Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign welcome to the latest episode of It's His Game Shark. Today we're going to be talking about Game of the year for 2024. We have returning guests, doomed Prinny.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Hey hey.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: And Kerr 9000.
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Hi everyone.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: For those who have listened to previous years, there is a smaller cast of characters taking part. Well, I don't think cast of characters. We know random fake people that's been written.
But yeah, there's less of us this year. That's more me because I made plans to do it this weekend, forgot about it and thought it was next weekend and then forgot to ask more people to join. And one of the people I did ask to join, not naming any names, Jeff wouldn't. Wouldn't join cuz he's mean. It has nothing to do with the fact he said he hadn't played any games that was released in 2024. It's just that he's mean. It's a blast. Am I right? Pretty?
[00:01:14] Speaker B: What the word on the street is he's got a life and even I was surprised. So yeah, I don't believe that. I think he had a secret like.
Like football match. So yeah, you never know. Or you're just playing Rocket League without you and you didn't want to hurt your feelings. I think it's one of the two.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: No, he wouldn't play Rock League without me. He would play Rocket League with Rocket League with me to steal my goals. So then I feel even worse.
So how are you both doing this fine evening?
[00:01:44] Speaker C: Yeah, good, thanks. How are you doing?
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Yeah, not bad. Bit cold, bad snow. Within a few hours the snow was gone because of the rain. What about you, do you have snow?
[00:01:56] Speaker C: Yeah, we had a bit of snow.
Looked nice and white out the window for a tiny bit and then obviously the rain got rid of it all.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Yeah. What about you, Prinny?
[00:02:07] Speaker B: I had snow yesterday and had the pleasure of walking in it and this morning woke up all gone, which I'm quite grateful for because snow equals ice equals accident.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Yeah, yesterday we had, when it was snowing, we took the dog out for a walk because we take him out in the evenings and we wasn't sure exactly how long it would snow for. So when it started to sell, we're like, oh, we better take. Just in case it does fall heavy. And then within about an hour of coming back from taking him for his little walk, snow had practically gone from the rain that had started to pelt him down. I like snow.
Fun to throw it at people.
You doing well, Pretty?
[00:02:54] Speaker B: I'm good. I, I'm same really. I hate the cold. January, December are like the worst months of the year in my opinion.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: See, I don't hate the cold because of one simple reason. Right, well I'll get it. I'll say why cold weather. While it is a pain in the ass and you're cold, you can layer up for me. Hot weather is more of a problem because I can't get any more naked than the naked and then what am I meant to do to get cold? I'll like rip my flesh off.
[00:03:28] Speaker C: I could lay with about four fans.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Blowing and then your electric bill just goes.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: I was gonna say have an ice bath or move somewhere colder.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe. Well to be fair it's pretty cold anyway. Generally speaking most of the year, just those couple of months in between the cuz like I said, if it gets cold I'll just put on some extra claws, chuck on a blanket, be nice and warm under there. But when you get to somewhere, when it gets to hot weather, there's literally nothing I can do that doesn't cost me an arm and a leg. Especially with the day's electric prices. Am I right?
[00:04:06] Speaker B: You're literally the kind of person I hate because we have like two weeks of heat in the uk.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Oh, I'm miserable all weather though. I'm just like, I'll stay in the house and be happy. I, I, I rarely go outside the door unless I have to.
Doesn't bother me too much in that sense.
Should we get on with this then because we, well, we'll see how it goes. I would like to know. We'll start with Doompreney. What was the most disappointing game of the year for you of 2024? I should say.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: So there are a few big ones. I won't go into too much of a rant but one game that I watched many people on Twitch play was Outer Wilds 2 and it was just non eventful boring crap ending. I was so board. I'm grateful though that people I know played it because it stopped me from playing it.
And the funny thing is people are still playing it. I just don't get it and they know how bad it is but I think it's one of those things people playing it for the LS and to get other people to watch them because it's so bad. I don't know for the views. Right.
The other game which was awful as Forspoken. Have you played Forspoken?
[00:05:33] Speaker A: I haven't, I, I have it but I just haven't got around to it yet, which, you know, I'm not too bothered about.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: We'll get to at some point. Yeah, yeah. So it had a lot of hype for a female protag British as well. There's a lot of reasons why everyone in this chat right now would probably be like, oh, yeah, for spoken might be great. And no, there's a lot of swearing and not very good gameplay. It does look beautiful and it looks fancy, the main person's powers and stuff. And again, I've watched several people play it and I'm glad again, this, even more so than Outer Worlds too, was something that I probably would have really, really like to have played.
But no, it was saved. I saved a lot of money. But yeah, again, another, not so many very well, I don't know executed title, but could have been amazing.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember when that was first shown, it genuinely looked to me, it looked really good. I like the powers and all that kind of stuff. And I was like, yeah. And then I did eventually pick it up, but cheap like, because, you know.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: Let'S bear in mind as well, this was. This also came out from Square Enix, so big name and just really shockingly disappointing. Also the PR they did for this game. So on the contrary to Outer Worlds too, this was like the poster child for Square Enix. And even the PR kits I saw that came out were freaking fantastic, like getting jewelry from the game and this, that and the other. All these women were promoting this game and it was a pile of poop.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Next. Shame.
