Hello, everybody.

Welcome to the Game Informer Show, a weekly podcast covering the video game industry.

Join us every Thursday for discussion with the latest gamming news, reviews, and exclusive reveals, alongside game and former staff and special guests from around the industry.

I'm one of your hosts today, Alex van Aiken.

I'm joined by Marcus Stewart.

Hey doing, Marcus.

Hey, Happy July everyone.

Yeah, Happy July.

We made it.

We did it.

And you know what they say about July.

I guess what's up.

Well, when it's time for July, you're gonna fly.

All right.

Also, we're also joined by Kyle Hilliard.

How you doing, Kyle?

Hey?

Good.

I'm gonna fly because it's July's we all know.

We always say that.

Every year, and yeah, there's no different obviously.

Spread your wings, yep, spread your rings.

It's July.

Hello.

John Carson, special guest, former game and former editor, freelance journalist at Large.

How are you, John?

I'm doing all right, stretching out my wings.

I'm gonna be flying this week out of town, except I'm staying on the ground the whole time.

So I thought you you were telling me you're going on a boat.

Actually, I will be on a boat, so that is.

Not around crucially.

Yeah, I mean there'll be minimal ground touching hopefully.

Are you all big like hot dog people Fourth of July people or is it just kind of a day off?

I like a hot dog?

Yeah, I'm not really big enough.

I'm not really big into fireworks honestly, Like I don't mind them, but I don't go out of my way to see them, and I definitely never buy them.

I don't think I've ever bought a firework.

Yeah, celebrating America.

Yeah, that's a tough one.

I'll at least be like close to Canada, so I'll be like, see that's true.

Yeaeah.

I like the movie, Okay, all right, yeah yeah.

Born on the Fourth Jo that matters?

John, the movie Come On, the only one that matters.

They made a whole sequel to to Kyle.

You didn't have to bring that up.

But did the producers of New Year's Day and Valentine's Day ever make a July fourth movie?

There has to be one.

I don't know series.

Those are all Gary Marshall joints.

And he passed away a couple of years ago, so I think did he pass away on a holiday.

Let's look it up.

It was like, was he basically the calendar man of the film industry?

Of course?

Uh, iconic batman villain.

Calendar man is what I'm referring to.

The one we all know in love of Yes, yes.

What's it?

A big ensemble funeral, just.

Lots of stories all coming together for the funeral and the Yeah, that's a shame, okay, because Gary Marshall, of course died on National Urban Bookkeeper Beekeeping Day, National Football Day, International Karaoke Day.

July nineteenth.

To tell you coming up on it, Yeah, exactly, so get ready for National Dakery Day on July nineteen.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Urban Beekeeping Day, like not just beekeeping Day, but there was an what is urban beekeeping?

What do you keeping in the city?

I don't like, I don't understand what you're asking.

It's it's National urban Beekeeping.

You got these got these honey bees in the streets.

Yeah, just just making honey, I guess, okay.

It's like people that have like the rooftop gardens in the city, beekeepers in the city.

I know some documentaries you should watch.

I would like to see an urban beekeeping documentary, genuine.

Yeah, I actually don't know if there is one.

I'm just assuming.

I think there's a highlight a.

Day, so it's got to be a documentary.

It's on Apple Plus.

Yeah, yeah, Well, welcome to the show, everybody.

We're gonna be talking about our favorite games of the year today from January twenty twenty five to July first, when we're recording this, and it's gonna be a good show.

I think if you're gonna if you're a listener, you'll probably get some recommendations maybe you haven't heard of, or you'll get our impressions if you missed it earlier in the year when we were shut down.

You know, there's some bigger games that came out.

This is a chance for us to talk about them and a fun way.

So I think we were shut down, believe it or not.

Yes, Okay, you know many.

People have forgotten this apparently, and yeah, we're gonna be going one at a time.

We'll kind of I'm sure our lists will, we'll share some entries and if so, that'll kind of sparker a larger discussion on that game.

But I think it'll be a great way to kind of catch up on the year so far.

And if you're listening, we'll make sure you have time stamps and all that for for the games mentioned.

But yeah, isn't it a wild that we're halfway through the year now, by the way.

Yeah, it is, it really is.

Yeah.

I feel like we're we're already close to like having to be like, oh, I gonna have to start playing some games, get ready for the game of the year.

Yeah, there's there's one big game in particular.

I'm gonna save it until one of you.

I don't know if any of you have in your list, but there's one big game I'm like almost stressing of, like I have not played this at all, but I noticed it's a GotY contender and I need to get to it because it's going to take a while to get through.

We'll get to it.

We'll get to it.

Uh, Kyle, you want to kick us off though?

Okay?

You want to?

You want to share one of your games from your your favorites of the year.

Should I start like at the like, should I try to end with my favorite?

Number one likes mine?

Because really I haven't either I know my number one.

I'm going to start with a promised mascot agency, which is a game I haven't I actually haven't beaten.

I played the first couple hours.

It's it's really weird.

It's kind of like an indie like Grand Theft.

Auto of three is almost what I where I would put it, because it's like you're driving around an open world a lot, but it's not like you're not getting out of the car, you're not shooting, you know.

It just it just feels like a throwback to that PS two open world kind of era, and it's wrapped in this really bizarre story that takes place in a universe with like yakuza and like mascots, right, people in mascot costumes, but they're like they're like a species in this world, Like there exists, you know, these creatures that look like mascots and you have to like send them out on jobs and stuff like that, and you drive around the city to like, you know, make sure you can find these jobs, and you like collect people and like then you can have them as playing cards to do combat.

It's a really funky game, and I really liked what I played.

It's it's the one where every time I'm if I'm not like actively playing something that I'm like really really excited about or playing.

Something for review or something.

It's the one that I'm always like, Ooh, I should go back and play more of that when I should finish that one.

Are you collecting?

Are your cards like collecting the souls of the mascots essentially, or are they like more yakaze like summons where it's like, oh, the the restler guy, I'm gonna summon him into combat?

What is Card Captors?

You're you're actually playing like a card game at certain moments, which is really outside of my tipic.

I know, John's like eyes are like lighting up.

And he's not.

I mean, but I'm downloaded now.

I'm not usually into card games like that.

But it's such a it's such like a minor portion of it.

It's more about like the mood and the story.

And then like when you send characters out on jobs, if they run into an issue, then it kind of turns into like a card game.

And what happens is like you meet the mechanic who can upgrade your car to make it go faster, and he'll be like, yeah, add me to your deck, and he like gives you a card of himself.

Is kind of like the the premise of it.

It it's it's one of those games that's like really bizarre to explain, but after you spend like, you know, half an hour with it, the world kind of makes sense because they do such a good job of like you know, setting the table for it.

Yeah, it's it's weird, it's gosh.

What is the the is it Paradise Killer?

Is that the name of the developer?

Yes, the developers of uh that it's their follow up to Paradise Killer, which was another very strange game with like bizarre world building, but that was also quite effective at like you know, setting its table and giving you something interesting.

So yeah, promised Mascot Agency.

I think it came out right around blueprints and got kind of a little bit more shadowed black blueprints, but like there was there was a group of people who are like, yeah, this and blueprints are are super hot right now?

Hell yeah, yeah, that's one that that kind of I remember hearing about it when it was first kind of shown off.

Whether was it a direct or something?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and uh it seems really cool.

So thank you for recommending that one.

Yeah, John, we'll go to you next.

What about you?

It's your what's one of your recommendations.

Yeah, my list is kind of chronological.

So I'll go at the first game that I that I finished this year, and that was Blade Chimera, which is a uh it's a metroidvania by a studio called Team Ladybug.

They've been doing Metroid Venus for a few years that have been solely gaining more and more popularity.

But but it's it's just such a tight experience.

It's very symphony symphony of the Knight meets Contra kind of.

You have your your melee weapons, you have guns that you can equip, and you're working with with both of those two get get through this world.

You're a fighting predominantly are they like eating creatures?

Yeah, you're you're fighting demons.

You're you're a demon hunter, part of like this organization that that hunts demons and is trying to protect society after like an apocalypse happened, happened when the demons invaded Earth.

But your your character, uh meets this demon and like forms a bond with it, and that demon like becomes a weapon for him.

So he's kind of betraying his his own organization and and hiding the fact that he's working with this demon to kind of solve the mystery of where he comes from because he has no memories.

But he's like this like top agent at this uh at this organization.

It's super it's super fun.

It's all pixel art.

Like I said, just really tight kind of sympathy of the night style controls.

Uh just uh.

It's it's one that a lot of people missed.

It came out like mid January.

It looks I'm looking it's screenshots the enemy designs like really neat.

Yeah, I realized I have played one of their other games.

I played, was it Tohu Luna to So Yeah, I didn't finish it, but I was impressed with it.

Yeah.

And this is also it looks like this is on switch and PC, which I'm like, yes, I'm looking for stuff to plan my switch too.

Maybe this is one to pick up.

And it's it's it's like a nice like eight to twelve hours or something.

It's not it's not anything.

It's not a huge time commitment.

It really it really blows by.

I tried to.

I think I tried to, which I don't often do with games, but like it had me hooked enough that I want to check out everything.

Hell, yeah, yeah, yeah, check it out.

I think it's on the Steam sale right now for like fourteen bucks.

O.

No, yeah, Marcus, what about you, what's one of your recommendations?

So my first real obsession for twenty twenty five was a lovely little puzzle game called The Root Trees Are Dead.

I have heard about this game.

I don't know much about it, though, so tell.

Me so if you were.

I recommend if you're a puzzle fan, particularly if you're into investigative games like Her Story or Return of the Ober, then you should absolutely give this game a look.

The premise is that you play a some sort of investigator that is hired after a plane crash where the president of a candy slash fashion company, along with his wife and his three teenage celebrity daughters all die in his plane crash, and you're hired by a mysterious client to try to trace every blood relative of the root Tree family, which is a family whose sort of wealth goes all the way back to like the late eighteen hundreds, just like a generationally wealthy family, and you don't know why you're doing this yet, and sort of like the entire game is set in the nineties, so you're sitting out a computer and you're just pretty much just using a search engine to try to dig up articles and like find websites and just find any evidence to try to fill out this giant family tree on this corkboard that's just got a bunch of spots and they're all blank, and you just need to find a photo.

You need to find the names of each member, which for the women, you need to find their maiden names, which is a puzzle in itself because some of them have remarried, maybe more than once.

And then you also need to find their most recent occupation, which is also another puzzle for some of them that have maybe had multiple jobs.

And it's a really fun exercise because, like I fell in love with her story, particularly because it made me feel like a real detective just going through the search engine and just trying to find keywords and just typing in.

You're reading articles and just typing in every anything that you think might get a hit of, Like, Okay, this one root tree was you know, involved with this school play?

Maybe I can find but her sister was also on to play, but I can't get anything on her.

