The Most Anticipated Games of 2026

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Besties – "The Most Anticipated Games of 2026"

Hosts: Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Russ Frushtick
Date: January 9, 2026
Episode Theme:
The Besties kick off the year by ranking and hyping up their most anticipated games of 2026, with classic banter, hot takes, and plenty of deep-cut gaming picks. The episode weaves in their trademark humor and camaraderie while reflecting on past predictions, sharing behind-the-scenes gaming drama, and surfacing hidden indie gems alongside blockbuster releases.

---

1. Opening Banter and Recap of Past Predictions

• Russ shares an embarrassing mix-up where he asked patrons about 2025 games, drawing some playful ire and unsubscribes.
• Group reflects on last year’s list:
  • Justin only correctly anticipated "Outer Worlds 2" coming out (03:02), but missed on big titles like "Fable," "Slay the Spire 2," "Judas," and "Marvel Knights."
  • Plant did better, liking all the games on his list except maybe one he didn’t play much ("Atom Fall").
  • Russ missed with picks like "unannounced 3D Mario" and "Elden Ring Night Range," but correctly anticipated "MGS3 Delta."
  • Griffin’s picks were suspiciously “not in the rundown” (04:43), with the group joking about missing historical records.

"I'm dinged for being a dreamer that anticipates games that didn't quite cross the finish line."
—Justin, [03:08]

---

2. Most Anticipated Games of 2026 (Round Robin Picks)

Resident Evil 9: Requiem

• Russ kicks off with this deep cut, out Feb 27.
• Discussion: The reliability and inventiveness of the Resident Evil franchise, with parallels to Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty.

"Every Resident Evil game that has come out since seven has just been kind of a club banger."
—Griffin, [05:57]

The Fate of Fable

• Justin provocatively predicts Fable will be canceled in 2026 ([08:05]), sparking debate—others think it would have been canceled already if so.
• Justin instead hypes a meta-narrative RPG remake (possibly referencing "The Magic Circle"), lauding its blending of director’s commentary, trailers, and developer footage.

Dragon Quest VII Remake

• Griffin details the streamlining of this notoriously lengthy JRPG, with nostalgia for the franchise and improvements over the original ([11:00]).

"It has more of a Dragon Quest XI aesthetic now... It is just like so daunting..."
—Griffin, [12:05]

Perfect Tides: Station to Station

• Chris Plant recommends this adventure game for its authentic memoir writing and nostalgia for early-2000s NYC independent life ([13:25]).

Pokémon Pocopia

• Russ’s genuine excitement for this Pokémon/Dragon Quest Builders crossover, especially Snorlax’s new form and the existential twist of playing as a Ditto ([15:21]).

"You play as a ditto masquerading as a human being. And that asks a lot of sort of existential questions that I'm ready to really dive into."
—Griffin, [16:30]

Little Gator Game: In the Dark (DLC)

• Warm praise for the original’s charm; anticipation for new content, which follows a beloved gator into underground adventures ([17:17]).

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream

• Griffin expects this Switch 1/Switch 2 compatible title to take over streaming and social feeds, lauding the expanded Mii Maker and comedic, lighthearted focus ([18:51]).

Animal Crossing (2026 Update)

• Griffin discusses complicated feelings about the new edition’s restrictions (one island per console) and content updates, torn between nostalgia and technical limitations ([21:12]).

Pragmata

• Plant hypes this third-person shooter/hacker from Capcom, comparing it to Dead Space with unique mechanics ([23:07]).

Duskbloods

• Russ shares cautious optimism about From Software’s Switch 2 exclusive, noting PvPvE focus and Bloodborne-like aesthetics but some concerns over less single-player emphasis ([25:27]).

Witchbrook

• Griffin is excited for Chucklefish’s magical Stardew Valley–style sim, with gorgeous isometric pixel art and “witch college” setting ([26:12]).

Fields of Mistria

• Plant notes its Stardew-like charm, anime aesthetic, romance, and robust early access quality-of-life features ([28:28]).

Mina the Hollower & Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave

• Russ quickly shouts out Yacht Club’s Link’s Awakening–inspired game and hopes the next Fire Emblem recaptures “Three Houses” highs ([32:14], [32:24]).

Deltarune Chapter 5 & Professor Layton: The New World of Steam

• Griffin is eager for the next Deltarune release and Level-5’s return to logic puzzles ([33:24], [34:42]).

Vampire Crawlers

• Justin can barely contain his hype for this “Vampire Survivors” + “Balatro” roguelike card battler ([35:45]).

"It's gonna sound like you're dreaming, dude, but listen..."
—Justin, [36:14]

Control: Resonant & Unannounced AP Thompson Game

• Plant looks forward to Remedy’s action-focused Control follow-up (though doubts a 2026 release), and teases a new punk-indie title from AP Thompson. ([37:00], [38:06])

---

3. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Resident Evil’s Rocket Launchers:

  "I guarantee the final act of that game will be fucking rocket launchers out there shooting a rocket launcher."
  —Griffin, [07:42]

• On Pokémon’s Allure:

  "Snorlax I'm pretty excited about is one of the best sentences I've ever heard on my tombstone. Find joy."
  —Justin, [16:46]

• On Fable’s Existence:

  "The fact that there's not makes me think that there will be."
  —Justin, on Half-Life 3, [40:43]

• On Vampire Crawlers Pitch:

  "The turbo wild card from Vampire Survivors turns the snowballing thrill of Vampire Survivors into a turbo turn-based car driven blobber."
  —Justin, [36:14]

---

4. Listener Picks and Honorable Mentions ([41:09–44:31])

Reader Mail Popular Picks:

• Rhythm Heaven sequel
• Sulfur 1.0
• Tamagotchi Life
• Assassin's Creed Hex & Black Flag remake
• The Incident at Galley House
• Ace Combat 8
• Fields of Mistria full release
• Mugenics (Edmund McMillen's cat-based tactics)
• Denshattak (train-based fighting/racing)

"Satisfactories" and Gaming in Downtime:

• Griffin discusses the hypnotic appeal and productivity of Satisfactory ([44:38–47:25]).
• Russ recounts replaying Dark Souls 1 for all achievements, with debates on necessary guides and game design quirks ([47:44–51:10]).
• Pikmin 4, Sonic Racing Cross Worlds, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Death Stranding 2, and Alan Wake 2 named as recent joyful replays.

---

5. Offbeat Recs and Closing Fun ([53:13–60:10])

• Hundreds of Beavers: Justin describes this madcap indie film as “one of the best movies I’ve ever seen,” structured like a video game let's play—highly recommended for fans of slapstick and gaming culture ([53:13–55:46]).
• EXO Win 9x: Justin walks through this massive PC gaming preservation project offering hundreds of classic Windows 95/98 games in a user-friendly package, praising its historical value ([55:55–60:10]).

---

6. Closing & Acknowledgements ([60:11–61:32])

• Shout-out to Patreon supporters, announcement of special bracket episodes and future coverage.
• Teaser for the next week: a discussion of Terminator 2D.

---

Timestamps for Key Games Mentioned

• Resident Evil 9 Requiem: [05:10]
• Fable (and its possible cancellation): [07:54]
• Dragon Quest VII Remake: [11:00]
• Perfect Tides: Station to Station: [13:25]
• Pokémon Pocopia: [15:21]
• Little Gator Game (DLC): [17:17]
• Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream: [18:51]
• Animal Crossing 2026: [21:12]
• Pragmata: [23:07]
• Duskbloods: [24:21]
• Witchbrook: [26:12]
• Fields of Mistria: [28:28]
• Mina the Hollower: [32:14]
• Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave: [32:24]
• Deltarune Chapter 5: [33:24]
• Professor Layton: New World of Steam: [34:42]
• Vampire Crawlers: [35:45]
• Control: Resonant: [37:00]
• AP Thompson’s new game: [38:06]

---

Tone & Takeaways

The episode leans into the playful and nerdy rapport that defines The Besties, poking fun at each other’s optimism and missteps, and providing both serious game hype and tongue-in-cheek picks ("Half-Life 3," anyone?). If you’re looking for a deeply knowledgeable but never-too-serious take on the year in games, this episode captures the rising excitement and friendly skepticism that the 2026 lineup deserves.