Any of this or just those two?
[00:07:16] Speaker B: No, I'm. I'm happy with, with those two. If anything else, horrendously like bad comes to mind. I'll interrupt the whole podcast and let you know.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Well, it doesn't have to be the worst game of the year, but the most disappointing.
What about you then, Kurt?
[00:07:37] Speaker C: Weirdly, the game that I think was sort of the most disappointing is one I ended up buying later because things like price relevant, I think as a full price thing, it was a disappointment. And that's the Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League.
Because I love comics in general and I think with the Suicide Squad movies and the Peacekeeper series, there's a lot of hype around the Suicide Squad in general.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: And the chance for great stories and different kinds of gameplay with the different characters and it was really prime up there. And then they were trying to turn it into like a season pass pay thing.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: Oh yeah. Live service game or game as a service.
[00:08:23] Speaker C: And I mean, I do play quite a bit of fortnight, so I'M not fundamentally against the idea of it, but I am against the idea of trying to charge full price for it, then sell deluxe models and then try and get people to pay coins later as well. I'm like, pick a lane. Is it a free game that you'll pay bits for or is it a full price game when you're trying to get full price and then season pass and then coins and then it just goes too far?
[00:08:56] Speaker A: No, I, I did play Fortnite. Not as much as I used to occasionally. And like, the service pass, the season pass stuff I'm not the biggest fan of anyway. I think it's a bit Connie. But to implement it into a game where you pull pay full price for as well is just shitty. It's even shittier than you know, because, you know, the whole thing of like season passes and battle passes is all about, you know, formal and getting people who can, who have issues with money spend their money, like, you know.
[00:09:35] Speaker C: Yeah. But I do think now the Suicide Squad game, it's ended up being like seven pound for the deluxe version on PlayStation and Xbox and PC.
And I think they've stripped some of the stuff back to make it a bit less, you know, pay, pay, pay.
So I've ended up buying it at £6.99 and if it had been either more story based in the first place or less money, it wouldn't have been such a disappointment.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Yeah, unfortunately, Warner Brothers, that's the thing as well. The, the. It's coming from a really, really good company like Rocksteady. They did obviously the three, the three Batman Arkham games you got, which are brilliant, which are great. I. My favorite is the first one, I will be honest, for me, it's 1, 2, 3, in that order. I didn't really play Origins, but that's not made by rocks, it's made by water Mother's Montreal. Yeah, not that that matters. It's not a point I was trying to make, but when it comes from a company that's made like three really good Batman games, like, oh, they made the Suicide Squad game, that's going to be really good. And then everything you hear about it like, I have gorge. I haven't played it yet again. So it's just disappointing to hear how negatively it was received because of the, the game as a service thing.
[00:11:06] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think Warner Brothers, I mean, this is straying into films and stuff a bit, but they're not as cohesive as Marvel because it's like if you want to watch your Marvel shows, you Get Disney plus. You watch everything. I don't know what you know about, like, Warner Brothers shows for the DC stuff, but it's all all over the place on different Netflix, the Amazon type viewing formats.
So I just think when it comes to everything with their, like, entertainment brand, be it games, films, they've not like fought through a real battle plan.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: No. It just seems like a bit scattershot. Bit like chuck everything at the wall and see which stick what sticks with them to me. But who knows?
[00:11:49] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. And I think in England we're suffering worse because it's like. I don't know if you've seen the trailers for that Creature Commando show. No, it looks amazing. It's a cartoon and it's like monsters like Frankenstein and stuff, but working for the government. A bit like the Suicide Squad.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: All right.
[00:12:07] Speaker C: But half of episodes are leaking on TikTok and they don't even know when it's going to be shown in England.
So we will have seen it all before we've got chance to proper see it in order.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's the problem with something. Just loads of random stuff gets stuck on things and then you're like, ah, spoilers ruined my life.
I may be exaggerating a bit there.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: Ruined by people wanting the views, man. It's always about the views.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
Anything else, Kir?
[00:12:40] Speaker C: No, I think that's the only one that really strikes me. But, like, it's less that game and it's a symptom of a whole, like, side of the marketplace at the moment.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: Yeah, well.
[00:12:51] Speaker C: And laying people off.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Yeah, well, look. Look at Concord. Look at Concord. It goes to show that going after, like, games of the service is not gonna work out. The game got cancelled. I think Lords got laid off as well.
[00:13:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: My most disappointing game of the year. It's one of the few I actually remember playing this year, which is surprising and it's stupid because I really like Dragon Ball Z, but playing Dragon Ball Spark in zero, I just. I just didn't click with it like I did the previous games. Like, I played Budokai 1, 2 and Budokai Tenkaichi 1, 2 and 3, which is what they were. The Sparking games were called in the UK many, many moons ago and I really enjoyed them. But going back to that style of game now with them, I'm kind of like, I couldn't. I just couldn't click with the controls when I was playing. I know I just fel off.