Can I maybe figure out which part she played or what else like she did, what other activity she was involved with in school, or you're trying to find like you know, like, oh, well, who is like actually the blood relative of this person, because there's been adoptions that have taken place and some maybe some of the information has gotten obscured.

And it gets harder the older you go through the family tree, because the older the relative is, the less of an online footprint they have.

So the game does a really good job of sort of leading you along but giving you just enough breadcrumbs that you can just kind of connect the dots in a really fun way and also not really ever feel like you're lost, because the game also does a great job of telling you when you're chasing a lead that has absolutely nothing, it's like, hey, there's nothing here, Like there's some just sort of like in game prompts or or like the musings of the person that you're playing as will just be like, nah, I guess there's nothing here.

I better move on.

But besides about it, Since the family tree is so big, you can kind of tackle multiple threads at once.

If you get stuck trying to figure out the relationship between his aunt and his uncle, you can move on to like, well, I'm gonna try to find the kids of this other person.

But it becomes really engrossing really quick.

Like I spent so many nights where I would be up till like past midnight with a cup of coffee just feeling like again, like feeling like I'm really trying to do this for someone of like man, I'm just like one breakthrough a way to figure out like who is who is the husband of this person?

Or who what is his job?

Like?

And it's like the writing is so well done because a lot of the clues are hidden right in front of you, and so many times I would be stuck on something only to figure it out later just because I looked at the same thing, but with just new knowledge attached to it, you know.

So it does a really good job of making old evidence that you have collected feel new again once you find out one news article or magazine piece that just completely shifts your perspective of how you should look at somebody and the sort of meta narrative going on of like, as you're finding the family members, you're learning about their very tumultuous family history, and the family becomes like very fascinating characters even though you never actually meet or speak to any of them.

You're reading so much about out them that they feel like fully fleshed out characters, and you almost, at least for me, you kind of find some that you kind of like more than others.

Uh, because yeah, there's been tho like a televangelist in there.

There's like a Hollywood starlet.

There's of course, like the Candy Ceo, the the Root Tree Girls are just like basically Mary Kate and Ashley analogs.

Okay, And yeah.

It's a it's a really cool game, Like you, it's so easy to get wrapped up in it, I think the the puzzle design and even just sort of the quality of life stuff because it's definitely one of those games where you're gonna be you need to write down stuff like this is a note taking.

Yeah did you play?

Oh sorry, did you play?

What was that?

Other?

That sirie the Golden Idol?

This kind of sounds like that.

I love Golden Idol.

Yeah, is this is this kind of in the same ballpark?

Then, well, Golden Idle it's a lot more like the puzzle designs difference, it's a little bit more like kind of like mad Libes style, like the structure.

It's not it's not really that like because at least for that it's a lot of like looking at images and sort of trying to pick things in a scene.

Yeah, to figure things out.

This is like you're you're more reading and occasionally listening to things like audio files, okay, and then just sort of like again just picking out things in a newspaper, thing that might seem like something you want to search in this internet browser to see if you get any hits.

You know.

So that's cool.

Yeah, it's cool.

I like I said, it felt like it had like because it was so early in a year, I had a bit of a groundswell.

I'm hoping that, you know, especially with blue prints coming out, Like I think those are to me number one and number two for like Best Puzzle Game Convention.

But it's definitely one that I've had in my mind of like when we get towards the Game of the Year, I'm going to be like hounding you guys, like, hey, you guys need flavor trees.

The only one on this rout tree Island.

You guys need to go play it.

Yeah, that's cool.

I have been playing a new game called Peak from Landfall and agro Crab.

You might have heard of it.

It's it's recently gotten a lot of support online.

I think they crossed two million sales in like a week or something.

Yeah, but the peak is this for one, it's eight bucks on Steam.

But it's a co op climbing game, and so it is first person and each of you.

At the start, you're kind of flying into an airport and you all arrive in like the airport terminal, and there's like a climbing gym and that kind of thing for you to practice and stuff, and you can if you pull out your passport, you can like customize your character.

So everyone's like very cartoony, so like you're very like very simple looking people, but it's like very cartoon like you know, purple green, orange people, and you unlike hats and other outfits as you play the game more.

And so it's big on, very much big on.

Like here is a sand you have a goal of climbing to the top of the peak, and once you get to the top of the peak, the kind of fog of ward dissipates and there's another peak for you to climb with like different challenges and like different biomes.

So I've made it up until the first area is like a I think it's called shore peak, or you're kind of like you've crashed landed on an airport airplane rather kind of lost style along the beach, and you kind of gotta climb some pretty basic mountains to get up to the top.

And along the way you are, you have a stamina bar that you're managing, and so there are various like hidden objects in the world, or sometimes there are a lot of times you'll run into like luggage that has fallen out of the plane that you crashed in, and inside will be things like bandages to like if you fall, there's fault damage in the game.

And the cool thing about this the way that the stamina bar works.

The stamina bar and your health bar are the same thing essentially, and so if you there could be a number of d buffs that you get for your stamina bar, so you could be poisoned and that takes away you know, your your stamina bar, and you can if you are injured or poisoned, or you're you're too cold, or if you drink an energy drink in the game, you kind of have a sugar crash afterwards, and so your character's really sleepy and if if, if you run out of energy, your character will literally like fall over.

And still in first person, you're like rolling off a cliff because your character is so sleepy.

And there there's a lot of like cool physics stuff happening.

But yeah, you're trying to climb these these peaks by yourself, and it's designed to be a co op game, so like you can like reach your hand out and let your friend grab yours.

Like it's really all about like who is in the best position to get one ledge higher?

And how can we get everybody up there too?

And it's there's a lot of fun.

Are there multiple mountains?

Like what happens when you get you like the top.

Of amunt Okay, that's where that I was saying, that fog of war kind of dissipates and then you have a new mountain to climb, and they are swapping them out.

I don't know if it's weekly, they're they're like routinely implementing new maps, like new levels for you to play through.

I think they're somewhat procedural.

That's what it feels like, like real mountains, yes, yes, and so this kind of I guess this cycle of the map.

I'm getting to know the maps now that I've put in you know, six or seven runs, but then they're gonna swap eventually and it'll be a new mountain for me to explore.

But yeah, it's really easy to get injured.

And you know, there are certain areas when you get up to the snow area there's these large gusts of icy wind that will freeze your character and so you have to like hide behind trees or go deeper into caves to escape the elements.

And all of that is kind of done via this like stamina bar, and it's a really cool idea that, oh, if I'm injured, I have much less stamina.

And so the the the more status effects you get on yourself, the trickier it is to climb higher because you have less stamina to use.

So it's really a game about item management.

Do I want to use my rope here and and or put a piton in the side of this mountain so I have a handhold so that I can recover my stamina halfway up this climb.

There are there are also like I'm calling them like God items where they are like Pandora's lunchbox.

You can open it and like some strange stuff happens.

I haven't really understood everything that that item does at there's not a lot of like tool tips or anything like the The instructions come in the form of a diegetic end game handbook that you have to carry in your inventory to open it up and read.

And as you as you progress in the game, I guess you discover more pages or something that seems like but there isn't like a really big tutorial where it's like, oh, you unlocked this lunch box, use it to Yeah, And so there's a lot of like trial and error that lead to very comedic moments.

Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

One thing that my friends and I've been doing is races.

So we will all spawn into a level and the starting it will essentially like rock paper scissors to decide who gets to select the first item at the at the starting beach.

And so some people go for the backpack so that you can you can carry more items.

But if you if you have the backpack on, then you your your stamina bar is is decreased because you know you've got extra weight on you.

Other people will go for you know, dumb items like.

The trumpet, isn't it how a hunger game starts?

Exactly?

Yes, uh, and the charm of all it's all like uh uh in game like Proximity Chat.

So the best way to play it is like, even if you're on Friends with Discord, just mute everybody, Mute all your friends and just play with Proximity Chat because there they also add in a lot of like audio effects, so if you're in a cavern, you're gonna sound like that.

You're gonna sound like you're in a cavern.

There's a lot of reverb on your voice.

And it's just super funny.

When you hear somebody fall, you can't really tell where they're at, like you've been separated, and you just hear them like screaming as they fall to their death.

It just goes quiet.

Exactly, Yes, exactly.

It's it's a ton of fun.

I'm really just bought it on Steam because you remind me.

Yeah, yeah, I thought I did.

I've been wanting to stream this, but we've been so busy with the magazine.

But like, yeah, like I would love.

Sometime.

I am totally down.

It's it's it's a lot of fun, but yeah, that was peak p e A.

K.

Kyle, what's your next recommendation.

Let's talk about Mario Kart World.

Ooh nice, Yeah, yeah, it is good.

It is a good game, which is surprising no one.

I will say though, like I thought, I knew what to expect with Mario Kart World, and for the most part, it met those expectations and it was what I hoped it would be and thought it would be.

But there were there have been a number of moments, especially early on, where I was like, oh, this is really cool.

Like there would be like you know, like bosses like Mario sixty four bosses running around the road, or like there's an early it's like one of the first races you do, or at least in the first batch of races you do, where you're driving up the uh the you know, the Donkey Kong construction site as a giant Donkey Kong.

Yeah, And there was like it was there were moments like that where I was like, oh, this is actually exceeding my sort of I don't know, high expectations might not be the right word, as much as it's like, yeah, they're gonna Mario Kart eight is like amazing, They're gonna sort of iterate on that and it's gonna be cool.

But I I it is.

I think it's just like a really good kickoff for the Switch Too.

I know people are already kind of sort of complaining about the Switch LNA, which I think is fair.

Mean, I think in my review, I think I called it pitifole, But like, I think it's like just a really great way to kick off.

The Switch Too is like Mario Kart, because like it is, you know, with whenever you have a new console, you're kind of like you hit a point pretty quickly, like within the first.

Day or two.

We're like I want to play this thing, but like I don't I don't really know what to play necessarily, you know, But like Mario Kart is good for like you could just hop in and do a race and like get you know, a satisfying experience out of it, and it looks great and it plays great and all those things.

It's like, you know, it's the A plus student continuing to turn an A material.

Like we kind of like throw those things out, you know, like, oh, it plays great and it looks amazing, which is like they're like not incredibly difficult to achieve.

But Nintendo just like has hit this this point of like, you know, we just kind of expect it from them, and yeah, it's great, it's really great.

I'm sure it'll be on my like personal top ten at the end of the year.

I guess, I guess maybe I shouldn't say it and with such confidence because I don't know what the rest of your looks like necessarily, but like I know, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's not on my top ten, you know.

Yeah, is it weird that I would almost put like Knockout too or is its own mode in my top ten?

Like I think it's one.

I think that's one of the best sort of like offerings of any game this year, is Knockout more Knockout Mode.

Like it's just such a good idea for Mario Kart and really any racing game that it's like it's one of the like, how has no one thought of this, that it's like, this is such a cool like I.

Mean they kind of did though before, like F ero ninety nine had something similar, true, I mean.

