorable mentions.
- [45:41]
First one, this comes from Nick. I'm on my hands and knees begging the besties crew to try out Straff Tat, which I think is a game we played on Rusty's. Very cool game. It might be my game of the year. Solely based on the fun per minute metric. This might be my Tower Fall. I think about it every other day. I recommend playing the tutorial, which is fine. And then just getting in a lobby together for an hour with all the maps on rotation. Straftet, in case you're Not Aware, is a 1v1 FPS multiplayer game where they just toss you maps like fucking crazy. Like each match lasts.
- [46:14]
C
Griffin, did you ever play this?
- [46:15]
B
12 seconds.
- [46:16]
D
No, I'm watching a trailer. I mean, it doesn't look like my. But it looks like something that I wish was my jam. It looks like, you know, a counter strike or something intense, sort of genuinely.
- [46:27]
C
I think you enjoy it way more than you think because it looks like Counter Strike, but plays like Random Mario Party goldeneye.
- [46:34]
A
Yeah.
- [46:35]
D
Okay.
- [46:35]
B
Yeah. Next time you're in the same room as someone with a Steam deck, I think it's. Is it free?
- [46:40]
C
Yeah.
- [46:41]
B
Or very inexpensive?
- [46:43]
D
Yes, I believe it is.
- [46:44]
B
Download it and play it with someone in the same room. I think it'd be a fucking blast. So Strathead is very, very good. Strongly recommend it. The other thing I wanted to mention is from Nick. This is regarding Kirby Air Riders, which we talked about last week. I'm surprised to hear that they meaning Griffin Plant. And I like the racing more in Kirby Air riders. I'm under 30 and air riders Air Ride, I guess, was always a friend's house classic. I never owned it, but it was a sleep hour classic. And all my friends love playing the battle mode much more than the racing. I don't think I've ever played the racing mode, but I think the battle mode was a kid's favorite. I think that's probably true in the context of same room, same system, multiplayer. Probably a lot of fucking fun, which I think none of us did, for what it's worth.
- [47:25]
D
Yeah, I mean, from what I understand, it was the city. City shit, was it City Trials. That was like the crazy party mode that everybody was wild about. And I do think that it is designed for a local sort of couch. But with the magic of game chat, you can recreate that experience so seamlessly with the Nintendo Switch 2 camera. You plug it in and it follows your face in a special dot.
- [47:51]
B
Okay, we can dive into honorable mentions. Justin, I want to hear about your rise to fame, your celebrity status that you've hit in a game called Sectori.
- [48:03]
A
Yeah, more people need to play Sectori. Because I should not be in the leaderboard of any game on the world. I mean, like, the number 19 on one of the modes is what Russ is referring to. I don't know which. I don't remember which one, but I barely.
- [48:16]
B
Classic mode. He's number 19.
- [48:18]
A
I'm number 19 on classic mode, you guys, it's got. Everybody's got to play more Sectori. I think it's so good. It's so good. Makes you.
- [48:27]
D
It's really.
- [48:28]
A
It makes you feel good when you play it. And I need. And there is a thing about Sectori, and I'm. I'm. I don't know.
- [48:39]
The meta game of it, the scoring of it. It's not like any shooter like this I've ever played. Because understanding how to score better is like a puzzle in and of itself that you have to solve. Like, it doesn't lay out a lot of stuff for you. So understanding it's think of a Geometry Wars. But like in Geometry Wars, a lot of the strategy was pretty basic. Like once you got the basic idea, it was just reflexes, right? And yes, just stay alive, like and that. And I love that. That's awesome. This definitely has that in spades. But each mode has different meta considerations in terms of like, what power ups do you have that are helping you with this situation? Or like, how do these score bonuses, like, overlap together? If you wait to get this thing, will this thing work better and trigger more? And it is almost like a. It's not to the level of like a balatro or something like that, but there's a. This things click where you're like, oh, I've been spinning my wheels. Because this and this, these two things need to be interconnected so that understanding is building while you're building the reflexes. And that's very satisfying.
- [49:51]
D
Yeah, they're almost all kind of predicated on like a push, pull, risk, reward type thing. Like the mode I love and it was the same in Geometry wars is called Gates. And that's the one where you can't shoot. You just fly through gates that spawn in that explode and you kill enemies with it. But the way to score high in that one is to get a combo going which will persist for a few seconds after you get a kill. So the idea is you want to wait and not fly through any of the gates and let a big fucking crowd of monsters chase you around. And then at the very last second, when you can't possibly have any more room to wiggle around, you just go through the gates nut and you blast.