Transcript

[Ross Froschek]

So I asked some of our patron members for their most anticipated games of 2025. Yeah, that was a mistake. That was the first time I did that. Because it's not 2025 anymore. They're not.

[Justin McIlroy]

Oh, my gosh.

[Ross Froschek]

And I'm so fucking embarrassed.

[Griffin McElroy]

Did you get your fucking handed?

[Ross Froschek]

We had like 30 or 40 people just unsubscribe right then.

[Justin McIlroy]

And it really. From Russ did it. It just comes from the best.

[Ross Froschek]

It's just from the best.

[Justin McIlroy]

So you are the clown.

[Ross Froschek]

You're hung by my error and I don't know. I'm sorry.

[Griffin McElroy]

Were there people saying shit like, were.

[Justin McIlroy]

They trying to be fucking funny, dude?

[Griffin McElroy]

Were they like death stranding too and like. Like saying games that came out last year to try to hurt your fucking feelings?

[Ross Froschek]

They were, and I feel bad about it.

[Justin McIlroy]

Hey, listen, if you're one of those people, turn this off. Yeah, turn this off. Go away.

[Griffin McElroy]

Don't be mean. If you're gonna be mean to us, go away.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Wait, wait, wait. I'm sorry. You said you did this on the Patreon?

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah, I edited it. No, no, no.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm gonna say, hey, if you're one.

[Griffin McElroy]

Of those people, thanks for supporting. Don't go away. Thanks for supporting. By the way, if you're a patron, you can razz Russ's ass until the cows come.

[Ross Froschek]

By the way, no one was me and everyone was like, hey, by the.

[Griffin McElroy]

Way, don't go away.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Sounds like our audience. I love that.

[Griffin McElroy]

Y.

[Justin McIlroy]

My name is Justin McIlroy, and I, through the powers of psychic ability, know the greatest games of 2026.

[Griffin McElroy]

My name is Griffin McElroy, and if I'm being 100% honest, my track record for knowing what the best games of the upcoming year are is absolutely fucking dog water. But I'm gonna try again anyway.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I'm here to tell you about the best things that are gonna happen this year.

[Ross Froschek]

My name is Ross Froschek. I know the best game of the week.

[Justin McIlroy]

Chris, I'm glad you could escape from your terminal case of seasonal affective disorder to join us here on the Besties. I hope the games of 2026 are able to pick your spirits up. Is the crop of games really as dire as you make it sound?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Dude, I've been awake since 4am this morning. My kid woke me up and was like, hey, you want to read a book at 4am? Who wants to read books at 4am? I. I wanna play video games here. I'm back. I've had a jolt I've been touched by the gods.

[Justin McIlroy]

Welcome. That's the kind of energy you could expect right after this.

[Ross Froschek]

Before we dive into the list, I thought it'd be fun. I have the rundown from last year's Moto.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm looking at that too. Man.

[Ross Froschek]

Aw. Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Well.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Ross Froschek]

We got some choices. So let's direct ourselves to Justin for a second. Justin didn't do great. You did successfully predict one game that came out, which was Outer Worlds 2. Congratulations.

[Justin McIlroy]

Was this predict or most anticipated?

[Ross Froschek]

I guess you were anticipating Outer Worlds 2 coming out and then a bunch of games.

[Justin McIlroy]

So I'm dinged for being a dreamer that anticipates games that didn't quite cross the finish line.

[Ross Froschek]

Here's some other.

[Justin McIlroy]

Because I dreamed too big.

[Ross Froschek]

Some other bad boys that didn't quite make it. We have Fable. We have Slay the Spire two. We have Judas. And we have Marvel Knights.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Judas is.

[Justin McIlroy]

Fable's funny fable. Am I one from the year before?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Probably.

[Justin McIlroy]

Sneak peek of 2027 fable.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Let's see.

[Ross Froschek]

Plant did pretty good. All these games I think came out and he liked them for the most part. Despalote, Death Stranding 2 Promise, Mascot Agency and Atom Fall. I don't think we played a lot of Atom Fall, but the other ones for sure.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Ross Froschek]

How did I do?

[Griffin McElroy]

You had unannounced 3D Mario game.

[Ross Froschek]

I fucked that up.

[Griffin McElroy]

That didn't happen. That's pretty bad. You also had Elden Ring Night Range.

[Ross Froschek]

Wait. Let's take a second. In a million years, would you guess the fucking team that worked on Mario Odyssey was in fact just working on a Donkey Kong game where he eats a bunch of bananas instead. Like never would have occurred to anyone.

[Griffin McElroy]

Was that not announced yet?

[Ross Froschek]

No.

[Griffin McElroy]

I guess at that. I guess not. Yeah.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah. No one knew Metro Prime 4, Doom and Elden Ring.

[Justin McIlroy]

Sorry. Metroid Prime 4. You think you're going to skate by on that? Being one of your most anticipated dawns of 2025?

[Griffin McElroy]

Be anticipated and then.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah. But I'd rather anticipate something that doesn't come out than anticipate something that ends up being dirty dishwater.

[Ross Froschek]

That's fair. Fair call. And then I did it. I liked MGS3 Delta, which I had on my list. Night Rain scared me too much. I didn't play a lot of that. And then GTA 6 didn't come out. So. Whoops.

[Griffin McElroy]

In fact, mine's not in the rundown for some reason.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah. Griffin didn't write his down. So there's really no way for history.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

To Know you will never find it out. I'm excited about this year. I'm looking at our list, and I feel confident that most of the stuff that we talk about today will come out in 2026.

[Ross Froschek]

Yes. Yeah, I think that's fair.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm not as confident, but I appreciate that you guys are.

[Ross Froschek]

Should we do a round robin?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Let's do a round robin. How about you kick it off?

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah, I'm gonna kick it off with a deep cut of Resident Evil 9 Requiem. It comes out February 27th.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It will come out. Feel good about that one.

[Griffin McElroy]

What a fucking, like, staple. It's crazy to me how Resident Evil has become almost like the same way that I used to look forward to. Like, oh, the new Assassin's Creed. This year's Assassin's Creed game's coming out, and it's gonna be a quality triple A title for me. I don't know. I feel like that is what Resident Evil has become, which is. It's also really bonkers.

[Ross Froschek]

What's really wild with Resident Evil is in addition to being kind of a regular beat of either a year or two, every year or two, there's either a remake or a new one. They are very inventive. Like, they do really take curveballs with these games, which Assassin's Creed, I think got to a point where they.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, obviously that's not the case for that anymore. But just every Resident Evil game that has come out, I feel like since seven has just been kind of a club banger.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah. I also like the fact that you can play this one in third person and first person, because I think the first person ones are too scary for me.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, see, I like that.

[Ross Froschek]

I get too scared.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I think the trick is the cadence, Right. Because it feels like you're getting these all the time, that it's overwhelming. You like that Ubisoft, Activision style. The last Resident Evil mainline came out in 2021.

[Ross Froschek]

Right. But there was a remake. RE4 was the remake. I feel like they're just bouncing between those two by having a variety of.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Things to release and then them all being nice. It is a different vibe than, hey, here's Call of Duty. And it's a version of the same thing, but by developing people every year.

[Justin McIlroy]

So many companies. So many companies could take a hint from. From what Capcom's been doing with a lot of their franchise. And just in terms of, like, managing it and like, it's wild that there hasn't been a Mainline1 since 2021. I feel like that franchise is like, every Year there's something really cool happening with it and like, yeah, man, think about how many franchises really been kind of dug into the dirt recently. It's really nice to have something that's a little more dependable.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. Also can I say for this game, I'm hopes up that they will figure out the internal pacing of the game so you don't have to have the. It starts out as a horror game, it ends as an action game. Which don't get me wrong, I like it. But I think that they want to fix this by having the two main protagonists so that you can bounce back and forth. I think they played a little bit of Alan Wake too and they said, ooh, that's the sweet sauce right there. Let's let you mix.