F ero X has a mode that I always loved when I was young that it was like you versus I think it was fifty other races and you would just keep going, you know, until you were the last driving one.

Like you.

I remember the when I booted up F ero X on.

Switch.

Right, it is on N sixty four, right, I think, so show this.

This is a weird thing to call out, but I think I might have actually in the last couple of years been playing it on weu, which is very random, but like.

It is, have ero X is on switch okay.

But yeah, you can play that battle mode.

And I remember even at the time thinking like, yeah, it feels like an early like a racing pub, like a Battle Royale kind of, you know, which is what they have now in Mario kar World, and it's cool as hell.

I think one of the one of the things that's really helped with I think keeping the excitement around Mario Kart for at least the past few weeks is having those those bigger races like you do have you have twenty four racers in there, like whether it's people or PC, but like anytime someone drops like a room code on social media, like you could just like hop in there and then like all of your friends are just going to be racing.

It's I haven't seen something like that in a little bit at least for like a like a bigger multiplayer experience at least between I guess people in the game industry.

But everyone's still like I have I haven't.

I've seen people complain about the game, but like even even with those complaints, those same people will will stuff themselves into a room with other people and and and knock out some races.

Yeah, but I feel like the complaints are mostly just like the free Rome could have more to do.

Yeah, like that.

My main complaint was the whole like, oh, we're not doing multiple laps on on a course, Like the courses themselves don't feel as like bespoke and like you don't really have to learn the intricacies of like a specific course.

But they have now they have so like if you're if you're doing multiplayer, like a lot of people were talking about this last week, but where uh Nintendo had patched out doing like three three lap races, But you can actually whenever you're you're choosing next course, you hit the star button, you get to choose from the map where you want to go.

If it's if it's a map that's not connected to where you are currently you'll do a three lap race instead of traveling to that place and then doing one lap there.

I gotta say, I don't understand that complaint at all.

I don't want three lap races.

I don't like I like.

Having the option.

Sure, okay, yeah that's fair, But like it's so odd because I've heard some complaints that are like I want to be able to do the race like over and over.

Right, It's like, it's Mario Kart Man, You're gonna play these races over and over.

That's like, like that's that doesn't that gets exhausting to me?

In standard Mario Kart It's like I want the newness.

I want to move on and be on a new race, and if I want to play that race again, it's I will play it again.

Some I don't know.

It's just an odd complaint to me to want that three lap structure, you know.

It's yeah, it feels like I mean, I think that's I think I've talked about on the show before, Like that's the novelty of this Mario Kart is you see the in between?

You know, Yeah, it's the road trip.

My favorite course is an eight.

Are the ones that were just straight shots like going down the Mountain, Like I don't.

It just gets redundant to me.

But I'm also a very impatient game I.

Love, I love what is that Warrio?

Like I don't even like, I don't even like I can't get into Monster Hunter because I don't want to fight the same monsters over and over, you know.

So it's like I think that's also my just the way my brain, like I don't repeats my brain likes about video games.

I just want novelty, you know.

It's just like constantly give me novelty.

So yeah, yeah, I'm with you.

I am really loving this Mario Kart.

It's really the only game that and peak.

Right now, I'm kind of in a weird spot.

I think I'm a little burnt out just on you know.

It's been a lot of a lot of work with games lately, and I just haven't found my There's so many great games I know I would enjoy if I just booted them up, but I just haven't found the energy to.

And so but anytime, like John said, when somebody puts out a social code, like a race code on social media, I'm like, I want to play Mario Kart.

Let's do it.

I'm just having a blast with that.

That and Peak.

You know, so Mark Kart's very high for me this year.

Cool.

Yeah, really enjoying that.

Great pick.

Kyle John, what's your next one?

Oh geez, let's all I guess we're still going chronological here.

I'm gonna go with a vowed from Obsidian Entertainment.

Avout really surprised me, and I'm not like I I like the whole fallout e Bethesdy formula, but like this, I think this was painted as that, but it's it's more it's more mass effect than anything else.

So avowed as a first person fantasy RPG where you are brought to new Land, uh and there's uh just stuff going on with nature.

There's uh tumultuous things happening with with the residents there, and then you have like this weird voice that starts talking to you yes, and a lot of the the things that you do, like you're trying to figure out what this voice is and trying to calm these these issues that are happening with with the residents.

But there's there's so many choices that you make in that game that make it such a like kind of like mass effect.

Back in the day, like the choices you make really matter and will will uh truly affect the path that you take through it, and like what your endings are going to be.

I I feel like games try to do that occasionally you can kind of see like the the flow chart through it.

But this is one where like there are certain points where I didn't expect it to be such a such a like a game changing choice that that I would make, and by the by the end of the game, like I could see like where that broke off, and I have no clue like where the other paths would have taken me, or like what what minor decisions I would be taking throughout that game that would take me somewhere different.

I'm sure a lot of it flows to the same the same spot regardless, but there's like characters that can die and yeah.

People leave your party and stuff too, right, people.

Leave your party.

Yeah, it's it's really it was a really really impressive game and actually makes me way more excited for the outer world's too, and and what they're what they're doing with that, if they're they're touching any of any of that like decision making.

I think that that game is going to be really really cool.

Yeah.

I I didn't get to talk about it on the show because I think we ran into technical issues.

We were we had a segment recorded about outer worlds too, But I got to play it at at SGF and really walked away impressed with it, with kind of the choices and like the way they're changing the flaw system is really neat.

Yeah, people want to check out my preview.

I've got a two pager in this issue of Game Informer.

You can go and read on the website right now gameingforwar dot com slash subscribe.

I just want to add for a vow and I think the thing that maybe impresses me as much as the choice stuff is the combat.

Like I think it is the best first person sort of like RPG combat.

Like I guess if you want to say like that bethesa style like easily, like to the point where I fired up the Oblivion remaster and I play through that, you know, the intro dungeon got out to the world, and the first thing I thought was, man, I really missed that combat at a VOWT Like I knew it was good, but it feels even better when you go back to how you know, it used to be in the in the olden days of just like because like the combat doesn't feel floaty, Like all the attacks, like the melee weapons all feel weighty and fast.

Yeah, there's a nice pace to it and then.

You have to be on your toes too.

Yeah, like it's not easy either, No, like you really have to Yeah, like it's like blocking.

Played the first couple hours, I really enjoyed it.

Yeah, Like there's a sense of maneuverability in that game that you don't see in a lot of first person kind of like action games like that, where you have a dash, you have a block, you have a perry, the enemies force you to use all three of those pretty copiously, and then the ability to combine like basically anything of like I could be a spellcaster in one hand and I can have a gun an the other one, and let's just see how this goes.

And I got a book that shoots like five different spells, and then I also have like a sick like scimitar or rapier, and I'm just like going at these guys.

It is as much it is so much fun to just fight things, and then it's fun to get around because there's like park horse style.

It was like platforming, Like there's a lot of verticality in the game that you don't normally see where it just feels good.

They're just like I'm just gonna run and jump over a bunch of stuff, and you're just like mantling over things, and they just they just made getting around and just like aging with the game outside of just talking to people feel really good.

Yeah.

I those environments too, are just oh ridiculous looking.

I mean they're beautiful.

And like unique too, like because a lot of ansy games can bleed together, but this one has like weird mushroom motif, like your character is like a mushroom person basically, yeah.

Yeah, you're touched by a god.

So yes, you got it all all the plant stuff.

I think it helps that it's not a big open world like it is open ones, but that helps to like focus uh, their their direction on like making things super dense and making things look good and make it just be It's just an interesting area to explore wherever you go.

It's got a real purposeful design to like we put this here because we thought it was the most aesthetically pleasing place to put this.

Yeah, yeah, it rules That's that's a game I want to go back to at some point when I forget a little bit more of what happened and then just take a different course through it.

Yeah.

Well cool, how about you, Marcus, what's your next game?

This is the game I feel the most bad that we weren't able to do a proper review, just because it came out right when we were just kind of getting our getting started again.

Yeah, and it's also a game that you kind of can't play on your own free time because you need two people to play it and had a split fiction which I finished after working through it for like pretty much since launch with a buddy of mine.

We took kind of, like not intentionally took our time, just we took as much as our schedules call allow, especially him because he is like a recent father, so he's got a newborn that he has to to deal with.

But we would play every every other weekend or so, like sometimes just for an hour just because of timing.

But that game is good as hell.

It is it okay, all right?

It is a fantastic game personally.

For some reason, the themes weren't really jumping out to me like they did with with the other games.

It takes it takes two and it takes.

Two and a way out.

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know why.

I think it was just like the very it felt more on the nose with like fantasy and sci fi.

Yeah it is, it is, but it like it lends itself to gameplay, you know, like it's it's like it's not a great like you know, they announced like a film adaptation of Split Fiction recently, and my reaction was kind of like yeah, like.

I'm good after it takes to film that's also supposed to be happening.

Right, Yeah, yeah, there's all these like video game film.

I mean, Claire Obscure is a film than any second now, but but I mean it actually, but I think it is like yeah, I mean the the sort of setup is kind of silly and the dialogue is silly, but like what the the levels that it sort of lets you jump between is worthwhile.

Like it's good.

I haven't finished it because my co op partner, my daughter is a teenager who's who's not usually available.

I was because I mark as I is gonna review it, like that was the plan.

I was like, I'll play with my daughter and then I have to like schedule with her.

I gotta I gotta talk to her secretary.

We got a Docker pay.

But I also did like it, and I've been carefully and I don't betray me here, Marcus, but like I hear the ending is amazing, and so I've been really careful to like, I don't want to see any of it.

I don't want anything spoiled about it.

I just like that's a goal.

I hear it's amazing, So my kid and I will get through it at some point, is the plan.

Yeah, I really liked it.

Tastes too like I thought it was.

That was also a fantastic game, Like just the sheer amount of creativity and variety was just kind of staggering.

But I was like not a fan of the story, which I don't think is a controversial opinion.

I'm not saying this story is like leaps and bounds better, but I do think it's better, and I think it does get better the deeper you get into it.

But I think they've I would honestly say, like, looking back at it now, I think they might have topped what they've done.

And it takes too just that it's got, you know, the same amount, just like variety and just surprises of just like the way mechanics change constantly.

But I think having the novel you were talking about, Kyle, Yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah, And I do think that theme they were talking about it like sci fi and fantasy, you know, two different worlds, the two different writers, like the two things they play with that in gameplay in like really really neat ways where it takes two was you know, it was all one theme of like little person in a Big World basically, you know of like they do the genre mashups really well, and like I would say like eighty percent of a time in ways where I was like, oh, I know we were doing this.

I didn't think you could do it this way or that they were taking this different direction.

And yeah, that final sequence is on my like list of like this is one of the best I know segments or sequences of the year.

Like it is it is the ultimate like flex of like oh you thought we ran out of ideas, we'll check this out and then you're like, oh my god, okay, and it's like and it is like an extended final sequence that it is just me and my and the whole time just kept saying this is so cool, This is so cool, Holy crap, this is amazing.

