Episode 1: 2023 TGA Nominees

In the debut episode of Digital Downtime, we discuss the 2023 nominees for the game awards, with an in-depth conversation about the GOTY nominees. In the " Did you play this?" segment, we talk about Spawn: Armageddon, a hidden-gem hack-and-slash game from the PS2 era.

Episode Transcript

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What's up everybody, welcome to the very first episode of Digital Downtime, the podcast that

(00:08):
talks everything gaming.
My name is Prince Gill aka Gillie aka a bunch of other nicknames.
I've been gaming since I was about two or three years old.
Currently I'm 29 so yeah we've been gaming for a little while so I decided hey why not
make a podcast about it.
Today's very first episode we'll be discussing the Game Award nominees for 2023.

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Which games deserved it, which games didn't deserve it, which games got omitted.
Obviously the bigger focus is going to be on the Game of the Year nominees so we'll
have a thorough discussion about that.
Following that we will have a segment called Have You Played This?
In this segment which will be every week we will be exploring games that are hidden gems,

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diamonds in the rough sort of thing.
So stay tuned for that but I hope you sit back, relax and enjoy and thank you for joining
me on my very first episode.

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Alright, Game of the Year 2023.
Jeff Keighley and his committee team obviously had the work cut out for them this year.
What a year!
And if you're not on board with that as a gamer you're clearly not expanding your horizons

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trying different things out.
Maybe on a single console.
But whatever the case might be, it's been a wild year.
So the six games that were chosen.
Alan Wake 2 by Remedy, Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Studios, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Insomniac

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Games, Resident Evil 4 Capcom, and then Super Mario Bros. Wonder and The Legend of Zelda
Tears of the Kingdom, both by Nintendo.
First off, let's start with Alan Wake 2.
When this game's release date got announced I told people that Alan Wake 2 is going to

(02:34):
be a Game of the Year type of game.
People were like nah man, Remedy is the first time the survival horror, the year is too
stacked, blah blah blah.
Why didn't I tell y'all motherfuckers man?
Listen, Remedy has been doing their thing for a while.
Their last game Control was also nominated for Game of the Year back in 2019.

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Quantum Break was an interesting game, still had some interesting ideas.
Obviously the original Alan Wake, we have Max Payne 1 and 2.
Remedy knows what they're doing man.
From what I've seen and heard about the game, I have not personally played it yet, but to
me Game of the Year is sort of something that pushes the medium forward.

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And Alan Wake 2 from a storytelling perspective seems exactly that, in terms of blending real
life cinematography with in-game cutscenes, with the narrative between both perspectives
between the cop and Alan Wake himself.
I think it provides some very interesting narrating and obviously I saw the iconic scene,

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that's about the only spoiler I got from the game, with the music set piece, I'm going
to keep it at that.
And obviously the gameplay, very current RE2 remake forward kind of survival horror over
the shoulder third person type.
But it looks good, you know obviously it sounds good, the storytelling is on another level,

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so I'm not surprised Alan Wake 2 is nominated.
And honestly it's one of my bets to win, I doubt it will, but out of these 6 games I
have 3 bets, Alan Wake 2 is one of them.
So I'll make sure to get to play it soon, I know on PC it's only on the Epic Games store
since they published it, but there's also a reduced digital price compared to consoles.

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And I just recently upgraded my rig, so we'll be picking this up very soon and then I'll
have my full thoughts on it on a later episode.
Secondly we have Baldur's Gate 3, which I'm going to say now is probably the undisputed
game of the year, if anything is going to win it from these listed games it's going
to be Baldur's Gate 3.
The thing about Baldur's Gate 3, like I mentioned, game of the year being something that pushes

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the medium forward, CRPGs are obviously RPGs that have been around for a while, since the
90s and what not, it's definitely a genre that has a lot of love and passion behind
it, dedicated fan base.
And I don't think the critical reception of Baldur's Gate 3 surprised anyone, because
if you know Alarian Studios, if you played Divinity Original Sin 1 or 2, you know what

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they're capable of and what not.
And if you know anything about Baldur's Gate, obviously Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, shout out
to Bioware in their prime days, it's a renowned RPG.
And Baldur's Gate 3 is no different, probably have the best CRPG developer in the game getting
the Baldur's Gate license and look what they got.

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So the critical reception doesn't surprise me, what did surprise me is the amount of
players that actually play this.
The Steam charts went crazy, I don't have the numbers in front of me right now, but
I swear it was close to about half a million concurrent players for this game around release
date or that first week.
You know you guys can obviously fact check me and prove me wrong, but the amount of players

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was surprising and I'm glad they got that many amount of players because obviously CRPGs
and just RPGs in general deserve a lot of love.
And the amount of love and passion the team put behind this game, the amount of polish,
the amount of care, the amount of attention, detail, the gameplay that makes you think,

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all these intricate stories and pathways you can take.
Like Alan Wake 2, this isn't a game I haven't been able to get a chance to play yet.
If I want to be honest, I know this might ruin my credibility a bit, but the only game
I actually have played on this list is Tears of the Kingdom, so when we get to that we'll
talk about that in more detail.
But rest assured you I'll be playing all these games, I have a PC, I have a Switch and I

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have a PS5, so we'll get to it, just give me time please.
But Baldur's Gate 3, if anything is going to win it, definitely them.
And it's a big achievement what Larian Studios have accomplished because they're self-published,
self-developed, technically they're not AAA developer even, so I'm surprised Baldur's