[Ross Froschek]

This is a predictions episode. In some ways you are going to be wrong because I guarantee the final act of that game will be fucking.

[Griffin McElroy]

Rocket launchers out there shooting a rocket launcher.

[Ross Froschek]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Justin McIlroy]

Did you say fucking rocket launchers out the ass? Because yeah, dude. Yeah, that would be something. Now that's innovation.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Ross Froschek]

Hoops, you want to go?

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah, man. Fable is going to come. My prediction is that Fable will be capital C canceled this year. That's what I think.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No.

[Justin McIlroy]

How about that?

[Ross Froschek]

Wow.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah. 100%. I think Fable will be canceled this year. You're kidding.

[Griffin McElroy]

What makes you think that?

[Justin McIlroy]

What is Fable?

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, you asked. I thought this was a hype.

[Justin McIlroy]

No, I'm saying like Fable is this brand name that doesn't mean anything to anybody that buys games right now. It did mean something, but it as a brand, it doesn't mean anything. Right.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McIlroy]

I feel like everything we've seen of that game has been. Concept has been like early thoughts like.

[Ross Froschek]

Cut scenes but not gameplay.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's hard, right? Yeah. I just got, I mean I can't, I can't prove that they're going to cancel it. It just feels like saying that like I feel it in the air. I don't know that I. Man, I just don't know that that's going to come out.

[Ross Froschek]

I mean if they were going to cancel it, it seems like they would have done it when they canceled all the other games last year with Perfect Dark and things like that. That's the only.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah, but they also didn't. You know what? They also didn't do Russia. They didn't say that Fable will be out at this time.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah.

[Justin McIlroy]

Which if I was canceling a bunch of games and I wanted to be like don't worry about Fable, I would have at least Given a quarter.

[Ross Froschek]

Sure.

[Justin McIlroy]

You know what I mean? I just think they're going to cancel.

[Ross Froschek]

So this is you anticipating the cancellation?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McIlroy]

This is on your list of Fable. That's my bonus. Right. And instead I'm going to pick the remake of the end of the greatest RPG of all time, which looks wild. It's. It's already kind of like if there's a subgenre for like meta narrative within a game, like I'm already a huge sucker for that in games. This is. I mean this is one of those where like my description is not gonna do it justice because there is the full nature of it is obviously being hidden by the trailers or whatever. It is ostensibly the remake of the last hour of a classic video game, but it includes like, judging from the trailer, like fragments of the manual, director's commentary and then like throughout the trailer then you see like video clips of like the guys actually like making the game and there's some sort of like meta story that's bleeding into it. It kind of reminds me what's the. There is no game, I think was kind of reminded me of that kind of vibe or like things like that where there is a meta layer outside the game. Or the Magic Circle.

[Griffin McElroy]

Was that the Magic Circle? I was trying so hard to remember the name of that game. Good.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Pull every medium its version of the Greatest Song in the World. This is just a tribute, right? Game, you know, like, I'm very excited for this one.

[Justin McIlroy]

It looks really cool. It looks like Q1 this year. So hopefully that'll be soon because it was originally supposed to be November. So.

[Griffin McElroy]

Hey, if you enjoy one hour of JRPG gaming, may I interest you in 140 hours of JRPG gaming because they are doing another remake of Dragon Quest vii. Quick history lesson. Dragon Quest VII came to the stage Dragon War Warrior 7. And it is the franchise's and perhaps genre's longest entry. It is sort of a time hopping sort of JRPG romp and it takes so fucking long to beat this game. There is so much content and so, so much story. They are apparently streamlining quite a bit of it and turning a lot of the mainline stuff into side quest stuff to make it maybe a little bit more accessible, but I don't know. It has more of a Dragon Quest, what was it, 11 aesthetic now. But I mean that game I played through and finished for the first time on a PS1 emulator running at 10 times speed because that was sort of the only way to cruise through it. But it is extremely charming and I think it's would be a great, great, great game if again, if they streamline some of that stuff.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's extremely charming. If you grind it down into little.

[Griffin McElroy]

Granules, you mush it into paste and then slurp. Slime it down. No, it has a lot going for it. It is just like so daunting. It is a daunting ass game. Even in the Dragon Quest canon. It is a lot to take on, but there's a lot of cool stuff there. So I don't know, I think it will be. They have such a, I think at this point pretty solid track record with these Dragon Quest remakes. And I'm sort of interested to see.

[Ross Froschek]

When is fucking rocket Slime coming back. That's all I want to know.

[Griffin McElroy]

Dude, don't tell me about it. Yeah, I would love a new rocket slime.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

They've really figured out how to create that feeling of nostalgia. The rose colored glasses thing first with that 2.5D pixel stuff. But this, it's like what if the strategy guides that look was how the game itself looked? It looks so warm. I want to live inside this video game is amazing.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Ross Froschek]

You will be.

[Griffin McElroy]

You will. Yes.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Sorry, son.

[Griffin McElroy]

That is out February. That's out February 5th. So that's out pretty soon. I should actually probably start reaching out to Square Enix to find out what the plan is for code for that.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Because don't worry, my bud, I'm already.

[Justin McIlroy]

I'm already.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, thanks. We can always count on you, Chris Playant.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I know it's a priority, Chris, what.

[Griffin McElroy]

Are you looking forward to?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I am looking forward to a game that I've already finished. I'm looking forward to Perfect Tides Station to Station. It comes out January 22nd. This game is absolutely incredible and I cannot wait for all of you to play it. Perfect Tides was the one that came before this. That is an adventure game, a point and click adventure, kind of in the style of the Monkey Island. But you play as an emo teenager living in a very small town during the emo boom of like 2000, 2001. This game is. That same person is now going to be a freshman in college in New York in the year 2003 and live in the Greenwich Village, which is basically exactly what my life was. Moving from a small town and doing that in 2004. So it is for me pure nostalgia bait. But on top of that, it's just some of the best writing I've seen in a video game. Some of the best memoir writing I've enjoyed in years, games or not. Games. The author, Meredith Grann, before this, did a webcomic called Octopus Pie. I don't know if any of you read that. But also just wonderful memoir writing. This is one of those games that you just sink into because it feels so lived in and so human. I have had three, four conversations with my wife about kind of reflecting on our life together and our time in New York that we've just never had before. Because this game was making me think about things that I had kind of forgotten about being in my 20s. And for a game to give you that is not a thing that you get very often. So, yeah, I'm really excited for everyone to play this.

[Ross Froschek]

No, that does sound nice. But is Pikachu building you a house?

[Griffin McElroy]

That's a huge question for me.

[Ross Froschek]

Ooh.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm trying to remember if that. That probably is gonna be in the dlc.

[Ross Froschek]

Dlc. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, understood. Well, right at the jump, March 5, Pokemon Pocopia. Pikachu's building a motherfucking house for you to code. You don't have to worry about it. It's got plumbing and everything.

[Griffin McElroy]

Code.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yep, it's a code.

[Ross Froschek]

Very concerned about that.

[Justin McIlroy]

Very diligent.

[Ross Froschek]

You wouldn't think Pocopia is unironically might be my most anticipated game of the entire year.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's going to blow this house the fuck up. It's going to. It's going to absolutely take over.

[Ross Froschek]

Now, I think we can all acknowledge that Pokemon Legend Za is not a great game. It has unfortunately been the game that I've played most probably the last month because my son is incredibly pilled on it. Thankfully, I do have more optimism for this game because it is developed by the team that did Dragon Quest Builders 1 and 2, which were both games that I really, really enjoyed.