I do have a question, is this a I know a lot of people like to play these games with like significant others or friends who normally maybe don't play games, just because like the couch co op nature of it, right yeah, And I think especially the themes of like It Takes Two, people were like, I want to play this with somebody that I you know, I care about, right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, But It Takes Two was not an easy game.

I would say, like, like you do, like, is this game is there a character that is maybe more more suited for the newer player of the two or is it pretty pretty even in terms of like challenge.

No, they're the same, they're the same character.

I mean they get different things, but there's no like easy character.

And I would say that I think this is even more of like a demanding video game.

Okay, and it takes too because it's a lot more of an action game, where is it takes to us a little bit more of a platformer, Like not that there isn't platforming in this, but there are like straight up just like action sequences more often than not in this game.

And yeah, I was talking without my friends.

He was thinking about playing with his wife, who was like, i'd say, like a mid level gamer, like doesn't play a bunch of stuff and he's but he like she doesn't play enough where he he kind of has to curate what they play.

And he was saying like, I don't know if she could, if she could do this one.

This is a this gets pretty intense.

Like him and I are doing great because him and I play games all the time.

Sure, but yeah, this is a lot more of like a video game video game.

Okay, yeah, yeah, cool, all right, well let's move on.

I will shout out, Oh this is the one that I don't think I've talked about, so a picnic penguin.

This is a five dollars So it's two dollars and fifty cents on the Steam cell right now.

Okay, then I may as well just get this.

Game has six user reviews on Steam like this is as.

Of them from Alex Finny.

I am one of them.

Okay, hey, just yeah, let me let me let me find it.

I'm on the page, can I find it?

Yeah?

Yeah, you d see my review, let's see.

Yeah, you're the first one.

Okay, enjoyable, soacabond puzzles that are not too difficult.

The pixel art is also solid, easy to read and full of personality.

Enjoyable little casual penguin or puzzle game for relaxing or keeping up in the background in between work.

Not bad, but you got to get your character count up.

Though we can't put Steam reviews review roundup entries.

I know it helps developers, and so I will write the Steam reviews, but like they are the most It's the same thing like I I track the games I play on the gg app and I I played like Blueprints or Animal is a great reference.

I beat Animal WEL, which I loved.

I adored that game, and my gg app review is like that's a masterpiece.

Huh.

Like it's just like I just like, do the character the minimum character count?

And I logged the review.

Yeah, yeah exactly, But yeah, picnic Penguin.

It is vibrant and colorful and fun.

It reminds me of like something that you would find on the Game Boy Advance, very like more of on the cartoony side of the pixel art spectrum.

So like nice thick black outlines on objects, really like primary color driven you know, blocks of color and yeah, they're they're just really fun Socco bond puzzles that I found this game.

I was just like randomly searching on the Steamed store one day.

I was trying to find like really deep dive on games that that didn't get you know, any highlight really and I was like, Damn, this game is like really good looking and I think I caught it like the day it came out, and yeah, it's it's been really enjoyable.

It it functions well.

I don't know if I've tried it on Steam Deck or not, but is it no switch?

I don't think so.

This seems like the perfect switch game.

It's like I'll buy it on Steam, but if I have the option, I would like, don't switch.

Yeah, it's just Steam.

I think this is like, oh it might be on it's on Apple.

It looks like, yeah, it's on Apple.

iPhone the two things I don't have an iPhone and a Steam Deck.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I think this is actually could totally be a decent iPhone game.

Like I think Soakabon puzzles kind of in themselves to that touch style.

But yeah, I mean I don't really have a ton of substance to say about this game other than in like I said in the review, I'm it's breezy.

Uh, it's it's cheap as hell, and it's just a really enjoyable vibe.

I enjoy the music, the art.

It's just nice and relaxing.

And it's something I think I said it in that short Steam review, like it's something you could have up while you're in a meeting.

We'll let me just do a quick puzzle while people are grabbing water or whatever.

And now out of it is really I haven't gotten to a point in it.

I haven't gotten far enough in it to where it's super challenging.

But they're definitely like you if I have to think on some of them, and and yeah, I check them.

I recommend that Picnic Penguin, and the developer is called I want to shout them out because they're so small neutronized.

Yeah, this thing came out in Oh, yoh, they just released a new game.

What's up with this?

Dino Quake releases?

Joe.

Oh, they're about to release it no.

June nineteenth.

Oh, and it's the same art style.

All right, sorry, already review, all right, we see you neutronized.

But yeah, that's my my next pick.

I'm gonna send it back to you.

Kyle.

What's your next recommendation?

Uh, let's talk about you know what, let's talk about Like a dragon piriy yakus in Hawaii certainly the longest title.

It's like a dragon pirate yakuz in Hawaii is what it is, which is I'm a recent Yakuza person, like like most people, you know, I feel like it's kind of become like there were six other Yakuza games and then seven came out, and I feel like now it's kind of mainstream and I and I like watch my wife play seven and she loved it.

And then I played the man who erased his name to kind of that was like sort of like I'm going to use this to sort of like dip my toe here, and enjoyed that.

And then I really loved Infinite Wealth, and yeah, Piracus in Hawaii was one where it was like I felt like it was like perfect for me, right, this kind of player who like I don't really know Majuma, you know, like I didn't play those other six Yakuza games.

He shows up in eight, you know, but it's like I know this guy.

He's like an iconic looking guy.

I know he's important to Yakuza.

But like the nice thing about Hawaii Pirate because in Hawaii Is it was like you got to learn who Moduma was, but also like you didn't have to worry about any baggage of him because he's an amnesiac, you know, like he lost his memory.

So like I I understand that I didn't get the full Moduma experience, you know, like I don't.

I still don't really know him because I know a version of him.

But yeah, the the story of that game is is is weak compared to like Infinite Wealth or you know what I saw seven, But I I it's one of those that just like sucked me in and like I wanted to do everything, you know, like I did every side quest, I like did all the eye like got my pirate ship upgraded all the way, and uh, it's just it was just super fun to play and super fun to unlock things, and that those worlds are always fun and those characters are always fun.

And there's like when we talk about Moments of the Year, there's this like insane sequence in that game that I mean, I don't want to spoil but like if you're a fan of like reality TV, like The Bachelor and stuff like that, Like there is there is a sequence in that game that is just absolutely hilarious and unexpected and I really loved it and I'll be talking about it when we talk about the end of the year stuff.

But yeah, just just a charming as hell action game.

You know that sounds awesome.

You definitely piqued my interest, Kyle.

You said the keywords if you don't, if you genuinely Alex, if you don't think you'll play, like if you're honest with yourself and you're like, I'm not gonna go play this.

I'm not going to spend you know six.

I probably won't, So I want you to tell me I should.

I'll send you that.

I'll send you what I'm talking about.

It's it's yeah, please do that sounds awesome, John, what's your next game?

Should we go big or small?

Let's go Let's go big?

Okay.

I feel like it comes in and out of the conversation this year, but it came out March or so.

But Monster hun or Wild m y.

I'm I'm a big Monster Hunter fan.

I actually I haven't played this much past hitting the first set of credits, but I think like expanding the world of Monster Hunter into like these these vast maps and you need amount to get around quickly.

It has been really cool and like seeing monsters just kind of like living in these environments and seeing how they interact with like the smaller ecology and all of that is super neat and kind of just going out and want Like you could in previous Monster Hunters you can kind of go out into whatever map and see what monsters were out there, but this is more like I'm gonna go out into this what whatever map I'm close to, and it feels like the monsters are kind of living there as opposed to what's spawning in this area today.

The combat's really cool.

They added like new systems for uh, like wounding the monsters and then capitalizing on those wounds.

Everything about it's just just super super fun.

There's a new update out for it now that added uh the Gaia Cruz from Monster Hunter Try, which is like they're they're big, uh water monster.

So they added some underwater sections to the game now.

As I've been received, uh, it's it seems alright.

I was talking with Jesse Fettli last night about it, and he uh, he's he's played through that fight and there's it's not like full underwater combat.

You can't swing your weapon or anything, but you can like maneuver around and like uh like grapple onto the monster and and do uh like some interactions with items under water.

But that that could uh that that could just be the first, uh like the start of more underwater mechanics kind of moving into what her expansion might come out for this game later.

That seems like a pretty big aspect you add during like a patch without like building that out further.

Am I wrong?

Wasn't wasn't like swimming a bigger deal in past Monster Hunter games?

Yeah, specifically in three that was that was like their their big innovation there was was doing underwater fighting and you could like actually swing your sword or shoot your bow or whatever underwater.

I don't know if we've if we've gone to a place with games where maneuvering underwater is like all that fun.

But for like little breaks during the fight.

It sounds like most most of this fight happens on land, but you do have like these little underwater sections to kind of break it up, which I think is probably a nice accent to what they're doing with all the on the ground stuff.

But yeah, Monster in or Wilds it's just a solid entry in that series.

It's probably gonna be at my top ten.

It's something I'm going to be playing throughout the year.

It has like I kind of missed the verticality of Monster Hunter World as opposed to the more vast and open maps that they have here.

But I still love it.

Like that game's great and has some really really cool boss monsters the hell.

Yeah, Yeah, that's one I want to go back to.

I think I played probably five to ten hours.

It came out like this is right as we're bringing the magazine back, and so there was just so much going on behind the scenes work wise that most of those games came around around that time.

I just missed because of that kind of stuff.

But yeah, I feel like I kind of missed out a bit on Wild's.

I really enjoyed on TikTok watching people live stream it or you know, show off just ridiculous moments.

That's the problem with that those games.

I always feel like if you aren't in on the first two weeks of that game, like you've kind of missed the boat.

Sometimes it feels like yeah, uh, like I want to be earning stuff with my friends simultaneously.

I hate when people are like, well, I'll just run you through everything and you know Grandpa, Yeah yeah, I don't like that.

And I also don't want to play alone necessarily.

So it's like, ah that that kind of happened to me too.

Like some of the people that I want to play with were reviewing it and so they were playing it multiple weeks early and by the time like I got my hands on it, they were like done with it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I've mostly been doing single player stuff.

That's fair.

Yeah, yeah, I still got to finish it really bad campaign.

It's just like it's like the gatekeep to like the there's fun stuff like to get to the Promised Land.

On the other side, you gotta hang out with this stupid kid with his story.

The last like act of that I think is is good.

It's it's kind of like I think the last act.

I think it's kind of like Pokemon Scarlet Violet, Like when you get to areas ero, you're like, oh, okay, this is what I've been playing this for.

That there's some really really cool fights at the end.

I know, I've been dragging my feet because every time I go back in and I was like, I don't want to talk to any of the people.

Just get me to that.

Yeah, I feel you, Marcus.

Well, Marcus, actually it is your turn.

You want to give us another recommendation.

Yeah, I'll go big too, Doom the Dark Ages.

I'll review that game.

I really need to play this.

It's fun as hell.