- [50:28]
A
There's a.
- [50:31]
You can get this power up that is tough to get. There's a power up that is cycling through letters and it's spelling a word almost like a pinball table. And you have to fly through that power up several times to spell out the word. But when you spell out the word, you enter this Rainbow mode. That is the most satisfying thing. It reminds me of Peggle back in the day when Peggle would really hit. When this thing hits rainbow mode, oh, baby, it is a ho.
- [50:58]
B
It's literally called Rainbow mode. It's not even.
- [51:00]
D
It's called Rainbow mode. You're so stre. Especially in campaign mode when you're playing it and you're like, no shields. Fucking white knuckle. God almighty, I can't keep up. And then you hit rainbow. You get to take a breath and it looks incredible. Yeah. Please play Sectori.
- [51:16]
B
The game is not. Has not hit a huge mass audience. Please be on the front lines of this fucking fantastic game.
- [51:22]
C
It's.
- [51:23]
B
It's truly.
- [51:23]
D
There's a couple games that we're going to be talking about. The good considerations that are going to be kind of wild spoilers. Because they do everything so right. Like, they obviously don't do the most incredible, ambitious, new, groundbreaking thing, but, like, everything Sectori does, it fucking crushes and nails and it gets its hooks right deep down in your brain and I think could do pretty, pretty, pretty well, actually.
- [51:51]
Are you gonna play anything else, Juice?
- [51:53]
A
No, Dispatch. That. You know, I have been playing a lot of stuff, but it's all contextual. For. For Goatee. It's like I went back to, like. I will say that just for, like, context wise. I'm playing a lot more Death Stranding, too. Playing a lot more Sectori. Playing a lot more Fortnite, because that new event started. And Fortnite could be game of the year any year. You know, you think about it, Fortnite movie might be the game of the year. Next year.
- [52:18]
D
I've returned to Donkey Kong Bonanza. I'm glad I've done that because it's been. It's been a different experience playing through it solo without a child with a rocket launcher sort of thing.
- [52:30]
B
Yeah, it's an actual game.
- [52:31]
D
It's an actual real game at that point. It's extremely polished and good. Have you guys watched Stranger Things yet? The new season?
- [52:38]
A
Oh, thank goodness. Somebody's getting the word out.
- [52:45]
D
Poor kids.
- [52:47]
A
You know what? Grimace these poor 30 and my gushers for. Who's going to tell me about the new season of Stranger Things?
- [52:59]
D
It's just obviously I'm not here to market Stranger Things because it continues to be, like, in some ways, just really kind of bad television that I am fully willing to cut the most slack. I am willing to cut any piece of media ever, because I am so, like, just fucking, like, I'm down. Like, I'm down. Yeah. These characters are gonna say things that sound patently insane to be coming out of their.
- [53:27]
Now, like, old adult mouths.
- [53:32]
But, like, I don't know. I find myself so. I don't know. I'm just in. I'm down for whatever they want to throw, even if it's the same kind of bits over and over again.
- [53:41]
B
I'm in a weird spot because I watched the first three seasons and then haven't seen the latest. And when I say latest, I mean some of that stuff came out, like.
- [53:50]
C
Four or five years ago.
- [53:51]
A
The last season.
- [53:51]
D
The last season was great. I think the last season with Vecna was fantastic.
- [53:55]
B
It's just gonna be very weird for me because if I watch them sequentially, there's gonna be immediate aging from one episode to another.
- [54:03]
D
Dude. Yeah. You'll finish the season finale of season four and then start season five and be like, holy shit, is there a plotline where they all fell into the Time Hole? Vecna summoned the Time Hall? Yeah. No. And that is, I think a great deal of the weirdness genuinely is that.
- [54:18]
B
And it was just fine.
- [54:19]
D
Whatever, it's fine. There's an inherent kind of detachment. It feels like maybe from.
- [54:27]
Considering it's been, I think, in the fiction of the show, like a couple weeks since the ending of season four. I don't know that they are bringing the urgency, but I think overall it's good. The other thing I really wanted to talk about, that I've been playing constantly.