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Gate 3 isn't nominated for Best Independent Game.
We'll get to that category in a bit though.
If anything is going to win it, it's that I think, or I hope so.
Third game on the list, Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
To me this is a game I was supposed to get day one, no brainer, but after seeing more

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about it obviously I held off for a bit and I think I will still get it soon.
I don't see the game coming down for any Black Friday deals or Boxing Day deals here in Canada,
maybe it will and I would be surprised.
Just the only reason I didn't get it day one is just because obviously it's very similar
to the first game, but before you come attacking my throat, obviously Sequel is built upon the

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original.
But they took the original Spider-Man game and they took Miles Morales and they kind
of meshed it together.
Obviously we have an expanded New York which means it's the previous map it expanded upon,
right?
Correct me if I'm wrong, they added Brooklyn and a few other districts, yes.

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But obviously Insomniac games are Sony, Playstation's heavy hand right now.
You know if you look at what they've done for the PS5 so far, they obviously did the
Spider-Man remastered and Miles Morales and they did Ratchet and Clank and man, Ratchet

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and Clank Rift Apart, sorry I'll pull up the name here but you know what I'm talking about,
such a phenomenal game, it is Rift Apart so I was right.
Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart was so amazing and I did enjoy Miles Morales as well and
I played the original Spider-Man on PS4.

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But nevertheless Insomniac games have been able to master this PS5 hardware, PS4 hardware,
I mean they've been just mastering Playstation for a long time now and obviously they deserve
everything they get to them.
Obviously if you love this game you love it, if you're going to hate on it because it's
being too similar you're going to hate on it.
But nevertheless they expanded upon what made the original Spider-Man Miles Morales great

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and they made this kick-ass superhero game.
Obviously the web singing around the city is the most fun part, the most unique part
about these games, the fluidity of it all, the fact that it's smooth, it's stable, it's
60 frames, you can switch between the protagonists whenever you want which I think is super cool

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on the fly.
Obviously some of the missions are missions specific to either Peter or Miles but regardless
it's just a huge love project.
Obviously any fan of the Spider-Man or superhero games or any fan of the Batman Arkham games
is going to enjoy this.
So huge shout out to Insomniac for keep doing what they're doing for being Playstation's

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main dev really, just keep pushing these things out.
I'm excited for them that their next game is going to be The Wolverine because we will
be getting another Marvel game produced by Insomniac Games but it'll be something different
and it'll be interesting to see how they tackle Wolverine compared to Spider-Man but everything
they've been doing with Spider-Man is obviously they've been nailing out the park.

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So glad to see it, just don't think it's going to win it.
Next we have Resident Evil 4 by Capcom and the immediate response I saw to this on Twitter
or X sorry and you know how gamers go is saying our remakes don't deserve to be Game of the
Year contenders.
And that's kind of an interesting conversation to have because I think remakes very well

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so can be Game of the Year contenders depending on how much they uplift the game.
And I argued this back even in 2019 when Resident Evil 2 remake didn't get nominated and the
reason I reference back to Resident Evil 2 remake is because I felt like that was the
remake to create the blueprint for future remakes because they didn't just like touch

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up the graphics and release it like how Capcom did RE1.
They took RE2, they gave it this crazy visual overall as expected because RE Engine is nuts
but they completely changed the way the game plays.
They made it over the shoulder, third person and everything from just the visual design

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to the audio design to all the cutscenes redone and the voice acting and just the atmosphere
of it.
Games we played through was Claire and Leon and then you play as the little girl I'm forgetting
your name in Claire's part and then Ada during Leon's playthrough and then all that added

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together I think was kind of the blueprint of like okay this is how you're supposed to
remake a game.
It's almost like a reimagining right?
And obviously they dropped the ball a bit when they did the RE3 one but I think with
RE4 they did it again where the game just feels so fresh and brand new and obviously
the original RE4 is such a legendary title and it's such an influential title not just

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a survival horror but just a third person genre in general with what the game was for
that time era back in 05 and I always argued that Resident Evil 4 and then Gears of War
in 2006 following it both games are detrimental to the third person shooter genre and I'll

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always stand by that.
So I think very much so it deserves to be the nod here.
Obviously we're going to discuss about games that got omitted that some people thought
maybe should have took place of it right?
But like I said in terms of pushing the medium forward you took it already classic and added
more to it modernized it and this is a result you get and obviously you know it started

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off 2023 with the Big Bang.
We had RE4 and rightfully so the Dead Space remake as well obviously another great one
kind of kickstart off the year so those are my thoughts on that.
Like again I don't think this is one of my picks like I said to win so far to Alien Wake
2 and Baldur's Gate 3 but nevertheless I think the conversation for remakes should

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be there you know and when they actually you know try to reimagine or reinvent the game.
Obviously the discussions to be had with like how Naughty Dog remade Last of Us 1 and I
heard reports today that they're remaking Last of Us 2 for the PS5 but I think I'm going
to share that Naughty Dog conversation for a future episode because I have a lot to say

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about them I really do.
Coming from someone who highly respects them and you know think you know that's why I keep
referring to Insomniac as PlayStation's main powerhouse now because I don't think it's
Naughty Dog anymore just in terms of what they've been outputting for the PS5 as of
late but like I said it's a conversation for another episode but RE4 deserves to be here

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for sure.
And then the last two games on the list are both Nintendo and it doesn't surprise me the
first one is Super Mario Bros. Wonder and I'll be picking this up soon I think you know
Nintendo offers those little voucher things where you can you know get two games for like
whatever the price is the Canadian obviously is cheaper than like 80 bucks each or whatever

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the case may be.
I think I'm going to be using it last time I used it I got to the Kingdom in Xenoblade
Chronicles I think I'm going to pick up another voucher and pick up Super Mario Bros. Wonder
and the Super Mario RPG remake that just came out but nevertheless that's not talking about
Super Mario Bros. Wonder being a Game of the Year nominee.