I give it a nine to five out of ten.

That's how fun it is.

It's man, what if you gave Doom guy a shield?

That sounds absurd on paper, right, even more absurd than what if he was like in vaguely medieval times.

Sort of it's like dumber than that.

But then it's like it literally is the the best thing of the game, and it's kind of like everything around it in terms of a combat encounters is sort of revolves around how well you use that shield because it is a lot more like it's the same like fast paced like running Gun of the old Doom games, but like a lot closer to twenty sixteen.

Doom is as opposed to Eternal because you can actually like kill anyone with everything, whereas Eternal.

One thing I really didn't like about the game was how situational.

A lot of the combat encounters felt like it felt like they were encouraging you only use certain weapons because you.

Have to almost like puzzle like yeah.

Which I was not the biggest fan of, so they get away from that in this one.

But now enemies can attack you with uh like moves that you can parry back at them, and it feels it's it's wild how well it works in the Doom formula, Like it adds a really fun defensiveness to combat where you feel like you're feel more encouraged to get like really up in the face of demons because you can just like block their attacks and just like you have like a Captain America shield bash where you can just like close the gap by like ipping like a mile across the battlefield to just shield bash someone.

You can throw the shield like Captain America, which feels great.

So it gives you know the range option and it can just like instantly kill like the smaller fodder enemies and it feels great.

And it can also like embed like it can embed itself into bigger enemies and kind of stun them because it's like sawing into their flesh and you just kind of like blow them apart with a shotgun.

And but it doesn't feel like a crutch either, which I think is like crucial because you can only block so many things before the shield becomes unavailable temporarily, so it's the game is still about, like, you know, don't stop moving, like just keep moving, DoD dodge everything you can block, block and perry what you can, and then try to dodge everything else.

But I just love how much more like you know, this is maybe the most overused term, and then video games like journalism, but like visceral it is because it is a lot more like melee focused because of that, especially because you have like they revamp the melee's combat, where basically melee is like it has like Ammo now, so you can only punch people three times and you replenish it by shooting people.

So like every pillar of combat feeds into another one where it's like the more people you melee, the more Amma you get, whereas the more people you shoot, the more juice you get for your melee attacks.

And then you get different like that you literally reload your fist.

It's fantastic, and you also get like other melee weapons, like a like the big flail, which was my favorite, and it just like feels so satisfying to just smash that into people's faces.

It looks fantastic, just like visually, like just it's like that medieval setting is like a really cool like you know, we always say like those games look like metal, like metal band covers, and I think I don't know if that has rung more true than this one because of just how like it's like this cool blend of like high tech sci fi or everyone just looks like a night but if they are like also a borg from Star Trek a little bit, it's like a really cool mix.

I'm kind of glad it wasn't just purely medieval stuff.

Yeah, I mean I'm kind of experimenting with that with Eternal, with like the sword.

Right, yeah, like a bit.

Yeah, but this is like kind of like you know, you got your feet wet and Eternal with that kind of style.

Now let's just make everything kind of this hybrid fusion of the two themes.

Yeah, But honestly, it's it's that shield that does it for me, Like I think, yeah, this is the best playing Doom game.

Like I even more so in the twenty sixteen and I adore Dooming twenty sixteen, but like it's gotten to the like you can tell that they did a good job when I'm like, I'm gonna miss the Shield if I go back to the other Doom games, Like, I don't know if they if they make a fourth one, how you can take this away now?

Because I it's just it works so well and I would love to see them iterate on it then just have it be a one and done and they try the next new thing.

But yeah, it's also on my short list of like best like I don't know, mechanics of the years, Like yeah, that that Shield saw is fantastic in a game, and I love it and it's such a Doom the Dark Ages in general, it is an absolute blast that you gotta make time to play.

Is this your favorite game of the year so far?

No, but it's high up, Okay, you're just it's like top five for sure?

Cool?

Hell yeah, well I guess I will go.

Next.

I want to talk about elden Ring Night Rain.

Have you all had a chance to play this final year?

Not yet?

No, I still I'm mister elden Ring too, But it's just it's more of a co op nature.

Like I have two friends that I tend to play a lot of games with, but neither of them have gotten it yet, and I've just been also, I mean, I've been busy with my own stuff, like I've ever right now.

So it's it's it's somewhat frustrating to have a new elden Ring game that I can't just pick up and play by myself, even though I technically can, but it seems from everyone I talked to it was heavily.

Discur No, yeah, I want to do that.

I did start it, but and I will.

I want to hear what you think, Alex, but like, yeah, my my reaction was kind of like, this isn't what I want from a from game.

I like the lonely, single player scary experience, you know, not the fast paced kind of but like but I I, yeah, that's why I want to hear.

I've the arguments of for people that love it, Like I love hearing those and I and it's like I get it.

That sounds cool.

I just don't really want to play with eldon Ring with other people.

Yeah, I I really enjoy it.

It's it's it's it's up there probably my favorite game that I've played so far, maybe between that and like Mario Kart.

Honestly, I'm I'm I'm a simple man, but yeah, it's it's I love speed running, and I love you know, There's been a few games in the past that I've like, not like officially speed ran, but like I would have little competitions with my friends, like the Kooper ray in Mario Odyssey.

I got like pretty into for a while hit Man I in the review period for I think it was hit Man three, the World of Assassination trilogy, the most recent one.

I know, me, Jeff Grubb, a couple of other people, like before the game came out, I had like the number one time in like some of those levels, and I just love, like, I love that idea of really like maximizing you know, your your performance, and that's like absolutely required with with with night Rain, it is the core game revolves around whether or not you can complete what you're trying to do and the most efficient way possible, and there's something about doing that alongside I prefer to do with friends, and I don't really have as great of an experience with if I matchmake with random people because they're off doing their own things.

You know.

It seems like a terrible way to play that game, honestly.

Yeah.

Yeah, because there's no voice chat, which is which is so dumb too.

Yeah, like there was.

I don't know if I just want to talk to strangers about that.

But at least like you can communicate on like let's get on the same page, yeah, about what we want to do, and so that I think that's like one of the biggest factors.

Like that that kind of curbs folks enjoyment with it.

You really have to have like two other friends that are are willing to kind of go on that path of of refinement and like hitting your head against the wall because you know, I just invested forty five minutes into this run and we got wiped in the first thirty seconds of this boss fight just because the way the cards were dealt and we didn't we didn't you know, prepare correctly, or we didn't you know, get you know, the right role at the start.

And it's really fun when you get those bad roles at the start, you still turn it around and you like kind of sirp those those kind of those challenges and yeah, I really like that game a lot.

I haven't beaten it.

I have two bosses left I was trying to beat.

You can technically beat the game after I think you defeat like five of the of the eight bosses, I think, but I want to do all of them.

Can you say your progress, like, do you have to beat the game in one run or can you like no, no, no, come back later.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's also like that.

Kind of rope like where you quit and you know it's.

The roundtable hold is your kind of in between match checkpoint hub.

You know you're going to vendors purchasing ruins to like build to help your character build, and you know you're there's secret characters you can unlock there.

And yes, it's very much like it's more of a rogue light like you're getting things to that carryover between those runs.

Okay, I was worried this was a maternal situation.

No, no, before.

They patched it fixed it.

No, oh god no, that that totally threw me off of that game.

Like I lost probably five or six hours of progress on that game.

Yeah because of that.

Yeah, And I thought it was because you paused the game and like put your system to sleep and then like, yeah, the system up.

They basically can't quit.

Like when you start a run, you were committed to the end, you cannot leave.

I I yeah, I could not believe that people let that slide, and like their criticism of that game, I it totally ruined it for me.

And it's a great game.

I could see why, like it's that was the only like bad thing.

Otherwise it was like, yeah, it's a huge bad thing.

I mean, I'm glaring problem.

I man, I don't know.

That's a different conversation.

But like a run in Returnal is like forty minutes an hour if you go an I love, I adore Maternal, but like my.

Runs are like I would be on like the third area and I'm like like.

A half hours if you're just going yeah, I don't know.

Maybe maybe I was playing it differently or I died faster or something, but like, I don't know, I just never thought that was I think it felt like every other roguelike to me, Like what roguelikes are you stopping.

Halfway gamer down here?

But I'm not.

I was terrible in seconds.

Internal run was like way longer.

Yeah, I feel like that's a game where you clearly need to like get your footing and and figure out like what's important in a room?

Uh what what kind of like what kind of rooms are you are you going to be seeing so you can kind of like speed through them.

But like those those first few runs, at least, like I was kind of exploring quite a bit and taking my time walking through, So those those runs did take quite a while.

Are we still talking about Eternal?

Yes?

We are everyone game or Eternal?

Yeah?

Yeah, So that that's my piece on Night Rain.

I'm really enjoy ain't it.

It's one that I'll probably go back to as they add more bosses.

I Also you're kind of talking John about like Monster Hunter Wilds feeling like the monsters live there, right, it feels lived in.

There are moments of that in Night Rain as well, where like you'll run up and there's like a dragon fighting the troll and it's obviously like it's a very scripted fight, but when you first run into those moments, it's it's very cool.

It kind of doesn't it, doesn't, you know?

I think Monster Hunter probably that happens in perpetuity because the the behaviors that are scripted.

This is just like a sequence that happens.

But nonetheless, I think it's cool.

I have seen that comparison where like Night Rain is kind of like them trying to do more of a Monster Hunter like repeatable missions, going out with friends and trying to take down these these really hard encounters.

Yeah, yeah, you learn, I mean, just like Beldon Ring or Dark Souls, Like you're learning the mechanics of that boss and trying to coordinate to to take them down.

Like, I think that fits well with that, with that genre.

That's kind of how I got into Monster Hunter originally, was playing that and Dark Souls around the same time and kind of like getting like both of them have very like deliverate combat and and like animation heavy combat and and everything you do has to have has to have meaning behind it, otherwise you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna die.

So that like playing both of those kind of simultaneously helped it click both ways and really enjoy what what both of those were putting out.

Well, cool, Kyle, let's go to you.

What's the next?

Yeah, I I had a little bit of a longer list, but in the interest of I don't know, maybe you kind of getting as close to the finish line, I'm gonna jump to what is still my game of the year, which is Clare Obscure Expedition thirty three, which was a game that, like, when they showed off, I remember thinking like, oh, that looks cool, and then when they showed the turn based combat, I was like, that looks amazing, right, Like that was the thing that put me over the edge, and it was.

But up until release, it was one of those things where I was like, well, this looks really cool and unique and like different, but it's like, you know, it's a new game, it's a first time team.

You know, it'll it probably won't live up to my expectations, or rather I was, I was, I was setting kind of middling expectations for it as like a new team, especially RPGs, like they'll just kind of like you know, they they they're really long in the tooth at a certain point.

But man, Clear Obscure just pulls you in from like its opening hour, like it is like the most successful opening for any turn based RPG.

Ever.

Arguably, I don't know I would be.

I mean, that's a that's a larger argument to happen.

