Episode 238: Our 2022 Top Five Games

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:34):
Hello, and welcome to episode twohundred and thirty eight of the Not Your
Mama's Gamer podcast podcast, where wetalk about living, working, playing,
and existing in and around games,and we do all of this from a
feminist perspective. My name is SmithBlackman, and I'm an associate professor here
at Due University in West Lafya,Indiana, and I am joined tonight by

(00:59):
my co host Jordan Lukomski. Hey, Jordan, who are you? How
are you? Hey? I amdoing well, you know, end of
the year, always pretty busy,but relaxing here and there, catching up
on games. I usually do thata lot at the end of the year,

(01:19):
so it's been a pretty good time. As he said, I'm Jordan
Lukomski. I work as an environmentartist at a studio called That Snow Moon
based here in Los Angeles, whereI work on Stuffy, where I work
on stuff. Well, I'm gladthat you are. How's the weather in

(01:42):
Los Angeles? Like, I mean, I don't know what you Is it
cold? Is it warm right now? Because I know we've a lot of
people are getting this cold, thislike cold snap, and like a lot
of folks on the Pacific Northwest gotsnow and they were freaking out. Yeah,
So it's funny you mentioned that becausebeing primarily from the Midwest and growing

(02:06):
up in states that I've always hadreally cold winters and lots of snow.
When we first moved out to California, we're like, yeah, this is
great, Oh my gosh, Andthe three years in we're like, oh
my gosh, it's so cold.It's honestly, it's not too bad.
I mean, we've acclimated to theweather, so we do think it is

(02:29):
cold, but no, it's it'ssunny for the most part, like forties
fifties. It can get pretty windy. Actually, that's been kind of odd.
We don't have too much wind.In the past few weeks, there's
been a ton of wind and thatmakes it a bit colder. But yeah,
no snow, not a ton ofrain, which is pretty on part

(02:51):
for California most of the time.But yeah, I think I think most
people would love it for the mostpart. I do. We just gotta
go back to a cold winter stateonce or twice and then we'll come back
and be perfect cool. So it'sfunny because when you see we're talking about

(03:13):
the weather, I'm like, Iknow it's freezing because I had to go
outside earlier to well earlier tonight,like after the sun went down and it
was cold out, and then thenI just looked at the I restarted my
computer right before we started podcasting,and apparently my location must have changed,
because like the little thing in thebottom right hand corner on my machine is

(03:37):
saying it's seventy nine degrees outside,and there's no way in hell it's seventy
nine caes house. I was like, I don't know where you think we
are, but it's not seventy nine. It's not even twenty nine according to
my phone, is twenty five.So yeah, so it's been real cold,
and we have a we've got likea snow advisories because they're saying that

(04:00):
we might get blizzards starting Thursday,which kind of sucks that it concerns me
because my mom's coming to visit forthe first time since the Pepperoni pizza started.
So I hope we I always Ialways say I just want one good
blizzard a year. I hope wedon't get it right now because I would

(04:23):
like to see my mother. Butyeah, but you know, and that's
the weather forecast. I guess.So we're gonna start with our usual what
we're playing, what we're reading,and what we're drinking, and Jordan will
start with you, what are youplaying? I am playing a few not

(04:48):
new games, but new and thatwe've just started them. So one me
and my partner started playing the coop portion of Tiny Tina as Wonderlands.
We literally just started a few daysago, and we really enjoyed playing Borderlands

(05:09):
two and three. I don't thinkwe finished three, but we enjoyed playing
both, and we really enjoyed Borderland'stwo. So having like a fantasy setting
Borderland style was really appealing, andwe pre ordered it and bought it,
and then moving happened and a bunchof stuff happened, and it got lost
in our DVD stack. So wepulled it out and we're like, we

(05:30):
know what, we should finally playthis at our break. So we just
started that and we're really enjoying it. It's super interesting to have that fantasy
setting with both fantasy guns, fantasyweapons and just regular guns. But we're
also really enjoying it because one thingwe didn't get from the trailers is that

(05:56):
it's very very tabletop role play inspiredboth in terms of the gameplay, the
narrative, the cut scenes, howthe characters are introducing you into this Wonderlands
world. Like the Wonderlands itself isa made up location that Tiny Tina and
her friends are playing as a tabletopgame. So having played with our D

(06:21):
and D group for about two twoand a half years, we're getting a
lot of laughs out of all thejokes that we now understand, and some
of the gameplay is different from Borderlands. It does have the regular levels where
you go around destroying stuff, butit also has a tabletop portion where you

(06:42):
have these little miniatures that move aroundthe map and then you do encounters,
so that's a little bit different fromBorderlands. So yeah, just started it.
We're not super far, but whatwe've played so far we're really enjoying.
And yeah, the tabletop role playaspect has been great. We just
didn't know that was such a bigportion of it. And then other than

(07:10):
that, I am playing Pokemon Violet, which is the first Pokemon game I've
played other than Pokemon Go and theoriginal trading card game. How you liking
it? I love it. I'llhold off, I'm talking too much about

(07:30):
it, Okay, so I'll probablybe talking about it, but yeah,
so far, I am really inenjoying it. And I don't know if
it's because it's my first Pokemon gameor what. I don't really have much
I can draw or compare it totwo previous Pokemon games because I haven't played
those, but yeah, there's alot there that I am enjoying, and

(07:56):
so am I excited to talk aboutthat one a little bit more and then
the other one. And this oneisn't new. It came out at the
beginning of the year. We startedplaying it, and then right as we
started playing again, we moved andwe said, oh, we were so
close. We were really enjoying aspectsof it, so we should go back,
and me and my partner went backand started playing the co op portion

(08:18):
of Dying Light two, and werestarted because we weren't super far in and
we've caught up now, so ourgoal is to finish that. Oh fun,
Okay, all right, I hadI had to look at my list
and see what I'm playing. So, because I've been playing lots of different

(08:39):
stuff, well not a lot,but Pokemon, I think I might have
been playing with up black people wereI was playing Pokemon last time we were
last time we podcast it. Um. Yeah, I was so a couple
of things. I'm still playing thatI was playing last time Pokemon. I'm
still playing Harvestella, and I'm stillMarvel Snap because that game has its hooks

(09:03):
in me um and that's my latestmobile crave UM. But I also started
playing Marvel Midnight sons UM, whichI am really enjoying because so it's made
by the same folks who made xCom. Right, so when it first

(09:24):
when they first announced it, Iwas like, Okay, so x Com
with Marvel heroes, got it.I'm in here for that. UM.
But then when UM we started tosee more gameplay, it was actually like
fire Emblem Three Houses with Marvel superheroesbecause you have a base that's the Abbey,

(09:45):
UM, and you build relationships withpeople with the superheroes and you get
to know more about them. It'sa lot like fire Emblem three Houses.
And I am absolutely loving it.UM. I haven't been able to play
as much as I wanted to becauseit's the end of the semester and I
have not been really allowing myself toplay big hunks of time of games while

(10:13):
I've been you know, finishing upthe end of the semester, so most
of the most of my gaming hasbeen Pokemon and Call of Duty. Right,
because Pokemon, I can jump inand do like a couple of graides
or do you know, like aPokemon ball or two, and then go
back and go back to grading.Or Call of Duty, I can go

(10:35):
in and play one match or twoand then go back to grading. Right.
So it's only like, you know, ten minutes fifteen minutes at a
time here and there. But sincegrades were due today, I'm about to
hit video games real hard soon asI finish cleaning my house because my mother's
coming this weekend. But so MarvelMidnight Son's absolutely loving. UM. I

(11:00):
also have been playing off and onBeacon Pines, which is a game that
I actually kick started, UM thatI had actually kick started a while ago.
Um and then I had gotten anadvanced copy. UM. So I
started playing an advanced copy uh anddidn't wait for the and we didn't wait
for the full release. UM.And so it's a it's what I call

(11:24):
a cozy horror game. UM.So it's like more like visual novel,
but it's got really cuty characters.UM. And you live in a place
called Beacon Pines, and there's there'sdefinitely something going on. There's like people
who are disappearing in dead bodies.It's showing up and so you're you're like

(11:45):
these little anthropomorphized animal kids who weretrying to solve this, who were trying
to solve this these mysteries. Um. So it's it's been a lot of
fun. UM. I also startedplaying draft I can Quest Treasures, which
is the newest kind of game inthe dragon Quest ip. But it's not

(12:07):
like it's not like the dragon Questthe old dragon Quest RPG games or there
or I guess their action and slashadventure games. Um. And it's not
like dragon Quest Builders either, butit has elements of both. Um.
And of course because it's called dragonQuest Treasures, it is very treasure focused,

(12:28):
so there's like lots of just goingout and getting treasure and fighting things
and coming back and rebuilding your base. UM. So it does have like
some of those elements of dragon QuestBuilders, but not as build heavy as
dragon Quest Builders. UM. ButI've really been enjoying that. I mean,

(12:48):
it's it's not a game that Iwould sit in like spend well,
I don't know, that's a liveI was gonna say, wouldn't It's not
a game I was since spent fivehours playing because I have done that.
Um, but it's it's definitely fun, and it's something that I can play
in smaller and smaller chunks and bereally comfortable with. But I'm still having
a blast play in it. Andthen the last thing I've been playing is

(13:13):
the latest Romancing Saga remaster, Minstrel'sBallad because Minstrel's Ballot is one of the
romancing so Saga games that I neverplayed, so I got a code for
that. So I've been playing Minstrel'sBallad U and it's it's it is an
older like romancing Saga game, butit's been a lot of fun because I

(13:37):
like those kinds of games. Again, it is kind of very treasure heavy,
so you kind of go out andexplore and like run through caves and
collect materials that you need, andthen you come back to the city and
then you do what you need todo there, and then you go out