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Everything I've seen about this game looks magnificent fantastic obviously 2D Mario games
were kind of not reinventing the wheel or becoming too same-sy for the past decade obviously
on the 3D front I thought Odyssey is possibly maybe the best 3D Mario game obviously that's
going to spike a lot of conversations because obviously you know the beloved one is obviously

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going to be Mario 64 there's you know obviously Galaxy 1 and 2 that are also great not great
fantastic to be to be frank but I thought Odyssey was really special it's kind of ironic
to me because in 2017 you know you had both Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild nominated
for Game of the Year and now you fast forward to 2023 now we have another Mario game a 2D

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platformer this time and Legend of Zelda Kingdom nominated so that was the Switch's first year
in 2017 and then now six years later if Nintendo is planning to release new hardware for 2024
they're definitely going out 2023 with the bang and I think I think what makes Super

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Mario Bros. Wonder super cool is obviously the level design is top-notch as you expect
from Nintendo in a 2D Mario game but it's the wonder modes right when the game goes
like on a LSD trip and the fact that they add new power-ups such as like you know becoming
an elephant and whatnot I think it's just little things Nintendo always does with these

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long-lasting franchises whether it be Zelda or be Mario or be like Metroid or you know
Mario car you know obviously these are long long long running franchises but these little
things that they do and I think they they experimented enough with this game to finally
make something that pushed the medium forward that pushed 2D Mario to something new and

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then obviously I think they took a note from Celeste's handbook you know how Celeste had
like ABC sides I know this game has something similar where there's like tougher challenges
tougher variations of same levels and whatnot so obviously there's always going to be room
for casual gamer to play 2D Mario but there's enough here for a hardcore gamer who really

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wants that you know platforming challenge here to be accessible and as much as I love
3D platformers I think 2D platforming really offers that challenge long as you have the
level design to back it up to really make things challenging and make things very satisfying
you know Celeste was the same way very satisfying to beat those levels and I know while Cuphead

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is more like a running gun 2D platformer still it's just because it's in that 2D kind of
space it just makes them completing them so much better so shout out to Nintendo for doing
something crazy with the 2D Mario franchise and doing something in the past decade to
really push it forward so another well-deserved one I think and that brings us to Legend of

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Zelda 2 is the Kingdom now as much as praise I gave to wonder you know I still need to
play it my third pick is gonna go to Legend of Zelda 2 is the Kingdom so we have Alan
Wake 2 Baldur's Gate 3 and 2 is the Kingdom and out of those three I think it's gonna
be Baldur's Gate 3 we'll see the reason I gave it to 2 is the Kingdom because how should
I describe 2 is the Kingdom 2 is the Kingdom is like once you play 2 is the Kingdom it's

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so hard to go back to Breath of the Wild but at the same time if you played Breath of the
Wild you've kind of played 2 is the Kingdom and I know that doesn't make a lot of sense
but hear me out so 2 is the Kingdom is like Breath of the Wild but with every quality
of life upgrade you would want to the gameplay now in terms of visuals I'm gonna be straight

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up here I don't think much has really changed since Breath of the Wild and obviously you
know the switch hardware is outdated doesn't mean the game looks bad or anything it's just
in terms of the graphic impression and how the world looks and obviously the frames and
how they can dip and obviously it's not steady 30 and whatnot very similar to Breath of the

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Wild obviously the music and whatnot very similar as well but what makes here the Kingdom
a better better game or like you know a sequel supposed to improve on the previous game so
what it improves on is Breath of the Wild it's just the gameplay and the creativity of the
gameplay is what I think stands sets stands sets here the kingdom above it because without

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that creativity this game would not have done well because it's too similar to Breath of
the Wild in terms of the grand scheme of things you know in terms of story you know this time
you get four traditional temples instead of you know the four divine beasts thank God
for that but you know still like each element you got to bring down then you got to fight
Ganon and etc etc right you get the drift but the fact that you can use these abilities

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to fuse any weapon you want fuse do all these wild combinations put together put together
pieces so you can go from point a to point b put together things so you can like you
know do a shrine put together things so you can traverse this huge open world and every
player might do it differently man to cross a river you know you might build a raft with

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just like a rock and just ship over there or you might build the intricate raft you
know raft with some fans on it you know you might even just like shoot yourself up somehow
and just like glide over like you know I mean the the creativity is endless there and you
know obviously use all these abilities right whether it's like recall or it's fuse or

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it's ultra hand or it's the I think it's called up people I forget I'm writing the name of
where you can like jump through the port through the walls by looking up right so like that
makes vertical traversing so much better and exploration so much better the fact that they
have all that in there and the fact that they have like the mainland the depths and the

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sky you know pieces and temples and whatnot I think adds a lot more to the gameplay overall
but aside you know and it's but aside from that obviously that's a lot added to the gameplay
front but aside from that like the overall feel of it still very similar to breath of
the wild right so I think if you weren't a fan of breath of the wild you may not be a