I don't know the last time I've like booted up a turn based rpg and was that enthralled that quickly?

Yeah, I mean is incredible.

Yeah, and it just maintains that pace throughout the end.

I mean it's it's a maybe a minor spoiler here, maybe press that little thirty second four button.

But there's multiple epilogues, but it's still didn't feel like too long, Like they all felt earned and like and just like the style of that game, and the combat is so good.

It's what I want from turn based combat.

I was playing recently a Sea of Remnants.

I had an early build for Sea of Remnants, which was shown at the PlayStation State of Play event recently, which is a turn based RPG, and it looks great and it seems interesting.

But like I was there pressing buttons wishing that I was getting like extra damage or like being able to like block and stuff like that.

Yeah, it's just it's just beautiful and the story is so good and interesting and like it's like heart wrenching.

It's just it's amazing.

It's a it's a fantastic game, and it's like it's just one that I would I recommend to like anybody, you know.

It's like It's the kind of video game that you could show to someone who doesn't really video games and not be embarrassed.

Yeah, it's another one of those games where, like a Vowed, where it stands out among other sort of like fantasy games because it feels like it has like its own unique art direction and it's got a very I mean, it is a French developer, and you can tell because it has there's a French flare to the art direction that you don't see in a lot of games.

Like that underwater section you get to pretty early in the game is like one of my favorite locations in any game that I've played this year.

And yeah, the combat is so much fun and I love that if I like knowing that if I was really good, I could basically never get hit in this game is like a really strong motivator to want to get better at blocking and pairing.

Knowing that, like, man, if I was on my game, you guys would never touch me.

Yeah, Like, there are people who really don't don't enjoy doing countering and blocking, and I understand that, Like they just don't find that gameplay enjoyable.

You know, someone lifting a sword slowly and then being like you know, like I understand why that's frustrating for people, but like for me, who's the kind of player, even in an RPG, who will just slam their head against a brick wall for an hour rather than like walk backwards and level up a couple of times.

Like I love that you can learn these like sequences and like be successful and like live through like what like fights that you're like way underpowered for and it just and it looks amazing.

It's just an incredible game.

You don't feel helpless in No, you never feel it.

It's like I can't like this.

This is going to kill me if it hits me, but I have an out instead of most RPGs where it's like, well this is just going to hit me, I guess, I guess I gotta take this.

Yeah.

So yeah, claib Scare Exhibition thirty three really like maybe I was Maybe I should have had higher expectations, you know, based on those early looks, but man I was.

I was just enthralled throughout.

Yeah, I miss it.

It's one of those high on my list.

I have started it.

It's it's not crazy long, right, That's what I've heard.

Yeah, Like because you can mainline it, which I did mostly like I wasn't.

I didn't do a lot of side quests, but I think I was like I came under thirty five hours or something like that, so like, don't I wouldn't be intimated by like if you want to just rip through it, like that is an option, right, and it's good.

It's really good.

I was.

I was kind of worried about that game being a little bit too linear, like early early, like previews and stuff.

You would look at the maps, it looked like Final Fantasy ten kind of just like I'm going down a hallway or whatever.

But like it is a little bit i'd say inspired by like the Soul's genre, where like you are going to be like, yeah, it might be a little bit linear, but there are very specific challenges along the way, and like every time, like you you save one of the flags, like everything kind of respawns.

And you have Vanestas flask essentially.

You have a flask.

Yeah, Like there's there's a lot of mechanics in there that are i think very specifically like souls Souls like mechanics.

But also it gives you a lot of just systems to play with, like the the picto's and lubinas and the different abilities that your characters can can get, Like like what you guys were saying before, you're you're never really ever stuck, Like there's always a different like combat puzzle to figure out, And maybe that's that's adjusting what what pictos you have, what abilities your characters are using, and what kind of synergies you get to apply between them.

I'm I'm only in like the beginning of Act two, but there's there's so much of that game that I like just makes my my brain goper and like I'm just like trying to figure out the numbers and and and seeing how I can kill things the fastest or or survive crazy attacks or if I get to a certain point in the game and I unlock an ability.

I'm thinking about like that boss uh two hours ago, that I would just die against no matter what, just they would just one shot me.

That I finally could uh figure out how to defeat them.

Yeah, yeah, that game is incredible.

I need to actually sit down and finish it.

And also it also opens up more john too, like later like if you oh, yeah, if you do feel like it's being linear, if it feels a little linear for you, like the latter portion of the game is much more free rome you know.

Cour Okay, Hell yeah, thanks?

Who's next, John, John?

John, in the interest of time, probably got about twenty five minutes left.

So yeah, not that we can't dive deep into some of these, but your pick, your pick the ones you want to dive into deep.

John.

I'm keeping my headphones on.

I don't want you to think I'm ignoring you.

I'm listening, but I'm gonna.

Go grab some water.

Okay, sounds good.

I don't know he's listening.

My next one is a recent release and it's Fantasy Life I Yeah, which is I'm not usually into like gathering in crafting games, and I like things like animal crossing well enough, but it's never like my obsession and Fantasy Life Eye kind of strikes the balance between like doing the crafting stuff.

Like you have different different classes that you have for like chopping chopping down trees or or mining or fishing, and then you have crafting classes that where you can make furniture or carp blacksmith, yeah, all that stuff.

And then you have your combat class classes like thinkure's like Paladin and magician and stuff like that.

So you can kind of like choose how you want to play through the game and which of those you want to take on.

You can take on all of them if you want.

You don't have to, but it always gives you little things as you're working through to achieve, Like every every class has its own little like board of quests that that you're constantly working through to become a better blacksmith or carpenter or whatever.

And that's really just been That's been my game that I've been picking at for a little bit since before the switch To launch and then since then because it has a switch To edition that greatly improves the frame rate resolution.

It's like a transformative update for that.

That's what I'm playing on switch To and really enjoying it.

This is my first Fantasy Life game out.

I picked it up on your recommendation, John, and yeah, it's it's very enjoyable.

I am somebody who kind of gravitates to those kind of crafting games.

I do combat just for like if I need ingredients or there's a quest for it.

But like I love, you know, doing the cooking stuff and the carpenter stuff.

I do have a question for you, John, as somebody who's furthering it than I.

You know, as I'm building up like so far, Like I know the intro quest for the carpenter, right, you have to go and make a couture whatever or a chair I think for somebody in the city.

Is there a point where like you get your own place and can start doing that.

Yeah, so you actually get an island where.

That's the thing that I has been missing for me in this It's like when I mentioned cards during Promised Masters.

So fantasy life is like weirdly big.

You're working with like different points in time, Like there's the past, the present.

There's like a whole island that you could explore if you want, like that that big, like if you want to kind of go into exploring and and and mining and and going on adventures and doing combat and stuff.

Like, there's a whole island with like different ones with different like levels of enemies and and like items to collect that you can like level up those ones.

Like it's just super weird thing that you can get into if you want.

Okay, I was just in the story where I'm at in the story right now, I was getting the vibe like, oh, I'm not going to get to like live at this place because spoilers, you're trying to get off of where you're trying to leave the place that you start at.

And so I was like, oh, well, I guess I'm not going to be getting the house if my main goal is this.

Does the I stand for I don't want to be here?

Is that what that is?

Yeah?

Sure, yep, okay, but but that's not the case.

Then it's not the case.

And like you you're you're different classes and stuff, like if you're if you're doing carpentry, like you're, you could build couches, beds, whatever.

Like that's kind of the animal crossing side of things where you can you can create your own your own village and like house everything.

Like there's buddies that you get that can go with you and you can give them houses and gear them up.

Says I playing that this evening because I've been joining the game plan, I'm like, where am I going with this?

Cause and the and the intro quests.

You're just doing favors for other people.

I'm like, I want this stuff, okay.

And you you can have that stuff and you can make it for all of your your like your village of friends.

Okay, that's very cool.

You want it for you, Yeah, you want to work for yourself?

Yeah, exactly small business.

Yeah, I'm enjoying fantasy life.

I really like the characters.

Uh, and the character designs, like my dude looks like a freak.

Oh and I love it.

Yeah, he's just the art styles like is really I don't know, it kind of sets it apart.

It's it's definitely fantasy.

And it's kind of like I don't even know if it's chiby, like a little dolls like they look like it reminds me of like Links Awakening three D, like the.

Yeah.

Yeah, and there's like there's like a quality to the characters that it's like it's not quite full anime.

It's not quite chibi.

It's like and and that stuff I don't love.

Whereas this it's a little it feels a little more like grounded in its own style in a way that's really appealing.

I like the horse.

I'm looking at a screenshot of the way the horses look, and it's a good looking horse, got like a little spine on it, like he's a little sassy.

I think, like everything has a little smile on it.

Yeah, this horse though.

You should look it up.

I really, I really think that game.

It hit at a weird time because it I think it released like a week or two before the Switch to launch.

But I I think it's one of those if people are looking for something to play on Switch Too, I think people should be looking there.

It's there's a lot to do, you can play a multiplayer, it's cross play with PC.

So I don't know where I'm really going with this, but it's it's just something that I think it's going to be overlooked in the grand scheme of things that seems like we should should really check out.

It seems like the perfect handheld game.

It is.

It is.

Yeah, I'm really enjoyed it on Switch Too.

I'm liking it a lot.

Yeah, I'll try it.

I was kind of like indifferent to it, but I kept hearing more and more good things, and I generally like Level five who was the developer, Yeah, yep, yeah, and I need things to play him I switch to.

So Yes, it's fascinating like reading about that development and what happened in like the last year or so since kg Inafune left the company, and how that game is transformed.

So look into that as well.

Cool, well, Marcus will send it to you.

What's what's your next one?

I love saying the name of this game.

It's called a Shotgun cop Man.

It sounds like it's full of nuance, you know, it.

Might it's it might be nuanced and its simplicity because all it is is that it is a a super meat boy asque kind of precision platformer where you play as what I think is a parody of Steven Seagull is the vibe that I get, but he looks like a weird eraser head man with big shoulders and you're just trying to arrest Satan and everyone.

Yeah, like every literally every stage starts with him running up to Satan saying you're under arrest, and Satan says the same thing every time, and he just goes f you Shotgun cop Man.

I'm censoring myself.

And that's that's that's literally the story of this game.

And so it's a dozens and dozens of these really tight platforming stages where, uh, the hook the thing that separates from me boys that you use a shotgun as well as other guns to basically jump like you don't have a like you can't jump inherently, you can only jump by pointing your gun to ground and shooting and just sort of using the force from your shots to propel yourself upwards.

And it's got twin stick controls, and the sort of like puzzle element of the game is like how long can you keep yourself airborne with the limited shots that you have and whatever weapon you're using, because you can only reload when you touch the ground, So a lot of the platforming is like, oh, okay, I'm like I'm gonna shoot, I'm gonna fall here, I'm gonna shoot again to get over this gap or get past some spikes, but I also need to aim and shoot and shoot this enemy that's in front of me.