(13:58):
you do it again. And I'mokay with that because I love games where
you just kind of have to collector loot or you know, and craft
and do all of these things.So these kinds of games are like right
up my alley, and so I'vereally been having fun playing that one too.
So lots of crafting, gathering,looting kind of games have been in

(14:18):
my in my game in line uplately. But yeah, that's what I'm
playing. Heck, yeah, Ithink I got last minute Christmas gift from
that list. It's always funny becausewhenever the holidays roll around, buying games
is always very interesting for my partnerand I because in general we really like

(14:43):
the same things. There's a fewdifferent things you're in there, but where
we buy each other games, it'salways like, Okay, so I bought
this for you to play first sothat I can play it after I got
this for you to play first.Well, really, I got it for
both of us, So this isan US game. This is an US

(15:05):
fine. Oh so no, that'scool though. Um it's funny because I
play a lot of games that youknow, I know a lot about um
when I stream like games that youknow, because I've been gaming for four
hundred and ninety seven years. Um, I played a lot of games that

(15:28):
like I remember like the first gamein the series, and I've been playing
like the series for twenty years orthirty years or what have you. Um,
and then um, folks will pickup that game, pick up a
game that I'm playing and be like, Okay, I really like that.
What other games are like that?Right? So I started doing this short
video series, UM of games youmight like if right. So it's games

(15:54):
you might like if you like Hades, games you might like if you like.
Um, I did one. God, I posted one of the I
can't remember what it is. I'mgonna blame it on the drink. It
was games you might like if youlike. What the hell did I post
today? Oh my gosh, AndI'm gonna tell you why, because it's

(16:15):
not because it's not because of thedrink. It's because I've been working on
that video forever. A Golf Story. So it's games you might like if
you like. Golf Story was theone I posted today, because Golf Story
was that came That game came outfive years ago, and I'm sure I
talked about it on the podcast fiveyears ago because it was a really interesting

(16:38):
game and I said it then.I was like, it's a really bad
golf simulator, but it's a reallygood RPG. And that's what it was.
Supposed to be right, because whenI first picked it up, I
was like, so it's like agolf simulator, because that it was unclear
of what it was what it actuallywas. But no, it was an
RPG that was based around a storyabout a golf about a golfer, So

(17:00):
there were elements of golf, andthe golf mechanics were pretty difficult because it
was not, like I said,it was not the best golf simulator,
but the RPG elements were so good. The RPG portion of the game was
so good that it kind of madeyou forget that the golf simulator part was
not, at least for me,and maybe it's just that I'm bad at

(17:22):
golf simulators. But so they announced, oh gosh, probably four years ago,
three or four years ago, thatthey were doing a sequel that was
going to be called Sports Story,where you were gonna get to play different
sports. And people have been waitingfor this game for like three or four
years. And then finally last monthin November at the like Indie World,

(17:48):
the Nintendo Indie World, they saidit's coming in December, that's all they
said, and people were starting tofreak out, like last week, you
know, it was, so theywere like, we only got like two
weeks in December, where's this game? And then Monday, yesterday, Nintendo
came out with this thing. Theywere like, hey, welcome to this

(18:11):
new event we have, and it'scalled the Inside the House of Indie's Holiday
Event, and it's a five dayevent. So they're doing videos, short
videos every morning, and it's likean indie game advent calendar. So every

(18:32):
day they open up a door andbehind the door is a video, right,
so it's announcements of like upcoming indiegames and then like so far Monday
and Tuesday two stealth drops. So'sthey're like many many indie worlds every morning

(18:53):
for five days, and I getso excited. So like the first one
happened yesterday and to day, Ilike popped out of bed at like eight
o'clock and turned on the TV andI was like, where is it?
Because it's like I was like,I know they've got to be dropping sports
story this week, right, becausethat's why they were being so vague about

(19:14):
when it was dropping, Right,they didn't give it a date even like
it's like I said, as lateas last month, they were like,
it's coming next month. That's why. And so every morning I'm like,
I'm just popping out of bed andlike, you know, popping out of
bed, and I'm like sports story. Nope. So my guess is that
they're probably gonna drop it on Fridaybecause that's the one that people are like
most looking forward to. They probablygo wait to the very last day to

(19:37):
drop it. But that's been reallyexciting, and I thought that was such
a cute idea, like an indiegame advent calendar where every day you're learning
about like new indie games that aregonna be coming next year, and then
you're getting two Stelle drops. It'slike Christmas every morning. Yeah, yeah,
I know, that's perfect. Ilove advent calendars. And yeah,

(20:00):
as you mentioned, it's just likethe Holidays period of like surprises everyone.
Yeah, that's such a good idea. It is if they do this every
year now, because I'm spoiled andI'm gonna be looking for every year.
It's like where's the House of Indies? But uh yeah, so that's been
a lot of fun. Um Soby the time this goes up, because

(20:22):
it usually goes up on Friday,um, it'll probably be over. But
if you're you haven't seen it yet. I want you to go to the
site. I'll put the link inthe show notes and you can open one
at a time and it can belike a little surprise, just like just
like it was for everybody else.Just what But you'll get to do them.

(20:45):
Excuse me, but you'll get todo them. I had to hiccup
and it got stuck up. Butyou get to do them all it one
thing you don't have to wait,all right. But so that's why we're
playing in what do you read inJordan? I am still reading. I

(21:07):
had to look over at the titlebecause I haven't opened it in two weeks,
but I'm still reading The Dawn ofYang Chin. And despite my pause
and absence from reading it. It'snot to say anything about my interests or
quality of the book, but yeah, I still reading that. I'm really
hoping that this upcoming break will giveme some time to finish it because I

(21:34):
am really enjoying the characters. Again, it's from the Avatar universe, balling
Avatar Yang Chin, the previous airAvatar before Ang. But yeah, between
end of the year work deadlines andthen I also got my Wisdom Teeth out

(21:55):
finally, which took me out fora few days of just constant sleep and
some other holiday endeavors. Yeah,not a not a lot of reading time,
but definitely looking forward to that cozycouch with hot chocolate over the next

(22:18):
week. That is definitely coming somecats snuggles. But yeah, hopefully I'll
have an update next time we eachchat. It's funny because I just got
off a call with my friend whoI'm reading this book with, and we
just opened our gifts for each other, and we both got each other books

(22:41):
because we're both reading a lot ofthe books at the same time, and
we're both trying to push each otherto a finish and read more next year,
so we're both gearing and ramping upfor next year. So we both
opened our gifts and it was wehad a few other things, but it
was mostly books, and it waswe didn't get each other of the same
books because we had actually staggered itfrom the previous time. But yeah,

(23:06):
we have a chunk of books fornext year, so hopefully we can follow
through good. So um, don'tfeel bad though, because I'm still reading
the same book I was reading lasttime too, because other than doing like
a little reading before, like untilI fall asleep in bed. I've just
been reading a whole lot of studentpapers because it's the end of the semester,

(23:29):
so I had two classes for worththe student paper student projects too to
read in grade. So I havehad like no real time for just like
I've had no real time for anykind of dedicated gaming, I've had no
real time for any kind of dedicatedreading. I get in bed and I
you know, read maybe a chapterand then I'm sleep. But so I'm

(23:53):
finishing up a Mari and the GreatGame, which I'm going to finish this
week because I just checked and Ionly have six chapters left and the chapters
are fairly short to go fast.So that's like one one like one sitting
of reading, if you know,I'm just like actually sitting and reading.

(24:15):
Um. So UM, I canknock that out easily in a couple of
hours. So um I will finishthat this week. UM. And then
I have to read our book groupbook that I am so behind the one.
Um, but that's gonna be.I think that's it's fairly short so
to be probably a pretty fast read. Um. And that's lake Lore and

(24:37):
I cannot remember the author to savemy life. But that was lake Lore's
one word, um, and that'swhat I'm gonna start reading next um,
so that I can get it done. Not that I don't want to read
it, but I always feel pressurewhen I'm like on a schedule, when
I'm like I have to read havea book read by a certain time,

(24:59):
then I I feel pressure to readit. So but I want to.
I want to get that done sothat I could be ready for a book
group. But yeah, so don'tfeel bad for not having read a lot,
because I haven't either. Oh andI completely understand. I completely understand.

(25:21):
So that's what we're playing and whatwe're reading. What are you drink
in Jordan? Because I'm looking atthis and it sounds interesting. Yeah,
so I am drinking Neutopia's chime ARiver, and I guess one sentence description,
it's an apple cider that I reallyenjoy. But when I first opened

(25:45):
it and drank it, you evereat or drink something totally expecting a different
flavor and it's so wildly different thatyou're just like, oh my gosh,
what you think? You don't likeit? And you're like, what the
like? It literally surprised me themoment it went in my mouth, and

(26:06):
I was like what, And partof that is my fault for not just
reading, and I think part ofit the title, I do think is
a little misleading. But yeah,So when I first picked it up,
I just was like, oh,chi alcohol because this will be great for
this upcoming podcast, and also Ilove chi, I love cinnamon. So

(26:30):
I just grabbed it off the shelfand ran out to go check out without
really reading it. That it wasa cider not a stout, so very
different flavor profile there. So thatwas my fault, definitely not reading.
That's not to say it's bad.I used to drink a lot of angry

(26:52):
orchards and I do like in general. I do like apple juice and apple
cider, especially around the fall,so this isn't necessarily like out of the
range of things that I like.But I also wouldn't say that it's anywhere

(27:14):
near chai flavored. It does sayit has like cinnamon in there, but
the full description is fermented apples withcinnamon, camamyle chrysanthemum and a game nectar,
and oh it's it's good. Butit does not taste like chi.