But to be honest, I much preferred last year, but 2023, I think that came out 2022. I can't remember really. And I prefer like Dragon Ball Fighters and the Budokai games, not the 10G games. The Budai games were like 2D fighting which it felt for me better than the big 3D battles. Which is surprising because you think, you know, it's Dragon Ball Z. You wanted to be epic and big scale fights. But I don't know, didn't feel as nice to play, you know. Any of you played Dragon Ball Spark in Zero?
[00:14:39] Speaker C: No.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: I have.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: You have. What do you think of it.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Miuka?
[00:14:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I see. I enjoyed 10k but barking 0 was just like.
[00:14:56] Speaker C: I've not played sparkling. I've only played the Dragon Ball Fighter Z in a limited amount which seems all right.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it's by ARC System Works I think. I think that's the company do Guilty Gear and stuff. So with that it'll be more combo focused and stuff. I think from what I remember playing of it, I wasn't particularly good at the game. I just. I was just doing the story get my ass kicked every now and again.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Well, I thought about. Which was interesting about Sparkling. When I tried it it was. They had every. Almost every single different version of every different character. I saw a minimum of 12 different versions of Goku. I'm sure they were actually more. But like I said it was a preview I was trying out and it was so for me I think it was a bit too much over excessive.
I didn't really see the benefit like of unlocking more stuff because it was like another version of another version of another version. Like oh, how many versions do you need to kick Vegeta's ass? And I'm. And there were many versions of Vegeta Gohan. I mean that's all great and. And fun but mechanic like playability wise like it didn't. It. It was great. It was good. It was like the previous ones but I didn't. I didn't see anything new. Just. It just looked very flashy. And I did like when you did a special move, it kind of went into a sort of like.
Like a seamless like cut scene almost like you're watching an anime. But actually it's. It's the game footage. The. The graphics were that good kind of thing though. It was. It was definitely very pretty to watch. And if you are a hardcore fan, you can make basically reenact your favorite episode in that with every character available.
Bit excessive. That's all for me because. Okay, fair enough. I do love a large roster like for Example Tekken Tag tournament. But they're 50 different people. They're not 50 different versions of one character.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: I think at the end of the day you're going to get bored quick. Yeah.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: That's what I liked about Budai before. If I remember correctly. Like Budakai 3 before the the Sparkin series, you'd have one Goku, one Vegeta. And they could just go to the different forms. I guess it's a bit more now. Like in there you had capsules and whatever capsule you had, it would let you go like oh, super saiyan, Super Saiyan 2 Super Saiyan 3 Super Saiyan 4. Because GT was a bit more of a thing at the time.
Whereas in this now it's like if you were to do capsules like that, it'd be Super Saiyan 12 Super Saiyan 3% God saying God. Super Saiyan Super Saiyan. Something else. Ultra Instinct.
Something else. I'm Ultra Instinct on them. Just too many.
There you go.
[00:18:03] Speaker C: I would like to see them do it in a fighter for Dragon Ball. Where. Cuz like some of the versions have got like limitations, haven't they? Like if they go Super Saiyan 2, they burn through their power quick and stuff like that. I'd like to see some where you can Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 2 and you might get stronger, but you get knackered quicker and stuff. You know what I mean? So you have to decide if it's worth it.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be interesting.
I wonder how they would work. Either When a fighting game, some form.
[00:18:37] Speaker C: Of stamina bar and it burns down quicker if you're in certain forms, I guess.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I think they do do similar kind of things where you like burn out your meter and then you'll be staggered for a little bit, but then you just charge up your key again after air and then you're right.
[00:18:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: To be fair, it's kind of how the Tournament of Power was. Bit of a rest. Feeling better?
We'll ask you what was your surprise of the year? What game surprised you?
[00:19:08] Speaker C: Probably the Karate Kid. Is it Street Rumble? The Walk Along Beat Them up one?
[00:19:15] Speaker A: I have no idea. I've not even heard of it.
[00:19:17] Speaker C: I never. It was a Karate Kid game and it only came out. Oh, that's it. Street Rumble, the Karate Kid. It's like a Walk along, Beat em Up, Streets of Rage, Turtles, Hyperstone Heist sort of game.
[00:19:32] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:19:32] Speaker C: And it just seemed to come out of nowhere. And it's pretty darn good.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: I haven't played it. I don't even. I don't think I've heard of it. May have, but I don't remember hearing of it.
[00:19:42] Speaker C: It's like a flat pixel. Nearly looks like it belongs to the SNES days sort of thing. 1 to 4 player and it goes through the Karate Kid 1 to 3 film in story, but you know, traveling from left to the right, punching people in the face. You can be Daniel LaRusso Miyagi.
I can't remember the two female characters. One's the Chinese lady from the second Karate Kid and the other one's the first Karate Kid. That's it.
But I wouldn't say it's the best, best game in the world. I'd say it's an 8 out of 10 thing, but it just seemed to come out of nowhere. I never knew it was coming. I didn't know I wanted it. And then bang.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: It's a shame. They could have actually timed it really well since they've released the trailers of the new Karate Kid movie.