And the game encourages speed running because if you're really on your game, you can fly through this stage in the like seconds.

And there's like optional objectives of the end of the stage for like, oh did you get the high score or for how quickly you got through it?

Or did you kill all the enemies in a stage, which you don't have to, but if you want one hundred percent of stage you gotta do it, as well as like oh, did you get through without taking any damage?

Because you can only take like two hits basically and then you die.

But it is it's very fun and like the sort of shooting the jump thing works really well.

The level design of CsFr has been very like it's well designed, and they do some really cool platforming gimmicks with each chapter that you go through, like oh, you have these switches that you need to flip that open doors.

You need to find a way to stare airborne while flipping these switches and then getting through the open doors while also maybe dodging like some rotating spikes or like three dudes shooting at you at the same time.

Like it gets really frantic in a really fun way, and it's it's it's just really cool.

It's just like I love platformers, and I love meat Boy or any sort of like meat Boy adjacent style, Like Okay, this is about like just fast paced, like just real like pixel perfect like precision jumping, and this is basically like a a sort of like different spin on that stuff.

But I've been I've been itching for something like that this year, Like there haven't been like a ton of like super big platformers for me, which is one of the reasons why I'm so excited about Donkey Kongs.

I just want like a good platform to stick sink my teeth into.

But yeah, this one's pretty cool.

I feel like it's been somewhat under the radar, like I wrote about it for like a spotlight entry on the website when I first started playing it, and I haven't finished it yet.

I've kind of been shipping away at it little by little because one of those games you can do like a couple stages here and there and then like come back to it the next day or something like that, or a chapter or whatever.

There's like boss fights at the end of each stage, which are pretty fun generally.

But yeah, it's cool.

I think it's we're checking out if you're and if you are a neat Boy fan or if you enjoy those kind of platformers, keep an eye out for Shotgun cop Man Awesome.

My next one I want to talk about John with actually it's on his list too, is The Bizarre, which is I think I've talked about it last year on the Game and Former show.

I think it kind of made my editor's choice list because it wasn't out in one point h yet.

Is it The Bizarre is in Bizarre Stranger bizarre.

Like uh, like the like the shop.

Okay, got bizarre aar, yes, gotcha.

This is a while you aren't technically using cards, it is effectively a deck builder in some.

Ways build auto battler.

Yeah, deck builder auto battler.

But you aren't dealing with You aren't really having to worry about like oh this card has eight health and I have to play that.

Like you aren't playing cards in that way.

It's more you are collecting a series of items through battles with enemies and a mixture of like player ghosts you know.

Yeah, and other players to aspire if all the battles or if like the battles getting to like the next day is all ghosts of other players and their builds that they've had online day.

Yeah, And it's a really really easy way to sink a lot of a lot of hours into a game.

It's money.

Uh no, well no, there's been some there's been some kind of the kind of gotten to a lot of hot water with their one point ero release in the monetization that has now been fixed to my understanding, and everyone's happy again.

I have only spent it is free to play.

I paid for like a founder's pack, back when it was in beta.

But each character kind of has their own deck theme.

So like one dude has and I've saved up enough coins to just get him the character for free.

The one you kind of everyone starts with is this like more like water themed Pirate Lady, and her deck kind of revolves around poison and like maximizing like really big damage dealing like cannons and stuff.

Whereas the second guy that I unlocked is the real estate guy, and he's, yeah, the pig.

He's more focused on like how money can of influenced like the value of like building value in your like real estate cards and transferring that to like healing items and shields.

Yeah, it's it's interesting.

And then there's a there's a robot character that goes like all in on like more complex like machinery and or like burning people really really quickly their health and and.

The way they were friends.

Yeah yeah, and each matchup everyone has you start with a certain amount of health depending on like the choices you've made in your run, so like sometimes you might prioritize increasing your max health or your regeneration your health regeneration stat instead of getting like a cool item that you want.

It's kind of like a lot of choices like that, and after a certain amount of time fighting the other person, because sometimes there are just moments where like this, I, you are doing ero damage to me because I'm my build is all about heels, and you were just like not doing enough to to really make a dent in my health bar.

Eventually, a sandstorm kind of comes in and starts ticking damage like increasingly like exponential, Yeah, exponential damage to equally to each player, and it's like who can who can kind of like survive in the storm long enough?

Essentially, it's there's some really cool ideas.

And I've I've been playing this game for a while and have really enjoyed going back to it somewhat for like every couple of months, I'll go back and I'll like, okay, time for some bizarre and John and Eric fan Allen, who's on the show last week, we kind of jokingly referred to it as like the calculator game, because you're just like seeing numbers go up and up and up and up.

Like you make things faster.

Yeah, every every item has like a cool down.

Yeah, so you're you're trying to like maximize those those cool downs or like try to reduce the amount of time that it takes for something to proc.

Yeah.

So yeah, we call it calculator battles because it's all about just maximizing those numbers.

It's a real game.

It's fun.

Like I feel like every patch it either like saves that game or just kills it completely.

So it's it's still an open beta.

I don't think it's I don't think it's hit.

Yeah, it's just it just hit like you could just download it and play it for free.

This is not on Steam, right, this is not on Steam.

It has its own client.

Yeah, at one point came out April third, Oh okay, yeah, but it's like constantly still evolving.

I don't know, it's kind of weird.

Yeah, they have they have like new seasons every month that will add new new items for characters.

There's there's battle passes that you can work through to get uh new items that you can encounter on your runs, and that at the end of that season, all that just gets added to those characters for free.

So it's it's more so you're you're playing to have that those benefits throughout that season than anything else.

Yeah, there's a lot of cool things about that game.

I don't think it's anywhere near finished, even though it is in one point now.

Uh, there's there's a there's a lot that they need to do to solidify what that game is and how it's balanced and all of that.

Yeah, it's it's very fun and it's something I go back to you every couple of weeks, like, like Alex.

Says, well, cool, Kyle, you want to give us one more recommendation and or you can give us a lightning round if you really want to mention.

So oh, I'll do.

I'll do all lightning around it.

I did.

I had Blueprints on my list.

An amazing puzzle game.

I have a number of qualms.

With.

More at the end of the year.

But very cool.

My wife and I played together and saw it to credits and had a good time.

Wander Stop I thought was a really moving and interesting game about getting burned, you know, just burnout, you know, just that sort of idea of burnout in your life, which I played at a time we're very busy launching a new magazine.

It's very good and I really want to play that.

It's not very long, it's and it's good.

It's it's because like I usually don't like I don't really like cozy games, just not really my genre, and that game actually kind of it's sort of it tricks you into thinking it's a cozy game, but it's really more of a narrative game.

Ultimately, you know, it's good though, I.

Want to stop.

I like, And then I'm still thinking a lot about Death Stranding too, And I'm still playing Death Strainding two despite having finished it.

I've hit a point now Jacob Geller has finished it, so I've been able to DM with someone finally about about the ending and talk about the ending, which I'm sure we'll be able to do a lot more of soon as more.

People get through it.

But I mean, yeah, death Stranding is a great game, absolutely.

Awesome, John.

Do you want to indulge in a lightning round?

Yeah?

I think I only have like one one more thing to put on here.

It's the first perserkerks on a game that I really did not like it first because is so damn hard, and then uh, it molded me into a true gamer.

You and we really made a man out.

I remember talking to you at the shop, singing at you.

We met like I think you were like seven Bosses in and we went to get coffee one night and you were just like, I don't know, I don't know how I'm gonna like get this in Bargo, Like I remember that game being so hard.

Yeah, So I reviewed it for IGN, and I think my review came out like two weeks after that game actually really yeah, just just because like getting a third of the way through that game took me thirty hours.

I think I think I played it for like eighty eighty or ninety hours total.

Oh my god.

But it's it's I'm maybe I'm not the best at at Soul's likes, I don't know, but like it really Hammer's Home, like you you need like your perfect Perry's, you need your Dodges.

It really demands that of you.

And it really actually helped me with Clare Obscure right afterwards.

Oh sure, because like you're doing like very exact button presses, especially for Perry's in there.

And yeah, I think once you get that locked in and start developing your your character the way that you want to play them, I think that game is fantastic and really one of the best Souls experiences I've had in quite a while.

I need to get back to it.

I was playing it for a bit, possibly for a review.

And it just so yeah when I saw you were playing them, like, good luck, Marcus, that's yeah.

And then I had just had other games that I had to play for work, and I just never were able to get back to it.

Yeah, Marcus, time for your lightning around, sir.

Yeah, I'll shout out Blueprints suit.

That's arguably my game of a year.

I love that game to death.

I've got a few qualms.

I might have less than you guys, but it is also my this is I've learned.

This is a very like twenty twenty five is a year of note taking games for me, because this it was Root Trees and I beat Lower Line the Laser Eyes in the beginning of the year.

I've like a note taking game.

Yeah, yeah, but I love Blueprints.

I think it's again arguably the best puzzle game of the year, maybe the best game of the year.

We'll see how that stacks up.

A Citizen Sleeper two really good game.

I'm a big fan of the first Citizen Sleeper.

This one adds a cool like party building mechanic to it, where now you have other people that you manage, and also additional dice rolls.

It's also like harder on the survival side of it because you can get like glitch now, and there's some like very tense, like everything you do feels like one hundred times tenser than the first game, which says a lot.

The first game you feel like you're kind of like given by by the skin of your teeth for a lot of it, and this one I think amplifies that, but like in a way that is still really fun instead of like frustrating, and also like a very engaging narrative, much like the first game.

So jut that out.

There's a cool game called Spilled that I play.

Is also a very short that was this year.

It came out, uh me, a couple of months ago.

It was around the time that we came back.

I want to say, yeah, but it was.

It's like an hour long.

You play as a a boat that just cleans up oil spills, and it's really pretty and it's a very chill, easy, just laid back experience.

You're just going to You're just sailing around these really pretty river ways and then like like open oceans and just cleaning up oil spills and upgrading your ship in a very just easy upgrade loop.

But yeah, it is very much a like just decompressed and feel like you're doing something like really rewarding and good.

Uh.

So yeah, that one I recommend.

And then there's uh, South of Midnight is also one that I want to get.

That one.

Yeah, that one's you know, I like, I've got issues, but I I like that it's basically a throwback to like P S two PS three era third person adventure games.

What a very cool art direction and also just tackling like Southern folklore, which you don't also really see in really most media, let alone video games.

But I think the like the representation of just like the the South in that game is really well done and also has like a lot of reverence behind it.

And I think the performances and I also think it has one of the best soundtracks of the year.

Uh And it's just like it's just like a cool space to be Like.

I just loved running around and hanging out with the different characters in that game.

So yeah, and I think that's it.

Maybe the last one real quick is this game has not come out yet technically, but I don't Is it ball x Pit, Is it Ball Cross Pit?

Like, is it is?

Yeah, I don't know, but a pet is what I've been saying.