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fan of tears the kingdom however if you're a fan of breath of the wild you're probably
gonna like this I know there's some people that skipped out on breath of the wild but
you know I know some people that skipped breath of the wild and they got to play tears the
kingdom and really you're playing the superior version because of this gameplay updates and

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enhancements so I think for those reasons alone and obviously the impact the legend
of Zelda has now on Nintendo as a whole breath of the wild kind of changed the park for them
obviously Zelda's legendary series always been a critic critically received well but
I think obviously breath of the wild just shot up what the switch is in terms of sales

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or whatnot and then tears the kingdom you know whether you're saying 20 mil units in
four months which is wild that's why I'm gonna have my pick on this one but like I said all
six it's it's a solid solid list for game of the year but I'm gonna go with Baldur's
Gate 3 overall so obviously these are the games nominated but obviously there's some

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games omitted and it's been a crazy year right and obviously some people are mad that starfield
was nominated you know Xbox's biggest release starfield shouldn't have been nominated that's
a game I actually played from start to finish and actually no life for a while think about

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put close to 50 hours on that game in about two weeks because it did hook me you know
obviously it being on the game pass help so I just got one pat one month the game pass
and hopped onto it and I was still unemployed so I ran through this game I did a shit ton
of side quests I did all four faction quest lines obviously the main story and a lot of

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other things and it's just not a game that deserves game of the year nomination and I'm
not hating on it I think it's a good game I just don't think it is what Xbox and Bethesda
needed to like home run or hit out the park considering the stiff competition this year
if I were to give it a rating I'd probably give it like a 7.5 if you know I really want

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to be generous it's just simply because it's just not enough you know the the game has
too many menus too many loading screens and because they focused on making it this big
grand game the fact that you have to use these menus just like go from planet to planet place
to place makes it feel minimal makes actually feel more minuscule in nature if that makes

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sense like they went for grand but it actually feels more little than all their previous
games because of that reason and don't lie to me man you guys are fast traveling everywhere
okay that's just how it works in that game you're not actually flying to every fucking
place so stop lying so I think just because of that alone the scale of it feels so little

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compared to every Bethesda game even though it's supposed to be the grandest it just doesn't
make sense to me on how that's exciting right obviously the space exploration was supposed
to be such a huge part of the game and it isn't because it's all through menus and just
loading screens and fast travels and that's not knocking the game completely obviously

(25:28):
I'm still giving it 77.5 because surprisingly it ran really well on PC so you got to give
it nods for that because hey never know nowadays with AAA devs and PC games and it had its
typical Bethesda glitch and bugs but not as many as expecting which is also great and
yeah you know some of those faction storylines were actually a lot of fun I think I liked

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uh oh no I'm forgetting the names of it now you know the Ryujin right I think was it
what it was had some interesting stuff in it obviously the Crimson Pirates or Crimson
Fleet double agent stuff was fun the Freestar Collective was okay we get some good rewards

(26:13):
of it but I really did enjoy the Vanguard one with the pteromorphs and stuff like that
very very cool there so I think the faction storylines are fun I think some of the side
quests are very cool as well obviously the customization on the ship and whatnot is
dope too and you know the weapons and stuff are kind of fun obviously the game gets a

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bonus point just for having a Doring fan in it and I like how like the traits you pick
kind of actually play into the game but the main story to me just kind of was bland is
repetitive you just get artifacts over and over and without spoiling too much the new
game plus system the game isn't revolutionary enough or like oh my god enough in terms of

(26:55):
a narrative standpoint to be like wow they did something really crazy so I think because
of the lack of space exploration in a kind of mid main storyline and I know but the games
aren't always about the main storyline okay prince what a shitty fucking take before you
come on my throat I know it's not the main point of the fucking Bethesda games for men

(27:17):
main storylines are still enjoyable it was enjoyable in oblivion it was enjoyable in
Skyrim main storyline was enjoyable in Fallout 3 even 4 and it was really enjoyable in New
Vegas and I know that's not a Bethesda game but still you got my drift so don't give me
that shit all right so because of that that's why Starfield is not getting nominated for
game of the year deal with it Diablo 4 is another big one I don't have much to say about

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other than I'd played the beta I thought it was fun the actual game came out I did not
get it obviously Blizzard in typical fashion made some updates and whatnot that people
weren't happy with not happy with the post came in and whatnot okay if there's something
more the viewers can add to like why Diablo 4 should be a game of the year by all means
go for it typically you know these arpgs don't get that nod but uh that's what I have to

(28:09):
say about that maybe I'll pick up Diablo 4 in the future you know it's cheaper and stuff
I'd still like to play through it I think it'll be fun for like a first run sort of
thing you know but that was one that was obviously noticeably omitted another one is Final Fantasy
16 I think Final Fantasy 16 could have been here sort of maybe Spider-Man 2 or the RE4

(28:33):
remake maybe but then you know we already got a lot of people saying that Jeff is just
a Nintendo fanboy Sony fanboy so imagine if he had Marvel's Spider-Man 2, FFXVI, Wonder
and Tears of Kingdom, two Nintendo exclusives and two Sony exclusives along with the Alan

(28:53):
Wake tombola skate 3 people would be really mad especially the Xbox fanboys and that's
not a shot at Xbox fanboys I think console fanboys generally are just stupid but that
would have been funny um I haven't got a chance to play it myself yet um obviously
I think just from a grand scale it just looks like an epic you know like epic tale is very