[Griffin McElroy]

It also looks like Dragon Quest Builders, which is a huge, huge check in the plus column.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah. So assuming that they don't muck it up in some way, I'm very optimistic and it looks fucking great. There's a new version of Snorlax I'm pretty excited about.

[Griffin McElroy]

And you play as a ditto. Masquerading as a human being. And that asks a lot of sort of existential questions that I'm ready to really dive into.

[Ross Froschek]

The Pikachu also looks dead. And I don't know what the story is there, but I'm very invested. Justin's laughing at the same version of.

[Justin McIlroy]

Snorlax I'm pretty excited about is one of the best sentences I've ever heard on my tombstone. Find joy.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. I mean, not since his Gigantamax form in Pokemon. In Pokemon Sword and Shield, where he had the big tree on his belly. That was really cool.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah. Now he's covered in moss.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. God, it's so cool. God, I love Snorlax.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You know what else I love? Little Gators.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah. I'm psyched about this one as well. Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. For the same reason over here.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah. Little Gator Game in the Dark takes little the Lil Gator, the beloved little gator from the first Little Gator game, which, if you haven't played it. What do you hate? Charm?

[Griffin McElroy]

Why do you hate charm?

[Justin McIlroy]

Weirdo.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You should play it now because this is dlc, so you're gonna want.

[Ross Froschek]

It's dlc.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's a lot of cc, so you got time. Little Gator Game the Ridge was about. It was basically a big fantasy game that you set up for your sister to play. And then to prove how fun it is, you had to play the game that you created for her. And it is a beautiful little story about growing up, but it's also a really fun open world sort of thing with a great aesthetic where everything's sort of diy. And in the Dark takes that same idea, but, like, into the caves below. A new adventure below the surface as it's advertised. It looks really cute and fun, and I can guarantee you it will be a joy. This is a sure bet. There's new characters to meet. There's a little gator. It's gonna be great.

[Ross Froschek]

It does seem like you would. I can't even fathom how they would screw it up, because all you need to do is like, add new fun tools and continue the, like, high tradition of the writing and mission accomplished.

[Justin McIlroy]

And as long as, like, November, like Maga Maga.

[Griffin McElroy]

Dude, let's go.

[Ross Froschek]

That'd be bad.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's the worst Pac man noise ever.

[Justin McIlroy]

Oh, we hate that guy. He's the one. Everyone hates this one.

[Ross Froschek]

Pac Man.

[Justin McIlroy]

Maga Maga Maga Maga.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm looking forward to a game that I've just realized after loading up its information page, it is coming to the Nintendo Switch 1 and is backwards compatible with the Switch 2 in the second half of 2026. So that's pretty wild. It is tomodachi life living the dream just based on what we've seen from it. Maybe it doesn't need all the incredible raw processing power of the Switch 2 because it does look like a 3ds game. Specifically the 3ds game Tomodachi Life. But I love Tomodachi Life. It is a really very, I would say, light on mechanics, social sim sort of thing that leans way more on absurdity and kind of like setting up these comic situations. In the original, you could have your Miis that you had made live on this island together, go on dates, which was weird if you based them on your real friends and you could have them sing songs that you wrote the words to, but it would match it to music that was already in the game. And there's so many fucking hysterical things that came out of that. And I think Tomodachi Life, living the dream, despite the fact that it is on a nine year old video game console sort of natively, I think is in this streaming era going to absolutely take the fuck over all your feeds and stuff. It also is going to have more Mii Maker sort of options to put on your characters, including ears. For the first time ever, we're giving these guys some ears. So yeah, it's such a silly game, but I really think it's a game that we are all going to be seeing a lot of when it comes out actually. Quarter quarter 2, 20, 26.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah, I never played the original. It's. It's kind of hard for me to.

[Griffin McElroy]

Wrap my head around it, but it's bonkers. It's not like. So Miitopia was the other kind of similar one that came out that was very much a Dragon Quest that was like the RPG RPG where you could customize every single character or download Miis from online. That is more of a game than Tomodachi Life was. Tomodachi Life was. There was very little in the way of progress or, you know, many mechanics to really get your hands on.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Kind of tangential here, but how are you feeling about that? Animal Crossing?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, no, I mean, I'm excited. That's out January 15th. I have been on and again off again with that game. Henry picked it up last year and so we both got pretty into it for, I don't know, like three or so months. And honestly, if I'm being completely honest, my feelings being complicated about it are that I want to play it on Switch too, but I can't do that without destroying my son's island. So like my only option to do that would be to buy another switch too.

[Ross Froschek]

So why can't you just. Why? Why?

[Griffin McElroy]

Because you can only have one island per switch, despite the fact that I own the game on both cartridge and digital. So we can play it together.

[Ross Froschek]

He owns it on, he's playing it.

[Griffin McElroy]

On Switch 2 he is playing it on Switch 2 on my account. But we only have one Switch 2 and you can only have one island per Switch 2. It's this insane.

[Ross Froschek]

The island Griffin with your son.

[Griffin McElroy]

He would be so pissed off if I did. Are you kidding?

[Justin McIlroy]

If I touch anything pretty specific. Well, I would also island and he does not want Griffin to screw it up.

[Ross Froschek]

I would also add you have the ability now there's like a free mode where you can like fuck around with islands without like impacting the main island.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Cool.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cool. That doesn't address the issue at hand, which is that I would have to buy a second Switch 2. But like all the content is coming to the Switch 1 version, aside from like, you know, the weird webcam stuff. And I think you can only do 12 player multiplayer on the Switch 2 version. But all the stuff that they're adding about the mode Russ mentioned and the hotel where you decorate rooms for people, bringing in more of that happy home designer sort of vibe. I don't know. I think it looks cool. I think time will tell whether or not it sucks us back in or not, but I think it would be. I think it's pretty likely. It probably will plant.

[Ross Froschek]

You want to do one more and then we'll take a break?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, yeah, I'll do one more. I can't wait to play Pragmata. I mean, Resident Evil 9. Don't joke. It's probably my like top of the Capcom games, but Pragmata is more of a Chris Plant style video game. What if I told you there was a third person shooter, but whenever you wanted to shoot the robots, you had to also do a hacking mini game at the exact same time with the other side of the controller. Why, yes, that game does exist and it's called Pragmata and it also just looks beautiful. So you're doing this hacking game. You're trying to avoid the robots that are coming at you. And once you nail that perfect hack, the robot flays open like a robo fish and you see its glowing blue, like internal organs. You blow them up and there's goo everywhere. And then you have a little girl who just hangs out with you. Who has the power to hack.

[Ross Froschek]

Not just hang out. It looks like Isaac Clark from Dead Space has like a little girl on his back. Like a Batman.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Like newt from like aliens.

[Ross Froschek]

Yes.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. Cool. Sort of a Donkey Kong bonanza situation.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It is, yeah. I mean, basically the same.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, this is the first bonanza.

[Justin McIlroy]

Like.

[Ross Froschek]

Let's take a quick break. We have some more coming at you after. Okay. There's one that I'm incredibly worried about but I hope I end up liking it. Okay, it is the Duskbloods. Yeah, I don't for sure I don't know how I feel about this game because Dust Bloods for those that don't know is the switch to exclusive game from from software makers of Elden Ring and all those other games that we all love. And but and it like look Night Rain.

[Justin McIlroy]

What I get it confused with Night Rain.

[Ross Froschek]

That's a different game. Night Rain.

[Griffin McElroy]

Night Rain. It's just the two syllable kind of dark words.

[Ross Froschek]

Dustbloods is the one that kind of looks like bloodborne. Like when the trailer showed at the Nintendo event it kind of was like oh my God, is there a new bloodborne happening? Because aesthetically it does have some of those notes to it but it also they've said it's like multiplayer centric or PvPVE and that's the stuff that I.

[Justin McIlroy]

Like characters love that called the Blood Sworn. Love it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cool.

[Justin McIlroy]

Very cool.

[Ross Froschek]

I just don't know because yo it's.