That's what I'm saying too.

So this has not come out yet, but there's a demo now and I believe your progress from the demo carries over to the full version if I remember correctly, So it kind of feels like it's out.

But this is the Wolver's new game.

Was the only game that they showed that they're yearly, sort of like SGF direct and my god, is it good?

It is?

I don't know if you guys have had a chance to play.

The Tetris sort of is it a freak out Tetris?

It's more Arcanoid.

It's a weird It's like Arcanoid with a little bit of Vampire Survivors with also like a city building the component, Like it is a weird cocktail of things, but it all sings real well because it's like, so like Vampire Survivors, you play as a character who attacks automatically and it's you're on a I can see the Tetris comparison because the grid lane right, yeah, and blocks are coming down.

The way that they do in Tetris, But it's arcanoge where you're just you're automatically shooting these blocks and the ideas that you don't want the blocks to hit the bottom, and but you were, balls bounce and ricochet, so you're really playing arcanoid because you're trying to shoot these balls against the crevices of all these block enemies and they bounce around and just murder themselves.

But you can, like Vampire Survivors, the more things you kill, they drop literally at the Vampire Survivors like blue and green little bits.

And then you level up and then you get a choice of like one of three upgrades for your balls, and you get like there's a ton of them, like there's like fire ones, there's like poison ones, like a ghost one that can pass through multiple enemies, and then you can combine upgrades and to to form new upgrades.

So again like Vampire Survivors, but it works, and it looks nice and it's super and not like not like it just has like a cool look to it, you know, not that y'a like some like graphical Powerhouse or anything like that, but I just kind of like the the art direction for it.

But it is it like it is a game that the time melts away in.

Action like via Like I'm looking at gifts of it.

Yeah, it really kind of sells it more so than just like single screenshots.

Yeah, you need to.

And it's also one of those games like you really have to play yourself because it's such a weird blend of like genres, which is why I I heavily encourage people to play that, to play the Steam demo that's out now.

But I like, out of all the games from Steam Next Fest that I tried, this is the one I've by far put the most time into.

And I'll so fire it up a run every now and then, and then in between runs you're going back and you're building a city, which even that is arcanoid because you're like laying down tiles and then sending a character to bounce around the space where you put your crops and stuff, and that's how they build stuff.

It's so weird.

But no, I'm really enjoying it so far, and I'm really psyched for the full release, which doesn't have a release date yet but it is supposed to come this year at some point.

Cool awesome.

I guess I will start my little Lightning round right now.

I'm just read in the timestamp.

Sorry about that, folks.

So skin Deep is up there.

I've talked about it on the recent episodes of the of the show Immersive sim set in space.

You play as an insurance adjust and you are going on these space stations to rescue cats that you work for and and all the while like kind of managing many different stealth systems, physics, light and shadow, kind of like visibility, that sort of thing within within while fighting off these space pirates.

It's a lot of fun, a lot of interactions, very funny game.

Yeah, really recommend skin Deep.

Blueprints we've talked about definitely one of my my higher ups.

Actually today as I was preparing for this list, I Bloodprints was my number one game for a while this year, and I knocked it down to like number three, And I will say what my number one and two are, because I don't think those are final either, but I.

Still really got you got to commit on July first to your game of the year, right.

Now, I know, yeah, exactly exactly.

Hey, maybe I'll continue to think about it and it'll go up.

But regardless, really love that game.

I think for me, where it kind of falls short is and some of the storytelling doesn't quite get there for me.

Like some other the revelations I think are cool and like a greater story is like interesting, it's an interesting setting that you uncover, but there are just some threads that I wish were sometimes a little more easy to pull on than they are.

It's definitely a game that like you get the credits and then you don't have the full picture still and you have to keep going after that, and I think like by the time you hit credits in that game, you're just kind of thankful to be done, Like you did it, you made it, you did the run.

Maybe I'll go back to it, Maybe I won't haste.

We talked about it via on our YouTube channel earlier this year in a new gameplay today.

But it's like that sort of like three D Sonic esque free flowing parkour racing game where you are like picking up power ups as you go, and like it's a really really new game.

I think, didn't Landfall make that one or publish it at the very least the folks behind like Peak and totally accurate battle simulator, really great game with like really fun movement and some really clever boss battles.

Yeah.

Uh, and then lastly, Lonely Mountains Snow Writers.

I don't know if you all are familiar with that series or not.

Yeah, I love down the Downhill.

Yeah yeah, I played all of that.

Actually I forgot that.

The snow it's like snow or skiing.

Right exactly.

Yeah, yeah, it's skiing and I'm really enjoying it.

I've it's relaxing as it is as relaxing as it is challenging in a weird way, like and there's like a kind of a quiet like undertone of comedy, like physical comedy, and just like some of the ways that your character just whiffs it and and like when you when you miss, when you like when you ail out, it has like this weight to it.

And it's just even though like you're really oomed out, you're looking at like a top down sort of like not quite top down, but you know, like you're very oomed out of it was like a bird's eye perspective watching controlling the skier.

And still when you when you hit something about the physics, you're just your character goes flying.

And to record that and make a fail comp Yeah, that would.

Be a perfect game for that.

And there's like an online racing mode that I really enjoy.

It's a ton of fun.

Another game that like, if you can figure out like optimal speed running routes, you can really kind of get ahead of the competition in those online races.

But even if you don't want to do that, you just want to play single player and you want to vibe out.

It's it's a really fun and relaxing game if you want it to be.

It's kind of like it kind of molds itself to what you want it to be in that way, and it's unlike some other games.

I think it's very like malleable and you can kind of get a lot of different things out of it.

And yeah, that's that's Lonely Mountain snow Riders.

Thank you for reminding me that exists.

Yeah you should, you should add Yeah, Oh cool, I played it.

It's really good on Steam Deck as well or PC obviously that's where kind of I've been playing it.

But yeah, excellent game pass game.

I'd imagine much like the first one.

I think was like a big game past that.

Yeah, and I actually kind of missed out on the first one.

I played Downhill a little bit.

Playing snow Riders makes me want to go and like, you know, sing a lot of time into that game too, and like just the feeling of going downhill so quickly.

The sound design is incredible.

It's you know, they've really captured what what it feels like to be almost like losing control, like on the verge of losing control in a in a snow sport like that.

The few times I've been skiing, it's like you're kind of really you It kind of captures that emotion of like I'm in control, but at any moment I could make a wrong move and just eat.

It, or there could just be like a slick spot, a little dip.

Yeah.

Yeah, it really captures that like feeling of and it's something I praised Writers Republic for back when that came out, just the feeling of like the feeling of racing downhill on a bike in this case skis.

They capture it so well and it kind of like transports me back to having that feeling as a kid when you're going down a big hill for the first time.

They really capture it with with the sound effects.

It's really cool.

But yeah, I think that's going to do it for the show this week before we get out of here.

I do just want to ask folks, if you haven't, please go and sign up for a Game Informer subscription today in case you missed it, you can get our print magazine straight to your door the first issue print issue.

I think the cutoff might I think the cutof is probably over by the time that you are listening to this.

I don't think we can guarantee Borderlands.

Yes, but our next cover story is the one that I've been looking forward to the most out of like our early crop of of cover stories.

Yeah, I'm not going to tell you, but it's a really interesting one that I think isn't as like obvious maybe as a cover as Borderlands, and I think it's a really interesting one.

We did see the art.

Yes, I played the game.

I really really enjoyed it.

Yeah, I think it could.

I think it'll be a cool cover story, and that'll be rolling out later this month in July.

But that will be well, we'll share more about that later on.

But really like the best way to keep the lights on for us is to get a Game and Former subscription.

You know, no matter if you're watching on YouTube or you're listening to podcasts, that stuff is really helpful.

Don't get me wrong, but if you're looking for like the number one way to support us it is to either get a print or a digital magazines description print magazine costs seventy bucks a year.

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I've invested a lot of time into It's really like a you know, something that we're really proud of, and I think, you know, we really aim for each magazine not only do we have like reviews and previews that kind of thing, but as really we aim for like the content of it to be something like a coffee table book, like you know, business profiles on like prominent developers, really interesting looks into how games are made.

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That's forty five a year, and you can get out of your international as well.

That latter one.

But also real quick, I just want to say thank you John for joining us on the show this week.

I know people can find you online at John Carson Games on social media.

If you're on Blue Scott you can follow John at John Carson.

That's exactly how it's spelled.

King of Late Night, as we call him.

But John, where else can people What do you got cooking?

Where where can people find you?

All that kind of stuff.

Yeah, I've been messing around with YouTube stuff.

If you follow me on Blue Sky, I'll be posting stuff on there.

I'm opening Final Fantasy Magic card packs until i find Phoebe, which is a fun little series that I've been kind of learning video editing stuff with and and and doing some longer form longer for like ten minute videos or whatever on previews for games or just doing some extra game content there.

I'm freelancing for IgM dot com doing tech reviews there, so so look out for that stuff as well.

Also, I just freelance for various other publications for game reviews or previews or or whatever.

So still still hanging around the industry.

Ellyeah, yeah, well thank you for joining us today.

John.

It's thanks for privileged as your family, so absolute whenever you need.

Hey, when you're here your family, that's true, like July or whatever we said to be on the show.

Yeah, whatever thing Marcus said.

It's a classic saying I'm sorry.

You can also follow Marcus Stewart online at Marcus Stewart seven on Blue Sky.

That's really the only place he is.

He's he's not online very much.

You got anywhere?

Okay?

Yeah that I like that.

Uh, Kyle a little more loose with that.

You can follow him at Kyle Hilliard on Instagram, blue Sky and elsewhere.

Probably, Yeah, I upgraded.

I did get the I did the r L thing.

So I'm Kyle Hilliard dot com on Blue Sky now, oh cool, Okay, I should probably put a website there.

That's a thing you can do.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't have to have a Blue Sky thing.

We're Gaminformer dot com on Blue Sky.

That's our that's o.

Name I'm at.

It's Van Akin dot games on Blue Sky and it's Van Akin on Instagram.

Yeah, Marcus, welcome to the world.

The world would be the Internet.

Dot get a brand guy.

You can if you can purchase that u r L.

If you purchase it's really easy.

They walk you through Argus Stewart dot guy.

Yeah, you can make that problem available, although you want to buy it before this episode goes up in case people squat on it, you know, really hotly in demand r L.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, once again, thank you everybody for watching.

If you're on YouTube or listening on on major podcast platforms, we really appreciate you sticking around and hanging out with us today.

I hope you have a safe Fourth of July.

Don't jump over fireworks like I used to do when I was a teenager.

Don't don't do dumb stuff with fireworks.

It's bad.

Please don't burn your homes down because it always happens.

Don't.

Don't be one of those people.

It always happens.

Every time.

One of those people.

We better not see your name in the news.

Yes, please, yeah, be safe.

Have some good hot dogs.

If you're near a lake, jump in, have fun and we'll catch you next week.

Goodbye.