(27:37):
It tastes like a slightly more spicedangry orangered like. It is very heavily
apple flavored, probably super sweet ifthey got a game nectar in it and
chrysanthemum, and that does not soundlike chi. Nope. The only thing

(28:00):
that sounds like chi is the cinnamonand like it's kind of in there.
But no, it's so heavily appleflavored, and again not bad. I
like apple cider and I like angryorchards. It tastes good. It's just
not at all I was expecting.I wonder it's interesting if you are the

(28:22):
ingredients on the label, is itbacksweetened with extra apple cider? Is that
why it's so apple? Because alot a lot of times when they want
to make a cider sweetened, it'llbe part fermented cider, but then they
backsweeten it with just apple cider,so it adds more apple flavored to it,

(28:42):
because you know, in that fermentationprocess, it tastes less like just
drinking a glass of apple juice,even though it tastes apple right, But
then when they backswe they backsweeten itwith apple juice, then it just tastes
like apple juice, especially if theyadded a gaba syrup to what I bet

(29:03):
that's sweet sweet. Huh, itdoesn't all this is unfiltered. It has
the list that I read off.Yeah, I'm not reading anything about what
you just mentioned. But yeah,for the sweetness, it definitely is on
the sweeter side. It doesn't.It tastes sweet. It doesn't taste like

(29:26):
I'm drinking a lot of sugar.Like. There are definitely sugary alcoholic beverages
out there, especially chocolate stouts.There are a few that I've had recently
that I'm like, oh my gosh, this is definitely a dessert. I
wouldn't say this is the case,but it definitely is a little bit more

(29:47):
on the sweeter side than I'm usedto. But nothing not like drinking candy
or dessert or chocolate bar or anythinglike that. H Stay, so I'll
tell you what I'm drinking. Iwent old school today, and not that

(30:07):
I have not been drinking this alot, just kind of across the board.
It is like a favorite, Likeit's like a drink that I know
I will enjoy no matter what.And when I need a drink that i
know I'm gonna enjoy no matter what, there's a couple of things I'll drink.
I'll drink a whiskey sour because I'malways gonna like a whiskey sour,
right, And these are things thatI generally have in the house that I

(30:29):
can make. With what I havein the house, I can generally make
a whiskey sour, and I cangenerally make a sneaky sneaky. I mean,
other things that I like that Iknow I will always enjoy will often
involve things that I don't necessarily alwayshave in the house, right, So,
like, I know I'll enjoy whiskeyginger, but I don't always have
the fever tree ginger ale, whichis what I really like in a whiskey

(30:51):
ginger because it's not sweet, butit's super gingery and it's got a good
bite to it. So, butthings that I will generally have hav in
the house. It's like, youknow, the stuff to make a sneaky
sneaky because it's lemonade and sweet teavodka. As long as I got the
vodka, I can generally make lemonadebecause I've either got like bottled lemonade,

(31:12):
or I got lemons and sugar orlike lemonade, kool aid or something in
the house that I can make lemonadewith and so, and I usually have
sour mix in the house too,because I'll use sour mix like a splash
of sour mix in a bunch ofother drinks and not just in whiskey sours

(31:33):
or what have you. But tonightI went for a a sneaky sneaky because
I had my favorite bottled lemonade.I'm basic, is gonna be the simply
lemonade, the light version, andthen sweet tea vodka can never go wrong

(31:56):
with that. You can never gowrong with that. So that's what I'm
drinking in the night, and ityou know, and I'm put me in
my happy place. You put mein my happy place. Yeah, I
feel like I really need to trythis because I love sweet tea and vodka
can go and a lot of differentthings. Um, if I haven't had

(32:19):
a sneaky sneaky yet, and allof our times talking together have to have
a sneaky sneaky, you have tohave a sneaky sneak. Is very It's
so easy. It's just lemonade umwith sweet tea vodka. UM. And
you can put as much sweet teavodka or as little sweet tea vodka as

(32:39):
you want UM. The one thatI've been drinking for years now is from
a distillery UM in Austin. Itis uh see deep Eaty sweet Tea vodka.
UM. And I really like that. And if you're ever in Austin,

(33:02):
they also make a lemonade vodka,but you they don't they don't ship
it because it has to be refrigerated. UM. It has to be refrigerated,
so you um have to get itthere. And it is so good

(33:24):
it's like you could straight up drinkit just straight out the bottle. I
mean not that I recommend that,but but you could not to say that
I have, but you could uhum a UM. It's funny because a
grad student UM brought me back abottle UM from Austin UM when they had

(33:50):
gone to Austin UM and they sawit and they were And because I always,
you know, like I said,I've always for holidays, I've always
had like open door, uh opendoor like policy at my house so people
could eat like pre pandemic anyway,um and didn't have to if they didn't
want to go home or couldn't gohome or what have you. So I
always had you know, big mealsat my house so people like know what

(34:15):
my alcoholic taste is because I always, you know, had beverages for people
too. So and she brought meback a bottle of this um uh deep
eates like lemonade vokat and it wasthe best thing. And I have never
been able to get it since becauseI don't go to Texas on purpose and

(34:37):
they don't they don't ship it outsideof Texas. They also have a grape
fruit voc because that is really goodif you like grape fruit. So deepetes
um, like I said, it'sa like a smaller I guess distillery UM.
And at least it was smaller.I don't know how big it is
anymore in Austin UM. And thosehave been the three that have like never

(34:59):
missed for me. It was likethe the the lemonade, which I've only
had once, the lemonade vodka,the grapefruit vodka, which I've had several
different times, and the Sweetie vodka, which is a staple in my house.
So yeah, And if dpts everwants to sponsor me and um just
send me and send me vodka,I'd be happy to drink it and tell

(35:22):
people how wonderful it is. Ifit is. If it's nasty, I'm
telling that it's nasty. Sorry,but yeah, that's what I'm drinking.
So that's what we're playing, readingand drinking. And this week we're doing
I feel like we do this everyyear, Like our last episode of the

(35:42):
year is always our our favorite gamesof that year. So that's what we're
doing. This time, we're doingour I think we said top five favorite
games of twenty twenty two. Um, And so I have my list,

(36:05):
I cannot put it in any kindof order, and I also have some
issues that I want to talk aboutwhen it's my turn, right, but
I want to start with your Jordan, UM, did you put your list
in an order at all? Ordo you just have a list of five?
What does it look like? Didyou stick to five all these things?

(36:31):
Did you break the rules like weusually do? No, I because
we usually do top five and then, um, whenever we do a top
anything, we have like honorable mentions. So I have a top five,
and then if we get to it, I have some honorable mentions. UM.
I also don't really have it ina particular order. UM. I

(36:51):
do think in general the list andthe order that I haven't it now is
in general like, Okay, thesewould probably be at the top of my
top five ish, this would beat the bottom of my top five ish,
But if you asked me two weeksfrom now, I'd probably like switch
around a few. So there's likea kind of general order, but not

(37:14):
like this is definitely my number oneor number four. Okay, well shoot
one, shoot shoot shoot for one. Just tell me what one is not
your number one but one of thegames. Yeah, So at number five
I put Extraction Rainbow Siege Extraction fromUbisoft. That one came out I think

(37:42):
in February of this year, andthat was one that I talked about last
year. I think we did anepisode of like What are you most looking
forward to as well, and thatone was on my list because it was
a co op game that me andmy friends were interested in to kind of

(38:02):
replace Dead by Daylight for us becausewe've been playing that for a few years.
And yeah, I mean we're notplaying as much anymore. I think
we're at the stage where we're probablylooking for our next yearly game. But
it was so much fun to playthroughout this year and we're still playing it,

(38:24):
like we're not not playing it andsome of the updates that they have
are a lot of fun. Someof the events, especially some of the
blackout events where the lights go out, and then it's pretty scary, because
for the most part, I amscared by quite a few things actually now.
Growing up, I was like,oh yeah, horror games and horror

(38:45):
movies, and now I'm the onehiding in the corner being like, I
don't want to play this anymore.So I thought I was going to struggle
with this game, and actually Ididn't struggle too much. But some of
the dates have been pretty pretty scary, and it's been super fun and interesting

(39:07):
to play a co op first personshooter game that can really go either way.
It can go literally guns ablazing,we gotta get out of here,
or it can go We're gonna tryto make this as stealthy as possible,

(39:28):
and they have a good variety ofdifferent maps and levels. So yeah,
we had a lot of fun withit. It was one of the games
we were looking forward to. We'vebeen playing it for a while. There's
not a ton of updates to thegame, not a ton of events,
and again we've been playing pretty consistentlythroughout the year, so I think we're

(39:49):
gonna look for our next game soon, but at least for this year,
it was a ton of fun forus, and we could either just really
really get into it and go forthose objectives, or we could just play
it after work and relax, whichis we were talking about this. We're
like, it is that hard tosay, because like it can be a
not relaxing game, but for us, it was relaxing, like, oh

(40:10):
my gosh, all these aliens areswarming us. Yeah, so how is
your day? Yeah? Yeah,yeah yeah, let's let's uh get these
nests. Let's blow up these aliens. Um. So yeah, it's been
a it's been a good time.I'm really looking forward to Red Fall for
that reason. Oh yeah, seethat'll be a good one. That because

(40:35):
it's it's squad based again, um, and uh you'll be able to fight
vampires. Um. So I'm reallylooking forward to, uh to Red Fall.
I'm gonna have to find a squadto play Red Fall with. Um
because most of the folks that Iplayed, um, like those kinds of

(40:55):
any kind of shootery games with arekind of straight up into military shooters,
right, so if it's pretty muchnot like Call of Duty or Halo or
I got a couple of friends whoplay m Fortnite. They're they're not really
into the squab more squad based shooters. So I'm gonna have to find another