[Justin McIlroy]

Got a dedicated hub.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's kind of wild that there's not a lot of I don't know to announce a Switch exclusive fromsoft game that looks extremely bloodborne coded. It seems weird how little kind of stuff there is out there about the game. Yeah, I don't know.

[Ross Froschek]

I also get worried that like is this them? I know they've made statements about this, but are they continuing to push into more multiplayer centric stuff which quite frankly doesn't appeal to me nearly as much as it does their like mostly single player stuff. So I am cautiously optimistic about this one and definitely very curious.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm looking forward to Witchbrook, which I'm almost certain I brought last year as well. However it was delayed from being a winter 2020 release to a 2026 release and that span makes me feel like it's fairly likely it's going to come out at some point this year. It is a social sort of sim life sim game from Chucklefish who I.

[Justin McIlroy]

Always get the relationship something familiar.

[Griffin McElroy]

They publish a lot of stuff initially.

[Ross Froschek]

I think they published Stardew Valley.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yes. They also I mean gosh, Risk of Rain. They published Time Spinner Eastward. There's a lot of honestly pretty great indie games. They also developed Starbound and Wargroove. So Witchbrook is their next thing and it is sort of a magic looking isometric Stardew Valley. Like it looks like where you live in a town called Mossport where there's a Witch College, a wizard college. And you just do all the different life sim stuff and build relationships and all that. The game just looks like, stunning. It looks phenomenal. Maybe the best isometric pixel art is it's so detailed and God, I don't even know how to sort of describe the look that it has going on, but seeing it in motion, I think it was featured in a Nintendo Direct, like towards the end of last year. It looks crazy how there is something.

[Ross Froschek]

About the isometric view that I think really supports. Makes it feel more real in some ways than a Stardew, which is obviously flat. I mean, great art in Stardew, but this feels like the SNES approach versus Stardews closer to gba.

[Griffin McElroy]

I just think Chucklefish has a great pedigree and this is a genre I like and it looks spectacular. So I'm really hoping this is the year where it finally comes out.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

On the Stardew Valley note, I was curious when that Haunted Chocolatier game was coming out from. Concernedape Googled it. This is the headline that I saw, the first one that I saw fresh. Can you read that out loud?

[Ross Froschek]

Sure. Concerned Ape hopes to release Haunted Chocolatier.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No. What do you think comes right after that?

[Justin McIlroy]

Well, I would say you don't need anything, right? Yeah, he does hope to do that.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah. I think Concerned Ape is pretty much.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Hoping for that within the next five years is how that ends. Within the next five years. That could be never.

[Ross Froschek]

Sure.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Five years.

[Ross Froschek]

Good. Good for them. Making a probably accurate assessment.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, I want to play it now, though.

[Ross Froschek]

No, I'm good. There's so many games.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, you're right.

[Ross Froschek]

I have like such a Zen approach to all this stuff at this point. Maybe because we just have to play so many games for besties that like, fucking delay it forever. If Silksong never came out, I would have been fine.

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, no, because it's good, that one.

[Ross Froschek]

It is really good. It is good.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Well, I mean, I'll build off this and then I'll throw back to Hugh Hoops. I have Fields of Mystria, which is technically an Early Access right now. And if you are looking for a Stardew Valley, like with more emphasis on romance and kind of an anime aesthetic and Jumping Dragon, you can date. It is a delight. It launched in Early Access with so many quality of life features that I had wanted in Stardew Valley. And I enjoyed probably the 15 and 20 hours that I put into it and then have not gone back to it until it gets out of early access. It's Been there for a while.

[Ross Froschek]

So great dog event.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm very excited to go back to this one.

[Ross Froschek]

Really good dog juice.

[Griffin McElroy]

Russ, why don't you do one? You got two left. Russ, why don't you do.

[Justin McIlroy]

You got two left? Let me do mine real quick then, because I got two left too, because my next one is Fable. Now hear me out, guys.

[Griffin McElroy]

Interesting.

[Justin McIlroy]

I want to. I want to try to cover my bases. So let me say that I'm also very much anticipating the video game Fable.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Justin McIlroy]

I'm a big fan of the entire franchise. I really like Richard Iowade. I like everything they've shown so far. I think it's a kind of first person adventure thing that could have a huge impact.

[Ross Froschek]

Wait, it's the first person.

[Justin McIlroy]

As long as they've spin on it, I think it's gonna be really good.

[Ross Froschek]

Did you say. Did you say it's a first person game?

[Justin McIlroy]

Oh, I don't know. No, you said that.

[Ross Froschek]

Check the tape.

[Justin McIlroy]

Check the tape. In the trailer, you know, there was first a trailer. I think it's a first person video game.

[Ross Froschek]

No fucking way, dude.

[Justin McIlroy]

They just uncanceled it. It could be anything. So that's my Fable. Russ, what's your next one?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, before we go any further, are we. Because we always forget that we're not a video show. Justin is wearing the official besties Fable. I never doubted it would come out T shirt. Are we planning on selling those or.

[Ross Froschek]

Is that more like we made one only because Justin was the one who demanded it. And it's only.

[Justin McIlroy]

I have owned it for four years and I just keep his moth eaten at this point. It is problematic somehow. There's like problematic designs. That's how long I've had it. There's things that the popular culture has soured on.

[Ross Froschek]

I've got two more. I'll do a quickie and then I'll do a slightly longer one. So one of them is Mina the Hollower. This was a game that was supposed to come out in October of last year. This is from the yacht club games folks who made Shovel Knight. And it's basically inspired by one of my favorite games of all time, Link's Awakening. I don't fucking think I need to say anymore. So I'm not going to.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No.

[Griffin McElroy]

It looks so fucking good. I'm hanging a lot of hopes on this one, I think, being a contender because, man, it looks so good.

[Ross Froschek]

The other game that's coming out this year is Fire Fortune's Weave, which is a new mainline Fire emblem game. The last one that came out was Fire Emblem Engage, which was a game that had pretty good gameplay, but story wise and character wise awful, in my opinion. But before that was three Houses, which I think a lot of us enjoyed and was kind of a high watermark. My understanding is Fortune's Weave is either a far sequel or far prequel.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's related somehow.

[Ross Froschek]

It's connected. There's some like, crossover. Certain characters appear again, whether they're dragon people or not, who knows? But my hope is that the high watermark of storytelling quality and like overall feature quality that was introduced in three new houses will continue here. And if it does, I will be over the moon, thrilled because that is one of my favorite franchises and I would love to see another really great installment for that franchise.

[Griffin McElroy]

I've got two. I'll do a small one real quick. Deltarune Chapter five. I'm so fucking in on board.

[Ross Froschek]

How many total chapters are there supposed to be?

[Griffin McElroy]

I think that might be up in the air. I think 7 was the original sort of intention, but they are coming out at a pretty good, decent clip at this point. But I played through the four available chapters for the first time last year because 3 and 4 came out sort of together. And it's so good. It's so fucking good. And has me truly waiting for, like, excited to see what happens next. Henry is also hugely, hugely into it. And so that is very exciting too.

[Ross Froschek]

It's gonna be weird when I go back and play all these for the first time at once.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think there's a ton of people who are going to do just that and I think it'll be totally digestible.

[Ross Froschek]

Is it gonna be weird? Cause there's like Vuvuzelo references in Chapter one.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, there's.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, I don't know that there's a lot of timely references being made. Apparently chapters six and seven are gonna be like the joke. Like the six, seven joke. That's like one big one that they've already kind of.

[Ross Froschek]

That's good. And that's gonna still be around. So that's great.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, for sure. My other one is, and this was featured last year in our most Anticipated Games list, which is Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, which was supposed to come out last September. And then in September, during the Tokyo Game show, they showed off a bunch of new footage of it, some gameplay footage, and then delayed it until 2026. And it looks incredible. Gosh, I love Professor Layton games. They are sort of go to games for me. When I got my hands on the Thor and Started goofing around with 3ds emulation stuff just because there's really nothing else like it. A puzzle sort of fiction game that gives you a bunch of brain teasers that I just love to kind of chew over. The aesthetics are out of sight. It is more kind of like animated and feels much more alive. And the like, I don't know, 15 minutes or so of gameplay footage they released last year just. It looks delightful and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

[Justin McIlroy]

Dude, I'm going insane about Vampire Crawlers.