(29:18):
grand characters and theme and large fights and whatnot but for some reason you just didn't
get what Square Enix expected the game to get in terms of critical reception and sales
and whatnot so obviously those three are the biggest ones FFXVI, Starfield and Diablo 4

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obviously had the most disabled Starfield because it is one of the new releases that
I went through the most um and then there's another game uh not just from the Game of
the Year nominations but just overall omitted from any category at all is Hogwarts Legacy
and obviously I think it's because of all the controversy when the game came out uh

(30:02):
obviously this is not something I'm going to touch too much into detail because we kind
of all know uh the controversy surrounding one Hogwarts Legacy uh but nevertheless uh
hundreds and hundreds of devs worked on the game and you know my friends that have played
it enjoy the game I think they you know they said they captured the Hogwarts uh you know

(30:27):
world very cool and I always said it would be cool to make a game kind of in that Harry
Potter world but not actually Harry Potter and I've been saying this for years even before
uh Legacy was announced and then when they announced it a while back I was like oh they're
actually doing it and then it actually came out and I was like wow they did it um and
this is all you know controversy you know politics or whatever you want to call it aside

(30:54):
we don't Game of the Year sure it's been a stacked year um definitely there was other
games or other games sorry other categories that it could have been included with for
sure uh so sad to see that omission uh but other than that other than Starfield, Diablo
4, Final Fantasy 16, Hogwarts Legacy maybe Dead Space Remake as well if we're going to

(31:16):
throw rf4 in the combo what other games you think should have been nominated for Game
of the Year let me know in the comments on YouTube or you know DM me on Twitter or whatever
the case might be and I don't know if you can leave comments on Spotify or Apple I don't
know how podcasts work in that regard considering it's my first episode uh but however you can

(31:39):
you can reach out to me um you know digital uh digital downtime podcast at gmail.com as
well let me know what you guys think should have been added for Game of the Year what
would you have removed what would you kept the same what would you have added please
please let me know and next we're just going to go into the remaining categories
all right so we're going to do the rest of the categories a little bit quicker obviously

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wanted to have a more thorough discussion about Game of the Year uh the next category
is best game direction and we have Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, Wonder,
and Tour of the Kingdom sounding very similar I feel like this is going to be the case for
many categories here uh I'm going to go with Alan Wake 2 for this one like I said I think
it just pushes the medium forward in terms of video and audio design it's pretty straightforward

(32:27):
there next category as we load up on this page best narrative uh we have Alan Wake 2,
Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Phantom Liberty, Final Fantasy 16, and Marvel's Spider-Man
2 now listen I'm going to be a little biased on this one uh Phantom Liberty is actually
another game I just played recently and uh you know without getting too much into it

(32:52):
uh the original game back in 2020 for cyberpunk was something I was thoroughly disappointed
with not just from the bugs glitches perspective uh but just the overall narrative perspective
and you know for it being you know the most hyped western RPG it'd be something so genre
pushing and you know groundbreaking it really wasn't it really just felt like a looter shooter

(33:15):
um obviously you know you can make decisions and whatnot but it really wasn't like that
immersive uh you know choice making you know making you think kind of role playing experience
I was expecting and I decided to get Phantom Liberty a try because of all the great things
I heard about it and you know it was decently priced and let me tell you man for the price

(33:35):
you get the bang of your buck because I spent probably close to 20 hours uh on this DLC
slash expansion um you know obviously that's for the main game uh I did every gig in Dogtown
and uh explored about two endings without spoiling much and uh let me tell you man Phantom
Liberty is strong strong strong uh you know obviously the 2.0 update gave the game a fresh

(33:59):
uh fresh life in terms of the gameplay perspective uh it's so much better with the new skill
trees and whatnot you know I used like a katana build and I was just oh it was a lot of fun
man if you make a reflexes build with the katana it's a lot of fun but the great thing
is you can play however you like uh what the new developed skill trees however the narrative

(34:20):
on Phantom Liberty is nuts man I'm telling y'all I'm not just hyping it up um even each
gig has like a story to it like each gig felt like a side quest uh there's decisions and
choices to be made at the end of those gigs and then there's side quests that kind of
build up upon those gigs like you do a gig later on that same person will call you again

(34:40):
for like you know a follow-up or to kind of close that storyline I think that attention
to detail is cool uh but just even the main story of Phantom Liberty is awesome I think
uh V is better voice stacked uh I loved Johnny Silverhand you know Keanu Reeves role in Phantom
Liberty a lot more than I loved him in the base game I think he's used very appropriately

(35:03):
um and then Idris Elbrus obviously as a Reed um and whoever the voice actress is for Songbird
all did a phenomenal job with their voice acting and nailing down the character uh but
overall the story here is just a writing the writing's um still in the show um there's
a bunch of bunch of bunch of decisions you have to make uh that thoroughly changed a

(35:27):
lot of scenarios for me personally um it was actually very rewarding to see how differently
things play out based on the choices you make which is the recipe for a fucking western
RPG which is what this is what I wanted from the base game so if they can apply what they
did to Phantom Liberty on a grander scale for the sequel with Unreal Engine 5 because

(35:48):
there is still some frame hiccups and whatnot when you know especially during vehicular
combat you go back into Night City as a whole I think we're in for a hell of a sequel but
yes Phantom Liberty is dope very dope um obviously narratively I was talking about Alan Wake
2 and Baldur's Gate 3 and Final Fantasy 16 all being great too I don't think Spider-Man