(41:20):
set of friends. Not that I'mgetting rid of my old friends, but
I'm gonna have to find another setof friends that are also that are also
into more squab bay shoots because Ilove squad base shooters, but I usually
end up playing them with randos orlike occasional games with folks, or by
myself if they're scalable at all,because like I said, most of my

(41:45):
friends, you know, kind ofcut their teeth on or call of duty.
So yeah, but you know,it is what it is. But
I'm anxious. I'm excited, notanxious. I'm excited for or Red Fall.
Yeah. That is one of theones on our lists to keep an

(42:06):
eye on. Yep. Okay,so let's see. I'll do one of
mine, and I don't know howto do mine, so kind of okay,
let's do this. I think I'mgonna do them in the order that
they released. If I got thisorder right, I should have double checked
dates, but it doesn't matter.But I'm gonna say my first one that

(42:27):
was one of my top five games, just in chronological order, was Kirby
in the Forgotten Land because I reallyenjoyed playing that game, and I think
I enjoyed playing it. A lotof games make make my list or go
up in my estimation because of howI play them, or who I play

(42:49):
them with, or what's going onlike in the world around me when I'm
playing, and Kirby in the ForgottenLand was a game that I played with
my kiddo, and it was probablyone of the games that she and I
spent the most time playing together thisyear. We jumped around and played a

(43:12):
lot of other games because we hadwe played games together at least once or
twice a week, but Kirby wasprobably one that we spent more time playing
together than any other game in agame that came out this year, Let's
at least put it that way.So yeah, I would say I don't
know, yeah, probably I wasgonna say maybe Split Tune, but she

(43:34):
dropped off Split Tune pretty quickly thisyear, which is weird because usually she
wants to play it all the time. But yeah, I would definitely say
Kirby and They've Forgotten and it wascute and it was fun to play co
op, and it had good puzzles, and just the environment was was was

(43:55):
good, and I had a blastplaying and I had a blast playing with
my with my kids. So I'mgoing to put that down as one of
my favorite and I'm naming it asmy first game. But that's because I
came chronologically, because I can't putthese in order one to five in terms

(44:15):
of which one is my favorite andwhich one is my least favorite in that
five. So that's mine. What'syour second one? Well, my number
four was Kirby in the Forgotten Land. We all played it for a podcast,

(44:37):
and I do agree with Victoria thatsome of it got a little bit
of repetitive at certain stages, butfor the most part, I yeah,
I just loved it. Like yousaid, I love the environments. I
love playing as Kirby and being ableto absorb the different aspects of these different

(45:00):
objects to navigate the environment, andthese puzzles that was so much fun um
and a creative way to use thatcharacter and their powers. I loved the
main home base that you had andthe little uh oh gosh. I don't

(45:20):
know what they're called, but it'sjust the oh I mean I love the
wattle D's, yes, that one, but also the quarter machines that you
put in to get the little toyum figurines. That reminded me like,
uh, going to the grocery storeand being like, oh, mom,
can I put ten cents in thismachine to get this toy or this bouncyball

(45:45):
um. So just reminded me ofthat, and that was great fun,
and you could customize your bedroom withthose and the different mini games. There's
lots of different mini games, bothhidden throughout the world that you had to
find, which was a lot offun, but also in the hometown,
like the cooking mini game. Therewas just so much packed into that game

(46:08):
that I wasn't originally expecting or realizing. Yeah the yeah, there are things
I got repetitive, but there wasalso a lot to offer. So I
just I had so much fun withit, and the like the eighties style
intro where Kirby gets absorb as thecar and then has like the bridge sunset

(46:30):
scene with the music, and Iwas like, I have no idea what
this game is going for, butI love it. Agreed, it was
such a good game. It wassuch a good game, all right.
So I'm gonna say my second oneon this list, if we're going chronologically,

(46:52):
I did not play it in thisorder that it came out because I
only recently started playing this one.UM was Devolver Digital's UM Cult of the
Lamb UM, and I always soI didn't play it when it first came
out because I was like, Idon't know, I don't want to play

(47:14):
that because it's really not my jamin terms of what kind of game games
I like to play, even thoughI love the heck out of Hades UM
and other games UM by Super Giantthat also had that kind of top down,
bullet hell kind of kind of feel. But like, my general rule

(47:35):
is that anything that says bullet hell, I'm not playing. UM. But
so Cult of the Lamb got megot me because it wasn't just because it
was that top down kind of umthe cop top down kind of fighter like
Hades, but it had um armingelements, right, so you had to

(48:04):
recruit shall we say, uh,your cult members, and you also had
to maintain your your base, right. You had to keep everybody fed,
you had to come back and plantfood, and um, you had to
to like I guess for lack ofa better phrase, do sermons m to

(48:27):
keep your your cult members active.It's it's so weird to try to describe
this UM and there was just somuch to it that was more than just
fighting that it really just kind ofhave me engaged. It's the same reason
that I liked certain kinds of UMfarming simulators like Stardo Valley, because you

(48:53):
don't just farm, but there's otherthings that you can do when you don't
feel like farming, right, there'sother things that you can focus on and
still be advancing, advancing the gameitself and cloth of the Lamb. It's
very cute, see, even thoughit's very kind of dark because you know,

(49:15):
cult and it all starts because youknow, you get because you die,
and you're trying to appease the bigbad by bringing more bringing more cult
members into the fold. But yeah, I really, I really dug that
one. It was just there wasjust so much to do that I could

(49:36):
do no matter what my mood wasat the time, and I didn't have
to play for long periods of time. I could go in and clear one
level, or I could go inand do a little farming, or I
could go in and deliver a sermon. And just quit. It's just like
there were all kinds of like smallthings that I could do that really kept
me engaged. And I didn't playit, Like I said, when it

(49:59):
first came out, I didn't playeduntil he came out for the Switch because
I like to play a lot ofmy farming simulators in handheld mode and not
on big screens, so and I'mmore likely to play more of them if
I'm playing in handheld. So whenit came out on Switch, I was
all for it. So, yeah, that was definitely the second one on

(50:22):
my list. Yeah, we ummy partner played that one, and we
also waited till it was on theSwitch because just the mobile aspect of it.
But yeah, so he started atfirst and then I started shortly after,
so we were kind of playing alittle bit at the same time.

(50:45):
And I definitely want to go backto it for all the reasons that you
mentioned, like there's so many thingsto do. It's a very quickly interesting
game, Like it's pretty dark,but it's also like very cute. See
I had to pause because I wasreally surprised and it actually kind of upset
me, Like I was like,Okay, I understand, it's actually kind
of a Dirk game. It's acall like sure, but it actually got

(51:07):
me when um, because I waswatching my partner play at the same time
and they were ahead of me,and when you have to sacrifice you remembers,
I was like, oh my gosh, no, I don't want to
sacrifice is really cute elephant of thisreally cute chain. So I had to
stopped for a zecond because I wasso surprised. But oh my gosh,

(51:30):
yeah, it's I love a lotof aspects about the game. It's not
in my top five because I literallystarted it and then stopped, but it
is one of the few that I'veplayed this year that I want to go
back to to play more. Ohall right, what's your third one?
My third one is We Were HereForever, which is the fourth installment of

(51:53):
the We Were Here series. WhenI think, well, I know a
few of the installments are now onSwitch, but primarily, I mean my
partner are playing on Steam and mostof their games are available on a Steam

(52:15):
again, a few on Switch.I'm not sure if any on PlayStation Xbox.
But yeah, it's definitely kind ofthat escape room vibe where you each
are seeing and doing your own thing, and you have to describe what's happening
because each of your puzzles are connectedand interact with each other. So it's

(52:35):
a really fun puzzle environment engagement typeof game. And we've played the previous
three. This is one of thegames that I was looking forward to the
most this year. And it wasa surprise because I mean, they made
the first three and we're silent fora while, so we're like, are

(53:00):
they gonna make a fourth one?Are they gonna make a fourth one?
And then all of a sudden it'slike, oh, yeah, we're making
a fourth one and it comes outin like a month, and I was
like what. So we were superlooking forward to that. We finished it
in about a weekend. But yeah, I just love that we were here
games so much. I wish therewas more co op puzzle games in that

(53:22):
type of experience. But in themeantime, we'll wait for their fifth installment,
which I think they're making. Theydo have a storyline, they do
have characters. I don't know ifI follow that part too well. I
know there's a king and some princessesand a gesture that had a curse,

(53:45):
and there's people that are mad andthen they killed each other. There's stuff
going on, and it's all itall goes together, and I'm sure if
we played the game is now,like from start to finish, we would
understand it more. But because westarted playing it when the second one came

(54:06):
out, it's been a few yearsbetween each of the installments, and they're
pretty short games. They're not Ithink they're around six to eight hours,
so we don't really remember everything thathappens in the previous ones. But yes,
all the games are connected, atleast more wise, and I feel
like they're really ramping up to somethingbecause there's a lot more lore in this

(54:29):
one. There's a lot more cinematics. But yeah, we were here forever.
I love that game. No coolI've seen. I watched actually a
friend who used to stream on mixerplay. I want to say it was
like the second or the third onein the series with her husband like one

(54:51):
stream and I was like, that'sin fact, really cool game. But
it was it was like, theonly person I have to play college co
op games with most of the timeis my kid, and it was not
something that she and I would havedone well together because she was super young
at the time. And we recentlystarted playing It Takes Two Together, and

(55:12):
it just like occurred to me whenwe were playing that you know, she's
fourteen now, so she's old enoughto start playing those kinds of games like
with me and do them well andnot be like the kid that like tries
to sabotage everything or gets frustrated andlike, I'm quick because we had a
blast playing. Um, we playedlike half I think of It Takes Two