[Ross Froschek]

I don't know what this is.

[Justin McIlroy]

Are you kidding me? Dude?

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't know.

[Justin McIlroy]

Hey, hey. Brace your frigging ass, man. Hold on a second. I'm gonna send a link. You ready? Okay, just let me send you a link. Don't get weird about it, okay?

[Ross Froschek]

Okay, Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't know how to send a link.

[Justin McIlroy]

From Steam.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Gamer alert.

[Ross Froschek]

I mean I can look up.

[Justin McIlroy]

You go to Steam and you look up Vampire Crawler.

[Ross Froschek]

It says Vampire Crawlers, the turbo wild card from Vampire Survivors.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah, it's gonna sound like you're dreaming, dude, but listen. From the somehow triple BAFTA winning creators of Vampire Survivors, Vampire Crawlers. The turbo wild card from Vampire Survivors turns the snowballing thrill of Vampire Survivors into a turbo turn based car driven blobber. That's in all caps. I don't know what that means. Build busted decks, explore familiar dungeons with a new perspective and unleash world ending combos. Take your time and be tactical or play turns as fast as you humanly can. The outcome is always accurate.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So this is.

[Justin McIlroy]

Are you kidding me?

[Ross Froschek]

Vampire Survivors X Balatro? Basically, yes.

[Griffin McElroy]

Seems like it.

[Ross Froschek]

That sounds fucking incredible.

[Justin McIlroy]

I mean, unreal. I'm losing it over here.

[Ross Froschek]

That's great.

[Justin McIlroy]

I'm losing it. That's the goatee.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I got two to wrap up.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's a boaty. It's probably the boat.

[Ross Froschek]

Might be the boaty.

[Justin McIlroy]

The Bogoti.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Two to wrap up on my end. One that I think probably actually won't come out and one that hasn't even announced yet. CONTROL RESONANT Very excited for this. Very excited to go back to a remedy game that is action based. I. I have finally started replaying Alan Wake 2, a game I bounced off of despite thinking it would be extremely my thing and I am enjoying it more. But it's still just slow control. That game is fast. You get all that good weird energy and you also get good fast action. This one looks kind of like previous control meets like A Devil May Cry. Style games.

[Ross Froschek]

There's melee, very melee centric into it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Very, very curious about it. That said, don't think it's going to come out this year. I just don't believe that. I don't.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yes. That energy. Yes. I feel that plant. I absolutely. There's just something about it. Huh? There's just.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You can feel it, you know, you can feel it.

[Justin McIlroy]

You can feel it. It'll like coming.

[Ross Froschek]

Meanwhile, I think it's going to come out.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

AP Thompson, co creator of last year's Consume Me, has a new game coming out and all I'm going to say about this game because it's not announced yet is you can go follow AP on Blue Sky I guess right now and hear more about this game ads coming out and you will be like, wow, I was there at the beginning. I was the person who went to the show at the tiny little punk rock club when it was just five people drinking out of solo cups. And then when it is at the biggest stage, you will have that moment for you. I'm giving you this gift so you will want to follow what is coming from A.P. thompson this year.

[Griffin McElroy]

Is it going to be a sequel to Tony Hawk's Pro Dater? Will it be Tony hawk's Pro Dater 2?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Griffin, I thought you like had signed the embargo.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, damn.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Damn it. It's going to be awesome. There's so many good games we didn't even talk about. Like we have another a list here that has another violent. Probably like 20, 30 games.

[Griffin McElroy]

I can't believe none of us said Grand Theft Auto 6. It felt a little obvious, I think. Yeah, for all of us. Like you guys know that one's coming out November 19th. You don't need us to talk.

[Justin McIlroy]

I don't know. It's coming out November 19th. Honestly, I don't know any.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, I'm surprised.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Romeo is a dead man. I can't believe that nobody. I mean Justin, I was counting on you to be the Suda 51.

[Justin McIlroy]

I like Suda in theory a lot more than I like Suda in practice. I always get. I get to like knowing chuckle with him before. I'm like, yeah, I really want to play Suda.

[Griffin McElroy]

I like Suda like as a person. Like, yeah, he's a good hang actually.

[Justin McIlroy]

I mean the galaxy needs racing and I will continue to say that a lot.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah, sure.

[Ross Froschek]

Griffin, I noticed you snuck in maybe for the historical record. Half Life three.

[Griffin McElroy]

I didn't put that in.

[Justin McIlroy]

Sorry. I just thought maybe if we, if nobody noticed then maybe we would come back next year and you'd be like.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, you know that I didn't put that. I would have included the hyphen. I would have capitalized life.

[Justin McIlroy]

I was in a hurry.

[Ross Froschek]

Oh, God.

[Griffin McElroy]

Did you not say Mew Genics, Russ, because the.

[Justin McIlroy]

You didn't want to say it out loud?

[Ross Froschek]

No, no, no. It is coming out. It's coming out like a month. We have a bunch of readers. We have a bunch of reader mail picks, and that is one of them. So I was gonna read them through.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Ross Froschek]

Okay, let's do it. Was there any other fun, jokey picks that anyone wanted to make?

[Griffin McElroy]

No.

[Ross Froschek]

I'm fucking psyched about these.

[Justin McIlroy]

Do you think there'll be a Half Life 3, though?

[Griffin McElroy]

Jesus Christ.

[Justin McIlroy]

Come on.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I kind of do, but I don't.

[Ross Froschek]

I kind of do.

[Justin McIlroy]

I do think they will. The fact that there's not makes me think that there will be.

[Ross Froschek]

Put it on my list. You know what I mean?

[Justin McIlroy]

Like, the fact that there isn't. I Think Half Life 3 will launch alongside the Steam machine.

[Ross Froschek]

That's the thing, is that they always. Whenever they launch new hardware, they always launch with software. It tends not to be a whole fucking sequel to a game. People winning the world.

[Justin McIlroy]

That's why they can't say it. Cause it's gonna be the biggest thing in the world.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. So huge.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's gonna be so massive when it drops.

[Ross Froschek]

Could be interesting. Okay. Some reader mail pics that people wrote in for.

[Justin McIlroy]

Just like, somebody tried to get Geoff Keighley on the phone. And if he's like, I can't. I can't right now.

[Ross Froschek]

Wink. Yeah. And you hear Gabe sharpening knives in the background.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah, exactly.

[Ross Froschek]

That's very true. Okay. Some weird email picks we have. Evan G. Wrote in Rhythm Heaven sequel, which I forgot was happening. That's pretty exciting. Goosetrus wrote sulfur 1.0 release. I really like Sulfur. I don't know if you guys have played it first person. Roguelite on Steam. Cool kind of adventure timey art style to it. Very into it.

[Griffin McElroy]

This looks cool.

[Ross Froschek]

Elise mentioned Tamagotchi Life, which we already talked about. Nikki mentioned Assassin's Creed Hex and the AC Black Flag remake. Black Flag was probably the last Assassin's Creed game I actually enjoyed playing, so that's pretty good. Hex is interesting because, like, I would be down to have actual magic in one of these games. That seems like a cool introduction, but again, I'm cautious about anything like that, man.

[Griffin McElroy]

A Black Flag remake getting you back into Assassin's Creed would be A huge twist for. For the year 2026.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah. Shamaheel wrote the Incident at Gallery House which apparently is like Obra Dinn style mystery game.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah. I think it's Galley House.

[Ross Froschek]

Oh, sorry. Galley House. You're right. Mark s. Ace Combat 8. That seems like some Chris Plant. And maybe Justin. Shit. Justin, do you like Ace Combat games?