- [54:41]
B
I'm very excited to hear about this.
- [54:43]
D
Is the Castle Crashers Painter Boss Paradise DLC that came out earlier this year.
- [54:49]
A
Okay, this makes so much sense. I saw this pop up on Steam for you and I was like, griffin, what is happening?
- [54:54]
D
Yes, we talked about it. So Castle Crashers is actually one that Henry and I had played before. It was a little too. He didn't like when you save a princess at the end of one of the levels and they make out. He saw that for the first time, was like, I'm done. But then we played Scott Pilgrim, the TMNT beat em up Absalom. We got real, real into and so came back to it and was like, hey, have you heard of this dlc? And I remembered we had talked about it on the show. Painter Boss paradise adds, first of all, the remastered kind of sheen of.
- [55:26]
New art and stuff to the game. It looks great, but the big thing it does is it lets you customize characters and download customized characters from the Steam workshop. And the way that you customize characters is that it generates a little, like, sprite sheet where it shows you each different, like, part. Here's what the head looks like facing forwards and to the sides and then to the side a little bit more and it shows you like a little outline. And you can go through and export it to the drawing app of your choice. Do that, re upload the PNG and it looks really fucking good. So we've been making characters, we've been downloading them.
- [55:57]
B
Griffin, are you in Castle Crashers right now?
- [56:00]
D
Like my character?
- [56:01]
B
Yeah, you yourself?
- [56:03]
D
I've not made myself in Castle Crashers. No. Henry made a character called the Bankist, who is just a very wealthy man with a big top hat. But, like, it's really. It's genuinely. It has really given the game a shot in the arm. And we've been Playing a lot of it. We're now playing through insane mode together which is probably too punishing to be enjoyable. But big, big ups to the beam for releasing DLC for this I think 17 year old video.
- [56:31]
B
Crazy.
- [56:31]
D
That is. Is truly pretty. Pretty ambitious.
- [56:35]
B
I mean they're due for a game announcement, right? They're gonna put out something soon.
- [56:40]
D
Yeah, man. I mean Castle Crashers 2 would blow up.
- [56:43]
B
They put out that alien hominid game.
- [56:44]
D
And yeah, pre Castle Crashers.
- [56:48]
B
I think in the vein of what Justin was saying regarding game of the year consideration, I started playing Root Shooters are dead. Which yes, it's very fucking good. I really, really like it. I think I might be too dumb or ADD for it. I'm literally add that's not even a neg. I take medication and everything. So I'm trying. I think it's incredibly cool. But I am also like oh my God. I'm getting so overwhelmed by all the options and like things that I could chase down. But I just execution wise they've really crushed it. Like it's really incredible and has me.
- [57:22]
D
I would encourage you to make use of the hint system.
- [57:25]
B
I would think the way that they.
- [57:26]
D
Do hints is actually pretty good. It's very light touch. Very. Like you may have noticed in this thing that this mentioned that. Is there anywhere you could look to see if there is a. It doesn't say like this guy is this guy's son. It's pretty.
- [57:40]
B
That's good to know. As you know, hints are anathema to me but if they're in game, I feel less bad about it.
- [57:45]
D
So no, I had to make use of it especially for the bonus chapter of the game which is so crazy.
- [57:53]
B
It's just conceptually so cool. Obviously it's an evolution of the things we saw in Obra Dinn but just.
- [57:58]
D
Really well done to remake the Internet to make a small Internet. I'm always fucking down with a game.
- [58:04]
A
That tries to do that.
- [58:04]
D
So cool to make an Internet plant.
- [58:07]
B
You have anything?
- [58:08]
C
Yeah, I've been playing routine.
- [58:12]
A
Did y' all hear about this game?
- [58:13]
C
Got announced like a million years ago.
- [58:17]
D
Looks pretty spooky.
- [58:17]
C
Looks pretty scary. So the way routine works, it's basically imagine you're set in a Ridley Scott alien. The Alien one type of space situation. And you are being hunted, at least at first, by a giant towering robot. It is one of those horror games where you cannot kill the bad guy that is chasing you. You can just hope to avoid them or stun them for long enough to kill.
- [58:44]
B
That's Just because you're bad at games though. Like I would be able for sure.
- [58:48]
C
I mean, probably. I mean, you know, even without guidance, no less.