(55:37):
Together so far, all about halfwaythrough, and we had an absolute blast.
So I'm really looking forward to beingable to play more because I really
enjoy playing games with my kid.I'm sorry, I think more people should
play games with their children, andI'm looking forward to playing more kinds of

(56:00):
co op games, especially games likethat that you have to play co op
otherwise you are not gonna pass becauseit doesn't give you the the leisure of
just kind of bullshitting around for lackof a better phrase. Um so yeah,

(56:21):
cool, um, that was yourthird one, right, correct?
Yeah? Okay, so my thirdone would be um Square Ennex's Harvest Stella.
UM and Harvest Stella, for thosewho don't know, is a JRPG

(56:45):
UM with farming simulator elements, UM, and it is one that UM.
I had never played a Room Factorygame until Room Factory five, and I
was like, this is kind ofwhat I'm looking for, and Harvestella is

(57:06):
what I wanted Wound Factory five tobe. It is not a full RPG,
it is not a full farming simulator, but it takes elements of both
and makes this kind of hybrid genregenre where one feeds the other. Right,
So you use the food that yougrow to make food that you can

(57:28):
then use to kind of feed yourself, power yourself, buff yourself for the
RPG, like fighting elements, andthen you go out and you fight things
and you get mats from fighting thingsand gathering while you're out fighting to bring
back to bring back in and makemore food. Right, So one element

(57:57):
feeds the other. So yeah,that's uh. That was definitely my number
three UM, just chronologically, andI'm still playing it because I'm not finished.
It's it's a lot longer than Ithought it was gonna be because I
think of like those kinds of gamesthat I think that they're gonna be generally

(58:21):
shorter, especially like some of squareenixes, like shorter RPGs or smaller RPGs
are usually not terribly long. Butwhen I got to the point that I
thought I might be getting near theend, I was nowhere near the end,
which made me happy because I'm reallyenjoying playing the game. But yeah,

(58:42):
Harvestella is not my number three andI'm still playing that, but it's
got to be one of my umit's gotta be definitely one of my top
five. And I want to talk. Don't let me forget when we get
to the end. I want totalk about why I had such a hard
time making this list. What's showedup before Jordan Mine is the Lego Skywalker

(59:07):
Saga. It also came out nearthe beginning of this year, kind of
around Extraction time. I can't rememberthe exact day, but it was first
quarter. And I mean, ingeneral, I just love Lego games.
They're so much fun. They're sorelaxing, just punching all the items,

(59:28):
and they explode into Lego money andupgrade stuff and you controverse these worlds.
I played not a ton of Legogames, but usually a few every couple
of years, and the Lego SkywalkerSaga, I think is just so much

(59:49):
fun because I mean, you're inthe Star Wars universe, so already a
fantastical sci fi universe. But youcan play as the Jedi, you can
play as the Rebels, you canplay as the villains, and obviously,
in typical Lego fashion, you've gotall these different puzzles which are pretty fun.
There's actually some really hard puzzles inthe Skywalker Sago that we've gotten stuck

(01:00:14):
on. And I'm playing with oneof my friends who we're doing the co
op, and they just do sucha good job with the gameplay and the
lightsaber battles, you throwing your lightsaber, you have all these blasters, Like
maybe that's kind of expected because it'sStar Wars and sci fi, but just
being able to play it in aLego atmosphere is just so much fun.

(01:00:37):
And we always laugh at the cinematicswhere they throwing all this ridiculous stuff and
a Lego is doing technically what happensin the movies or shows, but obviously
with the Lego twist of just shenaniganseverywhere. So yeah, I mean,

(01:00:58):
it's it's a Lego game. Idon't know if there's anything necessarily new about
it, but we're still playing becauseagain, Skywalker Saga, so all nine
movies very long. I think we'reon movie five, so we'll definitely keep
playing into the next year. Ithink we will finish though, just because

(01:01:22):
Yeah, it's so relaxing to jumpon after work and I just love it
so much. Good atmosphere, Lego, Lego vibes with Jedi Let's Go.
I feel like that should have beenon my list now. P and I
played that. P and I arestill playing it together, right, but

(01:01:45):
we're we're nowhere near finishing it.We're nowhere near finishing it. And so
the can I tell you, likethis funny story. I don't know if
you know this story, but Pand I we're playing this game and we
were streaming it one Saturday, andso we're going through. And she doesn't
play games with guns. Um because, Um, I never allowed her to

(01:02:09):
play with guns when she was growingup. I don't like them generally.
UM, and guns are just Imean, she's a she's not a child
to color, but guns are ridiculouslydangerous, especially for children to color,
even toy guns. UM. Soshe never played with guns, even in

(01:02:30):
video games. UM. And shestill won't play with guns even though she's
older now and she understands uh likemy uh aversion to having children play with
guns. But she's fourteen. Sowe've had we talked many times about like
whether or not she would want toplay a game that has guns in it
and what have you. And she'salways said no. Um. She's always

(01:02:53):
said no um. Even when weplay Platoons, she only plays with the
roller. She won't play with theguns at all. So, but Skywalker
Saga was the first time that shehad ever played a game that had guns.
And so we're playing and we're umand we're streaming and we're talking about

(01:03:15):
it, and she's shooting stormtroopers right, and she goes, it's weird their
heads keep popping off. And Iwas like, what do you mean their
heads keep popping off? She waslike, I shoot them and their heads
pop off. I'm like, thosearen't their heads, right? And then

(01:03:36):
then I'm like she's like, whatdo you mean they're not their heads?
And I was like, those aretheir masks? She was like their masks.
So I was like, yeah,the stormtroopers are human. She went
wait what And then I was like, oh. I realized in that moment
that when she was watching Star Warswith me. She was young, and

(01:03:59):
in order to make it more palatableto her, I allowed her to think
that the Stormtroopers were robots and nothuman, because she would get too upset
if she thought humans were dying.So it was it was like one of
those at the age of fourteen,it was like today, I learned that

(01:04:21):
the Stormtroopers were human. Oh mygosh, that's a great I do remember
that one because I watched that andI saw that clip and it's one of
the best clips, Like they're human. Wait what, Oh my gosh,
it's fantastic. Yeah. It's likeall that you think about, all the

(01:04:42):
things that your kids, or atleast for me, because my kid is
very sensitive. She's still very sensitivethat things that you had that I had
to allow her to believe that shelike figured out in her own kid way
U that were more palatable to her, or things that I kind of hid

(01:05:03):
from her to make things more palatableto her, like the fact that she
played Nino Cooney rated the White Witch, and she didn't know until several years
later that Oliver's spoilers Black Years fortwenty Second that Oliver's mother died because when

(01:05:25):
we were playing the game, Iplayed past that part and skipped it and
saved, and then she played whatcame after. So she never knew because
it would be she was she wasfour at the time. There was no

(01:05:45):
way a kid's mom dying. No, she would have been broken. She
never would have played that game.So yeah, yeah, hmm yeah.
Star Wars was another one, theStoryproofers of Robots. Oh my gosh,

(01:06:12):
all right, so that's your numberfour. My number four is a weird
one. UM, and I actually, UM, the only reason I ended
up playing this game because I'm sopissed off it Activision, Activision, Blizzard
King. UM. I won't saythe only reason. Well, maybe because

(01:06:36):
m Victoria and I are always talkingabout Call of Duty and Cold War history
and Call of Duty the Modern Warfareseries is all about the Cold War.
UM. So when Call of DutyMore Modern Warfare Roman Numeral two came out
this year, we thought it wouldbe interesting to go back and play UM

(01:07:02):
the older games in the in theModern Warfare series UM specifically and especially Modern
Warfare Number two UM, and thenplay Modern Warfare Roman Numeral two, which
takes place three years after UM twoUH, and see how the depiction of

(01:07:31):
UM the Cold War has changed inthese games. UM, So it was
a really interesting thing to do.UM. So we played them, we
talked, we talked like back andforth while we were playing, and then
UM we talked about it together UMwhile we played um just multiplayer matches on
stream and talked about Cold War historyand how this Cold War history gets depicted

(01:07:59):
and how activision kind of comes upwith its own propaganda to recontextualize, shall
we say, that's a nice wayputting Uh, that's the way I were
putting it, um, the atrocitiesand war crimes that were committed by the
US in the in the Modern Warfareseries. UM. And it was it

(01:08:25):
was really fun to do, rightBecause then, UM, like I said,
while I was while we were goingthrough and replaying the games and playing
the new game, I also kindof like went back and refreshed my memory
on Cold War history, which wasreally interesting because I had lived I was
young, but lived through um agood bit of kind of the Cold War

(01:08:47):
starting in the seventies, right,so I could remember things like the hostage
crisis, UM. And I couldremember like all kinds of things like like
salt treaties and such. But togo back and look at how it gets
depicted in Modern Warfare was a truenerd pleasure. But so I think it's

(01:09:16):
not the game so much, butas the activities that went on around it
that made that really fun. Andto the second thing that I've really enjoyed
is because, like I said,a lot of the groups of people that
I played games with regularly play alot of Call of Duty and I haven't

(01:09:39):
really played much Call of Duty inthe last couple of years, so I
had not been playing a lot ofCall of Duty with my friends, and
because a lot of them were stillplaying a lot of Call of Duty,
I hadn't been getting in the kindof gaming time with my friends, and
I missed it. UM. Sosince I had UH, since I had

(01:10:04):
UM bought the game to UM todo them to do the project with Victoria,
UM, I had the I hadaccess to it right so UM off
and on, I've been playing UHmultiplayer matches with my friends and it's something
that I've genuinely missed to have thatkind of bonding time with my friends,