[Justin McIlroy]

You know what? I do. I haven't played one in a while, but there is something about that. It made me kind of want to go back and. And play an Ace Combat game. I like it. I like Ace Combat.

[Griffin McElroy]

There was one we got into, I remember. I think it was like five or six.

[Justin McIlroy]

It was back when we were playing more like Colony wars and stuff like that. Like I don't know. I have to go back. And that's a franchise I like in theory.

[Ross Froschek]

Olivia G. Mentioned Fields of Mystery re release which or full release, which we talked about. Colin R. Mugenics. I am very excited about Mugenics. I hope you guys get into it. I'm. I haven't really. I played like an hour in a preview build ages ago and I really liked it.

[Griffin McElroy]

But that is the new Edmund.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah. The new. From the creator Binding Isaac and Super Meat Boy. It is an isometric tactical strategy game with cats.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Ross Froschek]

Would be the best way I could shortly describe it. And they also breed and have like aspects to them. And then Thunderruth mentioned Denshattak, I guess is probably the best way to pronounce that word. I don't know what I'm looking at.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's a subway fighting aim. Densha means like the train.

[Ross Froschek]

Okay. Yeah. So you're a train and you're riding on a Ferris wheel as it's going through the ocean.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. Looks great. Can't argue with that.

[Ross Froschek]

Flip trick and grind your train in a fast paced off the rails ride through colorful Japanese dystopia. That does sound like fun.

[Justin McIlroy]

Sounds great.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah. It looks like jet carn radio kind of.

[Griffin McElroy]

We want to do some honorable menchis.

[Ross Froschek]

Yes. It's been quite the long break since we've done this.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah, man.

[Griffin McElroy]

I had to be choosy.

[Justin McIlroy]

There's a lot of things I want to talk about.

[Griffin McElroy]

I got really pulled into satisfactory. Mostly at the behest of our brother Travis, who I believe has logged 300 hours on the game at this point. Which makes a lot of sense. I can see how it is Saddest factory.

[Justin McIlroy]

More like saddest fact. Oh really?

[Griffin McElroy]

There is a genre. I've never really dipped into this factory game genre. But saddest fact.

[Ross Froschek]

I mean, you kind of have. Cause it's a little bit Stardew Valley, right?

[Griffin McElroy]

Not even a little bit at all. So what sets it apart from Stardew Valley or any of the other kind of open world survival craft games that I do really, really enjoy? From your Minecraft or Enshrouded or the runescape Dragon Wilds that came out last year, it has the look of stuff like that you land on an alien planet, you have one or two tools and you have to go around and find iron and collect wood. And then you use that to make a thing and then you use that to make a thing where satisfactory kind of like sets itself apart is that it becomes about sort of setting up automation, literally building factories. And it gets so detailed in how you are able to do that. And I'm talking about like running conveyor belts and building power grids and creating sort of like supply chains because you'll get a recipe that's like, here's iron plates. If you combine that with screws now it makes advanced iron plates. So you need a line in your factory making screws and a line making those plates. And that runs up to the next thing, which runs. Runs up to the next thing. All trying to build a space elevator that you are sending parts up for a project to save humanity. I'll tell you what it is kind of hitting for me is that idle game kind of.

[Ross Froschek]

It does seem like that, yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Because you are unlocking things to make. Getting the thing faster, unlocking things to make sort of processing, you know, larger and larger and larger quantities of the thing that you were like really struggling for an hour ago. And I don't know, it's really. It genuinely. It's right there in the name. It's very satisfying to like put together like a nice, a nice little, nice little thing for yourself. So I've been very hooked on that. I've reached a point in the game where to move forward I would have to do so much kind of refactoring of this factory that I have built over the course of, you know, 20, 25, 30 hours, which I know is a drop in the bucket for like the. The sickos who are super into this game. And I don't know that I have that in me. But I don't know, it's been really, really sucking me in satisfactory.

[Ross Froschek]

So yeah, I've considered it over the years, but I also deeply am worried of the time it would take from my life.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's the other thing is like, I don't know we're in sort of a slow period right now, so like my time can be spent on a satisfactory. There were definitely. There will come a point where there's. There simply is not space for it.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah, I took the break between game of the year and now and played through Dark Souls 1 and got all the achievements. For some fucking reason I thought, how do you.

[Justin McIlroy]

Where did you find yourself? Where was your headspace where you were like, I got it, It's Dark Souls 1.

[Ross Froschek]

Well, it's because I had previously done this For Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3 at various times over the last several years. And I was like, I feel like I need to do one. And I'd never gotten all the achievements in one before. So I went through and I did it and it was a delight. That game is great. It's so much fun. And what's cool about it when you're doing all the achievements is when you do a new game plus and then a second new game plus. Each time that you run through the game, you do it at like 10x speed because you don't have to level, you don't have to. You know where all the paths are. I'm running through Sen's fortress without like attacking anyone. Shit like that.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah, Dark Souls One can fuck off. I. I will not go back. I've played all the other Souls games. I'm not going to go back to Dark Souls 1. The. The. The curse mechanic, if nothing else.

[Ross Froschek]

Well, they. They did nerf the curse mechanic, for what it's worth.

[Justin McIlroy]

They did nerf in what? In like.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah. So initially when the game came out, the frogs would show up and you'd get cursed and then you'd have to.

[Justin McIlroy]

Go get the red stuff and a little bird.

[Ross Froschek]

It would halve your health. And then if you got cursed again, it would hal your health again, etc. Now you can only get cursed once, so you're only at half health once. Realistically, I think Dark Souls One more than any of the other games needs to be played with a guide. I think two and three, to some extent, you could get through without.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's so much weird shit where it's like, how do you get to the ashy lake? Well, you gotta go in that tree. The fuck are you talking about?

[Ross Froschek]

And the tree doesn't have a visible door. Oh, and guess what?

[Griffin McElroy]

Tree doesn't have a visible door.

[Ross Froschek]

You actually need to roll through two invisible doors to get through the tree. And then you diabolical.

[Justin McIlroy]

I know exactly how far I've ever made it. In that game, it's to the Ornstein.

[Griffin McElroy]

And Ornstein and Smough.

[Justin McIlroy]

That's as far as I've made it. I did the whole thing where you remember stupid thing where you shoot the dragon's tail.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, man. Should I go back and play D?

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah, you should go back and play Dark Souls.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's really good.

[Justin McIlroy]

I don't know. I really don't want to get good at. I want to see it in smog. It's really not worth it.

[Ross Froschek]

You don't even need. That's the thing is, like so much of these games, it's like if you. Especially if you're using a guide, the games get pretty because you just summon. Like I summon Solaire and he helped with me with Orange line and Smog and it was easy.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justin McIlroy]

So I think the first time I was playing through it, it was like early in the. And I don't know that I never. I don't think I was like letting myself do that kind of thing more. I think I would do that today.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, yeah.

[Ross Froschek]

I take every advantage the game throws me and it's way more fun. The other thing I would say is just, yeah, roll with it. Don't worry about, like the pride of it because the game will you either way and you'll end up having a really delightful time. Great characterization. A lot of the quests you can't do without a guide. Like impossible to figure out where Solaire is going to be next and how he's not going to die at the end of this fucking quest. So I had a lot of fun. The other thing I wanted to mention is Pikmin 4, which is a game that I played probably 10 hours of before when we did our episode and then put it aside. But I really enjoyed it. We didn't have time to play much more.

[Griffin McElroy]

Did you finish it or.

[Ross Froschek]

I have not finished it yet, but I've been playing with my son who mostly watches. But it does have a very good co op mode where he can like throw rocks at shit. And it's great, like really enjoying it. And there's an easy mode where it like takes a lot of the stress of like Pikmin dying out of the equation for the most part. And Ochi's very cute and he has space sickness, which is a problem. And so I'm. I'm closing in on the ending, but it's been really, really delightful and I'm dying to see either some DLC or just like a Switch 2 update, because right now it's running at 30fps, which is a drag, but otherwise it's great and looks beautiful. And they did a great job on that game, y'.