And considering Cobra Kai's literally the recent season, I think came out maybe a month ago. But maybe it was just like poorly coordinated kind of thing because I think I saw a clip of it but I thought it was like fan based made. I didn't think it was anything official.
[00:20:54] Speaker C: It does look almost like it could be fan made because the graphics are clean but basic.
But it's one of those games that was like released 40 pounds and then like four weeks later it was in Argos for 17 quid.
So I think it's really not sold. But not from lack of being good but just from totally flying under most people's radar.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that happens in it. If you don't put enough money into marketing, like.
[00:21:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: Problem is you can put enough money into marketing and still sell badly and then you're buggered. You've lost a lot of money on marketing.
[00:21:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean I've seen that Rita's Rewind Power Rangers game everywhere. I knew that was coming and I didn't.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: That looks fantastic.
[00:21:45] Speaker C: Yeah, I thought it looked good, but then all I've seen is people complain about it. Apparently the hit detection's off and there's bits that are stupidly challenging and apparently it's, it's like a decent game but with so many flaws and mess ups that it holds it back from greatness. And everyone's saying like wait for it to come cheap or wait for it to get fixed.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I saw an update from the devs saying that they saw in there because they realized that some things were a bit off. So maybe they. They didn't realize quite how badly it was until after release. Or maybe they were pushed into just releasing there any fucking way.
[00:22:27] Speaker C: Yeah. A lot of people have said it wasn't play tested enough but there has been a lot of feedback from the devs where they've posted on various social media sites and they've like been friendly and instead like no, our game's amazing. They've been going like, oh, we recognize there's this flaw. There's that flaw. We'll try and work on it. We're sorry if it's disappointed. You know, there seems to be quite a bit of positive and the fans seem to been positive back, which is nice to see that sort of give and take.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is rare.
[00:22:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: What about you pry any. Any games surprise you this year?
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Oh, I think for me there's a few different quotas for most surprising game I have like surprising as in it's come out of nowhere, didn't know existed or I played it and I was surprised that I loved it. I think that's going to have to be metaphor.
So metaphor I was actually really expecting to hate. Now listen to me like before everyone comes at me, I'm not the biggest fan of Persona, specifically Persona 5, Persona 5 strikers. I was dreading met before coming out considering I love Atlas west and obviously Sega and they've done some of the best RPGs I think in the last few years.
When I played Metaphor, I was like this, it looks like Persona. But that what was. It was a red herring. Right. So yes, they got the same artist. Yes, they all kind of look the same. They even did the DLC that you can get them to wear uniforms from every single Persona. I was like, wow, they're really cashing in on the Persona card. Which I think was the best way to tackle it. They used the same music composer, but he arranged the music so differently. Again felt Persona ish. It would attract the older fans and it would attract new fans because it was completely different.
Buying Star. Wow is. It was different and I really liked it. It was really intuitive. So whatever you want to do, if you want to hit, if you want to use magic, you just press the recording button. It just does it. There's pretty much maybe two menus you can open up whilst you're fighting and that's for items and then different type of magics. Everything else defend, defend, no extra. You know, are you. Are you sure? Blah, blah, blah, blah. Nah, just get to it, mate. Can fast Forward it. Freaking love that from the get go.
There are some chatty bits. Obviously with RPG you were going to get that, but there's no pointless conversation. You're sitting around talking about food, the world, world's ending. Let's have a barbecue, guys. It's gritty, it's to. To the point people get murdered. It's fantastic. It's not what you think it is. So I really recommend anyone who's umming and aing about Metaphor because they're not into RPGs, they don't like Persona. Whatever your reason, just play the demo. The demo is like over what, 12 hours long. I longed it out, I did it. I did the demo in 20 hours only because I got horrendously lost in the two dungeons. But two dungeons, two bosses, you definitely going to get a feel for the game. If you hate the game, you're just going to turn it off. You like the game, you're going to purchase it fully and then carry on from the demo. Save file. So Metaphor did win, I think a few awards at the game Awards. Not as many as I expected, but enough to be noticed and recognized for not being a Sonic game, you know, or not being Persona or Shin Megami Tensai as its own standalone franchise. Which is fantastic.
So hopefully we can get more games like Metaphor two, Metaphor three or something like that. Or Metaphor Dance. You know, Sega love to do an offshoot dance game or. Or a fighting game, you know, why not, right? And it's. I don't know, there's something about it I really like. Even the cut scenes, the anime, the anime cutscenes. It's not just your regular like Persona ones. They've really like either spent a lot of budget or use some new techniques. I don't know what the ins and outs are. I'm not the techie person, but it just really wowed me. And again, another highlight. Mostly British voice actors. Again, what's going on here? There's a British takeover. It's great. Like we're having like local talent. It's fantastic. Right? It's not just Nolan north and Troy Baker. Yes. Move on, move on over. We've got other people here, so yeah, I would recommend everyone to try. Even if RPGs aren't your bag, I. It's not as long as Personas. So it's. It's not going to take you 200 hours. It will probably be 80 if you're a seasoned player. If you get lost like me, probably over 100 hours, sure. But it's good. It's good fun. The soundtracks kept me there because it's really out there and it's. It's kind of fun. A bit like how you would sit through Final Fantasy and you'll be like, oh, I love the music. You know, it grabs you.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Sounds really cool. I may have to have a look into it and I know Kerr's bigger RPGs played it as well.