(01:10:28):
and I just wish that we hadsomething that was less toxic to bond around.
UM. But yeah, UM,I hate when I hate when when
developers are assholes. Um, itmakes things so difficult. It makes things

(01:10:49):
so difficult. UM. So yeah, I want to say that the game
is not my favorite, not inmy top five. I've um favor in
terms of a favorite, but theactivities that have been going on around it,
like the intellectual activities and the friendshipactivities that go on around it,

(01:11:11):
have been definitely my favorite. Andthey could have gone on around I don't
know, five nights at Freddie's,and I still would have put five nights
at Freddie's in my uh in myin my top five, um, if
if that had been the case.But yeah, yeah, that was my
number four. No, that's sointeresting because we've been my partner, I've

(01:11:33):
been listening to a lot of historypodcasts lately, UM, and he's really
into history games as we speak,playing a couple of them. UM.
So we've been listening to those andthen talking about the games as well.
I don't I don't play the games, but sometimes I watch and we talk
about it a lot. So yeah, this year has been a really uh

(01:11:59):
nothing. I don't honestly knew becausewe always discuss games and play games together,
but specifically this year we've really gotteninto the history podcasts and the history
games and talking about the overlaps andimplications of those very very at least we
find it very very fascinating subjects.So no, I understand, I don't
understand when he coming from them.Yeah, it was. And another part

(01:12:23):
of that was the one of thereasons that we started talking about it,
I think, or at least Istarted talking about it and thinking about it,
is that one thing since I sinceI've been like we've been in the
Panini, because it doesn't require travel, because I've been doing everything virtually,

(01:12:43):
I've been doing a lot more presentations, giving talks and like conference presentations and
being on other people's podcasts because Idon't have to travel to do them because
I can do them virtually. Soit leaves like more time and more energy
for doing that kind of thing,because instead of saying I'm gonna go give

(01:13:08):
a talk and I have to likefly out and you know, the day
before and then do the talk andthen stay another day or two and then
fly in. So instead of ittaking four days, it literally just takes
me the amount of time it takesfor me to write to write the talk,
and the hour or two that ittakes for me to give it instead
of four days. Right, SoI've had more spoons, shall we say,

(01:13:30):
for doing more of those kinds ofactivities. And in talking about kind
of cultural depictions in video games,I had someone who, in all honesty
and all earnestness, suggest that callof Duty would be a good way to
teach children history, and I waslike, no, no, that is

(01:13:59):
not the case. Um so,uh, you know, I thought it
would be a good activity and probablya very important one to you know,
let people see why and how callof duty is extremely problematic when it comes
to all things truthful or historical.U. So, yeah, yeah,

(01:14:24):
I think it was. It's it'sit's interesting to be able to respond to
those things in certain ways. Butyeah, all right, that was my
number four? What should number five? So the one game that I've started

(01:14:46):
recently that I'm absolutely enjoying I mentionedat the beginning when we're talking about what
you're playing, is Pokemon Violet.I am having so my much fun with
this game. Again, I can'treally compare contrast to previous Pokemon games because
this is my first Pokemon game besidesPokemon Go and the original trading card game.

(01:15:15):
But I am having so much funwith it. I love pretty much
any game that's on Switch that's Breadthof the Wild, like where it has
an intro and then it just says, here's our world, explore it.
I love. I love exploration.I love exploring new areas, discovering new

(01:15:38):
tasks, meeting with new people,shopping, which this game you can upgrade
so much stuff. You can upgradeyour backpack, your clothes, your picnic
table, and then the picnic table. You can have picnics with your Pokemon.
You can pet them, you canplay with them, you can bathe
them, you can make sandwiches.And I know there's been a lot of

(01:16:02):
talks and reviews when it first cameout about certain performance issues like crashes,
the starting on the animations, andthe fact that the environment's felt empty.
And maybe I've been lucky or maybeI got the game after a few patches,
and I do see a little bitof that stuff, especially with some

(01:16:25):
of the frame rate drops, butI haven't had any major bugs or crashes
or issues. And yeah, Ican see what people are saying in terms
of the environments, especially when comparingto Breath of the Wild with certain areas,
but I don't know. I'm havingso much fun with it. I'm

(01:16:46):
learning about Pokemon more than I havebefore. Like, besides the original Pokemon
like Charis Art and Pikachu, Idon't really know any of the new Pokemon.
I don't really know the battle system. I don't know which Pokemon or
strengths and weaknesses against this. Soit's been an entire learning experience. And

(01:17:12):
for the most part, I'm playingsingle player, but me and my partner
I've played a few co op battles, and I don't know, I personally
think there's a lot to offer.You can just explore, you can fight
Pokemon, you can pick stuff offthe ground, you can go shopping,
you can do picnics. I don'tknow. I just I love it.

(01:17:34):
There's a few games that I like. Sit down, I'm like, okay,
it's bedtime. I'm just gonna playtwenty minutes a game, Like I
haven't done that in a long time, and now I do that on my
switch with Pokemon Violet, and Ijust really enjoy it. And I picked
the cat by the way, Ipicked the cat green cat, of course.

(01:17:56):
Yeah, yeah, and yeah,I just I don't know what else
to say about it. Like,I know there's a lot of people have
had frustrations with it, but I'mreally enjoying it. I love it.
I like the story, I likethe characters. I like the battles.
I like all the different puzzles andgame well not like a ton of puzzles,
but you still have to navigate theenvironments and learning the pokemon and learning

(01:18:23):
the different items and strengths and weaknesses. It's just been. Yeah, it's
been a blast. Anything environment wise, Breath of the Wild I'm always for,
but even that, aside, justthe gameplay, the picnics, it's
it's delightful. I agree. Ihave been playing Violet as well. And

(01:18:44):
I think I mentioned this earlier,just in terms of like being able to
just like pick up and play fifteentwenty minutes here and there, and or
sometimes sitting down to play fifteen twentyminutes in like three hours later. Why
I must have playing this game,and it's it's been and I think I
may have been lucky as well.And I got the game at launch.

(01:19:08):
Um, it is only crashed onme once. It has only crashed on
me once. Um, And Idon't think I've lost anything because it auto
saves so frequently. Um. Andyeah, I mean, there are like
little issues with frame ray and likethings with like textures and stuff like that.

(01:19:30):
But you know what, I'm sorry, the switch is old. The
switch is five years old. UMAnd yeah, there was. It's probably
a lot to do with like likecrunch and people being forced to get games
out when they were not ready,um and things like that. But you
know what, tell me a gamethat hasn't been like that in the last

(01:19:53):
couple of years, um and andand and it's if because actually p and
I were talking about this last nightwhen we were talking about Pokemon, and
I said, I think that alot of the reason that we get so
many people that are being so disparagingof Pokemon, not you know, outside

(01:20:15):
of you know, things like likeperformance, is because you have a lot
of thirty something year old dudes whoplayed Pokemon when they were five, and
they want Pokemon to become the thingthat they want to play now. So
they're mad at Pokemon for still beingPokemon and not being Dark Souls. Oh

(01:20:38):
my gosh, if it was DarkSouls, I would not. I mean
I haven't played Dark Souls, butI tried. Oh my gosh, get
the name of it. The otherone that is dark souls like Bloodborn,
blood Born, Yes, and Ilove the aesthetic. I wanted to get
into the lore. I could notget past the first chapter and it was

(01:20:58):
so frustrating, like and not justlike obviously dying a lot gameplay frustrating,
and that game had a really interestingdeath mechanic where that is how you partially
evolve, but like, oh yeah, no, I just I couldn't do

(01:21:20):
it, and it was it wasextra frustrating, not just because it was
frustrating, but because I wanted tobe able to play it. And I'm
like, just give me a modethat I can play so that I can
enjoy the aesthetic, the lore,everything you've put into this, Like oh
man, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's I think it's interesting.

(01:21:45):
But yeah, I'm glad you're enjoyingit. I really enjoy Pokemon.
I have played Pokemon for a longtime, and I remember playing Pokemon with
my then toddler sitting on my lapand insisting that I fight everything with magic

(01:22:06):
harp um. They don't know alot about Pokemon, but I do know
enough to know that's that's pretty hard. So I lost every battle whenever she
was sitting on my lap. Butit was fun for her, so I
did it anyway, um, butbecause it was just funny for her to

(01:22:28):
see Magic Harp just flop on theground until they died. I'm sorry fainted,
um, But yeah, um,I've really been. I've been enjoying
it too, so I completely Icompletely understand. I'm about finished. I'm
technically done with like, uh allthree of the kind of countable tracks that

(01:22:51):
you can do, um that havelike things that you can like count the
number of things places you need togo, battles you need to have on
the map, and right now I'mjust, for the first time ever,
like filling in my Pokadex because Idon't want the game to end, and
I'm pretty much done. I justgot to finish that last path, shall

(01:23:15):
we say, But instead of goingthat last path, I'm filling in my
I'm filling in my Polka Dex andthen I'll do the last path. But
really I'm leveling stuff up because Ilike the fact that they're doing the timed
raids now right so like every weekor so, they're like, we have
a three star raid that is toget this thing that is going to be

(01:23:38):
dang near impossible to get otherwise oryou can only get it in this game.
So like, they got Dela Birdcoming up this weekend, and then
I think, what next week isa seven star sender Ace raid, which
is one of the starters from oneof the other games, and it's fully

(01:23:59):
evolved. So I'm like, igotta get everything completely leveled up so I'm
ready for sinder Raise, and theni gotta find somebody to do these sinder
Raise raids with me so I canget sinder Raise. So yeah, I
mean, it's that's going to bethe thing that even after I'm done,
will at least keep me coming back, you know, once or twice a