[Justin McIlroy]

All.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I only played games that brought me intense joy. Went back and played some Sonic racing, cross worlds. Ichiban is in there. Joker from Persona is in there. SpongeBob is in there. They've just been cutting everybody in that game. Cream the cat is definitely in there, buddy.

[Griffin McElroy]

You can't reference a joke that we did in our recent bracket episode for Patriots only here on the main here.

[Ross Froschek]

For the normies air for another two weeks.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Also, Dragon's Dogma 2 went back and played some of that. Still just an absolute stunner of a game. Death Stranding 2. I did this thing where I didn't fully finish it back at the end of last summer. Got into the mountains and said, you know what? I'm going to come back. I want to be able to enjoy this. I've been putting so much time into building all this stuff. I want to come back and I'm going to finish just the story. When I'm ready for it, go back into it. You know what I've done? Put like another 10 hours just building random roads in.

[Ross Froschek]

Yeah, man.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Who knows when I'm going to finish, finish this game. But right now with the season, being able to just go around in the snow feels good. Give me a taste of winter that I'm not getting in California. Yeah. In Alan Wake 2, as I mentioned, which I'm trying to give that a fair shake ahead of control Juice.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah. I'm gonna say two things. The first is Hundreds of Beavers is a movie I watched on a whim, and it may be one of the best movies I've ever seen in my entire life.

[Ross Froschek]

Wow.

[Justin McIlroy]

You guys ever seen Hundreds of Beavers?

[Ross Froschek]

No.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm hugely aware of it and have not made time for it.

[Justin McIlroy]

Guys, what about you, Plant?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I showed one of the first ever screenings of it, and I also brought him back out, the director. And he dressed up as a beaver and then dressed up one of our interns at the. And then tackled the intern. And for a moment, I saw our theater's legal status in jeopardy. But fortunately, everybody was okay. It's the best.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's an incredible silent film about a black and white about a fur trader who. Well, he is an applejack salesman who accidentally burns down the factory and finds himself in a sort of. The movie is a parody of the Revenant. It is about this guy trying to survive in the wilderness while he is trying to eat Food to stay alive and then win the heart of a woman he meets by impressing her father by bringing him, quote, hundreds of beavers. So it is a slapstick comedy about him trying to kill hundreds of beavers and stay alive. And the gags in this movie, I mean, if you like things like Buster Keaton and, you know, Three Stooges and that kind of like, broad. It's slapstick comedy. Like, you're already gonna like this. But it's also like the guys who created the film were inspired in part by let's plays. So his structure when he is in the wilderness is very much like watching a let's play, right? He starts off with nothing and then manages to get enough to. For like a couple beaver pelts. And he buys the smallest knife and then he used and uses that tiny knife to get enough beavers to buy the next thing from Factory. Yeah, yeah, it's. Yeah, exactly. And it's like that is. The movie is structured like that, but it is like they filmed it for 150 grand in the wilderness and then it made, you know, like, I don't know, $2 million in the box office or whatever. But it is. You can see it on Amazon prime is where I watched it for free. But it's incredible.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And it looks better than so many movies that cost a fortune. It looks.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's one of those things where, like, you watch the first couple minutes and you're like, there's no way it's gonna be a whole movie like this. Like, they can't. No one could do a whole movie like this. And then it is an entire movie like that. It's a joy to watch and really fun to watch with kids too. Like, my kids were entranced by it. They laughed the whole way.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's also on Kanopy, the library streaming service. So if you. Oh, cool. If you're not paying for any of the streaming services, you can grab it there.

[Justin McIlroy]

The other thing I wanted to mention is exo win 9x. And I know, okay, I know how that sounds. If you don't know about the exact.

[Ross Froschek]

Nerd ass shit is what that sounds like.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah, I know it sounds like some nerd ass shit. If you don't know about the EXO project, it started with Exodus. Get it? And here's the deal. If you want to play old console games, that's really easy because the old consoles are easy to emulate. You have a. An engine that you can write and it runs on a computer. And then you put the ROMs in the thing and it runs but old PC games throughout the DOS Windows 3.1, Windows 95 era, it's a lot harder because you have infinite combinations of hardware. These things could run on different permutations of software, operating system, whatever. So with the Exodus, the first edition of this took a lot of DOS games and then made them playable through one unified front end that is powered by Launchbox and they're sortable by topic and they all work, they all run Windows. Then There was an XO 3.1 that is an expansion to that that folds into it. And now they have released which is a bunch of Windows 3.1 games. And now they have released Windows Exo Win 9X which is the Windows 95 and 98 version of this same idea. So when you download this, there's a torrent file, and the torrent is 262 gigabytes.

[Ross Froschek]

Holy shit.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah, man.

[Ross Froschek]

What's in this?

[Griffin McElroy]

Every game.

[Justin McIlroy]

But it's so many Windows 90 and 90X games. I'm sending you guys. Okay, there's a full list there. Yeah, there are. There. They have favorited, like highlighted a lot of like the weird things that like, there's games on here. I've never heard of games that I ever played. I played a game called nine the Last Resort that was narrated by William S. Bros and starring Jim Belushi. There's versions of myths there. There's two Star Trek FMV games that I've been trying to play for literally 15 years. I've been trying to play these games and they just work.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's Star Trek Math Munchers Deluxe.

[Justin McIlroy]

Dude, Star Trek Borg is on here. Which if you don't know, Star Trek Borg, it is basically like an interactive Star Trek episode a one man John DeLancey show. Just as Q letting you, like play out different possibilities within the Borg. There's the Goosebumps. FMV game is in here. Neverhood's in here.

[Griffin McElroy]

Logical Journey of the Zoom Penis.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yes. Bill Nye, Science Guy. Stop the Rock. There are a few of these games. Oh, Cosmetology of Kyoto is in here. There are a few of these games you could get onto GOG.com and buy. And if you can, I think you should. And there are some of these games that you could get on Steam. There are not a ton of them. But in terms of a preservation project, it is astounding. It knocks me out, the fact that there are so many games on here that I don't that would be so hard to play otherwise. And it is an incredible piece of history. An incredible effort in preservation. It's really astounding. And what's amazing is all these exo projects nest within each other. So you could have like. I mean, what I have done is have one hard drive that's like a thumb drive, an SSD that I have all of these on one thing so I can plug it into a computer and I have, like, the entirety of this project. It's amazing. It's really fantastic. Yeah. Dude, there's so many on here. And what's cool is they are not all installed. So, like, you find the game you want to play and it installs it. That expands it. The size should be a lot bigger than it is because there's a lot of, like, as you get into this era, you have less and less copy protection because it was assumed that the games being on CD would be copy protection enough. Right. But there's like, they're getting. They get big and. Yeah. It's a fascinating thing. Yeah. Seek it out.

[Ross Froschek]

Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

Take us home, Juice.

[Ross Froschek]

I think we did okay.

[Justin McIlroy]

Thanks for listening to our podcast. Next.

[Ross Froschek]

Patreon.com thebesties we have to call out some friends.

[Justin McIlroy]

Do it then. Coward.

[Ross Froschek]

We have Matt H. We have Jesse H. We have JF and we have Claire. Thank you for being patrons. Thank you to everyone else for being patrons. We have a new bracket episode. Apart from the bracket episode that went up on the main feed, there is a patrons only new, brand new bracket bracket episode that went up and there's a new one coming obviously in the future. We also have resties coming out. It's all happening. So thank you for being patrons. Patreon.com thebesties thank y'.

[Griffin McElroy]

All.

[Ross Froschek]

What are we doing next week? Thanks.

[Justin McIlroy]

Next week we are going to be talking about an entirely different video game. Terminator 2D. No, fate. So join us for that and so much work next week on the best besties. Be sure to join us again for that on the besties because shouldn't the world's best friend pick the world's best games.

[Griffin McElroy]

Besties?