[00:27:45] Speaker C: I've not played it, but I've looked at it. The only thing that didn't sell me is that I like playing RPGs on the Switch. If it had been on the switch, I'd have brought it by now.
[00:27:56] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Okay.
[00:27:59] Speaker C: I've been kind of waiting for it to hit sort of 15 pound in Argos or Amazon territory, which sounds bad, but, you know, there's only so much time in the day and I've only recently started Ni no Cooney again.
I'm about 12 hours into that. And then I started Kakarot and I'm about three hours into that.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: How many games, man?
[00:28:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I'd probably be further into Kakarot, but because I'm playing Kakarot on the Xbox and Ni no Kuni on the Switch, it's so easy to pick your Switch up and just have 30 minutes on something and those 30 minutes soon build up into hours.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I only play my Switch docked, so to me, it makes no difference which console I play in that respect.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:28:51] Speaker C: My Switch is purely handheld. I think it's only sat in the dock about three times in. Was it nearly eight years? The switch has been about something like.
[00:28:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I have never docked mine. I lost my dock as soon as I got it. So there is no option for me.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: I always play. I always play it on the TV because. Why not?
I just prefer it.
Okay, then, Prini, what was the worst game you played this year? 2024.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: Yeah, this might surprise people, but there's a. Yes, it would have to actually be Sonic Frontiers. I can't believe I'm saying this. I feel bad. I love Sega. At the same time, I love this Sega RPGs. But Sonic Frontiers just devastated me. I really wanted to like it.
It's something about Sonic and 3D games that just don't gel. Or it's just me who doesn't gel with them. But I. I think I. I think I was immensely bored within the first five hours. And then 10 hours in, I just kept getting again, I didn't know how to progress the story, so there were things I should be doing, but I didn't know what to do. And then I was too busy repeating certain bits because I kept wandering around and around around trying to find what the next progression point was. And I was just making myself motion sick because it's really obviously. So yeah, I actually finish it and I dropped it and I'm surprised, but apparently I'm not the only one who felt a bit disappointed with Sonic Frontiers.
[00:30:54] Speaker A: See, I went into Frontiers expecting it to be pretty shitty because most Sonic 3D games are pretty shitty. They're not all they are some decent ones.
But I think because I went in there expecting something crap, I actually enjoyed it more than I expected.
I, I, I think the Overworld was like, even though there's a lot better open world games there, I enjoyed the Overworld more than I did the levels because the levels from my memory was the same. Three levels repeated. Obviously like the layouts are different, but it was this, it was like Green Hill Zone repeated and I know Chemical Plant and that was about it. Like there may have been one or two more, but that's what most of the levels were. And I was just like, same level again, let's do a.
[00:31:53] Speaker B: See. I wanted to like it. I, I would like to partially blame in my skill level on this. I feel like if I was better at jumping and acrobatics, probably I would have got through the game. Be like, oh, this is okay. But yeah, that's how it is.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Yeah. No, I can understand it's not going to be for everyone and it's not exactly the best game, but it's kind of like for me it was all right.
Especially looking back, there's like, yeah, I enjoyed the open world bits. They're not the best open world stuff I've played, but I'm not a massive open world fan, so it's surprising for me enjoy the open world more than the normal stages.
What about you, Kir? What was the worst game you played this year?
[00:32:40] Speaker C: To admit, in case anybody loves it, that I didn't play it a lot. I just bumped off it quite quick. But Skull and Bones.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: Oh, Skull and Bones. That looked so cool before when they first announced, it was like, oh, this is the part of Assassin's Creed Black Flag that everyone loves. And then it took about 20 years to come out. I'm from the sunset. They fucked here as well.
[00:33:01] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's the thing. It seemed like such an easy formula. Take the good bit.
I'm not saying that any of Assassin's Creed 4 was bad because I love Assassin's Creed 4. It's the first Assassin's Creed, I actually saw through to the credits and did all the DLC on. But, you know, take the best of that game and spin it into a game of its own and add more and it sounds like an easy recipe for win, win, win. And it just, you know, an hour of it and I was like, I'm gonna turn it off and play Assassin's Creed 4 again.
[00:33:33] Speaker B: What was it? Was it because it was stale, it felt the same, or what were there things that just failed?
[00:33:39] Speaker C: It just feels like a worse version. And it strangely, if you were to give the two games to somebody who didn't know when they came from, you'd think Assassin's Creed 4 was newer.
It just feels a better, more well packaged game.
I do have to admit that I did bounce off it really fast. So I'm sure somebody would tell me, oh, well, if you'd stuck with this or done that or.
But life's short in it. And there's so many games that if you don't sign a gel with them straight away, sometimes you do just think, I've got other stuff to do.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:34:23] Speaker C: And it just totally failed to grab me. And it's like you said with the.