(01:24:20):
month to find somebody to raid withso that I can get the thing that
is being offered during the raid.So but yeah, I'm excited. Yeah,
I will say. The one thingthat did kind of through me is
the beginning is very long. Thereis lots of text, there is lots

(01:24:45):
of conversations. I'm like, asI was playing, I was like,
I already went through three school daysand you're telling me I did all this
in one morning. No, thisis the longest day ever to get to
the school. And it was funnybecause I kept because my partner got the
other game and we were talking andhe was like, yeah, I finally

(01:25:06):
made it to classes. I waslike, oh yeah, classes, school,
that's the first thing they mentioned.I'm almost there. Ten hours later.
Oh my gosh, I finally madeit to school. So and that's
this is coming from someone that's playeda lot of Final Fantasy and Squaring Nex
games, where they're notorious for verylong beginnings and very long cutscene. So

(01:25:33):
if someone else like me is alsostarting out, it is a long beginning.
There's a lot of stuff to talkabout and go through, but once
I got past it definitely worth it, worth it. Yes, yeah,
I agreed. I agreed, allright. And so my number five and

(01:25:56):
I talked about this one earlier,and I talked about this one earlier,
but this is gonna be my numberfive because it's gonna be the most recent
one is Marvel Midnight Suns. LikeI said, it's done by fire Access.
There are folks who had done xCom, which I also really enjoyed,

(01:26:21):
and while I was expecting the gameto be more like x Com,
it is definitely more like Fire Emblemsthree Houses, and I think that that's
one of the things that's been mostenjoyable to me, and probably more enjoyable
to me than if it had beenmore like X Time, not because I
wouldn't have enjoyed it if it werelike X Time, but it would have

(01:26:44):
been what I expected rather than whatI was surprised by. And like being
able to kind of build relationships withand get to know the superheroes has been
an absolute blast. Has been anabsolute blast. And it's just a darn

(01:27:04):
good tactical game. It's just adarn good tactical game. And the game
is pretty, and you know,I really enjoy a lot of the dialogue.
It's kind of sassy at times,and that's not a bad thing at
all in my book. But I'mreally enjoying Marvel Midnight Sons because I just

(01:27:27):
enjoyed that kind of game. Ijust enjoyed that kind of game. And
I have a I have an honorablemention that probably lines up a little bit
with that, but I'm not gonnasay what it is yet because those are
my five. But do you havean honorable mention? Or so? I
do have worth so, but didyou you mentioned to remind you? Did

(01:27:50):
you want to talk about why itwas so difficult to choose top five first
or after honorable mentions. I cando it now, because otherwise I might
forget. It was hard for meto come up with a top five because
I don't know if it was ifit's been just that we're year three in

(01:28:13):
a pandemic and I am having realtrouble focusing on things, or if it's
because we are year three in apandemic and games have been being released with
varying degrees, with varying degrees ofshall we say, completion, Some things

(01:28:38):
have not been as solid as theyshould have been, but it's been It
was really hard for me. Likein previous years, I won't even say,
like last year, the year beforeI can't think of, but just
in general, in the forty oddyears I've been playing video games, it's
been very easy for me to saykind of clearly, conciselykly, here were

(01:29:00):
my favorite games this year. Thisyear had was not easy at all.
I sat down to make because Iwas thinking about this list, not just
for this but just in general,and thinking about what my favorite games have
been this year, and I waslike, I have no favorites, which

(01:29:23):
is kind of weird, and Idon't know why it's not because I'm not
enjoyed. I can't enjoy games becauseI can and I'm enjoying other games.
But just in terms of thinking aboutgames that came out this year, it
was it was difficult, and Ithink that that's probably why some of my

(01:29:44):
favorite games that I talked about thisyear, that I talked about from this
year have not necessarily been about thegames themselves, but the experiences that surrounded
those games. And I don't knowif it's the games, or if it's
the ways that I'm feeling about thegames, or the lack of focus that
I have right now, or oror what it is, but I had

(01:30:06):
a very difficult time thinking of whatI would like automatically in my head label
a favorite right because I was like, I don't know that I liked anything
enough this year to label it afavorite, which is strange to say after
all these years of playing video games. No, I totally. I think

(01:30:31):
I feel similar because when I wasmaking this list, it was really hard
at first, and as I wasmaking I was realizing I'm like, oh,
oh, yeah, I played thatgame this year, because at first
I was like, did I evenplay five games this year? And as
we started making Melissa, I startedremembering more things. But yeah, no,

(01:30:54):
I was asked the questions like,oh, yeah, how have you
as a game or changed this year? What were your favorite ritz? And
both those questions were really hard becauseI mean, yeah, just kind of
going off what you said, Ifeel like I've been in a similar situation
where like, I've enjoyed the gamesthat I've played, but making this list
was hard and I don't have adefinitive like number one, number two,

(01:31:16):
number three, And obviously Pandemic hasin itself just been a situation and experience,
but specifically this year, yeah,it was. It was really hard,
and we even talked about like,oh, hey, what are some
things we could play and talk about? And everything I listed off was twenty

(01:31:41):
twenty three, So twenty twenty three, hopefully it's a pretty good year.
But yeah, I mean I've enjoyedthe games that I mentioned and that we've
talked about, but no, Iunderstand where you're coming from. Like it
was, it was definitely a whileto think about this list and think about

(01:32:01):
why, and it is definitely theyear I think I've played the least amount
of games. Again, as wewere talking about it and making the list,
I thought of more and more,but in general, yeah, just
the least amount of games, andof the games that I played, most
of them were co op. Andyeah, it was just strange year.

(01:32:27):
It wasn't very strange year. AndI can't tell you why, like why
this year as opposed to the previousyear, because it wasn't for me.
My situation and everything wasn't that muchdifferent. But yeah, just yeah,
it's been a weird one. It'sbeen a weird one. You know,

(01:32:48):
it's it's weird. It's gonna beweird to go back to look back in
you know, ten years or fifteenyears and think about the pandemic and what
it did to like a lot ofthings, not only like things that we
think about just in terms of likeeveryday life, but things like our leisure
activities and then for some of usit's not always our leisure activities but their

(01:33:14):
work. Yeah. Yep, yep, yeah, yeah, no, that
has been Yeah. We moved outto California and two weeks and I was
like, yeah, I'm in studioand two weeks. Home for two weeks
and I'm like, hey, gohome. And we've been home since then.
So yeah, it's been so manywords. I guess all I can

(01:33:43):
say is interesting but many words.Yep, true facts. Yeah, so
that's why, that's why, that'sone of the things that I wanted to
just throw out there because it wasa struggle. But yeah, let's do
honorable mentions. What's your what's yourone of your honorable, all of your

(01:34:04):
honorable will do whatever you want todo however we want to do it.
Um, honorable mentions. I'll justdo all of them. Um. One
technically did not come out this year. Deep Rock Galactic. I say that
as an honorable mention because they've hada lot of updates and they've changed a

(01:34:26):
lot of things in this year,specifically both with their seasons and like how
they update the game. And it'sone of the few games that I started
back in like twenty nineteen, twentytwenty, twenty twenty one and that I've
come back to to play with somefriends. So not a new game,
but in terms of their updates andhow they're approaching the game is new this

(01:34:47):
year, and I just think they'vedone a really good job of updating the
game, doing new events, makingthose events fun, building on the lore
for anyone who doesn't know it isnot cross in terms of your save data

(01:35:08):
and your account. It does notsave across platforms or across generations, so
that is one frustrating thing. I'verestarted the game three or four times because
we started on PC, then PSfour and then PS five, and I've
had to restart all of those times. But now that most of my friends

(01:35:30):
have PS five and it is CrossGencompatible, at least I can keep the
character. But yeah, content interms of how it's updated. The new
events has been lots of fun andone of the few games that I started
a few years ago, took abreak from and then have come back to.
So definitely want to give an honorablemention to that one. The other

(01:35:55):
two one is Against the Storm,which is currently in early access on Steam.
I haven't played it a ton.It is a management simulation game post
apocalyptic, in which you're trying tobuild these towns and cities amidst very rainy,

(01:36:18):
well, at least what I've experienced, very rainy environment. Maybe as
I played more there'll be other environmentalimpacts, but in general, post apocalyptic,
very similar to frost Punk. Ifanyone has played that, and I
say honorable mentioned because I haven't playedit a ton and it is early access,

(01:36:44):
but it is one of the fewgames that I have played this year
that I'm like, I definitely wantto go back to this. And I
didn't stop playing because it was earlyaccess, so there was a bunch of
bugs or anything just in general life, a bunch of stuff came up,
so not because the game, justbecause of my personal schedule. So I'll
probably go back early next year becauseI do want to play more. And

(01:37:11):
then the last one is really strangefor me because it is Dying Light too,
which I mentioned that me and mypartner are playing now. We restarted.
We played it earlier this year,stopped and then we wanted to restart
because it had been a while.And the reason that one is an honorable

(01:37:34):
mention and is both strange for meis because I have never played a game
that is so buggy and is soI don't know how to explain it.
Like the main character that you play, I do not like Aiden. I

(01:37:58):
do not like him in turn,like he's just not a good person,
but also I just don't think he'sa great written, developed character. And
usually regardless of whether it's story basedor multiplayer coop whatever, if I don't
like the character that I'm playing onthat level and to that amount, I

(01:38:23):
usually don't really get into the game. So that's why this game has been
such an enigma for me. It'sa zombie apocalypse, but even though there's
combat, it's very partcore based.Like Mare's Edge, it breaks so much.
I do not like the main character. I don't know why I enjoy

(01:38:45):
this game, okay, but weenjoy this game. We also get very
frustrated by this game and we haveto stop at points, but we came
back to it. We're gonna finishit. It's not like my time favorite
of the year for sure, butyeah, it's just fun to parkour zombie