- [58:52]
A
Yeah.
- [58:54]
C
But yeah, it's. It's really good. It is.
- [58:58]
Really good in that I wish it had come out all those years ago because it was so. This concept felt really fresh and ahead of its time. It had the misfortune of actually being announced before that Alien game. Oh yeah, the literal alien game that did Alien Isolation. Yeah. And then like the many, many other horror games that have done versions of this thing. That said it has some art direction choices that are just absolutely killer because it is going for this pseudo early digital analog world when you want to save. For example, it will project a screen, like a really shitty projector project, like onto a wall. So it's not just like a screen, it's just a random projection on the wall which looks amazing using all of the modern graphical whiz bangs that you can actually use with Unreal Engine 5 now.
- [59:56]
Yeah, it's doing a lot with a little. That said, I don't know if we'll do a full episode on it. Not because it's not great, but just because I don't know if. Is anybody here that sort of game person? Does anybody love those sort of horrors?
- [60:10]
B
Oh, no. I find them horrifying and debilitating.
- [60:13]
C
Yeah.
- [60:14]
A
Very, very rarely.
- [60:16]
D
I have to be in a mood and I don't know that I am right now.
- [60:19]
C
Yeah. So I'm glad that I gave it a shot. I doubt I will be finishing it just because I similarly do not have the stomach. It's not this that I find them scary. It's that I don't like doing puzzles while I'm also just having to evade a thing. Like I don't. My brain doesn't personally enjoy that. But if your brain does, you should go check it out because it looks. It's absolutely beautiful to look at.
- [60:47]
A
Yeah. That's it.
- [60:48]
D
That's it. Right, that's it.
- [60:49]
C
That's it.
- [60:51]
B
Thank you to our patrons over@patreon.com thebesties we have a new bracket that is live right now. You can listen to that.
- [61:02]
And enjoy it for all your pleasure. Actually, here's a clip.
- [61:06]
C
The fact that the first thing most people did was made penises or peni.
- [61:12]
D
I think hard not to and gets.
- [61:15]
C
To your point of. It's a bit more of like a user generated game than it is like a character creation tool. Because the time to peni is like associated with an entirely different genre of Character of creation.
- [61:28]
D
Well, except for Conan Exiles, which has a time to peni of zero milliseconds.
- [61:32]
B
Sure, sure.
- [61:35]
D
I forgot the hardest edit I've ever had to do in my entire life.
- [61:40]
C
Interesting word choice.
- [61:42]
A
Oh, man. Griffith remake.
- [61:45]
D
Never ever, ever.
- [61:46]
A
No, no, no. Is it unrated?
- [61:48]
D
Put it on the paywall. Just put it on the paywall.
- [61:50]
B
Yeah, sure.
- [61:52]
D
That said, that said, the tools that Spore gives you are pretty fucking phenomenal.
- [61:58]
B
Lovely. Such good stuff that we did. I'm so proud of us. I want to thank a few new members to the Patreon. We have Daniel S. We have Jeffrey A. We have Lar and we have Kaylee N. Thank you for being members. Thank you to everyone else for being members. We really greatly appreciate you. What are we doing next week? Wow, it's a big week.
- [62:19]
C
Next week we have Metroid Prime 4. It's actually real. Speaking of games that have been in development for basically ever, we will actually be able to finally play the new Metroid prime game. And you'll hear about that next week.
- [62:34]
A
Also breaking news. Anbernic has just announced the 477M. So can you guys tell me what can you guys tell me about that device? Go.
- [62:44]
B
4.7-Inch screen. Good metal exterior.
- [62:48]
D
7Th generation metal.
- [62:50]
A
They just announced the 477 volts.
- [62:53]
B
Oh fuck. Vertical. Vertical orientation.
- [62:56]
D
Yeah, dude.
- [62:56]
C
No.
- [62:56]
A
Wind panel is the 477M but with a vertical orientation.
- [63:01]
D
Dude.
- [63:03]
B
Justin, I think you need to.
- [63:04]
A
We're talking Dimensity 8300. The Dimensity 8300. Russell. It's the same one as the RG 477M.
- [63:17]
That's going to do it for us on the besties. Be sure to get up next week for the besties because should the world's best friend take the world's best games.
- [63:52]
D
Besties.