It's how you feel going into it, the level of hype or expectation.
And there was a lot of hype and expectation for this. So when it wasn't like the second Coming, it kind of fell off a cliff. Whereas if you go into something going, oh, this is probably gonna suck, sometimes that helps you enjoy it because you've gone in low. And I think I went in high with this and it just didn't grab me.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: Which is a shame. But at the end of the day, I don't know from the sounds of it, from what I've heard, like, it's just. They just didn't do a good job. As you just said, it seems like it's an older game than that part of Assassin's Creed 4. So well done on it up. Yes, well done on up. Something easy. Well, not easy, but you know something that you've already already established companies, man. I don't get them right. Dancer. We shall now move on to the game of the year. Okay, I'll ask who. What was Your game of 2024?
[00:35:41] Speaker C: My absolute favorite game of 2024, and I'm pretty sure it came very early in the year. Is like a dragon. Infinite Wealth.
[00:35:50] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:35:52] Speaker C: I love it. It's just.
It's a brilliant rpg. It's got a sense of humor.
There's a whole Entire animal crossing rip off built inside it. Which is pretty funny really. And there's an entire Pokemon rip off built inside it.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: Nice.
You catch Tom Nook?
[00:36:14] Speaker C: No.
Have you played the one before? Like a dragon in Yakuza? Like a dragon.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: I haven't. I've only played Zero and I didn't even finish it. Not because it was bad. At the time I was playing Zero, Octopath, Traveler and a few other games that were also quite large. And I was just at every single one of those games I stopped playing. Think it was just too much at once.
[00:36:40] Speaker C: The thing that for me drives both Yakuza like a dragon and like a dragon Infinite wealth is the main character of Ichiban Kazuya.
And he's just this kind hearted nerdy dweeb who is so obsessed with doing the right thing, but he's also obsessed with video games.
And I just find him a very, very relatable character and quite different to the characters in a lot of other games. And you just want to see what goes on with him and where his story leads.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: That's fair enough.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: And he's got fantastic hair. Don't forget the hair.
[00:37:28] Speaker C: Oh yeah, he's got amazing hair.
Any time in the game where they've flattened his hair out to smarten him down. No, bring it back.
[00:37:41] Speaker A: I am plead them. I'd like to get around to them at some point.
[00:37:46] Speaker C: They're crazy emotional as well because there's parts in them where you're absolutely laughing your pants off and then the next minute it's talking about somebody dying or something. And it does bring a tear to your eye.
[00:37:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Just like I've only played some of Zero, like a few hours of zero. I can't, I can't say exactly how much. And, and the, the game was like one minute it was super serious, the next minute it was super bonkers. It was fucking great, to be honest.
[00:38:13] Speaker C: I would say.
Although that's my game of the year, I did think that the Prince of Persia game that came out was pretty darn outstanding as well.
Yeah. In another year where there hadn't been Infinite wealth, it could have taken it for me.
[00:38:34] Speaker A: That's fair.
I haven't played that either. I gotta be honest, this year I've been fucking really bad keeping on top of things. I'm bad all the time. But this year I've been worse.
[00:38:45] Speaker C: My problem is I play so much retro stuff. I should be playing something new. And I'm playing Alien Storm for the nine millionth time or going through game grand or Summer.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: Sometimes it's nice though to just sit down, play something you're familiar with and something that doesn't take long to get through, you know.
[00:39:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: Pretty. What was the game of 2024 for yourself?
[00:39:10] Speaker B: So the trouble is, right if you play something early and then you play something else later on, it kind of overshadows it.
Same way Kurt was talking about Prince of Persia. I actually forgot that came out last year. It came really early on and so did Infinite wealth and there were so many good ins but one game that really stand out. And I would say all my different wrap ups on Twitch, PlayStation and Switch will corroborate this. But my game of the year was for sure Unicorn Overlord. And again def. I'm sure you haven't heard of of it.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: Have you heard of it? I've been in your stream. I've been in your streams when you've been playing Unicorn Overlord.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: Okay, so for anyone else who is like what the heck is this game? It is actually a lesser known title from again Atlas west and Sega.
I've played a lot of JRPGs this year but for some reason Unicorn Overlord just stole the show. And the reason why I say it's definitely my game of the year because from when I started it, I carried on playing it throughout the year. So it didn't matter what other games I jumped to or completed. Unicorn Overlord was always my reserve. Like I had to play it once a week. I was playing it offline. I was doing dailies as soon as I realized dailies was a thing in the game and I was staggering it. So I didn't get burnout. So I was always looking forward to it. And with Vanillaware doing the mechanics and the graphics, it was beautiful to see and it was tactical rpg. I haven't played a good tactical since probably Final Fantasy Tactics, which was years ago. I've been told there's a few other games similar in gameplay but not quite like Unicorn Overlord and I've just been hooked to to it basically. The music's amazing. It's over the top fantasy.