(01:39:08):
apocalypse coop in this world. AndI wish I liked the character better.
I wish it crashed on us less, but it is what it is.
Where you're gonna finish it and we'rehaving overall a good time. Um,

(01:39:30):
and that's what it is. DyingLike two. I always wanted to play
Dying Like either one or two,but the camera is always so bad in
those games that it instantly makes meviolently nauseous, so I've never been able
to play them. And it's hard. It's it's been hard. I watched

(01:39:50):
I watched a fringe Dream Dying liketwo, like the complete thing, just
over multiple days of course. Uh, and I I was so jealous because
I was like, there's no way, it's making me queasy watching her play
it, So I know I wouldtoss my cookies if I try to play
it for myself. M Yeah,I wish they would like even offer like,

(01:40:15):
uh, make it like a thirdperson or offer a switch between first
and third person perspective that might help. But yeah, the camera is just
so shaky in both of those gamesthat there's no way. But I think
it's interesting what you're what you explained, because I feel like what part of
what you're saying is. It's alsobeen kind of like experience based in terms

(01:40:40):
of what's going on around the gameand not just the game itself. That's
made it a good experience because youknow, you've gotten to play with your
partner. So yeah, and likeit's I could see some people making the
argument that, like it is moreof a choice space game. So of

(01:41:00):
course if you decide certain things orsay certain things, like the main character
Aiden is gonna say or do differentthings, but his tone and the way
he approaches things is so different andinconsistent from mission to mission, and it's

(01:41:20):
so hypocritical, and he just frustratesme so much. And I didn't get
that same feeling when I played likeMass Effect, where it is also still
choice base where you can choose Renegadeor I can't remember Paragon, and for
the most part, I chose oneor the other. But even when I

(01:41:44):
switched, I still felt like,Oh, this is Commander Shepherd's voice,
this is their character. Like,even though it's a different archetype than I'm
going for, overall, over thecourse of the game, it still feels
like it's them. It feels cohesiveand aiden. It's just I don't like
Agen, But I've been having agood time overall, so awesome, So

(01:42:12):
I'll run through through. Uh myhonorable mentions. Um, the first thing
on my honorable mentioned list. Um, I was torn between what was going
to be number five on my list. Was it gonna be Marble Midnight Sons
or was it going to be Marioand Rabbits Sparks of Hope, which is
another kind of tactical strategy game,right, Um, that is more open

(01:42:36):
than it is isometric. Like thelast Mario Versus Rabbits game was um and
the and but it's still really good. Right. It takes place in that
that Mario Slash Rabbits universe. Um, the Rabbits are hilarious. Um,
and you have to like, uhfight different uh monsters and fighting the backs

(01:43:00):
of monsters and do all this stuff. And it is like turn based turn
based strategy. Absolutely loved the firstone and really enjoying the second one.
It's been amazing. But the reasonthat I chose Marvel Midnight Sons instead of
Mario and Rabbits is because of thekind of more narrative community building aspect of

(01:43:27):
Marvel Midnight Sons. Um. Ifall things were the same, I would
have probably chosen Mario Versus Rabbits orMario and Rabbits instead because it's Mario and
Rabbits and not versus this time around. The First time it was versus because
they were fighting rabbits. But Ilove that game. It's it's amazing.

(01:43:49):
It's it's as strong again as it'sa strong tactical slash strategy game. It's
got good solid game play. Itis pretty um and I'm I'm really enjoying
playing it. I'm really enjoying playingit, so Mario Rabbits would be an
honorable mention. Another honorable mention thatdid not make my list um as my

(01:44:12):
farming simulator of the year kind ofgame because I played it first last year
on iOS when it was on AppleArcade, and I would be wild Flowers,
which is a They call it afarming simulator with a witchy twist,
but it's got an amazingly diverse castUM and I love the story UM and

(01:44:33):
we UM you know, we interviewedthem the founder UM on the podcast a
while back. UM, and atthe time, they had no plans for
like doing updates or experensions or whathave you. UM, and the game
just once it hit consoles, itjust kind of took off. UM.

(01:44:57):
And now they're doing they're doing updates. They have their first update, UM,
like substantive update like narrative update withnew mechanics and new content coming this
week, and they have plans formore so UM. But the reason they
didn't make my list is because Ididn't. I didn't play it for the
first time in twenty twenty two.I played it for first time in twenty

(01:45:17):
twenty one. Other things that mademy there two more. I'm gonna go
fast. One of the other thingsthat made my honorable mentioned list is is
a mobile game Marvel Snap I GuessI'm in a Marvel mood this year,
which is a card based a cardbased game that takes place in a Marvel

(01:45:40):
Marvel universe. You have Marvel superheroes, Marvel villains that have different abilities.
It's like Heartstone with Marvel characters.Absolutely love it and it kills my phone
battery almost every day. And thenthe last thing that is on my list
didn't make my list because as likefavorite Favorite UM, it isn't also another

(01:46:01):
game. It's an early access umdone by a single person development team.
It's Dinkamum, which is a survivalslash farming simulator game that it's very has
a very cute aesthetic, not cutec but it is. It is very
cute UM. It just it didn'tmake my like top five top five because

(01:46:29):
it is early access and when Istarted, when I was playing it and
played it the most this year,it was very early. So it was
also another game that was very buggyUM and it was buggy enough that it
frustrated me enough that it would havekept kept it from being in my top
five, but those are my honorablementions. So I guess there there's some
I've had some fun playing games thisyear, it just doesn't feel like it

(01:46:55):
has been as notably distinctively fun asit has been in other years. And
like I said, I think thatthere's a lot of other things that are
going on, not maybe not justwith the games, but I won't say
the games are not to blame atin some small way. But yeah,
that's what That's what I got,That's what I got. I'm looking forward

(01:47:17):
to a lot of games in twentytwenty three. Um, I'm looking forward
to a lot of games in twentytwenty three that I am super anxious to
play. Um. One of themis definitely gonna be Red Fall. Um.
I gotta I gotta fight a squadbut squad based, but squad based
shooter that where you get to fightnot zombies, where you get to fight

(01:47:39):
vampires. See, zombies are myusual goal to but I guess I'm going
vampires this time. UM. Andit's got a it's got a um,
a black hero, a black heroor heroin UM that has fabulous hair.
Um and and is you know nota caricature or stereotype like the black protagonist

(01:48:08):
and Forsaken. I'm gonna talk badabout that game every chance I get.
UM. Ever since the ever sincethe designer like said in that interview that
he had to give her a hiphoppy kind of walk at that game has
been on my shit list and itwill continue to be. UM and the

(01:48:28):
demo the demo came out, andthe horrible things I refuse to even play
the demo, The horrible things thatI've seen people write about the demo,
like, including the fact that thatthat h that feeling that you get from
his comment about giving her a hiphopy kind of walk definitely comes through uh

(01:48:48):
in the gameplay and the demo.In the demo itself, and the fact
that one of the things that youcan read in the in the game's CODEXT
is her arrest record. Um.Yeah, just lets me know. I'm
want to shit to do with thatgame. But That's what I'm not looking
forward to for twenty twenty. Yeah. I knew about the hip hop walk

(01:49:14):
comment, but I did not knowabout the irrest record. Yeah, it
can't because the demo they released.The demo let was Today's Tuesday last week
last week the demo came out.Um yeah, and and the fact that
they said that that, like evenin the demo, one of the early
things, one of the early interactionsthat that she has when she kind of

(01:49:36):
goes into the other space, theother world, the other universe, UM
is to be arrested, hand handcuffedand be like subjected to scrutiny by um
A a group of white folks.Yeah. I'm like, oh, they

(01:49:58):
just go at all out with thisshit. Nobody saw nothing wrong weight because
you don't have any black people inthe room. You don't have any black
people in the room. You know, you don't have anybody, you don't
have anybody in your in your designspace, in your development space to say,
yo, how about we don't dothat. I mean it's clear,

(01:50:19):
it is absolutely clear. So yeah, that's that. Yeah. So you
know there's certain games I know howthat I am feeling comfortable that I don't
have to play that in Hogwarts Legacyare two definitely two of them, but

(01:50:41):
definitely two of them. So that'sour list. Jordan's it's the end of
twenty two, got a good gravy. I'm kind of I'm kind of flabbergasted.
That's the end of twenty two.It felt like it was just the
beginning of the twenty two But I'mlooking forward to twenty twenty three and playing

(01:51:01):
a lot of good games in twentytwenty three, and being able to talk
about the good games that were thatwe're playing either together or alone, and
all of these wonderful things. AndI would like to say thank you for
um, for you know, beingaround for twenty twenty two to talk about
it these amazing games and sharing yourexperiences with me and everyone else. I

(01:51:27):
appreciate you. Thank you, no, thank you. I always enjoy these
talks, and just the community ofgamer friends is fantastic. It's absolutely fantastic.
I agree, all right, SoI guess with that that's gonna bring
us to the end. I gottacheck my notes of episode two hundred and

(01:51:48):
thirty eight before I say something ridiculouslike three hundred three thousand. I don't
know what the heck I was sayingthat one night. I was like,
I don't know what number. Idon't know what numbers are. But I
guess that will bring us to theend of episode two hundred and thirty eight
and the end of twenty twenty twobecause our next podcast will inevitably be in

(01:52:11):
twenty twenty three, So until then, Jordan and everybody listening, have a
great end of your year and ahappy new year, and we will see
you in twenty twenty three to talkabout all things video games. So until
then, friends, stay warm,stay safe, wear a mask. We're

(01:52:35):
in a triple demic now and asalways, my friends, game on.

(01:53:25):
Any men can't be the need tobe to make the needed needed, the need to

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