(36:09):
2 should be winning the best narrative here however this is going to go between Alan Wake
2 Baldur's Gate 3 Cyberpunk or FF16 I'm going to give it to Phantom Liberty um just because
it's interesting to see uh you know a DLC expansion get nominated for something I guess
that comes back to our conversation about should remakes get you know if remakes are

(36:31):
getting nominees so should DLC slash expansion if for this big and clearly Phantom Liberty
just did so I think that's the right move but yeah check it out from someone who's a
non-believer in Cyberpunk to what Phantom Liberty is trust me it's it's worth your time
and money um the next category we have is best art direction we have Alan Wake 2 Hi-Fi

(36:52):
Rush Liza P Super Mario Bros.
Wonder and Tears of Kingdom now if there's a game you know Xbox should be touting more
about is Hi-Fi Rush it's another game I'm gonna play soon I know it's short so but what
a surprise release at the beginning of the year by Tango Gameworks obviously the devs
behind Evil Within and uh Ghostwire um what an awesome surprise and I love I love the

(37:19):
nod to the nod the the the O-Day nod the game gave to like older kind of action games in
terms of art style and what it represents I'm gonna give best art direction to Hi-Fi
Rush um just because I love the way the game looks and everything they did with it uh so
Tango be very proud of your cows there uh best score in music we have Alan Wake 2 uh

(37:42):
composer Petri Alenko uh Baldur's Gate 3 Borislav Slavov uh Final Fantasy 16 uh Masayoshi Sokid
uh Hi-Fi Rush uh Suchuichi Kobori sorry if I butcher any of these names and then Tears
of Kingdom composed by Nintendo Sound Team um this is another tough one I'm gonna give

(38:04):
it to FF16 because what I've heard on the composition of that game is very nuts best
audio design uh obviously different than soundtrack works it scores Alan Wake 2 Dead Space Hi-Fi
Rush Marvel's Spider-Man 2 RE4 I will give this to Alan Wake 2 because like I said in

(38:25):
terms of visual game and audio design I think that game is pushing it on all fronts uh best
performance we have Ben Starr Final Fantasy 16 uh Cameron Monogahan Monoghan Monogahan
probably for Star Wars Jedi Survivor interesting to see this game not get nominated for the
other category so far yikes uh Idris Elba Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty Melanie Liburd

(38:55):
Alan Wake 2 Neil Newborn Baldur's Gate 3 and Yuri Lowenthal from Marvel's Spider-Man 2
again I am biased I'm gonna go with Idris Elba Agent Reed this wonderful character wonderful
Innovation Accessibility um there's not really much I can touch about this this category

(39:18):
that says recognizing software and hardware without pushing the medium forward baddie
feature technology content to help games be played and enjoyed by even a wider audience
so we have Diablo 4 uh 4 is a motorsport Hi-Fi Rush Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Mortal Kombat
1 and Street Fighter 6 uh I know Hi-Fi Rush integrated a lot of cool things into it if

(39:38):
I remember correctly but some of the rest of the games this is a tough one for me I'm
just gonna give it a Hi-Fi Rush uh what do we have next here games for impact uh games
with uh provoking uh provoking thoughts and pro-social meaning messages the space for
the unbound chance of Senar goodbye volcano hi uh Tachia Terra Nil and Venba I'm gonna

(40:07):
go with Tachia again just another category I don't know much about but I do like to vote
from my limited knowledge of some of these categories best ongoing we have epics Apex
Legends Cyberpunk 2077 Final Fantasy 16 Fortnite or Final Fantasy 15 my bad Fortnite gets an

(40:31):
impact it's interesting cyberpunk is here because it's not really an ongoing game just
more of like a major two-point update and the expansion so I would give it to that but
I would be biased apex that is not going to give a lot simply because there's still no
cross-progression in the game so fuck that game um it's gonna have to be between Final
Fantasy 15 Fortnite or Genshin I'm always like to give this to Fortnite because they

(40:52):
always just keep doing something that game to make it keep going don't they so that's
what it gets uh best community support now obviously always goes to Final Fantasy 15
for me um just because they have a kick-ass community community managers and the development
team that actually listens uh best independent game we have a cocoon Dave the Diver Jared
Sea of Stars and viewfinder um all five of these games are games I need to play I haven't

(41:15):
heard much about viewfinder but I've heard a lot about cocoon heard a lot about Dave
the Diver and dredge and Sea of Stars um obviously this year um I think uh independent games
they didn't take a backseat it's just triple a actually delivered a lot and obviously not
all triple a games were you know the quality they deserve to be or lived up to the hype

(41:40):
but there were enough ones that did that I think you know some of the indie games got
overshadowed this year but nevertheless you know I saw a lot of Dave the Diver rave reviews
him through cocoon and dredge and Sea of Stars I haven't heard much about viewfinder I would
research more about that game it's my apologies but I'm gonna give it a Sea of Stars and uh

(42:00):
I simply do that because this is it looks like my kind of game uh I love the uh the
tribute it gave to like the old uh SNES type of RPG Chrono Trigger love so uh best day
debut indie game we have cocoon dredge pizza tower event but viewfinder I'm gonna give
it to dredge because based on what I've seen it looks cool also for best indie game apparently