There's I would say I'm trying to do quick maths in my head about 50 playable characters with different class types. So we're talking warrior, archer, elf, gunslinger, like all different types and then figuring out weaknesses, strengths and things like that. And they've all got their own voice actor and all the voice actors are mixed. So famous voice actors from animes to like British ones, like a whole lovely array of them and it's so popular In America. Right. They actually do like just bespoke meats just so you can meet the Unicorn Overlord costs and get signings and stuff. But it just hasn't reached anywhere else outside of America. The. The fame or the popularity like to say. I mean don't get me wrong, I know people are playing it. They. They have hit over a million sold copies. Only difference is metaphor did it on the first day. Unicorn Overlord took took, you know, many months to get there. You know. Yeah, I think a lot of people warming up to it because it is vastly different from like for example, your turn based like Final Fantasy or like Yakuza, like a dragon, that kind of stuff. So this is very, very different. I even. I would even compare some of part of the gameplay a little bit like Clover Dire Field which came from Square Enix, but not quite. And I still prefer Unicorn Overlord. Just everything about it is addictive. Like to even buying equipment, doing side quests, getting on the story and like you can. You've actually got option like which areas to liberate at whatever time you want to. And you can just skip bits and like run around it and do other areas instead. So you're not kind of tied into a linear story.
So that was definitely my highlight. I'm still playing it that I was that committed. And that's the funny thing because Pez was saying that he's been lurking in my streams. A lot of people are like, we don't actually know how you're playing this game. Like we don't understand. So I have to like set commands in and then the AI plays out the fight. And that's where you see all the characters, you know, the beautiful artwork, you know, hitting each other and. And this, that and the other or having a conversation.
So I started another playthrough on the switch and where I've done long commutes and stuff. I just get lost and immersed in it and it just makes me happy. And that's why care you keep going back to retro games. Sometimes you just want to get lost in happiness. Like this is my happy game. And I would say it's my comfy game. Other people look at it going, we don't know how the hell like. But then that's how I feel about these games versus like Sonic and stuff like that. I feel like, oh no, this is too hard for me. Like oh, I have to think to get the. That jump perfect or to swing in Crash four, you know, to do all these different bits and pieces. Whereas the. The tactical stuff Oh, I love it. And. And it's second nature to me because I played so many of the tactical games back on SEGA Saturn. So for me, it's like, yeah, I just don't even think twice.
So I think I liked that. This has really challenged me, and it's really opened up, like, a. A massive passion for me that I haven't played for years. So maybe that's why I'm obsessed over it. Whereas a lot of people still have yet to play it or even have heard of it again. That's Sega's fault for not advertising it too much. But hey, they don't need to. I mean, it made enough money, and fingers crossed they will do a sequel, hopefully. Please, please, please, please, please. And it's quite a contrast. Whereas Persona, you're only allowed to romance a certain bunch of characters. Whereas Unicorn Overlord, you can marry. Romance. Anyone, any gender, any.
What's the word?
They can be beastual, they can be human, it can be whatever. And I think that's just hilarious. It's just.
[00:45:08] Speaker A: Any species.
[00:45:09] Speaker B: Yes, species. That's it. So I'm just like. It's interesting how they basically got Free Roam to do whatever they wanted compared to different ips, which was jokes. And I think that's also another reason why a lot of people replay it, to get different endings, see the different romancing partners, as you would have done in, like, Persona.
[00:45:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: And thank you for attending my TED Talk on Unicorn Overlord. Please go play it.
[00:45:35] Speaker C: I actually own it. I've got it. But it's still sealed in cellophane.
[00:45:39] Speaker B: Okay, play it, play it, play it, play it, play it.
[00:45:43] Speaker C: I got that.
[00:45:46] Speaker B: Go on.
[00:45:47] Speaker C: And I got Persona Tactica. Oh, there's another couple of games I've got that I just figured might have become a pain in the butt to get later. And I saw them at good prices, and I. I have looked at it several times because isn't it them that did that? 13 sentinels as well?
[00:46:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Vanilla Ware. Yes.
[00:46:04] Speaker C: Yeah, I've got that. And that was a real pig to get.
So when I saw Unicorn Overload and get it dead easy at a good price, I was like, well, I don't want it to end up like 13 sentinels, where it's like a big odyssey just to get a hold of a copy of it.
[00:46:21] Speaker B: Hopefully 10 years time, you'll play it. And I hope you love it.
[00:46:25] Speaker C: I'm sure I will. I'm big on Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy tactics and that sort of stuff. So it does look sort of down my street.
[00:46:36] Speaker A: I bet you you guess. Guys will never guess. My easily predictable.
Probably the one of the more popular games. That is my game of the year for 2024.
[00:46:49] Speaker B: The most recent.
I was gonna say Fallout.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: No, it's Astrobot. It's really loved Astrobot. It was awesome.
You know what? When you say it can compete with like the 3D Mario games, you know you're onto a good platform.
Unlike Sonic.
[00:47:13] Speaker B: I mean, let's be fair, it did win game of the year amongst a lot of other awards.
[00:47:19] Speaker A: Exactly. That's what I mean.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: Surprised by it. But this is the thing, right? I haven't played it. I've watched people play it and I don't get why it won't go with it. But a lot of people explain to me anyone can play it. People playing it with their families and things like that. And I, like you said, it's. It compares to like a Mario party kind of game.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: Well, I would say it compares to more of traditional 3D Mario games like Odyssey Galaxy is a perfect example where you're going around different galaxies doing different levels and that sort of thing.
But it is a joy to play. If you haven't played it, you really should because it's not just like, that's an all right game. This is genuinely awesome. The music is really good. There's funny bits in there. There's a lot of collectibles and stuff. But most that is like other robots that look like characters from other thorny ips, mostly Sony ips. Anyway, like at some point you. You come across Spyro and you'll have a Spyro robot running around your little area and things like that, which is pretty cool.
I. I genuinely think if you. If you like 3D platformers at all and you picked this up and you didn't like it, then I would say that 3D platforming isn't for you because it is. It is just genuinely really good. Looks lovely too. Plays great. Little power ups are also really fun. There's quite a few. Like one of them is a simple chicken and you like press the right trigger and it shakes a bit and then it's like shoots out an egg and you go flying up in the air. Wonderful stuff.
Who doesn't love an egg being shot out of a chicken's ass?
[00:49:14] Speaker B: Exactly.
And the fact that you have so many different skins, it's. It's so cute.
[00:49:20] Speaker A: It is. When I was playing it the other day, I was running around as a cow.
But then I did the Christmas level and I was running around as Santa.
Oh, that was fun.
[00:49:32] Speaker C: Is it connected in any way to Little Big Planet? Because it's made me think of that when I've seen it.
[00:49:37] Speaker A: No, it's not. It does kind of have that Sack Boy.
It doesn't look like Sackboy, but it kind of reminds me of Sackboy because obviously Sack Boy is a knitted plushie, basically, whereas Astrobot's a little robot.
I'm kind of charm, I guess. I really like Little Pig, Little Pig Planet, Little Big Planets, Little Pig Plan. It's a very different game.
Yeah, I'll be completely honest. Like, I've done a review for Astro Bot. I've talked about it in like, a blog post.
I just. I just loved the entire game. It's just so much fun. And the little bonus levels at the end of each galaxy is really cool. You go through, like, different games that were Sony have made. So one example is like Uncharted, and then you'd be running around with like a gun shooting things, but it's.
It's kind of more like a softball kind of gun, not an actual gun and things like that. It's really fun. I think that's the thing is because I've been. I've enjoyed it so much, I cannot give it Game of the Year. And I know it's. It's like an extremely popular opinion of it. It is great, and that's why it's won so many awards. But I. I don't mind conforming when it comes to this.
When it comes to this particular thing.
But yeah, it's just.
It's a very enjoyable game. That's. That's the. That's just all it is. Awesome, awesome fun.
You should definitely play it. If You've got a PlayStation 5.
Play it.
[00:51:33] Speaker B: Yeah, no, a lot of my friends are telling me to just play it. So I will wait for it to be reduced in the sale and I'll probably jump on it for funsies.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: Funnily enough, it's not my favorite Astrobot game, though.
Favorite Astrobot game is the one on the PlayStation 4 because it's Astrobot VR Rescue Mission. And it is fantastic as well. The VR really is the first. Well, I played a few VR games and that one I was like, oh, my God, this is VR is amazing. When I was playing that, and from what I heard, to get that experience now you need to play Half Life Alex, which I now own. But I haven't got really. I haven't got VR for PC yet, but my kid got Quest and I think that will work with her. So I'M gonna. I'm gonna steal that, aren't I? A bastard.
Why not? Now is. We can. We can wrap up here then. As we've talked about.
Likes and dislikes of 2024, is there anything you guys would like to add about? Anything at all?
[00:52:47] Speaker C: Not that I can think of, no.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: I think we covered everything.
[00:52:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
Best game, Astropart. There you go. We all agreed, I think. I guess I'm the only one who's played. Of the three of us, then.
[00:53:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:53:05] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:53:06] Speaker A: Wrong.
[00:53:07] Speaker C: I'm an Xbox Switch owner. I don't have a PS5.
[00:53:11] Speaker A: Because you need to get a PS5 for Astrobot.
All right, then. Well, that is gonna be us. I would like to say thank you both for taking part again this year. Next year, you never know. We might have more people on. We might have the same people on. We just don't know what's gonna happen.
But either way, we'll all have fun chatting basically about games.
So thank you again.
[00:53:41] Speaker C: Thanks for having me.
[00:53:44] Speaker B: Thanks for being awesome, Pen.
[00:53:48] Speaker A: Oh, that's very kind of you. Never known I was awesome. No one's ever said it before.
I like acting daft. Right. That is us.
See you very soon. We'll be back in a couple of weeks, hopefully. It depends. I do have a game that I'm in the middle of playing to talk about. Hopefully we'll get to that at some point soon.
Bye. Bye, TK and see you soon.
[00:54:19] Speaker C: See ya.
[00:54:21] Speaker A: Bye.
Also, check out Sonic 3. The film is really good.
[00:54:25] Speaker B: Bye.