(42:25):
Dave the Diver shouldn't even be a nominee because it's published by Nexon or something
like that if I'm uh if I'm reading the reading the reports correctly so uh Jeff we gotta
be consistent here my guy um so yeah best mobile game we have final fantasy ever crisis
hello kitty adventure honkai monster hunter now and terra nil I have no idea I'm just

(42:52):
gonna give it to honkai because if I have any gotcha listeners you're welcome best VR
AR Gran Turismo 7 horizon called the mountain humanity resident evil village VR mode and
synapse I'm gonna give it to resident evil 8 VR mode heard good things about that best

(43:13):
action game uh armored core 6 dead island 2 ghost runner 2 hi-fi rush remnant 2 uh dead
island 2 is actually another game I played this year I got a code for it and surprisingly
it was a fun game so I'm also gonna talk about the games I've played because I can actually
fucking talk about them right a lot of fun probably gives the same running I gave star

(43:35):
field like 7.5 actually for that one very very fun gameplay very much better than I
thought it would be I'm obviously just the world's urine are kind of limited but they're
still uh sandbox enough and it was just a fun game obviously it's nothing groundbreaking
nothing gonna blow your mind but it's just fun so if you ever get a chance to play that
game on discount or something like that which it should be now definitely check it out but

(43:58):
I'm definitely gonna give this to armored core even though it's not my type of game
I think from software at this point is just like unanimous with action and they do it
well so that's the most deserving best action adventure we have Alan Wake 2 Marvel Spider-Man
2 RE4 Jedi survivor tears of kingdom has to be tears of kingdom if you're talking about

(44:21):
traversal and public solving us with description says best RPG baller just get three final
fantasy 16 lies of peace he is stars starfield so they actually put starfield into this category
so don't get too mad but there's the fanboys I got nominated somewhere uh let's see lies

(44:43):
of peace another game I want to play probably will game pass it now that I have a job I'm
probably just gonna subscribe to the game pass permanently um as we ball this gate three
man I'm sorry it is what it is you smell me you smell me best fighting game I don't have
to even look at any of this it's Street Fighter 6 but just to name them off so in case you

(45:08):
were curious it's God of Rock Mortal Kombat 1 Nickelodeon all-star brawl 2 somehow made
the cut for this hey the legibility cut interesting pocket bravery Street Fighter 6 Street Fighter
6 without a doubt without a doubt best family game we have Disney illusion island which
is a switch exclusive I think that I want to play party animals Pikmin 4 Sonic Super

(45:32):
Star Super Mario Bros. Wonder party animals another game I did need to play and I actually
love this game a lot a lot of people are but heard about the couch co-op they can get over
it it is what it is but yeah party animals best sim strategy you have advanced wars 1
2 reboot camp city skylines 2 company of heroes 3 fire emblem engage Pikmin 4 3 fucking Nintendo

(45:55):
games this category so don't they don't don't don't don't be telling me they just make the
same franchises and the same kid-friendly family games they they obviously got some
lot of strategy here too I'm gonna give it to engage I know it's not as uh narrative
heavy or good as three houses was but nevertheless I know the gameplay is top-notch so I'm gonna
give it to that best sports racing we have FC 24 f1 23 for the motorsport hot wheels

(46:21):
unleash to crew motorfest this is literally like four racing games and just one sports
game so it is what it is I think it just depends on a new ass some people love forza some people
think the crew motorfest is good some people like hot wheels something like f1 honestly
EA doesn't really do much with their sports games anymore but I'm scared to fc24 because

(46:43):
I enjoy FIFA regardless but it's kind of a weak category Jeff I'm not gonna lie to you
my guy best multiplayer last year was platoon 3 which was hilarious this year we have ballers
gate 3 Diablo 4 party animals free fighters 6 Super Barrier Wars wonder party animals
again because I just love to see the underdog on top best adaptation okay here we go Castlevania

(47:11):
Nocturne Gran Turismo Last of Us Super Mario Bros. movie and twisted metal surprisingly
we have three PlayStation productions here and surprisingly these are all pretty good
adaptations the only one I have not seen is Castlevania Nocturne or twisted metal sorry
but I've seen Gran Turismo I've seen the Last of Us season 1 I've seen Super Mario

(47:33):
Bros. movie honestly Gran Turismo is the one I was shitting on a lot seeing the trailers
and shit and honestly is actually pretty good movie the Super Mario Bros. movie was not
bad I didn't think it was as good as some people made it seem but it's really dope animation
to it I'm gonna go with Last of Us season 1 the first game is one of my favorites and

(47:53):
I think they just nailed it down to the tee just great overall and obviously Sean Alberta
that's my that's my place y'all you smell me so most anticipated game okay Final Fantasy
7 rebirth big one Hades 2 like a dragon infinite wealth interesting Star Wars Outlaws and Tekken
8 it has to be Final Fantasy 7 rebirth if it's me personally Hades 2 is up there but I know

(48:20):
it's gonna be in early access for a while Tekken 8 is definitely a fighting game I'm
gonna get day one um maybe Star Wars Outlaw hey hey I'm gonna vote for that because I
don't have I don't love Star Wars and I don't love Ubisoft but what I've seen from that

(48:41):
game so far is just a man who loves open world third-person games it's very promising so
maybe content creator of the year we have Iron Maus people make games quackity spreen
and cipher I don't know how they come up with these names I'm gonna give it to my boy cipher
for tonight legend you smell me best esports game counter strike 2 dota 2 League of Legends

(49:02):
PUBG mobile Valorant um I always give it to Dodie fell in love with the Dodie best esports
athlete we have faker zai wu demon one Hydra ruler imperial howl let's just give it to
faker because he's the one named us anonymous with legal legends other than Tyler one that

(49:25):
I know so he's always gonna get it best esports team evil geniuses fanatic gaming gladiators
JD gaming team modality I don't know any of these I'm gonna give it to gaming gladiators
because representing dota 2 though done some of these categories these last couple of interesting
best esports coach we have potters on it gunba x2 qz z in Hame I do not see a dota 2 coach

(49:50):
here so we will go with zonic that's counter strike team falcons why not and last but not
least the very last category well never mind second to last best esports event between
evil 2023 in the international for me there's a League of Legends world championship as

(50:10):
well blast TV Paris major evil and Valorant I'll go with evil I actually watched evil
this year and the show's fun as hell and okay that was the last one so that's that was the
game award nominees for 2023 you know what did you agree with me what did you disagree
with me with let me know and stay tuned for the last segment called have you played this

(50:37):
so this week on the first edition of have you played this I want to talk about a game
called spot on the get it now ice when I was a kid I played the shit out of this game and
I know it's a rated mature game so maybe I shouldn't have but I did and I wanted to just
highlight this game because I don't think it's talked about a lot maybe I'll stream
it one of these days even though no one will probably tune in but I'm looking at the reviews

(50:59):
for it and it got cheated on by critics as well for saying the action being too basic
and repetitive and the combo described as lame and I could be just my my install jac
glasses on but I thought it was super cool man I thought it was fast and stylish combat
you know you get these high breakable items souls technique points comic covers times

(51:22):
ranks etc kind of what you expect from like in hack and slash game of you know the ps2
era you have his agony axe which is formed by his cape which is formed by his cape and
cut through any demon obviously has his trademark chains as well and then it can also use firearms
I'm obviously it's not as good as like the god of war games or the devil may cry games

(51:42):
at that time I thought it was like a nice alternative I also feel like spawn doesn't
usually get a lot of love in general just in terms of when it comes to video game adaptations
or movie adaptations obviously the animated series background HBO is goaded but aside
from that you know what I mean but yeah you can use firearms on the stronger demons the

(52:04):
various hellish powers I remember the necroplasm being one there's also upgrades you know you
like the demon souls to buy various amount of ammunition then you can upgrade like his
chains or his axe or his pistols you can also increase his health or necroplasm bar at the
start is just a very fun game I remember it being decent long too it takes about like

(52:27):
12 to 15 hours for hack and slash and you know maybe this is something that uh you know
maybe I'll explore on stream and maybe I'll change my mind about but yeah it was published
by let me check here Namco it says developed by point of view let's see what point of view
is the point of view is mostly developed NFL blitz games actually ready to rumble boxing

(52:50):
and then this randomly did scorpion king arises a cate like acneon and then spawn on regedit
and then they just went back to more sports games which is interesting but yeah check
it out if you've never seen spawn on regedit I guess it's kind of hard nowadays to get
your hands on a ps2 or a gamecube or xbox but there is other ways to play if you know

(53:14):
you know or at least check it out on youtube for the very less I thought it was a great
licensed game and like I said this segment's always going to focus on games that kind of
that are more unknown or got overlooked or not necessarily like most critically received
but just nostalgia trips or games that I thought you know or worth mentioning that there's
some sort of recognition so on this week's have you played this uh spawn on regedit folks

(53:41):
and if there's uh any games you want to talk about or want me to you know be notified about
or that will click into my brain like oh yeah I remember this or like maybe I want to know
the game myself and I'd be like hey maybe I should check this out and play it myself
please let me know and uh yeah if you're looking to be a guest on the show or want to come

(54:05):
on board and talk you know during this segment or anything else you know I can tell you what
the topics will be and you can come on and shoot your shit with me please let me know
like I said the best place to find me is on twitter I think oh my twitter handle had to
make it something crazy like a digital digital downtime pod so you can find me there or a

(54:25):
digital downtime podcast at gmail.com obviously youtube comments work as well you can find
me on my personal socials at gillipg if you want to get any information about going to
be on the show obviously in the future I would love to have streamers on here developers

(54:46):
publishers whatever the case might be anything related to gaming just talk about gaming but
yeah I don't know what the specific words are for a podcast I know for youtube videos
like like comment subscribe but I guess for here it's make sure you like the podcast whatever
you're listening in on make sure you subscribe to it and make sure you spread the word about

(55:07):
it you know tell your friends post about it on social media etc etc just let them know
about it obviously this is something new for me besides from you know if you didn't know
which not everyone is gonna know I've been making music since about 2008 I've been streaming
about since 2020 and I did tackle a podcast previously but it was more so just like on

(55:29):
a video twitch format interviews and whatnot so this is my first honest attempt at you
know doing a legit podcast so thank you guys for tuning in with me on the ride this time
hope you enjoyed talking about the game of the year more in depth and the other game
award nominations for this year new episodes every Friday the next couple episodes will

(55:54):
be discussing what 2024 means for Xbox because they might be having a big year and then we'll
also be having an episode particularly focusing on Naughty Dog and what they've been doing
for the PS5 generation and you know as time goes on I'll be telling more about what future
podcast topics will be but for now for the very first episode of digital downtime thank

(56:19):
you for joining me I go by the name of Prince Gale aka Gilly see you next time thank you
very much